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The Roman Mysteries #12
The Charioteer of Delphi
September AD 80. Flavia and her friends go to Rome to celebrate the Festival of Jupiter at Senator Cornix's town house. They befriend the young charioteer Scopas and quickly find themselves embroiled in a campaign to sabotage one of the rival racing factions.
242 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
14 people are currently reading
409 people want to read
About the author
Caroline Lawrence
64 books321 followersCaroline Lawrence won a scholarship to Cambridge to read Classical Archaeology, then did a degree in Hebrew and Jewish studies at University College London. She now lives in London with her English husband and teaches Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Art and French to children.
Series:
* Roman Mysteries
Western Mysteries
Series:
* Roman Mysteries
Western Mysteries
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
March 29, 2016
3.75/4- I hate to say but this was not my favourite, probably because I had expectations following on from Sirens of Surrentum: the plot did not engage me as much as the others although I did relish the opportunity to see the darker undertones of Roman leisure and it definitely gave me nostalgia for my Latin Sources days. Again loved the insight into Nubia although I did feel that it lost out through a less of a focus on my baby cinnamon roll Aristo! Saying that I enjoyed this as always!
August 8, 2012
A young man, Scopus, comes from Delphi with a letter to Lupus from his mother. She asks the four friends to help Scopus get a job at the Circus Maximus, with the hope of his eventually becoming a famous charioteer. Once in Rome, they help recover a valuable missing horse belonging to the Green faction. Scopus is very good with horses, but the other stable-boys beat up on him. This was quite an exciting book, with many perilous events. I also learned several Latin words having to do with racing.
January 5, 2024
My favourite reread, perhaps, unexpectedly?? Love Nubia, love the horses, the races are exciting, the mystery is satisfying, and Flavia's uncle's extremely camp secretary is my favourite minor character in the whole series, I think.
August 4, 2020
A visitor Scopas, a young autistic charioteer arrives in Ostia from Delphi, care of Lupus’s mother, and gives the children a mystery to solve, the case of the missing famous chariot stallion. All of Rome is trying to find the horse for a big reward by the Green racing team. The kids suspect foul play by any of the rival teams, The Red, White or Blue teams. Nubia discovers she can talk to horses using transfer of mind imagery. She gets attached to a horse and tries to rescue him from the cruel and dangerous world of racing by stealing the horse when he is due to race. The culprit is soon identified, but not before several deaths of charioteers through sabotage. This is Jonathan’s first trip to Rome since he started the fatal fire and he tries to atone. There is plenty of detailed description of chariot racing, the racecourse and the celebrity of the charioteers, who like gladiators were often slaves.
October 22, 2023
This book is about Nubia. And that makes it a really lovely installment in the series. Nubia's caring and empathic nature comes to the forefront, and one's heart aches for her kindness and care towards Pegasus and other animals. It is the kind of empathy that is born out of great trauma, and we learn more about Nubia's past (even her original name!). We also get Scopus as a neurodivergent character who interacts with the world differently and prefers to not be touched. I commend Lawrence for tackling really complex traumas in these characters. I love that Nubia learns that to be a good friend to Pegasus ultimately means letting him go and live the life that he wants to live, even that means separation and a great deal of risk. And we get more Ancient Rome ambiance with the charioteer racing to boot. Good stuff.
July 13, 2023
3.5!
Scopus is autistic! I picked it up almost immediately and then had it confirmed later in The Last Scroll. I love how Lawrence portrayed this without making fun of him or making him seem like any lesser than anyone else but made clear how he communicates and his sensory issues in a respectful and clear way. The inclusion in this series continues to astound me, even now.
There was a very Scooby Doo moment when Hierax was like to Nubia "I've been working on this plan for 2 years and I won't let a bunch of children get in the way of it" which I just thought was very funny.
Scopus is autistic! I picked it up almost immediately and then had it confirmed later in The Last Scroll. I love how Lawrence portrayed this without making fun of him or making him seem like any lesser than anyone else but made clear how he communicates and his sensory issues in a respectful and clear way. The inclusion in this series continues to astound me, even now.
There was a very Scooby Doo moment when Hierax was like to Nubia "I've been working on this plan for 2 years and I won't let a bunch of children get in the way of it" which I just thought was very funny.
abandoned
January 1, 2025Moving to the "abandoned" shelf for now. There was nothing wrong with it specifically, but the homeschool book club for this one got cancelled and my son wasn't interested enough to continue. I can't really blame him, as coming into a series on book 12 is challenging, and I kept thinking there was a lot of important backstory between the characters that we'd missed. I considered reading the rest on my own, but other books ended up taking precedence and this one needed to go back to the library.
August 9, 2023
Totally floored that I enjoyed a story about chariot racing so much. I love how well Caroline Lawrence weaves historical figures into her narrative; I also appreciate the determined notation of where the fact differs from the fiction.
August 22, 2024
4.5⭐️: the first one I went into without knowing the story! I really enjoyed trying to work out the mystery (and getting it totally wrong!) Nearing the end and not read to say goodbye to these characters yet!
April 23, 2023
If you are interested in chariot racing - this one’s for you! A predictable mystery, but great research on chariot racing and great Nubia backstory.
May 1, 2024
Roman mysteries does Ben Hur.
Surprisingly grisly.
Nubia develops surprisingly accurate horse telepathy
Surprisingly grisly.
Nubia develops surprisingly accurate horse telepathy
January 19, 2025
We're back to the kind of writing Caroline Lawrence was coming up with at the beginning of this wonderful series of books telling the stories of four young would-be detectives in ancient Roman times.
There's no love intrigues or talk of marriage, no hugely awful catastrophe awaiting, or caused by, the children and no mass kidnapping of children, as often occurs in the books. Instead, we've got a nice straightforward mystery: who is trying to kill off the charioteers of the Green team in the chariot races at the Circus Maximus?
Along the way, we also get to know more about Nubia, the ex-slave girl rescued by her friend, Flavia, in the very first book. She is, by far, the best character of the four. She is kind, peaceful, graceful and - despite her quiet modesty - immensely intelligent and skilled. In this story we learn of her love for, and close affinity with, the horses at the Circus Maximus. Indeed, her understanding is really quite supernatural.
Lawrence has managed the spiritual and supernatural with skilful ease in these stories. I did worry that the books were going to be a vehicle for pushing Christianity but, thankfully, that didn't happen even though it gets an awful lot of mentioning in the early books. Later, there's hints that the Roman gods are looking after the children. It is in this book though that we see Nubia able to communicate with the horses. It isn't over-the-top and I guess you could just about put it down to her fanciful imagination if you so wish, but really she has the gift with horses and that's taken as read by all the characters.
As always, Lawrence's knowledge of history is superb and it is genuinely impossible to figure out what's based on fact and what on fiction. Aristo's Scroll, given at the end of every book, gives the lowdown on what's fact, what's theory and what's total fabrication. I was very much surprised reading it this time around; I'll say no more than that.
Considering this is the twelfth book and it is hard to keep up the momentum with this kind of series, the author has done a remarkable job here. The plot was every bit as engaging as the first books and the storyline really quite exciting. Teenagers will love it and so will adults too!
There's no love intrigues or talk of marriage, no hugely awful catastrophe awaiting, or caused by, the children and no mass kidnapping of children, as often occurs in the books. Instead, we've got a nice straightforward mystery: who is trying to kill off the charioteers of the Green team in the chariot races at the Circus Maximus?
Along the way, we also get to know more about Nubia, the ex-slave girl rescued by her friend, Flavia, in the very first book. She is, by far, the best character of the four. She is kind, peaceful, graceful and - despite her quiet modesty - immensely intelligent and skilled. In this story we learn of her love for, and close affinity with, the horses at the Circus Maximus. Indeed, her understanding is really quite supernatural.
Lawrence has managed the spiritual and supernatural with skilful ease in these stories. I did worry that the books were going to be a vehicle for pushing Christianity but, thankfully, that didn't happen even though it gets an awful lot of mentioning in the early books. Later, there's hints that the Roman gods are looking after the children. It is in this book though that we see Nubia able to communicate with the horses. It isn't over-the-top and I guess you could just about put it down to her fanciful imagination if you so wish, but really she has the gift with horses and that's taken as read by all the characters.
As always, Lawrence's knowledge of history is superb and it is genuinely impossible to figure out what's based on fact and what on fiction. Aristo's Scroll, given at the end of every book, gives the lowdown on what's fact, what's theory and what's total fabrication. I was very much surprised reading it this time around; I'll say no more than that.
Considering this is the twelfth book and it is hard to keep up the momentum with this kind of series, the author has done a remarkable job here. The plot was every bit as engaging as the first books and the storyline really quite exciting. Teenagers will love it and so will adults too!
November 1, 2022
So, I might not have finished all 17 of these books by the end of October but that just means I get to enjoy the series for a little bit longer! And I’m quite happy with that result to be honest!
I had initially thought that this would be the first book that I didn’t remember from my first read through of the series, but it turns out I did remember bits and pieces of it so now I’m a little unsure of where exactly I got to in the series way back when. But that’s what makes it all the more exciting I guess?
In this story we see more of Nubia’s memories of the events that brought her to Italy, as well as getting more of an insight into Roman life with the chariot races that took place. I couldn’t imagine seeing a chariot race in real life, I think it would break my heart and it was bad enough just reading about them, even though Lawrence has made great efforts to make the scenes as non-graphic as possible.
But, on to the next book!
I had initially thought that this would be the first book that I didn’t remember from my first read through of the series, but it turns out I did remember bits and pieces of it so now I’m a little unsure of where exactly I got to in the series way back when. But that’s what makes it all the more exciting I guess?
In this story we see more of Nubia’s memories of the events that brought her to Italy, as well as getting more of an insight into Roman life with the chariot races that took place. I couldn’t imagine seeing a chariot race in real life, I think it would break my heart and it was bad enough just reading about them, even though Lawrence has made great efforts to make the scenes as non-graphic as possible.
But, on to the next book!
November 28, 2019
This is a fascinating piece of detailed historical fiction created by an archaeological expert on ancient Rome. The story is a mystery solved by a group of kids, but the detailed backgrounds and social setting make it far more than a Scooby-Doo-in-Ancient-Rome sort of mystery. The first couple of chapters are confusing, but once you get the huge cast of characters sorted out in your mind and resolve to look up Latin words in the glossary provided, it becomes a very well-written story. I liked it very much.
February 28, 2019
Better story of how the culture of Roman life includes the chariot races and not so much adult material that would mess with the young readers. There are serious conflicts though and this is a good story about these characters!
April 16, 2023
This book felt a little like a return to the earlier ones in the series. It was less high stakes, and less related to the overarching plotlines. It was fun, though, and good to see that the detectives are actually really good at what they do, especially Nubia who appears to have a superpower!
December 17, 2019
Whew, took me way too long to get through this book, but mostly on the account of me having a baby. :)
Loved this book, as I love ALL of the Roman Mystery books. Never a letdown.
Loved this book, as I love ALL of the Roman Mystery books. Never a letdown.
November 10, 2021
Was really fun
June 6, 2024
Picking books for a middle school history/literature class. Couldn't finish this one, it was so dumb. I'm sure kids would enjoy it though.
June 24, 2025
Slow start but decent
January 23, 2021
I didn’t enjoy this book compared to Sirens of Surrentum . The mystery part felt very underdeveloped, with the culprit and their motivation lacking somewhat in authenticity. Although I liked how the book focused on Nubia and we learned more about her background I found some elements of the story very unbelievable. I can appreciate she has a gift with animals but the detail that the horse can ‘speak’ to her is ridiculous and is a poor device for moving the story forward.
On the other hand, I loved the setting, especially because it contained horses. The author, as always, fills the story with incredible detail and was able to brilliantly capture the atmosphere of the race track. Not the best and not the worst in the series and overall an enjoyable read.
On the other hand, I loved the setting, especially because it contained horses. The author, as always, fills the story with incredible detail and was able to brilliantly capture the atmosphere of the race track. Not the best and not the worst in the series and overall an enjoyable read.
October 29, 2015
Flavia and her friends travel to Rome to help with a mysterious missing horse. Charioteer's are dying rapidly when the four young detectives find a curse tablet.. Lupus steals a lucky statue to stop charioteers from racing, while Flavia, Nubia and Jonathan figure out what's going on. They suspect Urbanus - who is captain of the Green team, sabotaging his own horses and placing money on other teams. But when Nubia runs away with her favourite horse, Pegasus, and a one-legged beggar, to prevent Pegasus from getting hurt, her friends are suspicious. They learn that the one-legged beggar is Heirax, a great charioteer, who lost a leg, some fingers and half his skin in a crash. They believe he wants to burn Pegasus and blow a flute at the same time to make Pegasus scared of the flute noise. Then Heirax plans on hooting when Pegasus races by to terrify him into crashing. They go after Nubia to find she's dealt with Heirax herself!
This book is all about charioteers and dangerous chariot-racing. It gives you an excellent insight on what it really would have been like in Rome. With only a few more to read, I savoured this book, but I'm not too good at that - it was finished in under a day! ;)
This book is all about charioteers and dangerous chariot-racing. It gives you an excellent insight on what it really would have been like in Rome. With only a few more to read, I savoured this book, but I'm not too good at that - it was finished in under a day! ;)
April 10, 2016
This book was not as bad as most-if not all of the others in this series.
Thankfully that ridiculous nonsense regarding the two stupid girls and their 'you'll never, ever, ever, never, forget your first love, the tragic hurt and pain!
Even if you've been torn from your family-some of whom have been killed and you've been sold off into slavery-this 'first love' is even more tragic and painful and hurts so much more oh boo hoo-tears by the gallon!
Anyhow I'm glad that for this book Lawrence has steered away from the pathetic teenage girl/woman love woes and concentrated more on the storyline.
Nubia now concentrates on horses rather the man she's in love with-she's still weak and pathetic in that she likes nothing better than to cry whenever she gets the chance, but at least we read more about her ahem-relationship with horses!
I have to say that it was obvious after a while who the culprit was.
Flavia is slightly less of a bitch, I still like the boys far better than the girls.
All in all Lawrence has taken a historical background and added modern themes to it-but of course she does an awful job of it.
Well that's all I'm going to say-but year this book was a bit better than most of the other books so far.
Thankfully that ridiculous nonsense regarding the two stupid girls and their 'you'll never, ever, ever, never, forget your first love, the tragic hurt and pain!
Even if you've been torn from your family-some of whom have been killed and you've been sold off into slavery-this 'first love' is even more tragic and painful and hurts so much more oh boo hoo-tears by the gallon!
Anyhow I'm glad that for this book Lawrence has steered away from the pathetic teenage girl/woman love woes and concentrated more on the storyline.
Nubia now concentrates on horses rather the man she's in love with-she's still weak and pathetic in that she likes nothing better than to cry whenever she gets the chance, but at least we read more about her ahem-relationship with horses!
I have to say that it was obvious after a while who the culprit was.
Flavia is slightly less of a bitch, I still like the boys far better than the girls.
All in all Lawrence has taken a historical background and added modern themes to it-but of course she does an awful job of it.
Well that's all I'm going to say-but year this book was a bit better than most of the other books so far.
March 24, 2015
This was the book that ended it for me. I had been dissappointed in the last few books and then this one came along and just left me feeling negative towards the series.
The mystery wasn't much of a mystery for me, I had figured out who the beggar boy was before the protagonist. Then the whole fire and torture of the horses seemed ridiculous to me, as he may as well just have given the horses to the other team if he hated the greens so much! I also found Nubia's affinity with horses a bit odd since there are no horses from where she comes from and Pegasus wasn't even her horse, but she knew about him better than the young rider. It was quite slow too, and Johnathan annoyed me with how he feels guilt over starting the fire, even though it was an accident! Plus I was getting annoyed that Flavia's father keeps leaving them alone all the time.
All in all it was pretty dire and unfortunately, because of the last few books, I gave up with the collection at this point.
The mystery wasn't much of a mystery for me, I had figured out who the beggar boy was before the protagonist. Then the whole fire and torture of the horses seemed ridiculous to me, as he may as well just have given the horses to the other team if he hated the greens so much! I also found Nubia's affinity with horses a bit odd since there are no horses from where she comes from and Pegasus wasn't even her horse, but she knew about him better than the young rider. It was quite slow too, and Johnathan annoyed me with how he feels guilt over starting the fire, even though it was an accident! Plus I was getting annoyed that Flavia's father keeps leaving them alone all the time.
All in all it was pretty dire and unfortunately, because of the last few books, I gave up with the collection at this point.
March 10, 2011
Die Hauptperson dieses Bandes ist der 13jährige, autistische Scopas. Scopas versteht Pferde, aber keine Menschen. Das ist eine ungewöhnliche Besetzung in einem Kinderbuch.
Störend empfand ich es, dass entgegen der bisher sehr realistischen Vorgängerbände plötzlich mythische Fantasy Elemente in die Geschichte einfließen. Nubia hat prophetische Träume und empfägt Visionen von Pferden, die ihr Hinweise auf das Verbrechen geben, musste das wirklich sein?
Insgesamt mal wieder eine Füllepisode, die auch einzeln gelesen werden kann. Man lernt viel über das römische Pferderennen: Ben Hur war falsch, die Zügel wurden am Körper festgebunden und es wurde mit dem Gewicht gelenkt.
Zeitpunkt der Geschichte:
17. August - 6. September 80 n. Chr., ca. 1,5 Monate nach Band 11
Störend empfand ich es, dass entgegen der bisher sehr realistischen Vorgängerbände plötzlich mythische Fantasy Elemente in die Geschichte einfließen. Nubia hat prophetische Träume und empfägt Visionen von Pferden, die ihr Hinweise auf das Verbrechen geben, musste das wirklich sein?
Insgesamt mal wieder eine Füllepisode, die auch einzeln gelesen werden kann. Man lernt viel über das römische Pferderennen: Ben Hur war falsch, die Zügel wurden am Körper festgebunden und es wurde mit dem Gewicht gelenkt.
Zeitpunkt der Geschichte:
17. August - 6. September 80 n. Chr., ca. 1,5 Monate nach Band 11
December 11, 2013
This was a good book. It had all the aspects of a fun book. THere was a good mystery, which included a complicated plot, many suspects, and clues that can allow the reader to solve the mystery. I liked how the author, once again, used a Roman event to base the plot off. This time it was chariot races in the Circus Maximus. The only thing about this story that I didn't really like was the injuries in the horse races, and the fact that the setting wasn't very unique or changing. In addition, in this book, there was a lot of references to one of the character's family, and you had to know a lot of horse and racing and chariot terms. Luckily, there was an excellent glossary at the back. All in all, a good book.
November 30, 2007
As a passionate fan of Lindsey Davis' books about Marcus Didius Falco, I find these fun to read since they are set in the same place and time.
They're well written and researched. But I do have to say I find the friendship between the 4 children to be highly improbable and that a lot of the realities of life in Ancient Rome are carefully glossed over. Nonetheless, a good historical fiction series and a good mystery series that will hopefully get kids interested in Roman history.
They're well written and researched. But I do have to say I find the friendship between the 4 children to be highly improbable and that a lot of the realities of life in Ancient Rome are carefully glossed over. Nonetheless, a good historical fiction series and a good mystery series that will hopefully get kids interested in Roman history.
August 27, 2009
I still can't believe how much information she packs into these supposed kids' books [too good for just kids!:]. This one was all about Roman chariot racing, gambling, racketeering and in general the seamy side of the racing game. We get some information on Nubia's past and some follow-up on Jonathan's reactions to events in the previous book. These books can't be written fast enough for me. I want more NOW.
May 26, 2012
Man, these just keep getting better. A major character in this one is a young lad whom we, from our 21st century perspective, can recognize as autistic, fairly high functioning, but clearly autistic. Excellent. And, as always, a good story, although a bit of the woo-woo in this one; not enough to put me right off, but slightly disappointing. Still, altogether most satisfying.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews