WHEN SIX SCROLLS OF POETRY WERE DISCOVERED in a sealed cavern in Cadiz, Spain, the world was introduced to a new Latin poet, Caius Herennius Felix. Herennius, a maritime clerk, wrote about Epicureanism, Eudoxus the explorer, his friend Glabbis, a variety of lovers, and his true love Paccia Glycera, one of the famous dancing girls of Gades. As translated by Clarence W. Hudson, the poems are a vivid portrait of the poet, his friends and lovers, and the Roman port of Gades in first century A.D.

It would be a stunning discovery, except that Herennius, Glabbis, Paccia, the scholars who studied the scrolls, and the translator never existed. Author Jim Levy has populated an authentic and historically accurate first century Roman port city with fictitious characters.

Jim Levy was born in Los Angeles and educated at Pomona College. He spent most of his life working in the public or non-profit sector. He was for a time the director of a museum and library owned by the University of New Mexico. He has written for most of his life but only recently begun to publish.