Time to Depart is a crime

Crime fiction

Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...

 novel by Lindsey Davis

Lindsey Davis

Lindsey Davis is an English historical novelist, best known as the author of the Falco series of crime stories set in ancient Rome and its empire.-Biography:...

.

Plot introduction

Set in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

  during October AD 72, Time to Depart stars Marcus Didius Falco

Marcus Didius Falco

Marcus Didius Falco is the central character and narrator in a series of novels by Lindsey Davis. Using the concepts of modern detective stories , Davis portrays the world of the Roman Empire under Vespasian...

, Informer and Imperial Agent. It is the seventh in her Falco

Marcus Didius Falco

Marcus Didius Falco is the central character and narrator in a series of novels by Lindsey Davis. Using the concepts of modern detective stories , Davis portrays the world of the Roman Empire under Vespasian...

 series.

Explanation of the novel's title

The title refers to the law which stated that no Roman citizen who had been sentenced to death might be arrested, even after the verdict, until he has been given time to depart, the idea being that for a Roman citizen to choose exile outside the boundaries of the Empire would have been a fate worse than death itself.

Plot summary

Falco's closest friend, Petronius Longus, has finally caught one of the leading criminals in Rome, Balbinus Pius. But a quirk in Roman law allows a convicted felon, even a murderer, time to depart before the sentence is carried out. Balbinus' departure has left a vacuum in the underworld of Rome, and there is a crowd of criminals trying desperately to fill the void. Their first step is to engineer a robbery that reverberates throughout the city.

Falco is again called upon by the Emperor Vespasian

Vespasian

Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...

 to supply answers, as quietly and quickly as possible. A couple of murders, a kidnapping or two, and more suspects that Falco cares to count takes him, and his patrician girlfriend Helena Justina, to places a family shouldn't have to go.

High Society

• Anacrites - Imperial spy
• Camillus Aelianus - Eldest son of Decimus Camillus Verus
• Camillus Justinus - Youngest son of Decimus Camillus Verus
• Decimus Camillus Verus - Senator and father of Helena Justina
• Helena Justina - Daughter of the Senator
  Roman Senate
  The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
  
   Decimus Camillus Verus
• Julia Justa - Wife of Camillus Verus and mother of Helena
• T. Claudius Laeta - Imperial clerk
• Titus Caesar - Eldest son of the Emperor
• Vespasian - Emperor

Low Society (Fountain Court)

• Cassius - Baker
• Castus - Junk-dealer
• Ennianus - Basket-weaver
• Lenia - Laundress
• Marcus Didius Falco - Informer and Imperial Agent from the Aventine.
• Smaractus - Landlord

Law and Order

• Arica - Member of the Sixth Cohort
• Arria Silvia - Wife of L. Petronius Longus
• Fusculus - Member of Petronius' enquiry team
• L. Petronius Longus - Enquiry chief in the XIII region and friend of Falco
• Marcus Rubella - Tribune of the Fourth Cohort of vigiles
• Martinus - Deputy
• Porcius - Recruit
• Scythax - Doctor
• Sergius - Punishment officer
• Tibullinus - Centurion of the Sixth Cohort

Other Citizens

• Alexander - Doctor
• Balbinus Pius - Crime boss
• Flaccida - Wife of Balbinus
• Florius - Husband of Milvia
• Lalage - Proprietress of the Bower of Venus
• Little Icarus - Member of Balbinus' Gang
• Macra - Employed at the Bower of Venus
• Milvia - Daughter of Balbinus
• Nonnius Albius - Court witness
• The Miller - Member of Balbinus' Gang

Major themes

• Investigation into the underworld of Roman life,
• Developing relationship of Marcus Didius Falco and Helena Justina.

Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

• Set in Rome
  Rome
  Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
  
   in AD 72, during the reign of Emperor Vespasian
  Vespasian
  Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...
  
  .

Release details

• 1995, UK, Century Hardback (out of print)
• 1996, UK, Arrow, Paperback ISBN 0-09-933881-5
• 1997, UK, Chivers Press, Large Print, ISBN 0-7451-5449-2
• 1997, US, Mysterious Press, Hardback ISBN 0-89296-626-2
• 1998, US, Mysterious Press, Paperback ISBN 0-446-60591-3
• 2003, UK, Arrow, Paperback ISBN 0-09-945199-9 (as part of single-volume omnibus edition, Falco on the Loose, with Last Act in Palmyra
  Last Act in Palmyra
  Last Act in Palmyra is a crime novel by Lindsey Davis.-Plot introduction:Set in Rome, Nabatea and Palmyra during AD 72, Last Act in Palmyra stars Marcus Didius Falco, Informer and Imperial Agent...
  
   and A Dying Light in Corduba
  A Dying Light in Corduba
  -Plot introduction:Set in Rome and Imperial Spain during the spring and summer of AD 73, A Dying Light in Corduba stars Marcus Didius Falco, Informer and Imperial Agent...
  
  )

Sources, references, external links, quotations

Author's Official Website