“Beware the Ides of March!” So reads the warning from the soothsayer to Julius Caesar as the fateful day approaches. We all know the story about how the dictator ignores the warning and is stabbed to death on the Senate floor. Or do we? According to this delightful 1935 novel, long out of print, there’s much more to the story, and who best to tell it but Manlius Scribo, ace reporter for the … Evening Tiber, circa 44 B.C. With his faithful servant, Smithicus (a regular Jeeves), Manny must deal with Cleopatra, Mark Anthony, Cassius, Brutus and his own editor, Q. Bulbous Apex, not to mention the mysterious moor, Hambonius, and the perfidious dwarf, Hercules. And we cannot forget the voluptuous Romula, who sets his Roman heart a-quiver. It’s THE FRONT PAGE meets I, CLAUDIUS in the most amazing imperial romp ever written. “Et tu, Brute,” my eye! An excellent introduction by Richard A. Lupoff tells the story of this intriguing book and its equally interesting author.
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