You scanned the code at the end of the second Dentatus novel. Welcome. This page holds the background material there was no room for in the book.
What became of the agrarian law
At the close of the novel, Lucius stands at a grave without knowing what Spurius Cassius died for. The answer to that question spans three and a half centuries, and it does not end where you would expect.
What Cassius actually proposed, why the charge of aiming at kingship cost him his life, what happened to the idea of land distribution afterwards, and why Livy and Dionysius tell his death in entirely different ways:
The Consul Who Wanted to Give Rome Land: Spurius Cassius and Rome’s First Agrarian Law
More background
Two further pieces will appear here over the coming weeks:
- Coriolanus: hero, traitor or legend? Why scholars doubt he ever existed, and how Livy, Dionysius and Plutarch differ in almost every detail.
- What is historical about Dentatus? An honest account of which figures in the series are genuinely attested, which ones I invented, and where even the ancient sources are in the dark.
If you would like to know when they go live, sign up for my newsletter below. I will also write when the next volume is out.
The books
The Dentatus series follows the life of Lucius Siccius Dentatus, a plebeian warrior of the early Roman Republic. You will find every volume, and the Eagle Saga as well, in the overview of my books.
Thank you for reading.
Marc Beuster