Welcome

Salvete

S.P.Q.R. Blues is a group of stories (and "scholarly" information) based on archaeology about ordinary folks. For those of you who've come to visit from the Rostra or the saga of Fredericus Pinguinus, this site does include a mystery of sorts, which unfolds as you explore the city or peruse the diaries of the inhabitants. Over time the areas will become more finely detailed and the story will incorporate QTVR (virtual reality nodes) and may also incorporate audio, animation, and video. The city is expanding, and its population will grow, as well.

Walk through the house by clicking on the image of each room, on one of the directions indicated in the illustration below. You will either turn in that direction or head at an angle toward a door or item visible in the scene. (In the Tour section, click on the arrows around the image to navigate.)

You can also leave the house, by clicking on the front door, and enter various buildings along the street outside. Some areas can be viewed during the day as well as at night.

Enjoy the story. Send us commentary. Go easy on us. We are delicate.

FAQ: Will this site choke my browser?
You should be able to use just about any relatively current browser to take the tour of the house, visit the various rooms, and read the "scholarly" information. We've tried to keep the file sizes of the images as small as possible without losing too much of the high detail of the renderings, but if your connection is slow, you may want to wait until an hour when internet traffic is light. The storytelling part of this site should be viewed with a browser that can read Frames and Javascript. This will make some sections inaccessible for some people, but this is how we'll learn how far we can push the web's capabilities without crossing the line that makes a site slow, unusable, and frustrating to folks with a reasonable amount of technology. Netscape Navigator version 3.0 has worked well for us on both Mac and PCs. You can download the latest version of Netscape Navigator and then continue, take the simple Tour instead, or visit other areas in the Logomancy web site. If you have any questions about the way this site is supposed to work, please write us at logomanc@io.com.

FAQ no. 2: What happened to chapters I-X?
We'll leave most of those to Fredericus Pinguinus (although we're sure his story will continue far past chapter X). Marcus' story begins the day he barely escapes bankruptcy by seeking honest employment. We may go back in time someday and find out why a war hero got drummed out of the army, what his great grandfather got up to during the Civil Wars at the end of the Republic, and just who Amphianda is. . . .

FAQ no. 3: Haven't you been reading too many Falco books?
Lindsey Davis, British author who created ancient Roman sleuth Marcus Didius Falco and his cultured female companion Helena Justina, is greatly admired around these parts. Our main excuse for having a ruffianly hero and an audacious, well-off heroine is that these characters are based on real people and their lives. But it's rather nice that Petronia Iusta's name can stand as a nod and homage to Lindsey Davis' work.

We begin with:

Chapter XI:
In Which Uncle Marcus Goes Broke

Click Here to enter the work-in-progress if your browser can handle Frames & JavaScript
Click Here to try your browser with a sample QTVR scene
Click Here if your browser can handle Frames, JavaScript, and QTVR
(this option is on the way!)

or . . .

Click Here for a simple Tour of the House
(this should be okay for all browsers)

This site created by Logomancy