Rome's rich and powerful . . . Conspiracy . . . Extortion . . . Murder . . . From the ashes of war rises the malevolence of the Bacchic cult, which through anarchy and vice aims to rot Rome from within. So argues Spurius to the Senate. Meanwhile, the great Hannibal, smarting in exile from defeat, plots to overrun Greece and exact a spectacular revenge on Rome. Did Spurius really "save the state" as he claims in these memoirs? Despite the lengths to which he goes to prove the Bacchanalians' conspiratorial intent, this elder statesman is, above all, a shrewd politician. As Spurius looks back across forty years, Carthage finally falls. If Rome isn't careful, he warns, it may fall victim to its own excesses as well.