List of The Roman Mysteries Characters - F

F

Felix

Publius Pollus Felix a.k.a. the Patron is an extremely wealthy highborn Roman with Greek heritage. He was first encountered in The Pirates of Pompeii, where we met his sickly wife Polla, and their pampered daughter Pulchra. He is kind and generous to the four friends, seeming to favour Lupus most of all. He makes them welcome at his villa and gives them expensive gifts. Flavia eventually believes she is falling in love with him and therefore refuses to accept her betrothal to Tranquillus. His spoiled daughter Pulchra then invites the friends back to their home, the Villa Limona, after they saved her from being sold into slavery following the eruption of Vesuvius. In The Assassins of Rome, after the incident at Nero's golden house, He and Pulchra come and eat at Jonathan's sucah (The festival of Tabernacles). Flavia still thinks she loves him, but sees him in a different light as an unfaithful womaniser, who has fathered many illegitimate children by the many beautiful slave girls he owns, and also with many of the beautiful widows he entertains. When his wife Polla tries to poison herself in despair, he sees the error of his ways, but many doubt he can remain true to his word. At the end of 'The Sirens of Surrentum', he asks Flavia to join him in his study to thank her in private. However, at one point, he puts his hand on her knee and slowly bends his head towards her, supposedly trying to kiss her. Flavia runs off before he can.

Felix appears in The Pirates of Pompeii The Sirens of Surrentum The Man from Pomegranate Street

Ferox

Ferox is the guard-dog at Gaius's house.

Flaccus

Gaius Valerius Flaccus is a friend of Flavia Gemina. Flavia first meets Flaccus in The Colossus of Rhodes when she is sailing to Rhodes on her father's ship. At first she does not like him, saying that he is a "pompous lawyer", and nicknaming him "Floppy". He is also arrogant and rude to her but by the end of the book she is sad to see him leave, as she has seen his true character as a noble, kind, just man. He is also incredibly handsome.

In The Sirens of Surrentum Flavia meets him again but he leaves early with a mission to help Flavia track down a criminal mastermind. Nubia hints that Flaccus may be falling for her. He appears again in The Slave-Girl from Jerusalem, defending Hephzibah in court,and Flavia starts to fall for him. He proposes to her at the beginning of The Beggar of Volubilis, only to be turned down as Flavia has taken a vow of chastity at the temple of Diana. He leaves her with a betrothal ring, in case she changes her mind, and the feathered end of an arrow, as a symbol that she has pierced his heart. At the end of The Beggar of Volubilis, Flavia is tempted to change her mind regarding the proposal of Flaccus. At the end of The Man from Pomegranate Street, Flaccus gets killed in a shipwreck -or at least, that is what Flavia tells everyone. However, it is revealed that he is very much alive and only pretended to die. He and Flavia marry at the end of 'The Man from Pomegranate Street'. His 'new' name being Jason.