Alaric’s Gold

Alaric’s Gold is the hilarious story of the race to discover the river-bed tomb of Alaric, the Goth who sacked Rome in 410 AD, and to seize the fabulous hoard of treasure that was buried with him.

Set in modern-day Italy this is also a fast-paced and gripping thriller about the recovery of that treasure.

The cast includes a roguish Italian Prime Minister, his favourite escort girl, dissolute diplomats, corrupt police officers and the mafia.

The action involves a helicopter jail break, kidnappings, a shoot-out with the mafia, and the discovery of a hoard of riches from the ancient world.

On one level this is a light and amusing story set in the present day, but on another it draws on genuine historical records to point the way to one of the richest graves in antiquity – a grave that, according to Edward Gibbon in ‘The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’, had been constructed in a river-bed after its waters had been diverted ‘by the labour of a captive multitude’, a grave containing ‘the splendid spoils and trophies of Rome’, one whose secrecy was assured by the ‘inhuman massacre of the prisoners who had been employed to execute the work’ – and one about which the world appears largely to have forgotten.

The grave awaits discovery . . .