A light goes on for Caius

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Caius comes on is a book for children and young people written in 1969 by Henry Winterfeld . It is the second of three parts in the series Caius, the rascal from ancient Rome , which is about the adventures of the boy Caius and his friends in ancient Rome.

characters

In addition to the main characters of all three parts (see characters from the Caius series ), the following people appear in this volume:

  • Udo , slave from Germania
  • Tiro , private secretary of Caiu's father, Senator Vinicius
  • Gorgon , one-eyed ex-gladiator with a wooden sword
  • Marcus Patrizius Pollino , Roman commander in chief in Germania
  • Lucilius Terrentius Manilius , City Prefect

action

Caius and his friends arouse their teacher Xanthos' displeasure when they want to give him the slave Udo for his birthday; Xanthos is also not enthusiastic about Antonius' alternative idea of ​​a lion as a gift. When the friends wanted to return Udo to the slave trader Callon, they learned that he had fled because a one-eyed stranger was looking for Udo with a wooden sword. A little later they are attacked on the forum by a stranger who wants to pull Udo with him, but is routed by the friends. They flee to their secret cave with Udo and want to hand him over to the police. Udo asks not to do this and tells his story: Udo is the slave of Commander-in-Chief Marcius Patrizius Pollino and was commissioned to deliver a letter to two strangers in the cemetery. But Udo kept the letter because it was supposed to be killed after delivery; He also reports that the letter is about an attempted murder on a famous senator. The letter is still in Udo's coat, which Udo left in a cellar while sleeping.

Meanwhile, Xanthos has learned of the incident on the forum and appears in the cave. The boys tell him Udo's story. Udo adds that his master Pollino also had a cage sent as a donation to the zoological garden in Rome, and the battle in the Teutoburg Forest also plays a role. Xanthos thinks he knows where Udo left his coat and sends the friends on a search. They will actually find what they are looking for; to their disappointment, however, the letter contains only a few historical and mythological names. But Caius solves the riddle of the letter: His father, Senator Vinicius, is to be murdered. Together with Tiro, his father's private secretary, Caius wants to inform City Prefect Lucilius Terrentius Manilius immediately. However, Udo warns the friends that he is in league with Pollino. The friends want to stop Caius, when his sister Claudia tells him that Caius is already on the way with Tiro. Then Tiro returns injured: Three men overpowered him and kidnapped Caius; Tiro still has the letter with him. The friends decide to overhear the two mysterious recipients of the letter in the cemetery the following night. There the ex-gladiator tells his companion, a fat man, that he has brought Caius into his power. Mucius and Antonius sneak after the two.

Xanthos, on the other hand, wants to buy Caius out of the ex-gladiator Gorgon. Then Antonius appears and reports that he followed the ex-gladiator into the catacombs of the amphitheater. Antony was about to free Caius when suddenly two gladiators appeared and mistook him for Caius; for the attack on Gorgon in the forum they threw Antony among the predators. But there Antonius met the tame lion Ramses, whom he had actually wanted to give to Xanthos, and fled with him from the dungeon.

In the meantime, Mucius the Fat, who turns out to be Prefect of the City of Manilius, follows an Egyptian grain barrow. Manilius orders the escape because Pollino was arrested on Vinicius' orders; there is also talk of a "Cerberus". When the ship casts off, Mucius can escape just in time.

While Udo is on his way to the catacombs to free Caius, Xanthos and his students are attacked by Gorgon, who wants to get the letter. But Rufus overpowers him with Ramses' help. Now Mucius also returns and reports on his experiences. Meanwhile, an exhausted Caius also appears in the Xanthos School. But Caius and his family are threatened with lifelong forced labor, since Caius' father cannot find the gold that was lost in the battle in the Teutoburg Forest; the only person who knew the hiding place, Pollino, had committed suicide shortly after his arrest.

The friends want to hide Caius and his family in the house of the late clairvoyant Lukos. But they learn from Claudia that their father has just been arrested. Xanthos rushes over and is able to avert the arrest: in the meantime he has been able to calculate that the gold must be in the bottom of the cage of the bear intended for the zoological garden; the cage itself is on the grain barge. Manilius and his henchmen are arrested; Caius thanks Udo for his rescue.

output

  • Henry Winterfeld: Caius sees the light: The rascal from ancient Rome (paperback) , Omnibus-Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 978-3570205211