The doctor from Lakros
The Doctor of Lakros is a historical novel by the German writer Waldtraut Lewin , published in 1977.
action
In the year when Gaius Julius Caesar introduced his Julian calendar , i.e. 45 BC. BC , a shepherd from the island of Lakros finds a lump of metallic ore shimmering while searching for round stones for his sling . Since all land belongs to the king anyway, the Almost Divine Basileus Sesostris, he brings him the gold nugget in the hope of a reward. The shepherd is immediately imprisoned by the king after he has made sure that no one else has heard of it. Sesostris then has an Egyptian mining expert brought in from Alexandria on one of his ships . This finds a rich gold vein, which immediately arouses the covetousness of the Egyptians , Parthians and Romans and causes a real gold rush around the island, whereby the social structure of the small area of rule is mixed up.
Because actually the tranquil island of the Aegean lies in several senses on the periphery of the Mediterranean - too insignificant for the great powers of the time . Almost all fishermen, shepherds and farmers live on the peaceful island. Those who come here from outside only travel to experience healing in the clinic ( iatreion ) of the famous doctor Leukrotis. Leukrotis arrived as a former slave and survivor of the Spartacus uprising in 73 BC. Chr. To the island, making it vulnerable to the Roman interests. But in the meantime, thanks to her successful treatment for the kidney disease of Sesostris, she had become the most powerful woman on the island. The cunning agenti in rebi Rome, Marcus Cethegus and Gaius Arruntius, their key position does not remain hidden. As a result, they infiltrate her as patients and thus set a cycle in motion that will devastate several fates, such as that of her daughter Creusa, similar to the island. Because the highly indebted Sesostris lacks both the means for gold mining and the necessary labor, so that it is only a matter of time before he has to turn to one of the interested great powers as a protective power .
background
There is no island with the name Lakros in the Aegean Sea. About its approximate location is only written that it lies between Alexandria and Corinth and that it takes ten days by ship from Rome via Puteoli with good sailing weather. The Romans often use the name Phäaken for the inhabitants of the island of Lakros in their description , so that one could assume their location even near Corfu , which would mean that it would be more in the Ionian Sea .
Despite the fictional plot, the historical novel illustrates the foreign policy expansion mechanisms of the Roman Republic .
When designing the cover for the Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag , Klaus Meyer, Tabea Dietrich and Claus J. Lienau used the “ Dionysian Frieze with Scourged Girl and Bacchante ” by a Pompeian painter around 60 to 50 BC. BC from the Villa dei Misteri , in which they omitted the nude back , of which only the left cut elbow can be seen.
expenditure
- Waldtraut Lewin: The doctor from Lakros . New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1977
- Waldtraut Lewin: The doctor from Lakros . dtv, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-423-12023-1