Tribunal is the 11th in the series of highly acclaimed and best-selling Judge Marcus Flavius Severus mysteries in Ancient Rome. This story takes place in the year 177 CE during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. It is two years after the events in The Wages of Sedition.Tribunal is a courtroom drama centered on a trial for murder and treason. The litigants, both accusers and defendants, are members of mafia-style crime families in the City of Rome. The head of each crime family, the Paterfamilias, and his chief counsellor, the Consiliarius, are on trial for the murder of a Roman judge. A three-judge Tribunal, headed by the Urban Prefect along with Judge Severus and a jurisconsult, in order to reach a just verdict must figure out who among the accusing witnesses and trial lawyers is telling the truth and who is lying. Only Judge Severus' brilliant deduction and insight reveal the truth.This book is not only a mystery, but also captures the daily life of ancient Rome and is a sojourn into the world of courts, police, and criminal law of the period. All laws, rescripts and legal procedures are from Roman law sources. Even trial tactics and gestures of the lawyers are from Roman sources.