Mark Of The Thief Sparknotes

Mark of the Thief is a book written by Jennifer A. Nielsen. This book is the first in the “Mark of the Thief” trilogy and is set in ancient Rome around the year 400 CE. The story itself takes place primarily in the city of Rome and the mines south of Rome where the story begins.
The story’s protagonist is Nicolas Calva, a rebellious Roman slave boy. Nic becomes cursed with the powers of Julius Caesar’s magical bulla and is able to use the bulla to perform amazing feats of strength and control a griffin. Nic is guided through Rome and helped by Aurelia, a girl who was abandoned as a baby and takes residence in the sewers beneath Rome. She works as a guard-for-hire and is considered surprisingly strong for a girl. With her help, Nic attempts

to defeat Radulf. The story begins with Nic being owned by a man named Sal who owns a mine south of Rome and has hundreds of slaves taking care of his land and mining in the caves on his property. Sal is very abusive to Nic and his other slaves and has a fondness for Livia, Nic’s younger sister. General Radulf is the main antagonist in the book and desires to take over all of Rome using the bulla. He is willing to kill Nic to do so and Nic must defeat Radulf to protect himself, his loved ones, and all of Rome from Radulf’s reign.
The story is told using first-person point of view and is told from the perspective of Nic. He begins by describing that he and his sister are slaves owned by a man named Sal who owns land south of Rome. Their mother was originally with them but she was soon sold away leaving Nic to care for his sister. Nic’s job as a slave is to mine whatever valuable resources are in the caves on Sal’s land and works with many other boys. His sister works on more “feminine” tasks such as laundry, sewing, and cooking.
General Radulf comes to the cave where Nic works away and assigns him to retrieve whatever is in a large hole which had been recently dug out. Whatever was in the hole had driven another slave mad so he feared for his life and sanity. After reaching the bottom of the dark hole, Nic discovers a golden bulla with Julius Caesar’s initials carved into it on one side and the image of a griffin on the other side. The bulla is said to have been owned by Julius Caesar and is said to have Caesar’s magical powers within it. As Nic attempts to retrieve the bulla, a griffin attacks him trying to protect the bulla. In order to fight the griffin, Nic puts on the bulla against the commands of Radulf and suddenly is in control of the mythical creature. He instructs the griffin to help him escape and the griffin flies them to a strawberry patch.
Nic and the griffin are caught in the field by the guards who believe Nic was attempting to run away and escape slavery, a crime punishable by death.

The griffin is taken away and tied up to be brought to Rome. Nic is inspected by those who find him and they decide to bring him back to Sal before Senator Valerius and his son Crispus arrive in an attempt to protect the boy. They are able to protect Nic by having him and the griffin sold to a name in Rome named Felix where they are brought. They arrive in Rome and meet Felix and a girl he hired to watch over Nic and the griffin named Aurelia. She is initially hostile and cold towards Nic. While talking, Felix discovers a mark on Nic’s back known as the Divine Star and questions Nic about it, knowing very well about the bulla Nic is hiding. Felix later takes Nic to his home and demands Nic give him the

bulla.
Nic refuses and Felix decides to put Nic to work in the venatio, initially taking care of the animals but later on, after Nic further angers him, to be a part of the slaughter soon taking place. Nic discovers Caela, his griffin, has been put into the venatio as the final event and is to be killed by a master warrior for entertainment. To protect him and Caela, Nic uses the power of the bulla to defeat the warrior using his magical strength. While trying to defeat the warrior, Nic unintentionally brings down part of the structure of the colosseum with the swift lowering of his hands.
Nic becomes hunted by the police for his crimes of endangering the lives of so many bystanders and possible killing some as well.

To escape he rides Caela away until she drops him due to her injuries from parts of the crumbling venatio falling onto her. On the way down in an attempt to protect a piece of gold which the griffin tries to keep from damaging, Caela scratches Nic on the arm creating a large wound. Nic lands near a group of guards which had followed the griffin and he escapes into the sewers until the guards can no longer chase him. After hours of walking in the sewers and numerous falls into the filthy water, the scratch becomes severely infected and he faints. Aurelia finds him collapsed in the sewers where she lives and takes Nic to her home in a side building below the city with many small orphans. Soon after Nic wakes up from fainting, Radulf and some of his men discover them and try to get them to surrender by causing a flood in the room they are located in. Nic and Aurelia are able to create a hole in the ceiling and use a ladder to get everyone out of the room before it completely floods. They climb into an olive patch where they take a break and eat some of the olives growing on the

branches.
The main conflict in this story is “Man vs. Man.” In the story, Nic must defeat General Radulf using the powers he has been cursed with by the bulla to save his life, the lives of his loved ones, and to prevent him from taking over Rome and threatening the lives of all its citizens.
The theme of this story is “with great power comes great responsibility.” Nic puts on the bulla and gains these incredible powers. When he is cursed with these powers, he is given the responsibility to save Rome from General Radulf and save everyone Radulf threatens to harm as well.
Connections to the text I can make involve the references to Julius Caesar, an emperor of Rome, and Roman mythology. These two topics are referenced frequently in the book with the bulla belonging to Julius Caesar and the story behind the powers of the bulla and the griffin relating to Roman mythology.
I enjoyed this book very much and I feel this book had well-developed and well-described characters as well as likable main protagonists. One thing I liked about Nic is his resilience and his drive. His determination to defeat General Radulf and protect those he cared about was a great thing to read. I would recommend this book to many people, especially those who enjoy historical fiction as this does include references to ancient Rome and the culture of ancient Rome.