The idea of history itself is very important to Yarbro. Although Locadio's Apprentice is a historical novel, it is not concerned with the epic scope conventionally attributed to works of this genre, such as, say, Edward BulwerLytton's famous The Last Days of Pompeii, published in 1834 and translated into film some one hundred years later.

Instead, Yarbro perceives ancient history not as something to escape to, study, or visit as one would a museum; rather she sees it as a particular way of living, feeling, and acting which happened to exist a long time ago. Thus she envisions history as made up not so much of grand, important events and personalities (a traditional attitude she acknowledges by her understated allusions to Rome's political unrest and instability at the time), but rather as something composed of all the insignificant individuals and mundane actions or concerns which constituted human...