Where are the scrolls? Ask someone with a map.
Getting the scrolls:
Verania: Under your nose.
Lucius: Drinking and boating DO go together -- count on it!
Gordian: Pick one from column A, one from column B, etc. -- but get it right from the ground up. (See Lucius's notebook.)
Xanthus: A stone is a many-sided thing. (See Gordian's notebook.)
Sibyl: Mirror mirror on the wall . . . . Monkey see, monkey do. (See Sibyl's notebook.)
The strongbox:
The twins have the key, and the box.
In Gordian's journal, between a nag and an inconvenience lies a security precaution, especially on January 22nd.
Trust Gordian -- he knows all the angles.
You'll find yourself in the Forum, behind the Arch of Severus, on the first day of the year, Kal. Jan.
1. Get all five scrolls:
Locations are marked on one of the maps in Gordian's notebook.
Verania - under the Arch of Severus -- you'll see it as soon as you get to the Forum from Cornelius's study. Verania is the Vestalis Maxima, or head of the Vestal Virgins.
Lucius - upstairs at the Wineshop (just west of the Senate House). Go to the cabinet with the two levers and set both at VII. (The clue to this is at the bottom of the stairs -- if you click on the tree in the boat picture, grapes appear; click on the grapes, and dolphins appear. There are 7.) The cabinet opens, revealing Lucius's scroll. Lucius is the drunken son of a Senator, now a sort of private eye. Notice the wooden soldiers on his desk. Useless things to play with: the box by the stairs (which opens to reveal an animated helmet); the items on his desk; the other pictures in the wineshop downstairs.
Gordian - up the Stair of Sighs in the Tabularium (next to the Tullian Jail), left, straight twice, and through the door to the right. Pick up the compass, which draws a circle and opens a door to the center office (Gordian's). Behind his desk is a picture of four columns with four boxes. Click to see the names of the column types; then click and drag to put them in the boxes in the right order from the ground up: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite. (Clue in Lucius's notebook entry on the Colosseum.) A gate to the right of the desk will open; go into that room and get Gordian's scroll. Gordian is the Curator Fori (curator of the Forum) and a prominent engineer. Useless things to play with: the other pictures on the walls.
Xanthus - the third of the offices in the Tabularium. At the desk, place the stones in the numbered grooves according to the number of sides each has (i.e., the pyramid has four sides, so place it in the groove marked "IV" - clue in Gordian's notebook). You'll hear a click; turn around and click on the cabinet door to get his scroll. Xanthus is a foreigner working for Gordian.
Sibyl - go to the alley next to the Temple of Vespasian. Turn the skull to open the curtain. On the table to the right is a note saying, "Who is the greatest Sibyl of them all?" Turn to the left wall (which says the same thing in Latin) and click on "Roma" on the map. The back curtain will open. Look at the box on the table to the left, then repeat the sequence of skulls in the dishes to the right (i.e., the third dish should be empty). The box will open -- get the scroll. (Clue in Sibyl's notebook on Dreams.) Sibyl is a fortune teller. Useless things to play with: the Zodiac wall; the things on her tables.
2. Open Gordian's strongbox:
A. Find the key to Gordian's Taberna. Gordian tells in his scrolls of finding a mysterious document, possibly belonging to Xanthus. On Gordian's desk in the Tabularium is a notebook with "Castor and Pollux" written on it. Turn the pages to find a key. Click on it; it will automatically go into your storage cabinet.
B. Find Gordian's Taberna. Go to the alley on the west (Basilica Julia) side of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, where you will find a locked green door. Click on the key in your storage cabinet to open the door (the key remains in your storage cabinet in case you want to go back). You'll see a strongbox with a combination lock and two other closed wooden boxes on the left and right.
C. Open the strongbox. Click forward to get close to the strongbox. Enter XXIII on the strongbox by turning the wheels so that the numbers appear in the second set from the top, leaving the last number blank. (Clue to number: Gordian has a "hidden scroll" for a.d. X Kal. Feb. -- his scroll doesn't unfurl on that date, and if you click on the furled scroll on a.d. X Kal. Feb., you get his previous scroll for a.d. XIII Kal. Feb., called "The Nag." Notice, though, that on a.d. X Kal. Feb., the upper right corner of "The Nag" scroll is turned down, indicating another scroll after it. Click on the corner, and you'll find a scroll entitled "A Security Precaution" with a picture of a column, a circle over the column, and a number at the right. Point at the small circle at the bottom of the larger circle and drag it down until it reaches the bottom of the column. A right angle appears and the number changes to XXIII. If you're past a.d. X Kal. Feb., Gordian's next scroll is "An Inconvenience" on a.d. VII Kal. Feb., and you can flip backwards to "A Security Precaution" from there.)
Press the button on the right to open the box. Then pull the left lever ("sinister"=left). This opens the boxes to the left and right. Go to the box on the left and pull the left ("sinister") lever. Then go to the third box and pull the right lever ("dexter"=right). Go back to the strongbox. There, you will find a scroll (click on it) with a partial list of ways in which Rome can be destroyed, presumably written by the Calamitus. This is a preview of the acts of sabotage you'll be investigating over the next year.