Xanthe

Xanthe, a character in the A Courtesan of Rome book, is one of Lena's courtesans and Main Character's rival. She is first seen in Chapter 3.

Appearance
Xanthe has brown eyes, black hair and tan skin. She wears a purple robe with golden hem, combined with a golden and silver necklace and a golden bracelet.

Personality:
Xanthe is very arrogant and blunt. She is flirtatious and doesn't care if someone is "taken". After Main Character comes to the scholae, Xanthe is jealous of all the attention she is losing to her. Xanthe acts spiteful towards her, and tries to undermine her and sabotage her whenever she can.

A Courtesan of Rome

 * Chapter 3: The Aid of the Gods
 * Chapter 4: The Hunt
 * Chapter 5: Red-Handed
 * Chapter 6: Marked
 * Chapter 8: The Goddess of Watching
 * Chapter 9: Power Vacuum
 * Chapter 11: Trial By Combat
 * Chapter 12: Raising The Stakes
 * Chapter 13: Bread and Circus
 * Chapter 14: A Twist of Fate
 * Chapter 15: Best Served Cold
 * Chapter 16: Triumph
 * Chapter 17: A Life for a Life
 * Chapter 20: The Liberators

Main Character
Xanthe is the Main Character's rival. She is shown to be jealous of the Main Character's success as a courtesan, and tries to take Cassius's attention off of her. In Chapter 8, the Main Character catches Xanthe rummaging around in her room for proof that she is an assassin. Even if the Main Character convinces Xanthe of her innocence, Xanthe swears to find out what she is hiding to bring her to justice. Xanthe later tries to secretly follow her when she sneaks out of the scholae to see Syphax. In Chapter 15, Xanthe sabotages her by stating to Marc Antony that she is plotting with Cassius to rebel against Caesar. She continues to flaunt her new patron, Marc Antony, to her in Chapter 16.

Lena
Lena is Xanthe's boss. As Lena mentioned to the Main Character when she acquired her from Legate Aquila, every girl who she has taken in has had men who wronged her. She acquired Xanthe before Main Character arrived at the scholae. Lena says that Xanthe had potential once, but jealousy is more corrosive than acid.

Syphax
Syphax was her bodyguard. He said it was never easy to guard her, as she has always been her own worst enemy. Allthough he didn't object to the number of patrons she took, he says he disliked the way that she led them on, pretendsing to be more devoted to them than she was and then dropping them when a more wealthy man showed interest in her.

In Chapter 16, she says she used to care about him and warned him about the Main Character when Lena gave him to her eight years ago. Yet, he ignored her and took the fall for the Main Character, so he has to live (or die) with his "mistake". In Chapter 20, he escorts her to the ship to Sicily.

Marc Antony
In Chapter 15, Xanthe finally gains Antony as a patron, when she turns him against Main Character by telling him that the latter one and Cassius are plotting some conspiracy against Caesar. In Chapter 17, when Main Character arrives at Pompey's grand estate to see Antony, she finds Xanthe storming away. He tells Main Character that even though Xanthe is beautiful and she was throwing herself at him, his thoughts were of her.

Trivia

 * In Chapter 20, she is assigned by Lena to serve as a permanent courtesan to a governor in Sicily, exiling her from Rome.