In classical Roman religion, a genius loci was the protective spirit of a place. It was often depicted in religious iconography as a figure holding attributes such as a cornucopia, patera (libation bowl) or snake. Many Roman altars found throughout the Western Roman Empire were dedicated to a particular genius loci. The Roman imperial cults of the Emperor and the imperial house developed in part in connections with the sacrifices made by neighborhood associations (vici) to the local genius. These 265 local districts had their cult organised around the Lares Compitales (guardian spirits or lares of the crossroads), which the emperor Augustus transformed into Lares Augusti along with the Genius Augusti. The Emperor's genius is then regarded as the genius loci of the Roman Empire as a whole.

Roman examples of these Genii can be found, for example, at the church of St. Giles, Tockenham, Wiltshire where the genius loci is depicted as a relief in the wall of a Norman church built of Roman material. This shows "a youthful and curly-haired Roman Genius worked in high relief, holding a cornucopia in his left hand and a patera in his right', which previously has been "erroneously identified as Asclepius".

Genius Loci is a novel by Ben Aaronovitch, focusing on the early career of Bernice "Benny" Summerfield, a character from the spin-off media based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. This was the first of Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield novels to be released under the New Worlds format.

The book is set before Benny met the Doctor and was not officially licensed by the BBC (as owners of Doctor Who), but does contain some allusions to Doctor Who, specifically the Silurians as depicted in the television series and in the Virgin New Adventures spin-off novels. The book also references Benny's back-story as explored in the New Adventures.

Plot summary

A young Bernice Summerfield lands a job as an archaeologist on a colony world. She discovers evidence that the planet was previously inhabited by a sapient species.

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