Galen: My Life in Imperial Rome — Marissa Moss

The life of a slave is the only life that twelve-year-old Galen knows, and though he hopes for a better one, he's making the best of it. He practices painting whenever he can, finds adventures with his best friend, Micio, and just might solve a mystery that will improve the life of everyone around him--and change the course of history.
Galen, from the acclaimed author of the Young American Voices series, is a riveting first-person account of a young boy's life in ancient Rome. The first book in the Ancient World Journal series.