Legionary (Published. Audiobook out in January) Decanus (Published. Audiobook out in February) Optio (Published in January)
My books are set in the early years of the Roman Principate. The first novel begins in 17BC (which would have meant nothing to the Romans, counting, as they did Ab Urbe Condite ‘from the founding of the City.’)
On the larger stage, Caesar has been assassinated and the civil wars that followed are over. Most of the assassins are dead, including their leader, Junius Brutus. Marcus Antonius is dead, Pompeius Magnus is dead, Cleopatra is dead. Octavius is now Emperor and in 27BC declared himself Augustus.
On the smaller stage, the timing allows for older characters to have served in the civil wars under Brutus or Antony or Octavian or Agrippa and for their fathers to have served with Julius Caesar, Licinius Crassus and Pompeius Magnus. Battles and their tactics and outcomes can thus be revisited.
I do want the history to be accurate, but not to get in the way of the story. The story carries the history, rather than vice versa. My audience, my readers, I hoped would be people who like a good story, but enjoy it better when it is set in a historical context. They are intelligent people interested in the nitty-gritty of ancient history. To me – and hopefully to them – the fine detail of such a context is important as long as it enhances the story rather than detracts from it.
There are many, many inaccuracies and beliefs linked to a period such as the Roman Principate. Many descriptions available were written dozens or even hundreds of years later, and are then coloured by the opinions of the writers. (Hollywood also has a great deal to answer for. The origins of ‘thumbs down’ to mean ‘death’ to gladiators is a product of the movies. According to Pliny, it was a sign of favour, meaning ‘drop your weapon’. A good gladiator was expensive – better to save him for another day.) Even the contemporary description of a great general like Julius Caesar was written by the man himself. Thus it is written from the victor’s viewpoint and for a particular audience, the instalments of his victories to be posted by the rostra across the from the Curia. They were read out in excited tones by praecones (s. praeco) – forming a sort of living book that had people’s rapt attention. Caesar, of course, is writing for his audience in Rome, so would not include anything negative to him. All his enemies had to be brave and ferocious to reflect well on his courage and skill as a general. We only have his word that he scored such-and-such a glorious victory, or how many thousands of tribesmen he killed. Vercingetorix (the leader of the Celts defeated at Alesia) would need to be a great and glorious general to be worth displaying in Caesar’s triumph (in contemporary coinage he looks gaunt and thin).
Some of my best reviews praise the detail, and this, of course, pleases me. Some of the not so positive ones complain that there is too much history. One, for example, rails at the names – well, they had names, and sadly they weren’t Tom or Sally, but they aren’t really that difficult. Others go into forensic detail about certain words, but I can assure my readers they are carefully researched. (For example, djinn is mentioned as inauthentic by one critic, but it is not. It is an Aramaic word, not an Arab one, and long predates Islam. By the time of the Principate, Rome had spent many years in Parthia, Armenia and similar places and the word is attested as current in Augustan times.)
My starting point was ‘decimation’ – the killing of one in ten of a legion chosen by lot. The execution carried out by their own comrades. With all the effort that was put into recruitment and training, this seemed a very inefficient way to discipline an army, so I decided to research into it. There are, as you might expect, very few examples (and none involving an entire army). This led me to question many other accounts in an effort to be accurate. My particular thanks to the writing of Mary Beard and Guy de la Bedoyere. Enjoy the series, but enjoy the history too.
