Throne of the Caesars 01 - Iron and Rust (43 page)

P
ROVINCIAL
G
OVERNORS

Technically there were two types of provinces: ‘senatorial’, governed by Proconsuls appointed by the Senate (e.g. Africa) and ‘imperial’, overseen by legates (deputies) appointed by the Emperor (the latter including almost all those provinces with armies, and all those governed by equestrians). In practice, the difference was minimal. No one came to be any sort of governor without the Emperor’s permission. By his
maius imperium
(overriding military authority), the Emperor could give orders to any governor and, from the beginning of the principate, we find Emperors issuing
mandata
(instructions) to the Proconsuls of ‘senatorial’ provinces.

One difference was length of tenure. Proconsuls might expect to be replaced after a year, while legates might hold office for several years, often at least three. In this novel, while using nearly all the office holders known to history, to avoid a plethora of minor characters I have kept both types of governors in office from
AD
235–8, or at least those who are not killed. While it is a fictional device, it might be justified by appeal to those times, such as the years Tiberius spent on Capri, when imperial government almost ground to a halt. Maximinus never left the northern frontiers and had no interest in civil government; both disincentives to new appointments.

Fergus Millar,
The Roman Empire and Its Neighbours
(2nd edn, London, 1981), gives a good introduction to these areas and much else.

H
ARZHORN
B
ATTLE

A find by an amateur archaeologist in 2008 has led to the discovery and ongoing investigation of the site of an ancient battle in the region of the Harzhorn mountains in Germany. This incredibly important site so far is virtually unknown in the English-speaking world; although
www.römerschlachtamharzhorn.de
has a useful summary in English and the historian Adrian Murdoch has put several pieces on his blog
adrianmurdoch.typepad.com
.

The recovery of artillery bolts and horse-sandals, neither of which are thought to have been used by German tribes, indicates that a Roman army was involved. The latest coins found are from the reign of Alexander Severus. Ancient literary sources are unanimous that the Emperor was murdered before embarking on an expedition into Germany and that the plan was carried out by his successor, Maximinus Thrax, thus pointing to a date during the reign of the latter.

The site, as the crow flies, is roughly 150 miles from the town of Mainz, where Maximinus’ forces would have entered Germany. This provides a rare and very untypical instance where the
Historia Augusta
can be shown to convey reasonably accurate information which is otherwise unknown. The manuscripts record that the Emperor campaigned 300 to 400 miles beyond the frontier. Judging this incredible, all modern editors have amended the figure to between 30 and 40 miles.

We assume that the Romans won the encounter for two reasons. First, the ancient sources, above all Herodian (see above), record Maximinus as victorious over the Germans. Second, because nails almost certainly from the boots of Roman soldiers have been found alongside bolts from ballistas, the deduction has been made that the Romans shot artillery at the area, then followed up with infantry (and cavalry also, because the horse-sandals were found in the same place).

In this novel, to explain why the Romans attacked over the ridge, I have made the Germans block the pass, where Autobahn A7 now runs, with field fortifications. Also, I have made the area less forested than in later eras, because ancient torsion artillery would have been unable to shoot through a wood. Finally, I have given the Romans larger numbers than do the excavators, relying on the statement in Herodian that Maximinus invaded with ‘an enormous host’ (7.2.1).

The reconstruction in
chapter 17
of this novel makes no claims to be definitive. New discoveries can change our view of things out of all recognition. However, it is offered in the hope that it might provide a jumping-off point for the discussions of others.

For those who know German, an excellent starting point is
Roms Vergessener
Feldzug: Die Schlacht am Harzhorn
, edited by H. Pöppelmann, K. Deppmeyer and W.-D. Steinmetz (Darmstadt, 2013), published to accompany an exhibition that ran in 2013–14 in the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum.

H
UNTING

In the late Republic the Roman elite took their idea of hunting from the courts of the Hellenistic East, the distant successors of Alexander’s Macedonians. It was an activity to be done on horseback, with armies of servants, and exotic hounds that hunted by sight. It was a thing of ostentatious expense, freighted with social and ideological meaning. I know of no good systematic study, especially of the latter aspects. It would make a good doctoral thesis, or a great book, perhaps something a bit like Raymund Carr’s
English Fox
Hunting: A History
(London, 1976).

In the meantime, the reader can consult J. Aymard,
Essai sur la chasse
romaine des origins à la fin du siècle des Antonins
(Paris, 1951), or J. K. Anderson,
Hunting in the Ancient World
(Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1985), 83–153.

D
IE-CUTTING AND
C
OIN-STRIKING

No ancient literary source tells us how a die-cutter specifically, or a mint in general, went about their work. Scholars have always had to work back from the finished products. It is a province where experimental archaeology comes into its own. For the techniques in chapters 20 and 28, I draw on G. F. Hill, ‘Ancient Methods of Coining’,
Numismatic Chronicle
, 5.2 (1922), 1–42 and D. Sellwood, ‘Minting’, in D. Strong and D. Brown (eds.),
Roman Crafts
(London, 1976), 63–73.

I have accepted the traditional site for the imperial mint of Rome, under the church of S. Clemente, but there are problems with the identification; see A. Claridge,
Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide
(Oxford, 1998), 287.

On questions of initiative and ideology, I have broadly followed the model proposed by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill in his articles ‘The Emperor and His Virtues’,
Historia
, 30 (1981), 298–323 and ‘Image and Authority in the Coinage of Augustus,’
JRS
, 76 (1986), 66–87: the junior magistrates in charge of the mint offer up images they hope will appeal to the Emperor, but then – in a strange reversal – when the coins are in circulation, the ideology ‘what was done in the emperor’s name was done by the emperor’ led those using the coins to assume the ‘messages’ on them were their Emperor ‘talking’ to his subjects.

H
ANNIBAL AND
S
CIPIO

In
chapter 24
, drink has confused Gordian. Scipio questioned Hannibal about great generals not before Carthage – in fact, their African meeting was at Zama – but years later in Ephesus.

C
OCKFIGHTING

Little has been written on Roman cockfighting, gladiatorial combat being so much more shocking to modern sensibilities. It seems to have been a pastime of the raffish and the poor. In case any reader is concerned, the author has never attended a cockfight. Any number, usually from Mexico, can be viewed on the internet. The account in
chapter 31
was inspired by the anecdote of Antony and Octavian and a classic article of modern anthropology: ‘Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight’ by Clifford Geertz, reprinted in
The Interpretation of Cultures
(New York, 1973), 412–53. It borrows and reworks a superb line from the latter.

S
ERENUS
S
AMMONICUS

In an influential article, Edward Champlin argues that Serenus Sammonicus, the author of the
Res Reconditae
killed by Caracalla, should be identified both with the Septimius who wrote the
Ephemeris Belli Troiani
and the Septimius Serenus of the
Opuscula Ruralia
:
Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
, 85 (1981), 189–212; this argument is summarized by H. Sidebottom in
Severan Culture
, edited by S. Swain, S. Harrison and J. Elsner (Cambridge, 2007), 60–62.

His son, also Serenus Sammonicus, the tutor of the younger Gordian and owner of a library of 62,000 volumes, most likely is an invention of the
Historia Augusta
,
Gord. Tres
18.2. For these novels, I have accepted his reality and given him the latter two works mentioned above.

Q
UOTES

The poet Ticida has not only borrowed his name from the late Republican poet Lucius Ticida but is also a plagiarist. The poem of his repeated by Iunia Fadilla in
chapter 4
is by an anonymous poet under the empire preserved in the
Greek Anthology
(5.84) and translated by W. G. Shepherd in
The Greek Anthology
, ed. P. Jay (rev. edn, Harmondsworth, 1981), 324, no. 748.

When Pupienus in
chapter 16
helped his son compose a speech, he must have had at his elbow the
Panegyric
of Pliny the Younger in the translation of B. Radice (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1969).

Knowledge of literature, above all of Homer, was a badge of the elite in the Roman empire. All the lines of the
Odyssey
remembered in this novel are from the translation of Robert Fagles (London, 2006). Those from the
Iliad
are from the translation of Richard Lattimore (Chicago and London, 1951).

P
REVIOUS
N
OVELS

In all my novels I like to include homages to writers who have given me great pleasure and inspiration.

When Mamaea curses her assassins, she echoes Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Templars, in
The Iron King
, the first volume of Maurice Druon’s superb series
The Accursed Kings
(the English translation is now being republished and expanded by HarperCollins, London, 2013, and ongoing).

When Timesitheus ‘arranges his face’, he foreshadows Thomas Cromwell in
Wolf Hall
(London, 2009) and
Bring up the Bodies
(London, 2012). Nothing could be added to the praise already given to these novels by Hilary Mantel.

I borrowed a phrase from
White Doves at Morning
(London, 2003) by James Lee Burke. A wonderful writer, he should be far more widely read on this side of the Atlantic.

I
RON
& R
UST
:
G
LOSSARY

The definitions given here are geared to
Iron & Rust
. If a word or phrase has several meanings only that or those relevant to this novel tend to be given.

A Cubiculo:
Official in charge of the bedchamber, also Cubicul arius.

A Libellis:
Official in charge of legal petitions addressed to the Emperor; sometimes translated here as Secretary for Petitions.

A Studiis:
Official who aided the literary and intellectual studies of the Roman Emperor.

Ab Admissionibus:
Official who controlled admission into the presence of the Roman Emperor; sometimes translated here as Master of Admissions.

Achaea:
Roman province of Greece.

Achaemenids
: Persian dynasty, founded by Cyrus the Great c. 550
BC,
and ended by Alexander the Great, 330
BC.

Actaeon:
In Greek mythology, hunter who came across the goddess Artemis bathing naked and, as punishment, was turned into a stag and killed by his own hounds.

Actium:
Battle fought in 31
BC
that left Augustus in supreme control of the Roman empire.

Ad Palmam:
Oasis on the margin of the Lake of Triton (Chott el Djerid), south west of Africa Proconsularis.

Ad Pirium:
Fortified rest house in the eastern Alps above Longaticum.

Adlection:
Formal call to join the senate.

Adonis:
Greek god of beauty.

Aeaean Island:
Legendary home of the witch Circe in the epic poet Homer’s
Odyssey
.

Aegis:
Mythical shields or cloaks carried by Zeus and Athena.

Aeneid:
Epic poem by Virgil, telling the mythical story of Rome’s foundation. In antiquity, the most highly prized work of Latin literature.

Aequi:
Italian tribe living north east of Rome in the Apennine mountains; conquered in the fifth century
BC.

Aetolia:
Mountainous region of Greece north of the gulf of Corinth.

Africa Proconsularis:
Roman province of central North Africa, roughly modern Tunisia.

Agora:
Greek term for a market place and civic centre.

Alae:
Units of Roman auxiliary cavalry, usually around 500-, sometimes around 1000-strong; literally, a ‘wing’.

Alamanni:
Confederation of German tribes. The name probably means ‘all men’, either in the sense of men from various tribes or ‘all real men’.

Alani:
A nomadic people living north of the Caucasus mountains.