It’s AD14. When Dokimos the vegetable seller is found bludgeoned to death in the Black Sea town of Tomis, it’s the most exciting thing to have happened in the region for years. Now reluctantly settled into life in exile, the disgraced Roman poet Ovid helps his friend Avitius to investigate the crime, with the evidence […]
Ovid the policeman
The poet Ovid spent some time as one of Rome’s tresviri, the men who supervised activities such as policing. Could he have been involved in solving crimes? For Fiona Forsyth, this is “one of those gaps in history that it is my job as a historical novelist to fill”. Here she writes about how she […]
Empire’s Edge by Damion Hunter
Centurion Faustus Valerianus marched with Julius Agricola on his six-year campaign to conquer the north of Britain. With Agricola now returned to Rome, Faustus is sent to Hibernia with exiled Irish prince Tuathal Techtmar to reclaim his throne, to crown a new king. But victory is a fleeting thing, and back in Caledonia fears grow […]
Shadow of the Eagle by Damion Hunter
Faustus Valerianus is the son of a Roman father and a British mother, a captive sold among the spoils after Claudius’s invasion. Now both parents have died within a month of each other, and so he sells the family farm and enlists, joining legendary general Agricola’s campaign to conquer the entirety of the British Isles […]
Christmas reading 2022 – our pick of top historical books
We asked nine well-loved authors to each recommend two historical books for Christmas 2022 to give, receive, or treat yourself with. These include many of the most absorbing books, fiction and non-fiction, published recently. We hope these suggestions inspire you. DV Bishop The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola. A winter’s tale full of mystery and […]
Domitian, an unlikely emperor
Nobody expected Domitian to become Emperor of Rome in AD81, least of all him. And though he was murdered (an occupational hazard of the role) and condemned to oblivion, he left Rome unified and stable. SJA (Simon) Turney writes about this unlikely emperor, the subject of the third in his Damned Emperors series of novels. […]
Domitian by SJA Turney
Rome, AD52, and the Julio-Claudian dynasty is in its death throes. Over the next 20 years, chaos descends as Claudius then Nero are killed. The whole empire bucks and heaves with conspiracy, rebellion and civil war. Out of the ashes and discord, a new imperial family emerges: the Flavians. Vespasian is crowned emperor, with his […]
Agricola’s victories in Britain
Agricola (AD40–93) was the only Roman general who could claim to have subdued the whole of Britain. Simon Turney has written the first biography of this important figure for nearly two millennia. He looks at why Agricola’s victories make him one of the great military figures in Roman history. A Roman general is marked by […]