In AD224, Imperial Investigator Quintus Valerius is summoned from Rome to Britannia by his old companion-in-arms, Governor Gaius Trebonius. Trebonius wants Quintus to investigate fraud at the silver mines he is overseeing. But on his journey to Somerset in the south-west of the isle, Quintus hears rumours of a Druid uprising. And when he encounters […]
Three authors on how small discoveries had big impacts on their stories
Three writers of Roman historical fiction reveal how seemingly minor research discoveries inspired their stories. Sit any three historical fiction authors around the table and ask them about their research and you’ll be there for a week. Narrow it down to the specific ‘minor discovery’ that changed the course of the narrative and you might […]
Agrippa, Augustus’ friend and fixer
Marcus Agrippa was Emperor Augustus’ right-hand man. From humble birth, Agrippa rose to become Augustus’ friend and fixer, married his daughter and helped build the Empire. As Agrippa’s biographer, Lindsay Powell, says, the former Octavian would likely neither have triumphed nor held on to power without Agrippa by his side. To rule effectively, a national […]
Marcus Agrippa: The True Story by Lindsay Powell
Marcus Agrippa was a remarkable man in his own day and, 2,000 years later, his achievement is undiminished. As the foremost deputy of Emperor Augustus, for three decades he waged wars, befriended kings and potentates, pacified provinces, and beautified Rome. Most people who recognise his name today likely know it through novels, films, and television. […]
A Land Aflame by Ben Kane
In 211BC Hannibal’s struggle against the Romans in Italy continues, but the Carthaginians have been utterly defeated on Sicily. Fleeing the island to Spain, Hanno and Aurelia are shipwrecked, and taken prisoner by local tribesmen. Unless they escape, a life of slavery and brutal treatment awaits. Aurelia’s brother Quintus is posted with his comrades to […]
Rome’s lost exiles
Exile was a very Roman punishment, Fiona Forsyth says. But under Augustus it got personal. Fiona looks at the fate of the lost Romans who lived — and often died — in exile, including members of the Emperor’s own family, and the poet Ovid, subject of her latest novels. When Rome’s first emperor died, there […]
Written in Blood by Fiona Forsyth
Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, is dead. The Empire’s new leader, Tiberius, is vulnerable. As mutinous legions rise and Tiberius struggles to control even his own formidable mother, Livia, the ripples of uncertainty reach even the shores of Tomis on the Black Sea. There, the exiled poet Ovid dares to hope that a new emperor will […]
Field of Blood by Anthony Riches
Following the Year of the Five Emperors, three are left in the field. A final bloody confrontation is inevitable as the ruthless Septimius Severus advances through Cappadocia and Cilicia on the heels of the retreating legions of the Emperor in the East, Percennius Niger. Co-opted into Severus’s legions are two veterans who, after long service, […]