Egypt. 25BC. A former surgeon from the city of Ancyra, Titus Cervianus is now a capsarius – a combat medic. He is a pragmatist, a scientist – and deeply unpopular with his legion, the Twenty Second Deiotariana. The Twenty Second have been sent to deal with uprisings in Egypt. Founded as the private army of […]
Agricola: Architect of Roman Britain by Simon Turney
Gnaeus Julius Agricola was a man fated for conquest and tied to the island of Britannia. He cut his teeth on military command during the revolt of Boudica, later commanded a legion against the warlike Brigantes, and was finally given the governorship of the province and was able to lead the armies north, incorporating into […]
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 […]
Vikings in Georgia: history or myth?
Fans of SJA (Simon) Turney’s Roman novels may be surprised to see that his latest book, the first of a new series, is about 11th-century Vikings. Researching the background to Blood Feud couldn’t have been be more different, he tells Historia, and involved a saga which mixes history with myth, backed up by archaeology, and […]
Review: Nero: the man behind the myth
We’ve had more than a year without major exhibitions to visit. But the British Museum has returned with one of its blockbusters: a treasure-filled and challenging exploration of the Emperor Nero. Best-selling author Simon (SJA) Turney, who knows a thing or two about the Roman Empire, reviews it for Historia and finds it one of […]
Masters of Rome by Simon Turney and Gordon Doherty
As competition for the imperial throne intensifies, Constantine and Maxentius realise their childhood friendship cannot last. Each man struggles to control their respective quadrant of empire, battered by currents of politics, religion and personal tragedy, threatened by barbarian forces and enemies within. With their positions becoming at once stronger and more troubled, the strained threads […]
Sons of Rome by Simon Turney and Gordon Doherty
As twilight descends on the third century AD, the Roman Empire is but a shadow of its former self. Decades of usurping emperors, splinter kingdoms and savage wars have left the people beleaguered, the armies weary and the future uncertain. And into this chaos Emperor Diocletian steps, reforming the succession to allow for not one […]
A game of gods: religion in a changing Roman world
The Romans threw Christians to the lions; then Constantine I converted to Christianity and everything was fine. Right? Of course it was far more complicated than that, as Simon Turney and Gordon Doherty show in Sons of Rome, their new novel which follows the rise of Constantine and his rival Maxentius. They tell Historia about […]