Legionary: Land of the Sacred Fire (52 page)
It could be said that the Roman Empire made a big mistake in the 2
nd
century AD. After decades of military exertions, they fatally crippled Arsacid Persia (also known as the Parthian Empire), and this left something of a power vacuum in the east. The Sassanid Dynasty rose to capitalise on this, and soon set about reforming the Persian Empire into a well-drilled, militaristic force. They disbanded the crumbling feudal structure and replaced it with something much more akin to the Roman model, with military regions, standing armies and levies, all answering through a chain of command to the Shahanshah. From Rome’s perspective, this was the worst possible outcome – as this reinvigorated Persia was a far greater threat than the one the empire had worked so hard to extinguish.
Indeed, by 377 AD, times were desperate indeed on Rome’s eastern frontier and Sassanid Persia was strong. Emperor Valens frantically sought to conclude a peace with the Persians in order to safely withdraw the praesantal army from Persia and despatch them to Thracia to deal with the Gothic War. The lost scroll of Jovian and Shapur is a fictional premise but such a thing would have been the perfect answer to Valens’ problems. While the lost scroll is this author’s imagining, the treaty of 363 AD is very much historical fact.
In the space of just a few days in June that year, Emperor Julian’s brash bid to conquer Sassanid Persia collapsed. Having crossed the Tigris, burning his fleet behind him lest it fall into Persian hands, he then marched upon the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon. The siege was a disaster. The Savaran appeared unexpectedly to relieve the besieged city, then harried and harassed Julian and his army all the way back to the banks of the Tigris. There, the Roman legions were surrounded and crushed, with Julian slain in the fighting. Within days, Jovian (the head of Julian’s household guard) was raised to the purple and his first act was to negotiate with Shapur. Unsurprisingly, Shapur started those negotiations with the upper hand, demanding the concession of Roman Mesopotamia – effectively stripping Rome’s eastern borders away – and it seems that Jovian was swift to concede. Crucially though, there also appears to have been some aspect of a lasting truce discussed, but the exact detail of the truce is shrouded in the mists of history. The 4
th
century historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, claims that a peace of thirty years was agreed. Modern historians are uncertain exactly what was agreed – Noel Lenski states that; ‘What the treaty did not officially sanction, it tacitly allowed through its ambiguities’. Geoffrey Greatrex claims; ‘The precise terms of the agreement of 363 … are unknown, and were clearly interpreted differently by Shapur and the Romans.’ What is certain is that Jovian should be commended for what he did achieve that day. From an almost impossible position, he managed to secure the safe release of his army and press Shapur into some form of truce. Even Jovian’s greatest detractors (such as Marcellinus) offer him grudging respect for this.
In these negotiations, I have portrayed Shahanshah Shapur II as a fierce yet noble and wise leader, somewhat weary of bloodshed and political intrigue – crowned
in utero
, the man would have seen plenty of both. He was fifty-four on the day of the 363 negotiations, and I expect by then he would have grown tired of some of the strident and ruthless actions of his early reign, of which there were plenty. For example, although strife between the Roman Empire and Persia generally centred on the lands of Armenia and Mesopotamia, Shapur is thought to have once boldly demanded that Rome concede to Persia all lands east of the Strymon River in Macedonia! Also, in his early years as shahanshah, Shapur ordered that Arab warriors captured in battle should have their shoulders pierced, and ropes fed through the wounds so they could be led across the desert in the utmost misery. This is likely to be invective from Roman or rival Persian sources, but the imagery is certainly somewhat striking. Indeed, I was tempted to have the XI Claudia subjected to such misery in the scene after the desert battle when they are chained and forced to march into Persia. However, I resisted this temptation on the advice of my editor (who rightly pointed out that this would probably have rendered them incapable of lifting a sword or shield ever again).
As for my portrayal of Emperor Valerian’s fate after his capture by Shapur I in 260 AD, it is almost certainly true that he remained in captivity in Bishapur whilst his legionaries were forced to build the new Persian city around him. The rumours of his grisly end – some say he was skinned, some say he was stuffed, others claim he was forced to swallow molten gold – come primarily from the eccentric Lactantius, a chronicler and imperial advisor born in the 3
rd
century AD. They may be apocryphal, borne of Lactantius’ disdain for the Persians’ virulently anti-Christian stance, but we will never know for sure. Certainly though, history has taught me never to underestimate just what dark deeds man is capable of.
Concerning religion; Zoroastrianism is the proud, noble and ancient – perhaps the oldest of all – monotheistic religion of old Persia. In Sassanid times, the individual holding the position of archimagus would have been venerated almost as highly as the shahanshah himself. The archimagus and his magi were seen as an almost divine caste in Persian society. They saw to running the fire temples, leading the faith as descendants of Zoroaster himself and providing a guiding civic hand to Persian society – running trials and setting up courts and schools. However, as with any faith that lofts men into pseudo-monarchic posts, abuse of power is always a valid concern and one I have explored in my portrayal of the fictional Archimagus Ramak. I trust that the good-hearted Zoroastrians Pavo and his comrades meet along the way provide some balance in this respect.
Regarding slavery; the Persian attitude to this was one of mild aversion. They had household slaves, but they also had a code of conduct: slaves were not to be beaten, they had ‘days off’ and they could aspire to freedom. However, theory and practice are seldom in harmony, and it is unlikely that those condemned to the depths of the salt mines would have been afforded these relative luxuries enjoyed by slaves on the surface. The mines of Dalaki are fictional, but a number of Sassanid-era salt mines have been identified around Persia, and it is likely that such mines would have existed in the salt flats near the Persian Gulf and at the hem of the Zagros Mountains where salt glaciers are abundant. It is thought that Roman prisoners of war were typically sent to these mines, despatched to work the land or put to building cities for their Persian masters.
Concerning my depiction of the city of Bishapur, I feel I should point out that, although the fire temple and palace do sit adjacent (as can be seen in the aerial shots of the ruins), there was no discernable acropolis mount on which they sat. I have added this to aid dramatic tension and symbolise Ramak and Tamur’s air of aloofness over their subjects.
Finally, some readers have questioned my portrayal of Emperor Valens as a sharp-thinking and studious man, particularly given the ill-light in which he is cast by some primary sources (primarily Marcellinus) who describe him as loathsome, cruel, boorish, bandy-legged and with a terrible stammer. I tend to cast a critical eye upon these accounts, most of which seem overly personal and less than constructive. Also, the majority of these were written after the catastrophic Battle of Adrianople in which Valens died and a grievous portion of the eastern legions were lost. Few chroniclers would have found favour in championing the dead emperor in light of this disaster, and I suspect a more accurate portrayal of Valens became buried under this unfortunate legacy. That is not to say that I believe Valens is all-virtuous – not by any means. He certainly displayed a propensity for warmongering and ruthlessness, as the brutal burnings of the Maratocupreni give testament to.
There is much more I could discuss here (the first draft of this note was nearer fifteen pages long), but I hope this gives a flavour of the facts behind the fiction. If I have piqued your curiosity to read more of the history, all the better!
So, with the Persian Frontier slipping into the sunset, the men of the XI Claudia must now turn their attentions back to the strife in Thracia. And Pavo and Gallus have more than just the Gothic war to think about. I hope you will be back to read the next volume in the series and I cannot wait to get started researching, planning and writing it! Until then, please feel free to visit my website where you can find out more about me and my work.
Yours faithfully,
Gordon Doherty
Glossary
Acetum;
A vinegar-like fluid, used for cleaning and sterilising wounds.
Ahriman;
The Zoroastrian dark spirit and antithesis of Ahura Mazda. Ahriman symbolises all that is evil, known in Zoroastrianism as ‘the lie’.
Ahura Mazda;
The lord of light and wisdom, Ahura Mazda is the highest divinity of Zoroastrianism and represents all that is good, known in Zoroastrianism as ‘the truth’.
Ala (pl. alae);
A unit of Roman cavalry, numbering anywhere between a few hundred and a thousand.
Aquilifer
; Senior eagle standard bearer of a Roman legion.
Ballista (pl. ballistae);
Roman bolt-throwing artillery that was primarily employed as an anti-personnel weapon on the battlefield.
Beneficiarius;
Naval officer responsible for administrative duties on a ship.
Buccina
; The ancestor of the trumpet and the trombone, this instrument was used for the announcement of night watches and various other purposes in the legionary camp.
Candidatus (pl. candidati)
; The
candidati
were the hand-chosen, personal bodyguard of the Roman Emperor and successors to the old Praetorian Guard.
Cataphractus (pl. cataphractii)
; The flexible heavy cavalry of the Sassanid Persian Empire. These riders wore tall, plumed helms and scale armour, their mounts wearing scale aprons and headpieces likewise. Some riders are also thought to have worn ring armour on their limbs. They either charged with lances chained to their mounts’ armour (for momentum and stability in the pre-stirrup era) or harried from afar as archer cavalry. In the fourth century, Rome employed many such riders in the imperial ranks.
Chi-Rho
; The Chi Rho is one of the earliest forms of Christogram, and was used by the early Christian Roman Empire. It is formed by superimposing the first two letters in the Greek spelling of the word Christ
,
chi = ch and rho = r, in such a way to produce the following monogram;
Clibanarius (pl. clibanarii)
; The ultra-heavy shock cavalry of the Sassanid Persian Empire. Rider and mount were encased in iron, with vital areas double-protected with iron plate-armour (clibanarius literally means ‘metallic furnace’). They also wore distinctive iron face masks, greaves and gauntlets. While these riders could only fight for a short time owing to the weight of their armour and the heat inside it, when they were on the battlefield they could often decide the day, tearing enemy ranks to pieces. Their primary weapon was the chained lance.
Comitatensis (pl. comitatenses)
; The comitatenses were the Roman field armies. A ‘floating’ central reserve of legions, ready to move swiftly to tackle border breaches. These legions were considered the cream of the late Roman army.
Comes Domesticorum;
The head of the Roman Emperor’s household guard.
Contubernium (pl. contubernia)
; A grouping of eight legionaries (ten
contubernia
per century). These soldiers would share a tent and would receive disciplinary action or reward as a unit.
Decurion
; Leader of a
turma
of Roman cavalry.
Dirham
; A silver coin of the Persian Empire. Long after Roman coinage had been significantly debased, the dirham remained pure silver – an indication of the changing fortunes of both powers.
Dromedarius (pl. dromedarii)
; Swift and hardy lightly armoured Roman camel scout cavalry, used primarily in desert regions such as Syria and Egypt. These riders were commonly recruited from the native populace of those regions.
Drafsh;
The military standards carried by the Sassanid Persian armies. Groups of one hundred men would march or ride under each banner – each unit referred to as a drafsh also. Comparable to a Roman eagle standard, a drafsh was typically crested by a winged Faravahar and had a vivid banner hanging from the crossbar bearing an image of some fierce creature. The
Drafsh Kavian
was the Sassanid royal standard, bearing the image of a golden star bursting across a purple background. This was carried before the Persian armies when the shahanshah himself marched to war.