Read Throne of the Caesars 01 - Iron and Rust Online
Authors: Harry Sidebottom
Throne of the Caesars 01 - Iron and Rust (48 page)
Senator:
Member of the senate, the council of Rome. The semi-hereditary senatorial order was the richest and most prestigious group in the empire.
Serdica:
Roman town; modern Sofia in Bulgaria.
Sicilia:
Village in Germania near Mogontiacum; possibly modern Sicklingen.
Silentarii:
Roman officials who, as their title indicates, were employed to maintain silence and decorum at the imperial court.
Simulacrum:
Latin, ‘imitation’.
Singara:
Highly fortified eastern outpost of the Roman empire in northern Iraq; modern Balad Sinjar.
Sinope:
City on the southern shore of the Black Sea at the eastern end of the Roman province of Bithynia; modern Sinop in Turkey.
Sirmium:
Strategic border town in Pannonia Inferior; modern Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia.
Sophists:
High status teachers of ancient rhetoric who often travelled from city to city giving instruction and delivering speeches for entertainment.
Sortes Virgilianae:
Popular method of divining the future by choosing random lines from Virgil’s epic poem, the Aeneid, and interpreting them to suit the situation.
Speculatores:
Roman army scouts and spies.
Spintriae:
Latin, ‘male-prostitutes’. From the Greek term (anal) sphincter.
Stoa:
Pavilion by the agora in Athens where the Stoics first met, giving its name to their philosophy.
Stoic:
Followers of the philosophy of Stoicism; should believe that everything which does not affect one’s moral purpose is an irrelevance; so poverty, illness, bereavement and death cease to be things to fear and are treated with indifference.
Stola:
Roman matron’s gown.
Subura:
Poor quarter in the city of Rome.
Suebian Sea:
Ancient name for the Baltic.
Sufes Pass:
Roman name for the Kasserine Pass in the Atlas Mountains of eastern Tunisia.
Suffect Consul:
One of the additional consuls appointed later in the year by the Emperors during the Principate; less prestigious than the Consul Ordinarius.
Symposium (plural Symposia):
Greek drinking party, adopted as social gathering of choice by the Roman elite.
Syracuse:
Greek city on the south-eastern shore of Sicily.
Syria Coele:
Hollow Syria, Roman province.
Syria Palestina:
Palestinian Syria, Roman province.
Syria Phoenice:
Phoenician Syria, Roman province.
Tacape:
City on the south-eastern coast of Africa Proconsularis; modern Gabès in Tunisia.
Talassio!:
Tradition cry at Roman weddings; its origins were obscure to the ancients themselves.
Taparura:
City on the eastern coast of Africa Proconsularis; modern Sfax in Tunisia.
Temple of Peace:
Monumental building with planted courtyard north east of the Roman Forum.
Temple of Tellus:
Temple dedicated to the earth goddess Tellus; prominent landmark of the Carinae quarter, sited on the flank of the Esquiline Hill.
Temple of Venus and Rome:
Temple designed by the Emperor Hadrian with back-to-back shrines for Venus, Roman goddess of Love, and Rome, a deified personification of the city. In Latin, Roma (Rome) spelled backwards is amor, love. Situated east of the Roman Forum on the north side of the Sacred Way.
Temple of Vesta:
Circular temple in the south-eastern corner of the Roman Forum, housing the sacred flame of Vesta, goddess of the hearth.
Tepidarium:
The warm room of a Roman baths.
Terra Incognita:
Latin, ‘unknown, unexplored land’.
Testudo:
Latin, literally ‘tortoise’; by analogy, a Roman infantry formation with overlapping shields, giving overhead protection.
Thabraca:
Coastal town in north-eastern Africa Proconsularis, five day’s journey from Thysdrus by the fastest (sea) route; modern Tabarka in Tunisia.
Thelepte:
Town in the centre of northern Africa Proconsularis; modern Medinet-el-Kedima in Tunisia.
Theveste:
Town in northwestern Africa Proconsularis; modern Tébessa in Tunisia.
Thiges:
Roman fort on the edge of the Sahara in southern Africa Proconsularis; modern Henshir Ragoubet Saieda in eastern Tunisia.
Thrace:
Roman province to the north-east of Greece.
Thracians:
People from the ancient geographical region of Thrace, the south-eastern corner of the Balkans.
Thusuros:
Oasis on the southern fringe of Africa Proconsularis; modern Tozeur in eastern Tunisia.
Thysdrus:
Town in central Africa Proconsularis, five days’ journey from Thabraca by the fastest (sea) route; modern El Djem in Tunisia.
Tibur:
Ancient town north east of Rome popular as a hill resort; modern Tivoli.
Tillibari:
Roman fort in southern Tunisia; modern Remada.
Tisavar:
Roman military outpost in southern Tunisia; modern Ksar Ghilane.
Titan:
First generation of gods; defeated by the Olympians.
Toga:
Voluminous garment, reserved for Roman citizens, worn on formal occasions.
Toga Virilis:
Garment given to mark a Roman’s coming of age; usually at about fourteen.
Transpadane:
Literally, ‘Beyond the River Po’; ancient geographical area of northern Italy.
Tresviri Monetales:
Literally, ‘Three men of the mint’; board of junior magistrates responsible for the coinage.
Tresviri Capitales:
Board of three junior magistrates in charge of prisons.
Tribune:
Title of a junior senatorial post at Rome (see Tribune of the Plebs) and of various military officers; some commanded auxiliary units, while others were mid-ranking officers in the Legions.
Tribune of the Plebs:
A powerful office in the Republican government, originating as a champion of the people to prevent the domination of the senatorial nobility. Under the Principate an honourific appointment awarded to junior senators by the Emperor.
Tripolitania:
Ancient geographical region of central North Africa, at the eastern extremity of Africa Proconsularis.
Triton
: A Greek sea god.
Triumvirate:
‘Three men’; term made notorious by two pacts to share control of the Roman government between three leading citizens that precipitated the end of the Roman Republic and ushered in the Principate.
Troy:
Legendary city in Asia Minor; the story of its siege by the Greeks is the subject of Homer’s Iliad.
Tutor:
Guardian legally necessary for a child, imbecile or woman.
Ubi tu Gaius, ego Gaia:
‘Where you are Gaius, I am Gaia’; Roman wedding formula, its origin, and even meaning, were sources of speculation in antiquity itself.
Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa:
Legionary fortress and capital of the province of Dacia; now abandoned, the site lies in western Romania.
Urban Cohorts:
Military unit stationed at Rome to act as a police force and counterbalance the Praetorian Guard.
Utica:
Coastal town of Africa Proconsularis north west of Carthage.
Vadas:
Nec victoriam speres, nec te militia tuo credas. ‘Go, neither hope for victory, nor trust your soldiers’. According to the Historia Augusta, words of a prophesy offered to Alexander Severus.
Valerii:
Members of the Valerius family.
Varissima:
Berber goddess identified with Venus, Roman goddess of love.
Via Aurelia
: Road running along the Italian coast north west of Rome.
Via Egnatia:
Roman military road running east–west across the southern Balkans, ending in the east at Byzantium.
Via Flaminia:
Road leading north from Rome, crossing the Apennines, and terminating on the Adriatic coast.
Via Labicana:
Road leading south east from the centre of Rome.
Via Popilia:
Extension of the Via Aurelia leading north into the plain of the river Po.
Victoria:
Roman goddess of victory.
Vicus Augusti:
Town in eastern Africa Proconsularis; modern Sidi-el-Hani in Tunisia.
Vigiles:
Paramilitary unit stationed at Rome for police and firefighting duties.
Vihinam:
Berber goddess associated with childbirth.
Viminacium:
Provincial capital of Moesia Superior; modern Kostolac in eastern Serbia.
Vir Clarissimus:
Title of a Roman Senator.
Volaterrae:
Town in central Italy; modern Volterra.
Votis Decennalibus:
Latin, ‘vows of the tenth year’; common legend on coinage announcing the loyal vows made by the populous for an Emperor’s safety in the coming decade.
Zeugma:
City on the banks of the Euphrates guarding a bridge of boats; now submerged by the Birecik Dam in southern Turkey.
Zeus:
Greek king of the gods.
Zeus Philios:
Title of Zeus, ‘The Friendly, Hospitable’.
Zirin:
Cry of the Scythians, said by Lucian to signal a person’s status as an emissary and prevent the caller from being harmed, even in the heart of combat.
My greatest thanks, as ever, go to my family: my wife, Lisa, my sons, Tom and Jack, my aunt Terry, and my mother, Frances. With a new series, loads of stuff to learn and lots of new characters to make up, they have put up with me working non-stop all year.
Writing a novel is an unnatural, arrogant thing to do. Without the support of both the professionals and friends around me, I am not sure I could pull it off. So, many thanks to my agent, James Gill, and my new editor, Katie Espiner; also to Kate Elton, Damon Greeney, Cassie Browne, and Charlotte Cray (all at HarperCollins), to Richard Marshall (for the endmatter, and knowing more about the novels than me) and, for the seventh time, to my copy-editor, Sarah Day. Thanks also to friends, academic and otherwise, Peter and Rachel Cosgrove, Katie and Jeremy Habberley, Maria Stamatopoulou, Michael Dunne, Vaughan Jones and Jeremy Tinton.
Various students have put up with a lot of fiction when they might have hoped for history: Jonny Riches, Olly Jones, Torsten Alexander, Fergus O’Reegan and Michalina Szymanska.
Back in the day, three senior scholars in Oxford said or did things that showed a faith in my abilities that I was far from sharing. At different times, in ways they will have forgotten, Ewen Bowie, Miriam Griffin and Robin Lane Fox gave me the confidence to write. So this novel is dedicated to them.
Harry Sidebottom
Newmarket and Oxford
February 2014
The list is organized alphabetically within geographic regions. To avoid giving away any of the plot characters usually are only described as first encountered in
Iron & Rust.
T
HE
N
ORTH
Ababa
: A druid woman patronized by the imperial court.
Agrippina
: Wife of the general Germanicus, she died in
AD
33.
Alcimus Felicianus
:
Gaius Attius Alcimus Felicianus
, an equestrian official with a long record of civilian posts, including administering the inheritance tax; a friend of Timesitheus.