The Caspian Gates

Appendix




Historical Afterword



At the end of his wonderful Human Traces (2005), Sebastian Faulks writes that he does ‘not think that novels should contain bibliographies … as though all art aspired to the condition of a student essay’. However, in that case, he made an exception, and the discussion of his sources runs for seven pages. Undoubtedly, he has a point. But the classical pedant in me has an affinity for lists – in my books and in others’ – and I always like to make an exception.


History and Fiction


As with all the Warrior of Rome novels, I have worked hard to try to make the underlying history as accurate as possible – the geopolitics, the Realien (clothes, weapons, food, and the like) and the Mentalités. (And what could be a surer sign of scholarship than delineating two concepts with words from two foreign languages in one sentence?) But, as always in these novels, the story in the foreground is fiction. After the Sassanids’ victory over Valerian in the battle ‘beyond Edessa’ (most probably in AD260), the influence of the Sassanids in the kingdoms of the Caucasus seems to have increased. Both Shapur and the mobad Kirder later boasted in inscriptions of their successes there. Archaeological finds of Sassanid silverware from the period in the region have plausibly been interpreted as diplomatic gifts (see Braund, below, under ‘The Caucasus’, pp. 242–3). We have no evidence of Roman efforts to counter this – unsurprising, given the general paucity of evidence – although we know that missions were sent at other times. Similarly, there is no evidence of an attempt by the Alani to force the Caspian Gates at this point in history, although they did try on other occasions (e.g. see Arrian’s small work Expedition against the Alani).


People

Gallienus


The emperor Gallienus was a controversial figure in antiquity. On the one hand, the Latin sources vilify him either as degenerating into the worst sort of effeminate, ineffectual tyrant (Eutropius), or having been of that nature from the very start (Aurelius Victor; the Historia Augusta). On the other hand, the Greek sources (Zonaras; Zozimus) portray him in a far more positive light, as struggling manfully to hold the empire together in the face of overwhelming odds. There is an obvious line of explanation. Gallienus got on badly with the Senate – he promoted men of obscure origins and may have excluded Senators from army commands – and Senatorial opinion dominated Latin historiography.

The only modern, book-length scholarly study known to me is L. de Blois, The Policy of the Emperor Gallienus (Leiden, 1976).

There is no certainty about when Gallienus was born. Estimates usually range between AD215 and AD218. I arrived at a slightly later date via the following steps. Gallienus’s father, Valerian, was ‘old’ when he came to the throne in AD253 – let us say sixty. So, Valerian was born around AD193. Elite Roman men tended to marry in their late twenties. Thus, Valerian probably would have wedded just before AD223. Gallienus seems to have been his eldest child – so may have been born in AD222. I had worked this through before I realized that it, most usefully, made Gallienus and my fictional Ballista exact coevals. Of course, every assumption and every stage of the reasoning may well be completely wrong.


Hippothous


In Lion of the Sun and The Caspian Gates, the life story Hippothous tells himself and others follows that of his namesake in An Ephesian Tale by Xenophon of Ephesus, up until the death of the old woman he married in Tauromenium. In the ancient novel, the character then travelled to Italy, Rhodes and Ephesus. In mine, he headed back to Cilicia, where he set himself up, via successful banditry, as a leading man of the town of Dometiopolis, until the Sassanid invasion caused him to throw in his lot with Ballista and become his accensus. An oddly unreliable narrator, Hippothous is lucky that Ballista’s former accensus Demetrius is away in the west and that none of the rest of the familia read Greek novels. (Ballista tried The Aithiopika of Heliodorus in Lion of the Sun, but did not get on with it.)

There is an excellent translation of Xenophon of Ephesus by Graham Anderson in B.P. Rearden (ed.), Collected Greek Novels (Berkeley, Los Angeles & London, 1989, pp.125–69).


Peoples

The Goths


There has been something of a boom in the last twenty-five years or so in scholarly studies of the Goths. Outstanding among them are H. Wolfram, History of the Goths (English translation, Berkeley, Los Angeles & London, 1988); and P. Heather, The Goths (Malden MA, Oxford & Carlton, 1996). Many of the most important sources are collected and translated in P. Heather, and J. Matthews, The Goths in the Fourth Century (Liverpool, 2004). Recently, M. Kulikowski’s Rome’s Gothic Wars (Cambridge, 2007) makes a revisionist argument that the Goths as a group only came into existence in the region of the Danube in the third century due to the influence of Rome. For this to be true, the first century Gotones mentioned in Tacitus, Germania 44 have not to be Goths, and Jordanes, Getica 3–4 on the origins of the Goths has to be completely wrong. It should be remembered that Jordanes was a Goth, and his evidence shows, at the very least, that Goths in the sixth century believed that their ancestors had migrated from the Baltic in the third.

The chronology of Gothic raids in the Black Sea and the Aegean during the AD250s–260s is hopelessly confused. As the Goths were a very loose confederation at this time, I have assumed a Viking model of raiding: endemic, low-level piracy, with occasional large-scale assaults.


The Sassanids


To the reading on the Sassanids (also known as Sasanids, Sassanians, and Sasanians) given in Fire in the East and Lion of the Sun can be added the provocative and wide-ranging overview ‘The Sasanid Monarchy’ by Z. Rubin in The Cambridge Ancient History XIV, edited by A. Cameron, B. Ward-Perkins and M. Whitby (Cambridge, 2000, pp. 638–61.


Places

Ephesus


Sources for this city were given in King of Kings.


Priene


Situated on the lower slopes of the Mycale mountain range, with views out over the Maeander plain and the sea, Priene is a magical and little visited site. Far and away the best book, although very difficult to find (at least in English; it was also published in German and Turkish) is F. Rumscheid, Priene: A Guide to the ‘Pompeii of Asia Minor’ (Istanbul, 1998). Useful short introductions can be found in G.E. Bean, Aegean Turkey: An Archaeological Guide (London, 1966, pp. 197–216); and E. Akurgal, Ancient Civilizations and Ruins of Turkey (London, New York & Bahrain, 2002, pp. 185–206).


Miletus


Published to tie in with an exhibition in Berlin in 2009–10, the essential work on Roman Miletus, with wonderful maps, plans and pictures, is Zeiträume: Milet in Kaiserzeit und Spätantike, edited by O. Dally et al (Berlin, 2009). As with Priene, above, brief introductions are in Bean, op. cit., 219–80; and Akurgal, op. cit., 206–22. Although focused on earlier periods, there are various informative studies by Alan Greaves, especially ‘Miletos and the Sea: A Stormy Relationship’, in The Sea in Antiquity, edited by G.J. Oliver et al (Oxford, 2000, pp. 39–61); and Miletos: A History (London & New York, 2002, pp. 1–38; 137–42).


Didyma


The standard book is J. Fontenrose, Didyma: Apollo’s Oracle, Cult, and Companions (Berkeley, Los Angeles & London, 1988), although, splendidly, the author only spent ‘a good part’ of one day on the site (p. x). Again, introductions in Bean, op. cit., 231–48; and Akurgal, op. cit., 222–31.


The Black Sea


My interest in the Black Sea was sparked by two texts, one ancient and one modern. Dio Chrysostom, Oration 36, The Borysthenetic Discourse, includes an incredible account of a trip the philosopher claims to have made to the city of Olbia (or Borysthenes, as it was also called) on the north-west coast. Neil Ascherson’s The Black Sea (London, 1995) is a fine mixture of popular history and travelogue. The latter has recently been joined by Charles King, The Black Sea: A History (Oxford, 2004): a splendid work of historical synthesis.

For anyone wanting to journey in their imagination in the Black Sea of antiquity, there are three essential classical texts. Voyaging west to east, Arrian, Periplus Ponti Euxini (in the edition of A. Liddle, London, 2003, with introduction, translation and commentary), and Apollonius of Rhodes, The Argonautica (several translations in print); heading in the other direction, Xenophon, The Anabasis (available in many translations).

For seafaring, as in Fire in the East, I have drawn heavily on the practical experiences of Tim Severin, The Jason Voyage: The Quest for the Golden Fleece (London, 1985), and the scholarship of J.S. Morrison, J.E. Coates and N.B. Rankov, The Athenian Trireme: The History and Reconstruction of an Ancient Greek Warship (2nd edn, Cambridge, 2000). The litmus test of an under-researched historical novel set in the classical world is the inclusion of slave oarsmen, usually complemented with anachronistic whips, chains and drums. The briefest glance at the magisterial Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson (2nd edn, Baltimore, 1995, pp. 322–7), dispels any such notion.


The Caucasus


The outstanding work of modern scholarship is D. Braund, Georgia in Antiquity: A History of Colchis and Transcaucasian Iberia 550BC –AD 562 (Oxford, 1994). The single most important ancient text is Strabo 11.2.1–5.8.

I have drawn much from travellers’ accounts. Among Victorian ones, particularly useful are two by D.W. Freshfield, Travels in the Central Caucasus and Bashan (London, 1869; facsimile, 2005) and The Exploration of the Caucasus (2 vols., London, 1902; facsimile, 2005); and one by A.T. Cunynghame, Travels in the Eastern Caucasus, on the Caspian and Black Seas, especially in Daghestan and on the Frontiers of Persia and Turkey during the Summer of 1871 (London, 1872; facsimile, 2005). Two enjoyable modern ones are T. Anderson, Bread and Ashes: A Walk through the Mountains of Georgia (London, 2003); and O. Bullough, Let Our Fame be Great: Journeys among the Defiant People of the Caucasus (London, 2010).


Fluidity of boundaries, both political and cultural, marked the peoples of the ancient Caucasus. Given this, I have moved some things around for this novel. The Mouth of the Impious (Ps-Plutarch, On Rivers 5) – which probably never existed at all – has migrated from Colchis to Suania. Albanian scapegoats (Strabo 11.4.7) have been imported to Suania, complete with a fictitious explanation. Control over the Dariel (or Daryal) Pass (the Caspian Gates in this novel) has been handed to the king of Suania. Usually, the king of Iberia is thought to have controlled it. Procopius (1.10.9–12), however, wrote that it ‘was held by many men in turn as time went on’, and, at the time he was writing about (a rare occasion when we have any evidence at all), it was not held by the Iberian king. Unable to find a classical name for the Cross pass, I named it the Dareine Pass from an unidentified pass through the Caucasus in the work of Menander Guardsman (10.5).

It is a pity the three Caucasian rivers in the novel had such similar names. The Alontas is the modern-day Terek, the Alazonios the Alazani, and the Aragos the Aragvi.


Things

Earthquake


For the physical effects of the earthquake that struck Ephesus, probably in AD262, I borrowed heavily from Edward Paice’s enthralling Wrath of God: The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 (London, 2008). The classical ideas about earthquakes come mainly from Aristotle, Meteorologica II.7–8; and Ammianus Marcellinus XVII.7.9–14.


Exile


For the elite of the classical world, exile was an ever-present fear. The Roman emperors’ frequent imposition of the punishment on intellectuals encouraged a great deal of literature on the subject. The main texts used in this novel are Musonius Rufus, That Exile is Not an Evil (text and translation, C.E. Lutz in Yale Classical Studies 10, 1947, pp.68–77); Dio Chrysostom, Oration 13, In Athens, On Exile (text and translation in Loeb series, J.W. Cohoon, 1939); and Favorinus, On Exile (translated by Tim Whitmarsh as an appendix in his Greek Literature and the Roman Empire: The Politics of Imitation, Oxford, 2001, pp. 302–24).


Physiognomy


The ancient ‘science’ of reading physical externals to reveal character and thus uncover both deeds that have been committed as well as those still to come has been brought to the attention of students of mainstream aspects of the classical world by S. Swain (ed.), Seeing the Face, Seeing the Soul: Polemon’s Physiognomy from Classical Antiquity to Medieval Islam (Oxford, 2007) – a model of collaborative, wide-ranging scholarship.


Philosophers


In chapter six, the views of Gallienus on philosophers in the Roman empire are very close to those of H. Sidebottom, ‘Philostratus and the Symbolic Roles of the Sophist and Philosopher’, in E. Bowie and J. Elsner (eds.), Philostratus (Cambridge, 2009, pp.69–99) – which some might consider unsurprising.


Eunuchs


There has been less scholarship on this subject than one might imagine. Modern interest begins with K. Hopkins, ‘The Political Power of Eunuchs’, in his Conquerors and Slaves: Sociological Studies in Roman History, vol. I (Cambridge, 1978, pp.172–96). Things are taken much further in the essays collected in S. Tougher (ed.), Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond (London & Swansea, 2002) and S. Tougher, The Eunuch in Byzantine History and Society (London, 2008).

For the views of Mastabates in chapter sixteen on the prejudices of others against his kind, I played with two works of Lucian: The Eunuch and The False Critic.


Persian Punishments


In chapter 28, the ghastly Persian punishment is from Plutarch, Artaxerxes 16; variants of the symbolic one are found in Plutarch, Moralia 565A; Favorinus, Corinthian Oration (preserved in the works of Dio Chrysostom, Oration 37.47); and Ammianus Marcellinus 30.8.4. The historicity of them is uncertain. All come from non-Persian sources, and all refer to the Achaemenid dynasty. However, it is probable that the Sassanid dynasty regarded themselves as heirs to the ancient Achaemenids (although some scholars deny this), and it seems that the Sassanid royal court was to some extent Hellenized. Given those two things, it is conceivable that these punishments might have been ‘invented traditions’: the Sassanids reading them in sources from the Roman empire and then ‘importing’ them as ‘genuine Ancient Persian customs’. Whatever, they were too good not to include in this novel.


Other Historical Novels


As in all the novels in this series, I have included deliberate homages to a couple of historical novelists whose work has both proved an inspiration and given me a lot of pleasure.

The evocative hooming sound the Goths make is taken from Robert Low’s wonderful Oathsworn series – The Whale Road (2007), The Wolf Sea (2008), The White Raven (2009) and The Prow Beast (2010) – the very best of Viking novels.

Ballista’s habit of calling on his distant ancestor Woden as Allfather derives from Votan (1966) and Not for All the Gold in Ireland (1968) by John James. I had forgotten this, until I reread them last year. Both are enthralling works and do not deserve to be out of print.


Quotes


The lines from Seneca’s Medea at the heading of sections of the novel are from the splendid translation by Emily Gowers, Seneca, Six Tragedies (Oxford, 2010), which also underlies Pythonissa’s curse at the end of the book.





Thanks



In every novel, I thank mainly the same people, but neither my gratitude nor pleasure diminish.

First, the professionals: Alex Clarke, Jen Doyle, Tom Chicken, Francesca Russell, Katya Shipster at Penguin; Sarah Day for copy-editing; and James Gill at United Agents.

Next, Oxford: Maria Stamatopoulou, Louise Durning, and Janie Anderson at Lincoln College; and John Eidinow at St Benet’s Hall. A couple of colleagues – Al Moreno at Magdalen College, and Lisa Kallet at University College; and a couple of postgraduates – Richard Marshall at Wadham, and Chris Noon at Christ Church – have helped more than they know by teaching some of my students. Two of the latter, Matt Elstrop and Will Gibbs, escaped neither my tutorials nor endless talk of Ballista.

Then friends: Jeremy Tinton for Maximus-related stuff; Adi Nell for the killing of animals, especially horses; Jeremy Haberley for inhabiting Rutilus; Kate Haberley for what remains the best obscenity in the novel; Steve Miller for the Turkish driving (‘anticipation’); and Peter Cosgrove for the foreign travel, the photos, the office, and lots of other stuff.

Finally, my family for their love and support. In Suffolk, my mother Frances and aunt Terry. In Woodstock, my wife Lisa and sons Tom and Jack.





Glossary



The definitions given here are geared to The Caspian Gates. If a word or phrase has several meanings, only that or those relevant to this novel tend to be given.


Ab Admissionibus: Official who controlled admission into the presence of the Roman emperor.

Abasgia: Kingdom on the north-east shore of the Black Sea, divided into an eastern and a western half, each with its own king.

Ab Epistulis: Official in charge of imperial correspondence, who usually wrote the emperor’s letters.

Abonouteichos: Town in Pontus where the holy man/ charlatan Alexander founded the cult of a serpent-bodied god named Glycon. The town was renamed Ionopolis.

Abritus: Town south of the Danube; in marshes nearby, the Goths defeated and killed the Roman emperor Decius in AD251.

Accensus: Secretary of a Roman governor or official.

Achaea: Roman province of Greece.

Achaemenid: Persian dynasty, empire founded by Cyrus the Great c. 550BC, and ended by Alexander the Great 330BC.

Adyton: Greek, inner sanctuary.

Agora: Greek, marketplace and civic centre.

Ala: Unit of Roman auxiliary cavalry; usually around five hundred-, sometimes a thousand-strong; literally, a wing.

Ala II Gallorum: Roman cavalry unit, originally raised in Gaul, stationed at Trapezus on the Black Sea (modern-day Trabzon in Turkey).

Alamanni: Confederation of German tribes.

Alani: Nomadic people north of the Caucasus.

Alazonios: Alazani river in modern Georgia.

Albania: Kingdom to the south of the Caucasus, bordering the Caspian Sea (not to be confused with modern Albania).

Alontas: River in the Caucasus, the modern Terek.

Amastris: Greek town on Black Sea, modern-day town of Amasra in Turkey.

A Memoria: Official responsible for reminding high-status Romans, and especially the emperor, of the names of the people they meet.

Amicitia: Latin, friendship, might be as much political as emotional; opposite of inamicitia.

Amicus: Latin, friend.

Andreia: Greek, courage; literally, man-ness.

Andron: Room(s) reserved for the men in a traditional Greek house; in practice, the functions of rooms may have changed during the course of the day, i.e. the andron may have been occupied by women during much of the day when the men would be out.

Angles: North German tribe, living in the area of modern Denmark.

Aphrodite of Cnidus: Famous nude sculpture of the goddess of love by Praxiteles.

Aquileia: Town in north-eastern Italy, where the emperor Maximinus Thrax was killed in AD238.

Aragos: River in the Caucasus, the modern Aragvi in Georgia.

Argonautica: Greek epic poem of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts written by Apollonius of Rhodes in the third century BC.

A Rationibus: In the principate, the official in charge of the emperor’s finances; later overshadowed by the Comes Sacrarum Largitionum.

Ares: Greek god of war.

Armata: Latin, ‘the armed one’; in The Caspian Gates, the name of a war ship.

Aromeus: Good but heavy wine from the region of Ephesus, said to induce headaches.

Asiarch: Head priest of the imperial cult in a polis in the province of Asia which had imperial permission to build a temple to the emperors.

Asneis: Gothic, a lowly day labourer.

Assessors: Advisors to a Roman judge.

A Studiis: Official who aided the literary and intellectual studies of the Roman emperor.

Atheling: Anglo-Saxon, prince or lord.

Atrium: Open court in a Roman house.

Autarkeia: Greek, self-sufficiency; concept amenable to vastly different interpretation but vital in all schools of Greek philosophy.

Auxiliary: Roman regular soldier serving in a unit other than a legion.

Autokrator: Greek, sole ruler; used of the Roman emperor.

Bahram fires: Sacred fires of the Zoroastrian religion.

Ballista, plural ballistae: Torsion-powered artillery piece; some shot bolts, others stones.

Ballistarius, plural ballistarii: Roman artilleryman.

Barritus: German war cry; adopted by the Roman army.

Basileus: Greek, king; used of the Roman emperor; could also carry a philosophical connotation as the good opposite of the tyrant.

Bithynia et Pontus: Roman province along the south shore of the Black Sea.

Borani (also Boranoi): German tribe, one of the tribes that made up the confederation of the Goths, notorious for their piratical raids into the Aegean.

Bosphorus: Latin, from the Greek bosporos, literally, ox-ford; the name of several straits, above all those on which Byzantium stood and that in the Crimea. The latter gives its name to the Roman client kingdom of the Bosphorus.

Boule: Council of a Greek city; in the Roman period made up of local men of wealth and influence.

Bouleuterion: Greek, council house, where the Boule met; equivalent to the curia in Latin.

Buccelatum: Army biscuit, hard-tack.

Cadusii: Tribe to the south-west of the Caspian Sea.

Caledonia: Modern Scotland.

Camara, plural camarae: Double-prowed boat local to the Black Sea region.

Campus Martius: Latin, literally, field of Mars; name of famous space in Rome; in general, name for a parade ground.

Campus Serenus: Area of rich farmland north-west of Byzantium.

Capax Imperii: Latin, capable of (governing the) empire; a memorable Tacitean phrase.

Cappadocia: Roman province north of the Euphrates.

Caspian Gates: Name given to the passes through the Caucasus mountains.

Caucasian Gates: Alternative name for the Caspian Gates; sometimes specifically applied to the Dariel (or Daryal) Pass.

Chaldean: Cover-all label given to ‘eastern’ magicians under the Roman empire.

Cilicia: Roman province in the south of Asia Minor, divided into an eastern ‘smooth’ half and a western ‘rough’.

Cinaedus, plural cinaedi: Derogatory Latin term (taken from Greek, kinaidos; Romans liked to pretend that all such habits came from the Greeks) for the passive one in male–male sex.

Classis Pontica: Roman Black Sea fleet.

Clementia: Latin, the virtue of mercy.

Clibanarius, plural clibanarii: heavily armed cavalryman; possibly derived from ‘baking oven’.

Cohors: Unit of Roman soldiers, usually about five-hundred strong.

Cohors Apuleia Civium Romanorum Ysiporto: Unit of auxiliary infantry, originally raised from Roman citizens in Apulia in Italy, now stationed at the fort of Hyssou Limen on the southern shore of the Black Sea.

Cohors II Claudiana: Auxiliary infantry unit stationed at Asparus on the Black Sea.

Cohors III Ulpia Patraeorum Milliaria Equitata Sagittariorum: Double-strength (milliaria) auxiliary unit of bowmen with both cavalry and infantry components, originally raised in Petra, now stationed at Asparus on the Black Sea.

Colchis: Rather vague geographic term for eastern end of Black Sea; often used for land bounded by Iberia to the east and the Black Sea to the west; for Greeks and Romans, the name was heavy with mythic connotations.

Collegium, plural collegia: Latin, literally, colleges; associations, sometimes religious or burial clubs, often formed by the lower classes, always regarded with suspicion by the elite.

Colonia Agrippinensis: Important Roman city on the Rhine; modern Cologne.

Comes Augusti, plural comites Augusti: Companion of Augustus; name given to members of the imperial consilium when the emperor was on campaign or on a journey.

Comes Sacrarum Largitionum: Count of the Sacred Largess; very important official in the late empire, who controlled mints, mines, monetary taxation and the pay and clothing of soldiers and officials.

Comissatio: Drinking that followed the eating at a Roman feast.

Comitatus: Latin, a following; name given to barbarian war bands, and then to the mobile, mainly cavalry forces set up by Gallienus to accompany the emperor.

Conditum: Spiced wine, often taken as an aperitif, sometimes served warm.

Consilium: Council, cabinet of advisors, of a Roman emperor, official or elite private person.

Contubernium: Group of ten (or maybe eight) soldiers who share a tent; by extension, comradeship.

Corrector Totius Orientis: Overseer of all the Orient; a title applied to Odenathus of Palmyra.

Crimean Bosphorus: Client kingdom of Rome based on the Crimea, sometimes simply referred to as the kingdom of the Bosphorus.

Cronus: In myth, the reluctant father of the gods; as each was born, he swallowed them. Thus the expression ‘having the eye of Cronos on you’ meaning that something bad is about to happen.

Croucasis: Scythian name for the Caucasus; said to mean gleaming white with snow.

Cumania: Fort in the Dariel (or Daryal) Pass.

Curia: Latin, senate or council house; in Greek, Bouleuterion.

Cursus Publicus: Imperial Roman posting service whereby those with official passes (diplomata) could send messengers and get remounts.

Custos: Latin, chaperone, literally, a guardian; one would accompany an upper-class woman, in addition to her maids, when she went out in public.

Cyrus river: The modern Kura or Mtkvari river running through Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Dacia: Roman province north of the Danube, in the region around modern Romania.

Daemon: Supernatural being; could be applied to many different types: good/bad, individual/collective, internal/external, and ghosts.

Dareine: Unidentified pass through the Caucasus mentioned by Menander Guardsman (10.5); in this novel applied to the Cross Pass in modern Georgia.

Decennalia: Festival to mark ten years of an emperor’s rule; few were celebrated in the third century AD.

Demos: Greek, the people; also sometimes used to indicate the poor.

Derband Pass: Plain between the Causasus mountains and the Caspian Sea.

Didyma: Sanctuary, with oracle of Apollo, south of Miletus.

Didymeia: Festival held every fourth year at Didyma (every fifth in ancient inclusive counting).

Dignitas: Important Roman concept which covers our idea of dignity but goes much further; famously, Julius Caesar claimed that his dignitas meant more to him than life itself.

Dikaiosyne: Fictional village, ‘justice’, in Greek; roughly on the site of the modern settlement of Kasbeki.

Diogmitai: Constables in Greek cities; commanded by an eirenarch.

Diplomata: Official passes which allowed the bearer access to the cursus publicus.

Domina: Latin, lady or madam; the feminine of dominus.

Dominus: Latin, lord, master, sir; a title of respect.

Draco: Latin, literally, snake or dragon; name given to a windsock-style military standard shaped like a dragon.

Dulths: Gothic festival of the full moon.

Dux: Latin, a high military command, often of a frontier.

Eirenarch: Title of chief of police in many Greek cities, including Ephesus.

Elagabalus: Patron god of the town of Emesa in Syria, a sun god; also name often given (sometimes in the form Heliogabalus) to one of his priests who became the Roman emperor formally known as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (AD 218–22).

Embolos: The Sacred Way, the main street of Ephesus.

Emesa: Town in Syria (modern Homs), where the short-lived emperor Quietus was killed.

Emporion: Greek, trading place; lacking some of the amenities that made a polis.

Ephebes: Young men of a Greek city, the upperclass among them often enrolled in some form of paramilitary organization, to mark them out from the hoi polloi.

Epicureanism: Greek philosophical system whose followers either denied that the gods existed or held that they were far away and did not intervene in the affairs of mankind.

Equestrian: Second rank down in the Roman social pyramid: the elite order just below the senators.

Equites Singulares: Cavalry bodyguards; in Rome, one of the permanent units protecting the emperors; in the provinces, ad hoc units set up by military commanders; at Phasis in Colchis, the name of the permanent cavalry garrison.

Erastes: Greek, the older male lover of a boy (the eromenos).

Eromenos: Greek, a boy too young to grow a beard beloved by a mature erastes; just how far either with decency should go was debatable.

Etruscan: Native of Etruria in Italy, a place with a reputation for magic.

Eumenides: ‘The kindly ones’, a euphemism for the terrible furies from the underworld that pursued and tormented wrongdoers.

Eupatrid: From the Greek, meaning well-born, an aristocrat.

Fairguneis: One of the high gods of the Goths.

Familia: Latin, family, and by extension the entire household, including slaves, freedmen and the rest of an entourage.

Fasces: Bundles of wooden rods tied round a single-bladed axe, carried by lictors, the symbols of power of Roman magistrates.

Fiscus: Imperial treasury.

Framadar: Persian, a military officer or hero.

Franks: Confederation of German tribes.

Frisii: North German tribe.

Frumentarius, plural frumentarii: Military unit based on the Caelian Hill in Rome; the emperors’ secret police; messengers, spies and assassins.

Gates of the Alani: Alternative name for the Caspian Gates; sometimes specifically applied to the Derbend Pass.

Genius: Divine part of man; some ambiguity as to whether it is external (like a guardian angel) or internal (a divine spark); that of the head of a household worshipped as part of household gods, that of the emperor publicly worshipped.

Germania: Lands where the German tribes lived; ‘free’ Germany.

Germania Inferior: More northerly of Rome’s two provinces of Germany; mainly confined to the west bank of the Rhine.

Germania Superior: More southerly of Rome’s two German provinces.

Getae: Tribe in the Balkans.

Gladius: Roman military short sword; generally superseded by the spatha by the mid-third century AD; also slang for penis.

Gorgons: Female monsters in Greek mythology, the most infamous being Medusa. Their terrible appearance, including snakes in their hair, turned men to stone.

Gorytus: Combined bow case and quiver.

Goths: Loose confederation of Germanic tribes.

Graeculus, plural Graeculi: Latin, little Greek; Greeks called themselves Hellenes, but Romans tended not to extend that courtesy but called them Graeci; with casual contempt, Romans often went further, to Graeculi.

Gudja: Gothic priest.

Gyaros: Small Aegean island just off Andros; Roman emperors sentenced men to exile there.

Hansa: Division of Gothic warriors.

Harmozica: Important town in ancient Iberia (modern Baginetti in Georgia).

Hecate: Sinister three-headed underworld goddess of magic, the night, crossroads and doorways.

Hegemon, plural hegemones: Greek, leading man.

Helots: Serf-type underclass in classical Sparta.

Heracles: Latin, Hercules; God who was once a man.

Herbed: Zoroastrian priest, possibly chief priest.

Heroon: Shrine to a hero; at Ephesus to the founder of the city, Androclos.

Heruli: Germanic nomads from north-east of the Black Sea.

Hetaira: Greek, literally, a female companion, girl who provided sex for ‘gifts’; should be skilled at conversation as well, a cut above a common porne (prostitute); often translated as courtesan.

Hibernia: Modern Ireland.

Himation: Greek cloak.

Hippodamian: Name given to a planned street grid; after Hippodamus of Miletus, the famous fifth-century BC town planner.

Hispania Tarraconensis: One of the three provinces into which the Romans divided the Spanish peninsula, the north-east corner.

Homonoia: Greek, harmony; a philosophical concept and a divine personification; in the disputatious world of the principate, often invoked on civic coinage.

Humiliores: Latin, the humble, the lower class; a social expression which transforms in the late empire into a legal group, distinguished from the honestiores (the upper class).

Hydrophor: Priestess of Artemis at Didyma.

Hypochrestes: Aide to the prophetes at Didyma.

Hypozomata: Rope forming the under-girdle of a trireme; there were usually two of them.

Iberia: Kingdom to the south of the Caucasus (the name led some ancient writers to state that its inhabitants had migrated from Spain).

Ides: Thirteenth day of the month in short months, the fifteenth in long months.

Ientaculum: Latin, breakfast.

Imperium: Power to issue orders and exact obedience; official military command.

Imperium Romanum: Power of the Romans, i.e. the Roman empire, often referred to simply as the imperium.

Inamicitia: Latin, hostility, the opposite of amicitia.

Insula: Latin, literally an island; an urban block of dwellings surrounded by roads or paths.

Iustitia: Latin, justice; a virtue ascribed to Roman emperors.

Jormungand: In Norse mythology, the world serpent which lay in the depths of the ocean waiting for Ragnarok.

Kalends: First day of the month.

Kinaidos: See Cinaedus.

Kyria: Greek, lady, mistress; the feminine of kyrios; a title of respect.

Kyrios: Greek, lord, master, sir; a title of respect.

Latrones: Latin, robbers/ bandits.

Legio II Adiutrix Pia Fidelis: ‘The Second Legion, the help-giver, loyal and faithful’ based at Aquincum in Pannonia Inferior.

Legio II Parthica Pia Fidelis Felix Aeterna: ‘The Second Legion, the Parthian, eternally loyal, faithful and fortunate’ based in Rome.

Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix: ‘The Thirtieth Legion, ulpian and victorious’, stationed at Vetera (modern Xanten) in Germania Inferior.

Legion: Unit of heavy infantry, usually about five thousand strong; from mythical times, the backbone of the Roman army; the numbers in a legion and the legions’ dominance in the army declined during the third century AD as more and more detachments (vexillationes), served away from the parent unit and became more or less independent units.

Libitinarii: Funerary Men, the carriers out of the dead; they had to reside beyond the town limits, and to ring a bell when they came into town to perform their duties.

Liburnian: Name given in the time of the Roman empire to a small war ship, possibly rowed on two levels.

Lictors: Ceremonial attendants of a Roman magistrate.

Limes: Latin, frontier.

Loki: In Norse mythology, the trickster, a mischievous, evil god.

Lustrum: Roman religious ceremony of purification, carried out when a new beginning was considered necessary.

Lydia: Kingdom in Asia Minor, conquered by the Persians in 546BC.

Macropogones: Literally, longbeards, a tribe to the north-east of the Black Sea.

Maeotis: Sea of Azov.

Magi: Name given by Greeks and Romans to Persian priests, often thought of as sorcerers.

Maiestas: Latin, majesty; offences against the majesty of the Roman people were treason; a charge of maiestas was a grave fear among the elite of the imperium.

Mandata: Instructions issued by the emperors to their governors and officials.

Manichaeans: The followers of the religious leader Mani (AD216–76).

Mansio: Rest house of the cursus publicus.

Marcomanni: German tribe.

Mardi: Tribe to the south-west of the Caspian Sea.

Massagetae: Nomad tribe to the north-east of Persia; famous, via Herodotus, for defeating Cyrus the Great of Persia.

Mazda (also Ahuramazda): The wise lord, the supreme god of Zoroastrianism.

Mediolanum: Major Roman city in northern Italy; modern Milan.

Miles, plural milites: Latin, soldier.

Milesian: From the town of Miletus in Asia Minor.

Milesian Tales: Greek genre of erotic stories, their most famous author being Aristides.

Mobads: Persian Zoroastrian priests; see magi.

Moesia Inferior: Roman province south of the Danube, running from Moesia Superior in the west to the Black Sea in the east.

Moesia Superior: Roman province to the south of the Danube, bounded by Panonnia Inferior to the north-west and Moesia Inferior to the north-east.

Mos Maiorum: Important Roman concept; traditional customs, the way of the ancestors.

Mouth of the Impious: According to Ps-Plutarch, On Rivers 5, an opening in the ground in Colchis which led to an underground river. Those condemned for impiety were thrown into it and re-emerged, very dead, thirty days later, in Lake Maeotis (the Sea of Azov).

Nasu: Persian, the daemon of death.

Naupegos: Shipwright of a Greek or Roman war ship.

Negotium: Latin, business time, time devoted to the service of the Res Publica; the opposite of otium.

Nemausus: Town in Gaul (modern Nîmes); possibly the birthplace of Castricius.

Nobilis, plural nobiles: Latin, nobleman,; a man from a patrician family or a plebeian family one of whose ancestors had been consul.

Nones: Ninth day of a month before the ides, i.e. the fifth day of a short month, the seventh of a long month.

Noricum: Roman province to the north-east of the Alps.

Novae: Town on south bank of Danube; successfully defended from Gothic attack by the future emperor Gallus in AD250.

Numerus, plural numeri: Latin name given to a Roman army unit, especially to ad hoc units outside the regular army structure; often units raised from semi or non-Romanized peoples which retained their indigenous fighting techniques.

Numerus I Trapezountioon: Unit of locally raised infantry at Trapezus.

Numerus II Trapezountioon: Unit of locally raised infantry at Trapezus.

Numidia: Roman province in North Africa.

Nymphaeum: Fountain house.

Obol: Small-denomination Greek coin.

Optio: Junior officer in the Roman army, ranked below a centurion.

Ornamenta Consularia: The ornaments of a consul; the symbols of consular office often used by Rome as a diplomatic gift to foreigner potentates.

Otium: Latin, leisure time, the opposite of negotium; it was thought important to get the balance right between the two for a civilized life.

Paideia: Culture; Greeks considered that it marked them off from the rest of the world, and the Greek elite considered that it marked them off from the rest of the Greeks; some knowledge of it was considered necessary to be thought a member of the Roman elite.

Palatium: Latin, palace, residence of an emperor.

Pandateria: Small island off the western coast of Italy; Roman emperors favoured it as a destination for those sentenced to exile.

Panonnia Inferior: Roman province south of the Danube, to the east of Panonnia Superior.

Panonnia Superior: Roman province south of the Danube, to the west of Panonnia Inferior.

Paphlagonia: Area of northern Asia Minor.

Paraphylax: Head of the temple guards at Didyma.

Parrhesia: Greek, free speech; vital concept in all Greek philosophical systems.

Pater Patriae: Latin, Father of the Fatherland; a title of the emperors.

Patrician: The highest social status in Rome; originally descendants of those men who sat in the very first meeting of the free senate after the expulsion of the last of the mythical kings of Rome in 509BC; under the principate, emperors awarded other families patrician status.

Patronus: Latin, patron; once a slave had been manumitted and become a freedman, his former owner became his patronus; there were duties and obligations on both sides.

Pax Deorum: Very important Roman concept of the peace between the Roman Res Publica and the gods.

Pentekontarchos: Purser or quartermaster of a ship.

Periplous: Greek, literally, a sailing around, a list of ports and anchorages and landmarks along a coast.

Peroz: Persian, victory.

Phasis: Main river in Colchis.

Philanthropia: Greek, love of mankind; underpinned by philosophy, the concept acted as a powerful influence on the perceptions and actions of the Greek and Roman elites.

Philotimia: Greek, love of honour; a virtue the Greek elite liked to believe they possessed.

Phtheirophagi: literally, ‘lice-eaters’, a tribe to the north-east of the Black Sea.

Physiognomy: The ancient ‘science’ of studying people’s faces, bodies and deportment to discover their character, and thus both their past and future.

Pietas: Latin, piety; the human side of the Pax Deorum.

Pitiax: Title of the heir to the throne of Iberia.

Platonist: Follower of the philosophy of Plato.

Plebs: Technically, all Romans who were not patricians; more usually, the non-elite.

Plebs Urbana: Poor of the city of Rome, in literary compositions usually coupled with an adjective labelling them as dirty, superstitious, lazy, distinguished from the plebs rustica, whose rural lifestyle might make them less morally dubious.

Polis: Greek, a city state; living in one was a key marker in being considered Greek and/ or civilized.

Pontifex Maximus: Chief priest of Rome, a position held by the emperors.

Praefectus: Prefect, a flexible Latin title for many civilian officials and military officers; typically, the commander of an auxiliary unit.

Praetorian Prefect: Commander of the Praetorian Guard, an equestrian.

Prefect of Cavalry: Senior military post introduced in the mid-third century AD.

Prefect of the City: Senior senatorial post in the city of Rome.

Princeps: Latin, first man or leading man; thus a polite way to refer to the emperor (see Principatus), in the plural, principes, it often meant the senators or the great men of the imperium.

Princeps Peregrinorum: Literally, the leader of the foreigners, the commander of the frumentarii, usually a senior centurion.

Principatus: In English, the principate; rule of the Princeps, the rule of the Roman imperium by the emperors.

Prometheus: Divine figure, one of the Titans; variously believed to have created mankind out of clay, tricked the gods into accepting only the bones and fat of sacrifices, and stolen fire – hidden in a fennel stalk – from Olympus for mortals. Zeus chained him to a peak in the Caucasus, where an eagle daily ate his liver. Heracles shot the eagle and freed him.

Pronoia: Greek concept of foresight.

Prophetes: Title of priest who delivers oracular responses of Apollo at Didyma.

Propylon: Greek, portico.

Proskynesis: Greek, literally, kissing towards, adoration; given to the gods and in some periods to some rulers, including emperors in the third century AD. There were two types: full prostration on the ground, or bowing and blowing a kiss with the fingertips.

Protector, plural protectores: a group of military officers singled out by the emperor Gallienus.

Prusa: Town in Asia Minor; birthplace of the celebrated philosopher Dio Chrysostom.

Ptolemies: Macedonian dynasty who ruled Egypt from 323–30BC.

Puer, plural pueri: Latin, boy; interestingly, used by owners to describe male slaves and by soldiers of each other.

Pugio: Roman military dagger; one of the symbols that marked a soldier.

Raetia: Roman province; roughly equivalent to modern Switzerland.

Ragnarok: In Norse paganism, the death of gods and men, the end of time.

Ran: Norse goddess of the sea.

Reiks: Gothic, a chief.

Relegatio: Latin, lesser form of exile under the principate; the victim was banished from Italy and his home province, and was usually allowed to retain his property.

Res Publica: Latin, the Roman Republic; under the emperors continued to mean the Roman empire.

Rhodope Mountains: Mountain range in Thrace; in modern Bulgaria and Greece.

Rugii: German tribe in the far north of Europe.

Sacramentum: Roman military oath, taken extremely seriously.

Sacred Boys: Name for temple slaves at Didyma.

Sarapanis: Fort on the border between ancient Colchis and Iberia.

Sarmatians: Nomadic barbarian peoples living north of the Danube.

Sassanids (sometimes Sasanids, Sasanians, or Sassanians): Persian dynasty that overthrew the Parthians in the 220s AD and were Rome’s great eastern rivals until the seventh century AD.

Scribe to the Demos: The most important annual magistrate in Ephesus.

Scythians: Greek and Latin name for various northern and often nomadic barbarian peoples, vaguely applied, thus the Goths and later the Huns were described as Scythians.

Sebastos: Greek, literally, the reverenced; used as translation of the Roman title Augustus.

Senate: Council of Rome, under the emperors composed of about six hundred men, the vast majority ex-magistrates, with some imperial favourites. The senatorial order was the richest and most prestigious group in the empire, but suspicious emperors were beginning to exclude them from military commands in the mid-third century AD.

Serdica: Roman town; modern Sofia.

Shieldburg: Northern shieldwall or phalanx.

Silentarius: Roman official who, as his title indicates, was to keep silence and decorum at the imperial court.

Silphium: Spice from Cyrene in North Africa much prized in the classical world; after it became extinct, a substitute was imported from Asia.

Sirmium: Roman town in Panonnia Inferior, modern Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia.

Skalks: Gothic, slave.

Spatha: Long Roman sword; the usual type of sword carried by all troops by the mid-third century AD.

Spoletium: Ancient town in northern Italy where in AD253 the short-lived emperor Aemilianus was killed, bringing Valerian and Gallienus to the throne, modern-day Spoleto.

Stationarii: Roman soldiers on detached duty from their main units.

Stephanephoros: Greek, literally, crown-wearer; title of magistrate in some Greek cities.

Stoic: Follower 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.

Stola: Roman matron’s gown.

Strategos: Greek, general.

Strobilos: Local name for peak in Caucasus where Prometheus was chained; possibly Mount Kazbek.

Suania: Kingdom in the high Caucasus; included the modern district of Georgia called Svaneti.

Synedrion: Greek, council; in Suania, a body of three hundred who advise the king.

Tamias: Treasurer of Didyma.

Tanais River: The Don.

Tauromenium: Town in Sicily (modern Taormina), where Ballista and Julia own a villa.

Teiws: God worshipped by the Goths.

Telones: Greek, customs official.

Tervingi: One of the tribes that made up the loose confederation known as the Goths.

Testudo: Latin, literally, tortoise, by analogy both a Roman infantry formation with overlapping shields, similar to a northern shieldburg, and a mobile shed protecting a siege engine.

Thalamians: Lowest of the three levels of rowers on a trireme.

Thalia: Greek, abundance or good fortune; in The Caspian Gates, the name of a fishing boat.

Thranites: Highest of three levels of rowers on a trireme; the elite oarsmen of the vessel.

Titans: Generation of gods defeated by the Olympians.

Toga: Voluminous garment, reserved for Roman male citizens, worn on formal occasions.

Toga Virilis: Garment given to mark a Roman’s coming of age, usually at about fourteen.

Trapezus: Ancient town on the southern shore of the Black Sea, modern Trabzon in Turkey.

Trierarch: Commander of a trireme; in the Roman military, equivalent in rank to a centurion.

Trireme: Ancient war ship, a galley rowed by about two hundred men on three levels.

Tzour: Town in ancient Albania on the coast of the Caspian Sea, possibly modern Derbend in Dagestan, Russia.

Valhalla: In Norse paganism, the hall in which selected heroes who had fallen in battle would feast until Ragnarok.

Vexillatio: Sub-unit of Roman troops detached from its parent unit.

Vexillatio Fasiana: Unit of infantry stationed at Phasis.

Vexillium: Roman military standard.

Vicus: Latin, settlement outside a fort.

Vir Clarissimus: Title of a Roman senator.

Vir Egregius: Knight of Rome, a man of the equestrian order.

Vir Ementissimus: Highest rank an equestrian could attain; e.g. Praetorian Prefect.

Vir Perfectissimus: Equestrian rank above Vir Egregius but below Vir Ementissimus.

Virtus: Latin, courage, manliness, virtue; far stronger and more active than English ‘virtue’.

Woden: High god of the Angles and other northern peoples.

Zygians: Middle of three levels of rowers on a trireme.





List of Roman Emperors of the time of The Caspian Gates





AD193–211 Septimius Severus

AD198–217 Caracalla

AD210–11 Geta

AD217–18 Macrinus

AD218–22 Elagabalus

AD222–35 Alexander Severus

AD235–8 Maximinus Thrax

AD238 Gordian I

AD238 Gordian II

AD238 Pupienus

AD238 Balbinus

AD238–44 Gordian III

AD244–9 Philip the Arab

AD249–51 Decius

AD251–3 Trebonianus Gallus

AD253 Aemilianus

AD253–60 Valerian

AD253– Gallienus

A 260–61 Macrianus

AD260–61 Quietus

AD260– Postumus





List of Characters



To avoid giving away any of the plot, characters usually are only described as first encountered in The Caspian Gates.


Achilleus: Iulius Achilleus, Gallienus’s a Memoria.

Aeetes: Mythical king of Colchis, father of Medea.

Aelius Aelianus: Prefect of Legio II Adiutrix.

Aelius Restutus: Governor of province of Noricum.

Aemilianus (1): Marcus Aemilius Aemilianus, briefly Roman emperor AD253.

Aemilianus (2): Senatorial governor of Hispania Tarraconensis; organized defection of Spain to Postumus; made ‘Gallic consul’ for AD262.

Aemilianus (3): Mussius Aemilianus, prefect of Egypt, joined Macriani in AD260, then declared himself emperor in AD261.

Agathon: Slave purchased by Ballista in Priene.

Alexander the Great: 356–23BC, son of Philip, king of Macedon, conqueror of Achaemenid Persia.

Alexander Severus: Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander, Roman emperor AD222–35.

Alexander of Abonouteichos: Second century AD holy man, or religious charlatan, ridiculed by the satirist Lucian.

Alexandra: Hydrophor (virgin priestess) of Artemis at Didyma; daughter of Selandros.

Amantius: Eunuch in the service of the Roman emperor, a native of Abasgia.

Androclos: Mythic founder of Ephesus.

Antigonus: One of Ballista’s Equites Singulares, who died at Arete.

Anthia: Maid of Julia’s.

Apollonius of Rhodes: Third century BC writer, author of the Argonautica.

Apollonius of Tyana: A philosopher/wonder-worker of the first century AD.

Ardashir I: Sassanid king, father of Shapur.

Ariarathes V: Second century BC king of Cappadocia.

Aristides: Author of non-extant erotic work called the Milesian Tales.

Aristodicus: Wise man of Cyme, whose story is in Herodotus.

Aristomachus: Byzantine teacher of rhetoric, whom Hippothous claims to have killed.

Arrian: Lucius Flavius Arrianus, Greek author and Roman consul, c. AD86–160. Several of his works survive, including the Anabasis of Alexander, the Expedition against the Alani, and the Periplus Ponti Euxini.

Arsinoe: Younger sister of Cleopatra of Egypt, murdered in 41BC in Ephesus, where her tomb was on the Embolos.

Athenaeus: Member of the Boule of Byzantium.

Attalus: King of the Marcomanni, father of Pippa.

Attalus II: Second century BC king of Pergamum.

Augustus: First Roman emperor, 31BC–AD14.

Aulus Valerius Festus: Christian, brother of the Ephesian asiarch Gaius Valerius Festus.

Aureolus: Manius Acilius Aureolus, once a Getan shepherd from near the Danube, now Gallienus’s Prefect of Cavalry, one of the protectores.

Azo: Third son of King Polemo of Suania.

Bagoas: ‘The Persian boy’, at one time a slave owned by Ballista; now a Zoroastrian mobad called Hormizd.

Ballista: Marcus Clodius Ballista, originally named Dernhelm, son of Isangrim the Dux (war-leader) of the Angles. A diplomatic hostage in the Roman empire, he has been granted Roman citizenship and equestrian status, having served in the Roman army in Africa, in the far west, and on the Danube and Euphrates. Having defeated the Sassanid Persians at the battles of Circesium, Soli and Sebaste and killed the pretender Quietus, he was briefly acclaimed Roman emperor in the city of Emesa the year before this novel starts.

Bathshiba: Daughter of the late Iarhai, a synodiarch (caravan protector) of Arete, now married to Haddudad.

Bauto: Young Frisian slave purchased by Ballista in Ephesus.

Bonitus: Roman siege engineer; one of the protectores.

Bruteddius Niger: Trierarch of the Armata.

Calgacus: Marcus Clodius Calgacus, a Caledonian ex-slave, originally owned by Isangrim and sent by him to serve as a body servant to his son Ballista in the Roman empire; manumitted by the latter, now a freedman with Roman citizenship.

Caligula: Gaius Julius Caligula, Roman emperor AD37–41. As a child, nicknamed ‘Little Boots’/ Caligula, because his father the general Germanicus had him dressed in miniature soldier’s uniform.

Camsisoleus: Egyptian officer of Gallienus; brother of Theodotus; one of the protectores.

Castricius: Gaius Aurelius Castricius, Roman army officer risen from the ranks, Prefect of Cavalry under both Quietus and Ballista, thought to be originally from Nemausus in Gaul.

Celer: Roman siege engineer, one of the protectores.

Celsus: Pretender to the throne from Africa, killed in AD260.

Censorinus: Lucius Calpurnius Piso Censorinus. Princeps Peregrinorum under Valerian and the pretenders Macrianus and Quietus; now serving as deputy Praetorian Prefect under Gallienus.

Chrysogonus: Greek who has gone over to the Goths.

Claudius (1): Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus, Roman emperor AD37–54.

Claudius (2): Marcus Aurelius Claudius, a Danubian officer of Gallienus, one of the protectores.

Claudius Natalianus: Governor of the province of Moesia Inferior.

Cleisthenes: Well-bred youth of Tauromenium in Sicily, whom Hippothous claims to have loved.

Clementius Silvius: Titus Clementius Silvius, governor of both the provinces of Panonnia, Superior and Inferior.

Cleodamus: Member of the Boule of Byzantium.

Constans: Body-servant to Ballista.

Cornelius Octavianus: Marcus Cornelius Octavianus, governor of Mauretania and Dux of the Libyan frontier.

Corvus: Marcus Aurelius Corvus, the eirenarch (police chief) of Ephesus.

Cosis: King of Georgian Albania.

Croesus: The last king of Lydia, c. 560–46BC; proverbial for his wealth.

Cyrus: Cyrus the Great, king of Persia c. 557–30BC, founder of the Achaemenid dynasty.

Decianus: Governor of Numidia in Africa.

Demetrius: Marcus Clodius Demetrius, ‘the Greek boy’, a slave purchased by Julia to serve as her husband Ballista’s secretary; manumitted by the latter, now a freedman with Roman citizenship living in the household of the emperor Gallienus.

Demosthenes: 384–22BC, Athenian orator.

Dernhelm (1): Original name of Ballista.

Dernhelm (2): Lucius Clodius Dernhelm, second son of Ballista and Julia.

Dio of Prusa: Dio Chrysostom, the ‘Golden-mouthed’; a Greek philosopher of the first to second centuries AD.

Dio of Syracuse: c. 408–353BC, soldier, statesman and Platonist; returned from exile to free his own city from tyranny.

Diogenes: The cynic philosopher, c. 412/ 403–c.324/ 321BC.

Domitian: Titus Flavius Domitian, Roman emperor AD81–96.

Domitianus: Italian officer of Gallienus, one of the protectores; claims descent from the emperor Domitian.

Epicurus: Greek philosopher, 341–270BC, founder of Epicurean philosophy.

Euripides: Fifth century BC Athenian tragic playwright.

Eusebius: Eunuch in the service of the Roman emperor, a native of Abasgia.

Faraxen: A native rebel in Africa against Rome, rumoured still to be alive.

Favorinus: First to second century AD Greek philosopher, from Arelate in Gaul, born a eunuch.

Felix: Spurius Aemilius Felix, an elderly senator; defended Byzantium from the Goths in AD257.

Flavius Damianus: Member of the Boule of Ephesus, descendant of a famous sophist of the same name.

Freki the Alamann: German bodyguard of Gallienus.

Gaius Valerius Festus: Member of the Boule of Ephesus; asiarch (high-priest) of the imperial cult in that city.

Galen: AD129–?199/216, famous Greek doctor, court physician to Marcus Aurelius.

Galliena: Female cousin of Gallienus.

Gallienus: Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus, declared joint Roman emperor by his father the emperor Valerian in AD253, sole emperor after the capture of his father by the Persians in AD260.

Gallus: Gaius Vibius Trebonianus Gallus, a successful general on the Danube. He defended Novae from the Goths in AD250; emperor AD251–3.

Genialis: Simplicinius Genialis, acting governor of Raetia, defected to Postumus in AD260.

Gondofarr: Sassanid commander.

Haddudad: Mercenary captain who served Iarhai, Bathshiba’s father; now an officer in the service of Odenathus of Palmyra.

Hadrian: Publius Aelius Hadrianus, Roman emperor AD117–38.

Hamazasp: King of Georgian Iberia.

Hermianus: Caecilus Hermianus, ab Admissionibus of Gallienus.

Herodotus: ‘The father of history’; fifth century BC Greek historian of the Persian wars.

Hippothous: Claims to be from Perinthus originally; joined Ballista as accensus in Rough Cilicia.

Hormizd: Zoroastrian mobad; once when a slave of Ballista called Bagoas.

Hyperanthes: Ephebe of Perinthus, the great love of Hippothous; lost at sea off Lesbos.

Iarhai: A caravan protector who was killed in the fall of Arete; father of Bathshiba.

Ingenuous: One-time governor of Pannonia Superior and one of Gallienus’s protectores; rebelled and was killed in AD260.

Isangrim (1): Dux (war-leader) of the Angles, father of Dernhelm/ Ballista.

Isangrim (2): Marcus Clodius Isangrim, first son of Ballista and Julia.

Jason: Leader of the Argonauts.

Juba: Titus Destricius Juba, senatorial governor of Britannia Superior; organized defection of Britain to Postumus; made ‘Gallic consul’ for AD262.

Julia: Daughter of the senator Gaius Julius Volcatius Gallicanus; wife of Ballista.

Kirder the mobad: Zoroastrian high-priest (herbed), of Shapur.

Kobrias: Suanian warrior.

Licinius: Gallienus’s brother.

Longinus: Cassius Longinus, c. AD213–73, a philosopher; at the time of this novel teaching in Athens.

Lucius Verus: Roman emperor AD161–9.

Macarius: Marcus Aurelius Macarius, stephanephor (leading magistrate) and asiarch (imperial priest) of Miletus.

Macrianus (1): Marcus Fulvius Macrianus (‘the Elder’); Comes Sacrarum Largitionum et Praefectus Annonae of Valerian; behind the proclamation of his sons as emperors in AD260; killed with his eldest son in AD261.

Macrianus (2): Titus Fulvius Junius Macrianus (‘the Younger’); son of Macrianus (1); acclaimed emperor with his brother Quietus in AD260, killed in AD261.

Mamurra: Ballista’s Praefectus Fabrum and friend; entombed in a siege tunnel at Arete.

Manzik: Zoroastrian mobad.

Marcus Aurelius: Roman emperor AD161–80; author of philosophical reflections in Greek To Himself (often known as The Meditations).

Marinianus: Third son of Gallienus.

Marius: Gaius Marius, c. 157–87BC, Roman general who returned from exile to briefly take over the city.

Mastabates: Eunuch in the service of the Roman emperor, a native of Abasgia.

Maximillianus: Governor of the province of Asia.

Maximinus Thrax: Gaius Iulius Verus Maximinus, Roman emperor AD235–8, known as ‘Thrax’ (the Thracian’) because of his lowly origins.

Maximus: Marcus Clodius Maximus, bodyguard to Ballista; originally a Hibernian warrior known as Muirtagh of the Long Road, sold to slave traders and trained as a boxer then gladiator before being purchased by Ballista, now a freedman.

Medea: Daughter of Aeetes, Colchian princess and sorceress, lover of Jason who helps him win the Golden Fleece.

Melissus: Fisherman from a village in the territory of Amastris.

Memor: African officer of Gallienus; one of the protectores.

Mithridates: Eldest son of King Polemo of Suania.

Musonius: Gaius Musonius Rufus, first century AD Stoic philosopher, ‘the Roman Socrates’. Like Socrates, Musonius left no writings; the works preserved in his name claim to be a record of his teaching written up by one of his pupils.

Narcissus: Slave purchased by Hippothous in Ephesus.

Narseh: Prince Narseh, a son of Shapur, King of Persia; commanding a Sassanid army on the south-west shores of the Caspian Sea.

Nero: Nero Claudius Caesar, Roman emperor AD54–68.

Nicomachus: Stoic philosopher.

Nikeso: Wife of Corvus.

Nummius Ceionius Albinus: Senator, prefect of the city of Rome.

Nummius Faustinianus: Senator, consul ordinarius with Gallienus AD262.

Odenathus: Septimius Odenathus, Lord of Palmyra/ Tadmor, known as the Lion of the Sun; appointed by Gallienus as corrector over the eastern provinces of the Roman empire.

Oroezes (1): Pitiax (heir to the throne) of Georgian Iberia, younger brother of King Hamazasp.

Oroezes (2): Suanian warrior, brother of Kobrias.

Pactyes: Lydian rebel against the Achaemenid Persians.

Palfurius Sura: Ab Epistulis of Gallienus.

Pallas: Servant of Mastabates’.

Patavinus: Roman auxiliary soldier, standard bearer to Ballista at Miletus and Didyma.

Petronius: First century AD author of the Latin novel The Satyricon (better Latin would be Satyrica); usually identified with Petronius Arbiter, the sometime friend of Nero.

Philip of Macedon: 382–36BC, father of Alexander the Great.

Philip V: 238–179BC, king of Macedonia; of the Antigonid dynasty.

Pippa (or Pipa): Daughter of Attalus of the Marcomanni; wife/ concubine of Gallienus, who called her Pippara.

Piso: Gaius Calpurnius Piso Frugi, senator and nobilis, one-time supporter of Macrianus; killed in a bid for the throne in AD260.

Plato: Athenian philosopher, c. 429–347BC.

Plotinus: Neoplatonist philosopher, AD205–69/ 70.

Polemo: King Polemo of Suania.

Polemon: Marcus Antonius Polemon, c. AD88–144, famous sophist and physiognomist.

Polybius: Slave purchased by Ballista in Priene.

Pompey the Great: Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, 106–48BC; Roman general.

Postumus: Marcus Cassianus Latinius Postumus, once governor of Lower Germany; from AD262 Roman emperor of the breakaway ‘Gallic empire’; killer of Gallienus’s son Saloninus.

Pythagoras: Sixth century BC philosopher.

Pythonissa: Only daughter of King Polemo of Suania; a priestess of Hecate.

Quietus: Titus Fulvius Iunius Quietus, son of Macrianus the Elder, proclaimed Roman emperor with his brother Macrianus the Younger in AD260, and killed by Ballista in AD261, the year before this novel starts.

Quirinius: Aurelius Quirinius, Gallienus’s a Rationibus.

Rebecca: Jewish slave woman bought by Ballista.

Regalianus: One-time governor of Pannonia Inferior, who claimed descent from the kings of Dacia before the Roman conquest; rebelled and was killed in AD260.

Respa: Son of Gunteric, brother of Tharuaro; Gothic warrior of the Tervingi.

Rhesmagus: King of the western Abasgi.

Romulus: Standard bearer to Ballista; died outside Arete.

Roxanne: Concubine of Shapur, captured by Ballista at Soli.

Rufinus: Gallienus’s Princeps Peregrinorum, spymaster, commander of the frumentarii.

Rutilianus: Publius Mummius Sisenna Rutilianus, ex-consul ridiculed by the satirist Lucian for being taken in by Alexander of Abonouteichos.

Rutilus: Marcus Aurelius Rutilus, Roman army officer, Praetorian Prefect under both Quietus and Ballista.

Salonina: Empress Egnatia Salonina, wife of Gallienus.

Saloninus: Publius Cornelius Licinius Saloninus Valerianus, second son of Gallienus, made Caesar in AD258 on the death of his elder brother, Valerian II; executed by Postumus in AD260.

Sasan: Founder of the Sassanid royal house of Persia.

Saurmag: Fourth son of King Polemo of Suania.

Selandros: Prophetes of Apollo at Didyma; of the ancient Milesian Euangelidai clan.

Septimius Severus: Lucius Septimius Severus, Roman emperor AD193–211.

Shapur I (or Sapor) : Second Sassanid King of Kings, son of Ardashir I.

Simon: Young Jewish boy rescued from a cave in Arbela in Judea by Ballista.

Spadagas: King of the eastern Abasgi.

Strabo: Greek author of a universal history and a geography (the latter is extant), c. 64BC–c. AD23; the most important Greek writer whose work survives from the Augustan age.

Successianus: Roman officer who defended the town of Pityus from the Goths; later Praetorian Prefect to Valerian, with whom he was captured by the Sassanids in AD260.

Suren: Parthian nobleman, the head of the house of Suren, vassal of Shapur.

Tacitus (1): Cornelius Tacitus, c. AD56–c. 118, the greatest Latin historian.

Tacitus (2): Marcus Claudius Tacitus, Roman senator of the third century AD (most likely) of Danubian origins; one of the protectores; may have claimed kinship with or even descent from the famous historian, but it is unlikely to be true.

Tarchon: Suanian saved from drowning by Ballista and Calgacus.

Tatianus: Marcus Aurelius Tatianus, Stephanephoros (leading magistrate) of Priene.

Thales of Miletus: One of the ‘Seven Sages’ of antiquity.

Tharuaro: Son of Gunteric, brother of Respa, leader of the Tervingi longboats in the Gothic fleet in the Aegean.

Theodotus: Egyptian officer of Gallienus; brother of Camsisoleus; one of the protectores.

Thucydides: Athenian historian, c. 460–400BC.

Tir-mihr: A Sassanid general.

Trajan: Marcus Ulpius Traianus, Roman emperor AD98–117.

Tzathius: Second son of King Polemo of Suania.

Valash: Prince Valash, ‘the joy of Shapur’, a son of Shapur; rescued from violent death by Ballista in Cilicia.

Valens: Pretender to the throne, killed in AD260.

Valentinus: Governor of the province of Moesia Superior.

Valerian (1): Publius Licinius Valerianus, an elderly Italian senator elevated to Roman emperor in AD253; captured by Shapur I in AD260.

Valerian (2): Publius Cornelius Licinius Valerianus, eldest son of Gallienus, grandson of Valerian; made Caesar in AD256; died in AD258.

Vardan: Sassanid captain serving under the Lord Suren.

Vedius Antoninus: Publius Vedius Antoninus, a member of the Boule and the scribe to the demos at Ephesus.

Velenus: King of the Cadusii.

Vellius Macrinus: Senator; governor of the province of Bithynia et Pontus.

Venerianus: Celer Venerianus, Italian officer of Gallienus; one of the protectores.

Veteranus: Marcus Aurelius Veteranus, governor of Dacia.

Volusianus: Lucius Petronius Taurus Volusianus, Gallienus’s Praetorian Prefect, risen from the ranks, consul in AD261; one of the protectores.

Wulfstan: Young Angle slave purchased by Ballista in Ephesus.

Xenophon: Athenian soldier and writer of the fifth to fourth centuries BC.

Zeno: Aulus Voconius Zeno, a Roman equestrian, once governor of Cilicia, now a Studiis to Gallienus.

Zober: High-priest of Georgian Albania, uncle of King Cosis.

Ztathius: Warrior and noble of Georgian Iberia.