The Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane – Review

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The Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane

Publisher: Arrow
Publication date: January 2011 (Paperback)

Print length 672 pages
Also available in Hardback, Kindle e-book and audiobook formats.

www.forgottenlegion.co.uk

Review:

Firstly I must declare a conflict of interest in this review – Ben is both a fellow veterinary surgeon, and a relatively near neighbour, making it fairly weird that we both like writing about Ancient Rome as well. So – objective review to follow:

The Forgotten Legion tells the story of four people living towards the end of the Roman Republic: Romulus and Fabiola, twins and slaves, born as a result of the rape of their mother by a noble; Tarquinius, the Etruscan soothsayer; Brennus, the Gallic gladiator. Romulus and Fabiola are sold, Romulus as a gladiator, Fabiola as a prostitute, and Romulus finds in Brennus a protector and friend. When they are forced to escape, they team up with Brennus and join the legions. Unfortunately, the legion they join is not commanded by the brilliant Caesar, or even the competent Pompey, but the glory-hunting Crassus, jealous of his fellow triumvirs success. Crassus takes his legions to fight the Parthians, with disastrous consequences well known to history.
Ben’s characters are vivid and believable, the plot, while a little slow moving in the first quarter of the book, zips along nicely to a breathtaking climax, and the gladiatorial and military fights are suitably bloody and exciting. Where Ben excels though is in the level of detail that allows the reader to feel the sense of being among the lowest elements of Roman society – the slaves and gladiators and prostitutes that history largely ignored.
The book was inspired by legends of Roman mercenaries fighting in China, remnants of the legions that were captured by the Parthians at the battle of Carrhae. While the historical authenticity of that legend is questioned, it is a great premise for a story, with plenty to be explored in the remaining two books in the series. The tale continues with the friends in the captivity of the Parthians in “The Silver Eagle”, and will culminate in the “Road to Rome,” on the fateful Ides of March.

Alex Gough November 2012

Marius Mules I: The Invasion of Gaul, by SJA Turney – Review

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Marius’ Mules I: The Invasion of Gaul by SJA Turney

Publisher: YouWriteOn
Publication date: November 2010

Print length 436 pages
Kindle Edition

Review:

The first in SJA Turney’s series chronicling Caesar’s Gallic Wars, begins as you might expect with the invasion of Gaul. Marius’ Mules were the legionaries of Caesar’s armies, named after the general and consul Marius who first reorganised the Roman army into a professional fighting force. Caesar was able to benefit from the changes wrought by Marius and his rival Sulla, who changed the outlook of the Legions from loyalty to the Republic above all, to loyalty to their general above all, a situation that ultimately led to the the demise of the Republic.
Marius’ Mules I: The Invasion of Gaul brings the campaign to life in a way that Caesar’s dry de Bello Gallico never did. The main character Marcus Falerius Fronto is the fictional commander of the Tenth legion, and while I am of the school that prefers historical accuracy over author’s licence, Fronto is a strong character, who pulls the reader nicely into the story.
Caesar himself is presented intriguingly, coming across as a complete person, full of flaws and virtues rather than the demi-god or alternatively complete tyrant that some authors present him as.
Battles and action abound, with a good sprinkling of heroes, villains, politics and intrigue. Don’t be put off that this book wasn’t picked up by a mainstream publisher, it should have been! Recommended!.

Alex Gough November 2012

Twitter flash fiction

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Some flash fiction I composed for twitter last night, mostly teasers for the forthcoming novel, Carbo. 140 characters or less – if you have a literary bent but only 2 minutes to write in, give it a try. Feel free to add your efforts here under comments, ideally Roman themed.

Elissa watched the moloch burn. The Lord and Lady would have their true sacrifice soon, and Carthage would be avenged.

“The Emperor asked me, what is the most painful method of self-castration,” said the soldier. “What do you say to that?”

Vespillo dragged the coughing child from the burning insula. Her mother screamed in relief. “And they call us Little Bucket Boys.”

Carbo looked into her eyes, wanting to kiss her, and felt conflicted. Was she a slave, or a real person?

Simultaneous novel reading

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Before e-books, I always made a point to finish a novel before starting the next. Rarely I would abandon a book half read, but generally pride made me finish them all, and I was often rewarded with a satisfying ending to an otherwise slow moving book. Now, in this digital age, and a bit of a gadget geek, I have a New IPad, a Samsung Galaxy SII, and ipod touch, all of which have a Kindle app, and now I have bought an actual Kindle. Further, I use my car journey to work to listen to audiobooks. This now means I have several books on the go at once, read/listened to in different environments. So I have recently worked my way through the outstanding Richard North Patterson books on audiobooks, and am in the middle of Conn Iggulden’s Conqueror series in the same format. I have read all of Harry Sidebottom’s Warrior of Rome Series on my Ipad, after which I started SJA Turney’s first Marius’ Mules book on the ipad, and have just transferred this to the kindle. I’m reading Petronius’ Satryicon on the ipod touch. I have decided I will read all 10 books of Steven Erikson’s immense series, the Malazan Book of the Fallen, which must amount to nearly 5million words (10 volumes each of around 1000 pages each!), purely on my phone – I am currently halfway through book four, House of Chains. But what of paperbacks you cry? 3/4 way through Ben Kane’s Forgotten Legion – review to come here soon, and am also enjoying sharing Caroline Lawrence’s children’s Roman fiction books with Roman Fiction minor at bedtime.
So what are the pros and cons of simultaneous novel reading. The cons are that it takes a lot more time to finish an individual book. But I feel the pros outweigh this. I have a huge backlog of books I want to read, and am discovering more all the time. Time in a busy life to sit down with a paperback is limited. But time in the car listening to the adventures of Ballista is time much better spent that listening to an inane DJ or an ill-informed caller on Five Live. Time standing outside a shoe shop waiting for the other half, Romana Fictiona, or while waiting for Roman Fiction Minor’s swimming lessons to finish can be spent reading on the phone. Overall, I get through a lot more reading than in the days of paperbacks alone. Do I get confused, holding so many narratives in my head at once? No more so than watching ongoing series on TV – I can cope with watching the Sopranos on DVD, Homeland on TV and House on SkyPlus without wondering when Tony Soprano is going to cure the Al Qaeda double agent’s obscure illness. I did have a moment this morning though, as Caesar began his campaigns in Gaul in Marius’ Mules

Travelling in Ancient Rome

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As we all know, the Roman Empire was huge. But getting to A from B didn’t just depend on distance. There were huge environmental constraints, such as rivers, seas and mountain ranges. The clever guys at Stanford have produced a website: ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World which “reconstructs the time cost and financial expense associated with a wide range of different types of travel in antiquity” 751 locations have been modelled, and 14 types of transport, including foot, porter, ox cart, army on the march and horse relay). The website allows you to plug in location, time of year, mode of transport and destination. So travelling from Roma to Londinium in January by ox cart would take 79 days and cost 1711 denarii per passenger!
What a great resource!

The Poisoned Honeycake by Caroline Lawrence

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The Poisoned Honeycake by Caroline Lawrence


For Ages 7 to 9
Review by Roman Fiction Minor (aged 7)
Published July 2012
Orion Children’s Books
Paperback 96 pages

The Poisoned Honeycake is a book about a boy called Threptus, who is a poor boy. The man who looks after him is a fortune teller called Floridius. Floridius loses his powers. Threptus has to go back down in the sewers to spy on people. Then he ate a mad honeycake, but it belonged to the God of voices, and he took his voice away.
I think the book was teaching you all about Roman life. I think it is a good book to read and you will enjoy it. It was exciting and I hope Caroline Lawrence will write some more books the same.

Review – Roma by Steven Saylor

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Review – Roma by Steven Saylor

Roma is a true epic, charting the rise of the Roman republic from its legendary and prehistoric beginnings around 1000BC to the demise of Anthony and Cleopatra and the rise of the first Emperor, Augustus. The sequel, Empire, continues the story to the reign of Hadrian.
For those who have read the works of Edward Rutherfurd, who has written a similar style of book charting the histories of cities such as London, Dublin and New York, the concept of Roma will be familiar. Others have compared the style to James Michener. Saylor writes what are effectively a number of short stories which taken together chart the history of the city of Rome. Successive generations of two families, the Potitii and the Pinarii experience some of Rome’s defining moments.
One of the first stories involves the monster Cacus and his defeat by Hercules. Saylor imagines the original historical story as it might have happened, before the myths that grew around it. Other famous stories included are the rape of Lucretia, the story of Coriolanus, the first sack of Rome, the second Punic war, the Gracchi and the assassination of Caesar.
As always Saylor’s research is impressive, and reading the book is a genuinely educational experience. The concept will not appeal to everyone – if you are looking for an exciting story that you can read from beginning to end and won’t want to put down, then this probably isn’t the book for you. However, if you want to feel that you have been swept along in the tide of history, feel that you have grown with the little settlement that became the centre of one of the world’s greatest empires, then you could do much worse.

Review – Praetorian by Simon Scarrow

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Praetorian by Simon Scarrow

Publisher: Headline

Publication date: November 2011

 

Hardcover 368 pages

Also available as paperback, Kindle e-book and audio download

 

Review:

Book 11 in Simon Scarrow’s Roman Legion series, Praetorian continues the adventures of army veterans Macro and Cato. While Cato has grown up a lot over the series, he remains the intellectual and the idealist, while Macro continues to be a grumpy realist. In this episode, set in Rome in AD 50, the duo are manipulated by Narcissus into going undercover in the Praetorians to root out a conspiracy, a role they are don’t feel trained for. Starting again as mere legionaries, albeit in the prestigious Praetorians is a strange feeling after a long time in command, but they soon get their teeth into a plot that threatens to starve Rome, and topple the Emperor.

It never takes me long to finish off one of Scarrow’s book, partly because of “unputdownability,” and partly because the writing style is very easy to read. A light sprinkling of humour, together with puzzles and action make his books highly entertaining, and this book doesn’t disappoint, with no sign of the series running out of steam.

As characters such as Britannicus, Nero and Tigellinus are introduced, I wonder if Scarrow plans on extending the series into Nero’s reign, or even, with Vitellius making another appearance, into the year of the Four Emperors, which would be a thrilling time for  Macro and Cato to be involved with. I fear though that Macro would be pretty ancient in terms of continuing active service 19 years from the time this book is set though.

I will review some of the earlier books in this series in due course. This isn’t necessarily the best place to start reading the series. However, the very first book, while a good starting point, isn’t my favourite. If you don’t intend to read all 11 books, but want to jump into the series a bit earlier, consider reading The Gladiator, or a bit earlier, The Eagle’s Prophecy.

Alex Gough July 2012

 

 

Graffiti from Pompeii (parental advisory)

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The Romans were a fairly earthy lot, so please don’t read on if you are easily offended…

A selection of graffiti to be found on the walls of Pompeian buildings: 

Fortunatus you sweet little darling you great fornicator, someone who knows you writes this.

Figulus loves Idaia

G. Julius Promogenius was here on time, what’s keeping you?

Jarinus had a girl here with Athetus

You’ve had eight jobs; now it only remains for you to double the list and make it sixteen. You’ve been a pub-waiter, you’ve made pottery, you’ve dealt in salted fish, you’ve done bakery, you’ve been a farmer, you’ve made small bronze oddments, you’ve been a street-hawker, now you make little flasks. If only you’ll hire yourself out to the ladies, you’ll have fun the whole gamut.

The petty thieves ask you to elect Vatia as city magistrate

Macerio and those who sleep a lot ask you to elect Vatia as city magistrate

All the late drinkers ask you to elect Marcus Cerrinius Vatia as city magistrate

Secundus says hello to his Prima, wherever she is. I ask, my mistress, that you love me.

Weep, you girls.  My penis has given you up.  Now it penetrates men’s behinds.  Goodbye, wondrous femininity!

The one who buggers a fire burns his penis

Chie, I hope your hemorrhoids rub together so much that they hurt worse than when they ever have before!

Floronius, privileged soldier of the 7th legion, was here.  The women did not know of his presence.  Only six women came to know, too few for such a stallion.

Antiochus hung out here with his girlfriend Cithera.

On April 19th, I made bread

I admire you wall, for not having collapsed at having to carry the tedious scribblings of so many writers

References:

Basement Geographer

Butterworth & Lawrence (2005) Pompeii, the living city. Orion Books Ltd, London

Graffiti from Pompeii

Lindsay. J. (1961) Ribaldry of Rome. Paul Eleck Ltd London

McKeown, J., (2010) A Cabinet of Roman Curiosities. OUP

Quick guide to Roman Authors

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Quick guide to Roman fiction authors:

A list of the major authors of Roman fiction, past and present (plus one aspiring one, see if you can spot which one that is!). This list is a work in progress – I will update with titles, a summary of subgenre and writing style (for those I have read) and even some links. Watch this space…

William Altimari

 

Nick Brown

 

Peter Darman

 

Lindsey Davies

Author of the Falco mysteries, set in Vespasian’s Rome.  Gentle humour combines with vivid detail of life in the lower echelons of Roman society.

Paul Doherty

 

Richard Foreman

 

R S Gompertz

 

Goscinny and Uderzo

Rene Goscinny and Alberto Uderzo created the famous Asterix children’s cartoons, and wrote them together until Goscinny’s death in 1977, after which Uderzo continued the series. Set in a Gaulish village that resisted Julius Caesar’s Gallic conquests by virtue of the strength imbuded by a magic potion brewed by the village’s druid, Asterix and his friend Obelix (who has permanent strength because he fell in the cauldron of magic potion when he was a baby) undergo various adventures throughout the Roman Empire during the last days of the public. Littered with historical facts, Latin phrases and modern references, the adventures of Asterix and Obelix remain a delight to any adult with a childish sense of humour interested in Ancient Rome. A comfort read that I would return to again and again throughout much of my childhood and adult life, I am delighted to be reading the stories with my daughter now.

Alex Gough

 The owner of this website (and a veterinary surgeon). My first published novel, Five Emperors, set at the end of Nero’s reign and the civil war of AD 69, was published as an e-book in 2001 by Romance Foretold Inc, on floppy disc, in an era before the kindle and ipad. It was then released as a paperback by print on demand, shortly before the company went bust. It is now available on Smashwords, but I am considering republishing on Amazon. More important to me currently is my work in progress, not currently titled, about Carbo, a veteran of the Roman legions. Set in Tiberius’ Rome, the first book in what I hope will be a series finds Carbo  involved with an escaped slave, the vigiles, a Carthaginian priestess and a plot that threatens Rome itself.

Robert Graves

Scholar, poet and author of two books often considered to be among the top 100 English language books ever written: I, Claudius, and its sequel Claudius the God. Although Graves professed to dislike the books and wrote them only for financial need, they became bestsellers from their publication in the 1930s, and were adapted into a highly successful BBC TV series. Graves also produced a well-regarded translation of Suetonius’ Twelve Caesars.

Robert Harris

Author of Pompeii, a story set prior to and during the eruption of Vesuvius, and two books on Cicero’s life, Imperium and Lustrum (Conspirata in the USA and Italy) with a third scheduled for release in 2012. Scholarly but gripping, the works are well worth a read. 

Conn Iggulden

 

Douglas Jackson

 

Ben Kane

 One of three veterinary surgeons in this list writing Roman fiction. Ben Kane is author of the Forgotten Legion trilogy, set at the time of Crassus’ disastrous military campaign against the Parthians. He is also author of Hannibal, Enemy of Rome and Spartacus, the Gladiator. I am currently reading the Forgotten Legion – so watch this blog for more comment!

Caroline Lawrence

 

Ross Leckie

Lord Lytton

Oldest Roman fiction author in this list, his book the Last Days of Pompeii was a bestseller in the 19th century.

 

James Mace

 

Allan Massie

Author of Augustus, Tiberius and Caesar, fictionalised diaries of the three rulers. Written with insight and thoughtfulness, these books help to bring the reader closer to what the historical characters may have really been like.

Antoinette May

 

Colleen McCullough

Author of the Masters of Rome series, a lengthy, fantastically detailed and meticulously historically accurate account of the fall of the Roman Republic, from the early days of Marius and Sulla to the death of Caesar. Highly recommended for anyone with a genuine love of the history of these times. Readers looking for a quick thrill or an easy read might find the material too dense.

Sophie McDougall

 

Kate Quinn

 

Anthony Riches

Author of the Empire series, centred around the fugitive, Marcus Valerius Aquila, who flees the tyranny of Commodus Rome to a posting on Hadrian’s Wall. Genuinely exciting and well written military fiction.

Steven Saylor

Author of the Roma sub Rosa series, a detective series set in Republican Rome, featuring Gordianus the Finder. Also author of the books Roma and Empire which follow the fortunes of a family from the foundations of Rome through to Imperial times.

Simon Scarrow

Author of the Eagle series, involving legionaries and firm friends, Cato and Macro and their military adventures, often working for Narcissus, secretary of Claudius. Easy to read, exciting and humorous, these books are a great place to start reading Roman military adventures.

Manda Scott

The third vet in this list, and author of the Boudicca trilogy, as well as Rome: The Emperor’s Spy, Rome:The Coming of the King, and the Eagle of the Twelfth. Currently on my soon to be read list – watch this space. 

Harry Sidebottom

 Author of the Warrior of Rome Series, set in the later Imperial period, and centred around the Roman military leader of Germanic origin, Ballista. When asked to sum up the series in ten words, the author came up with, “Ballista, Warrior of Rome, Hard Action, High Scholarship, Low humour.”

John Stack

Author of the Masters of the Sea series, Ship of Rome, Captain of Rome and Master of Rome, gripping military adventures set in the first Punic War.

Rosemary Sutcliffe

Author of the Eagle of the Ninth series, centred around the famous disappearance of the IXth legion in Scotland. Aimed at teenagers, the stories can be enjoyed by adults, and inspired the film The Eagle. 

SJA Turney

Author of the Marius’ Mules series.

Henry Venmore-Rowland

 

Thornton Wilder

 Author of the classic work, the Ides of March,  a series of letters written by Caesar in the lead up to his assassination. A commentary on Mussoloni, in the authors words it is: ‘a fantasia on certain events and persons of the last days of the Roman republic… Historical reconstruction is not among the primary aims of this work’