By Alison Morton
The word trap
“No dozens here, legate!” No, the concept of dozen didn’t exist for the Romans, and was something I’d forgotten. EXSILIUM was at copy-edit stage, but just in time I realised to my horror I’d used ‘dozen’ and ‘half-dozen’ in several places to describe small groups and even worse, in dialogue. Luckily, there were only half a dozen(!) rampant dozens to track down and extirpate.
For writers of Roman historical fiction, the other difficulty is that while hours were defined – prima hora, secunda hora – Romans didn’t use minutes or seconds. Cue heartbeats, breaths, glancing, picking things up and throwing things on the ground, etc. for those short, tense gaps.
Although we can scatter a few words here and there, we can’t write the whole novel in the language of the historic period and setting of our book if we want it to be accessible to 21st century readers. However, we can try and keep anachronistic bloopers such as ‘dozen’ and ‘minute’ to a minimum.
Nothing so inevitable as the passing of time
Since my first encounter with an immaculate mosaic in Ampurias, a former Greek and Roman trading port in northeast Spain, I’ve been mesmerised by Ancient Rome. I’m fairly familiar with its history, especially in the west where it lasted 1,229 years. However, as I do with all my novels, when writing EXSILIUM I checked on many individual things I thought I knew. Sometimes you do remember correctly, other times the memory is a little fuzzy.
By AD 395 ¬when EXSILIUM is set, everything in Ancient Rome had moved on since the time of Augustus and Hadrian, from armour and military organisation to clothes and dining arrangements. This period even has a different name – Late Antiquity.
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| Photo of the approach to Pola today with the Roman amphitheatre centre left. |
Something unexpected was the frequency with which Roman towns changed their names over the years. Name changes depended on the emperor, his pet project, his aim to obliterate his predecessor’s existence or as a reward. For instance, Pula in Istria, Croatia, was a major port and the administrative centre of Histria from ancient Roman times until 1991.
Known to the Greeks as Polai, the "city of refuge” and enjoying the prestige status of a Roman colonia for a long time, it was destroyed in 42 BC by Octavian, who became Rome’s first emperor as Augustus, for taking the wrong side in the civil war. (Never a good idea!) Rebuilt at the request of Octavian's daughter Iulia, it was then called Colonia Pietas Iulia Pola Pollentia Herculanea, short form Pietas Iulia. Two hundred years later during the reign of emperor Septimius Severus (AD 193-211), the name of the town was changed again, this time to Res Publica Polensis. By the time of JULIA PRIMA and EXSILIUM, that’s its formal name, but I bet the locals simply referred to it as Pola.
The time-trip
Although a great deal of the architecture of Ancient Rome is in ruins, a surprising amount has endured. Amphitheatres, aqueducts, bridges, roads, walls, sometimes even whole buildings have survived two thousand years; the Romans were indeed talented civil engineers. There’s nothing like standing on a Roman road incised with the ruts of hundreds of thousands of wheels or walking through the Forum Romanum, perhaps gazing up at the Aurelian walls in Rome or staring at breathtaking arches of the Pont du Gard aqueduct in southern France, then closing your eyes and letting your mind wander. You have to clear away the modern cars, people and roads and let your knowledge supplement your imagination. It’s easier in more remote parts away from the built environment such as in the spaces between the barracks at Carleon in Wales (Isca). You see the same countryside, smell the same weather, look at the same sky that those legionaries experienced.
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| The Roman barracks at Caerleon. |
If you can’t take a field trip, then there’s Google Maps. It’s astounding how clearly Roman roads and town remains show up from the landscape using the satellite view.
Consulting a specialist
I’d researched a fair bit about horse trekking and riding in the 4th century when I was researching for JULIA PRIMA and knew about the ‘no stirrups’ rule and horned saddles. But I don’t ride and I confess I’m rather nervous around horses. So I consulted an expert, Helen Hollick, who not only writes excellent historical novels but also rides and breeds horses. She gave me some guidance and suggestions about how it feels to sit on a horse while travelling and how often to stop to rest, water and feed your animals. Fellow Roman fiction writers Ruth Downie gave me some sound advice about travel and recommended the comprehensive Travel in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson and Gordon Doherty sent me a wonderful reading list for the 4th century.
In over thirteen years of writing novels, I’ve appreciated very much the help from others and tried to give back by advising on foreign languages and general history. Researching and writing is not a solo game!
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