So how could I shrink the grain supply, and strangle the rest of the fleet? One possibility was to have the other ships seconded to the military. It seems that such large capacity merchantmen as were used for grain were also used for troop transport when needed, for they could certainly carry a higher number of men than busy triremes. Triremes were already full of oarsmen and clutter, while merchant ships were almost entirely sail-based and had a huge amount of room. Sadly, thanks to Commodus’ reign being a remarkably peaceful one in military terms, I couldn’t really have that happen. Moreover, the only real event over these years for the military was the revolt of Maternus in Gaul, which would not have had much effect on ships. And weather and sea conditions could always be hard, but then they usually were anyway, so that was not going to make a lot of difference. That left only one obvious direction: pirates.
If I could have pirates threaten and disrupt the rest of the grain fleet, that would create the stranglehold I was looking for. Common wisdom has piracy all but extinct for most of the Roman empire after Pompey’s suppression of the Cilician pirates in the 60s B.C. The next real rise is not until late antiquity, when the Roman fleets had largely disintegrated. Between times there was a brief surge of piracy in the mid-1st century on the Judean coast, sporadic trouble with Black Sea pirates in those regions, and ongoing raids by the Chauci up in Germany and Britain. Not much use to me. My saviour was Philip de Souza, who’s books on piracy are unsurpassed. In his Piracy in the Ancient World, I latched on to ‘It has been suggested that piracy became a more serious problem in the early third century A.D. […] evidence of a rise in the level of piratical activity in the Mediterranean, indicated by extraordinary measures undertaken by the Roman authorities to suppress it. An inscription from Rhodes, dated to the Severan period, perhaps around A.D. 220, honours Aelius Alexander, who was charged with suppressing piracy at this time.’ This extract, along with another from the same text: ‘A Classis nova Libyca, apparently founded in the reign of Commodus, might be interpreted as a response to the recently perceived threat of piracy in this area, but this can only be speculation,’ suggest a possible rise in piracy in the eastern end of the Med between perhaps 180 and 220. Furthermore, in Starr’s ‘Roman Imperial Navy 31 B.C. - A.D. 324’ he refers to the attacks on Hispania Baetica in the mid to late Second century by the Mauri, and suggests that they being ‘addicted to piracy’ was the reason for the creation of the fleet based there at Cherchell. So now I had an implication of piracy in the western Med, as well as the east. It might be tenuous, but it was what I needed.
The fact that all Rufinus’ efforts fail to have the desired effect and that in the end it is nature that causes the disaster is, to me, nicely ironic. And it is typical of Rufinus’ luck, too.
Incidentally, the fragments I included about the fleet’s grain supply from southern Gaul came purely from reading a timely article on the Roman mills at Barbegal, which are now believed to have been only active for part of the year, indicating that they were only in use during times the fleet was active. Having just learned this as I planned the book, it was too interesting to leave out.
I am driven to add a note here about the level of research that goes into some of the detail of books like this. It might pass the reader by that an author spends probably as much time as they do on writing looking up things like whether the Romans had a goddess of locks. He’s called Portunus by the way. And on investigating him, I discovered that there was a goddess of hinges, who made it into the book for fun. Some of the research goes on really minor details, yet ones that I like to try and get right. Moments like that lead to an hour of going back and forth on Google Street View in western Rome, trying to get a handle on where the Aqua Traiana would be visible above ground and where not. It’s a tiny detail, but now I will smile whenever I read that passage back. Similarly, Rufinus’ dream where he and Philip are handling the velarium awning at the Colosseum led to a little investigation into how many ropes would be required. An examination of the amphitheatre’s top in detail reveals that each of the eighty arches around the outer arcade sports three corbels which supported the posts to hold the awning ropes. Therefore two hundred and forty ropes. This is the sort of thing I go to sleep at night worrying over…
As a last note, Senova was a little limited in her role by necessity. This could not be her story, though she played an important part for a short time. And Rufinus’ faithful hound simply had to stay out of things. After all, how could a man play clandestine roles with such an obvious giveaway as a giant black hound following them around.
Rufinus will be back in Fires of Tarterus, and rest assured that now he no longer has to hide and that Severus has his back, Senova and Acheron will be with him. After all, think of what awaits in the final years of Commodus reign and the chaos that follows.
And on a light note, for those of you who remember my Facebook challenge for the year (https://www.facebook.com/SJATurney/posts/1538235489593275), feel free to reference that post and look for your words in this book. If some were in Latin look for their English translation as this is a novel, not ‘Wheelock’s Latin’. Some though were subject to floccinaucinihilipilification and were left out of the text, which is of course Stupendibus.
Simon Turney, December 2018
If you liked this book, why not try other series by S.J.A. Turney
Interregnum (Tales of the Empire 1)
(2009) *
For twenty years civil war has torn the Empire apart; the Imperial line extinguished as the mad Emperor Quintus burned in his palace, betrayed by his greatest general. Against a background of war, decay, poverty and violence, men who once served in the proud Imperial army now fight as mercenaries, hiring themselves to the greediest lords.
On a hopeless battlefield that same general, now a mercenary captain tortured by the events of his past, stumbles across hope in the form of a young man begging for help. Kiva is forced to face more than his dark past as he struggles to put his life and the very Empire back together. The last scion of the Imperial line will change Kiva forever.
Marius’ Mules I: The Invasion of Gaul
(2009) *
It is 58 BC and the mighty Tenth Legion, camped in Northern Italy, prepare for the arrival of the most notorious general in Roman history: Julius Caesar.
Marcus Falerius Fronto, commander of the Tenth is a career soldier and long-time companion of Caesar's. Despite his desire for the simplicity of the military life, he cannot help but be drawn into intrigue and politics as Caesar engineers a motive to invade the lands of Gaul.
Fronto is about to discover that politics can be as dangerous as battle, that old enemies can be trusted more than new friends, and that standing close to such a shining figure as Caesar, even the most ethical of men risk being burned.
The Thief’s Tale (Ottoman Cycle 1)
(2013) *
Istanbul, 1481. The once great city of Constantine that now forms the heart of the Ottoman empire is a strange mix of Christian, Turk and Jew. Despite the benevolent reign of the Sultan Bayezid II, the conquest is still a recent memory, and emotions run high among the inhabitants, with danger never far beneath the surface.
Skiouros and Lykaion, the sons of a Greek country farmer, are conscripted into the ranks of the famous Janissary guards and taken to Istanbul where they will play a pivotal, if unsung, role in the history of the new regime. As Skiouros escapes into the Greek quarter and vanishes among its streets to survive on his wits alone, Lykaion remains with the slave chain to fulfill his destiny and become an Islamic convert and a guard of the Imperial palace. Brothers they remain, though standing to either side of an unimaginable divide.
On a fateful day in late autumn 1490, Skiouros picks the wrong pocket and begins to unravel a plot that reaches to the very highest peaks of Imperial power. He and his brother are about to be left with the most difficult decision faced by a conquered Greek: whether the rule of the Ottoman Sultan is worth saving.
* Sequels in all series also available
Lions of Rome Page 43
