Apion. An Alexandrian scholar who wrote a commentary on Homer, he would later become famous for writing an anti-Jewish tract that was replied to by Josephus in his Against Apion.
Caesarion. Caesarion, whose full name was Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar, was born to Cleopatra VII in 47 BCE. According to Plutarch, he was rumored to have been executed by Octavian after the fall of Alexandria in 30 BCE, though his exact fate is strikingly unknown. While later Roman writers questioned his paternity, there is little reason to refute the claim made by Cleopatra that he was the son of Julius Caesar.
Carisius. Roman coinage identifies Publius Carisius (Cassius Dio calls him Titus Carisius) as the general most responsible for putting down first the Cantabri and later the Astures tribes of Hispania.
Cleomedes. Very little is known of Cleomedes, a Stoic Greek astronomer active at some point between the middle of the first century BCE and the fourth century AD. His elementary astronomy textbook On the Circular Motions of the Celestial Bodies is widely regarded as poorly written and full of errors, yet it is also important for preserving the otherwise lost works of the earlier astronomers Posidonius of Rhodes and Eratosthenes.
Cleopatra Selene. Daughter of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII, twin sister of Alexander Helios, she was likely born in the year 40 BCE. After the fall of Alexandria in 30 BCE she was placed under the guardianship of Octavia, the sister of Octavian, before being married to Juba II sometime between 25 and 20 BCE.
Cleopatra VII. The last pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty, Cleopatra VII ruled Egypt from 51 BCE until her suicide at the age of thirty-nine after the fall of Alexandria in 30 BCE. As pharaoh she had an affair with Julius Caesar, to whom she bore his only known son, Caesarion. After Caesar’s assassination in 44 BCE, Cleopatra took the side of Mark Antony in the civil war against Octavian and eventually bore him three children: Ptolemy Philadelphus and the twins Cleopatra Selene and Alexander Helios.
Corocotta. According to Cassius Dio, Corocotta was the leader of a guerrilla campaign against the Romans in Cantabria who personally accepted from Caesar the award that had been established for his capture. Little more is known about him.
Delius. One of Mark Antony’s leading generals, he defected to the side of Octavian just prior to the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, reportedly bringing with him Antony’s plans for the fight.
Didymus Chalcenterus. Born around 63 BCE, he wrote an astounding number of books in his lifetime on a wide variety of subjects, though he is now primarily known as an editor and grammarian of Homer. One of the chief librarians of the Great Library in Alexandria, his name Chalcenterus means “bronze guts,” supposedly a statement about his indefatigability as a scholar.
Galbus. Unknown to history.
Isidora. Unknown to history.
Juba I. King of Numidia, he allied himself against Julius Caesar in the Great Roman Civil War. After being defeated by Caesar’s forces at the battle of Thapsus in 46 BCE, he fled the field with the Roman general Marcus Petreius. Trapped, they took their own lives by duel, with the survivor being aided in his suicide by a waiting slave.
Juba II. Probably born in 48 BCE, he was left an orphan by the suicide of his father in 46. Adopted by Julius Caesar, the man who’d caused his father’s death, Juba was raised as a Roman citizen and ultimately joined his adopted stepbrother Octavian in the war against Mark Antony and Cleopatra. He was restored to the throne of Numidia after the fall of Alexandria in 30 BCE, and around the year 25 BCE he was married to Cleopatra Selene. Some time later he was given the throne of Mauretania. Juba was a lifelong scholar who wrote several books before he died in AD 23.
Julius Caesar. Born in 100 BCE to a noble Roman family of comparatively little significance, Julius Caesar achieved a position of unparalleled power within the Roman state and thereby laid the stage for the end of the Republic under his adopted son Octavian. A well-regarded orator and savvy politician, Caesar rose to prominence first as a military leader in the field, whose reputation won him election, in 63 BCE, as the religious leader of the Roman Republic. Returning to the military sphere in subsequent years, his extraordinary abilities were proved in successful campaigns in Hispania, Gaul, and Britain. His power and popular appeal eventually led to the Great Roman Civil War when he crossed the Rubicon with an armed legion in 49 BCE. Victorious in the civil war, Caesar voyaged to Alexandria, where a civil war had broken out between Cleopatra VII and her brother-husband Ptolemy XIII. Caesar supported Cleopatra, defeating Ptolemy and making her sole pharaoh of Egypt, and she, in turn, became Caesar’s lover, bearing him his only known biological son: Caesarion. Returning to Rome, Caesar took solitary control of the state as a popularly supported dictator, effectively ending the Roman Republic. From this position of authority he instituted significant reforms to the Roman calendar, the workings of its government, and the architecture of its capital. Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE by a group of at least sixty Roman senators, who reportedly stabbed him twenty-three times before he died. His popularity among the common people at the time of his death was so great that two years after the assassination he was officially deified. Though his murder had been intended to restore the Roman Republic to order, it served only to set off another series of civil wars. These conflicts culminated in the struggle between his adopted son Octavian, to whom Caesar had bequeathed the whole of his state and his powerful name, and his popular former general Mark Antony, who had taken residence in Alexandria with Caesar’s former lover, Cleopatra VII.
Kemse. Unknown to history.
Khenti. Unknown to history.
Laenas. Unknown to history.
Lucius Vorenus. Along with Titus Pullo, Vorenus is mentioned only once in the existing record: in Julius Caesar’s Commentary on the Gallic Wars, where their inspiring actions in battle are reported. His birth and death dates are unknown.
Madhukar. Unknown to history.
Manu. Unknown to history.
Marcus Petreius. A Roman general, he allied himself against Julius Caesar in the Great Roman Civil War. After being defeated by Caesar’s forces at the battle of Thapsus in 46 BCE, he fled the field with Juba I, king of Numidia. Trapped, they took their own lives by duel, with the survivor being aided in his suicide by a waiting slave.
Mark Antony. A Roman politician, he was Julius Caesar’s good friend and perhaps his finest general. In the years following Caesar’s assassination, Antony struggled with Octavian for control of the Roman Republic, though an uneasy peace was reached in 41 BCE when Antony married Octavian’s sister. The following year he had an affair with Cleopatra VII, resulting in the births of the twins Cleopatra Selene and Alexander Helios, and soon he was making his home with her in Alexandria, where she gave birth to another son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, in 36 BCE. Open war broke out between Antony and Octavian in 32 BCE, with their two great armies facing off at the battle of Actium one year later. Defeated, Antony returned with Cleopatra to Alexandria, where he committed suicide after the fall of the city.
Octavian. Born in 63 BCE, he was adopted by his great-uncle Julius Caesar just prior to his assassination in 44. Though he originally joined forces with Mark Antony to rule the Republic, their ambitions would not allow the peace to last, and the war between them tore the Roman world in two. His eventual defeat of Antony made him sole ruler of Rome, giving him the power to remake the Republic into the Roman Empire. Known most popularly as Augustus Caesar, the name he adopted in 27 BCE, he is rightly regarded along with his adopted father as one of the most influential men in history.
Petosiris. Unknown to history.
Ptolemy Philadelphus. Born in 36 BCE, he was the youngest son of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII. He disappears from the record after the fall of Alexandria in 30, his fate unknown.
Quintus. Unknown to history.
Seker. Unknown to history.
Syllaeus. One of the chief ministers to King Obodas II of Nabataea, Syllaeus volunteered to guide Egyptian prefect Aelius Gallus and his Roman legions to the spice-rich lands of A
rabia Felix. He instead led them to death and despair in the desert, returning to Petra a hero. In 9 BCE Obodas died, and Syllaeus was soon accused of his murder. King Aretas IV put him in chains and sent him to Rome, where he was declared guilty and flung headfirst to his death from the Tarpeian Rock.
Syphax. Unknown to history, though it is reasonably certain in the records that an unnamed slave aided in the suicides of Juba I and Marcus Petreius.
Thrasyllus. An Egyptian scholar, Thrasyllus of Mendes became famous as the personal astrologer of Tiberius Caesar. A trusted servant and friend to the emperor, it is said that he saved the lives of many in Rome by promising Tiberius a longer life than he ultimately led.
Tiberius. Born in 42 BCE, Tiberius Claudius Nero became the stepson to Octavian, the future Augustus Caesar, when his mother was forced to divorce his father and marry the powerful adopted son of Julius Caesar. In time he became a strong field general, and he rose quickly through the ranks to the position of heir apparent to Augustus Caesar. He was unhappy, however, and for unknown reasons he retired to Rhodes in 6 BCE, only returning to Rome in AD 2—after much begging from Caesar. When Augustus died in 14, Tiberius was declared his sole heir and would rule—a reportedly depressed and dark figure—as Caesar until his own death in 37.
Titus Pullo. Along with Lucius Vorenus, Pullo is mentioned only once in the existing record: in Julius Caesar’s Commentary on the Gallic Wars, where their inspiring actions in battle are reported. His birth and death dates are unknown.
Varro. Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman scholar of great renown.
TOR BOOKS BY MICHAEL LIVINGSTON
The Shards of Heaven
The Gates of Hell
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MICHAEL LIVINGSTON holds degrees in history, medieval studies, and English. He is an associate professor of English at the Citadel, specializing in the Middle Ages. His short fiction has been published in Black Gate, Shimmer, Paradox, and Nature.
Visit him online at www.michaellivingston.com, or sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Preface
Families of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra VII
Maps
Epigraph
Prologue: The Dark of the Moon
PART I: THE REACH OF ROME
1. First Light
2. Signs of Life
3. The Palladium of Troy
4. Alexander’s City
5. The Cantabrian War
6. The Astrologer’s Plan
7. Tiberius
8. Signs of Death
9. Claiming the Reward
10. Blood on the Water
PART II: THE SPEAR OF DESTINY
11. The Power Within
12. The Battle of Vellica
13. The Island in the Nile
14. The Outlaw King
15. The Peace of Rome
16. The Way of the Teacher
17. The Moon Takes Flight
18. Unquenchable Fires
19. What Lies Beyond
20. Growing in Darkness
PART III: THE GATES OF HELL
21. The Astrologer’s Ally
22. The Temple of the Ark
23. The Rising of the Moon
24. Fire on the Water
25. The Wheel Turns
26. The Citadel of Carthage
27. Life for Life
28. The Gate Opened
29. The Bitter End
30. The Gate Closed
Epilogue: The Light of the Sun
Glossary of Characters
Tor Books by Michael Livingston
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE GATES OF HELL
Copyright © 2016 by Michael Livingston
All rights reserved.
Cover photograph by Larry Rostant
Cover design by Peter Lutjen
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
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Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-7653-8033-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-7332-2 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781466873322
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First Edition: November 2016
The Gates of Hell Page 32
