King of Kings

by Unknown

Something very hard and heavy hit Ballista on the side of the head. A surge of pain. The earth rushing up. A dull collision. The grains of sand unnaturally clear and large close to his eyes. Darkness.

  Epilogue (Spring AD260)

  The five thousand or so Romans left on the hill held out for over twenty-four hours. During the night, some tried to break out. Many were killed. Most were herded back to the barren hillside. A small band escaped from the valley. They were pursued north by hordes of Sassanid cavalry. The rest lay down their arms.

  The day after the surrender, the prisoners were ordered south. Those incapable of walking were summarily executed. The Persians arranged their prisoners in a parody of a Roman triumph. The imperial attendants were rounded up. The lictors were mounted on camels; their fasces were hung with money bags and some of the more inventive pornography found in the officers’ possession. The emperor rode behind them. Publius Licinius Valerian, Pius, Felix, Invictus was mounted on a donkey. He was dressed as a slave, a crown of thorns on his head. His ab Admissionibus Cledonius walked beside him, saying in his ear, ‘Remember: you are but mortal.’ The remaining soldiers followed their emperor. Loaded with chains, their officers stumbled at their head.

  Ballista’s ankles were raw and bleeding from his shackles before they left the camp. He trudged across the sand. His boots had been taken. The thorns tore his feet. His mind wandered. He hoped his familia – Calgacus, Maximus and Demetrius – had escaped. The Allfather willing, they might be safe in Samosata by now. And what of Quietus? Would that repulsive youth also be there? Ballista repeated to himself the vow he had made in Ephesus, the vow he had made again on the barren hillside the other day: One day, maybe not soon, but one day, I will kill you.

  Ballista’s brief moment of optimism, founded on unlikely plans for revenge, was snuffed out by a much darker thought: Julia and the boys far away in Antioch. The idea of never seeing them again. Not to watch Isangrim and Dernhelm grow. Not to discover what sort of men they would become. No! It could not be. Allfather, Death-Blinder, Deep Hood, Fulfiller of Desire, Woden-born as I am, hear my prayer: I will give whatever is necessary, do whatever it takes, but let me return to them – return to them whatever the cost.

  A stumble and a shock of pain in his ankles brought Ballista back to the present. He and the other prisoners trudged on across the burnt, bare floor of the valley

  As they neared the southern hills, Ballista saw the solitary pike planted stark against the skyline. Halfway up was nailed a man’s right arm. It wore an ornate golden bracelet. Impaled on its point was a man’s head. Ballista was glad it had been a quick death. No boiling oil. Decapitation. He stopped to take a last look at his friend’s face. The quizzical expression had gone. Turpio’s face had a look of mild recognition, the look often seen on the dead which can so disturb those left behind to grieve.

  A spear point jabbed into Ballista’s back. He stumbled on. One of Turpio’s favourite poems came into his mind.

  Don’t cry

  Over the happy dead

  But weep for those who dread

  To die.

  Appendix

  Historical Afterword

  Third-century History

  In addition to the works named in the first novel in this series, Fire in the East, B. Dignas and E. Winter, Rome and Persia in Late Antiquity: Neighbours and Rivals (Cambridge, 2007) contains a useful selection of sources in translation with informative analysis.

  People

  Ballista

  What little we half know of Ballista (or Callistus, as he is sometimes named) will feature in the third novel in this series, Lion of the Sun.

  Macrianus and his sons

  Sources for and discussion of these men will appear in Lion of the Sun.

  Places

  Antioch

  G. Downey, A History of Antioch in Syria from Seleucus to the Arab Conquest (Princeton, 1961), is an almost inexhaustible mine of information and inspiration. Although focused on a later period than that of this novel, J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, Antioch: City and Imperial Administration in the Later Roman Empire (Oxford, 1972) is also extremely useful. The essays and wonderful pictures in the exhibition catalogue Antioch: The Lost Ancient City, edited by C. Kondoleon (Princeton, 2000), are powerfully evocative. The one ancient text that tells us most about this city is Oration XI, In Praise of Antioch, by the fourth-century AD orator Libanius (translated by G. Downey in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 103.5 [1959], 652–686).

  Hierapolis

  The holy city of Hierapolis in Syria and the cult of Artargatis practised there are best known from the strange work On the Syrian Goddess by the second-century AD Greek writer Lucian. This should be read with the superb scholarly study by J. L. Lightfoot, Lucian, On the Syrian Goddess, Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (Oxford, 2003).

  Ephesus

  If you can find a copy, the best place to begin to find out about the history and archaeology of Ephesus is P. Scherrer (ed.), Ephesus: the New Guide (Turkey, Eng. tr. 2000 revised from German edition, Wien, 1995). A collection of articles summarizing recent scholarly findings and interpretations can be found in H. Koester (ed.), Ephesos: Metropolis of Asia (Cambridge, Mass., 1995).

  Ballista’s thoughts in Chapter 17 on the Library of Celsus and its surroundings take as their starting point R. R. R. Smith, ‘Cultural Choice and Political Identity in Honorific Portrait Statues in the Greek East in the Second Century AD’, Journal of Roman Studies 88 (1998), 56–93 (esp. pp.73–5).

  The stories of Apollonius in Ephesus are drawn from the third-century AD historical novel The Life of Apollonius of Tyana by Philostratus (edition and facing English translation in two volumes in the Loeb series by F. C. Conybeare [Cambridge, Mass., 1969]; there is a more recent Loeb version [again in two volumes] by C. P. Jones [Cambridge, Mass., 2005], but see the critical review by G. Boter, and J. J. Flintermann, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2005.09.62).

  Edessa

  The first port of call when finding out about this city is J. B. Segal, Edessa: ‘The Blessed City’ (Oxford, 1970). Now it is supplemented, and its findings occasionally questioned by S. K. Ross, Roman Edessa: Politics and Culture on the Eastern Fringes of the Roman Empire, 114–242CE (London and New York, 2001).

  The bizarre Edessan views of ethnography discussed by Turpio, Maximus and Ballista in Chapter 28 are taken from the near-contemporary work The Book of the Laws of the Countries (or Dialogue on Fate) by Bardaisan of Edessa, translated by H. J. W. Drijvers (Assen, 1964).

  Things

  Chariot Racing

  The standard modern work is J. H. Humphrey, Roman Circuses: Arenas for Chariot Racing (London, 1986). Many scholarly and popular misconceptions were dispelled by A. Cameron, Circus Factions (Oxford, 1976). A short popular introduction can be found in H. A. Harris, Sport in Greece and Rome (London, 1972), chapters 10–12 (pp.184–226).

  The day at the races in Chapter 3 draws heavily on Ovid, Amores 3.2 and Sidonius Apollinaris 23. 307–427.

  Ancient Warfare

  Possibly unsurprisingly, I think the best way into this subject is H. Sidebottom, Ancient Warfare: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2004).

  The Battle of Circesium and the Army of Ballista

  As The Cambridge Ancient History puts it, ‘there may have been some sort of Roman victory near Circesium’ ( J. Drinkwater in vol. XII, edited by A. K. Bowman, P. Garnsey and A. Cameron, Cambridge, 2005, p. 42).

  The army commanded by Ballista is based on one given to Aurelian in a piece of ancient fiction: Historia Augusta, Aurelian, 11.3–4.

  Ballista’s order of march and battle plan is inspired by that of the crusaders at the battle of Arsouf as related by Sir Charles Oman, A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages, Volume One: 378–1278AD (London, 1924), 305–318.

  The Persecution of Christians

  In addition to the works named in Fire in the East, G. Clark, Christianity and Roman Society (Cambridge, 2004) is an excellent thematic int
roduction. Specifically on persecution, G. E. M. de Ste Croix, ‘Why were the early Christians persecuted?’, Past and Present 26 (1963), 6–38 (reprinted in M. I. Finley (ed.), Studies in Ancient Society (London, and Boston, 1974), 210–249), and T. D. Barnes, Tertullian: A Historical and Literary Study (Oxford, 1971), Chapters 11 and 12 (‘Persecution’ and ‘Martyrdom’, pp.143–186) are classics of modern scholarship.

  The history of persecution is as Valerian explains it in Chapter 13 of this novel – with the exception of Nero, it is a response of the authorities to pressure from the pagan majority until the mid-third century AD when first Decius then Valerian institute empire-wide persecutions (i.e. a ‘bottom-up’ model is joined by a ‘top-down’ one). Eusebius, writing his History of the Church (a work I have tried for years to convince undergraduates is both readable and fascinating) in the fourth century AD and blinded by the Christian belief that Christians had only been persecuted under bad emperors, was straightforwardly wrong in crediting attacks on Christians before Decius to imperial initiative.

  For the details of martyrdoms I have drawn widely, and taken dialogue, from the accounts collected by H. Musurillo, The Acts of the Christian Martyrs: Introduction, Texts, and Translations (Oxford, 1972).

  Roman Diplomacy

  Roman attitudes to this, including their conceit that any people who initiated dealings with them were in effect submitting to Rome, are explored by H. Sidebottom, ‘International Relations’ in The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare, Volume II: Rome from the Late Republic to the Late Empire, edited by P. Sabin, H. van Wees and M. Whitby (Cambridge, 2007), 3–29.

  Valerian’s Eastern Campaign of AD260

  So as not to spoil the plot, discussion of this is deferred to the Afterword in the next novel in this series, Lion of the Sun.

  Previous Historical Novels

  As in all the novels in this series, it is a joy to include homages to a couple of those novelists whose work has inspired me and given me great pleasure.

  The opening sentence of Chapter 1 contains a deliberate echo of the opening line of Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe’s Fortress (London, 1999). When thinking about the modern historical novel, the ubiquity of Cornwell’s work almost makes it paradoxically easy to overlook. He has written so many, set in so many different periods, and they are all so good. What makes Cornwell stand so far above a horde of inferior imitators is the jewel-like level of historical detail that can only come from a genuine knowledge and love of history.

  Two characters that appear towards the end of this novel, Accius of the third cohort of Celts and Camillus of Legio VI Gallicana, draw their names and the Gallic references from the heroes of Alfred Duggan’s Winter Quarters (London, 1956). One of the great pleasures of Duggan’s writing was the subtlety and depth of his characterization.

  Various Quotes

  When Homer’s Iliad comes into Ballista’s mind, it is in the translation in the Penguin Classics by Robert Fagles (New York, 1990).

  The Greek epigrams quoted by Turpio are all to be found in The Greek Anthology edited by Peter Jay (Harmondsworth, 1981): the anonymous one recited in the Prologue and recalled by Ballista in the Epilogue is translated by Peter Porter (No. 775), the Lucian one by Edwin Morgan (No. 627), and the Ammianus one by Peter Jay (No. 593).

  Turpio’s ‘Greek translation’ of Virgil Eclogue IV is by Harry Sidebottom.

  Thanks

  It is a great pleasure to thank a lot of people.

  First, my family, for their love and support. My wife, Lisa, without whom none of this would be possible. My sons Tom and Jack for all the fun. My mother, Frances, aunt Terry and uncle Tony for the unflagging enthusiasm.

  Next, friends. Jeremy Tinton, the man who gave Maximus his nose. Steve Billington for the website. Michael Farley for the office and other stuff. Peter Cosgrove for Ephesus and elsewhere. Özgür Cavus for sorting out the Turkish trip. Ibo and Ramazan for the Turkish driving. My vet, Adi Nell, for teaching me how to kill horses.

  Then academe. Various friends. At Oxford, Maria Stamatopoulou and Andrew ‘Beau’ Beaumont of Lincoln College, Ewen Bowie of Corpus Christi College, and John Eidinow of St Benet’s Hall and Merton College. At the University of Warwick, Simon Swain. Some Oxford students whose tutorials ended up as fiction: Andrew Freedman, Sam Kennedy, and Robert Stroud.

  Finally, the professionals, Alex Clarke, Anthea Townsend, Tom Chicken, Katya Shipster, Ana Maria Rivera and Jen Doyle at Penguin; Sarah Day, for copy-editing; and James Gill at United Agents.

  Harry Sidebottom

  Woodstock

  Glossary

  The definitions given here are geared to King of Kings. 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.

  Ab urbe condita: Latin phrase meaning ‘since the founding of the city (of Rome; traditionally 753BC)’. A method of dating.

  Accensus: The secretary of a Roman governor or official.

  Agora: Greek term for a marketplace and civic centre.

  Alamanni: A confederation of German tribes.

  Amicus: Latin for ‘friend’.

  Angles: A north-German tribe, living in the area of modern Denmark.

  Arete: Greek for ‘virtue’.

  Artargatis: The ‘Syrian Goddess’. One important cult centre was Hierapolis.

  Asgard: In Norse religion, the home of the gods.

  Atrium: The open court in a Roman house.

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

  Bactria: Region between the Oxus river and the Hindu Kush mountains, including Afghanistan.

  Bahram fires: The sacred fires of Zoroastrian religion.

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

  Ballistarius, plural Ballistarii: A Roman artilleryman.

  Barbalissos: A town on the Euphrates, scene of a defeat of the Roman army in Syria by Shapur I, probably in AD252.

  Barbaricum: Latin term for where the barbarians live, i.e. outside the Roman empire, in some ways seen as the opposite of the world of humanitas, civilization.

  Bestiarii: A type of gladiator who fought beasts in the venationes in the Roman munera.

  Blemmyes: Barbarian people to the south of Egypt.

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

  Boule: The council of a Greek city, in the Roman period made up of the local men of wealth and influence.

  Bouleuterion: The town hall in a Greek city.

  Bucinator: A Roman military musician.

  Bulla: An amulet hung round the neck of a boy at his naming ceremony, taken off when he reached adulthood, the mark of a child.

  Caledonia: Modern Scotland.

  Campania: Region of west-central Italy, a byword for gentle climate and easy terrain.

  Campus martius: Literally ‘Field of Mars’, a Roman parade ground.

  Cardusii: Barbarian people who lived near the Caspian Sea.

  Carpi: Barbarian people who lived beyond the Danube.

  Carrhae: City in Mesopotamia, in 53BC the scene of the defeat of the Roman general Crassus by the Parthians.

  Celeritas: Latin, ‘quickness’, a quality said to have been embodied in a military context by Julius Caesar.

  Circesium: Roman town at the confluence of the Euphrates and Chaboras rivers.

  Circus: Latin, course for chariot racing. The oldest and most famous in Rome was known as the Circus Maximus.

  Clementia: Latin, the virtue of mercy.

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

  Club Bearers: Men of the Watch at Antioch.

  Coele Syria: Literally ‘Hollow Syria’, a Roman province.

  Cohors: A unit of Roman soldiers, usually about fiv
e hundred men strong.

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

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

  Commagene: Roman province on the west bank of the upper Euphrates.

  Commilitiones: Latin term for ‘fellow soldiers’, often used by commanders wishing to emphasize their closeness to their troops.

  Comus: Drunken procession through the streets at the end of a Greek drinking party.

  Conditum: Spiced wine, sometimes served warm before dinner.

  Consilium: A council, body of advisors, of a Roman emperor, official, or elite private person.

  Contubernium: A group of ten soldiers who share a tent; by extension, comradeship.

  Curule chair: A chair adorned with ivory, the ‘throne’ that was one of the symbols of high Roman office.

  Cursus publicus: The imperial Roman posting service, whereby those with official passes, diplomata, could get remounts.

  Daphne: Suburb of Antioch, famous for sacred sites and notorious for luxury.

  Decurion: Officer who commanded a troop in a cavalry unit.

  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.

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

  Disciplina: Latin for ‘discipline’; Romans considered that they had this quality and others lacked it.

  Dominus: Latin for ‘Lord’, ‘Master’, ‘Sir’; a title of respect.

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