The Caspian Gates

by Harry Sidebottom

  Nones: Ninth day of a month before the ides, i.e. the fifth day of a short month, the seventh of a long month.

  Noricum: Roman province to the north-east of the Alps.

  Novae: Town on south bank of Danube; successfully defended from Gothic attack by the future emperor Gallus in AD250.

  Numerus, plural numeri: Latin name given to a Roman army unit, especially to ad hoc units outside the regular army structure; often units raised from semi or non-Romanized peoples which retained their indigenous fighting techniques.

  Numerus I Trapezountioon: Unit of locally raised infantry at Trapezus.

  Numerus II Trapezountioon: Unit of locally raised infantry at Trapezus.

  Numidia: Roman province in North Africa.

  Nymphaeum: Fountain house.

  Obol: Small-denomination Greek coin.

  Optio: Junior officer in the Roman army, ranked below a centurion.

  Ornamenta Consularia: The ornaments of a consul; the symbols of consular office often used by Rome as a diplomatic gift to foreigner potentates.

  Otium: Latin, leisure time, the opposite of negotium; it was thought important to get the balance right between the two for a civilized life.

  Paideia: Culture; Greeks considered that it marked them off from the rest of the world, and the Greek elite considered that it marked them off from the rest of the Greeks; some knowledge of it was considered necessary to be thought a member of the Roman elite.

  Palatium: Latin, palace, residence of an emperor.

  Pandateria: Small island off the western coast of Italy; Roman emperors favoured it as a destination for those sentenced to exile.

  Panonnia Inferior: Roman province south of the Danube, to the east of Panonnia Superior.

  Panonnia Superior: Roman province south of the Danube, to the west of Panonnia Inferior.

  Paphlagonia: Area of northern Asia Minor.

  Paraphylax: Head of the temple guards at Didyma.

  Parrhesia: Greek, free speech; vital concept in all Greek philosophical systems.

  Pater Patriae: Latin, Father of the Fatherland; a title of the emperors.

  Patrician: The highest social status in Rome; originally descendants of those men who sat in the very first meeting of the free senate after the expulsion of the last of the mythical kings of Rome in 509BC; under the principate, emperors awarded other families patrician status.

  Patronus: Latin, patron; once a slave had been manumitted and become a freedman, his former owner became his patronus; there were duties and obligations on both sides.

  Pax Deorum: Very important Roman concept of the peace between the Roman Res Publica and the gods.

  Pentekontarchos: Purser or quartermaster of a ship.

  Periplous: Greek, literally, a sailing around, a list of ports and anchorages and landmarks along a coast.

  Peroz: Persian, victory.

  Phasis: Main river in Colchis.

  Philanthropia: Greek, love of mankind; underpinned by philosophy, the concept acted as a powerful influence on the perceptions and actions of the Greek and Roman elites.

  Philotimia: Greek, love of honour; a virtue the Greek elite liked to believe they possessed.

  Phtheirophagi: literally, ‘lice-eaters’, a tribe to the north-east of the Black Sea.

  Physiognomy: The ancient ‘science’ of studying people’s faces, bodies and deportment to discover their character, and thus both their past and future.

  Pietas: Latin, piety; the human side of the Pax Deorum.

  Pitiax: Title of the heir to the throne of Iberia.

  Platonist: Follower of the philosophy of Plato.

  Plebs: Technically, all Romans who were not patricians; more usually, the non-elite.

  Plebs Urbana: Poor of the city of Rome, in literary compositions usually coupled with an adjective labelling them as dirty, superstitious, lazy, distinguished from the plebs rustica, whose rural lifestyle might make them less morally dubious.

  Polis: Greek, a city state; living in one was a key marker in being considered Greek and/ or civilized.

  Pontifex Maximus: Chief priest of Rome, a position held by the emperors.

  Praefectus: Prefect, a flexible Latin title for many civilian officials and military officers; typically, the commander of an auxiliary unit.

  Praetorian Prefect: Commander of the Praetorian Guard, an equestrian.

  Prefect of Cavalry: Senior military post introduced in the mid-third century AD.

  Prefect of the City: Senior senatorial post in the city of Rome.

  Princeps: Latin, first man or leading man; thus a polite way to refer to the emperor (see Principatus), in the plural, principes, it often meant the senators or the great men of the imperium.

  Princeps Peregrinorum: Literally, the leader of the foreigners, the commander of the frumentarii, usually a senior centurion.

  Principatus: In English, the principate; rule of the Princeps, the rule of the Roman imperium by the emperors.

  Prometheus: Divine figure, one of the Titans; variously believed to have created mankind out of clay, tricked the gods into accepting only the bones and fat of sacrifices, and stolen fire – hidden in a fennel stalk – from Olympus for mortals. Zeus chained him to a peak in the Caucasus, where an eagle daily ate his liver. Heracles shot the eagle and freed him.

  Pronoia: Greek concept of foresight.

  Prophetes: Title of priest who delivers oracular responses of Apollo at Didyma.

  Propylon: Greek, portico.

  Proskynesis: Greek, literally, kissing towards, adoration; given to the gods and in some periods to some rulers, including emperors in the third century AD. There were two types: full prostration on the ground, or bowing and blowing a kiss with the fingertips.

  Protector, plural protectores: a group of military officers singled out by the emperor Gallienus.

  Prusa: Town in Asia Minor; birthplace of the celebrated philosopher Dio Chrysostom.

  Ptolemies: Macedonian dynasty who ruled Egypt from 323–30BC.

  Puer, plural pueri: Latin, boy; interestingly, used by owners to describe male slaves and by soldiers of each other.

  Pugio: Roman military dagger; one of the symbols that marked a soldier.

  Raetia: Roman province; roughly equivalent to modern Switzerland.

  Ragnarok: In Norse paganism, the death of gods and men, the end of time.

  Ran: Norse goddess of the sea.

  Reiks: Gothic, a chief.

  Relegatio: Latin, lesser form of exile under the principate; the victim was banished from Italy and his home province, and was usually allowed to retain his property.

  Res Publica: Latin, the Roman Republic; under the emperors continued to mean the Roman empire.

  Rhodope Mountains: Mountain range in Thrace; in modern Bulgaria and Greece.

  Rugii: German tribe in the far north of Europe.

  Sacramentum: Roman military oath, taken extremely seriously.

  Sacred Boys: Name for temple slaves at Didyma.

  Sarapanis: Fort on the border between ancient Colchis and Iberia.

  Sarmatians: Nomadic barbarian peoples living north of the Danube.

  Sassanids (sometimes Sasanids, Sasanians, or Sassanians): Persian dynasty that overthrew the Parthians in the 220s AD and were Rome’s great eastern rivals until the seventh century AD.

  Scribe to the Demos: The most important annual magistrate in Ephesus.

  Scythians: Greek and Latin name for various northern and often nomadic barbarian peoples, vaguely applied, thus the Goths and later the Huns were described as Scythians.

  Sebastos: Greek, literally, the reverenced; used as translation of the Roman title Augustus.

  Senate: Council of Rome, under the emperors composed of about six hundred men, the vast majority ex-magistrates, with some imperial favourites. The senatorial order was the richest and most prestigious group in the empire, but suspicious emperors were beginning to exclude them from military commands in the mid-third century AD.

  Serdica: Roman town;
modern Sofia.

  Shieldburg: Northern shieldwall or phalanx.

  Silentarius: Roman official who, as his title indicates, was to keep silence and decorum at the imperial court.

  Silphium: Spice from Cyrene in North Africa much prized in the classical world; after it became extinct, a substitute was imported from Asia.

  Sirmium: Roman town in Panonnia Inferior, modern Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia.

  Skalks: Gothic, slave.

  Spatha: Long Roman sword; the usual type of sword carried by all troops by the mid-third century AD.

  Spoletium: Ancient town in northern Italy where in AD253 the short-lived emperor Aemilianus was killed, bringing Valerian and Gallienus to the throne, modern-day Spoleto.

  Stationarii: Roman soldiers on detached duty from their main units.

  Stephanephoros: Greek, literally, crown-wearer; title of magistrate in some Greek cities.

  Stoic: Follower of the philosophy of Stoicism; should believe that everything which does not affect one’s moral purpose is an irrelevance; so poverty, illness, bereavement and death cease to be things to fear.

  Stola: Roman matron’s gown.

  Strategos: Greek, general.

  Strobilos: Local name for peak in Caucasus where Prometheus was chained; possibly Mount Kazbek.

  Suania: Kingdom in the high Caucasus; included the modern district of Georgia called Svaneti.

  Synedrion: Greek, council; in Suania, a body of three hundred who advise the king.

  Tamias: Treasurer of Didyma.

  Tanais River: The Don.

  Tauromenium: Town in Sicily (modern Taormina), where Ballista and Julia own a villa.

  Teiws: God worshipped by the Goths.

  Telones: Greek, customs official.

  Tervingi: One of the tribes that made up the loose confederation known as the Goths.

  Testudo: Latin, literally, tortoise, by analogy both a Roman infantry formation with overlapping shields, similar to a northern shieldburg, and a mobile shed protecting a siege engine.

  Thalamians: Lowest of the three levels of rowers on a trireme.

  Thalia: Greek, abundance or good fortune; in The Caspian Gates, the name of a fishing boat.

  Thranites: Highest of three levels of rowers on a trireme; the elite oarsmen of the vessel.

  Titans: Generation of gods defeated by the Olympians.

  Toga: Voluminous garment, reserved for Roman male citizens, worn on formal occasions.

  Toga Virilis: Garment given to mark a Roman’s coming of age, usually at about fourteen.

  Trapezus: Ancient town on the southern shore of the Black Sea, modern Trabzon in Turkey.

  Trierarch: Commander of a trireme; in the Roman military, equivalent in rank to a centurion.

  Trireme: Ancient war ship, a galley rowed by about two hundred men on three levels.

  Tzour: Town in ancient Albania on the coast of the Caspian Sea, possibly modern Derbend in Dagestan, Russia.

  Valhalla: In Norse paganism, the hall in which selected heroes who had fallen in battle would feast until Ragnarok.

  Vexillatio: Sub-unit of Roman troops detached from its parent unit.

  Vexillatio Fasiana: Unit of infantry stationed at Phasis.

  Vexillium: Roman military standard.

  Vicus: Latin, settlement outside a fort.

  Vir Clarissimus: Title of a Roman senator.

  Vir Egregius: Knight of Rome, a man of the equestrian order.

  Vir Ementissimus: Highest rank an equestrian could attain; e.g. Praetorian Prefect.

  Vir Perfectissimus: Equestrian rank above Vir Egregius but below Vir Ementissimus.

  Virtus: Latin, courage, manliness, virtue; far stronger and more active than English ‘virtue’.

  Woden: High god of the Angles and other northern peoples.

  Zygians: Middle of three levels of rowers on a trireme.

  List of Roman Emperors of the time of The Caspian Gates

  AD193–211 Septimius Severus

  AD198–217 Caracalla

  AD210–11 Geta

  AD217–18 Macrinus

  AD218–22 Elagabalus

  AD222–35 Alexander Severus

  AD235–8 Maximinus Thrax

  AD238 Gordian I

  AD238 Gordian II

  AD238 Pupienus

  AD238 Balbinus

  AD238–44 Gordian III

  AD244–9 Philip the Arab

  AD249–51 Decius

  AD251–3 Trebonianus Gallus

  AD253 Aemilianus

  AD253–60 Valerian

  AD253– Gallienus

  A 260–61 Macrianus

  AD260–61 Quietus

  AD260– Postumus

  List of Characters

  To avoid giving away any of the plot, characters usually are only described as first encountered in The Caspian Gates.

  Achilleus: Iulius Achilleus, Gallienus’s a Memoria.

  Aeetes: Mythical king of Colchis, father of Medea.

  Aelius Aelianus: Prefect of Legio II Adiutrix.

  Aelius Restutus: Governor of province of Noricum.

  Aemilianus (1): Marcus Aemilius Aemilianus, briefly Roman emperor AD253.

  Aemilianus (2): Senatorial governor of Hispania Tarraconensis; organized defection of Spain to Postumus; made ‘Gallic consul’ for AD262.

  Aemilianus (3): Mussius Aemilianus, prefect of Egypt, joined Macriani in AD260, then declared himself emperor in AD261.

  Agathon: Slave purchased by Ballista in Priene.

  Alexander the Great: 356–23BC, son of Philip, king of Macedon, conqueror of Achaemenid Persia.

  Alexander Severus: Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander, Roman emperor AD222–35.

  Alexander of Abonouteichos: Second century AD holy man, or religious charlatan, ridiculed by the satirist Lucian.

  Alexandra: Hydrophor (virgin priestess) of Artemis at Didyma; daughter of Selandros.

  Amantius: Eunuch in the service of the Roman emperor, a native of Abasgia.

  Androclos: Mythic founder of Ephesus.

  Antigonus: One of Ballista’s Equites Singulares, who died at Arete.

  Anthia: Maid of Julia’s.

  Apollonius of Rhodes: Third century BC writer, author of the Argonautica.

  Apollonius of Tyana: A philosopher/wonder-worker of the first century AD.

  Ardashir I: Sassanid king, father of Shapur.

  Ariarathes V: Second century BC king of Cappadocia.

  Aristides: Author of non-extant erotic work called the Milesian Tales.

  Aristodicus: Wise man of Cyme, whose story is in Herodotus.

  Aristomachus: Byzantine teacher of rhetoric, whom Hippothous claims to have killed.

  Arrian: Lucius Flavius Arrianus, Greek author and Roman consul, c. AD86–160. Several of his works survive, including the Anabasis of Alexander, the Expedition against the Alani, and the Periplus Ponti Euxini.

  Arsinoe: Younger sister of Cleopatra of Egypt, murdered in 41BC in Ephesus, where her tomb was on the Embolos.

  Athenaeus: Member of the Boule of Byzantium.

  Attalus: King of the Marcomanni, father of Pippa.

  Attalus II: Second century BC king of Pergamum.

  Augustus: First Roman emperor, 31BC–AD14.

  Aulus Valerius Festus: Christian, brother of the Ephesian asiarch Gaius Valerius Festus.

  Aureolus: Manius Acilius Aureolus, once a Getan shepherd from near the Danube, now Gallienus’s Prefect of Cavalry, one of the protectores.

  Azo: Third son of King Polemo of Suania.

  Bagoas: ‘The Persian boy’, at one time a slave owned by Ballista; now a Zoroastrian mobad called Hormizd.

  Ballista: Marcus Clodius Ballista, originally named Dernhelm, son of Isangrim the Dux (war-leader) of the Angles. A diplomatic hostage in the Roman empire, he has been granted Roman citizenship and equestrian status, having served in the Roman army in Africa, in the far west, and on the Danube and Euphrates. Having defeated the Sassanid Persians at the battles of Circesium, Soli and Sebast
e and killed the pretender Quietus, he was briefly acclaimed Roman emperor in the city of Emesa the year before this novel starts.

  Bathshiba: Daughter of the late Iarhai, a synodiarch (caravan protector) of Arete, now married to Haddudad.

  Bauto: Young Frisian slave purchased by Ballista in Ephesus.

  Bonitus: Roman siege engineer; one of the protectores.

  Bruteddius Niger: Trierarch of the Armata.

  Calgacus: Marcus Clodius Calgacus, a Caledonian ex-slave, originally owned by Isangrim and sent by him to serve as a body servant to his son Ballista in the Roman empire; manumitted by the latter, now a freedman with Roman citizenship.

  Caligula: Gaius Julius Caligula, Roman emperor AD37–41. As a child, nicknamed ‘Little Boots’/ Caligula, because his father the general Germanicus had him dressed in miniature soldier’s uniform.

  Camsisoleus: Egyptian officer of Gallienus; brother of Theodotus; one of the protectores.

  Castricius: Gaius Aurelius Castricius, Roman army officer risen from the ranks, Prefect of Cavalry under both Quietus and Ballista, thought to be originally from Nemausus in Gaul.

  Celer: Roman siege engineer, one of the protectores.

  Celsus: Pretender to the throne from Africa, killed in AD260.

  Censorinus: Lucius Calpurnius Piso Censorinus. Princeps Peregrinorum under Valerian and the pretenders Macrianus and Quietus; now serving as deputy Praetorian Prefect under Gallienus.

  Chrysogonus: Greek who has gone over to the Goths.

  Claudius (1): Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus, Roman emperor AD37–54.

  Claudius (2): Marcus Aurelius Claudius, a Danubian officer of Gallienus, one of the protectores.

  Claudius Natalianus: Governor of the province of Moesia Inferior.

  Cleisthenes: Well-bred youth of Tauromenium in Sicily, whom Hippothous claims to have loved.

  Clementius Silvius: Titus Clementius Silvius, governor of both the provinces of Panonnia, Superior and Inferior.

  Cleodamus: Member of the Boule of Byzantium.

  Constans: Body-servant to Ballista.

  Cornelius Octavianus: Marcus Cornelius Octavianus, governor of Mauretania and Dux of the Libyan frontier.

  Corvus: Marcus Aurelius Corvus, the eirenarch (police chief) of Ephesus.

  Cosis: King of Georgian Albania.