Croesus: The last king of Lydia, c. 560–46BC; proverbial for his wealth.
Cyrus: Cyrus the Great, king of Persia c. 557–30BC, founder of the Achaemenid dynasty.
Decianus: Governor of Numidia in Africa.
Demetrius: Marcus Clodius Demetrius, ‘the Greek boy’, a slave purchased by Julia to serve as her husband Ballista’s secretary; manumitted by the latter, now a freedman with Roman citizenship living in the household of the emperor Gallienus.
Demosthenes: 384–22BC, Athenian orator.
Dernhelm (1): Original name of Ballista.
Dernhelm (2): Lucius Clodius Dernhelm, second son of Ballista and Julia.
Dio of Prusa: Dio Chrysostom, the ‘Golden-mouthed’; a Greek philosopher of the first to second centuries AD.
Dio of Syracuse: c. 408–353BC, soldier, statesman and Platonist; returned from exile to free his own city from tyranny.
Diogenes: The cynic philosopher, c. 412/ 403–c.324/ 321BC.
Domitian: Titus Flavius Domitian, Roman emperor AD81–96.
Domitianus: Italian officer of Gallienus, one of the protectores; claims descent from the emperor Domitian.
Epicurus: Greek philosopher, 341–270BC, founder of Epicurean philosophy.
Euripides: Fifth century BC Athenian tragic playwright.
Eusebius: Eunuch in the service of the Roman emperor, a native of Abasgia.
Faraxen: A native rebel in Africa against Rome, rumoured still to be alive.
Favorinus: First to second century AD Greek philosopher, from Arelate in Gaul, born a eunuch.
Felix: Spurius Aemilius Felix, an elderly senator; defended Byzantium from the Goths in AD257.
Flavius Damianus: Member of the Boule of Ephesus, descendant of a famous sophist of the same name.
Freki the Alamann: German bodyguard of Gallienus.
Gaius Valerius Festus: Member of the Boule of Ephesus; asiarch (high-priest) of the imperial cult in that city.
Galen: AD129–?199/216, famous Greek doctor, court physician to Marcus Aurelius.
Galliena: Female cousin of Gallienus.
Gallienus: Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus, declared joint Roman emperor by his father the emperor Valerian in AD253, sole emperor after the capture of his father by the Persians in AD260.
Gallus: Gaius Vibius Trebonianus Gallus, a successful general on the Danube. He defended Novae from the Goths in AD250; emperor AD251–3.
Genialis: Simplicinius Genialis, acting governor of Raetia, defected to Postumus in AD260.
Gondofarr: Sassanid commander.
Haddudad: Mercenary captain who served Iarhai, Bathshiba’s father; now an officer in the service of Odenathus of Palmyra.
Hadrian: Publius Aelius Hadrianus, Roman emperor AD117–38.
Hamazasp: King of Georgian Iberia.
Hermianus: Caecilus Hermianus, ab Admissionibus of Gallienus.
Herodotus: ‘The father of history’; fifth century BC Greek historian of the Persian wars.
Hippothous: Claims to be from Perinthus originally; joined Ballista as accensus in Rough Cilicia.
Hormizd: Zoroastrian mobad; once when a slave of Ballista called Bagoas.
Hyperanthes: Ephebe of Perinthus, the great love of Hippothous; lost at sea off Lesbos.
Iarhai: A caravan protector who was killed in the fall of Arete; father of Bathshiba.
Ingenuous: One-time governor of Pannonia Superior and one of Gallienus’s protectores; rebelled and was killed in AD260.
Isangrim (1): Dux (war-leader) of the Angles, father of Dernhelm/ Ballista.
Isangrim (2): Marcus Clodius Isangrim, first son of Ballista and Julia.
Jason: Leader of the Argonauts.
Juba: Titus Destricius Juba, senatorial governor of Britannia Superior; organized defection of Britain to Postumus; made ‘Gallic consul’ for AD262.
Julia: Daughter of the senator Gaius Julius Volcatius Gallicanus; wife of Ballista.
Kirder the mobad: Zoroastrian high-priest (herbed), of Shapur.
Kobrias: Suanian warrior.
Licinius: Gallienus’s brother.
Longinus: Cassius Longinus, c. AD213–73, a philosopher; at the time of this novel teaching in Athens.
Lucius Verus: Roman emperor AD161–9.
Macarius: Marcus Aurelius Macarius, stephanephor (leading magistrate) and asiarch (imperial priest) of Miletus.
Macrianus (1): Marcus Fulvius Macrianus (‘the Elder’); Comes Sacrarum Largitionum et Praefectus Annonae of Valerian; behind the proclamation of his sons as emperors in AD260; killed with his eldest son in AD261.
Macrianus (2): Titus Fulvius Junius Macrianus (‘the Younger’); son of Macrianus (1); acclaimed emperor with his brother Quietus in AD260, killed in AD261.
Mamurra: Ballista’s Praefectus Fabrum and friend; entombed in a siege tunnel at Arete.
Manzik: Zoroastrian mobad.
Marcus Aurelius: Roman emperor AD161–80; author of philosophical reflections in Greek To Himself (often known as The Meditations).
Marinianus: Third son of Gallienus.
Marius: Gaius Marius, c. 157–87BC, Roman general who returned from exile to briefly take over the city.
Mastabates: Eunuch in the service of the Roman emperor, a native of Abasgia.
Maximillianus: Governor of the province of Asia.
Maximinus Thrax: Gaius Iulius Verus Maximinus, Roman emperor AD235–8, known as ‘Thrax’ (the Thracian’) because of his lowly origins.
Maximus: Marcus Clodius Maximus, bodyguard to Ballista; originally a Hibernian warrior known as Muirtagh of the Long Road, sold to slave traders and trained as a boxer then gladiator before being purchased by Ballista, now a freedman.
Medea: Daughter of Aeetes, Colchian princess and sorceress, lover of Jason who helps him win the Golden Fleece.
Melissus: Fisherman from a village in the territory of Amastris.
Memor: African officer of Gallienus; one of the protectores.
Mithridates: Eldest son of King Polemo of Suania.
Musonius: Gaius Musonius Rufus, first century AD Stoic philosopher, ‘the Roman Socrates’. Like Socrates, Musonius left no writings; the works preserved in his name claim to be a record of his teaching written up by one of his pupils.
Narcissus: Slave purchased by Hippothous in Ephesus.
Narseh: Prince Narseh, a son of Shapur, King of Persia; commanding a Sassanid army on the south-west shores of the Caspian Sea.
Nero: Nero Claudius Caesar, Roman emperor AD54–68.
Nicomachus: Stoic philosopher.
Nikeso: Wife of Corvus.
Nummius Ceionius Albinus: Senator, prefect of the city of Rome.
Nummius Faustinianus: Senator, consul ordinarius with Gallienus AD262.
Odenathus: Septimius Odenathus, Lord of Palmyra/ Tadmor, known as the Lion of the Sun; appointed by Gallienus as corrector over the eastern provinces of the Roman empire.
Oroezes (1): Pitiax (heir to the throne) of Georgian Iberia, younger brother of King Hamazasp.
Oroezes (2): Suanian warrior, brother of Kobrias.
Pactyes: Lydian rebel against the Achaemenid Persians.
Palfurius Sura: Ab Epistulis of Gallienus.
Pallas: Servant of Mastabates’.
Patavinus: Roman auxiliary soldier, standard bearer to Ballista at Miletus and Didyma.
Petronius: First century AD author of the Latin novel The Satyricon (better Latin would be Satyrica); usually identified with Petronius Arbiter, the sometime friend of Nero.
Philip of Macedon: 382–36BC, father of Alexander the Great.
Philip V: 238–179BC, king of Macedonia; of the Antigonid dynasty.
Pippa (or Pipa): Daughter of Attalus of the Marcomanni; wife/ concubine of Gallienus, who called her Pippara.
Piso: Gaius Calpurnius Piso Frugi, senator and nobilis, one-time supporter of Macrianus; killed in a bid for the throne in AD260.
Plato: Athenian philosopher, c. 429–347BC.
Plotinus: Neoplatonist philos
opher, AD205–69/ 70.
Polemo: King Polemo of Suania.
Polemon: Marcus Antonius Polemon, c. AD88–144, famous sophist and physiognomist.
Polybius: Slave purchased by Ballista in Priene.
Pompey the Great: Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, 106–48BC; Roman general.
Postumus: Marcus Cassianus Latinius Postumus, once governor of Lower Germany; from AD262 Roman emperor of the breakaway ‘Gallic empire’; killer of Gallienus’s son Saloninus.
Pythagoras: Sixth century BC philosopher.
Pythonissa: Only daughter of King Polemo of Suania; a priestess of Hecate.
Quietus: Titus Fulvius Iunius Quietus, son of Macrianus the Elder, proclaimed Roman emperor with his brother Macrianus the Younger in AD260, and killed by Ballista in AD261, the year before this novel starts.
Quirinius: Aurelius Quirinius, Gallienus’s a Rationibus.
Rebecca: Jewish slave woman bought by Ballista.
Regalianus: One-time governor of Pannonia Inferior, who claimed descent from the kings of Dacia before the Roman conquest; rebelled and was killed in AD260.
Respa: Son of Gunteric, brother of Tharuaro; Gothic warrior of the Tervingi.
Rhesmagus: King of the western Abasgi.
Romulus: Standard bearer to Ballista; died outside Arete.
Roxanne: Concubine of Shapur, captured by Ballista at Soli.
Rufinus: Gallienus’s Princeps Peregrinorum, spymaster, commander of the frumentarii.
Rutilianus: Publius Mummius Sisenna Rutilianus, ex-consul ridiculed by the satirist Lucian for being taken in by Alexander of Abonouteichos.
Rutilus: Marcus Aurelius Rutilus, Roman army officer, Praetorian Prefect under both Quietus and Ballista.
Salonina: Empress Egnatia Salonina, wife of Gallienus.
Saloninus: Publius Cornelius Licinius Saloninus Valerianus, second son of Gallienus, made Caesar in AD258 on the death of his elder brother, Valerian II; executed by Postumus in AD260.
Sasan: Founder of the Sassanid royal house of Persia.
Saurmag: Fourth son of King Polemo of Suania.
Selandros: Prophetes of Apollo at Didyma; of the ancient Milesian Euangelidai clan.
Septimius Severus: Lucius Septimius Severus, Roman emperor AD193–211.
Shapur I (or Sapor) : Second Sassanid King of Kings, son of Ardashir I.
Simon: Young Jewish boy rescued from a cave in Arbela in Judea by Ballista.
Spadagas: King of the eastern Abasgi.
Strabo: Greek author of a universal history and a geography (the latter is extant), c. 64BC–c. AD23; the most important Greek writer whose work survives from the Augustan age.
Successianus: Roman officer who defended the town of Pityus from the Goths; later Praetorian Prefect to Valerian, with whom he was captured by the Sassanids in AD260.
Suren: Parthian nobleman, the head of the house of Suren, vassal of Shapur.
Tacitus (1): Cornelius Tacitus, c. AD56–c. 118, the greatest Latin historian.
Tacitus (2): Marcus Claudius Tacitus, Roman senator of the third century AD (most likely) of Danubian origins; one of the protectores; may have claimed kinship with or even descent from the famous historian, but it is unlikely to be true.
Tarchon: Suanian saved from drowning by Ballista and Calgacus.
Tatianus: Marcus Aurelius Tatianus, Stephanephoros (leading magistrate) of Priene.
Thales of Miletus: One of the ‘Seven Sages’ of antiquity.
Tharuaro: Son of Gunteric, brother of Respa, leader of the Tervingi longboats in the Gothic fleet in the Aegean.
Theodotus: Egyptian officer of Gallienus; brother of Camsisoleus; one of the protectores.
Thucydides: Athenian historian, c. 460–400BC.
Tir-mihr: A Sassanid general.
Trajan: Marcus Ulpius Traianus, Roman emperor AD98–117.
Tzathius: Second son of King Polemo of Suania.
Valash: Prince Valash, ‘the joy of Shapur’, a son of Shapur; rescued from violent death by Ballista in Cilicia.
Valens: Pretender to the throne, killed in AD260.
Valentinus: Governor of the province of Moesia Superior.
Valerian (1): Publius Licinius Valerianus, an elderly Italian senator elevated to Roman emperor in AD253; captured by Shapur I in AD260.
Valerian (2): Publius Cornelius Licinius Valerianus, eldest son of Gallienus, grandson of Valerian; made Caesar in AD256; died in AD258.
Vardan: Sassanid captain serving under the Lord Suren.
Vedius Antoninus: Publius Vedius Antoninus, a member of the Boule and the scribe to the demos at Ephesus.
Velenus: King of the Cadusii.
Vellius Macrinus: Senator; governor of the province of Bithynia et Pontus.
Venerianus: Celer Venerianus, Italian officer of Gallienus; one of the protectores.
Veteranus: Marcus Aurelius Veteranus, governor of Dacia.
Volusianus: Lucius Petronius Taurus Volusianus, Gallienus’s Praetorian Prefect, risen from the ranks, consul in AD261; one of the protectores.
Wulfstan: Young Angle slave purchased by Ballista in Ephesus.
Xenophon: Athenian soldier and writer of the fifth to fourth centuries BC.
Zeno: Aulus Voconius Zeno, a Roman equestrian, once governor of Cilicia, now a Studiis to Gallienus.
Zober: High-priest of Georgian Albania, uncle of King Cosis.
Ztathius: Warrior and noble of Georgian Iberia.
The Caspian Gates Page 36
