In chapter XX, Hippothous quotes Sophocles, Oedipus the King, ll. 1303–6 in the translation of E. F. Watling (London, 1947).
Sparta
Ballista in chapter XI might somewhat overemphasize the role of the Gerousia (the council of elders) in classical Sparta.
Philosophical Works of Consolation
Some may consider, and with some reason, that Ballista in chapter XXII is unfair to the works of consolation written by classical philosophers. But it should be remembered that Ballista was forced to read them many years earlier. When he thought of them more recently, in Lion of the Sun, they brought him little comfort. He does not remember the works clearly and is prejudiced against them. The former deficit is shared with the author, who deliberately did not re-read them. This could be the authorial equivalent of method acting.
Among surviving works are Seneca, To Marcia, On Consolation; To Polybius, On Consolation; Plutarch, Consolation to his Wife; Dio Chrysostom, Melancomas I and II, and Charidemus.
Battue
Almost everything about the hunt in chapter XXIV is drawn from T. S. Allsen, The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History (Philadelphia, 2006), a superb example of longue-durée history and anthropology, although nomads actually often did employ nets. The classical philosophizing about hunting is examined in H. Sidebottom, Studies in Dio Chrysostom on Kingship (DPhil thesis, Oxford, 1990), 156–66.
Physiognomy
As noted in The Caspian Gates, the modern study of ancient physiognomy has been put on a new level by S. Swain (ed.), Seeing the Face, Seeing the Soul: Polemon’s Physiognomy from Classical Antiquity to Medieval Islam (Oxford, 2007).
Previous Historical Novels
Each Warrior of Rome novel includes homages to other works of fiction.
The yipping of the Heruli is borrowed from the Mongols in Cecelia Holland’s enthralling Until the Sun Falls (1969).
While editing this novel, I chanced upon a novel I read as a child. Re-reading The Year of the Horsetails by R. F. Tapsell (1967), I realized where my interest in nomadic warfare began, and, with Bardiya Tapsell’s siege engineer, outsider hero, something of the origins of Ballista. Tapsell was a superb historical novelist, and some enterprising publisher should put his works back in print for a new generation.
In The Wolves of the North, the assemblies of the Heruli draw heavily on those of the Cossacks in a much older historical novel: Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol (1835, revised 1842), in the splendid translation by Peter Constantine (2003).
Behind everything in The Wolves of the North lies the Steppe itself, and behind every description of it lies Anton Chekhov’s story ‘The Steppe’ (1888).
Thanks
Every year, a new novel, but I am always delighted to thank almost all the same people.
First, my family, for their love and support. In Woodstock, my wife, Lisa, and sons, Tom and Jack. In Suffolk, my mother, Frances, and aunt, Terry.
The usual set of friends: Peter Cosgrove, Jeremy and Kate Habberley, and Jeremy Tinton.
At Oxford: Maria Stamatopoulou at Lincoln College, John Eidinow at St Benet’s Hall and Richard Marshall at Wadham College. The latter deserves especial thanks for his help compiling the List of Characters and the Glossary.
Finally, the publishing professionals: at Penguin, Alex Clarke, Francesca Russell and Claire Purcell; for copy-editing, Sarah Day; and at United Agents, James Gill. This book is dedicated to the latter, whose relationship with the author is not entirely a matter of percentages.
Glossary
The definitions given here are geared to The Wolves of the North. 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.
Abasgia: Kingdom on the north-east shore of the Black Sea, divided into an eastern and a western half, each with its own king.
Accensus: Secretary of a Roman governor or official.
Acropolis: Sacred citadel of a Greek city.
Aetna: Mount Etna, volcano on the island of Sicily.
Agathyrsi: Nomadic tribe living on the Steppe.
Agora: Greek term for a market place and civic centre.
Akinakes: Short sword used by the Scythians. Also the name of one of the two Scythian gods.
Alan (plural, Alani): Nomadic tribe north of the Caucasus.
Albania: Kingdom to the south of the Caucasus, bordering the Caspian Sea (not to be confused with modern Albania).
Alontas: River in the Caucasus, the modern Terek.
Alsvid: In Norse mythology, one of the two horses that pulled the sun across the sky.
Amber Road: Name for a series of trade routes leading south from the Baltic to the Mediterranean.
Amphora (plural, amphorae): Large Roman earthenware storage vessel.
Anarieis: Form of impotence said by Herodotus to afflict the Scythians; the ‘female disease’.
Andreia: Greek, ‘courage’; literally, ‘man-ness’.
Anemos: ‘The Wind’; one of the two Scythian gods.
Angles: North German tribe, living in the area of modern Denmark.
Anthropophagi: Greek, literally ‘man-eaters’; a tribe of the northern Steppe thought to be cannibals.
Aorsoi: Nomadic tribe living on the Steppe; subjects of the Alani.
Aphorism: Greek, a wise, pithy saying.
Aphrodite: Greek goddess of love.
Apodyterium: Changing room of a baths.
Apollo Iatros: ‘Apollo the Healer’, an aspect of the Greek god.
Apotropaic: Intended to ward off evil.
Aquileia: Town in north-eastern Italy, where the emperor Maximinus Thrax was killed in AD238.
Arelate: Modern Arles, a city in the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis.
Ares: Greek god of war.
Arete: Fictional town on the Euphrates, modelled on Dura-Europus, scene of the action in Fire in the East.
Argippaei: Nomadic tribe of Scythians, living on the Steppe.
Argo: Mythical ship of Jason’s Argonauts.
Armata: Latin, ‘the armed one’; in The Caspian Gates the name of a warship.
Arsacid: Dynasty that ruled Parthia 247BC–AD228.
Arsyene: According to Galen, a Greek physician, a dry white wine.
Artemis: Greek goddess of hunting.
Arvak: In Norse mythology, one of the two horses that pulled the sun across the sky.
Atheling: Anglo-Saxon for lord.
Augustus: Name of the first Roman emperor, subsequently adopted as one of the titles of the office.
Aurvandil the Brave: Figure of Norse mythology whose frozen toe was said to have been broken off by Thor and thrown into the heavens as a star.
Autokrator: Greek for sole ruler; used as translation of the Latin imperator.
Auxiliary: Roman regular soldier serving in a unit other than a legion.
Aviones: German tribe from the area of modern Denmark.
Azara: Town situated on the eastern marshes of Lake Maeotis, the modern Sea of Azov; in this novel given the Greek nickname Conopion, ‘mosquito net’, from an unidentified place on Azov.
Bacchus: Roman name for the Greek god of wine, Dionysus.
Barbaricum: Lands of the barbarians. Anywhere beyond the frontiers of the Roman empire, which were thought to mark the limits of the civilized world.
Barbaritas: Barbarian, uncivilized; literally, ‘bar-bar’, the sound Greeks heard when non-Greek was spoken.
Battue: Technique for driving game into a killing circle.
Bay of Naxos: On the eastern coast of the island of Sicily.
Bithynia et Pontus: Roman province along the south shore of the Black Sea.
Borani (also Boranoi): German tribe.
Borysthenes: Greek name for the Dnieper river.
Bosporus: Latin, from the Greek Bosporos, literally ‘ox-ford’, the name of several straits, above all those on which Byzantium stood and that in the Crimea; the latter
gives its name to the Roman client kingdom of the Bosporus.
Bouleuterion: Greek, ‘council house’, where the Boule or council met.
Budinians: Nomadic tribe of Scythians, living on the Steppe.
Buticosus: From the Greek buo, ‘to stuff’, made into a Latin name; mockingly bestowed on a slave with a large erection depicted in a mosaic pavement from Ostia, outside Rome.
Caesar: Name of the adopted family of the first Roman emperor, subsequently adopted as one of the titles of the office; often used to designate an emperor’s heir.
Caledonia: Modern Scotland, or the Highlands.
Carpi: Tribe living north-west of the Black Sea.
Carrhae: Town in northern Iraq, scene of a disastrous Roman defeat at the hands of the Parthians in 53BC.
Carthage: Capital city of the Roman province of Africa.
Caspian Gates: Name given to the passes through the Caucasus mountains.
Cataphracti: Heavily armoured Roman cavalry, from the Greek word for mail armour.
Centurion: Officer of the Roman army with the seniority to command a company of around eighty to a hundred men.
Chi: Fourteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, shaped like an ‘X’.
Cilicia: Roman province in the south of Asia Minor.
Circesium: Town on the Euphrates.
Clibanarius (plural, clibanarii): Heavily armed cavalryman, possibly derived from ‘baking oven’.
Cohors: Unit of Roman soldiers, usually about 500 men-strong.
Cohors I Cilicium Milliaria Equitata Sagittariorum: Double-strength auxiliary unit with a cavalry component, originally raised in Cilicia, modern south-eastern Turkey, now stationed in the province of Moesia Inferior, abutting the Black Sea south of the Danube.
Colos: One of the fantastical creatures said to live in Scythia.
Colosseum: Largest amphitheatre in the ancient world. In the centre of Rome, it was used for gladiatorial combats and took its name not from its size but from a colossal statue standing close by.
Comitatus: Latin, literally, ‘a following’; name given to barbarian war bands.
Consilium: Council, body of advisors, of a Roman emperor, official or elite private person.
Contubernales: Latin, ‘comrades’; from contubernium, a group of ten or eight soldiers who shared a tent.
Corrector Totius Orientis: ‘Overseer of all the Orient’; a title applied to Odenathus of Palmyra.
Croucasis: Scythian name for the Caucasus, means ‘gleaming white with snow’.
Cursus Publicus: Imperial Roman postal service, whereby those with official passes, diplomata, could send messengers and get remounts.
Cybele: Eastern mother goddess adopted by the Greeks and Romans.
Cynic: The counter-cultural philosophy founded by Diogenes of Sinope in the fourth century BC.
Daemon: Supernatural being; could be applied to many different types: good/ bad, individual/ collective, internal/ external, and ghosts.
Demeter: Greek goddess of the harvest.
Dictator of Rome: Magistrate with sole authority elected in a crisis; in theory held power for a fixed period, but the time limit was often abused.
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.
Dionysus: Greek god of wine.
Diplomata: Official passes which allowed the bearer access to the cursus publicus.
Disciplina: Latin, ‘discipline’; the Romans considered that they had this quality, and others lacked it.
Dominus: Latin, ‘lord’, ‘master’, ‘sir’; a title of respect.
Draco: Literally, Latin, ‘snake’ or ‘dragon’; name given to a windsock-style military standard shaped like a dragon.
Ecbatana: Capital of the Medes, in western Iran.
Eirenarch: Title of chief of police in many Greek cities.
Empusa: Shape-shifting monster of Greek folk tales, associated with Hecate and witchcraft, although often in a comic context.
Epicureanism: Greek philosophical system, whose followers either denied that the gods existed or held that they were far away and did not intervene in the affairs of mankind.
Essene: Ascetic Jewish sect.
Eumenides: ‘The kindly ones’, a euphemism for the terrible furies from the underworld that pursued and tormented wrong-doers.
Eumolpos: In Greek mythology, son of Poseidon and Chione, who settled in Thrace; claimed as an ancestor by the kings of Bosporus.
Eupatrid: From the Greek, meaning ‘well-born’; an aristocrat.
Eutes: Nomadic tribe that migrated to the Steppe from the area of modern Denmark.
Euxine: From the Greek euxenos, literally, ‘kindly to strangers’; ancient name for the Black Sea.
Fairguneis: Thunder god; one of the most important deities of the Goths.
Familia: Latin term for family and, by extension, the entire household, including slaves.
Farodini: North German tribe.
Fasces: Bundles of wooden rods tied round a single-bladed axe, symbolizing the power of Roman magistrates to punish lawbreakers.
Fenrir: In Norse mythology, a monstrous wolf that will break its chains at the end of days, Ragnarok, and devour Odin, father of the gods.
Ferryman: In Greek and Roman mythology, rows the souls of the dead across the river Styx to the underworld; required a toll, thus the practice of leaving coins in the mouths of the dead.
Fimbulvetr: In Norse mythology, a series of severe winters that foretell the end of the world, Ragnarok.
Flamen Dialis: The Roman high priest of Jupiter, subject to numerous taboos.
Frisian: North German tribe.
Frumentarius (plural, frumentarii): Military unit based on the Caelian Hill in Rome; the emperor’s secret police; messengers, spies, and assassins.
Gallia Narbonensis: Roman province roughly corresponding to the French regions of Provence and Languedoc.
Gauti: Scandinavian tribe.
Gepidae: East German tribe.
Germania: Lands where the German tribes lived; ‘free’ Germany.
Gerousia: Institution of the Spartan government; a small council whose members had to be over the age of sixty; responsible for capital punishment and submitting proposals to the citizen assembly.
Gladius: Roman military short sword; generally superseded by the spatha by the mid-third century AD; also slang for penis.
Goltescythae: Tribe from the Ural mountains.
Gorytus: Combined bowcase and quiver.
Gospel of Light: Religion propounded by the eastern mystic Mani.
Goths: Loose confederation of Germanic tribes.
Graeculus (plural, Graeculi): Latin, ‘Little Greek’; Greeks called themselves Hellenes, Romans tended not to extend that courtesy but called them Graeci; with casual contempt, Romans often went further, to Graeculi.
Grethungi: Gothic tribe living on the Steppe north of the Black Sea.
Gudja: Gothic priest.
Gymnasium: Exercise ground; formed from the Greek word gymnos, ‘naked’, as all such activities were performed in the nude.
Gymnosophist: Greek, literally, ‘naked wise-man’; a member of an ascetic sect of Hindus who were supposed to contemplate philosophy in the nude, having renounced all interest in earthly possessions.
Hades: Greek underworld.
Haliurunna: Gothic witch.
Harii: Germanic tribe living between the headwaters of the Elbe and Oder rivers.
Haruspex: Roman priest who determined whether the gods approved a course of action by inspecting the entrails of sacrificed animals; a custom originally adopted from the Etruscans.
Hati: In Norse mythology, the wolf that chases the moon, causing it to flee across the sky.
Hecate: Sinister, three-headed underworld goddess of magic, the night, crossroads and doorways.
Hel: The underworld in Norse mythology, reserved for those who do not die a warrior’s dea
th.
Hellenes: The Greeks’ name for themselves; often used with connotations of cultural superiority.
Helots: Serf-type underclass in classical Sparta.
Heracles: Heroic man translated into god, popular among Greeks and Romans; known to the latter as Hercules.
Herul (plural, Heruli): East Germanic tribe living to the north of the Black Sea, having migrated from Scandinavia in the early third century AD.
Hibernia: Modern Ireland.
Hippodrome: Greek, literally, ‘horse race’; stadium for chariot racing.
Humanitas: Latin, ‘humanity’ or ‘civilization’, the opposite of barbaritas; Romans thought that they, the Greeks (at least upper-class ones), and, on occasion, other peoples (usually very remote) had it, while the majority of mankind did not.
Hybris: Greek concept of pride, which expressed itself in the humbling of others.
Hypanis river: Flowing east to west in the North Caucasus region, the modern river Kuban.
Hypocaust: Underfloor heating system, relying upon hot air from fires.
Ides: Thirteenth day of the month in short months, the fifteenth in long months.
Imniscaris: Tribe living around the river Volga.
Imperium: Power of the Romans, i.e. the Roman empire, often referred to in full as the imperium Romanorum.
Ionia: Area of western Turkey bordering the Aegean, settled by Greeks.
Iota: Ninth letter of the Greek alphabet, the smallest and simplest to draw.
Jormungand: In Norse mythology, the world serpent which lay in the depths of the ocean waiting for Ragnarok.
Kalends: First day of the month.
Kataskopoi: Greek, literally, ‘an around-looker’; a scout or spy.
Keryneia: Town on the north coast of Cyprus; its ancient name is still in use.
Kindly sea: From the Greek name Euxine, the modern Black Sea.
Kurgan: Name for a burial mound in the Slavic or Turkic languages of the Steppe.
Kyrios: Greek for lord, master, sir; a title of respect.
Langobardi: Tribe living on the banks of the river Elbe in central Germany.
Legate: Latin, an ambassador, or a high-ranking officer in the Roman army, drawn from the senatorial classes.
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