Andonnoballus: Chief of the Heruli, from the Rosomoni clan.
Aordus: Ex-slave of the Heruli freed for courage in battle, now a full member of the tribe.
Aoric: Deceased King of the Urugundi, father of King Hisarna.
Apollonius of Rhodes: Third-century BC writer, author of the Argonautica.
Apollonius of Tyana: Greek philosopher and holy man of the first century AD, said to perform miracles.
Apsyrtus: Brother of Medea. In some versions of the myth, he was murdered and dismembered by Jason, but in others by his own sister, to delay pursuit by their father’s men.
Artemidorus: Greek from Trapezus, captured and enslaved by the Heruli. Later freed, and appointed a leader among the nomads.
Aruth: Chief of the Heruli, from the Rosonomi clan.
Augustus: First Roman emperor, 31BC–AD14.
Aurelian: Lucius Domitius Aurelian, a Roman officer from the Danube, one of the protectores. A friend of Ballista at the court of Gallienus.
Aureolus: Once a Getan shepherd near the Danube, now Gallienus’s Prefect of Cavalry, one of the protectores.
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, the far west, and on the Danube and the Euphrates (Fire in the East); having defeated the Sassanid Persians at the battles of Circesium (King of Kings), Soli and Sebaste, and killed the pretender Quietus, he was briefly acclaimed Roman emperor (Lion of the Sun); the year before this novel takes place he served as a Roman envoy in the Caucasus (The Caspian Gates).
Bauto: Young Frisian slave purchased by Ballista in Ephesus.
Berus: Herul of the Rosomoni clan.
Biomasos: An interpreter attached to Ballista’s embassy. See note in the Historical Afterword.
Brachus: Spirit-twin of Naulobates.
Calanus: Indian ascetic who attached himself to Alexander the Great’s army. Falling ill, and not wishing to be a burden on others, he immolated himself.
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, Roman emperor AD37–41, as a child nicknamed ‘Little Boots’ (Caligula), because his father had him dressed in miniature soldier’s uniform.
Callirhoe: Prostitute met by Ballista’s companion Maximus. Her story may have been ‘borrowed’ from the novel of the same name by Chariton of Aphrodisias.
Cannabas: Said to have been a king of the Goths in the mid-third century AD, though perhaps a Roman joke about nomadic drug use from the Greek form of his name, Cannabaudes.
Castricius: Gaius Aurelius Castricius, Roman army officer risen from the ranks, was Prefect of Cavalry under both Quietus and Ballista, served as Roman envoy to the king of Albania, now Ballista’s deputy in the mission to the Steppes.
Censorinus: Lucius Calpurnius Piso Censorinus, Princeps Peregrinorum under Valerian and the pretenders Macrianus and Quietus; now serving as deputy Praetorian Prefect under Gallienus.
Circe: Mythical witch, who delayed Odysseus’s homecoming from the Trojan War.
Cledonius: Ab Admissionibus to Valerian; captured by the Persians with the emperor.
Clytemnestra: Wife of Agamemnon; was unfaithful while her husband was fighting at Troy and, on his return, aided in his murder.
Corbicius: In some unsympathetic accounts of Manichaeism, Mani is said to have originally been born a slave boy named Corbicius.
Datius: Ex-slave of the Heruli freed for courage in battle, now a full member of the tribe.
Decius: Gaius Messius Quintus. Ruled AD249–51, killed in battle by the Goths at Abritus.
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: Son of Sauromates, a metalworker of Panticapaeum missing a slave.
Dernhelm (1): Original name of Ballista.
Dernhelm (2): Lucius Clodius Dernhelm, second son of Ballista and Julia.
Diogenes: Cynic philosopher, c. 412/403–c. 324/321BC.
Euripides: Fifth-century BC Athenian tragic playwright.
Eusebius: Imperial eunuch originally from Abasgia; when sent back there as part of a Roman embassy, he attempted to kill the king, but failed and was himself killed in a terrible way.
Felix: Spurius Aemilius Felix, an elderly senator; defended Byzantium from the Goths in AD257.
Fritigern: King of the Borani.
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.
Hadrian: Publius Aelius Hadrianus, Roman emperor AD117–38.
Hannibal: General of Carthage in the Second Punic War against Rome (247–183BC).
Heliogabalus: Derogatory nickname for the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, ad218–22. Said to be remarkably perverse.
Herodotus: The ‘Father of History’; fifth-century BC Greek historian of the Persian Wars.
Hippocrates: Greek physician and medical writer of the fifth to fourth centuries BC.
Hippothous: Rough Cilician, claims to be from Perinthus originally; accensus to Ballista.
Hisarna: ‘The Iron One’, King of the Urugundi, son of King Aoric.
Hordeonius: Centurion of Cohors I Cilicium Milliaria Equitata Sagittariorum.
Idmon: Mythical seer from Argos, joined the Argonauts even though forewarned he would die on their journey.
Iphigenia: Mythical daughter of Agamemnon, sacrificed in return for a favourable wind to Troy.
Isangrim (1): Dux, war leader, of the Angles, father of Dernhelm/Ballista.
Isangrim (2): Marcus Clodius Isangrim, first son of Ballista and Julia.
Jason: Mythical leader of the Argonauts.
Julia: Daughter of the senator Gaius Julius Volcatius Gallicanus; wife of Ballista.
Kadlin: Woman of the Angles, to whom Ballista has been emotionally attached.
Khedosbios: Eirenarch of Panticapaeum.
Laocoon: Mistrusted the wooden horse left by the Greeks, but failed to persuade his fellow Trojans not to take it into Troy; killed with his two sons by two great sea serpents.
Loxus: Greek physician of the third century BC, author of a work on physiognomy.
Lucian: Satirical author of the later second century AD, writing in Greek.
Lycurgus: Legendary founder of the constitution of Sparta.
Mamurra: Ballista’s Praefectus Fabrum (‘Prefect of Construction’) and friend; entombed in a siege tunnel at Arete.
Mani: Religious leader whose teachings, drawing on Christianity and Eastern religions, inspired Manichaeism (AD216–76/277).
Mar Ammo: Manichaean missionary, known to have been active in the third century AD.
Marmaryan: The mother of Mani. Claimed to be descended from the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of Parthia until the first quarter of the third century AD.
Mastabates: Imperial eunuch originally from Abasgia; served with Ballista in Suania the year before this novel takes place.
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 and then freed by Ballista.
Medea: Colchian princess and sorceress who helps Jason win th
e Golden Fleece.
Mithridates: Mithridates VI Eupator the Great, King of Pontus (134–63BC); having failed to commit suicide after his defeat by Rome, requested that his Gallic bodyguard kill him.
Morcar: Son of Isangrim, war leader of the Angles, half-brother of Ballista.
Narcissus: Slave purchased by Hippothous in Ephesus.
Naulobates: King of the Heruli.
Ochus: Herul of the Rosomoni clan.
Odenathus: Septimius Odenathus, Lord of Palmyra/Tadmor, appointed by Gallienus as corrector over the eastern provinces of the Roman empire.
Odoacer: Prophesied king of the Heruli.
Olympias: Greek woman, captured by the Heruli at the sack of Trapezus.
Orestes: In Greek myth, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra.
Ovid: Roman poet, concentrating on mythological and amorous themes (43BC–17AD).
Pattikios: Father of Mani.
Peregrim: Son of Ursio; nephew of Aoric, the King of the Urugundi.
Pericles: Son of Alcibiades; a retainer of the King of the Tarpeites, sharing his first and second names with two famous Athenian politicians of the fifth century BC.
Phanitheus: Friend of Naulobates’ father.
Pharas: Herul of the Rosomoni clan.
Philemuth: Sickly Herul of the Rosomoni clan.
Plato: Athenian philosopher, c. 429–347BC.
Plutarch: Prolific Greek writer of philosophy and biography, c. AD45–125.
Polemon: Marcus Antonius Polemon, c. AD88–144, famous sophist and physiognomist.
Polybius (1): Slave purchased by Ballista in Priene.
Polybius (2): Greek historian of the second century BC, writing about Rome.
Porsenna: Marcus Aurelius Porsenna, haruspex.
Postumus: Marcus Cassianus Latinius Postumus, once governor of Lower Germany, from AD260 Roman emperor of the breakaway ‘Gallic empire’; killer of Gallienus’s son Saloninus.
Potamis: Slave-trader on the Dnieper river who bought and sold Wulfstan.
Pythagoras: Sixth-century BC philosopher.
Pythonissa: Daughter of King Polemo of Suania; a priestess of Hecate.
Rebecca: Jewish slave woman bought by Ballista.
Regulus: Roman herald.
Rhescuporis: Rhescuporis V, King of the Bosporus (c. AD240–76), client of Rome.
Romulus: Legendary founder of Rome.
Roxanne: Concubine of Shapur, captured by Ballista at Soli.
Rudolphus: Herul guide.
Rutilus: Marcus Aurelius Rutilus, Roman army officer, Praetorian Prefect under both Quietus and Ballista; a Roman envoy to the King of Iberia the year before this novel takes place.
Sabinillus: Roman senator; a follower of the philosopher Plotinus.
Safrax: King of the Alani.
Sallust: Roman historian (86–43BC).
Sarus: Leader of a war band of Heruli.
Sasan: Founder of the Sassanid house.
Saurmag: Fourth son of King Polemo of Suania; after a failed coup, an exile among the Alani.
Seneca: Roman philosopher (c. AD1–65).
Septimius Severus: Lucius Septimius Severus, Roman emperor AD193–211.
Shapur (or Sapor) I: Second Sassanid King of Kings, son of Ardashir I.
Simon: Young Jewish boy owned by Ballista.
Solon: Law-giver of the Athenians, c. 600BC.
Sophocles: Athenian tragic playwright of the fifth century BC.
Starkad: Chief of the Angles, grandfather of Ballista.
Strabo: Greek geographer of the Augustan age.
Suartuas: Father of Naulobates, King of the Heruli.
Sulla: Dictator of Rome (c. 138–78BC).
Sunildus: Great-grandfather of Naulobates, King of the Heruli.
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: Suani rescued by Ballista and Calgacus.
Trajan: Marcus Ulpius Trajan, Roman emperor AD98–117.
Turpio: Titus Flavius Turpio, army officer and friend of Ballista; executed by the Sassanids.
Uligagus: War leader of the Heruli.
Ursio: Brother of Aoric, King of the Urugundi.
Valerian: Publius Licinius Valerianus, an elderly Italian senator elevated to Roman emperor in AD253; captured by Shapur I in AD260.
Videric: Son of Fritigern, King of the Borani.
Virgil: Roman national poet (70–19BC).
Visandus: Grandfather of Naulobates, King of the Heruli.
Vultuulf: Gothic gudja (priest), attached by Hisarna to Ballista’s embassy.
Wulfstan: Young Angle slave purchased by Ballista in Ephesus.
Zalmoxis: Sources disagree as to whether he was a god or a mortal. Said to have been worshipped as a god by the Getae for teaching them religious rites, but was thought of as a law-giver by the Thracians.
Zarmarus: Indian ascetic who immolated himself at Athens before Augustus in 19BC. His motives are unknown to the sources.
Zeno: Aulus Voconius Zeno, a Roman equestrian, former governor of Cilicia, and a Studiis to Gallienus, now a Roman emissary to the tribes near the mouth of the Danube.
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The Wolves of the North Page 36
