You see, the collapse of the arena at Fidena isn’t something we made up. It actually happened. Atilius’s arena was built too big, too quickly and the cost of this was one of the worst disasters to befall an amphitheatre in the history of the games.
Cornelius Tacitus, a well-known senator and historian of the time, recorded the event as follows:
In the consulate of Marcus Licinius and Lucius Calpurnius the casualties of some great war was equaled by an unexpected disaster. It began and ended in a moment. A certain Atilius, of the freedman class, who had begun an amphitheater at Fidena, in order to give a gladiatorial show, failed both to lay the foundation in solid ground and to secure the fastenings of the wooden structure above…the gravity of the catastrophe, as the unwieldy construct was packed with people when it collapsed, breaking inward or sagging outward, and precipitating and burying a vast crowd of human beings, intent on the spectacle or just standing around…fifty thousand persons were maimed or crushed to death in the disaster.
It’s now generally believed that the fifty thousand number is a bit high, but certainly in the tens of thousands were injured and killed. When we read about the collapse, it was immediately apparent that this—which happened to occur in the very year we’d set our novel—had to be the life-altering moment for our heroes (and everyone around them).
And it is things like this that make writing historical romance so exhilarating. Because we get to bring that to life, in the present, when most people would never know the event in question ever happened. We hope you enjoyed our tale. Thank you for reading!
Fae and Marguerite
About the Authors
Fae’s bio: Fae Sutherland has always dreamed of being a published author, starting her writing career at age 11 with a series of short stories so bad only a 6th-grader could have written them. Today, she has progressed to more serious writing, though always keeping that dash of irreverence and fun (and a hell of a lot more heat!).
Fae prefers writing with her coauthor Marguerite Labbe best. Between them they are the award-winning authors of multiple novels, novellas and short stories (both jointly written and solo) and continue to have more ideas than they can ever possibly write.
When Fae’s not working on new stories to make her readers sweat, she spends her time on website design, too much time on Twitter, and watching oodles of Food Network with her beloved life partner. If there’s any time left over, it’s spent snuggling the cat.
Marguerite’s bio: Marguerite Labbe has been accused of being eccentric and a shade neurotic, both of which she freely admits to, but her muse has OCD tendencies, so who can blame her? Her husband and son do an excellent job keeping her toeing the line, though. Together with her coauthor Fae Sutherland, Marguerite has found a shared passion for beautiful men with smart mouths.
When she’s not working hard on writing new material and editing completed work, she spends her time reading novels of all genres, enjoying role-playing games with her equally nutty friends and trying to plot practical jokes against her son and husband. Her son is learning the tricks too quickly and likes to retaliate. You’d think she’d learn.
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ISBN: 978-1-4268-9229-5
Copyright © 2011 by Fae Sutherland and Marguerite Labbe
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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The Gladiator’s Master Page 28
