As you must have heard, wherever you are, Heliogabalus was killed by the Praetorians on March 11, for his excesses and his dishonor of the Senate and people of Roma. That is the official reason for the murder. Whatever other causes there might be, they are spoken only in whispers. His young cousin Gessius, or to use his optimistic reigning name, Marcus Aurelius Severs Alexander, is now elevated to the purple, to the delight of his mother. Julia Mamaea has a steadier hand than. Julia Soaemias. The boy may last longer. Roma is wary of this child, but relief is everywhere. Even Roma was growing weary of Heliogabalus’ unchecked dissipation.
There is so much I want to say to you, but as I try to express all that is in my thoughts and my heart, I cannot find the words I seek. If you and I were conversing, it might be possible to convey all I want to you. For you, who have known me better than anyone, since I cannot see you, cannot touch you, cannot hear your voice, I am mute. I ask you to pardon my stillness. You, of all men, must comprehend the reason for it. If ever you return to Roma and I am still here, I ask you to visit me, so that I may impart what I cannot express in words. Until that time, may Mercury, Neptune, Fortuna, and your gods protect you, and may Fraus and the waters of Phlegethon remain far from you.
With affection and devotion,
Pax Ignatia Laelius
by the hand of Felifanus, the scribe
EPILOGUE
Text of a letter from Ragoczy Germain Sanctus-Franciscus at Vindobona to Atta Olivia Clemens at Emona, carried by private courier.
To my long-cherished Atta Olivia Clemens, Ragoczy Germain Sanctus-Franciscus, as I am known here, sends greetings.
I have your letter of January 7th with me, which, I am pleased to say, has actually reached me after going through Alexandria and Narona to arrive in Vindobona, where I am staying at present. I have acquired a house and suited it to my needs. It is far from lavish, but it is sturdy and the roof does not leak.
Out here at the edge of the Roman Empire, I am struck with the hard life these people are willing to tolerate all for the privilege of calling themselves citizens of Roma. This city may have walls and a Legion, but it is little more than a typical border village, a rough place under constant threat of attack from beyond the frontier. Those foolish enough to go beyond the city gates may take their lives in their hands, as many reckless Romans have learned. There are times going out of the house is enough to bring mortal danger upon one. Just a month ago, the factor of the Legion here was found beaten to death on a dung-heap, not ten paces from the Legion barracks.
Rotiger is with me still; he has this household—limited though it is—well within his command, and he has gained the trust of the local merchants in all his dealings with them, so that what few luxuries reach this place, we have first claim on them, foreigners or not.
I am enclosing with this a few new jewels toward any costs that you may encounter in pressing your claims on your Roman property when you return there next spring. I am assuming you are still planning on such a journey, and that you will find the decuriae of Roma as avaricious as I did. Think of it as a return on your generosity to me during my stay there, a decade ago.
Speaking of that time, last month I was delivered a message informing me that Melidulci has succumbed to fever and has had her body burned, supposedly in tribute to the customs of the old Republic. She left a goblet to me, as a remembrance of her, which surprised me, given her protestations of no strong attachment. It may be that over time, her affection increased, or her memories may have altered her understanding of what we had in our time together.
That does concern me, now and again. I think my memories are true, and I rely upon them to be so. Yet over the centuries, my vision of them has changed, and I occasionally fear they will become so distorted that I can no longer depend on what I recall. It is those times when I value you most deeply, for you and I share almost two centuries of memories. Between you and Rotiger, I know I will not lose my link to the past, or not completely, and that gives me solace that I thought I would never know again. From the deepest chamber of my unbeating heart, I thank you for that, and for your constant love, which I return in full measure until the True Death consigns me to the realm of memories.
Ragoczy Germain Sanctus-Franciscus
(his sigil, the eclipse)
by my own hand on November 11th, in the 983rd Roman Year
Author’s Note
This novel is set in the period of Roman history called the Decadence, which began about 160 AD, a distinction it richly deserved: social conventions had become lax; the bureaucracy was increasingly corrupt, due in large part to the privatizing of most of the civil service; the nobility were competing in luxury and excess, and were rarely held accountable for their overindulgence, either legally or politically; the Emperors were more often than not puppets for powerful families and influential plutocrats; maintenance of Roman roads, the most successful communication routes in the ancient world, was reduced or abandoned even as the Romans struggled to hold their borders; the Legions, once the heart of Roman strength, now filled their ranks with client-nation soldiers and gave high rank positions to mercenaries; the standards of education and language-use had declined and the quality of linguistic communication and literary expression was eroding; public entertainments, from the arena to the stage, were violent, sensationalistic, and debauched. The attempt to maintain a society of laws was giving way to one of political and commercial influence, and all the while the gulf between rich and poor was widening, and the legal rights of women and slaves were diminishing steadily.
On top of that, the upper classes were experiencing the genetic consequences of generations of cooking in lead-lined pots: all manner of problems from decreased birth rates to myriad physical and mental infirmities took a rising toll on those families long used to occupying positions of authority in the Empire. Even the middle-class—what there was of it—had begun to erode its generational health; for in an attempt to appear more wealthy and of higher rank than they were, many successful middle-class families sprinkled their food with powdered lead so that their food would taste as if they could afford lead pots.
Despite all these depredations from within, and although there were barbarian tribes worrying away at the edges of the Roman Empire, it still reached from the Middle East to the Atlantic Ocean, from Britain to north Africa. The first signs of a distinct east-west split were starting to develop by the time of this novel, the third century of the Christian calendar, or the tenth century of the Roman one.
At the time, Christianity was only one of many non-Roman religions gaining adherents; Mithraism was particularly popular among the Roman military, and Isis-worship was gaining supporters among Roman women as the power of the Vestal Virgins waned. Fortune-tellers and sybils had thriving clienteles in many parts of the Empire, as did any number of regional pagan practices. Christianity itself was sharply divided between the Peterine groups—who maintained most Jewish traditions but held their wives in common, in a kind of group marriage, and celebrated communal suppers—and Paulists—who did not practice strict Judaism, organized their followers hierarchically, exhorted nonbelievers in the streets, and physically attacked those they considered to be sinners, including Peterine Christians. This bipartisan rivalry was relentlessly competitive—much like siblings attempting to attract the favorable attention of a distant and baffling parent—and garnered a marked degree of public disapproval, a stance that only served to intensify both groups of Christians in a more determined practice of their versions of their faith in a display of resolve that increased the Roman condemnation of their religious beliefs as seditious.
The position of non-Romans was becoming precarious due to the barbarian incursions on Roman borders, to say nothing of Rome’s increasing dependence on foreign trade. As the Empire entered its slow collapse, this first showed in the progressively aleatory postures of the internal administration of the Empire toward foreigners, especially those of substance. This was reflected in mercurial enforcement of t
axation, the arbitrary enactment of customs regulations regarding imported goods, and demands of double and triple payment for such services as private security and civic repairs.
In his short, hectic reign, Heliogabalus did nothing to stop the erosion of the Roman Empire—in fact, through his systematic debasement of Roman coinage, he did a fair amount to speed it along—encouraged and abetted by the real authorities behind him: his mother and grandmother. Not that he didn’t have a talent for surfeit and dissipation—he most certainly did, and he paid dearly for it. He was not alone in his avaricious exploitation of Rome and the Roman people; following Marcus Aurelius, Rome had few emperors with either the skill or the intention to secure the Empire until Constantine shifted the seat of power from Rome to Byzantium—renaming this city for himself: Constantinople—and laid the foundation for the collapse of the West.
As in Blood Games, I have kept the names of historical persons in traditional Roman order, but for fictional characters, I have put their family names last, as is the present style, for the sake of clarity, and to keep confusion to a minimum. For those familiar with Roman traditions of nomenclature, I ask your indulgence for this lapse in historicity.
Thanks are due to John Conner for information on the city of Rome during this period, and the shifts in Latin structure and vocabulary of the time; to Agatha Dermond for the use of her superb library on daily life in late-Imperial Rome, including extensive records on food and clothing; to David Lindenthal for allowing me to use his references on Roman roads and aqueducts of the period; to James Melchior for providing information on Roman government, laws, customs, and tax codes; and to Tracy Smith for sharing her material on the state of Roman provinces and borders in the third century. Errors and misinterpretations are mine, not theirs, and their help is much appreciated.
Also I would like to thank Lisa Eamons, Christine Sullivan, and Scott Wye, my clarity readers, at whose suggestion I have put a glossary of Roman terms at the back; to Libba Campbell and Gregory Huang, who read it for content; to the Canadian Chapter of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, particularly Elizabeth Miller, and the Lord Ruthven Assembly, including all those who contributed to Forgotten Gems of Horror Fiction, for all their enthusiasm for this series of books; to Charlie and Peggy, Gaye, Megan, Steve, Maureen, Randy in absentia, Brian, and Alice; to Wiley Saichek for all the Internet work; to Paula Guran for getting my new Web site up and running (chelseaquinnyarbro.net); and to the Yahoo chat group. On the publishing side, thanks to Melissa Singer, my editor at Tor, and to her boss, Tom Doherty, for steadfastness. Last, thanks to you, the bookstore owners and the readers, for your ongoing support for Saint-Germain and this series—it wouldn’t continue without you.
CHELSEA QUINN YARBRO
Berkeley, California
17 July, 2005
By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro from Tom Doherty Associates
Ariosto
Better in the Dark
Blood Games
Blood Roses
Borne in Blood
A Candle for D’Artagnan
Come Twilight
Communion Blood
Dark of the Sun
Darker Jewels
A Feast in Exile
A Flame in Byzantium
Hotel Transylvania
Mansions of Darkness
Out of the House of Life
The Palace
Path of the Eclipse
Roman Dusk
States of Grace
Writ in Blood
Gazetteer and Glossary
a before the entry indicates an actual place or thing
GAZETTEER
Achaea—the Greek Peloponnese
Aegyptus—Egypt
Alexandria—port city in Egypt
Antioch—port city in Roman Syria
Aquitania—Roman province, southwestern modern France
Arabian Sea—still there
Armenia—northeast Turkey today
Asiana—Roman province; western Turkey today
Asisium—modem Assisi
Aventinus Hill—on the south side of Roma
Barbary—north Africa
Basilica Julia—Roman civil courts and records building
Belearus Isolae—islands off southern Spain
Bithynia—Roman Middle-Eastern province
Bononia—Italian town, Bologna today
Britannia—Britain
Brundisium—modern Brindisi
Byzantium—Roman city; later Constantinople, now modern Istanbul
Caelianus Hill—on the southeast side of Roma
Capitolinus Hill—upper class Roman hill, west side of the Old Walls
Cappadocia—northwestern Turkey today
Carpathian Mountains—Hsh-hook shaped range in modern Romania
Chios—Greek Island; still there
Circus Maximus—chariot-racing and gladiatorial arena—older than the Flavian Circus
Cnossus—port on Crete
Cos—town famous for linen
Greta—Greek Island of Crete today
Dacia—modem-day Transylvania and Moldavia
Emona—city near the Austro-Croatian border today
Esquilinus Hill—on the eastern side of the city
Fars—northeastern Iran today
Flavian Circus—we call it the Colosseum today
Florentia—Florence now
Forum Agricolarum—the farmers’ market
Forum Emporiarum—warehouse market
Forum Romanum—civic center for Roma
Gallia Belgica—Belgium and most of central France today; one of the Three Parts Gaul is divided into
Germania Inferior—northern Holland and northwestern Germany
Germania Superior—southern Germany, Switzerland, and Austria
Golden House—Nero’s personal palace
Hind—India
Hydruntum—small harbor on the heel of Italy’s boot
Iberia—Spain
Illyricum—most of present day western Serbia and Croatia
Judaea—roughly modern Israel and part of Jordan
Litigianus Prison—Roman jail for minor offenders (as compared to the Mamertinus Prison)
lupanar—Roman red-light district
Luxor—city in Egypt
Macedonia—northwestern region in Greece
Mamertinus Prison—major Roman prison for major felons
Mare Internum—the Mediterranean Sea
Mare Nostrum—Roman nickname for the Mediterranean, meaning Our Sea
Mare Tyrrhenum—sea west of Ostia and southern Italy
Miletus—Asianian port
Misenum—north-northwest of Neapolis
Moesia—region in the southern Carpathians, between Dacia and Thracia
Naissus—Balkan territory
Narbo—southern French port
Narona—Dalmatian port
Nepete—town north of Roma
Neapolis—modern Naples
Nile—a river in Egypt
Odessus—modern Odessa on the Black Sea
Palatinus Hill—Roman upper-class hill
Pannonia Inferior—mostly modern western Hungary
Pannonia Superior—mostly modern Croatia and eastern Austria
Pergamum—Asianan spa town
Persia—today southern Iran
Phoenicia—trading port in Middle East
Pincius Hill—on the north side of the city
Porta Caelinus—Roman gate on the southeast side of the city
Porta Nova—Roman gate, immediately south of the Praetorian Camp
Porta Ostiensis—gate on the south side of Roma, just east of the Tibrus
Porta Pinciana—one of three north-facing gates; this one was under the Virgo Aquaduct
Porta Viminalis—Roman gate, immediately north of the Praetorian Camp
Pyrgi—beach-town northwest of Roma
Quirinalis Hill—northern Roman hi
ll
Ravenna—Roman city on the Adriatic
Roma—the Eternal City
Salonae—on the Dalmatian Coast
Sapientia—Olivia0146’s villa in Vesontio
Stone Tower—east/west merchants’ center in southeast Persia
Syria—Syria
Tarrraco-port city in Iberia (Spain)
Tarsus—port in present-day Turkey
Temple of Hercules—pagan temple in Roma
Temple of Imhotep-temple in Egypt
Temple of Isis—small pagan temple in Roma
Thessalonika—Macedonian city-state
Thracia—northeastern Greece
Tibrus—in earlier days, the Tiberis Flumen, today the Tevere
Vesontio—Roman town in Gallia Belgica
Vetera Castra—city in Germanca Superior
Via Appia—probably the most famous Roman road
Via Castrum—Roman street
Via Cingula—beltway on the east of Roma
Via Decius Claudii—the street of the Laelius’ house in Roma
Via Ostiensis—the road from Roma to Ostia
Via Philomena—in Vesontio, Gallia Belgica
Via Subura—Roman major street leading to the Forum Romanum