Publius Vedius Pollio died in 15 B.C., leaving all his property to the emperor Augustus in the hope that this would preserve his memory. Augustus did not fulfill that hope: he not only razed Pollio’s house on the Esquiline but he built a shopping mall on the site—the Portico Livia, named after his own wife. Titus Statilius Taurus probably died not too long afterward, though he left descendants—a granddaughter, Statilia Messallina, was the third wife of Nero. Lucius Tarius Rufus may have survived to be curator aquarum in A.D. 23–4 (though this has been questioned and it does seem inherently unlikely for a man who was old enough to hold command at Actium in 31 B.C.).
My defensive comments this time are:
1) Female gladiators are not a feminist invention. There are plenty of references to them in ancient literature, and some representations in art. It’s clear they were never as common as male gladiators, but they were by no means unheard of.
2) Yes, there were Celts in Spain. The northern part of the Iberian Peninsula was, and still is, a different world from the South.
3) The Romans did ban the “Egyptian cult” in the city of Rome: contrary to the belief that they tolerated everyone except Christians, they fairly regularly took steps to suppress cults they viewed as undesirable, though usually just in a local and sporadic fashion.
4) Hermogenes’ comments on Cleopatra and the war of Actium are an attempt to imagine the opinions of an Alexandrian of the period, but they are not factually inaccurate.
5) Augustus did indeed describe his foundation of the empire as the restoration of the republic. (Politicians!)
6) Please remember that this book is set in 16 B.C. Most accounts of the city describe it as it was a century later.
For those who would like to know more about the principate of Augustus, the best primary sources are Dio Cassius, Suetonius, and the beginning of Tacitus’s Annals. Readers familiar with the history of Rome in the early empire have probably already recognized the influence of two classic secondary sources of Roman historiography: Jerome Carcopino’s Daily Life in Ancient Rome and Ronald Syme’s Roman Revolution. Readers unfamiliar with these works, but interested in learning more, might like to have a look at them. (Carcopino is eminently readable; Syme is aphoristic and brilliant, but extremely heavy going.)
The Wolf Hunt
The Sand-Reckoner
Island of Ghosts
Cleopatra’s Heir
About the Author
Gillian Bradshaw’s historical novel The Sand-Reckoner won the 2001 Alex Award. She is the daughter of an Associated Press reporter and a confidential secretary to the British embassy. Rather than join the Diplomatic Service after getting her master’s in classics from Cambridge, Gillian married a physicist, had four children, and began writing historicals (not necessarily in that order). She currently lives in Coventry with her husband, children, garden, and dog. When she’s not writing, she cooks and reads, goes for hikes in the countryside, travels around the world with her family, and sings in a choral society.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
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Edited by Claire Eddy
A Forge Book
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First Edition: August 2003
eISBN 9781429971140
First eBook edition: July 2013