Thea is a fictional character, but her background at Masada is real enough. An entire city of Jewish rebels committed suicide there rather than submit to Roman rule, and only a handful survived. I wondered what kind of survivor’s guilt would manifest from surviving such a horrific experience, and so Thea was born. Lepida Pollia and Marcus Norbanus are also fictional creations, but many of the others are based upon fact. Emperor Domitian did take his niece Julia as a mistress until she supposedly died of a botched abortion; her continued existence as a Vestal Virgin is my own creation, though such an escape would have been far more difficult than I have implied here, given that the Vestals were chosen as children with much pomp and public ceremony. However, Domitian did execute several Vestals during his reign in the manner described, for the crime of breaking their vows. His second niece Flavia (in reality Julia’s cousin and not her half-sister) was eventually exiled to Pandateria as a convicted Christian, her husband executed and the fate of their two young sons unknown. Domitian was often attended at the games by a young boy garbed in a red tunic, leading to the character of Vix. There was a Praetorian Prefect Norbanus whose role in Domitian’s assassination is prominent but unclear, and his death unknown. The Empress was also a conspirator; she did discover a death warrant with her name upon it, which prompted her to put the assassination forward, and she did manage to live to a virtuous old age after her husband’s death. Domitian’s principal assassin was a slave of Lady Flavia’s, a man named Stephanus who smuggled a knife into the Imperial presence in a sling. History proclaims that he died after a bloody struggle with the Emperor; in my imagination he became the gladiator Arius instead, and escaped to a happier life. I have taken some liberties with the games as depicted in Mistress of Rome: The Roman gladiatorial games were every bit as violent as described, but there were strict rules that would have prevented Arius from fighting one against six, or unarmored against wild beasts, or against women. Fik Meijer’s excellent book The Gladiators: History’s Most Deadly Sport proved invaluable in providing details about the games, as A. J. Boyle’s Flavian Rome, Michael Grant’s The Twelve Caesars, Brian Jones’s Emperor Domitian, and Matthew Bunson’s Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire proved invaluable for their descriptions of Domitian and the empire he ruled.
Domitian is remembered poorly as the last of the Flavian dynasty, an ill successor to his great brother and father. But his reign led smoothly into Rome’s golden age, eighty years of prosperity beginning with the fussy Senator Nerva and the glorious soldier Trajan. Thea and Arius will find their mountain and raise their family in peace, so their story is done. But Sabina has an interesting life ahead of her, and Rome is not done with Vix, either.
Characters
ROYALTY
*Titus Flavius Domitianus, Emperor of the Roman Empire
*Empress Domitia Longina, his wife
*Julia Flavia, daughter of Domitian’s brother Titus from his second marriage
*Flavia Domitilla, daughter of Domitian’s brother Titus from his first marriage; Julia’s half-sister
*Flavius Clemens, her husband
*Their two sons
*Gaius Titus Flavius, Domitian’s cousin, Julia’s husband
SENATORS AND THEIR FAMILIES
Marcus Vibius Augustus Norbanus, Roman senator, grandson of Emperor Augustus
Lepida Pollia, his second wife
*Vibia Sabina, their daughter
*Paulinus Vibius Augustus Norbanus, Praetorian, Marcus’s son from first marriage
*Lappius Maximus Norbanus, governor of Lower Germania, Marcus’s cousin
Lady Diana, Marcus’s cousin
*Senator Marcus Cocceius Nerva
SLAVES AND SERVANTS
Thea, a Jewish slave belonging to Lepida Pollia
Vercingetorix, slave boy
*Stephanus, gardener to Lady Flavia Domitilla
Penelope, freedwoman to Praetor Larcius
Nessus, Imperial astrologer
Quintus, steward to Marcus Norbanus
Iris, Lepida’s maid
Laelia, Roman courtesan
Chloe, slave woman of Praetor Larcius
GLADIATORS
Arius, gladiator and slave
Gallus, lanista, Arius’s master and owner of a gladiator school, and his gladiators
Belleraphon, star gladiator
Hercules, dwarf and comic gladiator
SOLDIERS
Centurion Densus, Paulinus’s commander in Brundisium
Verus, Praetorian, Paulinus’s friend
*Marcus Ulpius Trajan, legion commander
ROMANS
Quintus Pollio, games organizer, father of Lepida Pollia
Larcius, praetor and music aficionado of Brundisium
*Saturninus, governor of Upper Germania
Justina, Vestal Virgin
Calpurnia Helena Sulpicia, patrician heiress
*denotes actual historical figure