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Best Roman fiction authors
#16
Is there a word limit to postings? I've written a fairly long posting on the subject of Roman historical fiction (~1000 words), which seems too long for this slot. If it is, is there another spot on the site where it would be appropriate? <p></p><i></i>
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#17
Welcome, Highseas!<br>
<br>
If you like, you can start a new topic on the subject, and no, there's no limit (so far as I know) and we've had some pretty long posts on this board. If you're concerned, you could break up the message into several smaller posts.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Jenny <p></p><i></i>
Cheers,
Jenny
Founder, Roman Army Talk and RomanArmy.com

We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
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#18
Thanks for the welcome, Jenny. I'll start a new topic and send the entire piece. <p></p><i></i>
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#19
I thought that Colleen Mc.Cullough series on Rome… were ver good, as well as her ‘The Song of Troy’.<br>
<br>
Another good one on Egypt is from Wilbur Smith “River Godâ€ÂÂ
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#20
McCullough's books are very good, I've read all hte Roman ones and the Trojan ones. All very entertaining stuff, with the slight problem of over romanticizing on occaisions, that and being, well, wrong about some aspects of her interpetation of first century BC Roman politics. she's got into the lady novelist's trap of falling in love with one of here characters ie Caesar, and this clouds her view on various occasions IIRC (it being sometime since i read the books). this shouldn't put anyone who hasn't read them off, they are very good, factually accurate, just flawed in interpretation IMO <p><i>Unless the Persians fly away like birds, hide in the earth like mice, or leap into a lake like frogs, they will never see their homes again, but will die under our arrows</i></p><i></i>
In the name of heaven Catiline, how long do you propose to exploit our patience..
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#21
Let me throw Damian Hunter into the mix. Anyone else read his Centurion series? Light reading, but I really wonder where his technical sources come from. When did legionaries have a cloth scutum cover? And did centurions wear lorica segmentata in the late first century? <p>Richard<br>
http://www.geocities.com/richsc53/studies/ </p><i></i>
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
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#22
Rich,<br>
<br>
I remember reading a book about two brothers who were soldiers. I think it was called Centurion? Is that the same one you are talking about by Damian Hunter? I thought it might be a series. I can't find anything out there about this book. I would like to pick up where I left off. <p></p><i></i>
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#23
I see on Amazon he only has the three books in this trilogy to his name, and they're all out of print. There seem to be several available used.<br>
1. Centurions<br>
2. Barbarian Princess (shades of Tarnsman of Gore!)<br>
3. The Emperor's Games<br>
<br>
Not too many reviews on Amazon but they're all favorable. <p>Richard<br>
http://www.geocities.com/richsc53/studies/ </p><i></i>
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
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#24
Nobody appears to have mentioned either Bryher or Alfred Duggan. I grew up with these, along with the more familiar Sutcliffe and Treece, and always liked Winter Quarters (the 'survivors of Carrhae' theme pops up here and note the comments about being written for a British audience below!), Three's Company, and Family Favourites by Duggan and Coin of Carthage and Roman Wall by Bryher.<br>
<br>
loki.stockton.edu/~roman/...duggan.htm<br>
loki.stockton.edu/~roman/...bryher.htm<br>
<br>
In my jaded view, most modern writers have a long way to go before they achieve the quality of these two.<br>
<br>
Mike Bishop <p></p><i></i>
You know my method. It is founded upon the observance of trifles

Blogging, tweeting, and mapping Hadrian\'s Wall... because it\'s there
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#25
A search on Amazon US shows Bryher out of print, but available as used books. Duggan does not come up at all. This may be one of those publishing arrangements where the book has never been pubished in the US. Simon Scarrow's book was not published in the US, and Lindsey Davis first appears in the UK and follows in the US some six or more months later.<br>
<br>
Curious that Duggan is only listed in Amazon UK as first publishing this year, and that Winter Quarters is not yet published? <p>Richard<br>
http://www.geocities.com/richsc53/studies/ </p><i></i>
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
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#26
The Roman legionnaries were supposed to have founded a city in China called Li-Gien. I can't remember all the details right now, but last year I did quite a bit of looking up on the subject. The claims, as I remember were in a few case quite tenuous, though on a couple of matters of construction they seemed to have a point, I'll see if I can look that up later if anyone's interested.<br>
<br>
On the subject of these soldiers, a book was written by Andre Norton and Susan Schwartz called "The Empire of the Eagle" it starts off quite well, but then the fantasy takes over so it's not really for people who are just into the history of the period. <p>Veni Vidi Bibi</p><i></i>
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#27
I have a wish. For a novel long read and gone. It was set in the year 406 AD. Stilicho, desperate for troops, had pulled out the last "traditional" Legion from Britain to bolster the Rhine Frontier, promising to return it to Britain once the Crisis had passed. It held the line, but that year the Rhine froze, the Barbarians crossed, and the last of the British Legions perished.<br>
The story was told to the reader by that same Legion's Legate, huddled around a camp-fire in the wreck of the Britain that he knew and had believed in.<br>
A stark if familiar story. One that has stayed in my memory since childhood.<br>
I would be desperately grateful for the author and title of the book in order that I can try tro acquire a copy again. I believed that I had tried all the familiar authors in my search. <p></p><i></i>
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#28
With regard to those lost legions that went to China, you may have heard the archaeological reports from western China of occidentals who have been found mummified there. Apparently settlers who mixed with the indigenous Chinese. Some had red hair and very celtic features. <p>Richard<br>
http://www.geocities.com/richsc53/studies/ </p><i></i>
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
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#29
Some time ago, on this same thread, I too brought up the romans-in-china story. According to the theory many Crassus legionaries that were captured by the Parthians were sent east to defend that part of their domains (this distant placement of prisoners on remote frontiers as on option to roting in prison was frequently used by the Parthians and the later Sassanians). The theory goes that the romans made a run for it. They couldn't go home so they went in the only direction they could: even more East. If you look thru the WEB with a flexible search engine like google you can find some info, but basically it is all speculation. To my knowledge they never did find any tomb with roman-like utensils of these original soldiers or their descendants. Maybe DNA testing could tell us something. It is unfortunate that there isn't any surviving Parthian documentation of what happened to the roman prisoners. Maybe one day some archeologist will find a tomb in some remote place with some engraving in Latin.<br>
<br>
If the chinese inhabitants of the location had Celtic-like features you still mustn't jump to conclusions automatically assuming that the Roman Legionary was short, olive skin and dark hair. As a matter of fact the roman soldiers in the later Republic came more and more from parts of Italy where there were plently of Gaulic genes. Pompey the Great was blonde and even Ceasar wasn't dark (reddish hair?). Just go to a musuem with busts of Republican romans and early empire and you will find plenty of facial types of people that if alive today would have little chance of getting a part on the SOPRANOS. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/ugoffredo.showPublicProfile?language=EN>goffredo</A> at: 8/9/01 12:11:17 pm<br></i>
Jeffery Wyss
"Si vos es non secui of solutio tunc vos es secui of preciptate."
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#30
Thanks for the tip, Jenny! I've been looking for a read like this for a while. My very own 'Roman Woman' is on the way to me as I write, courtesy of good old Amazon. <p></p><i></i>
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