Harry Sidebottom - Blood and Steel

Seven Hills : Metonym for Rome, from the seven hills on which the city was said to have been built; ancient lists, however, do not agree on their identity.

Shahba : Village on the border of Syria Phoenice and Arabia ; some miles north of the modern town of Bosra on the southern Syrian border.

Sicilia : Ancient name for the island of Sicily.

Sicoris : Ancient name for the Segre river, a tributary of the Ebro in northeastern Spain.

Simulacrum : Latin, ‘imitation’.

Sin : Ancient Assyrian moon god worshipped at Carrhae; husband of Nikal.

Singara : Highly fortified eastern outpost of the Roman empire in northern Iraq; modern Balad Sinjar.

Sirmium : Strategic border town in Pannonia Inferior ; modern Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia.

Sistan : Ancient region in eastern Iran and southern Afghanistan.

Sogdia : Ancient region to the north of Bactria, centred around Samarkand in modern Uzbekistan.

Sogdian Rock : A mountain fortress in Sogdia, captured by Alexander the Great in 328/7BC.

Sophist : A high-status teacher, usually of rhetoric; the sophists often travelled from city to city giving instruction and delivering speeches for entertainment.

Spatha : Long Roman sword, primarily designed for cutting; increasingly popular in the third century AD.

Speculatores : Roman army scouts and spies.

Stadium of Domitian : A running track originally intended for Greek-style athletic contests (never popular in Rome), constructed by the Emperor Domitian in the Campus Martius ; its outline is preserved in the modern Piazza Navona.

Statii : Members of the Statius family.

Stationarii : Soldiers serving on semi-permanent detachment from their units for local policing and other duties.

Statue of Victory : Statue of the goddess placed at the far end of the Curia; before each meeting of the Senate, rituals were performed at the accompanying altar.

Stoic : Ancient school of philosophy; followers were instructed to believe that everything that does not affect one’s moral purpose is an irrelevance; so poverty, illness, bereavement and death cease to be things to fear and are treated with indifference.

Street of the Sandal-makers : Street in ancient Rome running behind the Forum of Augustus and Temple of Peace.

Stylus : Pointed implement of metal or bone, used for writing in wax.

Styx : River marking the border of Hades in Greek mythology; impassable to the living, the dead were rowed across.

Subura : Poor quarter in the city of Rome.

Succurrite : Latin, ‘help me, save me’.

Suffect Consul : One of the additional Consuls appointed later in the year by the Emperors during the Principate; less prestigious than the pair of Consuls who held office at the start of the year.

Symposium : Greek drinking party, adopted as social gathering of choice by the Roman elite.

Synodiarchs : Greek term for a caravan protector, the unusual group of rich and powerful men historically known in Palmyra and in this novel in the city of Arete.

Syria Coele : Hollow Syria, Roman province.

Syria Palestina : Palestinian Syria, Roman province.

Syria Phoenice : Phoenician Syria, Roman province.

Syriac : Semitic language spoken in much of ancient Syria and Mesopotamia.

Syrtes : In antiquity, notoriously dangerous shoals off the coast of modern Libya.

Taenarus : The modern Cape Matapan on the southern shore of the Peloponnese; site of a cave believed to be an entrance to Hades.

Tantalus : In Greek mythology, punished eternally for stealing the food and drink of the gods by being forced to stand in a pool below a fruit tree, but unable to eat or drink.

Tarraco : Capital of the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis ; modern Tarragona in northeastern Spain.

Tarpeian Rock : Cliff overlooking the Forum Romanum in Rome, from which prisoners were thrown to their deaths.

Telamon : Modern Talamone on the northwestern shore of Italy.

Temple of Antoninus and Faustina : Temple dedicated to the deified Emperor Antoninus Pius and his wife Faustina, at the northeastern corner of the Forum Romanum ; much of the ancient building survives as the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda.

Temple of Peace : Monumental building with planted courtyard north- east of the Roman Forum.

Temple of Veiovis : The ancients were unsure whether this deity represented a youthful or ‘bad’ Jupiter; the temple, originally built by Romulus, overlooked the Forum Romanum from high ground to the west.

Temple of Venus and Rome : Temple designed by the Emperor Hadrian with back-to-back shrines for Venus, Roman goddess of love, and Rome, a deified personification of the city. In Latin, Roma (Rome) spelled backwards is amor , love. Situated east of the Roman Forum on the north side of the Sacred Way.

Tempus fugit : Latin, ‘time flies’.

Tervingi : Gothic tribe living between the Danube and Dnieper rivers.

Testudo : Latin, literally ‘tortoise’; by analogy, a Roman infantry formation with overlapping shields, giving overhead protection.

Thamugadi : Or Timgad, Roman city in northeastern Algeria; abandoned after antiquity.

Cyclades : Island group in the Aegean sea, named from the Greek for circle, because they form a group around the island of Delos, sacred in antiquity.

Thesprotis : Ancient region of northwestern Greece.

Thessalian persuasion : Ancient proverb of obscure origins.

Theveste : Town in northwestern Africa Proconsularis ; modern Tébessa in Tunisia.

Thrace : Roman province to the northeast of Greece.

Thracians : People from the ancient geographical region of Thrace, the southeastern corner of the Balkans.

Thugga : Or Dougga, major Roman city in Africa Proconsularis ; abandoned after antiquity.

Thysdrus : Town in central Africa Proconsularis ; modern El Djem in Tunisia.

Tibur : Ancient town northeast of Rome popular as a hill resort; modern Tivoli.

Toga Virilis : Garment given to mark a Roman’s coming of age; usually at about fourteen.

Toga : Voluminous garment, reserved for Roman citizens, worn on formal occasions.

Tresviri Monetales : Literally, ‘Three men of the mint’ board of junior magistrates responsible for the coinage.

Tribune : Title of a junior senatorial post at Rome and of various military officers; some commanded auxiliary units, while others were mid-ranking officers in the Legions.