Адриан Голдсуорти: The Encircling Sea

In recent decades far more Iron Age sites have been discovered in Ireland, but it is fair to say that we still know a good deal less than we should like about life there during this period. There are echoes of it in later literature, most notably the Ulster Cycle with its chariot-riding heroes, but it is very hard to say how much real history lies in the stories. The ‘Place of Kings’ in the story is inspired by Tara in County Meath, which, like Navan Fort in Armagh, figures in the later poetry. It is a huge complex of monuments, some very ancient even in the Iron Age, and how it was used and by whom is hard to reconstruct. I have taken tribal names from the Greek Geographer Ptolemy, but it is hard to say how accurate his information was.

The same is true of all our literary sources for the Highlands and islands of Scotland. The tower that Ferox and the others take and hold is one of those remarkable dry-stone buildings often known as brochs, of which some of the most splendid are on Shetland. The name came from Norse and goes back to a time when it was thought that these were forts built by the Vikings. Now it is clear that they were much earlier, and part of a wider style of building that appeared in islands and on the western coast of Scotland and occasionally further afield. In some cases it is hard to tell from the existing remains whether the structure was originally lower, forming what archaeologists would call a complex roundhouse. In either case these were buildings for more than a single family, and were strong statements of power. Yet they do not seem designed primarily for defence, and there is a good deal about them that we simply do not understand.

The island occupied by the pirates is fictional, although there are examples of broch-towers built out on islands in lakes. Similarly the idea of a woman warrior teaching young heroes how to fight comes from the Irish poems, which seems to place it all somewhere off the coast of Scotland. The historian in me considers it unlikely; we might remember Greek heroes supposedly going off to be instructed by a centaur, so such romantic invention is a feature of other heroic myths. The novelist is quite happy to take a good story and use it, at least as long as it cannot be proven to be nonsense.

The Roman Army

This is a vast subject, but it is worth making a few points for those new to the topic. In AD 100 the Roman army consisted of twenty-eight legions – two more would soon be added by Trajan – each with a paper strength of some 5,000 men. Each one was divided into ten cohorts of heavy infantry and had a small contingent of some 120 horsemen. Legionaries were Roman citizens. This was a legal status without any ethnic basis and by this time there were over four million Roman citizens scattered throughout the empire. We may think of St Paul, a Jew from Tarsus in Asia Minor, but a Roman citizen and entitled to all the legal advantages that brought.

Supporting the legions were the auxiliaries who were not citizens, but received citizenship at the end of their military service. These were organised as independent cohorts of infantry and similarly sized cohorts of cavalry. There were also the mixed cohorts ( cohortes equitatae ) like the Batavians, which included both infantry and cavalry in a 4 to 1 ratio. Legionaries and auxiliaries alike served for twenty-five years. Most were volunteers, although conscription did occur and was probably especially common with some auxiliary units.

We know a good deal about the Roman army, about its equipment, organisation, command structure, tactics, ranks and routine, although it must be emphasised that there are also many gaps in our knowledge. As a historian, it is my duty to stress what we do not know, but a novelist cannot do this and must invent in order to fill in these gaps. Some aspects of the depiction of the Roman army in these books may surprise some readers, but often this will be because some of the evidence for it is not well known outside academic circles. I have invented as little as possible, and always done my best to base it on what we do know. As an introduction to the army, I am vain enough to recommend my own The Complete Roman Army , published by Thames and Hudson. I would also say that anything by the late Peter Connolly is also well worth a look. Once again for more specific recommendations, I refer readers to my website – adriangoldsworthy.com.

aquilifer : the man who carried the eagle standard (or aquila ) of a legion.

ala : a regiment of auxiliary cavalry, roughly the same size as a cohort of infantry. There were two types: ala quingenaria consisting of 512 men divided into sixteen turmae ; and ala milliaria consisting of 768 men divided into twenty-four turmae .

aureus(pl. aurei) : a gold coin equal to 25 silver denarii.

auxilia/auxiliaries:over half of the Roman army was recruited from non-citizens from all over (and even outside) the empire. These served as both infantry and cavalry and gained citizenship at the end of their twenty-five years of service.

barritus : Germanic battle cry that began as a low rumble of voices and rose to a crescendo.

Batavians:an offshoot of the Germanic Chatti, who fled after a period of civil war, the Batavians settled on what the Romans called the Rhine island in modern Holland. Famous as warriors, their only obligation to the empire was to provide soldiers to serve in Batavian units of the auxilia . Writing around the time of our story, the historian Tacitus described them as ‘like armour and weapons – only used in war’.

Brigantes:a large tribe or group of tribes occupying much of what would become northern England. Several sub-groups are known, including the Textoverdi and Carvetii (whose name may mean ‘stag people’).

bulla : pendant worn by Roman boys until they formally came of age.

burgus : a small outpost manned by detached troops rather than a formal unit.

canabae : the civilian settlements that rapidly grew up outside almost every Roman fort. The community had no formal status and was probably under military jurisdiction.

centurion:a grade of officer rather than a specific rank, each legion had some sixty centurions, while each auxiliary cohort had between six and ten. They were highly educated men and were often given posts of great responsibility. While a minority were commissioned after service in the ranks, most were directly commissioned or served only as junior officers before reaching the centurionate.

centurio regionarius : a post attested in the Vindolanda tablets, as well as elsewhere in Britain and other provinces. They appear to have been officers on detached service placed in control of an area. A large body of evidence from Egypt shows them dealing with criminal investigations as well as military and administrative tasks.

classis : in general the Roman navy or fleet, but also used for specific sections of it, such as the classis Britannica, which better translates as flotilla or squadron.

cohort:the principal tactical unit of the legions. The first cohort consisted of 800 men in five double-strength centuries, while cohorts two to ten were composed of 480 men in six centuries of eighty. Auxiliaries were either formed in milliary cohorts of 800 or more often quingeniary cohorts of 480. Cohortes equitatae or mixed cohorts added 240 and 120 horsemen respectively. These troopers were paid less and given less expensive mounts than the cavalry of the alae .