Author’s note

 

THE final year of Caesar’s Gallic wars presents an author with several difficulties. The main first-hand account was not written by Caesar himself, as the previous seven had been, but by one of his senior officers – Aulus Hirtius. The style is noticeably different, and we are led to question whether such an account might be more objective, or perhaps less. Moreover, the events described in the book cover the period of 51-50BC, rather than a single campaigning season, which drags out into political meanderings. Since I was concerned here with only the first year, I have had to take only part of Hirtius’ story – no bad thing in my opinion. And while there is one great event in this year, much of it merges into a banal blur of siege and suppression so repetitive and unimportant that even Hirtius cannot be bothered to go into detail, such as describing the sieges or even naming the towns. Thus I was faced with trying to make the Gallic campaign side of the book interesting without Fronto’s involvement or too many really bloody battles.

I chose to use Varus as the main military protagonist in this novel as he and his cavalry could appear in almost every place of interest in the campaign, allowing us to see it largely from a single viewpoint. Plus, of course, Varus is an old hand. This is his eighth outing and everyone knows him. Much of the year in Hirtius’ writing, then, is fairly tepid, then suddenly the second greatest siege of the war appears in the summer, following which things peter out and Caesar goes off on a jolly, exploring the hills and valleys of Southwest France. So the story needed to end at Uxellodunum, as far as I was concerned.

A quick note on Uxellodunum: some of this is largely conjectural. Since the exact location of the Cadurci oppidum is still highly contested, there is no ground evidence to back up Hirtius’ writing. The oft-accepted site is near the town of Vayrac in the Dordogne, though there are many strong voices also placing it at Capdenac on the Lot. Neither fits exactly with Hirtius’ description, but both are close enough to stake a good claim and, after all, if we accept Alise Saint Reine as the site of Alesia, then Caesar’s description doesn’t quite match up either. Leeway simply has to be given. Thus my description of Uxellodunum is a mix of Hirtius’ description and the physical landscape of the Vayrac site.

What did Lucterius hope to do with this last year of revolt? This question was what led me to build the plot of book 8. For the simple fact was that the tribes were beaten and having fought at Alesia, Lucterius has to have known how utterly useless a new revolt would be with only his new small confederation of tribes. Thus I have tried to build on the idea that he had a grander plan – that there was still some hope that he could rebuild what had been destroyed the previous year. I gave Lucterius a great scheme to drive out Rome, raise the southern tribes and retrieve their captive king.

Fanciful, perhaps. But this is fiction, after all.

Equally fictional is Caesar’s great loot convoy. You can, of course, be absolutely certain that Caesar did send vast amounts of loot and slaves back to Rome. We know for a fact that he brought back so many slaves that he flooded the market and most of Rome’s rich complained that their expensive slaves had become basically worthless due to the collapse in the market. We also know that Caesar, once he got to Rome, spent money like water.

My description of Massilia (which was probably still named the Greek Massalia at this point by the locals) is based on fact, though the knowledge is fairly scant, given the successive centuries of rebuilding. Massilia must have been a fascinating place in 50BC. It was one of the greatest ports in the west, an independent Greek city-state surrounded by Rome and despite Caesar’s new trade route over the Alps, it must have remained a very important place for the transport of men and supplies.

I enjoyed Fronto’s move into the wine trade, and I hope you did too. Roman wine is already a complicated subject. But Greek wine was also famous and very varied and a whole complex thing of itself. And then there is the fact that although French wine as it is began with the agricultural policies of the emperor Probus, the Gallic tribes even before Rome came were making wine, though of a much different sort. I’m sure there will be those of you out there who are unhappy with the move away from Fronto’s military career. Rest assured, that career is far from over. But between 52 and 49BC there is a tense time of political posturing and threat where very little actually happens for the legions. I decided long in advance of writing this that Fronto would need to take a hiatus during that time, as I simply could not write books about the military with Fronto in command where they sat in camps and rolled dice. Plus, we all, I think, know what’s coming. When the next giant turd hits the giant fan, Fronto needs to be motivated enough to pick a side. And with his history there has been a little uncertainty at times what side he would pick. I think book 8 has probably settled that issue.

I have over the last two years had a number of mails suggesting long-gone characters that might be able to come back. Some were clearly mad, and others not interesting enough. But I had already decided about three books back to return Andala to the plot when the opportunity arose. I don’t like wasted loose ends. Carbo, though, was a suggestion of a friend. And at the end of the book I have finally returned Galronus to the fold. Things are starting to come together and the cast is being assembled for the second phase of the series – Caesar’s Civil Wars.

Cavarinos has been one of my favourite characters to write in the entire series, and even though he’s only featured in two volumes, he has become a popular one, apparently. It is sad, then, that we are to see him flutter off to eastern climes. Simply, keeping him here would stretch the bounds of probability to breaking point, though he might pop up in the next book for a bit, and who knows what the future may hold.

The laws of Rome and in particular the bearing of arms inside the pomerium of the city is central to the last part of this book. What strikes me as odd is that the pomerium was a sacred boundary supposedly defined when Romulus ploughed a line around the city, and yet the dictator Sulla some two decades earlier had extended the pomerium to a new area. The Romans might have been a practical people, but they were also a religious one. How would the more pious population take the extension of a sacred boundary by a blood-soaked dictator? And so I have had the people of the city in my story a little dubious about the new boundary. And Claudius later extended it as well. In fact, it is said that one of the reasons the senate met at this time in Pompey’s theatre complex was that it was outside the pomerium and therefore senators who were forbidden by their position to cross the pomerium could attend. And yet at the time of Caesar, the Sullan extension put Pompey’s theatre inside the new line. A complex subject that I have chosen to make rather fluid for the sake of ease.

And while anyone who has visited the Tullianum prison (the carcer) in Rome’s forum might think I have been rather fanciful with my depiction of the place, there is some evidence and a lot of discussion over its earlier form. After all, that entire end of the forum has changed completely since those days – even the rocky landscape itself due to the massive quarrying for Trajan’s forum.

Things are closing up in Rome. Caesar’s enemies are beginning to make their moves.

The general himself is hoping to return soon and take up a consulship during which he will continue to be immune from prosecution. Anyone care to guess what his future holds? Already his gaze must be drifting to that oh so important boundary line at the Rubicon River.

50 BC will be a year of great change, following which Rome’s future will be decided in dreadful civil conflict. And everyone’s favourite legate will be there to help, of course.

Thank you for reading and see you in Massilia soon.

 

Simon Turney, August 2015