The two faces on the front cover come from Roman funerary paintings; the woman’s face is in the British Museum (www.britishmuseum.org) and the man’s face is in the Manchester Museum (egyptmanchester.wordpress.com). Both are dated to the second century AD. The painting on the back cover is "The Lomonosov Bridge" (2011) and comes from the Artemis Artists Association (www.artemis-spb.ru); it was used by permission. The cover was designed by the author, with input from a number of Facebook friends.
The font used for the image of the first line of the scroll is P39LS. This font was created by Allan Loder (see individual.utoronto.ca/atloder/GreekUncialFonts.html), and was derived from P39, a papyrus fragment of the New Testament that has been dated to the third century. As such it is merely an approximation as to how the letters in such a scroll as described in this book would look like.
One book was indispensable for the writing of this one: G. B. Caird’s commentary The Revelation Of Saint John (A & C Black, 1966). Ben Witherington III’s commentary, Revelation (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and R. H. Worth, Jr.’s The Seven Cities Of The Apocalypse & Greco-Asian Culture (Paulist Press, 1999) were also very helpful. For more information on the ‘Great Game’ period you simply cannot surpass Peter Hopkirk’s most excellent history The Great Game: The Struggle For Empire In Central Asia (Kodansha International, 1994). Lastly, I discovered that Google Maps was invaluable for estimating the number of days it would have taken to walk around Turkey!
The following people read successive versions of this book and offered very helpful suggestions and/or encouragement: Ross & Sarah Nightingale; David Greentree, Jr; Ira Kirichenko; Matthew Clarkson; John Siegel; Michael Greed; Alexander Golubev; Matt Merritt; Allen Travis; and Andrew Carmichael. Any errors that remain are, of course, entirely my own. Also, much thanks to my wife, Kylie, for putting up with my ‘writing days’ and for many helpful suggestions.