Roman
History Blog - Featured Author
Amanda Cockrell, Roman Fictional Author
Puts it all down to Seneca for her Interest in the Romans
My first introduction to the Romans and the start of my fascination with them was in college when a friend gave me Rosemary Sutcliff's young adult novels of Roman Britain, and her adult novel Sword at Sunset which is still one of the best books about the (possible) historical Arthur that I have read. My high school ancient history course had concentrated on wars and dates and famous men, with a brief survey of archaeological finds, and no sense at all of those old Bones as having been actual people. I remembered something about Romans in Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill and went back and read that too, and they started to come alive.
What
I like about the Romans is how wonderfully and appallingly like us
they are. They are the template for Western government but also for
western colonialism, with their self-assured conviction that Roman
civilization was a boon to any conquered territory. They had an
appreciation for art and the wonders of earlier civilizations and
supported a thriving tourist industry to visit them and appropriate
their antiques. They practised the slavery that was common across the
ancient world, although it was economically and not ethnically based,
a slave might buy his or her freedom, and freedmen often rose to
great power. Their taste for bloody games has only been tamped down
in us, not extinguished, despite Seneca’s conviction that watching
violent death ate away a man’s soul, and rotted it. And yet they
survived, Republic and Empire, for a thousand years, through mad or
bloodthirsty leaders, civil conflict, plagues, and endless wars.
The Legions of the Mist - Book 4
Get the Paperback at https://amzn.to/2ZZd7Yz
My first novel was about the disappearance of the Ninth Legion somewhere in Britain, inspired by Rosemary Sutcliff’s account of the same events. I have written a lot of books since, mainly historical fiction, but I seem always to come back to the Romans. Seneca also said that “Wherever the Roman conquers, there he dwells,” and I think it is that that holds my interest: how the ones who settled in the far-flung provinces of the Empire, most often time-expired soldiers, married in, settled in, bred in, until they were part of the foundation of what that country became when Rome finally fell.
And then there’s research, an endless source of delight and aggravation as new information is dug up, most often literally. You find that a fact you cheerfully used in a previous book is not accurate after all. A town whose Roman name you used liberally because a key scene was set there, is now, as you write a sequel, held to have been called something else entirely. But then you discover... the Roman tourist industry offering dubious souvenirs even before pieces of the True Cross have begun to circulate: A cyclops skull, Senator, only three sesterces!... an auxiliary ala in Syria mounted on camels... conspiracy theories circulating after Nero’s death that he wasn’t really dead, false Neros popping up like Elvis sightings. This is the kind of thing that makes me love the Romans.
New Book
The Wall at the Edge of the World - Book 5
Get the Kindle edition at https://amzn.to/3eVgGmM
Get the Paperback at https://amzn.to/3g5APIc
My new book, The Wall at the Edge of the World, a sequel of sorts to Legions of the Mist, the Ninth Legion tale, opened up a new window for me: the weirdly counter-intuitive world of Roman medicine. The Romans knew a lot but because they were forbidden to conduct autopsies, they knew how to operate for cataracts, for instance, but didn’t recognize cancer or appendicitis. The Roman army was probably the best medical school in the empire, primarily because the only way to see someone’s insides as if they had already been opened up for you by an enemy spear. Regarding the pharmaceutical remedies contained in this novel, I don’t recommend trying any of them but they are all genuine, and I attempted to use mainly the ones that might have actually worked.
The Centurions - Book 1
My new book, The Wall at the Edge of the World, a sequel of sorts to Legions of the Mist, the Ninth Legion tale, opened up a new window for me: the weirdly counter-intuitive world of Roman medicine. The Romans knew a lot but because they were forbidden to conduct autopsies, they knew how to operate for cataracts, for instance, but didn’t recognize cancer or appendicitis. The Roman army was probably the best medical school in the empire, primarily because the only way to see someone’s insides as if they had already been opened up for you by an enemy spear. Regarding the pharmaceutical remedies contained in this novel, I don’t recommend trying any of them but they are all genuine, and I attempted to use mainly the ones that might have actually worked.
The Centurions - Book 1
Get the Kindle edition at https://amzn.to/3f9dVi0
Get the Paperback at https://amzn.to/32WLcdN
In the equally weird world of publishing, I wrote my first book under my own name, and the next three, The Centurions series, under the pseudonym Damion Hunter because they were done for a book packager who insisted on pseudonyms in case a writer got tired of a successful series and wanted to quit. In that event, it could be given to another writer. Of course, what happened to me was that three books into a four-book series, my publisher was bought by another house which promptly cancelled all the original house’s contracts. But when Canelo Publishing wanted to revive them, we kept the pseudonym for all because in the interim Damion Hunter had acquired a small and devoted following among Roman reenactors, to whom I will always be grateful. I hope they will be happy to know that I am now at work on the long-delayed fourth and final book of The Centurions. All of my earlier Roman novels have now been republished by Canelo, and you will find them here:
https://www.canelo.co/authors/damion-hunter/
Barbarian Princess - Book 2
Get the Paperback at https://amzn.to/32WLcdN
In the equally weird world of publishing, I wrote my first book under my own name, and the next three, The Centurions series, under the pseudonym Damion Hunter because they were done for a book packager who insisted on pseudonyms in case a writer got tired of a successful series and wanted to quit. In that event, it could be given to another writer. Of course, what happened to me was that three books into a four-book series, my publisher was bought by another house which promptly cancelled all the original house’s contracts. But when Canelo Publishing wanted to revive them, we kept the pseudonym for all because in the interim Damion Hunter had acquired a small and devoted following among Roman reenactors, to whom I will always be grateful. I hope they will be happy to know that I am now at work on the long-delayed fourth and final book of The Centurions. All of my earlier Roman novels have now been republished by Canelo, and you will find them here:
https://www.canelo.co/authors/damion-hunter/
Barbarian Princess - Book 2
Get the Paperback at https://amzn.to/3jRUwFQ
If you want to know more about me or what else I write, my personal website is here:
http://www.amandacockrell.com/
The Emperor's Games - Book 3
Get the Paperback at https://amzn.to/2X0frwt
Links
Roman History on Twitter https://twitter.com/romanhistory1
Roman History Website http://romanancienthistory.blogspot.com/
A Range of Roman History Books can be found at
Copyright © 2020 David Lee