Where in the Roman World...

If you read Antonius: Second in Command, you will quickly find yourself traveling through the ancient world alongside Marcus Antonius. Antony was a real traveling man. He traveled all over the Mediterranean world, which was "the western world" at the time. The Roman World had a few different names and titles to places that you and I are most familiar with. Here are a few of them--and this week, I'm including a lovely map of the Roman world, created by Cathy Helms at Avalon Graphics, LLC. This is one of two maps included in my newest book!

GAUL: Gaul was pretty much modern-day France. When Second in Command begins, Julius Caesar is attempting to conquer the Gallic people. They were known as valiant warriors and their hill-forts were huge and imposing. The Gauls invaded and sacked the city of Rome way back in 390 BC and the Romans never forgot that infraction. There was bad blood between the two peoples from then on. Caesar wrote a propaganda-fueled memoir, known as The Gallic Wars that can still be read today. Caesar describes the ancient Gauls and Britons and details the many skirmishes and incidents throughout the decade of Gaul's fall to the Romans.

BRITANNIA: Caesar made two forays over to what is now the United Kingdom. The second was more successful than the first. Until 2017, nobody knew exactly where Caesar had landed, however, recent archaeological excavations in Kent have rendered artifacts and ruins of fortifications that are very similar to those excavated in present-day France at the Alesia site, where Caesar won Gaul for Rome. British archaeologists are quite certain that the ruins and artifacts (which include Roman spear points), are from Caesar's invasion. In his writings, Caesar paints a vivid description of the ancient Britons and their methods of warfare. It is not known whether Antony was actually with him, but if Antony had arrived in Gaul shortly before Caesar left, the remote possibility is there. (And that, my friends, is why it's fun to write historical FICTION!) As a young officer needing experience and exposure, it's conceivable that Caesar may have taken him along.

SYRIA: In Marc Antony's lifetime, Syria was a brand new conquest. In Son of Rome, he receives his first command there, under Aulus Gabinius, Syria's new proconsul. Since it was such a recent addition to Rome's growing empire, it was very loosely compiled. There were areas that its conqueror, Pompeius Magnus had claimed but weren't really subjugated, as of yet. Much of that land in question was what would eventually become Judea, under the emperors. On its eastern border were the troublesome Parthians, with whom the Romans always had conflicts. To the south were the Judeans, whose people were never pleased with Roman rule, despite their kings who willingly served Rome to stay in power.

It is remarkable to me that the Roman World "worked" as well as it did. In trade, economics, growth, and communication, this was a period of world history when there was no telecommunication of any sort, no jet planes, or automobiles. And yet, part of the Roman Empire lasted well into the high Middle Ages. 

Take your time looking over the map below, and then be sure to read Second in Command and travel to many of these amazing lands where Antony went.