‘I hope you don’t mind me calling you at work, but I wondered if you’d like to meet for a drink or some dinner on Saturday.’
The interpreter.
‘I’m sorry, but I don’t date clients on principle.’
‘I didn’t mean a date; simply as colleagues.’
I heard an undertone of laughter in his voice.
‘No, I don’t think so,’ I said.
‘Out of your comfort zone?’
I gasped. What was that supposed to mean?
‘Sorry,’ he said before I could slam the handset down. ‘That was rude of me. But will you still come?’
I hadn’t been asked out to dinner in six months. Why the hell not?
INCEPTIO is available as an ebook and as a print book from online retailers or through your local bookshop.
THE ROMA NOVA THRILLER SERIES
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The Carina Trilogy
INCEPTIO
Early 21st century. Terrified after a kidnap attempt, New Yorker Karen Brown, has a harsh choice – being eliminated by government enforcer Renschman or fleeing to mysterious Roma Nova, her dead mother's homeland in Europe. Founded sixteen hundred years ago by Roman exiles and ruled by women, Roma Nova gives Karen safety, at a price. But the enforcer, Renschman sets a trap knowing she has no choice but to spring it...
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PERFIDITAS
Falsely accused of conspiracy, 21st century Praetorian Carina Mitela flees into the criminal underworld. Hunted by the security services and traitors alike, she struggles to save her beloved Roma Nova as well as her own life. But the ultimate betrayal is waiting for her…
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SUCCESSIO
21st century Praetorian Carina Mitela’s attempt to resolve a past family indiscretion is spiralling into a nightmare. Convinced her beloved husband has deserted her, and with her enemy holding a gun to the imperial heir’s head, Carina has to make the hardest decision of her life.
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The Aurelia Trilogy
AURELIA
Late 1960s. Sent to Berlin to investigate silver smuggling, former Praetorian Aurelia Mitela barely escapes a near-lethal trap. Her old enemy is at the heart of all her troubles and she pursues him back home to Roma Nova but he strikes at her most vulnerable point – her young daughter.
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INSURRECTIO
Early 1980s. Caius Tellus, the charismatic leader of a rising nationalist movement, threatens to destroy Roma Nova.
Aurelia Mitela, ex-Praetorian and imperial councillor, attempts to counter the growing fear and instability. But it may be too late to save Roma Nova from meltdown and herself from destruction by her lifelong enemy.…
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RETALIO
Early 1980s Vienna. Aurelia Mitela chafes at her enforced exile. She barely escaped from a near fatal shooting by her nemesis, Caius Tellus, who grabbed power in Roma Nova.
Aurelia is determined to liberate her homeland. But ostracised by her fellow exiles, powerless and vulnerable, Aurelia fears she will never see Roma Nova again.
Historical note
What if Julius Caesar had taken notice of the warning that assassins wanted to murder him on the ides of March, and lived to become the first Roman emperor? Suppose Elizabeth I had married and had children? Or Napoleon had won at Waterloo? And suppose part of the Roman Empire had survived into the modern age as a new Rome – Roma Nova? Questions that have and will continue to keep us occupied for decades, if not centuries.
Few readers like a history lesson in the middle of a thriller so for my setting of Roma Nova I have dropped pieces of its background ‘history’ into CARINA only where it impacts on the story. But if you are interested, read on...
What happened in our timeline
Of course, our timeline may turn out to be somebody else’s alternative one as shown in Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. Nothing is fixed. But for the sake of convenience I will take ours as the default.
The Western Roman Empire didn’t ‘fall’ in a cataclysmic event as often portrayed in film and television; it localised and dissolved like chain mail fragmenting into separate links, giving way to rump provinces, local city states and petty kingdoms. The Eastern Roman Empire survived until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Empire.
Some scholars think that Christianity fatally weakened the traditional Roman way of life. By late AD 394, emperor Theodosius banned all traditional Roman religious practice, closed and destroyed temples and dismissed all priests. The sacred flame that had burned for over a thousand years in the College of Vestals was extinguished and the Vestal Virgins expelled. The Altar of Victory, said to guard the fortune of Rome, was hauled away from the Senate building and disappeared from history.
Roman senatorial families pleaded for religious tolerance, but Theodosius made any pagan practice, even dropping a pinch of incense on a family altar in a private home, into a capital offence. His ‘religious police’, driven by the austere bishop Ambrosius of Milan, actively pursued defaulting pagans.
The alternate Roma Nova timeline
In AD 395, three months after Theodosius’s final decree banning all pagan religion, four hundred Romans loyal to the old gods, and so in danger of execution, trekked north out of Italy into the mountains. Led by Senator Apulius at the head of twelve prominent families, they established a colony based initially on land owned by Apulius’s Celtic father-in-law. By purchase, alliance and conquest, this grew into Roma Nova.
Norman Davies in Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe reminds us that any new state needs a functioning executive, a defence force, a revenue system and a diplomatic force. Without these, it cannot sustain an autonomy and will perish before it can breathe.
I would add history, willpower and adaptability. Roma Nova survived by changing; as men fought to defend the new colony, women took over social, political and economic roles, based on family structures. But given the unstable, dangerous times in Roma Nova’s first few hundred years, daughters as well as sons had to put on armour and heft swords to defend their homeland and their way of life.
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Service to the state was valued higher than personal advantage, echoing Roman Republican virtues, and the women heading the families guarded these values throughout the centuries. Inheritance passed from these powerful women to their daughters and granddaughters.
Roma Nova’s continued existence has been favoured by high-grade silver in their mountains, their efficient technology, and their robust response to any threat.
Remembering the Fall of Constantinople, Roma Novan troops assisted the western nations at the Battle of Vienna in 1683 to halt the Ottoman advance into Europe. Nearly two hundred years later, they used their diplomatic skills to forge an alliance to push Napoleon IV back across the Rhine as he attempted to expand his grandfather’s empire.
Prioritising survival, Roma Nova remained neutral in the Great War of the twentieth century which lasted from 1925 to 1935. The Greater German Empire was broken up afterwards into its former small kingdoms, duchies and counties; some became republics.
Twenty-seven years before the action of CARINA in the early 21st century, Roma Nova was nearly destroyed by a coup, a brutal male-dominated consulship and civil war. A weak leader, outmoded systems and a neglected economy let in a clever and ruthless tyrant. But with characteristic resilience, the families fought back and reconstructed their society while changing it to a more representational model for modern times. Today, the tiny country is one of the highest per capita income states in the world.
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CARINA is a novella, a short novel, which tells the story of Lieutenant Carina Mitela’s first overseas mission. In the Roma Nova series, it takes place between INCEPTIO and PERFIDITAS, the first two in the series. It reveals a regrettable incident mentioned in PERFIDITAS and brings in favourite characters from some of the other books. But you don’t have to have read any of the series to enjoy this story.
But I hope you’ll be tempted to...
About the Author
A ‘Roman nut’ since age 11, Alison Morton has clambered over much of Roman Europe; she continues to be fascinated by that complex, powerful and value driven civilisation.
Armed with an MA in history, six years’ military service and the love of a good thriller, she explores via her Roma Nova adventure thrillers the ‘what if’ idea of a modern Roman society run by strong women.
All six Roma Nova thrillers have been awarded the B.R.A.G. Medallion. SUCCESSIO, AURELIA and INSURRECTIO were selected as Historical Novel Society’s Indie Editor’s Choices. AURELIA was a finalist in the 2016 HNS Indie Award. SUCCESSIO was selected as an Editor’s Choice in The Bookseller.
Alison now lives in France with her husband, cultivates a Roman herb garden and drinks wine.
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Find out more at alison-morton.com, follow her on Twitter @alison_morton and Facebook and sign up to Alison’s newsletter.
PRAISE FOR THE ROMA NOVA SERIES
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INCEPTIO
“Brilliantly plotted original story, grippingly told and cleverly combining the historical with the futuristic. It’s a real edge-of-the-seat read, genuinely hard to put down.”
– Sue Cook, writer and broadcaster
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PERFIDITAS
“Alison Morton has built a fascinating, exotic world! Carina’s a bright, sassy detective with a winning dry sense of humour. The plot is pretty snappy too and gets off to a quick start which made it easy to keep turning the pages.”
– Simon Scarrow, author of Macro and Cato series
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SUCCESSIO
“I thoroughly enjoyed this classy thriller, the third in Morton’s epic series set in Roma Nova.”
– Caroline Sanderson in The Bookseller
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AURELIA
“AURELIA explores a 1960s that is at once familiar and utterly different – a brilliant page turner that will keep you gripped from first page to last. Highly recommended.”
– Russell Whitfield
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INSURRECTIO
“INSURRECTIO – a taut, fast-paced thriller and I enjoyed it enormously. Rome, guns and rebellion. Darkly gripping stuff.”
– Conn Iggulden
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RETALIO
“As always Alison Morton’s alternative world where a fragment of the Roman Empire has survived to the present day feels utterly authentic”
– Douglas Jackson
“RETALIO is a terrific concept engendering passion, love and loyalty. I actually cheered aloud.”
– J J Marsh
CARINA Page 13