Castricius: Gaius Aurelius Castricius, a young man of uncertain origins living a disreputable life in the Subura.
Catius Celer: Lucius Catius Celer, A Senator, Praetor in AD235; younger brother of Catius Priscillianus and Catius Clemens; a friend of Timesitheus.
Cato the Censor: Marcus Porcius Cato, also known as Cato the Elder (234–149BC), stern moralist of the Republic.
Cincinnatus: Roman statesman of the early Republic (519–430BC); later became an exemplum for twice leaving his small farm to lead Rome’s armies in a military crisis and to prevent a coup.
Claudius: Roman Emperor AD41–54; deified after death.
Claudius Aurelius: Lucius Tiberius Claudius Aurelius Quintianus Pompeianus, descendant of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius and thus a distant relative of Iunia Fadilla; Consul Ordinarius in AD235.
Claudius Severus: Gnaeus Claudius Severus, descendant of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius and thus a distant relative of Iunia Fadilla; Consul Ordinarius in AD235.
Commodus: Roman Emperor AD180–192.
Cuspidius Celerinus: The ‘Father of the Senate’, the most senior Senator in the Curia.
Cuspidius Severus: Cuspidius Flaminius Severus, a novus homo in the Senate, an ex-Consul, and friend of Pupienus.
Domitian: Roman Emperor AD81–96, notorious for his tyrannical rule and paranoia.
Eunomia: Aged nurse of Iunia Fadilla.
Fabianus: Visitor to Rome from the countryside.
Fortunatianus: Curius Fortunatianus, secretary to Pupienus.
Gaius: Gaius Marius Perpetuus, one of the Tresviri Capitales; son of Lucius Marius Perpetuus, and brother of Perpetua.
Gallicanus: Lucius Domitius Gallicanus Papinianus, a Senator of homespun and hirsute appearance, sometimes thought to resemble an ape, much influenced by the philosophy of Cynicism, his unusual views on the Res Publica appear to be shared by at least three other Senators: Maecenas, Hostilianus, and Licinianus.
Geta: Co-Emperor with Caracalla until murdered on his brother’s orders in AD211.
Gordian: See Gordian the Younger (Africa).
Hadrian: Roman Emperor AD117–138; deified after death.
Herennius Modestinus: Equestrian Prefect of the Vigiles at Rome; sometime pupil of Ulpian and legal secretary of Alexander Severus AD223–225.
Hippolytus: Acquaintance of Fabianus.
Hostilianus: Marcus Severus Hostilianus, Senator and ex-Quaestor; a friend of Gallicanus.
Iunia Fadilla: Great-granddaughter of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Latronianus: Marcus Flavius Iulius Latronianus, A Senator, had been Suffect Consul sometime before AD231.
Lucius: Lucius Iunius Fadillus, cousin of Iunia Fadilla.
Macrinus the Moor: Marcus Opellius Macrinus, Praetorianus Prefect, instigated the murder of the Emperor Caracalla in AD217, and briefly held the throne.
Maecenas: Senator and intimate friend of Gallicanus.
Maecia Faustina: Sister of Gordian the Younger, daughter of Gordian the Elder; married to Junius Balbus, governor of Syria Coele, friend of Caecilia Paulina.
Marcus Aurelius: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Emperor AD161–180.
Marcus Julius Corvinus: Equestrian landowner, and perhaps leader of bandits in the eastern Alps.
Mummius Felix Cornelianus: Lucius Mummius Felix Cornelianus, Consul Ordinarius in AD237.
Nummius: Marcus Nummius Umbrius Secundus Senecio Albinus, Suffect Consul in AD206, thereafter devoting himself to pleasure; husband of Iunia Fadilla, recently deceased.
Otho: Before becoming Emperor (AD69), was forced to divorce Poppaea so she could be married by Nero.
Perpetua: Daughter of Lucius Marius Perpetuus, wife of Serenianus, and friend of Iunia Fadilla.
Pescennia Marcellina: Elderly woman of wealth in Rome; benefactor of the young Pupienus, financing his early career and Praetorship.
Pinarius: Pinarius Valens, a kinsman who fostered the young Pupienus.
Poppaea: Wife of Otho before being forced to divorce her husband for the Emperor Nero.
Potens: Quintus Herennius Potens, Prefect of the Parthian cavalry serving with the imperial field army, newly installed by Maximinus as Prefect of the Watch in Rome; brother-in-law of Decius.
Pupienus: Marcus Clodius Pupienus Maximus, a novus homo of very obscure origins, brought up in the house of a kinsman, Pinarius Valens, in Tibur; now a patrician, appointed Consul for the second time, as Ordinarius, and Prefect of the City in AD234; husband of Sextia Cethegilla, and father of Pupienus Maximus and Pupienus Africanus. His many friends in politics include Crispinus, Cuspidius Severus, Serenianus, Sextius Cethegillus, and Tineius Sacerdos.
Pupienus Africanus: Marcus Pupienus Africanus, Senator; son of Pupienus, and brother of Pupienus Maximus.
Pupienus Maximus: Marcus Clodius Pupienus Maximus, Senator; son of Pupienus, and brother of Pupienus Africanus; married to Tineia.
Rutilius Crispinus: See Crispinus (The East).
Sabinus: Sometime Consul, connoisseur of art; friend of Flavius Vopiscus.
Sextia Cethegilla: Wife of Pupienus.
Sextius Cethegillus: Senator, father of Sextia Cethegilla, and thus brother-in-law of Pupienus.
Theoclia: Sister of Alexander Severus, wife of Valerius Messala.
Tiberius: Notoriously depraved Roman Emperor, AD14–37.
Ticida: A Latin love poet.
Tineia: Daughter of Tineius Sacerdos, married to Pupienus Maximus, son of Pupienus.
Tineius Sacerdos: Quintus Tineius Sacerdos, Consul Ordinarius with the Emperor Elagabalus in AD219; father of Tineia, and thus father-in-law to Pupienus Maximus, and a friend of Pupienus.
Toxotius: Member of the board of junior magistrates the Tresviri Monetales; lover of Perpetua.
Trajan: Emperor AD98–117; deified after death.
Valens Licinianus: Julius Valens Licinianus, a Senator and ex-Quaestor; a friend of Gallicanus.
Valerius Apollinaris: See Valerius Apollinaris (the East).
Valerius Messala: Marcus Valerius Messala, a patrician senator, son of Valerius Apollinaris, brother of Valerius Priscillianus, married to Theoclia, wife of the Emperor Alexander Severus.
Valerius Poplicola: Lucius Valerius Poplicola Balbinus Maximus, a young patrician, son Valerius Priscillianus; one of the Tresviri Monetales.
Valerius Priscillianus: Lucius Valerius Claudius Acilius Priscillianus Maximus, patrician Senator, Consul Ordinarius in AD233, son of Valerius Apollinaris, brother of Valerius Messala, father of Valerius Poplicola.
AFRICA
Aemilius Severinus: Lucius Aemilius Severinus, also called Phillyrio; commander of the Speculatores.
Albinus: Clodius Albinus, declared Emperor by the legions of Britain and Spain under Septimius Severus; killed in battle AD197.
Annius Severus: Father of Orestilla, late wife of the elder Gordian.
Apellinus: Claudius Apellinus, governor of Britannia Inferior; an inscription recording his restoration of an artillery installation survives from High Rochester, Northumberland.
Arrian: Legate of Gordian the Elder in Africa; especial friend of Sabinianus.
Aspasius of Ravenna: Orator and secretary to Alexander Severus; the biography written by his near contemporary, Philostratus, survives.
Brennus: Bodyguard of the elder Gordian; his name suggests he is a Gaul.
Canartha: Berber chief based at the village of Esuba.
Capelianus: Governor of Numidia; enemy of Gordian the Elder.
Chione: A mistress of the younger Gordian.
Egnatius Proculus: Gaius Luxilius Sabinus Egnatius Proculus; Senator, removed from the governorship of Achaea and given administrative posts in Italy; relative by marriage of Valerian.
Faraxen: Berber Centurion commanding a unit of the Speculatores.
Gordian the Elder: Marcus Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus, aged ex-Consul; after a lengthy, if interrupted career, now governor of Africa Proconsularis; father of Gordian the Younger, and Maecia Faustina.
Gordian t
he Younger: Marcus Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus, ex-Consul serving as a Legate of his father in Africa; devotee of Epicurean philosophy; sometime lover of Iunia Fadilla.
Herodes: Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes (known as Herodes Atticus), wealthy Senator of Athenian ancestry and patron of Greek culture (AD101–177).
Julius Terentius: Commander of the garrison at Arete, killed by the Sassanids; his epitaph and a painted portrait survive from Dura-Europus.
Lycaenion: Carthaginian mistress of Menophilus.
Lydus: Commander of the Second Flavian Cohort of Africans.
Mauricius: A wealthy landowner and town councillor at Thysdrus and Hadrumetum in Africa Proconsularis.
Menophilus: Tullius Menophilus, Quaestor of the province of Africa Proconsularis.
Mirzi: Eldest son of Nuffuzi, tribal chief of the Cinithii.
Nicagoras of Athens: Athenian rhetorician and subject of a biography by Philostratus, c. AD175–250.
Nuffuzi: Tribal chief of the Cinithii.
Orestilla: Fabia Orestilla, late wife of the elder Gordian and mother of Gordian the Younger.
Parthenope: A mistress of the younger Gordian.
Paul: Known as The Chain, rapacious Procurator of Africa Proconsularis.
Philostratus: Greek orator and biographer of the sophists (c. 170–250AD); in the early third century, introduced at the court of Septimius Severus at Rome.
Polycrates: Greek tyrant c. 540–522BC; Gordian is actually thinking of the tyrant Thrasybulus (c. 440–388BC), who, on being asked how to secure a tyranny, walked though a field of corn chopping down the tallest stalks: i.e., eliminate the most outstanding.
Quintillius Marcellus: Member of the Senatorial inner council of sixteen advising the Emperor Alexander Severus.
Sabinianus: Legate of Gordian the Elder in Africa Proconsularis; especial friend of Arrian.
Serenus Sammonicus: See note in Historical Afterword.
Valens: A Cubiculo of the elder Gordian.
Valerian: Publius Licinius Valerianus, married into the family of the Egnatii; legate of the elder Gordian in Africa Proconsularis.
Verres: Notoriously corrupt governor of Sicily prosecuted by Cicero in 70BC.
Verittus: Centurion of the Third Augustan Legion.
THE EAST
Ardashir: The First, founder of the Sassanid empire, ruled AD224–242.
Armenius Peregrinus: Tiberius Pollienus Armenius Peregrinus, adoptive son of Pollienus Auspex Minor.
Bion of Borysthenes: A Cynic philosopher, c. 345–245BC.
Cassius Dio: Senator from Bithynia, Consul Ordinarius in AD229 under Alexander Severus; author of a history of Rome in Greek from the legendary origins of the city down to his own consulship.
Chosroes: Prince of Armenia, son of King Tiridates II; serving with the Roman army in the east as a hostage for the good behaviour of his father.
Crispinus: Rutilius Pudens Crispinus, equestrian army officer risen into the Senate, governor of Syria Phoenice; friend of Pupienus.
Domitius Pompeianus: Dux ripae, commander of the Euphrates frontier stationed at Arete; according to a graffito at Dura-Europus, raised a Greek tragic actor as a fosterling.
Flavius Heraclio: Governor of Mesopotamia murdered by his own troops c. AD229.
Gaius Cervonius Papus: Legate of the Twelfth Thunder-bearing Legion.
Garshasp: A Sassanid warrior.
Julius Julianus: Prefect of the First Parthian Legion.
Junius Balbus: Governor of Syria Coele, husband of Maecia Faustina, and thus brother-in-law of Gordian the Younger.
Lucretius: Lucius Lucretius Annianus, equestrian governor of Egypt.
Ma’na: Son of Sanatruq II, prince of the Hatrene royal family; serving with the Roman army.
Manu: Son of Abgar VIII, titular Crown Prince of Edessa, although wealthy, left without real power after Caracalla incorporated the kingdom into the Roman empire in the early third century AD.
Otacilius Severianus: Marcus Otacilius Severianus, Senator, governor of Syria Palestina; brother-in-law of Priscus and Philip.
Paris: Mythical Trojan prince in Homer’s Iliad; notably unheroic.
Philip: Marcus Julius Philippus, brother of Gaius Julius Priscus; born in Roman Arabia and serving as a Legate to his brother on the Parthian frontier.
Pollienus Auspex Minor: Adoptive father of Armenius Peregrinus, patron of Timesitheus; Suffect Consul and holder of various governorships under Alexander Severus.
Porcius Aelianus: Equestrian Prefect of the 3rd Legion Parthica.
Priscus: Gaius Julius Priscus, equestrian governor of Mesopotamia, brother of Marcus Julius Philip; born in Roman Arabia.
Rutilius Crispinus: See Crispinus.
Sabinia: Furia Sabinia Tranquillina, daughter of Timesitheus and Tranquillina.
Sanatruq: Sanatruq II, ruler of the Roman client kingdom of Hatra c. 200–240/1AD.
Sasan: Founder of the Sassanid dynasty.
Serenianus: Licinius Serenianus, novus homo in Senate, governor of Cappadocia; a friend of Pupienus, and Priscus; married to Perpetua.
Severianus: See Otacilius Severianus (East)
Sollemnius Pacatianus: Claudius Sollemnius Pacatianus, governor of Arabia from AD223.
Sporakes: Bodyguard of Priscus, governor of Mesopotamia.
Thersites: Deeply unheroic Greek character in Homer’s Iliad.
Tiridates: The Second, King of Armenia from AD217; as a member of the Arsacid dynasty overthrown by the Sassanids, lays claim to the Parthian empire.
Titus: Roman Emperor AD79–81.
Valerius Apollinaris: Lucius Valerius Messala Apollinaris, a Senator from one of the great patrician families, father of Valerius Messala and Valerius Priscillianus; Consul Ordinarius in AD214, following which he spent some years in retirement after his father was executed by the Emperor Caracalla, has since returned to politics, and he is now governor of Asia.
Wa’el: Noble from Hatra commanding a unit of horsemen in the service of Rome.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Harry Sidebottom teaches classical history at the University of Oxford, where he is a Fellow of St Benet’s Hall and a lecturer at Lincoln College. He has an international reputation as a scholar, having published widely on ancient warfare, classical art and the cultural history of the Roman Empire.
Iron & Rust is the first book in a major new series, Throne of the Caesars, and follows his acclaimed and bestselling series, Warrior of Rome. He divides his time between Oxford and Newmarket in Suffolk, where he lives with his wife and two sons.
www.harrysidebottom.co.uk
ALSO BY HARRY SIDEBOTTOM
FICTION
The Warrior of Rome Series
Fire in the East
King of Kings
Lion of the Sun
The Caspian Gates
The Wolves of the North
The Amber Road
NON-FICTION
Ancient Warfare
COPYRIGHT
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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2014
Copyright © Harry Sidebottom 2014
Maps © John Gilkes 2014.
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Harry Sidebottom asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
While some of the events and characters are based on historical incidents and figures, this novel is entirely a work of fiction.
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