Foretold by Thunder: A Thriller
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509 BC: The Roman Republic is founded after a dynasty of Etruscan kings is overthrown by Rome’s inhabitants.
390 BC: Rome is destroyed by Gauls – the last time it will be sacked for nine centuries.
343 BC: Rome’s conquest of Italy begins with defeat of local tribes.
265 BC: The final defeat of the Etruscan city-states by the Roman Republic. The whole Italian peninsula is now under Roman control.
264–146 BC: The Punic Wars, in which Rome defeats the rival empire of Carthage – despite Carthaginian general Hannibal crossing the Alps into Italy with his elephants. The defeat of Hannibal coincides with an increase in pagan piety among Romans. Rome starts to build its Mediterranean empire, invading Spain, Sicily, Sardinia and North Africa.
146–101 BC: Rome continues to expand across the Mediterranean. By the end of the period it also controls Greece, Turkey and Romania.
91 BC: A century of unrest begins, with seven civil wars including Spartacus’s slave revolt. This coincides with widespread neglect of pagan religion in parts of Roman society. Palestine, Syria and Egypt fall under Roman control.
44 BC: Julius Caesar assassinated after ignoring an Etruscan soothsayer’s warning.
31 BC: Caesar’s nephew Octavian defeats Mark Antony and Cleopatra to become ruler of Rome. Shortly afterwards Octavian is renamed Augustus, the first emperor. The Roman Republic comes to an end and democracy is abandoned. Augustus presides over a great increase in pagan piety.
50 AD: By now Etruscan is no longer spoken in Roman society, Etruscan writing has vanished, and Etruscan culture has ceased to exist.
70 AD: Construction of the Colosseum begins under the Emperor Vespasian, using treasure from the sack of Jerusalem.
98–161 AD: The period of ‘High Empire’. Under the emperors Trajan and Hadrian, Rome reaches its maximum size, the zenith of its power and the height of its cultural achievement.
Second century AD: Christianity spreads throughout the Roman Empire.
235–284 AD: The Third-Century Crisis, a chaotic period of civil war, plague, hyperinflation and barbarian invasions. The empire briefly splits into three independent states. The Emperor Valerian is captured and killed by the Persians; the Emperor Carus is killed by lightning.
284 AD: Emperor Diocletian takes power and restores order and prosperity to the reunified empire. His reign is marked by an increase in pagan fervour.
312 AD: Following a battlefield vision, the Emperor Constantine converts to Christianity, which becomes the dominant religion of the empire. He moves the capital to Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).
337 AD: The scholar Eusebius begins writing Life of Constantine, following the emperor’s death.
376–476 AD: Decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
395: The rise of the Byzantine Empire begins in modern-day Turkey, a Christian society and the successor to Roman civilization.
Historical Note and Acknowledgments
All of the history cited in the novel is real. So too are the quotes, although I have edited some without using ellipses for reasons of brevity, pace and impact. I used an 1845 translation of Life of Constantine published by Samuel Bagster and Sons of London and a more recent translation by Averil Cameron and Stuart G. Hall. Chapter 19 quotes an 1880 biography of Eusebius published by Little, Brown. Ian Kershaw’s Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis was published by Allen Lane. The quote opening the book is from The Consolation of Philosophy, translated by V.E. Watts, published by Penguin in 1999. The Brontoscopic Calendar exists; a grave some speculate may be that of Tages really was discovered in 1982. Good luck finding it, though. The Dicks Report also exists, and excerpts from Henry Dicks’s clinical diary (held by the Wellcome Trust) are used with the permission of the Dicks family, to whom I am very grateful. The original journal is reproduced accurately up to Hess’s suicide attempt; the ‘missing pages’ and their contents are, of course, my invention. The Dicks family have also asked me to make clear that Henry Dicks saw Hess as a patient; his role in the case was a medical one and was not, as far as we know, directed or influenced by the intelligence agencies. After that I’m afraid it is fiction. There is not really an Etruscan inscription on the ceiling of the Monastery of Debre Damo, nor is there one in the Istanbul cistern. The Peace of Amiens by Devosge is as described, sans the Etruscan characters on his scroll. Sadly, to the best of my knowledge it is not actually possible to predict the future by studying bolts of lightning.
I am hugely indebted to the Etruscan historian Jean MacIntosh Turfa – not only for her help and support throughout the project, but also for her amazing work on the Brontoscopic Calendar, which sparked the idea for the tale. She even gave me the title of the novel! Dr Ronald Pearson kindly allowed me to draw heavily on his own theories and explanations for my depiction of the scientific reality behind ‘the network’, many of which I use verbatim. I am a history geek, not a scientist, and I couldn’t have done it without him. Needless to say, any mistakes are my own. I owe another huge debt of gratitude to my agent, Robin Wade, and my editor, Andrew Lockett. Big thanks to all my friends and family who helped with proofing and criticism along the way, especially Bec. And of course to my friends and brothers who ventured into the badlands of Ethiopia with me. The same intrepid/foolhardy gang has since taken part in expeditions to Sierra Leone, Burundi and the Congo to research the sequel and a third title, and they were not uneventful.
E.M. DAVEY is an award-winning reporter specializing in undercover investigative journalism. He currently reports for the BBC and has hosted segments on the BBC World Service. When not working, he enjoys travel to far-flung, and occasionally dangerous, spots to research his fiction. He has visited forty-seven countries (and counting), and while in Sierra Leone he was charged by an enraged hippopotamus. Foretold by Thunder is his debut thriller.
Visit the author’s website and follow him on Twitter:
WWW.EMDAVEY.COM
@EdDavey1
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