Death in the Ashes

by Albert A. Bell, Jr.

  Domitian Emperor 81–96, younger son of Vespasian (69–79) and brother of Titus (79–81). He may not have been as bad an emperor as Pliny and Tacitus would have us believe, but he did show a tendency toward paranoia and had people executed or exiled on the slightest suspicion of plotting against him. The biographer Suetonius says Domitian lamented that no one would believe an emperor’s claim of plots against his life until he was murdered (Domitian 21). He was assassinated in September of 96. He is a significant character in my historical novel The Flute Player, an e-book.

  Fabia Second wife of Aelius Lamia. Nothing else is known about her.

  Martial Marcus Valerius Martialis was one of the most popular poets of the 80s and early 90s. His witty, often salacious, epigrams survive today in fourteen books. When Roman society became more puritanical after the death of Domitian (96), Martial’s poetry fell out of favor and he returned to his native Spain. Pliny gave him travel money and complimented his poetry. He expresses his sadness over Martial’s death and his appreciation of the epigrams, especially one (10.19) in which Martial flattered Pliny, but there is no evidence of any close connection between them (3.21). Martial is a major character in The Flute Player, in which Pliny also appears.

  Plinia Mother of Pliny the Younger and sister of Pliny the Elder. Pliny mentions her in the letters he writes to Tacitus about the eruption of Vesuvius (6.16; 6.20), but we know little else about her. She is referred to in the past tense in 4.19, which was written ca. 101–104, so scholars assume she was dead by then.

  Regulus Marcus Aquilius Regulus, a legal advocate and informer whom Pliny loathes. Informers (delatores) had networks of spies in the homes of the wealthy and reported even the most innocuous comments to the emperor. They were rewarded handsomely. The only sympathy Pliny could muster for the man was when his son died. “Even Regulus did not deserve that,” Pliny said (4.2). When Regulus died, Pliny told a friend he “did well to die, and would have done better to die sooner” (6.2). The elder Pliny held Regulus in contempt, so the animosity between Regulus and the Pliny family had a long history. That antagonism is a major element in The Flute Player.

  Tacitus Cornelius Tacitus, whose first name (praenomen) may have been Publius or Gaius, but we aren’t certain. Like Pliny, he was from a wealthy family from either northern Italy or southern France. He was one of the leading orators of Rome in the 90s. He survived Domitian’s reign, but Domitian’s attack on the Senate left him with an abiding hatred of Rome’s imperial system. His Annals and Histories cover the period from Augustus’ death to the death of Domitian (14–96), though large chunks are now missing. He also wrote shorter works on oratory, on the Germans, and a biography of his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola. His request for information about the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 prompted Pliny to write two of his most famous letters describing that catastrophe. Pliny’s collection contains a number of letters to Tacitus.

  FICTIONAL CHARACTERS

  Aurelia A young woman whom Pliny met and rescued in the first book in this series, All Roads Lead to Murder. Now the wife of Calpurnius, she is about seventeen, a typical age for Roman girls to be married. (Pliny later married Calpurnia when she was about fifteen.) Aurelia’s name means “golden-haired.” The Romans prized blond hair so much that they shaved the heads of captive German women to make blond wigs.

  Aurora Pliny’s slave, and for my purposes, the love of his life. In his letters Pliny comes across as a rather straightlaced type, but Roman aristocrats often had relationships with slave women or freedwomen in their households.

  Bastet Calpurnius’ slave. Bastet is an ancient Nubian name. Nubia lay on the southern border of the Roman province of Egypt. The incident of decapitating a statue of Augustus referred to in Chapter XIII actually happened. Nubian slaves were highly prized in Rome.

  Canthara/Plautia Unacknowledged daughter of Aelius Lamia and Domitia Longina. Aelius raised her as a slave and finally emancipated her.

  Capsius Scribe with an oddly shaped left hand. Missing a thumb and little finger, he has only three fingers, giving the appearance of the Greek letter psi. Instead of putting him out to die, his father created a name with -psi- in the middle of it. The “p” in psi is pronounced here, so his name becomes “CAP-see-us.”

  Decius Captain of the trireme Jupiter, the ship on which Pliny the Elder set out to rescue survivors from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Not all ships in the ancient world had names, but enough did that I felt comfortable christening this one.

  Naomi A Jewish slave who is the close confidante of Pliny’s mother. She is also the mother of Phineas. Both are important characters in the second Pliny mystery, The Blood of Caesar.

  Novatus Commander of the vigiles in one district in Naples. Cf. vigiles in the Glossary of Terms.

  Phineas Pliny’s scribe and son of Naomi.

  Thamyras A servant of Calpurnius, born and raised in the house. The term for such slaves was vernae, from which we get the word “vernacular,” a dialect used in one’s own home town, or something that is native or indigenous to an area.

  GLOSSARY OF TERMS

  amicitia Latin for friendship. Upper-class Romans extended an official recognition of friendship to certain persons, recognizing an obligation to assist them and expecting to be able to call on them in a time of need.

  atrium The front part of a Roman house (domus). It consisted of rooms arranged around a pool (impluvium) which was originally used to collect rain water through the roof opening. The atrium was the business part of a house, where a wealthy man met his clients each morning.

  calendar From the word “Kalends,” the Latin name for the first day of a month. The Romans used the same names for the months that we do, but counted the days in relation to the Kalends, the Nones, and the Ides. The Nones was approximately the eighth day of a month and the Ides was the thirteenth or fifteenth, depending on the month. After the Kalends, all dates were given as “before the Nones.” After the Nones, all dates were given as “before the Ides.” After the Ides, dates were given as “before the Kalends” of the next month.

  client From a Latin word meaning to lean or rely on someone. A wealthy Roman (patron) took on as many clients as he could afford, since they were a visible measure of his standing. His clientela were expected to come to the patron’s house each morning at dawn to greet him, receive a small daily allowance, and accompany him as he went to the Forum.

  exhedra Given how warm the climate of Italy can be for much of the year, the Romans created outdoor eating areas, especially in the southern part of Italy. These alcoves were usually on the back wall of a garden. The ones in Pompeii and Herculaneum have concrete sloped benches for diners to recline on around three sides, with an opening on the fourth side where servants brought in food.

  hours The Romans divided the day into twelve segments, called horae. As the length of the day varied with the seasons, the length of an hour would vary. Even with water-clocks and sundials, precision in timekeeping was impossible.

  insula Large apartment house in ancient Rome and other cities in the Empire. The largest stood five stories high and housed as many as two thousand people. They were unheated and had no running water. Wealthy men often owned a number of these tenement houses, which were notorious firetraps. The Romans did not build houses with hallways, so one set of stairs in an insula would lead to part of an upper floor with a few apartments around a landing, while another set would lead to a different part of the same floor and other apartments.

  latrunculus A popular board game, a mixture of chess and Othello. The objective was to surround the opponent’s primary piece, the dux (leader).

  Necropolis Since the area inside a city’s walls was sacred to a god, the dead had to be buried outside the walls. The tombs could be rather large and were often shaped like houses. They lined the roads outside any city. Families often went out for picnics on the deceased’s birthday or anniversary of his or her death. Messages on the tombs were often composed as though the dead person was talkin
g to passersby. Stepping behind one of the large monuments to relieve oneself was a common practice, as seen in the werewolf story in Petronius’ Satyricon 62.

  names Roman nomenclature, among the upper classes, was based on a man’s family name (nomen), along with a first name (praenomen) and a third name (cognomen), e. g., Gaius Julius Caesar or Marcus Tullius Cicero. When a man was adopted into a family, he kept his biological father’s nomen as part of his name. When Octavius was adopted by his great-uncle, he became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (and eventually Augustus). Pliny’s family name by birth was Caecilius, so when he was adopted by his uncle, Gaius Plinius Secundus, he became Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus. A woman was given a feminine form of her father’s nomen. Any daughter born to Julius Caesar was Julia. Younger daughters were sometimes referred to as Secunda or Minor. Among the lower classes, names could vary tremendously, reflecting ethnic origin, place of birth, or numerous other factors. We are somewhat whimsical in our anglicizing of Latin names. Tacitus remains Tacitus, but Plinius becomes Pliny.

  October Horse One of the least understood of Roman religious rituals. On October 15 a race was held between two chariots, each drawn by a pair of horses. The right-hand horse on the winning chariot was sacrificed to Mars. Its head was cut off and residents from two districts of Rome fought to see who would have the honor of displaying the head in their district. The tail was also cut off and the blood dripped over a sacrifice to Mars. (It is possible that “tail” is a euphemism for penis, since the tail would not have much blood in it.) The Romans did not typically sacrifice animals they didn’t eat, and they did not eat horses, so this whole ritual stands out as bizarre. It was still being practiced as late as 354.

  princeps This term, meaning “chief citizen,” was commonly used by Pliny in his earlier letters to designate the emperor. Imperator was a military term. While that title was given to the emperors from the beginning of Augustus’ reign, princeps was more of a civilian concept, helping to mask the fact that the emperors were military dictators.

  raeda An enclosed four-wheeled wagon, the “station wagon” of ancient Rome.

  salutatio The “morning greeting.” Clients were expected to gather at their patron’s home each morning to demonstrate, by their numbers, his importance. The poet Martial says he doesn’t mind walking two miles to his patron’s home, but it does rile him to learn that his patron isn’t there that day.

  sinus A toga was draped over and around the body in such a way that a “pocket” was created on the man’s left side, between his arm and his ribcage. When Julius Caesar was on his way to the Senate house on the Ides of March, he was given a note warning him of the planned assassination. He dropped it into his sinus to read later.

  slave/servant The Romans used the word servus to mean a slave or a free servant. Many servants were freed slaves who remained in their former master’s household. I have not tried to observe a strict rule about applying “slave” or “servant” to any particular character in this novel. In Pliny’s mind, Aurora, for example, was his serva, whatever that might mean.

  taberna Obviously the origin of our “tavern,” but in ancient Rome it meant any kind of shop. Many were little more than “fast-food” places with no room to sit down. Others were more like taverns. In Pompeii we find graffiti in tabernae recording how much customers owed, the services available from prostitutes, and other pertinent information.

  Tironian notation A system of shorthand devised by Tiro, Cicero’s scribe, to make it possible to take down what a person was saying as he spoke. Tiro’s system used 4,000 signs. The system was modified in the Middle Ages and eventually reached 11,000 signs.

  Tyche Goddess of fortune, called Fortuna by the Romans. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods the concept of fortune loomed large, as people’s destinies were controlled by monarchs whom their subjects rarely saw. Temples were built to the goddess embodying the idea of luck or blind chance. The temple of Tyche in Alexandria was one of the largest in the Hellenistic world.

  vigiles No ancient city had what we could consider a police or fire department. The vigiles (watchmen) patrolled the streets at night, primarily to awaken people and get them out of a burning building. Over time they took on the functions of a police force.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Albert A. Bell, Jr. is a college history professor and novelist who lives in Michigan. He and his wife have four adult children and a grandson. In addition to his Roman mysteries, Bell has written contemporary mysteries for children and adults, as well as nonfiction. Visit him at www.albertbell.com and www.pliny-mysteries.com, and also on Facebook.

  Also by Albert A. Bell, Jr.

  Historical Fiction

  All Roads Lead to Murder: A Case from the Notebooks of Pliny the Younger

  The Blood of Caesar: A Second Case from the Notebooks of Pliny the Younger

  The Corpus Conundrum: A Third Case from the Notebooks of Pliny the Younger

  The Flute Player (e-book)

  Contemporary Fiction

  Death Goes Dutch

  Children’s Fiction

  The Secret of the Bradford House

  The Secret of the Lonely Grave

  Nonfiction

  Perfect Game, Imperfect Lives

  Exploring the New Testament World

  Resources in Ancient Philosophy (with James B. Allis)