Reudigni: German tribe living on the Jutland peninsula.
Rhodanus: Roman name for the Rhone river.
Rotomagus: Important Roman city in northern France; modern Rouen.
Rugii: German tribe living on the southern coasts of the Baltic.
Rugium: Town of the Rugii named by Ptolemy; here placed on the lower Vistula.
Runes: Germanic writing system, thought to have magical powers.
Sacramentum: Roman military oath, taken extremely seriously.
Sacred Way: Road leading from the forum in Rome, used as a processional route for state occasions.
Salus: Roman personification of safety and prosperity, worshipped as a goddess.
Samarobriva: Roman city in north-western France; modern Amiens.
Sarcophagus (plural, sarcophagi): Greek; literally, flesh-eater; a stone coffin, often highly carved and displayed above ground.
Sarmatians: Nomadic peoples living north of the Danube.
Sassanid: Persian, from the dynasty that overthrew the Parthians in the 220s AD and was Rome’s great eastern rival until the seventh century AD.
Saxons: North Germanic tribe.
Scadinavia: Ancient name for the southern part of the Scandinavian peninsula, thought to be an island in antiquity.
Scop: In Norse and Angle culture, an itinerant poet, reciting epic verse on heroic themes of battle.
Scrithiphini: Scandinavian tribe.
Scylla and Charybdis: Two monsters from the Odyssey, guarding either side of a narrow strait.
Scythians: Nomadic peoples living north and east of the Black Sea, roughly bordered by the Danube in the west, the Volga in the east and the Caucasus to the south. A source of fantastical tales for ancient geographers.
Sebaste: Elaiussa Sebaste, a Roman town on the southern coast of Turkey where Ballista successfully routed the Persians.
Semnones: German tribe belonging to the Alamanni confederation, living to the north of the headwaters of the Rhine and Danube.
Senator: Member of the senate, the council of Rome. The senatorial order was the richest and most prestigious group in the empire, often entrusted with military commands and imperial offices.
Serapis: God of the harvest, worshipped by the Greek inhabitants of Egypt and later adopted by the Romans.
Sesterces: Standard denomination in the Roman coinage system.
Seven Hills: The city of Rome encompassed seven hills, the tops of which were popular residential districts among the rich and powerful, the poor crowding into the valleys in between.
Shield-burg: From the Old English, a shield fort or castle.
Shield-maiden: In Germanic society, a woman who chose to fight as a warrior, though more common in legend and folklore. Also a name for the Choosers of the Slain.
Silentarii: Body of servants whose sole job was to maintain the awed hush in the imperial audience chamber.
Skalks: Gothic, slave.
Skoll: In Norse mythology, the wolf who chases the chariot of the sun’s horses across the sky and, at the end of time, catches them.
Solfell: Sun Mountain, place mentioned in the Norse sagas; here identified as the island of Gotland, the home of the Geats.
Soli: Greek city in southern Turkey, scene of Ballista’s victory over the Persians and sacking of Shapur’s harem.
Sophist: Famous public speakers who specialized in display oratory.
Sorn-pole: Also known as a nithing pole. Wooden stake covered with curses carved in runes and capped by a horse skull, activating the malevolence of the Norse goddess of death. Thought to be a highly potent form of magic.
Sound, The: Sea channel between Hedinsey (modern Zealand) and Scadinavia (modern Sweden).
Sparta: Region in the centre of the Peloponnese and Ancient Greek state, notoriously militaristic.
Spatha: Long Roman sword, the usual type carried by all troops by the mid-third century AD.
Stephanephor: Greek; literally, Crown-wearer; title of magistrate in some Greek cities.
Stipendium: Latin military term for a soldier or sailor’s pay.
Stoics: Philosophers who practised self-control and suppression of the emotions in the search for moral perfection. Very popular among the Romans; the second-century emperor Marcus Aurelius even wrote Stoic treatises.
Strategos: Greek, general, commander.
Suania: Kingdom in the High Caucasus; included the modern district of Georgia called Svaneti.
Suebian Sea: Ancient name for the Baltic.
Susurration: From the Latin sussuratio, a whispering.
Swinehead: Germanic/Norse attacking formation in the shape of an arrow.
Syria Coele: Hollow Syria, Roman province covering the northern half of the coast of modern Syria.
Syria Phonice: Phoenician Syria, Roman province occupying the southern half of the coast of modern Syria.
Taifali: Gothic tribe settled to the north-east of the lower Danube river; accused of very strange customs by Ammianus.
Talasio: Very ancient cry raised at weddings; its origins and meaning were unknown to the Romans themselves.
Tanais: City at the mouth of the river Tanais (the modern Don), located on the extreme north-eastern shore of the Sea of Azov.
Tara: Sacred hill on which the high kings of Hibernia were crowned.
Tauromenium: Town in Sicily (modern Taormina), where Ballista and Julia own a villa.
Teiws: God of war worshipped by the Goths.
Telones: Greek, a customs or tax official.
Tervingi: Gothic tribe living in the region between the Danube and Dnieper rivers.
Testudo: Latin; literally, tortoise; by analogy, a Roman infantry formation with overlapping shields, similar to a northern shield-burg.
Thebes: Greek city north-west of Athens. Site of a legendary siege captained by seven mythical heroes.
Theoden: Old English, king, ruler.
Thermae: Public baths.
Thessaly: Region of north-central Greece.
Thetis: In Greek mythology, one of the Nereids, mother of Achilles.
Thiazi: In Norse mythology, a giant whose eyes were placed as stars in the heavens by Odin.
Thrace: Ancient geographical region corresponding to the European portion of modern Turkey and southern Bulgaria.
Tiber: River flowing through Rome.
Toga: Voluminous garment, reserved for Roman citizens, worn on formal occasions.
Tribune (Latin, Tribunus): Junior rank in the Roman civic or military hierarchy, generally filled by the sons of the elite.
Tridentum: Roman town lying in the foothills of the Italian Alps; modern Trento.
Trierarch: The commander of a trireme; in the Roman forces, equivalent to a centurion.
Trireme: Ancient warship, a galley rowed by about two hundred men on three levels.
Troy: City on the southern shore of the Hellespont, scene of the legendary siege recounted in the Iliad.
Ubi tu Gaius, ego Gaia: Where you (are) Gaius, I (am) Gaia. The traditional vow made by a woman during the Roman marriage ceremony, which Romans themselves found hard to explain. The names may have been chosen because they were typical (Mr and Mrs Smith), or might be garbled versions of an archaic word meaning happy.
Ultio: Roman concept of revenge as a form of justice, once a powerful motivating factor in the politics that created the empire.
Urugundi: Gothic tribe settled along the Don river.
Uxorious: From the Latin, to be fond of one’s wife.
Valhalla: In Norse mythology, the hall in which selected heroes killed in battle would feast until Ragnarok.
Vandals: German tribe living in the area of southern Poland.
Varini: German tribe living on the Jutland peninsula.
Varinsey: Island in the Baltic known from the Norse sagas, here identified as Funen.
Venedi: Tribe living along the upper reaches of the Dnieper.
Vesontio: Roman town lying by the foothills of the French Alps; modern Besançon.
&
nbsp; Vestal: Virgin priestesses of the Roman goddess Vesta; if they broke their vow of chastity, they were punished by being buried alive.
Vexillationes: Troops detached from their parent units for special service.
Via Claudia Augusta: Roman military road driven through the Alps, linking northern Italy to the provinces of the Rhine frontier.
Via Flaminia: Major road leading north out of Rome.
Vigiles: Large paramilitary organization stationed in Rome, fulfilling the duties of fire brigade and police force.
Vir Egregius: Knight of Rome, a man of the equestrian order.
Vir Ementissimus: Highest rank an equestrian could attain; e.g. Praetorian Prefect.
Vir Perfectissimus: Equestrian rank above Vir Egregius but below Vir Ementissimus.
Virtus: Latin, courage, manliness and/or virtue; far stronger and more active than the English word ‘virtue’.
Vocontii: Gallic tribe living on the east bank of the Rhone river in the foothills of the French Alps.
Wade: Sea giant of Norse mythology; a great warrior.
Warhedge: Old English poetical term for a shieldwall; a hedge of spears.
Warig: Old English; literally, Filthy, Muck-tub, Brine-stained; here the name of a native longship given by the king of the Harii to Ballista.
Waymunding: Leading family on Varinsey; later a royal dynasty mentioned in the epic poetry of the Angles.
Whale Road: Old English poetical term for the sea.
Wicce: Old English, a sorceress, witch.
Woden: High Norse god.
Woden-born: Descended from Woden.
Woden’s Hall: Alternative name for Valhalla.
Wrosns: Royal dynasty mentioned in the Norse sagas; here the ruling dynasty of Latris.
Wuffingas: Noble dynasty of the Angles on Hedinsey, became the first rulers of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia in England with a burial ground at Sutton Hoo.
Wylfings: German tribe; in this novel inhabiting Hindafell, the island of Öland.
Wyrd: One of the Norns, often translated as ‘fate’.
Yggdrasill: In Norse mythology, the immense tree that supports the worlds of the gods and men.
Zephyr: From the Greek name for a gentle west wind.
Zeus: King of the gods in Greek mythology, worshipped in many guises; as Zeus the Saviour, he brought protection and was commonly toasted at dinner parties.
List of Roman Emperors of the Time of The Amber Road
AD193–211 Septimius Severus
AD198–217 Caracalla
AD210–11 Geta
AD217–18 Macrinus
AD218–22 Elagabalus
AD222–35 Alexander Severus
AD235–8 Maximinus Thrax
AD238 Gordian I
AD238 Gordian II
AD238 Pupienus
AD238 Balbinus
AD238–44 Gordian III
AD244–9 Philip the Arab
AD249–51 Decius
AD251–3 Trebonianus Gallus
AD253 Aemilianus
AD253–60 Valerian
AD253– Gallienus
AD260–61 Macrianus
AD260–61 Quietus
AD260– Postumus
List of Characters
To avoid giving away any of the plot, characters usually are only described as first encountered in The Amber Road.
Achilles (1): Greek hero of the Iliad, Homer’s epic poem of the Trojan War. Worshipped as a demi-god, his cult was especially popular around the coast of the Euxine.
Achilles (2): Iulius Achilles, a Memoria to Gallienus.
Acilius Glabrio: Gaius Acilius Glabrio, a young patrician, one of Gallienus’s comites at Mediolanum in AD260.
Aelfwynn: Daughter of Kadlin and Oslac, a young Angle.
Aelius Restutus: Governor of Noricum in the service of Gallienus.
Aemilianus: Postumus’s governor of Hispania Tarraconensis.
Aeneas: Trojan hero of the Aeneid, Virgil’s epic poem telling of the legendary origins of Rome.
Aeneas Tacticus: Greek author of a handbook on how to survive sieges, written c. 350BC.
Aeschylus: Athenian tragic dramatist of the sixth to fifth centuries BC.
Aethelgar: Son of Kadlin and Oslac, a young Angle.
Aeva: Sweetheart of Eomer.
Albinus: See Nummius Ceionius Albinus.
Alexander (the Great): 356–23BC, son of Philip, King of Macedon, conqueror of Achaemenid Persia.
Amantius: Publius Egnatius Amantius, an imperial eunuch from Abasgia.
Amelius: Gentilianus Amelius, leading disciple of the philosopher Plotinus.
Anacharsis: Scythian philosopher who settled in Athens in the sixth century BC, sometimes numbered among the Seven Sages of Greece.
Antony: Marcus Antonius, Roman statesman and general, committed suicide in Egypt when it became clear he had lost the civil war with Augustus, 30BC.
Ariadne: Mythical heroine who fell in love with Theseus, only to be abandoned by him shortly after saving his life.
Arkil: An atheling of the Angles; son of Isangrim (1) and a woman of the Frisii, full brother of Eadwulf Evil-Child, older half-brother of Ballista. He fights under the banner of the Himlings of Hedinsey, a white horse on a green field.
Ashhere: Angle warlord.
Attalus: King of the Marcomanni, father of Pippa.
Augustus: First Roman emperor, 31BC–AD14.
Aulus Voconius Zeno: Roman equestrian, once governor of Cilicia and a Studiis to Gallienus, but afterwards acting as a Roman emissary. Having visited the tribes near the mouth of the Danube, is now heading for the Angles in the far north of Germania.
Aurelian: Lucius Domitius Aurelian, known as Hand-to-Steel, a Roman officer from the Danube. A friend of Ballista at the court of Gallienus.
Aureolus: Once a Getan shepherd near the Danube, now Gallienus’s Prefect of Cavalry, one of the protectores.
Ballista: Marcus Clodius Ballista, originally named Dernhelm, son of Isangrim the Dux, war leader, of the Angles; a diplomatic hostage in the Roman empire, he has been granted Roman citizenship and equestrian status, having served in the Roman army in Africa, the far west, and on the Danube and Euphrates; having defeated the Sassanid Persians at the battles of Circesium, Soli and Sebaste, and killed the pretender Quietus, he was briefly acclaimed Roman emperor three years before this novel starts.
Bion: Deputy strategos of Olbia.
Bonitus: Roman siege engineer, one of Gallienus’s protectores.
Bonosus: Commander of Legio III Italica Concors, a drunkard in the service of Postumus.
Brecca: Ruler of the Brondings.
Brutus: One of Julius Caesar’s assassins.
Caesar: Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman statesman and general, assassinated for tyranny on the ides (15th) of March 44BC.
Calgacus: Marcus Clodius Calgacus; a Caledonian ex-slave, originally owned by Isangrim and sent by him to serve as a body servant to his son Ballista in the Roman empire, and manumitted by the latter. He was murdered by Hippothous the year before this novel starts.
Caligula: Gaius Julius, Roman emperor AD37–41; as a child, nicknamed Little Boots, Caligula, because his father had him dressed in miniature soldier’s uniform.
Callistratus: Foremost archon of Olbia.
Camsisoleus: Egyptian officer of Gallienus, brother of Theodotus; one of the protectores.
Carus: Marcus Aurelius Carus, a young officer from Narbo, one of Gallienus’s protectores.
Cassius: One of Julius Caesar’s assassins.
Castricius: Gaius Aurelius Castricius, Roman army officer risen from the ranks, Prefect of Cavalry under both Quietus and Ballista.
Cato the Censor: Marcus Porcius Cato, also known as Cato the Elder (234–149BC), stern moralist of the Republican age.
Catullus: Roman poet (c. 80–c. 51BC).
Celer (1): Roman general from Italy, one of Gallienus’s protectores.
Celer (2): Frumentarius in the service of Postumus.
; Censor: Governor of Gallia Narbonensis under Postumus.
Censorinus: Lucius Calpurnius Piso Censorinus, Princeps Peregrinorum under Valerian and the pretenders Macrianus and Quietus; now serving as Praetorian Prefect under Gallienus.
Ceola: Son of Godwine, a young Angle warrior in charge of coastal defence.
Chosroes: Exiled client king of Armenia, now resident at the court of Gallienus.
Cicero: Roman statesman and prolific author (106–43BC).
Circe: Mythical witch, also involved in the homecoming of Odysseus from the Trojan war.
Claudius: Marcus Aurelius Claudius, a Danubian officer of Gallienus, one of the protectores.
Claudius Natalianus: Gallienus’s governor of Moesia Inferior.
Clementius Silvius: Titus Clementius Silvius, governor of both the provinces of Pannonia, Superior and Inferior, under Gallienus.
Cominius Priscianus: Gallienus’s a Studiis.
Cormac: Cousin of Maximus.
Dadag: Agoranomos of Olbia.
Dardanos: Legendary founder of Troy.
Demetrius: Marcus Clodius Demetrius, a slave purchased by Julia to serve as her husband Ballista’s secretary; manumitted by the latter, now a freedman with Roman citizenship living in the household of the emperor Gallienus.
Dernhelm (1): Original name of Ballista.
Dernhelm (2): Lucius Clodius Dernhelm, second son of Ballista and Julia.
Dido: Legendary founder and Queen of Carthage, spurned lover of Aeneas in the Aeneid.
Dio of Prusa: Also known as Dio Chrysostom, the Golden-Mouthed; a Greek philosopher of the first to second centuries AD.
Diocles: Optio of a military unit sent to Olbia.
Diogenes: Cynic philosopher, c. 412/403–c. 324/321BC.
Diophanes: Student of the philosopher Plotinus.
Domitianus: Italian officer of Gallienus, one of the protectores; claims descent from the emperor Domitian.
Dunnere Tethered-Hound: Heathobard warrior.
Eadric: Angle, son of eorl Eadwine of Gudmestrand.
Eadwine: Angle eorl of Gudmestrand, of the Waymunding family.
Eadwulf Evil-Child: Son of Isangrim (1) and a woman of the Frisii, full brother of Arkil, half-brother of Ballista.
Eomer: Angle duguo.
Eudosius: Ruler of the Dauciones.
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