Comes Sacrarum Largitionum: Count of the Sacred Largess, very important official in the late empire; controlled mints, mines, monetary taxation, pay and clothing of soldiers and officials.
Comitatus: Latin, literally, a following; name first given to barbarian war-bands and then to the mobile, mainly cavalry forces set up by Gallienus to accompany the emperor.
Commilitiones: Latin, fellow-soldiers (in Greek, Systratiotes), often used by commanders wishing to emphasize their closeness to their troops.
Conservator Pietatis: ‘Preserver of Piety’; a slogan used on the coins of Gallienus.
Consilium: Council, body of advisors, of a Roman emperor, official or elite private person.
Contubernium: Group of ten (or maybe eight) soldiers (contubernales) who share a tent; by extension, comradeship.
Corona Muralis: The mural crown; an award given to the first man over the walls of an enemy position. In the principate, only officers were eligible.
Corrector totius Orientis: Overseer of all the Orient; a title applied to Odenathus of Palmyra.
Cronos: In myth, the reluctant father of the gods; as each was born, he swallowed it. Thus the expression, ‘to have the eye of Cronos on you’ meaning that something bad is about to happen.
Cubiculum: Latin, bedroom.
Cularo: Roman town; modern Grenoble.
Cura: Latin, literally, care; among many meanings, the care for or running of a household, which a husband might delegate to his wife.
Curule Chair: Chair adorned with ivory; the ‘throne’ which was one of the symbols of high Roman office.
Custos: Latin, literally, a guardian; one would accompany an upper-class woman, in addition to her maids, when she went out in public.
Daemon: Supernatural being; the term may be applied to many different types: good/bad, individual/collective, internal/external, and ghosts.
Dalmatian: Person from Dalmatia; used in the third century AD to label a type of light cavalry from the Balkans.
Daphne: Suburb of Antioch, famous for sacred sites and notorious for luxury.
Decurion: Officer who commanded a troop in a cavalry unit.
Delator: Legal accusers/informers; hated and feared but, in an empire without public prosecutors, indispensable. Their motives were often held to be mercenary; if they got a conviction, they received a financial reward taken from the assets of the convicted.
Deus ex machina: Expression from the theatre, when an actor playing a god appears via a crane over the stage buildings and sorts everything out/brings the play to a close.
Devotio: Roman ritual of devoting oneself to the gods of the underworld (to become devotus); a sub-Faustian pact: the gods give you what you want but take your life.
Devs: Persian daemons/evil spirits.
Dibir: Persian, secretary; one recorded what was said when the Persian king was drinking and read it back to him the next day – an alarming practice, probably leading to enhanced self-control.
Dignitas: Important Roman concept, which covers our idea of dignity but goes much further; famously, Julius Caesar claimed that his dignitas meant more to him than life itself.
Diogmitai: Constables in Greek cities; commanded by an eirenarch.
Disciplina: Latin, discipline; Romans considered that they had this quality and non-Romans did not.
Dominus: Latin, Lord, Master, Sir; a title of respect; the feminine is domina.
Draco: Latin, literally, a snake or dragon; name given to a windsock-style military standard shaped like a dragon.
Dracontarius: Roman standard bearer who carried a draco.
Drafsh-i-Kavyan: Battle standard of the Sassanid royal house.
Drug: In Zoroastrian religion, falsehood; see above, Ahriman.
Durostorum: Port city on the southern bank of the Danube; in modern-day Bulgaria.
Eirenarch: Greek, title of chief of police/the watch in many Greek cities, including those of Cilicia.
Elagabalus: Patron god of the town of Emesa in Syria, a sun god; also, name often given (sometimes in the form of Heliogabalus) to one of his priests, who became the Roman emperor formally known as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (AD218–22).
Empusa: Shape-shifting creature from Greek myth; possibly more frightening to Demetrius in this novel than to most in antiquity, where it appears mainly in comic contexts, in Aristophanes, and Philostratus, Life of Apollonius.
Epiphania: District of Antioch.
Equestrian: Second rank down in the Roman social pyramid; the elite order just below the senators.
Equites Singulares: Cavalry bodyguards; in Rome, one of the permanent units protecting the emperors; in the provinces, ad hoc units set up by military commanders.
Equuleus: The ‘Little Horse’ or ‘Wooden Horse’; a Roman instrument of torture, which involved the stretching of the limbs.
Erotes: Plural of Eros, the god of love; both the emotion and the god could multiply; often found in art and poetry.
Eupatrid: From the Greek, meaning well-born, an aristocrat.
Exemplum, plural exempla: Latin, an example to be imitated or avoided; very important concept in Roman culture.
Exploratores: Scouts; in the Roman army, these were initially temporary groups of men seconded from other units. In the second and third centuries AD, some of these become permanent formations, and other specialized units of exploratores were created.
Familia: Latin, family; by extension, the entire household, including slaves.
Fasces: Bundles of wooden rods tied around a single-bladed axe; the symbol of power of Roman magistrates; carried by lictors; origin of the modern term ‘fascism’.
Felix: Latin, lucky; an attribute of emperors and some legions.
Fides: Latin, faith, as in ‘in good faith’, keeping one’s word to men and the gods.
Floralia: Roman festival to the goddess Flora, held between 28 April and 3 May, featuring obscene mimes.
Framadar: Persian military officer.
Franks: Confederation of German tribes.
Frumentarius, plural frumentarii: Military unit based on the Caelian Hill in Rome; the emperor’s secret police; messengers, spies and assassins.
Galli: Eastern eunuch priests.
Germania: The lands where the German tribes lived.
Gladius: Roman military short sword; generally superseded by the longer spatha by the mid-third century AD; also, slang for ‘penis’.
Gloria: Latin, glory.
Goths: Confederation of Germanic tribes.
Gravitas: Latin concept of seriousness, importance and authority.
Harii: German tribe, renowned night-fighters.
Hecate: Sinister three-headed underworld goddess of magic, the night, crossroads and doorways.
Hel: In Norse paganism, the citadel of Niflheim, the world of the dead; also the name of the female monster who ruled there.
Hermanduri: German tribe; one of the confederation of the Alamanni.
Hibernia: Modern Ireland.
Himation: Greek cloak.
Hippodamian: Adjective applied to a planned street grid; after Hippodamus of Miletus, the famous fifth-century BC town-planner.
Hostis: Latin, an enemy, especially of the Res Publica.
Humanitas: Latin, humanity or civilization, the opposite of barbaritas. Romans thought that they, the Greeks (at least upper-class ones), and, on occasion, other peoples (usually very remote) had it, while the majority of mankind did not.
Ides: The thirteenth day of the month in short months; the fifteenth in long months.
Illyricum: Roman name for the Balkans beyond the Adriatic; vaguely applied.
Imperium: The power to issue orders and exact obedience; official military command.
Imperium Romanum: The power of the Romans, i.e. the Roman empire, often referred to simply as the imperium.
Impluvium: Square basin used to collect rainwater in the centre of an atrium.
Invictus: Latin, unconquered; an attribute of Roman emperors.
Iuth
ungi: German tribe.
Kalends: The first day of the month.
Kyrios: Greek, Lord, Master, Sir; a title of respect; the feminine is kyria.
Latrones: Latin, robbers/bandits.
Legio: Legion, a unit of heavy infantry, usually about 5,000-men strong; from mythical times, the backbone of the Roman army. The numbers in a legion, and the legions’ dominance in the army, declined during the third century AD as more and more detachments, vexillationes, served away from the parent unit and became more or less independent units.
Legio I Adiutrix: The First Legion, the Help-Giver; based at Brigetio in Pannonia Superior (Szony in modern Hungary).
Legio II Adiutrix Pia Fidelis: The Second Legion, the Help-Giver, Loyal and Faithful; based at Aquincum in Pannonia Inferior (Budapest in Hungary).
Legio III Cyrenaica: The Third Cyrenean Legion; legionary garrison of Arabia, stationed at Bostra (Busra esh-Slam in Syria).
Legio III Felix: The Lucky Third Legion; mentioned only in the Historia Augusta (Aur. 11.4), and thus most likely fictional. In this novel, it is a unit formed of detachments from the historical Legio III Gallicana and Legio IV Flavia Felix, and stationed at Circesium (al-Busaira in Syria).
Legio III Gallica: The Third Gaulish Legion; raised by Julius Caesar; at the period of this novel, stationed either at Raphanaea (Rafniye in Syria) or Danaba (near Damascus).
Legio IIII Scythica: The Fourth Scythian Legion; from the second half of the first century AD based at Zeugma in Syria Coele (Kavunlu, formerly Belkis, in Turkey).
Legio VI Ferrata: The Sixth Iron-Clad Legion; based at Caporcotani in Syria Palestina (el-Qanawat in Syria).
Legio X Fretensis: The Tenth Legion of the Sea Straits; one of the two legions of Syria Palestina, stationed at Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem). It took its name from battle honours won at the battle of Naulochos, near the Straits of Messina.
Legio XI Claudia Pia Fidelis: The Eleventh Legion, Claudian, Loyal and Faithful; based at Durostorum in Moesia Inferior (Silistra in Bulgaria).
Legio XV Apollonaris: The Fifteenth Apollonarian Legion; stationed at Satala in Cappadocia (Sadak in Turkey).
Legio XVI Flavia Firma: The Sixteenth Legion, Flavian and Steadfast; based at Samosata in Syria Coele (Samsat in Turkey).
Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix: The Thirtieth Legion, Ulpian and Victorious; stationed at Vetera in Lower Germany (modern Xanten).
Legio XXXI Macriani Victrix: The Thirty-first Legion, Macrianan and Victorious; a figment of Quietus’s imagination; invented for this novel.
Lemuria: The days (9, 11 and 13 May) when dangerous ghosts were said to walk, necessitating propitiation.
Libertas: Latin, liberty or freedom; its meaning is contingent on when it is said and who by.
Liburnian: Name given at the time of the Roman empire to a small warship, possibly rowed on two levels; from ‘Liburnia’, an area of modern-day Croatia.
Lictors: Ceremonial attendants of a Roman magistrate.
Lykas (or Polites): Ghost; see Temesa.
Magi: Name given by Greeks and Romans to Persian priests, often thought of as sorcerers; see Mobad.
Maiestas: Latin, majesty; offences against the majesty of the Roman people were treason; being charged with maiestas was a grave fear among the elite of the imperium.
Maiuma: May festival held in many cities of the eastern empire, including Antioch and Edessa; it was nocturnal and orgiastic.
Maius Imperium: Supreme military authority; one of the two legal bases of the emperor’s power (the other being tribunicia potestas, the power of a Tribune of the Plebs). Occasionally, others could be granted this authority, but usually only over a designated area of the empire; often, such men were imperial princes marked out and trained for the succession.
Mandata: Instructions issued by the emperors to their governors and officials.
Mardi: A people living to the south-west of the Caspian Sea.
Mattiaci: German tribe; one of the Alamanni confederation.
Mazda (also Ahuramazda): The Wise Lord, the supreme god of Zoroastrianism.
Mediolanum: Roman city in northern Italy; modern Milan.
Mesopotamia: The land between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris; the name of a Roman province (sometimes called Osrhoene).
Miles, plural milites: Latin, soldier.
Mobad: Persian Zoroastrian priests; see Magi.
Moors: In Latin, Mauri; indigenous people of western North Africa; much employed as light cavalry by Roman armies in the third century AD.
Mos Maiorum: Important Roman concept: traditional customs, the way of the ancestors.
Mursa: Roman town in Pannonia; modern Osijek in Croatia.
Naissus: Roman town in Moesia; modern Niš in Serbia.
Nasu: Persian; daemon of death.
Negotium: Latin, business time, time devoted to the service of the Res Publica; the opposite of otium.
Nobilis, plural nobiles: Latin, nobleman; a man from a patrician family or a plebeian family, one of whose ancestors had been consul.
Nomen: Main family name of a Roman. The Romans were distinctive in the ancient world in having at least three names each; e.g. Gaius (praenomen) Julius (nomen) Caesar (cognomen).
Nones: The ninth day of a month before the ides, i.e. the fifth day of a short month, the seventh of a long month.
Norns: In Norse myth, the three fates that weave the destinies of men, gods and all living things.
Numerus, plural numeri: Latin name given to a Roman army unit, especially to ad hoc units outside the regular army structure; often units raised from semi- or non-Romanized peoples which retained their indigenous fighting techniques.
Optio: Junior officer in the Roman army, ranked below a centurion.
Osrhoene: Roman province in northern Mesopotamia.
Otium: Latin, leisure time, the opposite of negotium; it was thought important to strike the right balance between the two to lead a civilized life.
Paideia: Culture and/or education. Greeks considered that it marked them off from the rest of the world; the Greek elite considered that it marked them off from the rest of the Greeks. Some knowledge of it was thought necessary to be deemed a member of the Roman elite.
Pater Patriae: Latin, Father of the Fatherland; a title of the emperors.
Patria: Latin, Fatherland.
Patronus: Latin, patron. Once a slave had been manumitted and become a freedman, his former owner became his patronus; there were duties and obligations on both sides, although unequally balanced.
Pax Deorum: Very important Roman concept of the peace between the Roman Res Publica and the gods.
Pax Romana: The Roman Peace; a mission statement and justification for the Roman empire; at times, such as the mid-third century AD, more an ideology than an objective reality.
Pepaideumenos, plural pepaideumenoi: Greek term for the highly educated or cultured.
Periplous: Greek, a list and/or diagram of ports along a coast.
Peroz: Persian, victory.
Phalerae: Metal military decorations worn on the chest.
Pharos: Greek, lighthouse; the most famous was at Alexandria.
Phoenicia: Where the Phoenicians lived; an area of the coast of Levant. ‘To play the Phoenician’ was a slang expression meaning to perform cunnilingus.
Pietas: Latin, piety; the human side of the Pax Deorum.
Pilus Prior: Most senior centurion in a unit.
Pius: Latin, god-fearing, pious; a quality of the Roman emperor.
Polis, plural Poleis: Greek, a city state; living in one was a key marker in being considered Greek and/or civilized.
Praefectus: Prefect, a flexible Latin title for many officials and officers; typically, the commander of an auxiliary unit.
Praefectus Annonae: Prefect of the Provisions, title of official in charge of the grain supply of Rome and of imperial expeditions.
Praenomen: Roman’s first name; see Nomen.
Praetorian Prefect: Commander of the Praetorian Guard, an eques
trian; one of the most prestigious and powerful positions in the empire.
Prefect of Cavalry: Senior military post introduced in the mid-third century AD.
Princeps: Latin, leading man; thus a polite way to refer to the emperor (see Principatus). In the plural, principes, often denoted senators or great men of the imperium.
Princeps Peregrinorum: Commander of the frumentarii.
Principatus: Rule of the Princeps, the rule of the Roman imperium by the emperors. In English, the principate.
Proskynesis: Greek, adoration; given to the gods and, in some periods, to some rulers, including emperors in the third century AD. There were two types: full prostration on the ground, or bowing and blowing a kiss with the fingertips.
Protector, plural protectores: a group of military officers singled out by the emperor Gallienus.
Providentia: Latin, foresight; a quality of the Roman emperor.
Raetia: Roman province; roughly equivalent to modern Switzerland.
Ragnarok: In Norse paganism, the death of gods and men, the end of time.
Res Publica: Latin, the Roman republic; under the emperors, it continued to mean the Roman empire.
Restitutor: Latin, restorer; emperors were often hailed as restorers of the world or at least of a part of it.
Rhodion: Greek, literally, the rose garden, a district of Antioch.
Roxolani: Sarmatian tribe.
Sacramentum: Roman military oath, taken extremely seriously.
Sarmatians: Nomadic barbarian peoples living north of the Danube.
Sassanids: Persian dynasty which overthrew the Parthians in the 220s AD and was Rome’s great eastern rival until the seventh century AD.
Saturnalia: Roman festival which started on 17 December and, in the period of the novel, lasted for seven days. It was a time of license and the inversion of the norms of society.
Scaenicus Legionis: Actor-soldier in a legion; many legions had troupes of such men.
Scythians: Greek and Latin name for various northern and often nomadic barbarian peoples.
Sea of Tiberias: The biblical Sea of Gallilee; large inland body of water, now called Lake Kinneret.
Semnones: German tribe.
Senate: The council of Rome. Under the emperors, it was composed of about 600 men, the vast majority ex-magistrates with some imperial favourites. The senatorial order was the richest and most prestigious group in the empire, but suspicious emperors were beginning to exclude its members from military commands in the mid-third century AD.
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