Roma Mater

by Poul Anderson

  He cast hesitation aside, fetched his cloak, and went forth into a fine rain that he thought really should steam off his flesh.

  —She was a big young blond whose guttural accent somehow excited him the more. He didn’t quite make out her name, but she told him she was from east of the border. Hard pressed these days, many half-civilized Germani drifted across the Rhenus in search of employment, and often women trailed along. Roman authorities usually looked the other way, what with a labor shortage acute and worsening. While she talked and her right hand raised the cup of mead he had bought her, her left began to explore his person.

  He paid the fee for two turns and they went upstairs. None of his Queens would ever know if he could help it, but if perchance they found out, surely most would understand that a man has needs.

  A couple of tallow candles burned in the cubicle where her bed was. Their rankness was exciting too, like animals in rut. His member throbbed. She pulled off her gown and stood smiling at him. Her bosom was heavy above a rounded white belly and a patch that the wan light shaded but that gave off brass glints. He scrambled out of his clothes.

  Then he felt the coldness and the shriveling. His knees shook, his pulse rattled.

  They lay down and she tried this and that. Nothing availed. Finally she said, “Vell, too bad, but I got to go vork, you know?” He sighed and nodded. There was no mention of a refund.

  —He groped his way through night, back toward the hostel. It had been foolish not to carry a lantern. The rain fell heavier than before, with a wind to dash it into his eyes and hoot between walls. Chill sneaked under his cloak.

  So, he thought. I am once for all the King of Ys. Anywhere I may be, as long as we both shall live.

  Despite himself, he smiled a bit. Then maybe they’re not mistaken about other things in Ys, he thought. Maybe the soul of Dahilis is still somewhere thereabouts, waiting for me.

  He could almost believe that something of hers had watched over him. He was in search of the highest consecration to Mithras. His hypocrisy before Maximus still tasted nasty in his mouth, necessary though it had seemed. At least now he was, like it or not, free of any further impurity.

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  Afterword and Notes

  Although our aim has been to make the text of this novel self-explanatory, certain historical details may surprise some readers, who may thereupon think we are in error. Other readers may simply wish to learn a little more about the era. Nobody has to look at these notes, but anybody who wishes to is welcome.

  A word about nomenclature. In the story we generally give place names the forms they had at the time, rather than use their English versions. This is for the sake of accuracy as well as colour. After all, the boundaries of most cities, territories, etc. were seldom quite identical with those of their modern counterparts, and the societies occupying them were entirely different. There are a few exceptions, such as ‘Rome’ or the names of famous tribes, where insistence on the ancient rendering would have been pedantic.

  As for personal names, the story uses original forms throughout. Most are attested, a few represent conjectures by us. Ysan names are imaginary but not arbitrary; they are supposed to show the Celtic and Semitic roots of the language, plus later Graeco-Roman influences. ‘Ys’ itself is pronounced, approximately, ‘eess’, though the vowel is pure, not a diphthong of the English sort. The French ‘ice’, as in ‘justice’, comes close.

  A discussion of the Breton legend follows the notes at the end of the last book.

  1

  Mithras (or Mithra): A deity of ancient Aryan origin, whose cult reached Rome by way of Persia. Especially popular among soldiers, it became for a time the most important rival of Christianity, with which it had much in common.

  The Birthday of Mithras: 25 December. Formerly it had been celebrated on the winter solstice, but precession of the equinoxes caused the latter to move backwards through the calendar. About 274 A.D. the Emperor Aurelian fixed the birthday of Sol Invictus as the 25th, a date which the related Mithraic faith adopted. The Christian Church would not settle on it for the Nativity of Christ until much later; in the fourth century, that event was still considered of secondary importance. Gaius Valerius Gratillonius: Throughout the lands that the Empire ruled, inhabitants belonging to the upper and middle classes, and often persons more humble, generally imitated Roman nomenclature. Here ‘Gaius’ is the given name – which, however, men did not much use, if only because the selection was small. ‘Valerius’ belongs to a Roman gens, and indicates that at some time in the past someone of that tribe patronized, adopted, or freed a British ancestor. ‘Gratillonius’ is the cognomen, the family name, and is a Latinization of a native one (in this case, postulated rather than historically attested, in order to account for the later form ‘Grallon’). Admittedly, by the time of our story, the system was breaking down and there were many exceptions to it; but provincials would tend to be conservative.

  Borcovicium (also recorded as Vorcovicium, Vorcovicum, etc.): Housesteads.

  Mail: Heavy infantrymen of this period generally wore coats of mail, not the loricated cuirasses of an earlier day. A centurion was outfitted differently from those under him. The crest on his helmet, detachable for combat, arched side-to-side rather than front-to-back; greaves protected his shins; his sword hung from a baldric, and on the left instead of the right; he did not carry the two javelins, light and heavy, but did bear a twisted vinestaff as emblem of authority and instrument of immediate punishment for infractions.

  Cliff: Where nature had not provided such a barrier, a deep ditch paralleled Hadrian’s Wall on the north. Another, with earthen ramparts, ran at some distance to the south.

  Fifteen feet: Post-Roman quarrying has much brought down what is left of the Wall, but this was its original height, more or less, along most of its length. As for that length, from Wallsend on the Tyne to Bowness on the Solway it is 73 English or about 77 Roman miles. Eboracum (or Eburacum): York.

  Other legions in Britain: Besides the Sixth, those permanently stationed there were the Twentieth Valeria Victrix, based at Deva (Chester), and the second Augusta, based at Isca Silurum (Caerleon). Evidence indicates that a vexillation, a detachment, of the latter was called to Housesteads in the emergency of 382 A.D. AS elsewhere throughout the Empire in its later days, legionary regulars were outnumbered by auxiliaries from all over, equipped and operating in their native styles. Duke: At this time the Dux Britanniarum commanded the Roman forces in the provinces of Britain, with his seat in York.

  Vindolanda: This site is today occupied by the farm Chesterholm.

  Tungri: A tribe in the Low Countries. Basilica: Originally this word meant an administrative centre, civil or military.

  Base: Contrary to modern popular impressions, Hadrian’s Wall was not intended as a line of defence, and hardly ever served as one. It provided a means of controlling peacetime traffic between Roman Britain and the tribes to the north; in the event of hostilities, it was a base out of which soldiers operated, taking war to the enemy rather than waiting for an attack.

  Highlanders: The country of the Picts (a name loosely bestowed by the Romans) lay well to the north of Hadrian’s Wall. Another common misconception makes them dwarfish; they were actually a rather tall people. Warriors from across the water: The Scots were at this time living in what is now Ireland, except perhaps for an enclave on the Argyll coast. As the Empire declined, they came more and more to raid it, much in the style of the Vikings centuries later.

  Praetorium: The commandant’s house in a legionary fortress. It doubtless had other uses as well. Principia: The headquarters block, generally comprising three buildings around a courtyard. Isca Silurum: Caerleon in southeastern Wales. Hispania Tarraconensis: A Roman province occupying a large piece of Spain, in the northeast and east. Clean-shaven: To judge by contemporary portraits, many Roman men of this period were, though closely trimmed beards may have been a little more common. Cunedag: Better known as Cunedda, but that is
a later form of the name. His move to northern Wales with a following of his native Votadini (sometimes rendered ‘Otadini’) is historical; there he drove out the Scots and founded the kingdom of Venedotia, which eventually became Gwynedd. The Roman intention was that this should be a foederate, a closely controlled ally, but when the Empire receded it naturally became independent. Most authorities take for granted that the move was at the instigation of Stilicho, not Maximus. However, this is not certain; and Maximus himself did enter Welsh legend as Maxen Wledig, a prince who did something wonderful though unspecified for that country. Could it have been providing the leadership and organization from which the medieval kingdom developed?

  Ordovices: The people occuping northern Wales. Roman practice was to convert native tribes into local units of government, somewhat like Swiss cantons. Dumnonii: The people occupying, approximately, Cornwall and Devon.

  Language: It is not quite certain, but it is not unlikely that there was a single Celtic language, with mutually intelligible dialects, throughout England and southern Scotland. Stools: Chairs were not in common use. People ordinarily sat on stools, benches, or even floors. Hivernia (or Hibernia): Ireland.

  Wine: The Romans favoured wines so sweet and thick that they were best watered. Mediolanum: Milan. Augusta Treverorum: Trier.

  Arians: Christians following the doctrine of Arius, which the Council of Nicaea had declared heretical. Silures: The people occupying southern Wales. Belgae: These folk held a broad territory in the South, ranging approximately from Somerset through Hampshire. They were the last Celts to reach the island, just a couple of centuries before the Roman conquest, and their Continental kin retained the same name. The Belgae claimed a strong Germanic strain in their ancestry.

  British soldiers: For reasons uncertain today, auxiliaries of British birth, unlike most such, seem hardly ever to have been stationed in their home country. However, probably this was not so general a rule for regular legionaries. Aquae Sulis: Bath.

  Dacia: Approximately, modern Romania. In the later fourth century, the Empire had almost entirely abandoned this province. Nervii: A tribe in the Low Countries. Abonae: A small town on the River Avon (Latin Abona) in Somerset, near the meeting of this stream with the Mouth of the Severn (Latin Sabrina), which gives on the Bristol Channel and thus the sea. Armorica: Brittany. Gesoriacum: Boulogne. Condate Redonum: Rennes.

  Vorgium: Carhaix. In Roman times, until it was sacked, it was the most important city in western Brittany … except Ys!

  Caledonians: A confederacy in the far North. However, the name was often given generally to the peoples beyond Hadrian’s Wall.

  Temenos: The hallowed ground before or around a temple.

  Parnesius: Kipling makes him a centurion of the Thirtieth Legion, which was stationed in the Rhineland; we have found no confirmation of T. S. Eliot’s assertion that it, or a vexillation of it, was on Hadrian’s Wall at any time. Rather than leave Parnesius entirely out of the story, we suggest that he actually belonged to the Twentieth. Serfs: Latin coloni (singular colonus), tenant farmers and their families whom the ‘reforms’ of Diocletian had bound to the soil they cultivated, as their descendants would be bound for the next thousand years and more.

  Ahura-Mazda: The supreme god of Mithraism. Pronaos: An entrance hall above or adjoining the inner sanctum of a temple.

  Tauroctony: A representation of Mithras slaying the primordial Bull.

  2

  The history of Ireland from the earliest times through the heroic age, and even the beginnings of the Christian era, is obscure, often totally confused. Such sagas, poems, and chronicles as we have were written down centuries after the events they purport to describe. Taken as a whole, they are full of contradictions as well as anachronisms and outright impossibilities. Moreover, it is clear that the medieval recorders misunderstood much, deliberately changed much else as being too pagan or otherwise unedifying, and supplied numerous inventions of their own. Foreign historians are of small help, because Ireland never came under Roman rule. Archaeology supplies some clues, as well as data about everyday life. One can also extrapolate backwards from the oldest extant documents, notably the Brehon Laws, and from customs and beliefs reported by observers almost until the present day. Anthropology, with parallels to draw from other parts of the world, gives many hints as well.

  In general, for this novel we have chosen those interpretations and hypotheses which best fit our story. Various authorities would disagree with us on various points. We will try to discuss briefly the most controversial matters as we go along.

  The Irish still have no unanimity on how to spell Gaelic. The basic problem is that this is a language which does not lend itself well to the Roman alphabet. Besides, historical and dialectical variations are great. Our characters speak a forerunner of the language known as Old Irish, which itself is at least as different from modern Gaelic as Old Norse is from modern Danish. For a single example, the medieval and modern ‘mac’, meaning ‘son of, was earlier ‘maqq’, pronounced approximately ‘makw’. We are indebted to Celtologist Alexei Kondratiev for what knowledge of the ancient forms we have, but he must not be held responsible for our mistakes and deliberate modifications. Notably, we use the name ‘Niall’, although the older version is ‘Néll’, because its bearer looms so large in Irish history and tradition. Imbolc: In the modern calendar, 1 February. The pagan festival must have taken place approximately then. Our guess is that it, like others, was determined by the moon. The customs mentioned flourished as late as the early twentieth century. They look very ancient, only slightly Christianized.

  Manandan (maqq Leri): Later called Manannan mac Lir; a major Irish god, associated with the sea. Brigit: Originally an Irish goddess. She appears to have been tripartite, as many Celtic deities were. Her name passed to a Christian saint – nowadays Brighid or Bridget – who was especially popular and whose feast day was 1 February. The spring tide nearest this date bore her name and was believed to be the greatest of the year. Condacht (or Olnegmacht): Connaught, west central Ireland, still a recognized division of the country. We will presently discuss the Fifths.

  Mumu: Munster, southwestern Ireland. Like ‘Leinster’ and ‘Ulster’, the modern form of the name traces back to the Danes, as does, for that matter, ‘Ireland’ itself. Tuath: This word is often rendered ‘tribe’, but that is somewhat misleading. A tuath, consisting of families with an intricate social ranking, was a political unit occupying a definite territory, but not otherwise especially distinct from others of its kind. Each tuath had a king (rí), who owed allegiance to the King of the Fifth, about which arrangement there is a later note. (The ancient form is tótha.)

  Temir (later Teamhair): Now called Tara, this hill is located about 15 miles northwest of Dublin (which, of course, did not exist in our period; early Ireland had no towns). It had been used, if not continuously occupied, at least since megalithic times, and was regarded as especially charged with mana. However, tradition says that it was not until a few generations before Niall that a dynasty from Connaught established itself here. King: The institution of the High King (Ard-rí) of Ireland did not exist even in theory until a much later date, and was never really very effective. In ancient times, at best the principal king of a Fifth commanded the allegiance of various lower-ranking kings, each of whom led a tuath or an alliance of several tuaths. (More grades of royalty eventually developed.) The King of a Fifth might, though, have additional powers or claims outside its borders. Allegiance amounted to little more than the payment of tribute – with the overlord expected to give a smaller amount of goods in return – and military service on strictly limited terms. Basically, any king lived off the proceeds of his own holdings, off certain payments from those beneath him, and off whatever he could plunder in wartime. His function was at least as much sacral as political.

  Niall maqq Echach (‘Echach’ is the genitive of ‘Eochaid’): Later famous as Niall of the Nine Hostages, ancestor of the Uí Néill dynasties. On the whole, we hav
e followed traditional accounts of his life and exploits. Certain modern scholars maintain that these date him a generation or two too early; a few doubt that he is historical at all. It is true that many contradictions and other puzzles in the medieval chronicles can be resolved by some such theory, and we do not venture to say this is mistaken. Yet perhaps it gives certain annals more weight, at the expense of others, than they deserve. There are authorities who think so. Discounting the fabulous elements that have crept in, the old stories about Niall look plausible enough. The real problems arise with some about his successor Nath Í, which are scarcely to be taken seriously. For that matter, the chronology and the very identity of St Patrick are in confusion. Given all this, we have felt free to choose, from among the different accounts of Niall, those parts that accord with our story. Of course, we have added inventions of our own, beginning with his son Breccan, but these are not incompatible with our sources.

  Ollam (or olave): The highest grade of any profession considered learned or skilled.

  Free tenants: Land was held in ancient Ireland under a system too complicated to describe here. Briefly and incompletely put, however: land was inalienable from the tuath, which held in common the nonarable parts suitable for rough grazing, peat and wood gathering, etc. Farmland and the richer pastures were usually the property of some ‘noble’ – whether the king, a flaith, or a learned man such as a judge, poet, physician, etc. – who, though, basically held the acreage in trust for his family. Otherwise real estate belonged to a sept, who subdivided it from time to time among different members. Land not directly used by the owner(s) was rented out to tenants, who paid in kind and in services, since the early Irish did not coin money. A free tenant (soer-céli) supplied all or most of his own stock, paid moderate rent, enjoyed a good social standing, and might often be wealthy. A bond tenant (doer-céli), to whom the landlord must furnish ‘starting capital’, paid a much higher rent and ranked much lower. Both classes had other obligations, but those of the free tenant were lighter, and his rights and privileges under the law were far more. Nevertheless, the bond tenant was in no sense a serf; the relationship was contractual, and either party could terminate it. Indeed, there appears to have been social mobility, with poor men occasionally bettering their lot. Slaves, without rights and set to tasks nobody wanted, were generally captives taken in wars or raids, or children of these. Mide: Occupying approximately modern Counties Meath, Westmeath, Longford, parts of Kildare and Offaly, it is supposed to have been carved out of Connaught, Leinster, and Ulster by the upstart Tara dynasty. Whether or not it actually existed as such an entity in our period is uncertain, but we assume that it did. The Lagini: The people of Leinster, southeastern Ireland. Their territory was known as ‘Qóiqet Lagin’, i.e. ‘the Fifth of the Lagini’. The later form is ‘Cóiced Laigen’. The Ulati: The people of Ulster, northeastern Ireland. Their territory was Qóiqet nUlat.