The Ermine Street Guard (Photo: Caroline Morton)
Over the years I’ve been asked in interviews why Rome fascinates me and how it led to me imagining Roma Nova. I reveal all…
What period of history particularly inspires or interests you? Why?
Rome! It’s almost visceral. It’s gripped me since I walked on that first mosaic. ‘Rome’ founded (according to Roman historians) in 753 BC lasted 1229 years in the West, which time span would take us back to AD 796 from today. It changed from a tiny community of tribal farmers and, frankly, riff-raff, to a confident military and trading empire boasting high culture, diversity, power, engineering and rule of law. But by 476 AD, the western part of the empire had dwindled to a miserable rump with a young teenager kneeling before the barbarian King Odoacer.
Romulus Augustulus renouncing his role as the last Roman emperor in the West (19th century sketch, public domain)
Rome had the dark side of all ancient cultures: slavery, rampant corruption, patriarchalism and scant regard for disabled and poor people. But it gave us systems, values, including civic-mindedness, cultural and engineering genius and literacy that are still firmly embedded in our psyches today. In my alternate projection of a Roman society in the present day, this heritage is an integral part of the thriller stories and the characters’ motivations. In their minds, hearts and souls, they are Roman.
Is there anything unusual or even quirky that you would like to share about your writing?
My whole writing world is quirky – an alternative historical timeline, women running a 20th century Roman-based state with a feminist twist. But the characters are still very much people we would recognise. Although they live naturally in their Roman style society with strong values, they have the same feelings and aspirations that we do. But inheritance and family names descend through the female line on the principle that you always know who the child’s mother is… Quirky, yes, but something that I hope provokes a different way of looking at things.
Is there a particular photo or piece of art that resonates with you?
I’ve stayed faithful to the Pont du Gard, near Nimes in southern France since I was seven years old. It’s elegant yet massive, a practical manifestation of Roman authority, but also an inspiration of engineering bringing the essential of life – water – to people in their urban environment. Designed by engineers, paid for publicly (sometimes by a wealthy benefactor), built by both skilled craftsmen and the labouring poor, it’s a true symbol of the complexity and contradictions of Rome. It also makes a nice photo nearly two thousand years later. 😉
Pont du Gard (Author photo)
The great thing about the setting of your thrillers is that you have some leeway with historical accuracy. Was the accuracy in describing the Roma Nova culture important to you?
Absolutely! I have an MA in History which has given me a grounding in being picky about accuracy and the techniques to research sources in a methodical way. I don’t think you can ‘alternate’ history without knowing it first.
When you choose to diverge from the standard historical timeline, you have to know exactly what the world was like at that point of divergence. This is the last solid foothold you have on the historical record. The Roma Nova storyline starts when a group of senatorial families trekked out of Italy at the end of the fourth century (as told in EXSILIUM). In my novel, the main characters worshipped the traditional gods – Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Mercury etc. For that reason they were persecuted by Christian Emperor Theodosius II for not converting to Christianity, which had become the state religion of the Roman Empire.
Roman gods, frieze in Ashmolean Museum (Author photo)
This persecution in Late Antiquity really happened, and was cemented by a series of edicts in the 390s AD. Theodosius signed the final edict outlawing worship of the traditional Roman gods in AD 394; the punishment was death. Sadly, we’re not taught about that when we ‘do’ the Romans at school – it’s all brushed over with Christianity ‘winning’.
Anyway…Once you’ve researched that divergence point in time ad nauseam, you then project forwards using historical logical until you reach the later time when your story is set. It helps to have a general knowledge of history, know how it unfolds and its dynamics when doing this. If not, research!
In fact, everything has to be checked from technology and attitudes in the 1960s (AURELIA), how to mount a coup d’état, intelligence techniques, warfighting of the 1980s (INSURRECTIO, RETALIO), weaponry, signals, locations and transferable Roman practices for all the books. I spent hours and hours on researching New York for the first part of INCEPTIO and ended up going there. Ditto for Montréal and Québéc for CARINA. As for SUCCESSIO, that drew strongly on my own time in the UK armed forces. But I love research. Honestly!
In your novels, Roma Nova is ruled by women. The real Romans had a very interesting way of viewing women: they were afforded the maximum status and respect, but had no rights or say in the world. How do you reconcile the view of the ‘real’ Romans with the Romans in your alternative timeline?
If freeborn, women in ancient Rome were citizens and increasingly during Imperial period gained much more freedom to act, trade, own property and run businesses of all types. But they held no direct political power. Nevertheless, women from wealthy or powerful families could and did exert influence throughout Rome’s history: the Julio-Claudian Livia Drusilla; the later Severan Julias; and Galla Placidia towards the end of the Roman Empire.
In my novels, women rule, but men are not disadvantaged. Life is much more nuanced than that. Roma Nova survived by changing its social structure. As men constantly fought to defend the new colony, women took over the social, political and economic roles, weaving new power and influence networks based on family structures.
Given the unstable, dangerous times in Roma Nova’s first few hundred years, the daughters and sisters as well as sons and brothers had to put on armour and carry weapons to defend their homeland and their way of life. Fighting danger side by side with brothers and fathers reinforced women’s roles. And they never allowed the incursion of monotheistic paternalistic religions. They and their descendants never forgot the persecution that forced them into exile in Rome. So I don’t think that it’s too far a stretch for women to have developed leadership roles in all parts of Roma Novan life over the next sixteen centuries.
Characters from the Roma Nova thrillers
My female protagonist’s story starts in INCEPTIO in a(n almost) standard Western society. When she’s compelled to flee to her dead mother’s homeland in Europe she finds the Roman-infused culture unnerving. Although outward facing and willing to cooperate with other nations, Roma Novans live to a tough ethic of self-sufficiency and an ingrained sense of duty to their state – core Roman values which have been crucial to their survival down the centuries. They are somewhat robust in their approach to life.
The strong female characters surrounding our heroine – her grandmother Aurelia, cousin Helena, female colleagues and friends – are the result of this and form the pattern for her. As you might expect, the men around her are distinctly Roman in their attitude which often makes personal and professional relationships fraught (but interesting!).
Not all runs smoothly, but the Twelve Families try to keep conspiracies – a core Roman activity – to an infrequent number. But Renschman, Pertinax, Nicola and Caius come along and every heroine needs an enemy…
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA, Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, starts the Foundation stories. The sequel, EXSILIUM, is now out.
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