The three ages of Aurelia

Aurelia Mitela, archetype Roma Novan, came to life when I was writing the first Roma Nova book, INCEPTIO. Then, she was the clever, experienced grandmother of Carina, the book’s heroine. But she had secrets behind her contained exterior. By the time I was halfway drafting SUCCESSIO, I was consumed with the need to know her story.

Her granddaughter, Carina, lives and works in New York in the Eastern United States and until the events in the first chapters of INCEPTIO has hardly registered this unknown grandmother ‘somewhere in Europe.’  Then she talks by internet to Aurelia and both lives change.

Carina’s first impression of Aurelia 

She’d been so concerned for me, but not in a soppy way. Direct and ‘no-nonsense’ fitted her perfectly, but her smile had been warm. I couldn’t help speculating how it would have been to grow up with her instead of the Browns. 
I started tapping the keys, surfing for Roma Nova while I was drinking and thinking. I couldn’t leave it alone. My grandmother’s name shot out at me. Fascinated, I loaded the English translation. The screen displayed a list of her business interests. Sketchy on detail, it gave some personal stuff at the end: head of the influential Mitela family, senator and government advisor, cousin to the current imperatrix. She really was a big hitter.

In PERFIDITAS, we see Aurelia, the cool ex-Praetorian, holding the family together after they’d been falsely arrested by would-be usurpers:
[Aurelia to Carina] ‘I’ve been through a great deal worse. I’m not a little old lady out of a genteel novel.’ 

No, she truly wasn’t. She’d been PGSF [Praetorian Guard Special Forces] in her time, even led the attack to retake the city during the civil war. Although now in her mid-seventies, she definitely belonged to the “tough gals” league. 

She gave me a close description of the arresting party. What a difference it made when the victim was a trained professional and could give you precise, detailed information. She’d printed off her statement and signed it already.

Throughout INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS and SUCCESSIO we catch glimpses of Aurelia’s early life, but even more, a whole range of questions are thrown up. What did she do in the Great Rebellion nearly twenty-three years before the time of INCEPTIO? Why is she so anxious when she compares the villain in SUCCESSIO to Caius Tellus, the brutal ‘First Consul’ who instigated the rebellion all those years ago? Who was the great love of Aurelia’s life that Carina only learns about in SUCCESSIO?

Aurelia, her lover and her nemesis

Under the test spotlight

In AURELIA, the first book in the Aurelia strand of the Roma Nova series, we go back to the late 1960s where she’s accused of murder while on a mission to Berlin. Detained in a grim remand prison, she undergoes a hostile psychological assessment. The assessor cannot believe that as a woman she has been a successful military commander and is now a ranking diplomat. Here’s the report:
Subject is highly rational, quick-minded and a natural leader. She sees nothing is impossible given enough time and resources. Subject has the confident personality and willpower to pursue and implement her goals, easily bringing others with her. A dominant personality.

Strategic thinker, curious, innovative, able to grasp and deal with problems with determination and precision. Energetic and excellent communication skills, happy to confront and negotiate with others. Intelligent enough to recognise other people’s talents, and work with them. Requires challenges and even failures, or her self-confidence could easily turn into arrogance and condescension.

Personalities of this type cannot tolerate inefficiency or those whom they perceive as lazy or incompetent. They can be chillingly cold and ruthless when the situation arises, operating purely on logic and rationality. 

They interact very well with others, often charming them to their cause, and paying attention to other people’s feelings – or at least pretending that they do. Most mature and successful personalities of this type are genuine in this aspect to some extent, even though their sensitivity may hide a cold and calculating mind.

This is a slant on the classic ENTJ personality  profile from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a psychometric test system popular in business to indicate psychological preferences about how people perceive the world and make decisions. I needed to make the report negative for the story, which I hated doing!

However, positive aspects of this type of personality are that they are conceptual and global thinkers, able to see connections where others don’t, and to think ahead. Couple this with the intuition and sense of fair play many ENTJs possess, it  can make life frustrating for this personality when people around them don’t  grasp things the way they do. Aurelia has this characteristic in spades and one of her life lessons is to learn how to deal with it.

Of course, this internal conflict is a gift for a writer… 😉

In essence, Aurelia is a blood-and-bone Roma Novan whose values are based on traditional ancient Roman ones; tough, loyal with a strong sense of duty and fully aware of her responsibilities as head of a great family. But her desire to keep all the balls juggling in the air with precise timing leads to her being riven by guilt if she doesn’t perform a hundred percent as she perceives it. But then she has a lot to contend with including her lethal struggle with Caius Tellus, her enemy since childhood and who both desires her and wants to destroy her.

Aurelia and Marina

Aurelia has a major vulnerability, her love for her frail daughter, Marina. She will do anything to protect Marina, especially from her nemesis, Caius Tellus. But this vulnerability, and willingness to sacrifice everything for Marina, is also her greatest strength, along with her determination to serve her country. Even in a cynical age, I believe this resonates so much with us and with our love for our children and parents.

Is she sympathetic? Yes, because under all that resolution and toughness, she is still a human being who experiences fear, love, despair and grief. She bitterly misses the strong comradeship of her earlier military career, and is exhilarated when going back into action.

And then, there is her devotion to her life-long love, elusive though he sometimes is…

AURELIA, the first of her adventures is available now
– eBook from all the usual stores via this link: https://books2read.com/AURELIARomaNova
– audiobook from Audible and iTunes
– paperback from these retailers

NEXUS, the second adventure, is a novella packed with murder, spies, 20th century Romans, tough women and love. It starts in a London with strong echoes to its Roman past…
Available now
– eBook from all the usual stores via this universal link: https://books2read.com/NEXUSRomaNova
– paperback from these retailers

In INSURRECTIO, the third adventure, Aurelia Mitela struggles against a manipulative tyrant attempting to grab power. But despite her efforts, it may already be too late to save Roma Nova…
Available as an ebook from your favourite retailer: https://books2read.com/INSURRECTIO
Paperback from these retailers

RETALIO, a classic tale of resistance and retribution, is the fourth and final Aurelia adventure – the endgame between Aurelia and Caius…
Available as an ebook from your favourite retailer via this link: https://books2read.com/RETALIO
Paperback from these retailers

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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