 Pirates have fascinated people for several centuries, but the fictional world of pirates, represented in novels and movies, is somewhat different to the reality, but where does fact end and fiction begin?
Helen Hollick has written a series of nautical voyages based around her fictional pirate, Captain Jesamiah Acorne and his ship, Sea Witch, but her latest UK release in paperback is a non-fiction book – ‘Pirates: Truth and Tales‘ published by Amberley Press. It explores our fascination with the real pirates and those who are favourites in fiction. Today, Helen drops anchor for another interesting addition to her on-line two-week Voyage around the blogs with a pirate or two for company…
Hello! Alison has kindly invited me on to her blog as a guest during my book tour… thank you Alison… I write about pirates: mainly the ones associated with the ‘Golden Age’ of the early eighteenth century, the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ Piracy, however, is nothing new. Where there was sea-trade there were pirates. All you needed was a good ship, an equally good crew, a good knowledge of the shipping lanes, what was shipped and, most important, what was worth plundering.
The Romans, that mighty empire that we tend to think was highly organised and even more highly efficient, had as much trouble with these seafaring knaves as did the British government, the Spanish, French and Dutch (among others) in the 1700s. Come to that, as we still do. Researching for this article, I came across a most interesting chap…
Marcus Aurelius Mausaeus Valerius Carausius (Those Romans certainly had grand names – explained here!) was a military commander of the Roman Empire in the third century. He came from Belgic Gaul and as a former nautical pilot, he made a name for himself in 286 AD while fighting against tribal rebels. He was promoted to command a fleet, the Classis Britannica, which patrolled the English Channel: his orders – to eliminate raiding Saxon pirates. He adapted these orders, however, and suspicion grew that he was permitting these pirates to carry out their raids in return for a portion of the loot for himself and his men. Emperor Maximian took a dim view of this and demanded that Carausius was to be arrested and executed. Equally, our guy took a similar dim view of such an insult when he heard about it. He retaliated by declaring himself emperor in Northern Gaul and Britannia, the territories known as Imperium Britanniarum.
 Full size replica of a liburna, small galley used for raiding and patrols, particularly by the Roman navy, in Millingen aan de Rijn, Netherlands Backing him were his entire northern fleet, the three legions who were in Britain, a legion from Gaul, some foreign auxiliary units, some Gaulish merchant ships and various other experienced mercenaries. There has been speculation as to how Carausius managed to gain such wide support, but to my mind the answer is quite simple. As with all pirates, of any era or location, the lure of prospective treasure and a ‘get-rich-quick’ promise, was enough to attract anyone. Or he had amassed enough treasure to pay them all well. He was a pirate. A successful one, he could afford it.
The retaliatory invasion Emperor Maximian had hoped to launch in 288 or 289 AD failed and Carausius claimed this as a military victory. Was there a sea-battle perhaps, a successful blockade in the Channel? History later repeated itself: it is possible that King Harold II, who without doubt had an experienced English navy, may have initially defeated Duke William of Normandy at sea in the summer of 1066, and then there is the English defeat of the Spanish Armada in the reign of Elizabeth I. Whatever the truth of it is for our chap, peace was negotiated and Carausius began to lead his little corner of the empire as a true emperor, even minting his own coinage which he used to advantage for propaganda.
His coins were of good quality silver – which had not been used for many years – and indicated a prospect of ‘better times’. They were also marked with slogans such as Restitutor Britanniae, ‘Restorer of Britain’ and Expectate veni, ‘Come long-awaited one’. It may have been this sort of appeal which endeared Carausius to the native population who were becoming dissatisfied with Rome rule: the Romano British equivalent of Br*xit?
It is thought that Carausius may have been responsible for ordering the building of the Saxon Shore forts, a line of strategic defences along the east and south coast of what is now England, in order to deter the Anglo-Saxon sea raiders.
In 293 AD, Constantine I (Chlorus) reclaimed Gaul and Carausius found himself in difficulty, although not especially threatened as to invade Britain Constantine needed a fleet – most of which was under Carausius’s control. Alas, betrayal intervened. A traitor called Allectus, who was in charge of the British treasury, decided he wanted a higher position of authority, so he murdered Carausius and took power for himself. His reign lasted only a few short years as he in turn was killed.
It is interesting that in similar circumstances, although not so grand, a few of the seventeen and eighteenth century pirates set themselves up as leaders. One was Jean le Vasseur, an engineer by trade, who at around 1640 was sent by the governor of Saint Christopher Island (now St. Kitts) to oversee the island and harbour of Tortuga in the Caribbean. Le Vasseur built a stone fortress on the relatively flat top of thirty-feet of steep rock. Defended by formidable guns and supplied by water from a natural spring it was almost impenetrable. Le Vasseur reigned as if he were an emperor, and took a percentage of all the plunder brought into harbour by various pirates. He taxed everything else that was brought in or taken out and amassed a substantial fortune for himself. Tortuga flourished as a safe haven for pirates, but le Vasseur’s prestige was fading. Excessive power all too often corrupts. He began to rule like a tyrant and his men started to turn against him. He was murdered in 1653 by his lieutenant in retaliation for raping the man’s wife.
I can’t say I feel sorry for le Vasseur. For Carausius though? I think I would have backed him as a pirate emperor. He sounds an interesting character.
Alison adds:
The legend: (That not terribly reliable but only source of the time) Geoffrey of Monmouth relates a legend about Carausius. In Geoffrey’s account History of the Kings of Britain (1136 AD), Carausius is a Briton of humble birth, who by his courage persuades the Roman Senate to give him command of a fleet to defend Britain from barbarian attack. Once given the fleet, however, he sails around Britain stirring up unrest and raises an army against, the historical Caracalla, here a king of Britain. Carausius defeats Bassianus by persuading Bassianus’ Pictish allies to desert him in exchange for grants of land in Scotland and sets himself up as king. Hearing of Carausius’s treachery, the Romans send Allectus to Britain with three legions. Allectus defeats Carausius, kills him, and sets himself up as king in his place.
The historical record: The historical Caracalla’s full name was Lucius Septimius Bassianus and he and his brother, Geta, ended the campaign in Caledonia when their father Septimius Severus died in York in 211 AD. They concluded a peace with the Caledonians that returned the border of Roman Britain to the line demarcated by Hadrian’s Wall.
———–
Pirates: Truth And Tales
 The historian R. H. Tawney famously wrote, ‘The sixteenth century lives in terror of the tramp.’ The eighteenth century lived in terror of the tramps of the seas – pirates. Pirates have fascinated people ever since.
It was a harsh life for those who went ‘on the account’, constantly overshadowed by the threat of death – through violence, illness, shipwreck, or the hangman’s noose. The lure of gold, the excitement of the chase and the freedom that life aboard a pirate ship offered were judged by some to be worth the risk. Helen Hollick explores both the fiction and fact of the Golden Age of piracy, and there are some surprises in store for those who think they know their Barbary Corsair from their boucanier. Everyone has heard of Captain Morgan, but who recognises the name of the aristocratic Frenchman Daniel Montbars? He killed so many Spaniards he was known as ‘The Exterminator’.
The fictional world of pirates, represented in novels and movies, is different from reality. What draws readers and viewers to these notorious hyenas of the high seas? What are the facts behind the fantasy?
Published in paperback in the UK July 2018 and in the US November 2018 (Now available for pre-order).
Find Helen:
Helen’s Amazon Author Page is at http://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
Subscribe to Helen’s newsletter: http://tinyletter.com/HelenHollick
Vist her website: www.helenhollick.net and her main blog: www.ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.com
She’s on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HelenHollickAuthor and Twitter: @HelenHollick and runs the well-regarded historical fiction site: Discovering Diamonds
Follow Helen’s Tour:
These links will take you to the Home Page of each blog host – Helen says thank you for their interest and enthusiasm! For the exact URL links to each article, go to Helen’s website: www.helenhollick.net which will be updated every day of the tour.
30thJuly: Cryssa Bazos https://cryssabazos.com/ Dropping Anchor to Talk About Pirates
31stJuly: Anna Belfrage https://annabelfrage.wordpress.com/ Ships That Pass…
1stAugust: Carolyn Hughes https://carolynhughesauthor.com/blog/ Pirates of the Middle Ages
2ndAugust: Alison Morton https://www.alison-morton.com/blog/From Pirate to Emperor
3rdAugust: Annie Whitehead https://rwranniewhitehead.blogspot.com/ The Vikings: Raiders or Pirates?
4thAugust: Tony Riches http://tonyriches.blogspot.co.uk/ An Interview With Helen Hollick (and maybe a couple of pirates thrown in for good measure?)
5thAugust: Lucienne Boyce http://francesca-scriblerus.blogspot.com/ Anne and Mary. Pirates.
6thAugust: Laura Pilli http://fieldofbookishdreams.blogspot.co.uk/ Why Pirates?
7thAugust: Mary Tod https://awriterofhistory.com/ That Essential Element… For A Pirate.
8thAugust: Pauline Barclay http://paulinembarclay.blogspot.com/ Writing Non-Fiction. How Hard Can It Be?
9thAugust: Nicola Smith http://shortbookandscribes.uk/ Pirates: The Tales Mixed With The Truth
10thAugust: Christoph Fischer https://writerchristophfischer.wordpress.com/ In The Shadow Of The Gallows
11thAugust: Debdatta http://www.ddsreviews.in/ What Is It About Pirates?
12thAugust: Discovering Diamonds https://discoveringdiamonds.blogspot.co.uk/ It’s Been An Interesting Voyage…
13thAugust: Sarah Greenwood https://www.amberley-books.com/blog Pirates: The Truth and the Tales
14thAugust: Antoine Vanner https://dawlishchronicles.com/dawlish-blog/ The Man Who Knew About Pirates
About Helen:
Helen moved from London in 2013 and now lives with her family in North Devon, in an 18th century farmhouse. First published in 1994, her passion now is her pirate character, Captain Jesamiah Acorne of the nautical adventure series, The Sea Witch Voyages. Helen became a USA Today Bestseller with her historical novel, The Forever Queen (UK title A Hollow Crown), the story of Saxon queen, Emma of Normandy. Her novel Harold the King (US title I Am The Chosen King), explores the events that led to the 1066 Battle of Hastings. Her Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy, set in the 5th century, is widely praised as a more down-to-earth historical version of the Arthurian legend. She has written three non-fiction books, Pirates: Truth and Tales, Smugglers in Fact and Fiction (to be published 2019) and as a supporter of indie writers, co-wrote Discovering the Diamond with her editor, Jo Field, a short advice guide for new writers. She runs the Discovering Diamonds review blog for historical fiction assisted by a team of enthusiastic reviewers. Her books are published in several languages.
Alison adds: I was delighted to contribute a story ‘A Roman Intervenes’, in the 1066 Turned Upside Down collection of short stories masterminded by Helen, which in the 950th year since the Norman invasion explored what might have happened if events had taken a different turn…
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, is available now. Audiobooks are available for the first four of the series.
Get INCEPTIO, the series starter, FREE as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email newsletter. You’ll also be first to know about Roma Nova news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.
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 Anna at the ABBA museum, Stockholm Visiting Sweden on holiday recently was personally enormous fun, especially as my hostess was the ABBA singing historical fiction writer Anna Belfrage. But in a way it was spooky.
Something was missing – big time.
Sweden brims over with history and its impact on my home country can’t be underestimated; half of Britain has its DNA. I was impressed by beautiful buildings, hundreds of years of tradition, the rise of the Vasa dynasty, the Iron Age town of Uppåkra, the huge influence of the Hanseatic League and of course, the impressive conserved Vasa warship from 1628 (Sweden’s Mary Rose) .
 The Vasa
But no Romans. This was what was troubling me.
We know that the northern lands of Britannia and Germania, and to an extent Batavia, were bothersome (and cold) so perhaps successive Roman senates and rulers didn’t want to chance their arm. But what about any non-conquest contact?
It’s all a bit sketchy. There are two sources from the 1st century AD that refer to the Suiones. The first one is Pliny the Elder who said that the Romans had rounded the Cimbric peninsula (Jutland) where there was the Codanian Gulf (possibly the Kattegat). (Let’s not talk about the Cimbric War (113–101 BC) – the Roman state nearly foundered before it had really got going.)
Anyway, in this Codanian Gulf there were several large islands among which the most famous was Scatinavia (Scandinavia). He said that the size of the island was unknown but in a part of it dwelt a tribe named the Hillevionum gens, in 500 villages, and they considered their country to be a world of its own.
 Tacitus (Modern statue outside the Austrian Parliament) Commentators find it striking that this large tribe is unknown to posterity, unless it was a simple misspelling or misreading of illa Svionum gente. (Typos happen to the best of us.) This would make sense, since a large Scandinavian tribe named the Suiones was known to the Romans.
Tacitus wrote in AD 98 in Germania (44, 45) that the Suiones were a powerful tribe distinguished not merely for their arms and men, but for their powerful fleets with ships that had a prow in both ends. He further mentions that they were much impressed by wealth, and the king was absolute. Further, he says the Suiones did not bear arms everyday, and that weapons were guarded by a slave.
After Tacitus’ mention of the Suiones, the sources are silent about them until the 6th century as Scandinavia was still in pre-historic times.
 Europe 125 AD
The ‘Roman Iron Age’ is the name given to the period 1–400 AD in Scandinavia, reflecting the hold that the Roman Empire had begun to exert on the Germanic tribes of Northern Europe. Coins (more than 7,000) and vessels, bronze images, glass beakers, enameled buckles, weapons, etc. markedly Roman have been found in Scandinavia from that period. The main items of exports appear to have been slaves, furs and amber via Roman merchants. Through the 5th and 6th centuries, gold and silver become more and more common possibly not unconnected with the ransack of the Roman Empire by Germanic tribes, from which many Scandinavians returned with gold and silver.
On the island of Öland off Sweden’s south-eastern coast, two rings and a coin (below) were found in 2017, which confirmed a theory that the island was in close contact with the Roman Empire. Close by, the team found pieces of Roman glass in an area which was once an important house. The coin was made in honour of Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III, who ruled between 425 and 455 AD. The emperor is depicted on one side of the coin, with his foot resting on the head of a barbarian – a common motif in coinage from the period. A similar coin commemorating Valentinian III was found three years ago.
In the 6th century Jordanes, 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat turned historian of Gothic extraction, named two tribes he calls the Suehans and the Suetidi who lived in Scandza. They were famous for their fine horses. The Suehans were the suppliers of black fox skins for the Roman market. Then Jordanes names a tribe named Suetidi a name that is considered to refer to the Suiones as well and to be the Latin form of Sweþiuð. ‘The Suetidi are said to be the tallest of men together with the Dani who were of the same stock.’ (Tell that to the Swedes!)
 University of Lund The University of Lund, one of Sweden’s most prestigious, offers a short part-time course ‘Barbarians and Romans’:
This course studies the relationship between the Roman Empire and other cultures, especially Germanic and Celtic tribes, outside the realm of the Empire during the period 100 B.C to 400 A.D. We discuss the how the meeting between Romans and their neighbours took place materially and culturally and problematize central concepts like imperialism, civilization, ethnicity, social identity, Romanization and hybridity. Parts of the teaching will take place at the Historical Museum in Lund and at the National Museum and Glyptoteket in Copenhagen.
Looks like it’s on again next year as well…
 But here’s a connection to the Romans, carved on the prow of the Vasa. Like the Turks, the Romans were universally acknowledged as tough and fearsome warriors and often used as symbols to frighten away enemies. This figure would have been holding a sword in his raised right hand. The lion and dog at his feet symbolise the clemency of the strong towards the weak.
Teasing out differences and connections between the Roman and Scandinavian worlds will fascinate forever and doubtless be fertile ground for historical novelists for some time to come. 😉
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.
Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email newsletter. You’ll also be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.
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 (Possibly) Aurelia Cotta, unattributed Many of you will be familiar with Aurelia Mitela, the elder stateswoman of INCEPTIO, CARINA, PERFIDITAS and SUCCESSIO. We discover her career as a younger woman in her own trilogy set in the late 1960s to early 1980s – AURELIA, NEXUS, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. Although an honourable name in Roma Nova, Aurelia was one with a long history in the Roman past.
One of the most famous was Aurelia Cotta, the mother of Julius Caesar. Born in 120 BC, she came from a top drawer family with consuls, senators and generals in every generation in her distinguished family tree. Her father was consul in 119 BC and her paternal grandfather in 144 BC. Ditto three of her bothers: Gaius Aurelius Cotta in 75 BC, Marcus Aurelius Cotta in 74 BC and Lucius Aurelius Cotta in 65 BC.
Aurelia married Gaius Julius Caesar (not that one – his father) and had three children:
– Julia Major (102 – 68 BC), wife of Pinarius and grandmother of Lucius Pinarius;
– Julia Minor (101 – 51 BC), wife of Marcus Atius and grandmother of emperor Augustus;
– Gaius Julius Caesar (100 – 44 BC), the dictator.
Caesar senior received his education from Marcus Antonius Gnipho, one of the best orators in Rome. His progress through the cursus honorum, the Roman career path, is recorded, although the specific dates are a bit wobbly. According to two elogia erected in Rome long after his death, Caesar senior was at some time commissioner in the colony at Cercina, military tribune, quaestor, praetor and proconsul of Asia. He died suddenly in 85 BC, in Rome, while putting on his shoes one morning. (Dangerous things, shoes).
His father left Caesar junior (Gaius Julius Caesar the famous-to-be one) the bulk of his estate, but after Marius’s faction had been defeated in the civil war of the 80s BC, this inheritance was confiscated by the dictator Sulla. This is probably why young Julius Caesar was always strapped for cash.
That’s the official stuff, but what was Aurelia like?
The historian Tacitus considered her an ideal Roman matron and thought highly of her (Dialogus de oratoribus, section xxviii).
“Thus it was, as tradition says, that the mothers of the Gracchi, of Cæsar, of Augustus, Cornelia, Aurelia, Atia, directed their children’s education and reared the greatest of sons. The strictness of the discipline tended to form in each case a pure and virtuous nature which no vices could warp, and which would at once with the whole heart seize on every noble lesson.”
Plutarch described her as a “strict and respectable” woman (Plutarch’s Lives: Caesar). Highly intelligent, independent and renowned for her beauty and common sense, Aurelia was held in high regard throughout Rome.
 Guillaume Rouille (1518?-1589), ‘Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum’ Caesar senior was often away so the task of raising their son fell mostly on Aurelia and her influential family’s shoulders. They lived in the Subura, a working class district in Rome, unusual for a patrician family.
When the young Julius Caesar was about eighteen, he was ordered by the then dictator of Rome, Sulla, to divorce his young wife Cornelia Cinna, daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, a four-times consul of the Roman Republic and political big hitter, but who lost in the civil war. Young Caesar firmly refused and put himself at risk of execution by Sulla who was not exactly unknown for knocking off anybody who displeased or opposed him. Aurelia headed a petition to Sulla that succeeded in saving her son’s life.
After Cornelia Cinna’s death in childbirth, Aurelia raised her young granddaughter Julia in her stead and presided over her son’s household. Young Caesar subsequently married Pompeia Sulla (the dictator’s granddaughter). During the Bona Dea festival held at young Julius Caesar’s house, Aurelia’s maid discovered Publius Clodius disguised as a woman, ostensibly in order to start or continue an affair with her second daughter-in-law Pompeia. Although young Julius Caesar himself admitted Pompeia’s possible innocence, he divorced her shortly afterwards stating that his wife must be above suspicion.
Not much more is known about Aurelia. She must have had a rather conventional though formidable personality. In her Masters of Rome series, Colleen McCullough breathes life into her as a young landlady of a large insula, as one who has to become mother and father of her children during her husband’s long absences, and later on through a rather murky but basically platonic relationship with Sulla.
Did Aurelia have the first C-Section?
Speculation that young Julius Caesar was born by Caesarian section doesn’t seem to be true.
Although Caesarean sections were performed in Roman times, no classical source records a mother surviving such a delivery. The term has may have derived from the verb caedere, to cut, with children delivered this way referred to as caesones. Pliny the Elder refers to a certain Julius Caesar (an ancestor of the our Julius Caesar) as ab utero caeso, ‘cut from the womb’, giving this as an explanation for the cognomen ‘Caesar’ which was then carried by his descendants.
However, linking Caesarean section to Julius Caesar has been widely believed down the ages. For example, the Oxford English Dictionary defines Caesarean birth as “the delivery of a child by cutting through the walls of the abdomen when delivery cannot take place in the natural way, as was done in the case of Julius Caesar”. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition) states a little more hesitantly, ‘from the legendary association of such a delivery with the Roman cognomen Caesar.’
Can you imagine it, with no anaesthetic or antibiotics? I think we’ll leave it in the realm of folklore.
As for Aurelia Cotta, she died around 54 BC at the respectable age of 65, so I think we can safely say she wasn’t the mother of the C-section.
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.
Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email update. You’ll also be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.
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