The Praetorians – Our friends?

Inventing a military unit like the 21st century Praetorian Guard Special Forces in my Roma Nova books was a risk.

However, I chose to use the old Roman name because, although the original cohortes praetoriae became corrupt, they were the courageous, battle-hardened elite who guarded the Ancient Roman emperor’s life with theirs.

Today in Roma […]

Bancroft Roman Villa – A surprise!

Me standing in the bathhouse

When you think of Milton Keynes in the UK, you might be forgiven for visualising concrete cows or muttering “new town” to yourself. But the Romans got there well before. Of course they did. 🙂

Bancroft Roman Villa was originally a fairly simple winged-corridor house, but eventually became […]

Statia Mitela – Heroine of 'The Idealist' in HEROICA

Statia Mitela who features in ‘The Idealist’, the third HEROICA story, a dual timeline story, is undoubtedly rash. But she’s also courageous and altruistic.

Unlike the two other heroines featuring in HEROICA, she isn’t serving in the military, but is a senator and head of the powerful Mitela family in the mid 19th century. She […]