Research | Alison Morton's Thrillers

Roman dating essentials

With Julius Caesar (He’s the one on the plinth.)

Watching the countdown calendar to the publication day of INCEPTIO reminded me that the first of the month in the Roman system – the Kalends – ended up as our word for measuring the whole thing – calendar.

In my Roma Nova thrillers, I […]

Alternate history and the butterfly of doom

A butterfly in the Amazon jungle makes that little extra flutter of its wings and a few weeks later there’s a storm or even a hurricane in the Caribbean that wrecks cities. That’s a little crudely put, but this is the idea behind Edward Lorenz’s chaos theory. In reality, the butterfly’s flapping wing is just […]

Io Saturnalia! One big party or the ancestor of Christmas?

Saturnalia was THE most important Roman festival. Heavy on feasting, fun and gifts, it was originally celebrated in Ancient Rome for only a day around 17 December (today!), but it was so popular it expanded into a week or even longer, despite Augustus’ efforts to reduce it to three days, and Caligula’s, to five. […]