Flavia Gemina

Hear, hear! Mary Renault is my idol. I read her book The Last of the Wine when I was 18 and it changed my life. I still think she is the greatest of all historical writers: not only does she transport you to the physical world of Classical Athens, she gets you into their heads. Someone writing about the Classical world could do worse than to study this book in detail. Every sentence is a gem. Flavia

Too busy at the moment to copy out references for all my research but here's the passage from The Code of Romulus that Nephele was referring to: 'How did you know that Aristo is our tutor?' asked Flavia. 'Everyone in Ostia knows. Or at least everybody at my school. They're all jealous because you have a private tutor who is nice to you and lets you do projects and doesn't beat you when you get a sum wrong.' 'What school do you go to?' asked Jonathan. 'The one in the forum,' said Porcius. 'But I don't want to talk about school. Let's have a chariot-race with mice!' Very briefly, as Greek was the lingua franca of the Roman Empire in the first century AD, having a Greek tutor was the desirable thing (though expensive)! Cicero engaged a Greek named Tyrannio as a tutor for his son. Need I say more? Vale. Flavia

There are many bookstores in London, including quite a few second-hand ones on Charing Cross Road. However, most are now big megastores like those in America. In London you will find many branches of Waterstones including their megastore near Picadilly Circus. On Charing Cross Road is Blackwells (the Oxford bookshop) and Foyles. They are all pretty much of a sameness. Snobs like to shop at Hatchard's (not far from the mega Waterstones) opposite the Royal Academy near Fortnum and Mason, (where tourists take cream tea). But again, most stores now stock the same books. As a lover of Roman things, you should not miss the Museum of London, which has some great Roman stuff and a good bookshop. It's in the financial district a short walk from St Pauls tube station. Another very special secret thing to do is to visit Leighton House Frederic Lord Leighton's wonderful house near Holland Park by High Street Kensington tube. It has the wonderful Arab court, a tiled room with a fountain. As I'm sure you know, Leighton was one of those Victorian artists who loved to paint Graeco Roman stuff. Afterwards, if the weather is nice, you can sit in Holland Park and sip a cappuccino and watch Londoners walk their dogs and other British things. I occasionally see Alan Rickman sitting at a nearby table. (Bonus!) There are peacocks in Holland Park and a lovely Japanese Garden. Let me know when you'll be here and we can meet for a Starbucks... cause you don't have THOSE in the states, do you! Vale. Flavia

Respectfully disagree! I think our Bob would make a great Roman. I wish more Italians or Americans of Italian background would be cast in these kinds of projects. Tom Holland, author of Rubicon wrote: '...there is no character in the HBO Rome series truer to the emotional life of Caesar's times than Tony Soprano, the eponymous mobster in the long-running American TV series.' I totally agree! Ciaran Hinds was just too frightfully, frightfully British and stiff upper lip. They should have cast someone like Stanley Tucci -- balding, thin, Italian -- as Caesar. I have tried again and again to get the producers of my little series to cast actors with an Italian or at least Mediterranean background. I am SO tired of the Derek Jacobis of the world -- brilliant as they are -- playing Romans. Romans were Italian not British! At least Italian-Americans retain the passion and emotion of their ancestors. Give it back to the Italian Americans and the Mafia types, I say! Having said all that I doubt De Niro will appear in this project. But we probably will see Orloondo Bland in it. And the very Italian looking Scarlett Johansson. Cuz it's Hollywood.

Thanks, Doc of Love. That site didn't have anything about dancing but it had a nice bit of info on the freedman's cap. Apparently men wore it flopping forward and women wore it flopping back! Flavia

Anybody know anything about what dancing during the Saturnalia would look like? I'm envisaging loose-haired girls spilling out of taverns onto the streets with castanets and tambourines. Or youths skipping down the street wearing their colourful conical hats to the jolly tune of street musicians. People shouting 'Io Saturnalia!' and shaking dice boxes... Any other ideas? Many thanks. It's for an episode of the Roman Mysteries TV series. Flavia

Check TV guide listings for a repeat, Claudia. It only finished in the UK last week. Failing that, HBO's Rome will be out on DVD soon. But I wouldn't look for much veracity. The program-makers show the twins aged about 5 when they arrive in Rome. In fact, they were 10 when their parents died. They were paraded in Octavian's triumph in Rome, I believe. Flavia

Thanks, Nephele! That's probably why he bumped off his big brother! Or did he? Another question for another thread...

Not really scary experiences, but I didn't enjoy it half as much as I enjoyed Morocco, which is still very un-Western but wonderful to explore. Libya seemed drab and lifeless, the children hostile, the men suspicious, the women veiled and inscrutable. Wonderful monuments, but poorly-cared for. Give me Golden Italia any day! You can read a short illustrated account on my BLOG here... Flavia P.S. I should add that we went with a reputable guided tour with a British lecturer, accompanied by Libyan guides and a member of the Libyan tourist police, who was with us at all times and did all the talking at the many checkpoints. Some people obviously enjoyed Libya and were coming back for a repeat visit. Several said the quality of the hotels had improved in just a year or two. What is clear is that Libya is not quite ready to embrace the fat, rich, Western tourist!

I've emailed the producer and told her that 'Caesar!' 'Sir!' (for 'domine'; sounds less servile than 'master') and 'Domitian!' will work. These are angry plebs who want to get his attention. He's not yet Emperor so probably not deserving of nicknames like 'Baalzebub' or sycophantic epithets like 'Hope of Men'. Many thanks, one and all!

No, I didn't get any say in the casting. Nicholas Farrell is fine as Titus but he doesn't look anything like him (I can recognize Titus's bust in any museum I step into) and I think he's a bit too emperor-y. I imagine Titus as a stocky, matter-of-fact soldier type. Not at all 'imperious'. I don't think there was much of Domitian in that episode, was there? (I can hardly bear to watch them and have only seen a rough cut of that one...) Anyway, like the producers, I hope they get Nicholas Farrell. BTW, Pertinax, in Titus's short reign there were plenty of crises to take him away from the games. Clean-up of the aftermath of Vesuvius, clean-up after the fire and plague of winter AD 80 and his ever-worsening headaches! Flavia

Thanks for those. It gives us: Caesar! Domitian! Sir! and Fly-killer! Many thanks, one and all!

Yes, I'm checking with the publishers on that...

The problem is that they have a big crowd scene at Ostia's amphitheatre (don't ask!) and people have been shut out of the games and want to come in. I believe Domitian walks by and they all cry out to him. The screenwriters don't want the angry Ostians all calling him 'Caesar'; they wanted some variation. Any suggestions in the light of that? P.S. The reason I am fuzzy on some of this is that although the episode is based on one of my books, they have had to change it drastically due to financial limits. They don't have the 1 billion required to film the opening of the Colosseum with tigers, lions and then hippos and crocs in a flooded amphitheatre... The Emperor in my book is Titus but the actor who plays him might not be available, hence the need for Domitian to stand in. Thus is history changed when it goes to the small screen!

Thanks, Gaius. So when Titus was in power, Domitian's only legal title was 'Caesar', and people in a crowd might have called him that, if they were trying to get his attention. Any other suggestions? Thanks, Flavia

The TV series script writers (for the series that is not 'mine' but is based on my books) want to know how a crowd would address Domitian in AD 80, when Titus was officially emperor. As Titus and Domitian were co-regents, what would the crowd have called Domitian? 'Caesar!'? 'Imperator!'? 'Princeps!'? 'Your worshipfulness!'? 'Hey, you!'? Martial addresses Domitian as 'Hope of Men!' but that is in an epigram after he's Emperor.

Curiously this is what I've been working on the past few months. In my forthcoming novel, The Beggar of Volubilis, my four kid detectives travel by caravan from Sabratha to Volubilis, which was one of the capital cities of Mauretania Tingitana, ruled by Juba II and Cleopatra Selene, (the daughter of Cleo and Anthony). My gang are travelling with a troupe of pantomime actors, one of whom may or may not be Cleopatra Selene's grand-daughter. If you saw the final episodes of HBO's Rome, you saw the little twins Selene and Helios arrive to be fostered by Octavia, sister of Augustus, (the screenwriters ignored their third child). Octavia was a good mother to them, and also to Anthony's children by his previous marriages! What is fascinating to me is that one of Octavia's two daughters by Anthony became Nero's great-grandmother. You can see a family tree I drew HERE. Actually I've just updated it and need to put up my latest version. Enjoy! Flavia

I chose the map of the Roman Empire in AD 116 which is the first map you see if you scroll down this page. I like it because it shows deserts and mountains and looks very accurate. I scribbled a few changes on the map itself and my publishers are going to get their artist to do his interpretation. The Roman Mysteries Treasury will be out in September. Flavia

...Or I could just put up a link to that page!

What a wonderful resource! The kids who visit my website would love to see it. May I put it up if I give you credit? Copyright? A million dollars? Scuto (shield) is named after my younger nephew, whose nickname was Scooter. Nipur (Nubia's dog) is named after my older nephew, whose nickname was Nipper! That might explain why those two don't appear on your list. Those names could also be useful for gladiators or bodyguards. Maximas gratias!

What fun! Thanks for those Pavlos! I don't suppose you still have that list of dogs' names, Nephele. I'd love to see it. Flavia

I was just going through my notes and came across this from Propertius*: Qui videt, is peccat; qui te non viderit ergo, non cupiet: facti lumina crimen habent. He who sees you sins, therefore he who doesn't see you doesn't desire you: so the eyes stand guilty. Interesting because it equates 'sinning' with merely desiring, quite a 'Christian' notion, it seems to me! ('If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out...') Flavia * Elegies 2.32 (written around 20 BC)

Excellent comment! Thanks. BTW, I am a huge Deadwood fan, too. And I wish David Milch had been able to do his series on Nero's Rome. It would have been wonderful!

The answer is papaver or 'poppy'!

I've been looking at the riddles of Symphosius just now and co-incidentally came across this one: XL Grande mihi caput est, intus sunt membra minuta; Pes solum est unus, sed pes longissimus unus; Et me somnus amat, proprio nec dormio somno. Large is my head, within the parts are small, One foot have I, but that is monstrous tall, And sleep I give, though I sleep not at all.