Flavia Gemina

Depends on if they decide to make one or not... But even if they do, you'll have to wait at least half a year! Flavia

Thank you, Nephele! What a brilliant resource. If you had to recommend only one of those to the author of historical novels set in the first century -- --which would it be? Flavia

Philia: 'He raped my country Thrace! And then he came and did it again, and again!' Pseudolus: 'He raped Thrace thrice?'

HBO's Rome is a superb portrayal of ancient Rome ... as long as you ignore what's going on in the foreground and watch it on mute! And I've often thought that Fellini's Satyricon might be the closest thing to what ancient Rome was really like. Creepy, brutal, beautiful, terrifying and pornographic! *shudder!* Flavia

Wow! Thank you Nephele and Cato! I love Cato's diagram of the water clock with the little cupid and everything. And I will have to get out my video of Cleopatra to watch it again. Well-remembered, Nephele! I don't think the replica will have to work. Just look good, so these images should be fine. Many thanks to all three of you. Email me if you want a book flaviagemina@hotmail.com and let me know if you have a preference. Vale. Flavia

The coastal cities of North Africa like Leptis Magna, Carthage, Cyrenica, etc weren't remote at all! According to 'Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day', Africa was only 2 days away from Ostia with a favourable wind. (I personally think that's a bit optimistic). North Africa was the 'bread-basket' of Rome, growing most of the wheat that Romans ate. Huge grain ships started sailing back and forth as soon as the sailing season opened. Ostia was full of granaries to store the wheat and bakeries to bake it. From there -- and from Claudius's new harbour of Portus a couple of miles north -- it was shipped up the Tiber to Rome. I visited Sabratha a few months ago for my researches and was struck by how similar it was to the Italian port of Ostia, in layout, size, look, etc... In fact, the beast importers of Sabratha even had their own office in Ostia's 'Forum of the Corporations'. It's the one with the delightful black and white mosaic of an elephant. Even Volubilis, several hundred miles inland (in what is now Morocco) seemed completely Roman to me. And as for Alexandria, a good week's distance from Ostia, it was considered the second most sophisticated city in the Empire! Vale. Flavia.

The best and most accurate film about ancient Rome is the 1966 musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum! Am I right, Nephele? Or am I right? It is absolutely brilliant. Not only based on the musicals of the 3rd century BC playwright Plautus, but with wonderful throwaway scenes of a marble cutter, barbers, tavern with dice, bakers, baths, Roman kitchen, inner gardens, arena, temple of vesta and chariot waterskiing. It also has crafty slaves, a stupid but likeable hero (name Hero), a lusty father, a dominating mother, and children stolen in infancy by pirates. Oh and beautiful slave girls. 'That's for those of you who have absolutely no interest in pirates!' Buy it and enjoy! Flavia

Cato's is more the thing, but it's not easy to see what it would look like. Yours is too primitive, Klingan. I believe Cicero speaks of the chiming of a Roman water clock. I've seen both those images before and was hoping for something easier to copy. The props people are going to use any image I send them to make a replica. It's for the courtroom scene in my thirteeth book, The Slave-girl from Jerusalem. Keep trying! Best image gets a book. Flavia

Either, though in my book it's a Roman outflow. If you find me a nice picture I'll send you one of my books! Vale. Flavia

I think it's a horse (not very accurate -- I TOLD them Romans rarely used horses with carts) so I think Pertinax is off the hool!

Producers of the Roman Mysteries TV series want to know what a first century AD waterclock (or clepsydra) looked like. Anyone? Has there been on on HBO's Rome maybe... Flavia

First Pertinax the stubborn Mule and now me! I am Cornelia the cart-driver in the fifth and final part of the Roman Mysteries interactive games, The Orb of Augustus: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/romanmysteries/ Big thanks to Nephele for providing me with such a neat Roman anagram of my name: Caroline = Cornelia Flavia P.S. If you want to play that particular game you have to complete the previous four successfully and collect a fragment of a virtual kylix. Hint: in my cart are three items: wine, vinegar and turpentine. If one doesn't work you can go back and take another (once you've given me the kylix). And before you ask, yes, there was turpentine in Roman times. It's mentioned by Pliny the Elder!

I think I've found the solution to my rural sanctuary. I'm going to set it at the Grove of Diana in Aricia, south of Rome near Lake Nemi. It's the gateway to the underworld and setting for James Frazer's Golden Bough. In Silvae III.i.55, Statius refers to it as a place suited for fleeing or fugitive kings. I'm sure I can arrange some grottoes or caves... Thanks everybody! Flavia

Very useful, Gaius! I could perhaps fabricate a similar heroon dedicated to a Greek hero nearer Rome... Let's see... Did any GREEKS end up in Latium?

Yes, that's a possibility, but the logical way to get there would be by sea. I need them on the roads. How about some rural sanctuaries or temples which might have secret passages or underground chambers? Something within a hundred mile radius of Rome... Along one of the main roads? Ring any bells, anyone?

Thanks for those suggestions, Maladict. They will be filming in Bulgaria as a stand-in for Italy, so set people will have to construct something. So it will be the place in name only. Anybody know of any sacred cisterns or other underground sanctuaries which could lend a name? Of course there is the underground temple to Consus near the meta prima of the Circus Maximus, but that is too central and urban, and wouldn't be any good for a low budget production.

In my book, The Fugitive from Corinth, I have a climactic scene in the Cave of the Furies on the Areopagus in Athens. I have just seen the script for the TV adaptation of this book. Due to budget constraints they are going to set the whole thing in and around Ostia and Rome. Arrrrgggghh!. The whole point of this book is that it's linked to the myth of Orestes and his flight from the Furies to Delphi and then Athens... Does anyone know of any cave sanctuaries like the precinct of the Furies in or around Rome? I know about the cave of the Sybil down near Naples but if a fugitive was going there then surely he'd take a ship... Any other candidates? Help! Flavia

I find 'gloios' (post-exercise, pre-bath scrapings from a strigil) are the best aphrodisiac. And eating hare makes you more attractive. Flavia

Pertinax and Maladict are right. It's totally unspoilt, yet not really geared for tourists. I remember about seven years ago I phoned a travel agent and asked for villas in and around Stabiae, where I was planning to set my second book, The Secrets of Vesuvius. There was a long silence on the line and then she replied, 'Most people stay in Sorrento when they want to visit Pompeii, Herculaneum and the villas of Castellammare di Stabia.' My family and I ended up booking a serendipitous villa on the Capo di Sorrento, a stone's-throw from the villa of Pollius Felix, where I ended up setting my third book. But that's another story. When arrived in Naples and took to circumvesuviana to Sorrento and I saw Castellammare di Stabia, I saw why few tourists stay there. The plain at the foot of Vesuvius is actually quite flat and ugly. But just south of Stabia here is a promentory, where the Milky Mountains meet the sea. Once around that promentory (or through the train tunnel) the scenery becomes suddenly stunning, one of the most beautiful settings on earth. That's where most tourists understandably stay. One morning during our stay I walked into Surrento, took the early commuter train to Stabia and got a taxi just finishing the school run to take me up to the Villa San Marco etc... I was the only one there. The grass was thick and wet with dew (it was early October) and eventually the guard came out and asked me to sign the guest book and phoned the guide. No entrance fee. The taxi driver lit up a cigarette, sat back and indicated he would wait for me. A few minutes later a female guide arrived to show me around; she spoke only Italian. The opulent maritime villas are stunning and would have been even more so before AD 79. In particular there are two famous frescoes: one of the girl gathering flowers, with her back to the viewers, and another of Perseus holding aloft the head of Medusa. I was surprised to see how TINY they were, less than a foot high... I told the guide I was writing historical novels and when I'd finished looked at the three or four villas, she took me to meet the Italian archaeologists who were working on the site. It was only 10.00am by now, but like me they had made an early start and they were already having lunch! They shared a kind of spinach sandwich with me (almost forcing me to eat it in their hospitality), then brought out some new wine so red it was almost black and forced me to try some, then plied me with tiny plastic cups of non-plastic espresso! All at 10.00 in the morning! It was one of those wonderful rare experiences only the intrepid -- and usually lone -- traveller has. After that I set off on foot to see how long it would take to walk from Stabia (where Pliny died on the beach) to the shelter of the other side of the promontory. I have my characters do this as the volcano erupts and wanted to see if it was possible. It was. I arrived at Vico Equense tired but happy less than three hours later. But that's another story. Flavia

The other thing I noticed last time I was in Rome was how much more graffiti there was on the walls... but I guess that's like ancient times, too! Just wish it was as witty... Flavia

Yes, they let me help design the games! Aren't the settings fun? And isn't the music great? Only one glitch. If you register as one name I don't know if you can play again. At least I couldn't. I keep having to register with new names. I did think of you, Pertinax, but thought it judicious to hold my tongue! Enjoy the game! Flavia

'Bwa!' Indeed! The second season of HBO's Rome has just started over here in Britain and I was trying to find out, too. But Jonathan Stamp, usually quite chatty on blogs and fora, is not telling. You can see a lengthy thread on this topic HERE where the moderator has offered a 1000 sesterces reward to anyone who can historically document this bizarre 'custom'! Flavia

In my books my characters are always eating fast food: chickpea pancakes, pistachio nuts, garlic cheese rolled in a cabbage leaf or a papyrus cone of roast chestnuts (in winter). Yum! I get my ideas from the literary sources, re-enactment events and modern life. You can still buy paper cones of roast chestnuts at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome... Flavia

Here's what I wrote in the introduction of my first Roman Mysteries Quiz Book. It's for kids, but it's true! I write mysteries set in ancient Roman times. In my books, I have created four young children who are detectives. As a writer of historical fiction, I am a detective, too. Artefacts are my clues and the primary sources are my witnesses. They help me solve the mystery of What It Was Like To Live In Roman Times. Artefacts are the things that people used in past times. In Latin, the word artefact means something made by skill. Artefacts reveal the sight and feel and smell and sound of the ancient world. The Pompeian fresco of a forlorn little boy, for example, shows what one Roman child looked like. A clay oil-lamp from Roman Egypt gives a spooky light from its smoky flame. The silky smooth beeswax on a replica wax tablet smells like honey, and if you push too hard with the bronze stylus you can hear the wood crunch underneath. A sponge-stick would have smelled like vinegar and poo, because when it wasn't being used as ancient toilet paper, it was probably sitting in a beaker of vinegar. The people who lived in Roman times died long ago, but they can still bear witness to what it was like back then. They testify through the primary sources, the things written in ancient times. From tombstones we learned that parents grieved the death of a two-year-old just as much as we do today, even though in those days most children died before the age of three. From poetry we learn that young men burned with passionate love, just as young men and women still do today. From shopping lists we learn that Romans got cold feet sometimes and wore socks under their sandals. From their philosophical writings we know the ancient Romans wondered about the meaning and purpose of life, just as we still do. Romans could be pompous, funny, sarcastic, sincere, boring, exciting, superstitious and sceptical. Just like us. They chewed gum, used toothpicks, dyed their hair and had indoor plumbing. Just like us. They crucified runaway slaves, gave their twelve-year-old daughters to be married and watched men kill each other for amusement. Not so much like us. This is the puzzle that fascinates me the most. As I read the primary sources, play with the artefacts and write my books, this is the real Mystery I am trying to solve: how were the Romans like us, and how were they not like us? And that will never cease to fascinate me. Flavia P.S. Thanks for all who have given me such a warm welcome!

Gaius Octavius, Gaius Paulinus, Nephele and Cato: All your suggestions were great but I decided to go with the map I found myself. (It is great, by the way) As a thank you, if you would like a signed copy of my latest book,Trimalchio's Feast and other Mini-mysteries -- a volume of short stories featuring my child detectives in Flavian Rome -- please email me here with your address and I'll pop a signed one in the post! Maximas gratias ago vobis! Flavia