Of Greece and Rome and heroes galore

It’s always a thrill when you have a new project on the horizon. I always have at least one new project on the horizon, mind, so it’s a thrill I get daily. But every now and then something happens that really grabs a writer by the ears, grins into his face and whispers ‘this is the best thing ever.’ I am engaged in an ongoing collaboration with Gordon Doherty that is creating a wonderful tale. And soon the collaboration I took part in with 6 other great authors to tell the tale of Boudica’s revolt will be released (A Year Of Ravens). That was a project that swept me up in the glory of it all.

Something new and superb is now on my horizon, and although we’re still in the very earliest stages, I think I and my fellow conspirator are just too enthused about the idea to hold our peace. It’s like trying to hold in a belly laugh.

I write about Rome. Oh yes, I’ve dabbled with fantasy and with medieval, but even they were heavily flavoured with Rome. Between the projects I’ve released and those already written but waiting to be unleashed upon the world, I’ve covered the late Republic (58-50 BC) with Marius’ Mules. I’ve hit the late Antonine era (180-190 AD) with Praetorian. Two as yet unreleased projects cover 122 AD and the end of the 3^rd century AD. And I’ve dabbled in Byzantine and have plans to cover the 8^th century with that soon. One thing I’ve never done is to go back to the salad days of Rome, during the height of the Republic, before the rot set in and one man ruled as first among equals. It’s not because it doesn’t interest me. Indeed, it does, and quite a lot. It’s because it’s far less familiar ground for me, so I’ve skirted around it thus far.

But one thing that does really interest me is the cultural situation in the mid Republic, when Rome is busy fighting Carthage, and yet Rome owes much of her culture and most of her military style to the Greek nations and to the Etruscans. This is an era when Rome is separate from Greece, a city-state expanding rapidly into an empire, but when, if you put a Hellenistic commander from Achaea and a Roman commander side by side, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell which was which until they opened their mouths. There is a world of Rome that is not the legions stomping around in lorica segmentata, founding fortresses and Romanizing the barbarian. There is a world of Rome where Carthage is still a player in the Mediterranean world that Rome must take into account, where the former Hellenistic empires of the east are crumbling and decaying but are still making waves and producing formidable folk.

Thus was born the idea for two people to work in concert to tell two tales that were really one story, one from the world of the Roman and another from the land of the Greek. The very idea that the same time and the same events could be seen through the different eyes of two of the world’s most important and influential cultures is just riveting to me. The concept was a raw thing at that point. I nice idea, but still just the skeleton of an idea. It took a conversation with one of the greats of Historical Fiction to take that skeleton and turn it into a grand, magnificent beast.

Christian Cameron, author of such excellent tomes as the Long War series, the Tyrant series and God of War (as well as many non-Greek novels!) has become a good friend of mine over recent years, sharing a passion for the ancient world – even if our eras of interest differ – as well as a belief in the value of re-enactment in unpicking the truth of history.

Christian writes Greek tales. Not Roman. Greek. I write Roman tales. Not Greek. Roman. But in that odd world where both cultures are still viable and are influencing one another in the politics of the Mediterranean, well, our interests collide.

And Christian had the muscle and flesh to put on the bones of the idea.

Philopoemen, considered to be the ‘Last Greek hero’ was a fascinating figure and to be honest, until Christian drew my attention to him, he was but a name to me. And one of his contemporaries – his greatest contemporary most would say – was the Graecophile Roman general Titus Flamininus. Plutarch wrote of the pair in his ‘lives’. The two men lived very different lives at the end of the 3^rd century BC and the start of the 2^nd but, despite that, they meet several times and their careers run parallel for a while as both friends and adversaries, navigating the complex politics of the Greek world and Roman interference therein. As soon as Christian had thrown me the names, I was hooked and I knew it had to be done. One great Greek and one great Roman, living at the same time, fighting in the same wars? How could any writer pass up the opportunity to tell that tale.

And so that is what we propose to do. Late next year, Christian will novelise the life and trials of the last great Greek, while I tell the tale of his contemporary, sometime friend and sometime enemy Flamininus. The books will weave in and out, telling two different tales of one sequence of events, but will often collide, with both novels sharing scenes where the two characters meet. It’s a daunting prospect, but a damned exciting one.

Time for me then to explore a new world before the influence of the late Republic and to delve into a world that is as much Greek as Roman, and as much Punic as either.

I for one can’t wait to start. And because this idea has not been sold yet, please do tell us if you like the concept.

You can read what Christian has to say (and as usual it’s fascinating and informative) HERE

(All images except ‘Ravens’ cover courtesy of Wikimedia commons)