Erryn Lee writes...

  Mad, monster or misunderstood? Emperors of Rome Part 1: Caligula When you think of the Emperors of Rome, and someone mentions madness, does your mind not go straight to the name of Caligula? You have probably heard that he 'loaned' out his sisters… or worse. He turned the imperial palace into a 'house of ill repute' (Facebook blocks me when I use more pointed terms), had was so mad about chariot racing that his favourite horse had a marble stable with gold troughs and he made his horse a senator. Am I far wrong? Today you often hear talk of ‘children of trauma’ and the damage done by the abuse or suffering in childhood. Caligula himself is a classic case. But let’s go back a little and even give him back his real name. Gaius Julius Caesar was raised as a small child in the army camps of Germania, where he must have witnessed the aftermath of battle, at least one rebellion against his family that threatened his own life and was dressed by his affectionate (or manipulat...

  DOMUS GAI - Rome  CLAUDIUS He tried to sit calmly, scroll in hand, the res geste , words of revered Augustus, written in the Emperor’s own hand. Words which normally soothed him, though today they danced across the page like drunken plebeians at Saturnalia. The two fingers of his right hand tapped out an anxious beat. He willed them to still but they continued defiantly. Across the room, Marcus watched him warily. When the man had joined them outside the theatre he had wanted to curse but instead had welcomed him calmly and as Asiaticus made surreptitious throat slicing gestures, shook his head. He liked the man. He was quiet, studious and loyal to the principate, despite how much it had cost him. Moreover, he was an excellent orator. He was what Claudius sometimes envisioned his own self, had he not been hampered by the vagaries of his condition. Shifting his left hand to still his traitorous fingers, Claudius licked his lips and shifted a quick glance between Asiaticus and...

    Today, I killed Caligula. I did not wield the blade but the keys of my laptop were just as effective. To celebrate (and mourn) the demise of a villain close to my heart I will share two extracts today. This first one is from Aquila Book One: Child of Rome. Warning: extract contains sexual references CAPRAEA- Villa Jovis  GAIUS  Gaius lay in bed, tracing her dark nipple with his finger until it rose to attention.  ‘You should insist he finds you a new wife, Gaius. I hear he is looking for one for young Gemellus.’  Gaius laughed, ‘What would that baby do with a woman? Last time Tiberius spoke of another marriage for me he threatened me with my brother Nero’s former bride, the last thing I need is a frigid spy in my bed.’ He squeezed her nipple and she squeaked. ‘Besides, I have you, Ennia, and all the whores on the island.’  She slapped his hand and rolled face down, protecting her vulnerable nipples and facing him. ‘I am only on loan and the whores ...

Can you REALLY learn from Historical Fiction? I have recently read many articles which challenge the value of historical fiction, claiming that people can not in fact learn anything about history from reading Historical fiction or that what they learn is wrong and I want to take the opportunity to respond to that accusation. Certainly, I cannot argue that Historical Fiction is fiction not fact and I am guessing many people are confused by the different forms of historical fiction and the varying accuracy of the stories being presented. I recently considered putting in a short story for a competition and submission into an anthology but the premise ‘what if’ was one that challenged me. The premise required me to choose a historical event and write what if it didn’t happen, or happened differently. Sure, I often wonder using ‘what if’s’ and it is intriguing to consider how things might have been different if Anne Boleyn had born a boy not a girl, or if as a messenger for the German army...

 I have always believed water to be the most powerful of elements. It washes away a multitude of sins. The blood of an army thousands strong can be rinsed away, cleansed, leaving pure white sand where once ten long years worth of battles stained the shore red. Water never remains in one place, always, always moving. It brings new treasures, and takes away old ones, never to be seen again. Given time water can etch its way through the hardest of stones, weakening it, devouring even empires. And of course, water quenches fire. It was water that gave me Alexandros and water that took him away again. Of course he wasn’t Alexandros in the beginning, but so few of us remain the same person all our lives, do we? *           *           * Did you know that before Helen of Troy, Paris loved another? That his own wife, Oenone, daughter of the River God, was left behind when he sailed to Sparta and returned with the most beautiful wo...

  Part 3. Destined to be Empress, Vipsania Agrippina Major ( Agrippina the Elder ) was the daughter of Augustus’ only child Julia and his trusted General Agrippa. When her father died her mother was forced to remarry Tiberius, her stepbrother, a man she loathed and openly rebelled against until she was exiled to the island of Pandateria, never to return.  Agrippina grew up close to her imperial grandfather and was described as quick-tempered, strong-willed and fiercely loyal. With her brothers, Augustus’ heirs, dying young, her grandfather was forced to adopt his step-son Tiberius, an able military commander but a reluctant politi cian and an unlikeable character. He did so on the proviso that Tiberius adopt his own nephew, a well-liked young man called Germanicus who Augustus arranged to marry his own beloved granddaughter.  It is not known whether it was a love match from the beginning but the pair formed a formidable partnership and were the ‘Wills and Kate’ of the anc...

Part 2.  First Empress of Rome, though she never went by that title, Livia Drusilla's rise to power began when the young woman was noticed by the victorious Imperator Octavian, nephew and heir of Julius Caesar. It was an unlikely match, she was the daughter and wife of his enemies and heavily pregnant with her second son. Perhaps for those reasons she made the best match, to prove he could reconcile with his enemies, or perhaps just take something precious from them? And she was fertile, sure to give an heir to the powerful young man who had turned the Republic of Rome into an Empire. How bad was she? Livia gains her 'evil' reputation from her ruthlessness and influence over her husband. Never able to directly access power, she nonetheless proved a cable advisor and possibly unofficial caretaker for Rome while her husband toured.  Unable to bear children with Octavian, who had restyled himself 'Augustus', first man of Rome, Robert Graves 'I Claudius' depicts...

Part 1. Introducing Valeria Messalina. Don't be fooled by her Madonna-esque quality or the beautiful renaissance art, this young lady was quite the piece of work... if you believe the misogynist male writers of the ancient world. Married to the much older Roman Emperor Claudius she was infamous for her voracious sexual appetite... or so the ancient men would have us believe. Ancient gossip columnist Suetonius wrote: "Not confining her licentiousness within the limits of the palace, where she committed the most shameful excesses, she prostituted her person in the common brothels, and even in the public streets of the capital.” Juvenal, the dirty poet called her, "the Imperial whore" who "took her stand with naked breasts and gilded nipples... received all comers with caresses." You could almost disbelieve this and brush it aside as the most grotesque of slander except that Pliny the Elder, naturalist, and naval commander also tells history of a competition b...