Tag: Rome
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When the Corn is as High as an Elephant’s Eye: A Not-So-Serious Look at Pliny’s Naturalis Historia (Part Two)
As promised, this week we’re back with Pliny the Elder and his Natural History, and we’re here to tackle Books 12-27, the dreaded plant books. Since we’ve already introduced Pliny and his general deal, we’ll pretty much delve straight in, but if you missed the first part, you can find it here. As with the…
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More Midcentury(ish) Roman Historical Fiction: John Williams’ Augustus and Evelyn Waugh’s Helena
Because I thought that with Daughter of Scorpions’ publication this spring, I was finally leaving the historical ancient Mediterranean behind (…we’ll see—I’ve been having intrusive thoughts recently about a fifth God’s Wife book…), I’ve been reading a bunch of other people’s Rome-adjacent novels. In February, we talked about two of them, Thornton Wilder’s The Ides…
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A Not-So-Serious Look at Pliny’s Naturalis Historia (Part One)
Like with the English literature canon, I have reached a point where I’ve read a lot of the “normal” stuff in the Classical canon, and I am now left with plumbing the depths of the more esoteric stuff. Pliny the Elder’s massively influential Naturalis Historia (Natural History) may not, at first blush, seem like a…
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Truth and the Divine: The Roman Imperial Cult
I had promised more Daughter of Scorpions content, and I confess that I was briefly at a loss for topics we hadn’t already discussed during the other God’s Wife releases, until I realized we’ve never really specifically talked about something that is a major hinge in this story—mainly, the Roman imperial cult. So I thought…
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History’s Henchman: The Rise and Fall of Lucius Aelius Sejanus
“Sejanus was feared, loathed, despised, and loved…at times disarming and amiable, always efficient and reliable, but arrogant and cruel when they occasion demanded.” – Sejanus: Regent of Rome (John S. McHugh), p. 16 “He’s a Caesar with no mercy and a Sulla with no restraint.” – Daughter of Scorpions, Chapter 29 Okay, two weeks ago…
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American Authors in the First Millennium: Zora Neale Hurston’s The Life of Herod the Great and Thornton Wilder’s The Ides of March
While it’s hard to ever call historical fiction set in the Roman period passé, I do sometimes feel like I’m out here on an island, as it seems most of the current genre zeitgeist is for almost entirely 20th century historical fiction, with a few forays into midcentury Victorian. But as I’m pretty much never…
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Secret’s in the (Fish) Sauce: A Brief History of Rome’s Favorite Condiment
This week I want to take another look at some ancient cuisine, and specifically garum,—a fermented fish sauce that is particularly associated with the Romans, but was actually extremely popular throughout the Mediterranean. We’ll talk a bit about its composition and manufacture, its use and reputation, and then we’ll wrap things up with the triumphant…
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Day Tripping at the Met, Part 2: Little Latin and Less Greek
As promised, we’re back with round two on my latest experience in the Metropolitan Museum of Art—this week focused on the Greek and Roman Art wing. As my paraphrase of Ben Jonson above suggests, I spent more time with the Romans (and specifically the first century Romans of my books) than the Greek stuff, but…
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Caught in a Bad Roman-ce Again: Medieval Myth- Making and the Octavian Romances
Somtym byffell ane aventure,In Rome ther was ane Emperoure,Als men in romance rede.He was a man of grete favoureAnd levede in joye and grete honoureAnd doghety was of dede.In tornament nor in no fyghteIn the werlde ther ne was a better knyghte,No worthier undir wede.Octovyane was his name thrughowte;Everylke man hade of hym dowteWhen he…
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Amateur Historian Hour: Velleius Paterculus’ History of Rome
“His [Paterculus’] admiration of Caesar is questionable, of Augustus justified, of Tiberius excessive.” — Jacket copy to the Loeb edition “Velleius Paterculus does not rank among the great Olympians of classical literature either as a stylist or as historian.” — Introduction to the same Some of you probably breathed a sigh of relief that I…
Sarah Holz 