Book Title: EXSILIUM
Series: Roma Nova
Author: Alison Morton
Publication Date: 27 February 2024
Publisher: Pulcheria Press
Page Length: 364
Genre: Historical Fiction
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Exile – Living death to a Roman
AD 395. In a Christian Roman Empire, the penalty for holding true to the traditional gods is execution.
Maelia Mitela, her dead husband condemned as a pagan traitor, leaving her on the brink of ruin, grieves for her son lost to the Christians and is fearful of committing to another man.
Lucius Apulius, ex-military tribune, faithful to the old gods and fixed on his memories of his wife Julia’s homeland of Noricum, will risk everything to protect his children’s future.
Galla Apulia, loyal to her father and only too aware of not being the desired son, is desperate to escape Rome after the humiliation of betrayal by her feckless husband.
For all of them, the only way to survive is exile.
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Excerpt
[Lucius narrates as he organises preparations for their permanent departure from Rome.]
Spring AD 395
A week later, Quirinius was reporting how the stock was being moved to Virunum. I had to confess that although I’d supervised our farm for many years now, I hadn’t worked at the intense level Quirinius had. At heart, he was a countryman who had an instinctive affinity with his animals. He probably annoyed the Hades out of his staff but they would have remembered who paid their wages and thus always deferred to him. However, my stockman said that the senator knew what he was about and that his colleague on Quirinius’s estate had great respect for his master.
‘So you see, Lucius, I cannot move all the sheep at the same time, not until they’ve lambed. Your father-in-law’s people have been very accommodating about pens and grazing.’
‘You haven’t been there, have you?’ I wouldn’t have put it past him, the way he liked to have everything nailed down. But dangerous to go on his own with the bandits haunting the mountain passes.
‘Certainly not, but we exchange frequent letters as much as we can.’
‘How are the other landowners supporting you?’
‘They’ve sent lists in and some are sending an advance caravan of mixed stock next week. We have a good number of volunteers as guards against wolves and most of them have dogs to assist. But we’re bound to lose some cattle.’
‘It’s the two-legged wolves you have to watch out for. Make sure your men are armed and obviously so.’
‘Is that really necessary?’
‘Better to be over-cautious than lying in a ditch beaten and robbed… or dead.’
Quirinius looked at me with his mouth pulled down. He fiddled with the edge of his cloak, then scratched the side of his neck.
‘I was thinking of sending my son and daughter as they are both very good with the men and the animals.’
‘All the more reason to take maximum precautions. On a connected matter, have you been using Varus’s place at Arretium as a stopover?’
‘Yes, very helpful. He has excellent grazing, well fenced, as well as the lake for watering.’
‘Very good. Keep me informed and let me know as soon as you can if there are any difficulties. Now—’
My steward appeared at the door of the tablinum and coughed discreetly.
‘The honourable Marcellus Varus has arrived to see you, domine.’
‘Could you ask him to wait a few minutes? We are nearly finished here.’ I smiled at Quirinius. ‘Unless there’s anything else?’
‘No, not at all.’
He stood up, gave me a quick nod and ambled off in the direction of the vestibule. Despite his solid patrician lineage, he had the slow, sure walk of a countryman. He would do well in our new settlement.
I heard Varus and Quirinius exchanging greetings and then a few more words before Varus appeared shortly afterwards at the entrance of the tablinum. He paused, leant his arm against the pillar to the side of the archway.
‘Have you heard the latest?’
‘Probably not. I have no time to gossip.’
He grinned back. ‘It’s a good thing one of us is sharp.’ He looked round. ‘Gods, it’s dark in here. You can hardly see the paintings on the walls. Why are the curtains drawn to the peristyle?’
‘Because it’s cold!’ I stood and rang the bell. A boy appeared – the cook’s son. ‘Fetch some more lights, including the tall candelabra.’
He scurried off and returned shortly after followed by two older servants, each carrying tall stands with lamps on top and two tripod lamps. I waited while they lit them, then, ushering Varus in, pulled a screen across.
‘What is this latest you’re boiling to tell me?’
‘The palace at Mediolanum – which means Stilicho – has reissued the law brought in by Theodosius against heretics. These Christos followers know how to fight amongst themselves and that’s no mistake. However, they’ve renewed all the penalties and punishments previously set out in formal law against so-called heretics who are nevertheless also Christos followers. Pagans, as they call us, are not specifically mentioned, but I bet we would be on the losing end of any prosecution. I don’t know how stringently these new measures will be applied, given that even now some provincial governors still pray to the old gods, but it’s only a matter of time.’ He sat up in his chair. ‘So have you worked out a final day of departure?’
‘Prince Bacausus would like us to arrive in stages, so I’m sending the slow transports ahead. Gaius is riding with some of them to train his troops and give them experience of guard duties and defensive tactics. By horse and on good roads, it only takes sixteen days not counting rest days, so around three weeks, but with stock and oxcarts it can be two months or so. Even a good carriage could take nearly a month.’
‘I had no idea it would take as long.’ He looked into the distance as if trying to calculate something. ‘I’d better tell my steward to start packing.’
‘What about your sister?’
‘Plenty of time to tell her.’
His sister was the most awkward woman I’d ever met. Maelia said she had a temper like the Furies.
‘She’s not going to be a problem, is she?’
‘Absolutely not,’ Varus replied a little too smoothly. Silently, I wished him luck.
Alison Morton writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough but compassionate heroines. Her ten-book Roma Nova series is set in an imaginary European country where a remnant of the Roman Empire has survived into the 21st century and is ruled by women who face conspiracy, revolution and heartache but use a sharp line in dialogue. The latest, EXSILIUM, plunges us back to the late 4th century, to the very foundation of Roma Nova.
She blends her fascination for Ancient Rome with six years’ military service and a life of reading crime, historical and thriller fiction. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history.
Alison now lives in Poitou in France, the home of Mélisende, the heroine of her two contemporary thrillers, Double Identity and Double Pursuit.
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