Review: The Green Bronze Mirror by Lynne Ellison (Young Adult)

  This time travel tale by a 14-year-old author was sent to me quite some time ago and I read it but got so swamped with other committments, I never got around to writing my review of it.  My apologies to CnPosner Books who were kind enough to send me a review copy.

Karen is a young British girl, about the same age as the author, with a talent for art. One day she is swept back in time to the age of the Roman Empire under the reign of Nero when she finds an old bronze mirror on a deserted beach and gazes into its corroded surface.  She is discovered by a Roman patrol whose Centurion takes her for a runaway slave and places her temporarily in his household until inquiries can be made.

When no one claims the girl, she is sold to a slaver and placed aboard a ship destined for Rome.  There, she befriends other young slaves and wonders what will happen to her once they reach their destination.

Roman coin bank depicting a beggar girl. 25-50 CE.
Photographed at the Getty Villa by Mary Harrsch.

In Rome, she is purchased by a wealthy Roman family and is charged with the care of the family's children.  When the mistress of the house later discovers Karen's talent for art, she orders Karen to paint murals on the walls of the villa in addition to her child care duties.   Karen enjoys her work so doesn't seem to mind her role in ancient society and befriends some of the other household slaves, discovering one of them is a member of the new Christian cult.  She asks to attend some of their meetings and she is welcomed into the group.  She then falls in love with one of the other young Christian slaves named Kleon.

One day a fire erupts in the city and soon many of the buildings surrounding the villa where Karen lives are threatened by flames.  Karen, remembering her Roman history, is terrified because she knows the Christians will be blamed for the fire and brutally persecuted.

She warns her friends that they will be blamed for the conflagration but, as slaves, they fear severe punishment if they are caught trying to flee.  Finally, she convinces them to flee to the catacombs.  But an angry mob discovers the entrance to the catacombs and begins searching its dank recesses looking for the "arsonists".
Will Karen escape persecution and find her way back to Britain and her own time?

Reading this book, I was impressed with this young author's skilled handling of dialogue.  She also seemed to have a good grasp of Roman culture and seemed to know quite a bit about the layout of ancient Rome, too, as evidenced by references to particular gates of the ancient city.

Her primary shortcoming, as an author, was her naivete about the brutality of daily life for slaves and other members of the lower classes in Roman society.  Her heroine was actually considered a fully mature woman at that point in time and it would be quite a stretch to believe that she could be found by a group of Roman legionaries and deposited untouched into the care of her new master's household slaves.  Furthermore, she manages to remain chaste despite her sale to a slaver, a long sea voyage, and purchase by a Roman master, seemingly content with the attentions of his own wife.

Bronze Bust of a Gallo-Roman Youth 

wearing a hairstyle fashioned after the 

emperor Nero 60-70 CE.  Photographed

at the Getty Villa by Mary Harrsch.

But, I can vaguely remember being 14-years-old myself and innocent about gender relations at that age, so I can certainly understand this aspect of the story.

The "Ben-Hur" approach to ancient Christianity is also understandable since this book was written in 1966 by an imaginative young girl who was probably as enthralled with Charlton Heston's portrayal of the Judean prince at that time as I was.

She also unknowingly compressed historical events surrounding the Great Fire.  The Christians were not immediately blamed for the disaster.  They were eventually selected as probable perpetrators after the populace began voicing their suspicions that Nero himself started the fire to clear out the center of Rome for his new Golden House.

Still, I think young Lynne Ellison could have blossomed into a very good author with more experience.  Sadly, I understand this was her one and only published effort.

I would recommend to the publisher, however, that more care be taken with proofing future releases.  The copy I received, although a commercial release complete with cover and illustrations, was filled with typos and even missing words and phrases.  It was as if an old manuscript was simply scanned, OCRed and sent to press without any human intervention.  Even young authors deserve a publisher's respect for quality in the output of the final product.

                        

Review: The Hittite by Ben Bova

The Hittite capital of Hattusa was a smoldering ruin by the time Lukka and his squad of Hatti soldiers arrived  to rescue their families.  Lukka found his dying father in the ruins of his ancestral home but could not find his wife or two young sons.  His father gasps that Lukka's wife has taken his sons and fled the city and makes Lukka promise him that he will find his  grandsons so they will not end their days as slaves.

Lukka learns that the king has been killed and civil war has broken out between the two heirs to the throne and the empire that has dominated Asia Minor since the 18th century BCE is in its last death throes.  He gathers his men, pointing out to them that they stand a better chance of survival if they stay together, then strikes out on the trail of his wife and sons.

Image via Wikipedia

THE LION GATE AT HATTUSA, TURKEY. 

Lukka discovers, however, that his family has been captured by slavers who seem to be headed toward the great city of Troy, near the fabled Hellespont.  So, he and his men press on until they find themselves standing on the plain before Troy and discover that it is beseiged by a rather disorganized rabble of Greeks still armed with soft bronze weapons while  Lukka's Hatti soldiers have the latest iron swords, helmets and studded armor.

The Hatti are also skilled in fighting in disciplined formations and soon draw the attention of both King Agamemnon and the legendary Odysseus when they bravely face down a chariot charge by Hector himself. Lukka and his men are invited to join the household of Odysseus and soon Lukka learns that his wife and sons are indeed in the Greek camp but have been sold to King Agamemnon.  Odysseus tells Lukka that Agamemnon won't give up his slaves willingly and relates the latest dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles.  He advises Lukka to be patient and Odysseus will help him secure the return of his family when the opportunity presents itself.

Image via Wikipedia

TROJANS AND GREEKS FROM THE VERGILIUS ROMANUS

He then asks Lukka if he will serve as an envoy to the Trojans to carry the latest peace offering from the Greeks.  Lukka agrees and is taken into the city of Troy where he meets King Priam, Prince Hector, Prince Paris and, of course, the beautiful Helen.  He presents the Greek's offer to withdraw if Helen is returned to Menelaus and the Trojans are surprised that the Greeks are no longer demanding the return of Helen's dowry that she brought with her from Sparta.

Lukka is asked to remain in a guest room while the new offer is considered by the council and while there he is summoned into a private audience chamber where he finds Helen alone except for her servant, her nurse since early childhood.  Helen is impressed with his forthright integrity and questions him about the Greeks' true motivations.  Lukka fights to control his attraction to her and discovers she is both thoughtful and practiced in
statecraft herself.

Ultimately, the Trojans reject the peace treaty, though, and Lukka returns to the Greek encampment.  The events of the Iliad unfold before Lukka's eyes - the death of Patroclus, the death of Hector and finally the death of Achilles, though a suicide and not because of any mythical vulnerability near his heel.
Lukka meets with Odysseus and explains that his men are skilled in the construction of siege towers that they have used many times in sieges prosecuted by the Hatti.  So Odysseus convinces Agamemnon to authorize the construction of one of the Hatti siege towers that they will cover with wet horsehides to protect the men inside from flaming missiles.

An early seige tower used by King Sennacherib against
the walls of Lachish.  Image courtesy of Archaeology of the Bible.  

Using the siege tower, Lukka and his men scale the walls of Troy and open the gates to let in Odysseus' waiting men and the rest, as they say, is history (or myth?).

But when Lukka returns he learns that the high king has ordered a celebratory sacrifice of not only prisoners but slaves that have served the Greeks but are no longer needed now that the Greeks are readying their ships to return home.  Lukka races to find Odysseus to ask him to plead for the return of Lukka's family before it's too late.

Author Ben Bova recounts the hellish scene as prisoners and slaves are lashed towards a waiting cadre of priests, bloodied up to their elbows before gore-covered altar stones.

Will Lukka rescue his family?  And what of Helen's fate?

Award winning science fiction writer, Ben Bova has written more than 120 science fiction and non fiction texts over the course of a career than spans six decades.  I was unaware of his background in science fiction when I ordered The Hittite on Audible.com, which was listed under historical fiction.

So, as an historical fiction enthusiast who enjoys learning about ancient cultures through characters in a fictional narrative, were my expectations met?  Surprisingly, I found Bova's novel as pragmatic as any other historical drama I have read.  I found it carefully researched, unfolding without any fantasy elements, despite the fact that it was a retelling of Homer's Iliad through the eyes of a Hittite officer.

Greeks and Trojans alike referred to their beliefs in gods and goddesses but no dieties actually made any physical appearances in human or even non-human form, much like Peterson's film version, "Troy".

I also learned more about the Hittite civilization, my original purpose for selecting this book.
Although I have studied the battle of Kadesh between the Hittites and the Egyptians and have listened to Professor Kenneth Harl's course, Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor some years ago , I knew relatively little about the Hatti (the real name of these people) except that they were fierce warriors from Asia Minor and the northern Levant who used heavily armored chariots in battle.

The Hittites with their iron weapons and swift chariots were a lethal
combination in the late Bronze Age.  Image courtesy of
World History to 1500 Blog

I was surprised to learn in Bova's book that, although the time period was technically the end of the Bronze Age, the Hatti had already developed iron weapons even though the Greeks and Trojans were still fighting with bronze weapons.  Their use of iron as early as the 14th century BCE was discovered after royal archives containing cuneiform tablets were recovered and later translated during the 19th century.

Image via Wikipedia

Relief depicting the last known king of Hatti, Suppiluliuma II 

"The script on a monument at Boğazköy by a "People of Hattusas" discovered by William Wright in 1884 was found to match peculiar hieroglyphic scripts from Aleppo and Hamath in Northern Syria. In 1887, excavations at Tell El-Amarna in Egypt uncovered the diplomatic correspondence of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaton. Two of the letters from a "kingdom of Kheta" -- apparently located in the same
general region as the Mesopotamian references to "land of Hatti" -- were written in standard Akkadian cuneiform script, but in an unknown language; although scholars could read it, no one could understand it. Shortly after this, Archibald Sayce proposed that Hatti or Khatti in Anatolia was identical with the "kingdom of Kheta" mentioned in these Egyptian texts, as well as with the biblical Hittites. Others such as Max Müller agreed that Khatti was probably Kheta, but proposed connecting it with Biblical Kittim, rather than with the 'Children of Heth'." - Wikipedia 

The Hittite capital of Hattusa was destroyed about 1178 BCE and this would have placed its destruction in the period scholars place the Trojan War, just as put forward in Bova's book, The empire's collapse was brought about by a civil war with Hittite vassals, the Kaskas, a mountain people from the Pontic region of Anatolia, and the Bryges, predecessors to the Phrygians who lived in western Anatolia.   Simultaneously, the fabled "Sea Peoples" attacked Hittite holdings in Cyprus requiring the last Hittite king, Suppiluliuma II,  to engage in one of the earliest naval battles recorded in history off the coast of Cyprus.  Then the Assyrians took advantage of this distraction by further encroaching Hittite lands in the east.  This period of history was obviously a dangerous and brutal environment as the "Dark Age" began to descend over the Mediterranean basin and I could easily envision marauding bands of former soldiers, slavers and thieves ravaging the countryside as depicted in the novel.

Cast of a relief depicting the Sea Peoples at the British Museum
Photographed by Ferrell Jenkins

The stark difference in military discipline and strategies known to the Hittites but unknown to the Greeks is also confirmed in the historical record.

"The Hittites perfected chariot warfare in what one might call the Golden Age of Chariotry. The chariot of the Late Bronze Age was a very lightweight vehicle pulled by two small horses, useful for it's rapid mobility as an archery, javelin, and spear platform. They fought in large formations, leaving to the archers and infantry masses the tasks of assaulting city walls and occupying territory once it was captured." - Introduction to the Hittites by Steve Thurston. 2001.  

A Hittite officer like Lukka would have been appalled to see the Greek chariots dashing haphazardly around the battlefield as Greek nobleman sought individual glory rather than overall victory in the engagement.

I also appreciated Bova's obvious research into the historical fortifications of Troy. Archaeologists who have examined the remains of Troy VIIa , thought to be the Homeric level of occupation at the site of Hisarlik, observe,

" In the area of the east gate (VI S) between Sections 2 and 3, a southern extension added to Section 2 made the approach to this gate more difficult for attackers. The masonry of this addition, much less regular than that characteristic of the fortifications of Troy VI, utilized many of the fallen blocks from the walls of Troy VI. Repair of the main south gate (VI T) involved paving the entrance passage here and installing a drain under the paving. Extensive repairs to the south and southeast portion of the wall (Sections 3-4) were also undertaken." - Troy VII and the historicity of the Trojan War

Bova's Hittite protagonist observes these Trojan efforts to reinforce the south and east defensive walls and recommends that the Greeks use a siege tower to surmount the west wall, a natural barrier, which is lower and has not been artificially reinforced .

Image via Wikipedia

THE FALL OF TROY, DETAIL. SIDE A FROM AN
ATTIC RED-FIGURE KYLIX, CA. 490 BCE

Bova's description of the sack of Troy also reflected the brutality often endured by conquered cities in t
he ancient world although some readers may take issue with the scenes in the novel describing wholesale human sacrifice by the so-called "noble" Greeks after the victory, even though the sacrifice of captives and dogs at the funeral of Patroclus was related by Homer in the Iliad (23.173-6).

Archaeological excavations of Mycenean chamber tombs have yielded human remains mixed with animal bones, including dogs, at a number of sites although archaeologists of the period, particularly those working in the late 19th and early 20th century have been reluctant to attribute these findings to the practice of human sacrifice.



"In 1887 and 1888 [Christos] Tsountas excavated fifty-two chamber tombs in the vicinity of Mycenae and reported that human bones were often found in the dromoi.  In the dromos of Tomb 15 Tsountas found six skeletons buried one over the other, at different depths, in the stone fill before the triangle above the door.  With the skeletons were some undecorated potsherds and some animal bones." - Human sacrifice in ancient Greece by Dennis D. Hughes.  Routledge.  1991

Although researchers have attempted to attribute these findings to displacement by tomb robbers or subsequent multiple burials, evidence on Cyprus, including the discovery of bound skeletal victims, points directly to the introduction of ritual killing by Greek-speaking colonists in the mid-eleventh century BCE.

Hector's Body depicted on Roman Sarcophagus made in Greece 180-220 CE.  Photographed
at the Getty Villa by Mary Harrsch.

One such example was found in tomb 422 of the Necropolis of Kastros, Lapithos.

"The uppermost skeleton was covered with two stone slabs, with a third smaller slab placed over its neck.  Of this uppermost skeleton 'the shoulder-blades were on top of the ribs, the processes of the spinal column were turned up, the hands were tied to each other and the feet were crossed'.  It was concluded that the body had been laid face down, bound hand and foot, in the dromos.  Beneath it were the skull and scattered bones of a second skeleton ('from the position of the bones it seems that the body had been placed there in a mutilated condition'), and on the bottom a damaged skeleton lay in outstretched position with the head towards the entrace of the dromos (and in a direction opposite to that of the topmost skeleton).  Next to the lowermost burial were an amphora and a jug.  Also found in the dromos were two rectangular blocks of poros stone, each with a rectangular hole cut in its middle.  Cuttings in the rock edge of the dromos suggest that the larger of the blocks had originally lain across the dromos.  Gjerstad, who discussed only the larger block, interpreted it as a sacrificial table upon which the three persons whose remains were found in the dromos were immolated, whereupon 'their blood poured down in the hole to satisfy the spirit of the deceased, buried in the tomb'."  - Human sacrifice in ancient Greece by Dennis D. Hughes.  Routledge.  1991

This description is chillingly similar to the horrific scene Bova describes in the hours following the fall of Troy.

So, I think Ben Bova should be welcomed into the genre of historical fiction with open arms and hope he will continue the story of Lukka and his unlikely troupe, especially since The Hittite was written with a conclusion portending a sequel.

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Review: King of Kings: Warrior of Rome Book 2 by Harry Sidebottom

Marcus Claudius Ballista, a warrior of Rome despite his origins in the wilds of Germania, returns to the court of the Emperor Valerian after a valiant but futile defense of the (fictional) Syrian stronghold of Arete in the second installment of Harry Sidebottom's Warrior of Rome series, "King of Kings'.  Unfortunately, the fragile old emperor Valerian, who knowingly sent Ballista on what amounted to a suicide mission, is neither grateful for Ballista's courageous stand or even appreciative that he returned alive.  The feeble emperor has fallen under the sway of an unscrupulous courtier who has his eyes on the purple and is plotting to use a war with the Sassanid Persians to eliminate the old man and seize the throne for his two sons. 

But Ballista, with his battle experience and knowledge of eastern customs and battle strategies represents a threat to the conspiracy.  So, the wily Macrianus the Lame engineers another near suicide mission to save another besieged town. But, when Ballista manages to best the Sassanids once again, Macrianus sidelines Ballista to an administrative post in Ephesus where he has been given a mandate to persecute the new religious sect known as Christians.  Since Christians betrayed Ballista at the siege of Arete, he has no qualms, initially, to oversee the trials of arrested believers.  But as the brutality of the persecution promoted by a zealous local magistrate becomes painfully clear, Ballista devises a plan to use the law itself to halt the distasteful purge. 

But Macrianus had intended for Ballista to fail and uses the opportunity to replace Ballista with Macrianus' own ruthless son, Quietus, to gain even more favor with Valerian.  Once again Ballista finds himself back in Antioch and more out-of-favor than ever.  Treated as a pariah by most of the powerful at the imperial court, Ballista whiles away his time hunting with one of his few friends, the future emperor Aurelian.  Finally, Ballista is asked to serve as a lowly baggage train officer in the army the emperor has assembled to confront Shapur I, the King of Kings.  This fateful battle, that eventually results in the capture of Valerian, takes place near

Image via Wikipedia

Rock relief at Naqsh-e Rostam showing the Roman
Emperor Valerian kneeling before Persian King Shapur I

Edessa.

Macrianus has conveniently been left safely in Samosata with the imperial treasury while Quietus continues to pour honey in the ear of the old emperor convincing him to rely on the services of a turncoat, despite the fact that it is apparent to everyone else, particularly Ballista, that the army is being led into a trap.  At the last moment, the guide disappears and Quietus convinces Valerian to send Quietus back to Samosata for help (and safely out of harm's way), leaving Ballista to face the tightening Persian encirclement.  

Image via Wikipedia

The Humiliation of Emperor Valerian by Shapur,
King of Persia by Hans Holbein the Younger.

When I wrote my review of "Fire In the East: Warrior of Rome Book 1", I didn't realize Ballista was a real Roman commander of the period.  I had searched in vain for a real city named Arete that underwent a siege at about the time period covered by the novel and when I didn't find one, I assumed that the entire book was fictional (except for references to the emperor Valerian and the Persian king Shapur I.  Now, researching my review for Book 2, "King of Kings", I found references to a praetorian prefectus named Ballista who served in various capacities under Valerian. 

He was a notable man, skilled in administering the commonwealth, vehement in counsel, winning fame in campaigns, without an equal in providing for rations, and so highly esteemed by Valerian that in a certain letter he honoured him with the following testimony:

 "From Valerian to Ragonius Clarus, prefect of Illyricum and the provinces of Gaul. If you are a man of good judgement, my kinsman Clarus, as I know that you are, you will carry out the arrangements of Ballista. Model your government on them. Do you see how he refrains from burdening the provincials, how he keeps the horses in places where there is fodder and exacts the rations for his soldiers in places where there is grain, how he never compels the provincials or the land-holders to furnish grain where they have no supply, or horses where they have no pasture? There is no arrangement better than to exact in each place what is there produced, so that the commonwealth may not be burdened by transport or other expenses. Galatia is rich in grain, Thrace is well stocked, and Illyricum is filled with it; so let the foot-soldiers be quartered in these regions, although in Thrace cavalry, too, can winter without damage to the provincials, since plenty of hay can be had from the fields. As for wine and bacon and other forms of food, let them be handed out in those places in which they abound in plenty. All this is the policy of Ballista, who gave orders that any province should furnish only one form of food, namely that in which it abounded, and that from it the soldiers should be kept away. This, in fact, has been officially decreed." - Historia Augusta, Vol III p. 111-113

The villains of the story, Macrianus the Lame and his two sons Macrianus the Younger and Quietus, are also real persons. The ancient sources during this tumultuous period are fragmentary at best but most sources refer to The Macriani as usurpers although I could not find any outright accusations of treachery against Valerian as portrayed in the novel.

"Being now engaged in the war with the Persians, Conscript Fathers, I have entrusted all public affairs, and even those which concern the war, to Macrianus. He is faithful to you, loyal to me, and both beloved and feared by the soldiers. He with his army will act as the case shall demand. And in this, Conscript Fathers, there is nothing new or unexpected by us. For while a boy in Italy, while a youth in Gaul, while a mature man in Africa, and, finally, while well advanced in years in Illyricum and Dalmatia, his valour has been well proved, for in divers battles he has done brave deeds which may serve as a pattern to others." - Valerian, Historia Augusta, Vol. III p. 100. 

However, despite Valerian's implicit trust in Macrianus, like Sidebottom, I find it curious that somehow Macrianus managed to separate himself from Valerian's ill-fated expedition and safely ensconce himself in Samosata with the imperial treasure. It also seems conveniently fortuitous that neither of Macrianus' sons, so lauded by Valerian for their bravery, were captured by the Persians on the expedition in which Valerian himself was seized. 

Some scholars speculate that Ballista was actually a supporter of the Macriani even though in Sidebottom's novel, the Macriani are Ballista's worst enemies. The first mention of Ballista in the Historia Augusta is rather vague about the relationship between these two men.

"So then, when Gallienus and Volusianus were consuls, Macrianus and Ballista met together, called in the remains of the army, and, since the Roman power in the East was tottering, sought someone to appoint as emperor. For Gallienus was showing himself so careless of public affairs that his name was not even mentioned to the soldiers.  It was then finally decided to choose Macrianus and his sons as emperors and to undertake the defence of the state. And so the imperial power was offered to Macrianus.  Now the reasons why Macrianus and his sons should be chosen to rule were these: First of all, no one of the generals of that time was held to be wiser, and none more suited to govern the state; in the second place, he was the richest, and could by his private fortune make good the public losses.  In addition to this, his sons, most valiant young men, rushed with all spirit into the war, ready to serve as an example to the legions in all the duties of soldiers. - Historia Augusta Vol. III p. 19-20

Although Ballista did apparently meet with Macrianus after Valerian was captured, this passage of the Augusta Historia does not say Ballista supported Macrianus as the new emperor.  It sounds to me like Macrianus, as possessor of the imperial treasury, merely used gold to secure the position.

A later section of the Augusta Historia claims Ballista actively supported Macrianus and his sons but this passage was supposedly related by one Maeonius Astyanax, considered a "bogus authority" by such modern scholars as Ronald Syme in his work "Ammianus and the Historia Augusta". 

Enmity between Ballista and Macrianus and/or his sons, however, would certainly explain a later passage relating that Ballista instigated the murder of Macrianus' son, Quietus.

But those who were with Macrianus' son — whose name was Quietus — taking sides with Odaenathus, by the instigation of Ballista, Macrianus' prefect, killed the young man, and, casting his body over the wall, they all in large numbers surrendered to Odaenathus.  And so Odaenathus was made emperor over almost the whole East, while Aureolus held Illyricum and Gallienus Rome. This same Ballista murdered, in addition to Quietus and the guardian of his treasures, many of the people of Emesa, to whom Macrianus' soldiers had fled, with the result that this city was nearly destroyed. - Historia Augusta Vol. III, pp 19-23

If Ballista had supported the Macriani, why would he switch his support to Odenathus and murder Quietus?  There are no reports anywhere else in the Historia Augusta that Ballista was a man with imperial aspirations or of a duplicitous nature. So Sidebottom's scenario seems much more plausible than the conflicting information provided by the rather exasperating "historical" source of the Historia Augusta that repeatedly contradicts itself .

The Roman Emperor Aurelian

So, the real Ballista's role in the imperial succession after the capture of Valerian seems to be somewhat unclear but he is recorded as later defeating Shapur I in Asia Minor at the battle of Corycus.  These events apparently form the foundation of Sidebottom's third installment in the series, Lion of the Sun.  As I am now totally intrigued with Ballista, I look forward to reading the next book in the series.  I see on Sidebottom's website that he is presently working on a fourth novel entitled "The Caspian Gates".  I'm hoping Sidebottom ignores spurious  reports about Ballista meeting his end prematurely and will provide us with even more adventures in which Ballista serves with his friend Aurelian.  I find Aurelian fascinating and would love to learn more about his reconquest of the empire and reasons for his betrayal.

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