Forest Murmurs
Jan. 14th, 2018 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: Arminius - The Limits of Empire, by Robert Fabbri
Fortunately I had no New Year's resolution to be timely with my reviews, as I have been sitting on this one for about a week. Knowing only the legend of Varus' defeat near the Rhine, I picked this up in a work book sale early last year. Apparently Fabbri has written a series of novels about Vespasian, of which this constitutes an offshoot.
It does, as TV announcers say, contain scenes of violence "from the start". In this case, the start is Licus' (Thumelicus, or Thumelicatz) final fight in the gladiatorial arena, from which he gains his freedom, avenges his father, and returns to Germany. This, however, is not the story of the book; rather, it is a prologue, for some years later, Roman emissaries seek to recover their missing eagle and believe he can offer assistance. Despite an oath saying he will not have anything further to do with Rome, he is minded to hear their case, for what might be described as geopolitical reasons. He compels them to listen to a reading, by his own Roman slaves, of the scrolls of Arminius, which tell the life of Arminius and his defeat of the legions in the Teutoberg forest, and for the most part, this is a book within a book, written in a convincingly rhetorical style, and with convenient coincidences at appropriate points.
An author's note at the end attempts to explain what is fiction in the account, and what is based on historical sources. This is useful, but for me leaves some questions unanswered. How likely is it, for example, that a (Germanic) child forced to become a gladiator would be literate (Thumelicatz reads some of the scrolls himself)? Indeed, one might go further and consider whether Arminius (Erminatz), for all his Roman upbringing as a hostage, would want to commit his history to a set of scrolls, something surely out of keeping in the Germanic society he sought? If one is prepared to allow artistic licence in these matters, then the book is quite successful. The defeat of the Roman legions in Germania is an obvious "what if?" point in time for counterfactuals; instead, this is a telling of the real tale.
Fortunately I had no New Year's resolution to be timely with my reviews, as I have been sitting on this one for about a week. Knowing only the legend of Varus' defeat near the Rhine, I picked this up in a work book sale early last year. Apparently Fabbri has written a series of novels about Vespasian, of which this constitutes an offshoot.
It does, as TV announcers say, contain scenes of violence "from the start". In this case, the start is Licus' (Thumelicus, or Thumelicatz) final fight in the gladiatorial arena, from which he gains his freedom, avenges his father, and returns to Germany. This, however, is not the story of the book; rather, it is a prologue, for some years later, Roman emissaries seek to recover their missing eagle and believe he can offer assistance. Despite an oath saying he will not have anything further to do with Rome, he is minded to hear their case, for what might be described as geopolitical reasons. He compels them to listen to a reading, by his own Roman slaves, of the scrolls of Arminius, which tell the life of Arminius and his defeat of the legions in the Teutoberg forest, and for the most part, this is a book within a book, written in a convincingly rhetorical style, and with convenient coincidences at appropriate points.
An author's note at the end attempts to explain what is fiction in the account, and what is based on historical sources. This is useful, but for me leaves some questions unanswered. How likely is it, for example, that a (Germanic) child forced to become a gladiator would be literate (Thumelicatz reads some of the scrolls himself)? Indeed, one might go further and consider whether Arminius (Erminatz), for all his Roman upbringing as a hostage, would want to commit his history to a set of scrolls, something surely out of keeping in the Germanic society he sought? If one is prepared to allow artistic licence in these matters, then the book is quite successful. The defeat of the Roman legions in Germania is an obvious "what if?" point in time for counterfactuals; instead, this is a telling of the real tale.