Omnes ad stercus
Sep. 21st, 2018 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: Vindolanda, by Adrian Goldsworthy
Having grown up in the North East and visited Vindolanda as a child (as well as more recently in 2012) I was immediately attracted to this book when I saw it in the work book sale. What storyline, I wondered, could be extracted from the Vindolanda tablets? My appetite was tempered by reading Arminius at the turn of this year, and I put it off for several months.
Like that book, there is a lot of violence; confirmation, if it were needed, that life was indeed nasty, brutish, and for many, short. But this story is narrated in a modern style, which I do feel makes it easier going. The characters are also more sympathetic - Flavius Ferox, a centurio regionarius originally from the Silures and now stationed near Vindolanda some thirty years or so before the construction of Hadrian's Wall, reluctantly receives guests while he is suffering from a hangover. They tell of trouble stirring in the North, with druids and possibly Germanic warriors. Ferox's sidekick is the dry-witted auxiliary scout Vindex, from the Brigantes. Ferox takes the rumours seriously and goes with Vindex to Vindolanda to report them, and then on to Coria (Corbridge). On the way they encounter a raiding party, and a carriage on the road carrying the wife and servant of one of the top Romans is ambushed. As the plot developed, I became aware of the pattern of a technologically far superior power occupying lands, yet struggling to hold them, due to primitive insurgent actions. There are complex alliances, which are often in doubt, with the native tribes reluctant to commit to either side until a victor is already clear. The local conflict is intertwined with Roman political intrigue, as Trajan has just become Emperor, a position he holds precariously at the time. The author concludes with a historical note explaining how the story originates from a fragment of one of the tablets; also, the phrase omnes ad stercus, which occurs liberally through the novel, is translated as "we're all in the shit" (I think "it's all gone to shit" would be as good a translation; the Internet coyly offers "get lost", which does not quite work). Though the writing style is modern, and no doubt some of the characters' opinions and morals may have been upgraded to be closer to our own times, the book feels authentic and I found it quite a compelling story; I will probably seek out further books in the series.
Having grown up in the North East and visited Vindolanda as a child (as well as more recently in 2012) I was immediately attracted to this book when I saw it in the work book sale. What storyline, I wondered, could be extracted from the Vindolanda tablets? My appetite was tempered by reading Arminius at the turn of this year, and I put it off for several months.
Like that book, there is a lot of violence; confirmation, if it were needed, that life was indeed nasty, brutish, and for many, short. But this story is narrated in a modern style, which I do feel makes it easier going. The characters are also more sympathetic - Flavius Ferox, a centurio regionarius originally from the Silures and now stationed near Vindolanda some thirty years or so before the construction of Hadrian's Wall, reluctantly receives guests while he is suffering from a hangover. They tell of trouble stirring in the North, with druids and possibly Germanic warriors. Ferox's sidekick is the dry-witted auxiliary scout Vindex, from the Brigantes. Ferox takes the rumours seriously and goes with Vindex to Vindolanda to report them, and then on to Coria (Corbridge). On the way they encounter a raiding party, and a carriage on the road carrying the wife and servant of one of the top Romans is ambushed. As the plot developed, I became aware of the pattern of a technologically far superior power occupying lands, yet struggling to hold them, due to primitive insurgent actions. There are complex alliances, which are often in doubt, with the native tribes reluctant to commit to either side until a victor is already clear. The local conflict is intertwined with Roman political intrigue, as Trajan has just become Emperor, a position he holds precariously at the time. The author concludes with a historical note explaining how the story originates from a fragment of one of the tablets; also, the phrase omnes ad stercus, which occurs liberally through the novel, is translated as "we're all in the shit" (I think "it's all gone to shit" would be as good a translation; the Internet coyly offers "get lost", which does not quite work). Though the writing style is modern, and no doubt some of the characters' opinions and morals may have been upgraded to be closer to our own times, the book feels authentic and I found it quite a compelling story; I will probably seek out further books in the series.