Great.

Doogs

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So my revisions on The Scourge of Rome are winding down, and I've been doing a bit of preliminary research on the Alaric novel, still trying to decide how close I want to get, whether to do a full-blown historical epic or something somewhat more internalized (hard to describe - more of a character study I suppose).

All well and good.

And then Saturday, as I'm at the grocery store buying eggs, I'm suddenly assaulted by another novel idea, following a handful of legionnaires from the Cannae legions from their initial recruitment to their final return home fifteen years later. Think "Band of Brothers" - but set in the Roman Republic, and focusing on a disgraced and exiled unit that ultimately redeems itself in the final battle against Hannibal.

I haven't worked out any characters, how they would be related, which class of legionnaires they'd be, or much of anything at all yet...but I love the story, love the arc of the legions as a whole, a know the experience is fertile ground for any number of character arcs.

Now...which one do I pursue? Time to go flip a coin I suppose...
 

pdr

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Oh, choices!

I've been planning one of those, but in 1645!
Sulks.

Definitely do the handful of legionnaires story. It will be much more fun to write.
 

Doogs

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Definitely do the handful of legionnaires story. It will be much more fun to write.

I'm strongly leaning in that direction! The idea seems to be getting a lot more support than the Alaric story, and I already have a very solid foundation of research to build on (not to mention books, books, and more books).

Of course, researching the minutiae (how were recruits assigned throughout a legion, which towns had Roman citizenship in 216 B.C., would the characters all hail from the same region, or be thrown together at random, who provided for upkeep of arms and armor, etc) that simply doesn't come into play with the upper classes from TSOR is going to be a pain. But then, that's part of the fun...
 

julie thorpe

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I'd love to see you do the legionnaires' story too. Just think of the opportunites for character development. I say go for it.
 

pdr

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Get a copy...

of the Vindolanda texts, those wooden letters and official memos found on Hadrian's Wall at the fort of the same name.

Go here: http://www.vindolanda.com/index.html
This looks good.

'Garrison Life at Vindolanda, a Band of Brothers' £15.99 Anthony Birley
160pp.
50 illustration
ISBN 0 75241950 1
'Vindolanda, extraordinary records of daily life on the Northern Frontier'
By Robin Birley
112pp 210mm x 150mm
88 illustrations
ISBN 1 873 136 978 (pb)

Also scholarly texts available but it's a great record of how the ordinary soldier felt and worked and talked.
 

Doogs

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pdr, thanks for jogging my memory!

My only concern with the Vindolanda texts is that they date from the Empire, and the structure and demographics of the legions were vastly different in the first centuries A.D. than they were in the middle Republic. Thus, they may not answer the questions about recruitment, distribution of the levies, the supply of weaponry and provisions, etc.

That's not to say they'll be entirely useless. Far from it. If we can see in the Vindolanda letters echoes of modern military life (a family sending socks to a soldier on deployment, etc), we can certainly extrapolate them back to the manipular legions of the 3rd century B.C.

As an interesting aside, I was wrestling with the notion of letters and contact with the outside world last night, and lit upon the idea of a black market emerging for the smuggling of letters to and from the disgraced legions (who, after Cannae, are exiled to Sicily for the duration of the war and forbidden the usual comforts such as wintering near population centers).

There's still a ton more to be worked out, but I'm really getting fired up about this whole idea.