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parthianbow

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Everything posted by parthianbow

  1. parthianbow

    Domus Aurea - Rebuilt

    Absolutely astonishing - thanks for posting, JGolomb! I'm hoping to go to Italy later in the year - now I'll be sure to go before Sept. 18, when the exhibition closes.
  2. parthianbow

    The Eagle (Movie)

    To go back to a question asked way back on the thread - the film was renamed 'The Eagle' so that viewers wouldn't think it was a golfing movie. (I kid you not - I read that in an interview with Kevin MacDonald.) I thought that the film was very good - esp in the first half an hour. The use of the testudo is not that controversial - Goldsworthy in his book the Complete Roman Army states that the formation was mainly used for defending men undermining a wall etc. He doesn't state exclusively, which leaves room in my writer's mind to have different uses for it. I expected to dislike the American accents for the Romans, but I found that it worked really really well, accentuating the differences between the Romans and the Britons. What I struggled with big time however, were the Seal People. They were laughable, in my mind. What would have been wrong with scary bare chested warriors with lime spiked hair? It would have been real too. 3.5-3.75 out of 5, but as another member said, "It's about Rome!" :-)
  3. parthianbow

    Gladiator

    I agree with many of the other posters - it may be flawed, but it's a great film. Gladiator is also what reawakened my love of Rome. I read The Eagle of the Ninth and other Roman books as a boy, but Gladiator is one of the things that made me sit up and think, "I'm going to write a book about Roman soldiers."
  4. parthianbow

    Spartacus: Blood and Sand

    I watched the first two episodes on Starz last summer, and thought they were great. Wildly inaccurate in many places, but great TV viewing. I thought Andy Whitfield was terrific as Spartacus, and was upset to hear about his battle with lymphoma. I keep Googling to find out what's happening, but there's little out there. I hope that no news is good news in his case. I haven't yet bought the boxed set, although I dearly want to. This is because, and this is a shameless plug, I am writing two novels about the man himself. Spartacus The Gladiator will come out in the UK in early 2012, and the sequel, Spartacus: Rebellion is quite likely to come out later in the same year. Not sure about US dates yet, but it will be coming out there - most likely in 2012. Hopefully, some of you guys might be interested in reading it!
  5. parthianbow

    The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff

    The Silver Branch is the second novel in the loosely linked Roman Britain trilogy by Rosemary Sutcliff. It was published in 1957, just a few years after the tremendous success of The Eagle of The Ninth, the first book. Like all of Sutcliff's work, The Silver Branch was written for children, but thanks to its rich prose and compelling story, also holds considerable appeal for adults. Sutcliff died in 1992, and while she has been far from forgotten, her name has this year come into the limelight once more. The Eagle is currently showing in movie complexes all over the world, no doubt winning over a huge new audience for her wonderfully written books. I for one have no need of being won over. It's thirty years or more since I first became acquainted with Rosemary Sutcliff, and I've been a fan ever since. The Roman Britain trilogy is partly responsible for helping me to change professions too - from that of a veterinarian to a writer of military historical fiction, namely about the Romans. As a mark of my respect for Sutcliff, the title of my second book, The Silver Eagle, actually pays homage to the first two volumes of her trilogy. The plotline of The Silver Branch is quite different to The Eagle of the Ninth. It's set more than one hundred years later, and concerns a descendant of TEOTN's hero, Marcus, and his cousin, Flavius. It's a story of intrigue, treachery and a secret network to smuggle those loyal to Rome out of Britain, where a usurper has taken the purple. The book has a much larger list of characters than The Eagle of the Ninth, and this adds to its appeal. As well as Justin and Flavius, we have the genial Carausius, the cold, calculating Allectus, Evicatos, the brooding warrior, and Cullen, the faithful King's Hound. Last but not least, there is the fierce old matriarch, Great-Aunt Honoria. Every one of these protagonists is simply but splendidly drawn, and their presence successfully enlarges the tale for the reader. Rich images from the first book also reappear: the Aquila signet ring with the carved green dolphin at its heart and the eagle standard that Marcus retrieved in Scotland. Themes of comradeship and loyalty - to family and friends, as well as to ideals - are central to the plotline, and appeal to us all. As always, Sutcliff's descriptions of the time are vivid and for the most part, extremely authentic. It is this rare ability to draw us completely into ancient times that makes The Silver Branch and her other works such a joy to read. Be sure to read The Eagle of the Ninth first, however!
  6. parthianbow

    The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff

    The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff was first published in 1959, and in a remarkable testament to its appeal, it is still in print. It should also be noted that this is the novel that won the author the Carnegie Medal, a prestigious award for outstanding children's books. It's the third part of the loosely linked Roman Britain trilogy that began with The Eagle of The Ninth and continued with The Silver Branch. Readers are probably well aware that the first novel has been dramatized into a movie, The Eagle, which is currently opening and showing in cinemas all over the world. The Lantern Bearers is set more than a hundred years after the events of The Silver Branch. Its main character is Aquila, a young cavalry officer, who, when ordered to leave Britain when the legions leave for the last time, deserts his unit. Tragedy upon tragedy befalls Aquila, who quickly loses his family, and then his own freedom. Finally escaping slavery, he joins the service of Ambrosius, last hope of Roman Britain. The story follows the embittered Aquila for nearly 20 years, and culminates in a huge battle to drive the Saxons from Britain. The Eagle of the Ninth was one of the main influences in my choosing to write about Rome and its legions. I have read it many times, and although I cannot say why, the same cannot be said of the second two books. I recently read The Silver Branch for the second time specifically to review it, and while I enjoyed it greatly, I didn't think that it quite matched the first book in calibre. I expected that also to be the case with The Lantern Bearers. How wrong could I have been? The Eagle of the Ninth fuelled my boyish imagination with pictures of stealing back an eagle standard from wild Scottish tribes, and to this day, I remember and enjoy and honour it for that. I had few childhood memories of The Lantern Bearers, however. Rereading it over the last few days was akin to reading it for the first time. To my surprise and joy, it gripped me not just with the richness of its prose, but also with the depth and accuracy of its description of human emotions and relationships. I was moved to tears on numerous occasions, and I now regard this finely crafted novel to be every bit as good as The Eagle of the Ninth. If anything, it's aimed at an older audience than the first two parts of the trilogy. In my opinion - and I write this as a man rather than a boy - it is a better book than either of the others. The Lantern Bearers stands four square with any piece of adult historical fiction that I have ever read. Indeed, it's superior to most of them.
  7. Another excellent text is The Roman Republican Navy (from the 6th C to 167 BC) by Christa Steinby (224PP).
  8. And a good one it is too! Registered a while back, but never got to post. All changed! Here I am at last, where the road led to... :-)
  9. parthianbow

    Where Is Every One From?

    Me too! From Ireland, but living in the UK for about 10 years...
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