Roman Dusk (41 page)

Authors: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Tags: #Fantasy, #Fantasy Fiction, #Fiction, #General, #Historical, #Horror, #Occult & Supernatural, #Historical Fiction, #Vampires, #Rome, #Saint-Germain

BOOK: Roman Dusk

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Author’s Note

This novel is set in the period of Roman history called the Decadence, which began about 160 AD, a distinction it richly deserved: social conventions had become lax; the bureaucracy was increasingly corrupt, due in large part to the privatizing of most of the civil service; the nobility were competing in luxury and excess, and were rarely held accountable for their overindulgence, either legally or politically; the Emperors were more often than not puppets for powerful families and influential plutocrats; maintenance of Roman roads, the most successful communication routes in the ancient world, was reduced or abandoned even as the Romans struggled to hold their borders; the Legions, once the heart of Roman strength, now filled their ranks with client-nation soldiers and gave high rank positions to mercenaries; the standards of education and language-use had declined and the quality of linguistic communication and literary expression was eroding; public entertainments, from the arena to the stage, were violent, sensationalistic, and debauched. The attempt to maintain a society of laws was giving way to one of political and commercial influence, and all the while the gulf between rich and poor was widening, and the legal rights of women and slaves were diminishing steadily.

On top of that, the upper classes were experiencing the genetic consequences of generations of cooking in lead-lined pots: all manner of problems from decreased birth rates to myriad physical and mental infirmities took a rising toll on those families long used to occupying positions of authority in the Empire. Even the middle-class—what there was of it—had begun to erode its generational health; for in an attempt to appear more wealthy and of higher rank than they were, many successful middle-class families sprinkled their food with powdered lead so that their food would taste as if they could afford lead pots.

Despite all these depredations from within, and although there were barbarian tribes worrying away at the edges of the Roman Empire, it still reached from the Middle East to the Atlantic Ocean, from Britain to north Africa. The first signs of a distinct east-west split were starting to develop by the time of this novel, the third century of the Christian calendar, or the tenth century of the Roman one.

At the time, Christianity was only one of many non-Roman religions gaining adherents; Mithraism was particularly popular among the Roman military, and Isis-worship was gaining supporters among Roman women as the power of the Vestal Virgins waned. Fortune-tellers and sybils had thriving clienteles in many parts of the Empire, as did any number of regional pagan practices. Christianity itself was sharply divided between the Peterine groups—who maintained most Jewish traditions but held their wives in common, in a kind of group marriage, and celebrated communal suppers—and Paulists—who did not practice strict Judaism, organized their followers hierarchically, exhorted nonbelievers in the streets, and physically attacked those they considered to be sinners, including Peterine Christians. This bipartisan rivalry was relentlessly competitive—much like siblings attempting to attract the favorable attention of a distant and baffling parent—and garnered a marked degree of public disapproval, a stance that only served to intensify both groups of Christians in a more determined practice of their versions of their faith in a display of resolve that increased the Roman condemnation of their religious beliefs as seditious.

The position of non-Romans was becoming precarious due to the barbarian incursions on Roman borders, to say nothing of Rome’s increasing dependence on foreign trade. As the Empire entered its slow collapse, this first showed in the progressively aleatory postures of the internal administration of the Empire toward foreigners, especially those of substance. This was reflected in mercurial enforcement of taxation, the arbitrary enactment of customs regulations regarding imported goods, and demands of double and triple payment for such services as private security and civic repairs.

In his short, hectic reign, Heliogabalus did nothing to stop the erosion of the Roman Empire—in fact, through his systematic debasement of Roman coinage, he did a fair amount to speed it along—encouraged and abetted by the real authorities behind him: his mother and grandmother. Not that he didn’t have a talent for surfeit and dissipation—he most certainly did, and he paid dearly for it. He was not alone in his avaricious exploitation of Rome and the Roman people; following Marcus Aurelius, Rome had few emperors with either the skill or the intention to secure the Empire until Constantine shifted the seat of power from Rome to Byzantium—renaming this city for himself: Constantinople—and laid the foundation for the collapse of the West.

As in
Blood Games
, I have kept the names of historical persons in traditional Roman order, but for fictional characters, I have put their family names last, as is the present style, for the sake of clarity, and to keep confusion to a minimum. For those familiar with Roman traditions of nomenclature, I ask your indulgence for this lapse in historicity.

Thanks are due to John Conner for information on the city of Rome during this period, and the shifts in Latin structure and vocabulary of the time; to Agatha Dermond for the use of her superb library on daily life in late-Imperial Rome, including extensive records on food and clothing; to David Lindenthal for allowing me to use his references on Roman roads and aqueducts of the period; to James Melchior for providing information on Roman government, laws, customs, and tax codes; and to Tracy Smith for sharing her material on the state of Roman provinces and borders in the third century. Errors and misinterpretations are mine, not theirs, and their help is much appreciated.

Also I would like to thank Lisa Eamons, Christine Sullivan, and Scott Wye, my clarity readers, at whose suggestion I have put a glossary of Roman terms at the back; to Libba Campbell and Gregory Huang, who read it for content; to the Canadian Chapter of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, particularly Elizabeth Miller, and the Lord Ruthven Assembly, including all those who contributed to
Forgotten Gems of Horror Fiction
, for all their enthusiasm for this series of books; to Charlie and Peggy, Gaye, Megan, Steve, Maureen, Randy
in absentia
, Brian, and Alice; to Wiley Saichek for all the Internet work; to Paula Guran for getting my new Web site up and running (
chelseaquinnyarbro.net
); and to the Yahoo chat group. On the publishing side, thanks to Melissa Singer, my editor at Tor, and to her boss, Tom Doherty, for steadfastness. Last, thanks to you, the bookstore owners and the readers, for your ongoing support for Saint-Germain and this series—it wouldn’t continue without you.

CHELSEA QUINN YARBRO
Berkeley, California
17 July, 2005

By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro from Tom Doherty Associates

Ariosto
Better in the Dark
Blood Games
Blood Roses
Borne in Blood
A Candle for D’Artagnan
Come Twilight
Communion Blood
Crusader’s Torch
Dark of the Sun
Darker Jewels
A Feast in Exile
A Flame in Byzantium
Hotel Transylvania
Mansions of Darkness
Out of the House of Life
The Palace
Path of the Eclipse
Roman Dusk
States of Grace
Writ in Blood

Gazetteer and Glossary