- The Library -

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

Yeah the other authoritative work is Late Roman Warlords (2002). There are two biographies on Aetius from the 90's but both are EXTREMELY rare, only two copies in the world exist of the one, and the other will run you about 500+ USD if you can find it.

[Abdülmecid I]

A nice little gem, Barbero's "Constantino, il vincitore", a great book, unavailable pretty much everywhere, except perhaps for certain Italian universities, as far as I know.

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

I just finished the Jeroen Wijnendaele's Bonifatius. Guys, IT IS A MASTERPIECE. rarely read something so great !

Since you've read it, would you be willing to use it to improve the wikipedia article on him?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonifacius

I just made a massive edit (the article was awful) but it could use more.

[Gäiten]

[QUOTE=Gäiten;15248900]
* "D-Day" in Mesopotamia: Romans established a beachhead at the shores of Ctesiphon, defending it while more troops are landing under fire during Julian`s Persian Campaign (363 AD)[/QUOTE]
From Imperial Roman Warships 193-565AD
Here this artwork:
https://www.facebook.com/59003209775...type=3&theater

[Diocle]

[QUOTE=Gäiten;15258264]

* "D-Day" in Mesopotamia: Romans established a beachhead at the shores of Ctesiphon, defending it while more troops are landing under fire during Julian`s Persian Campaign (363 AD)[/QUOTE]
From Imperial Roman Warships 193-565AD
Here this artwork:
https://www.facebook.com/59003209775...type=3&theater

Those glorious days! .. a tearful "thank you", mastro Gaiten, for the painful and deeply loved memory of those days made of blood, dreams and Glory!

[Gäiten]

I give you of those past days to remember:

A momentum of Alexander the "Great"`s siege of Tyre:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://www.facebook.com/59003209775...type=3&theater

And

The Vandals destroy the combined seapower of the Roman empires in the battle of Cap Bon

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://www.facebook.com/59003209775...type=3&theater

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

Nice, although not how I would have done it. No vandals on the boats, they were loaded grain ships just lit in fire and pushed into the Roman fleet, which would explode from the dry grain dust.

[Diocle]

Nice, although not how I would have done it. No vandals on the boats, they were loaded grain ships just lit in fire and pushed into the Roman fleet, which would explode from the dry grain dust.

I think that also the English did something similar with the Armada.

[Sertorio]

Just starting...

[Diocle]

Just starting...

List of the first few definitions coming to my mind about Mr. Hagan's book (*): masterpiece, unforgettable, inspirational, poetic, dreamful, interesting, exceptional, unique, a trip (in all its meanings ..), historically accurate, artistic, baroque, post modern, intelligent, sophisticated, horror, alternate history, science fiction, good literature, a must, philosophic, labyrinthine, hermetic, easy, complex, metaphysic, symbolic, realistic, dark, bloody, tragic, glorious, frightening, touching, romantic, detailed, informed, fantasy, Divina Commedia, initiatory journey, Chanson de Geste, chivalrous, criptic, arcane, polydimensional, dense, violent, epic, poisonous, innovative, aesthetically intriguing, disturbing, fatalist, classic, pagan, amazing, important, sculpted, Roman, comradely, mysterious, light, thin, fairy-tale, holy book, tolkienian, abysmally deep, human, solar, exotic, warlike, pulp, spectral, esoteric, rich, all in all .. moving and poignant beyond any possible expectation.

(*)

[Diocle]

Finally, I've in my hands the interesting "Storia dell'Impero Romano dopo Marco Aurelio" (History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus) written by Herodianus of Antioch, it's the new Einaudi edition of this year, with the old (but lately almost unavailable) Italian translation by Filippo Cassola written in 1967 for Sansoni Editions.



I'm glad for having put my hands on the last copy of this edition in this region (I don't know how much I'd have to wait for the next edition, seen the tragic situation of crisis of the sector of paper books), I'm also glad because having a book in your hand, made of hard cover and pages of paper and ink, especially dealing with classics, is always better than having an E-book. The price is pretty high (€ 38) but Einaudi means good quality so it's worth some sacrifice. The scandal, apart the price, is always the same: the low amount of copies of this kind of books, which forces you to run for purchasing the text as it was the Graal!

Sad note: this Einaudi edition lacks of the Greek text that was present in the previous Sansoni edition and this is pretty sad, not because I would have read the 8 books in Greek but because sometime is very useful comparing the Italian text with the Greek original, sadly these are barbaric times .. in any case it's pretty easy to find the Greek text online, even though, having it on paper close to the Italian text would be infinitely better.

[Sertorio]

List of the first few definitions coming to my mind about Mr. Hagan's book (*): masterpiece, unforgettable, inspirational, poetic, dreamful, interesting, exceptional, unique, a trip (in all its meanings ..), historically accurate, artistic, baroque, post modern, intelligent, sophisticated, horror, alternate history, science fiction, good literature, a must, philosophic, labyrinthine, hermetic, easy, complex, metaphysic, symbolic, realistic, dark, bloody, tragic, glorious, frightening, touching, romantic, detailed, informed, fantasy, Divina Commedia, initiatory journey, Chanson de Geste, chivalrous, criptic, arcane, polydimensional, dense, violent, epic, poisonous, innovative, aesthetically intriguing, disturbing, fatalist, classic, pagan, amazing, important, sculpted, Roman, comradely, mysterious, light, thin, fairy-tale, holy book, tolkienian, abysmally deep, human, solar, exotic, warlike, pulp, spectral, esoteric, rich, all in all .. moving and poignant beyond any possible expectation.

(*)

Jus finished my reading and i subscribe everything Diocle posted.
I am now an oficial member of Mr. Hagan fan club.....as i already was a member of the Quinta Fan Club..
Nusquam, nusquam, nusquam...

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

Thank you, Sertorio - glad you liked the book - and I must blush a little at Diocle's effusive words. You should read his own addendum to the Quinta buried here somewhere in these posts. It is a perfect companion-piece to The Nowhere Legion. It's strange to remember I only published that in July 2012 - feels like an epoch ago now! An epoch and 5 more books later!

[Diocle]

Thank you, Sertorio - glad you liked the book - and I must blush a little at Diocle's effusive words. You should read his own addendum to the Quinta buried here somewhere in these posts. It is a perfect companion-piece to The Nowhere Legion. It's strange to remember I only published that in July 2012 - feels like an epoch ago now! An epoch and 5 more books later!

"Effusive words" you write, my dearest friend, my "Virgilian dux" in the mists of Late Antiquity, and doing this you produce in me a dual feeling, because actually my words were motivated by a real affection towards you and your work, but, at the same time, my post actually was one of the less effusive and rethoric posts I've written on TWC, any adjective, any single definition, any single word was in fact my personal attempt to enumerate and describe the concepts, feelings and thoughts which actually crowded and went through my mind when I met your extraordinary novel for the first time; I mean that I could explain each one of them, I could motivate its origin and the way it made to finally reach my wretched intellect, indeed, I think that the description of this travel of my thoughts, this recherche, this Namatian reditu, this coming back to the origins of the feelings induced on me by the reading of your text, it would deserve a deeper and more comprehensive and exaustive treatment, in a apposite place, if only the quality of my writing was enough to deal with such complex matter, and sadly it is not. Frequently in fact readers lack the words to express their feelings but this is the real reason for the indispensable need of reading and for the necessity, I'd say, the "duty" of writing.

A last silly note about the Time and writings: Time (Κρόνος) plays with us its dirty play, sometime He shows His mighty body in its full shape, forcing us to bend in front of the altar we have built to celebrate and venerate His power over us, sometime instead, He decides to hide His presence, concealing Himself behind our passions, kept alive in our memory by love and by our unconscious refusal to forget what has been beautiful in our lives, in this way, Time binds us even more in worshiping His power over us. All this just to say that, as for women, "you never forget your first"!

[Sertorio]

Now i'm asking myself why Diocle has not published anything yet... and what happened to Fall of the Eagles ?? Well....onward to The Janus Eagle...

[Sertorio]

The Roman Emperor Aurelian

Both epub and kindle version on sale on Pen & Sword.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-...n-ePub/p/11944

[Sertorio]

I have now read the first and second book of the Janus Eagle by Mr. Hagan. After reading Mr. Hagan "The Nowhere Legion", i am puzzled if the Nowhere Legion it's not by itself the first of the Janus Eagle as after following the fate of a legion so faithful that is bounded itself in duty, i am now presented with the other side of the coin as i follow the fate of the disgraced Fulminata and their brigaded Solenses.

And here is a something based on the SAI units: The Solenses and the Fulminata...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

Sertorio, those images of the Fulminata and the Solenses are wonderful. Thank you for sharing those. And, yes, the story of the 'Thundering' legion is the shadow to the Quinta. If you read the final book in the trilogy, the ending may be especially poignant for you as a result.

My current novel which I am about half way through is set in northern Britain as the Barbarian Conspiracy erupts yet it, too, is also connected to the Quinta and Julian. One day, when I finally write that book about Hadrianople, all these threads will finally meet together on the same blood-drenched fields . . .

[Gäiten]

Another master piece of Guiseppe Rava:

https://www.facebook.com/59003209775...type=3&theater

[Diocle]

Another master piece of Guiseppe Rava:

https://www.facebook.com/59003209775...type=3&theater

OMG! It's a nightmare! There was also an amphibious Fulcum!