In anticipation of the
upcoming release of Cursus Honorum being published by Less Than Three
Press,
I’ve decided to share my
inspirations for both Cursus Honorum and Amemus, since they share
genres.
I started Latin classes
in High School and even managed to get a Latin minor in college. While it’s
been some years since I’ve done serious translations, I’ve always been inspired
by the literature that I was exposed to. Ovid is by far my favorite author, but
since Cursus Honorum and Amemus have none of him in them…
whatever!
I’ll start with
Catullus, who was the most romantic (and crude) poet that I’ve translated. His poem
5, written to a love interested called Lesbia, starts with the line
Vivamus, mea Lesbia,
atque amemus
Let us live, my Lesbia,
and let us love.
To me, the poem is about
passionate and desperate love, despite what the world around them might think.
I wanted to use a word/phrase from this poem and so I chose ‘amemus’ or ‘let us
love’.
In Amemus, I
wanted to explore the rolls of gladiators and slaves in ancient Rome (or around
65-70 BC). I’ve always found it interesting how varied slaves could be. They
could be prisoners of war, people in debt, former criminals, etc. They could be Roman or they could be foreigners. Often, especially for those in debt, slaves
could earn a small amount of money from their masters and ‘buy’ back their
freedom. If a master was kind, they could free a slave and the slave might stay
with the master as a paid servant. Of course, the treatment of slaves could
vary greatly and many children were used as slaves (often to pay off their
parent’s crimes/debts). But, as an American with our own history of slavery, it
was interesting for me to explore another culture’s interpretation.
I also chose to write
about gladiators for similar reasons. Gladiators were, for the most part,
slaves. Yet they could rise up like superstars to the general Roman public.
They had fans and supporters (if they were good enough) and could potentially
free themselves. Of course, many gladiators were criminals and often were put
in games as form of execution.
It was fun to play
around with these ideas and to explore the city of Capua, as opposed to Rome. I just wanted
my characters to walk around and interact with the scenery and culture and each
other. Which is practically the reason why I have the 'Bathhouse Scene of Much
Gratuity'.
For Cursus Honorum,
I wanted to explore the other side of the Roman Republic (at around 146 BC). Instead of
slaves and gladiators, I wanted to try out the patricians and politicians. Cursus honorum translates to ‘course of offices’ or the path a politician would
take to rise in the government. It was rather strict, both by the age of the
applicant as well as the path they must take. It would be like if an aspiring
American politician wanted to become president, then they would have to first
be a mayor, then a governor, then a congressman, than a senator, etc. It
appealed to me to have a character in the middle of this progression,
constantly trying to reach ever higher for the better position. They would have
to be someone exciting and social, constantly having to make allies with other
powerful politicians.
Politics and military
exploits have always gone together since ancient times and Rome was certainly
not excluded. But not every smooth talking politician is going to be a great military
fighter. So it was rather common in the Republic for politicians and honored
military generals to ally themselves. It is one of the reasons why I set the
story in 146 BC, the end of the
third Punic War and when the current pro-consul was paired with a strong general.
I just loved the idea of
putting together a roughened war veteran against the softness of a pampered
city politician. And, of course, I got to put them in Rome during the height of
the Republic and the Roman Forum. In Amemus, I got to have my gratuitous
bathhouse scene, in Cursus Honorum, I got to have gratuitous party
scenes. And I got to have my characters walk around fancy Roman villas.
Also, my main
inspirations for the parties were definitely from Petronius’ Satyricon.
Which, if you are into crude humor, orgies, crazy dinner parties, and two men
battling to woo a young male slave, then you should definitely check it out.
What’s up next for my
Roman inspired romances? I’m hoping to get a little lesbian loving in there ;)
