Late antiquity has not been especially well-served by the novelist. I have a fondness for Manfredi's The Last Legion, despite the film and the dreadful English translation. Probably the best evocation of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire remains Iain Pears' The Dream of Scipio.

It is now worth flagging up The Boy Orestes a new novella by Gareth Power. It is the first of a series that wil continue until the resignation of Romulus Augustulus. The Boy Orestes is set in Pannonia in AD433 as Orestes, better known as the father of Romulus Augustulus, turns 16. Researched in some detail, characters of the period - Aetius and Avitus to name just two - make appearances. Worth a read!

Forgive the scepticism, a claim is made on a yearly basis, but there is a story in today's Herald that the site of the Battle of Mons Graupius, the first recorded battle in Scottish history, between the Romans under Agricola and the native tribes under Calgacus in AD83/84, has been found.

Despite stringent efforts by experts, the site of the battle between the Romans and the Caledonians – in either 83AD or 84AD – has never been conclusively identified.

However, Mr Haseler believes his research strongly points to the battle taking place near Elgin, at Quarrelwood Hill to the north-west of the town.

He is now asking that experts pay closer attention to the site and examine what he believes to be a possible Roman fort a short distance away.

From his research and examining the formation of aerial crop circles, Mr Haseler believes he has discovered the fort just south of Elgin.

"I knew the site was a really good candidate from looking at old maps, but I never thought I would find what appeared to be the ditches of a Roman fort staring out at me from the computer screen," he said.

"I have looked and looked at the evidence, and everything fits.

"I have been to the site, and it is just as described by the Roman writer Tacitus and, barring going up with a metal detector, which is clearly illegal, there is nothing else I can do but present the evidence I have for the public to decide."

Hmmm. Anyway, full story here. More about the battle here.

UPDATE More from the Northern Scot here.

Archaeologists at Bonn University are looking for a Roman harbour near Bonn using sonar. Story in the General-Anzeiger:

Mit einem speziellen Flachwasser-Sonar suchen die Wissenschaftler nach Spuren von Häfen aus der Römerzeit bis hinein in das erste Jahrtausend. "Wir vermuten, dass sich Anlandestellen unterhalb des Drachenfels in Königswinter und im Bereich des früheren Legionslagers in Bonn befunden haben" sagt Archäologin Heike Kennecke. "Man darf sich das so vorstellen, dass es große Häfen gegeben habe, aber auch kleine Anleger, ähnlich dem des Bonner Rudervereins", erklärt Jan Bemmann, Direktor des Instituts für Vor- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie.

Full story here. It sounds likely. Not only does it fit the pattern of where Roman harbours in the area were situated, the Roman camp at Bonn was massive - around 62 acres.

The death of Galerius is fascinating. Diocletian's Caesar in the East has been underestimted and has only recently been deemed worthy of his own biography - William Leadbetter's Galerius and the Will of Diocletian earlier this year.

Galerius' death in early May AD311 is worth a look at and not just because he died of that imperial rarity - natural causes. Lactantius has the details in On the Death of the Persecutors 33:

And now, when Galerius was in the eighteenth year of his reign, God struck him with an incurable plague. A malignant ulcer formed itself low down in his secret parts, and spread by degrees. The physicians attempted to eradicate it, and healed up the place affected. But the sore, after having been skinned over, broke out again; a vein burst, and the blood flowed in such quantity as to endanger his life. The blood, however, was stopped, although with difficulty. The physicians had to undertake their operations anew, and at length they cicatrized the wound. In consequence of some slight motion of his body, Galerius received a hurt, and the blood streamed more abundantly than before. He grew emaciated, pallid, and feeble, and the bleeding then stanched. The ulcer began to be insensible to the remedies applied, and a gangrene seized all the neighbouring parts. It diffused itself the wider the more the corrupted flesh was cut away, and everything employed as the means of cure served but to aggravate the disease.

Lactantius then goes on at some length with even more blood and guts.

The emperor's symptoms have been analysed at some length recently by Antonis Kousoulis, Konstantinos Economopoulos, Martin Hatzinger, Ahad Eshraghian and Sotirios Tsiodras, “The Fatal Disease of Emperor Galerius,” Journal of the American College of Surgeons 215 (2012) pp890-893. it is a fascinating article and concludes that Galerius died from complications from Fournier gangrene.

The problem is that the description that Lactantius uses is literary rather than medical. It is remarkably similar to the death of Herod the Great as described by Josephus, The Jewish War, 1.656. His death has also been examined by the medical profession in some detail with the same conclusion: JV Hirschmann, P Richardson, RS Kraemer, PA Mackowiak, “Death of an Arabian Jew,” Archives of Internal Medicine 164 (2004), pp833-839.

That the death of a persecutor of Christians - which is how Galerius has been painted - and Herod the Great should share the same fate makes literary sense which is why Lactantius provides so much detail. Other accounts just suggest that Galerius died from an infected wound (Aurelius Victor, de Caesaribus, 40.9). It would be unwise to go further than that.

In today's Independent - an article about mac 'n' cheese. The introduction:

Mac and cheese, it seems to me, is the Alexander the Great of food. For in the past 12 months the dish has annexed restaurant menus with the same speed and facility which the King of Macedon cleaved his way through Persia. It is a culinary whirlwind, a phenomenon cast in molten cheese and elbow pasta.

Full story here. We salute you!

If you are in Canada, the third episode of Perfect Storms called The Lost Legions is on at 2100 ET/PT on Monday on the History Channel in Canada.

AD 9. Three Roman Legions are ambushed and wiped out in a remote German forest during a massive thunderstorm. The severed head of Roman General Varus is sent back to Rome in a box and the Roman attempt to bring Germania into the Empire is stopped dead in its tracks. The battle helps create the boundary between Latin and Germanic Europe that exists to this day.

I do a lot of talking to camera and wander around the battlefield looking pensive. Nonetheless, it is worth a look. The teaser trailer is below! It is out in the UK on Yesterday in May.

A review in BMCR of Nicholas Baker-Brian and Shaun Tougher's Emperor and Author: The Writings of Julian the Apostate by Hagith Sivan:

Three articles address the public image of the emperor as reflected in inscriptions, coins and artistic objects (Salway, López Sánchez, Varner). Salway includes a useful summary of the inscriptions that relate to Julian's reign, concluding that the genuine voice of the emperor rarely came through. López Sánchez follows Julian's coinage, stage by stage, focusing on the Arlesian mint and on the famous bull coinage, both less idiosyncratic than had been assumed. In fact, the coins conformed to established patterns of imperial coinage rather than to the emperor's personal preferences. Varner analyses the iconography of Julian portraiture on both coins and statues, tracing their artistic genealogy back to Aeneas, Numa, Marcus Aurelius and Pythagoras. The fine analysis offers a welcome corrective to the image of Julian the Hellenist. When need be, the emperor Julian knew how to conduct himself as a Roman.

Full review here.

A long interview in the Osnabrücker Zeitung with Joseph Rottmann, boss at Kalkriese. The interview touches on many subjects including budget cuts - see previous post on that subject here. But the big news is that the next big exhibition is going to be about Germanicus - the greatest emperor Rome never had - nephew and adopted son of Tiberius and father of Caligula.

Das nächste Großprojekt, die nächste Sonderausstellung, ist in Vorbereitung, sie ist Germanicus gewidmet, einer der schillerndsten Figuren der römischen Antike. Seiner Familie gehörten so berühmt-berüchtigte Figuren der Geschichte an wie Drusus, Caligula und Nero. Er raubte Arminius‘ Frau und Sohn, Thusnelda und Thumelicus, und rächte die Legionen des Varus in einem Feldzug, bei dem er acht Legionen nach Germanien führte. Wie diese logistische Meisterleistung überhaupt möglich war, auch dem will die Sonderausstellung nachgehen – unter anderem mithilfe von Wegeforschern und Logistikern der Bundeswehr. Als Begleitprogramm, so ist es angedacht, soll 2015 die Nachbildung eines römischen Kriegsschiffes auf dem Mittellandkanal unterwegs sein. Für Rottmann ist der Zug des Germanicus „ein Thema von allgemeinem historischen Interesse, aber auch ein Thema mit regionalem Bezug.“ Der ist ihm wichtig. „Menschen der Region an uns zu binden und für Projekte zu gewinnen, ähnlich wie seinerzeit beim Bau des Osnabrücker Theaters geschehen“, ist seine Vision.

It is expected to open in 2015. Full story here.

A press release from Historic Scotland has just come through about the new five-year management plan for the Antonine Wall.

The 12-week consultation, led by Historic Scotland and the five local authorities through which the Wall runs, seeks to encourage communities and all interested parties to comment on the Draft Management Plan. The plan has been drawn up following a series of stakeholder workshops and public sessions at the end of last year. The draft sets out the vision and key objectives for the management, conservation, promotion and interpretation of the Wall over the coming five year period.

The documents can be read here.