Book Review: Saturnalia: A Tale of Wickedness and Redemption in Ancient Rome by Adam Alexander Haviaras

    Saturnalia: A Tale of Wickedness and Redemption in Ancient Rome is a fairly straightforward adaption of Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol from Victorian London to Imperial Rome. There will be few surprises here for those who have read the original story or witnessed any of the myriad stage or film versions, but that isn't necessarily a flaw: knowing the eventual outcome of the story can sometimes enhance drama rather than undercut it.

   As historical fiction, this novel is a mixed success. The author succeeds in portraying the spirit of the time in question (during the Severan Dynasty), and gets a variety of details right (portraying the diversity of Rome at the time, for instance). There may also be a few minor mistakes. The single most noticeable example is a detail concerning the ritus Graecus given correctly in an earlier chapter and then incorrectly in a later one. There is a glossary of Latin terms in the back which may be helpful to some, particularly as there are a few Latin words used which would normally have been translated (i.e. "cerei" instead of "candles").

  As a morality tale, the story is markedly more successful. The author very effectively sets up the greed and callousness of the main character early on (going significantly further than did Dickens: Scrooge was only a serious source of distress to his employees, so far as I can recall, while Catus Pompilius seems at times to be a menace to the entire Eternal City), and his change of heart comes gradually enough to be at least partly believable. One interesting thing about this book is how pious it is: reverence for the gods is repeatedly put hand with generosity, familial affection, enjoyment of life, and the other virtues promoted by the text, and it is the gods themselves who intervene to show the main character the error of his ways.

   Overall, this book is worth reading. It may even leave you feeling the urge to practice a bit more kindness and generosity in your own life.

After Action Report: Remote Saturnalia

 Sunday, December 20th, 2020

Participants: Marcus Quintius Clavus (Host)
                     Gaius Claudius Quadratus
                     Aulus Iulius Paterculus
    The meeting started with a few technical difficulties, as I was unable to join the meeting by phone and had to communicate with the other participants by text chat.
    Once it had been established that was how the conversation would proceed, the conversation began with a discussion of the activities of Legio III Cyrenaica, which were at that time being shown on Facebook. Quadratus lamented that no such re-enactment groups were active near Montreal, and he an Quintius discussed whether Quadratus might join some of Legio III's activities in his augural garb. Quintius stated that, unlike some other re-enactment groups, Legio III was very open to those who wanted to portray civilian roles, and both confirmed that it would make sense for an augur dressed in his civilian religious garb to accompany a legion, either to take auspices
before battle or to participate in a parade. Quintius mentioned one past event held by Legio III at which a sacrifice to the gods had opened the day's presentations.
    Speaking of augury, Quadratus brought up the ongoing conjunction of Saturn with Jupiter, which he held to be a very favourable omen, particularly since its most dramatic manifestation would take place during Saturnalia and the Solstice. He stated that this should be visible on the night of the 21st by looking West just after sunset, and that the two planets should appear to be a single object in the sky, except perhaps to someone using binoculars or who already knew them to be two planets and looked very carefully. Quintius commented that light pollution would likely make this impossible for him to spot, and I concurred, saying that we had been told that the Northern Lights would be visible in the state of Connecticut earlier in the year, but had been foiled in spotting them by all the terrestrial lights. Both Quintius and Quadratus recalled past sightings of the aurora borealis, which for Quadratus had been quite frequent and spectacular, as he had lived even farther North at a time when sunspot activity was at a peak.
    Quadratus then redirected the topic to dates, pointing out that many people who should know better - including authors of history books and museum curators - failed to measure the time between B.C. and A.D. dates correctly. Instead of simply adding the dates together, it was necessary to subtract one year to account for the fact that
there was no year zero.
   There was a brief discussion of the suggestion to form a study group in the new year. I asked what topic we should study, and it was agreed that a list of proposals should be sent to the forum to see what garnered the most interest.
   Quadratus and Quintius then moved on to a discussion of Numismatics. Both were collectors of ancient coins. Quadratus showed off two art pieces he had created with ancient coins in poor condition, while Quintius described a coin in his possession which showed an unidentified emperor, including his upper torso (whereas most coins showed the emperor only from the neck up). Quintius agreed to send a picture of this coin to Quadratus by email for a second opinion. We all speculated on the reasons fewer bronze coins had survived to the modern day from Roman times than silver ones.
   This lead to mention by Quintius of the fact that coins containing copper had been located at the site of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, and a discussion of the early shifting of blame by several senators near the time of that event from Varus to the common soldiers, something which Quintius blamed partly on the close relationship Varus had with the imperial family.
  Shortly thereafter, we all signed off, with a "Io Saturnalia!" from each of us and a resolution to hold another such meeting before too long.

Nova Britannia Facebook Page

Cassius has created a Facebook page for Nova Britannia, accessible at https://www.facebook.com/novabritannia.org/. Those who are active on that site may want to take a look.