Off the Beaten Track: Getting Around, Ancient Style

Novel Adventurers are very happy to welcome back our guest blogger today. Gary Corby is the author of The Pericles Commission and The Ionia Sanction, the first two books in a murder mystery series set in the ancient world. The third book, Sacred Games, will be released in May 2013.  He lives in Sydney, Australia, with one wife, two daughters, four guinea pigs, and two budgies. You can catch him on his blog at GaryCorby.com, on twitter, and on GoodReads. 

It's lovely to be back at Novel Adventurers!  Last time I was here I wrote about whether it's possible to get a visa to the ancient world (here).  Because, you see, I write murder mysteries set in ancient Greece.  My heroes are Nicolaos, the elder brother of Socrates, and Diotima, the greatest lady philosopher of her age, who just happened to be Socrates' teacher.  Ancient history is an interesting subject for many people, but for me, it's also a job skill.

That includes knowing how people traveled about.  A lot of us equate rapid and distant travel with the modern world.  It's not true! 

I once took the ferry from Bodrum on the coast of Turkey, to Crete, in the Mediterranean Sea, halfway to Egypt.  (There's an amazing Crusader castle at Bodrum, by the way).  The trip took about the same time as a trireme would have taken, two and a half millennia ago.  

Of course, anyone who's ever traveled on Greek ferries knows that getting to the destination per schedule isn't necessarily part of the ticket.  A more telling example is that the overnight train from Athens to Istanbul is no faster today than a rider with a spare mount could have managed in the ancient world.  The Persians had by then created a system called the King's Messengers, which was a relay system of super-fast riders on quality mounts.  Those guys could move a message from one side of the Persian Empire to the other in three days, and that was the largest empire the world had yet seen.  Three days isn't up to internet speed, but we're talking about written letters, and that sort of time is on a par with a modern postal service.  

If you wanted to travel about, there was no one to stop you.  No passports.  No visas.  No border guards.  (City guards were another matter).  Also, no highway patrol.  If you traveled far from home and got attacked and killed, then your body would be left to rot in some ditch by the road.  No one back home was ever going to know what happened to you.  Nor would locals necessarily care except to complain about the smell as they passed by.  Self-defence skills were at a premium!   Another minor problem was being attacked and enslaved by pirates, or held for ransom.  This actually happened to the famous philosopher Plato.  He was captured on a return trip from Sicily, and his friends had to buy him back.  

The funny thing is, everything I just listed is something that can happen to you today, if you stray into the wrong parts.  

Greek shipping went a considerable distance.  It's a little known fact that the French city of Marseilles was originally the Greek colony of Massalia.  Incredibly, there've been grave goods found in Britain that are almost certainly from Mycenaean Greece.  They're all in Cornwall--at the Rillaton Barrow in fact--so it's likely some Greek trader got his boat past Gibraltar and up the Atlantic coast, and then took off across the English Channel.  The earliest Greek who we know for absolute sure got that far was a fellow called Pytheas, who came from Massalia.  He reported landing on an island called Pritannia.  It's no coincidence that today we call the same place Britannia.  Pytheas continued on to Norway, where he saw the midnight sun.

Going in the other direction, there have been scraps of silk found in the grave of a German warrior dated to 700BC.  That's way early for the Silk Road to be open, but by the time of Nicolaos and Diotima, the road is open at least as far as Persia.  It was therefore possible, in theory, for someone in Nico's time to make it from Britain to China.   And everywhere you went, there'd be different languages, different foods, and wildly different cultures.  Which is all to the good if you happen to be me and writing that period.  I often think that to be an adventurer in that time must have been like living in an epic fantasy.

Alli’s Summer Beach Reads

Technically, I’m in the middle of winter here in Oz, and while the beaches are nice to visit, they’re a tad chilly to lay around in one’s togs* reading a book. But as majority rules on this blog, I’m going with my recommended beach reads (even though I’m secretly sitting on my sofa huddled under a pile of blankets).

Since I was a kid, the Egyptians, Romans, Incas, and Mayans have fascinated me, so when I came across fictional stories set in these time periods, I was hooked. So much so, I now write historical mysteries meshed with contemporary tales. I appreciate the amount of research it takes to write an ancient historical, and I am in awe of the skill some authors have in weaving those details without jolting the reader out of the story. Here are some of my favorite authors who put their own spin on ancient history:

Michelle Moran: I first discovered Michelle’s books when I picked up a copy of Nefertiti. What I love about Michelle’s writing is her ability to place the reader right in the moment, even though it takes place thousands of years ago. When I read Nefertiti, I truly believed I was standing beside Mutnodjmet, witnessing Egypt fall apart as her big sister Nefertiti fell under the spell of the deluded King Amunhotep. In The Heretic Queen, I felt the rejection Nefertari experienced when her once famous royal family was stricken from the history books. And in Cleopatra’s Daughter, my heart broke for ten-year-old Selene, daughter of Cleopatra, who saw her beloved Alexandria taken over by the Romans, and she and her twin brother were shipped to Rome to become slaves. And in Michelle’s latest book, Madame Tussaud, (not quite ancient, but still a historical) gives the reader an insight into the tumultuous life of the world’s most famous wax sculptor. For more about Michelle Moran’s books and some interesting links to her characters and what inspires her, click here.

Gary Corby: Not only is Gary Corby one of the most affable people on the planet, he writes a mean detective series set in ancient Greece. Gary’s knowledge of Grecian history is astounding. His passion for the time period is obvious, and his blog (here) is always a great source of informative entertainment. Gary’s first book, The Pericles Commission, starts off with “A dead man fell from the sky, landing at my feet with a thud”. The corpse is Ephialtes, a politician who had brought democracy to Greece only a few days earlier. When the politician, Pericles, learns of Ephialtes death, he commissions Nico to find the killer, and so starts the journey of this lovable, everyday guy who is drawn into the world of Grecian politics. Nico’s young brother is Socrates, who is quite the precocious chap, making this book even more endearing. Gary’s attention to detail is amazing, and the cast of characters is just wonderful. I’m very much looking forward to the new adventures of Nico in The Ionia Sanction, coming out in November this year. For those wanting to read more about Gary, please check out his Off The Beaten Track Post he wrote for us earlier this year. Blog post here.

Christina Phillips: Christina Phillips flawlessly combines ancient history with hot and steamy romance and boy, can she create conflict between the hero and heroine! Christina’s first novel, Forbidden, is the story of Carys, a Druid princess, and Maximus, a very hot Roman centurion. When Maximus discovers Carys’s heritage, it adds a spectacular twist that makes it impossible to put this book down. Christina’s second novel, Captive, is about a Druid priestess trained in the art of sensuality, but she takes a vow of celibacy to spite her goddess when the Romans invade. The problem is, she falls for her captor, putting her vows and sanity to the test. Oooh la la! Over 18’s only please! There are more books of Christina’s on the way and I can’t wait to get my hands on them! Christina did a post for our Off The Beaten Track earlier this year. Blog post here.

Jessica Andersen: Jessica has a wonderful ability to write extremely well in many genres. My personal favorite, though, is The Final Prophecy series. Although it isn’t set in ancient times, the stories are heavily influenced by Mayan mythology. According to the Mayans, the world will end in December 2012, and Jessica has used this theory in The Final Prophecy series. The Nightkeepers are modern magic weavers and they fight against evil demons and gods, doing their best to keep the world in one piece. But even the greatest warrior can’t fight 24/7, and there are welcome romantic distractions along the way. To increase their powers, the Nightkeepers need to pair up, and most times those matches are not made in heaven. Hearts are broken, evil sometimes wins, and Mayan myths are woven seamlessly into a fabulous, page-turning series. Jessica only has a few more books planned for the series, and I will be one of many who will shed more than one tear when the series finally ends. Here’s an interview I did with Jessica earlier this year. Interview here.

I’m always on the lookout for ancient historicals, be it a mystery, romance, epic or a combination. If you have any recommendations, I’d love to hear about them. And how about your summer? What are your reading plans?

*Swimmers

Off the Beaten Track: A Visa to the Ancient World

Novel Adventurers are very happy to welcome our guest blogger today. Gary Corby is the author of The Pericles Commission, the first in a series of murder mysteries set in the ancient world.  He lives in Sydney, Australia, with one wife, two daughters, four guinea pigs, and two budgies. You can catch him on his blog at GaryCorby.com, on twitter, and on GoodReads. 

Novel Adventurers is all about different cultures and storytelling, so this is the perfect place to discuss a question close to my heart: when you write a book, does it help to visit the places you're writing about?

The answer should obviously be yes, but I write murder mysteries set in the ancient world.  My detective Nicolaos walks the mean streets of ancient Athens as an agent for the up and coming young politician Pericles, keeping the city safe from enemies both domestic and foreign, while his fellow citizens go about the job of founding democracy, drama, philosophy, history and science.  The adventures of Nicolaos are really an invitation to come join the world of classical Greece, and watch what happens as western civilization is born. 

Brauron

There lies a problem, because short of a time machine, visas to 460BC are hard to come by.

Can I really bring this ancient culture back to life?  Well if I can't, you'll never know the difference, because you can't go back in time to check me.  But wouldn't it be nice if I could have some assurance that the people I describe, the architecture, the way of life, the shops and the food and the ceremonies and the way the children played in the street, had some patina of reality?

Fortunately I can, sort of, because some of the places I write of still exist.  Dotted around the eastern Mediterranean are some amazing ruins.  They're ruins, yes, but with a little imagination and a lot of archaeology you can tell immense amounts about the life and times of our cultural ancestors.

It's possible to visit the Acropolis in Athens, for example.  There's a slight problem with that, because the Parthenon that everyone goes to see hasn't been built at the time I'm writing.  Yet I've stood there and discovered for myself how far you can see in each direction and felt the breeze.  More importantly for my books, I've stood on a rock outcrop next to the Acropolis, one which is called the Areopagus, and which figures heavily in my first book.  In fact it's because I've stood there that I was able to write my first book.  

I once visited Ephesus, which back then was a thriving Greek city just within the borders of the Persian Empire.  Ephesus was abandoned in medieval times, which was bad news for the city but wonderful news for me.  Ephesus today is part of Turkey and a magnificent ruin totally worth visiting.  Unlike Athens, which is covered in some pretty awful modern buildings, Ephesus is there to see as it was in Roman times.  Not my period, but it's not so hard to walk the streets and subtract the Roman additions in my imagination.  The same applies to Olympia, where the ancient Olympic Games were held.  Needless to say, Ephesus and Olympia feature in my second and third books.  

So it can be done.  The other places—very important places!—to get a visa to ancient Athens are in Paris, London and New York.  The Louvre, the British Museum, and the Metropolitan are my friends.  Also the Getty and any number of smaller museums.  In a very meaningful way, they have more of the ancient world than the ruins in Greece, because they can show you the everyday things like cooking utensils, and kids' toys.

So I might not be able to live in ancient times, but the archaeologists can get me a visitor's pass.