The Amber Road (48 page)

Comitatus
: Latin, a following or retinue; term originally used of barbarian war bands, but came to denote a mobile field army under the direct command of the Roman emperor.

Commilito
(plural,
commilitones
): Latin, comrade, fellow-soldier.

Comum
: Town in the Italian Alps, giving its name to the modern Lake Como.

Concordia Augusta
: Deified abstraction of Imperial Accord, worshipped as a goddess; also a guardian of matrimonial harmony.

Consilium
: Council, body of advisors, of a Roman emperor, official, or elite private person.

Consul
: Originally the highest office of the Roman Republic; two consuls were elected annually. Under the emperors, it became a largely honorific position, with many favourites installed by appointment each year.

Consul Ordinarius
: One of the consuls in office at the beginning of the year, the most prestigious position as the year would thereafter be known by the name of the office-holders: ‘the year in which X and Y were consuls’.

Controversiae
: Form of showpiece legal speech dealing with model cases taken from history and mythology, the more melodramatic the better.

Contubernium
: Group of ten (or perhaps eight) soldiers who shared a tent.

Cornucopias
: Large horns filled with food, emblems of the
lares.

Cornutus
(plural,
cornuti
): Latin; literally, horned ones. Roman military units raised from the German tribes.

Corrector Totius Orientis
: Overseer of all the Orient; a title applied to Odenathus of Palmyra.

Corycus
: Town on the southern coast of modern Turkey, scene of one of Ballista’s victories over the Persians
.

Croesus
: King of Lydia, proverbial in antiquity for his wealth.

Ctesiphon
: Capital city of the Parthian and Sassanid empires, south of modern Baghdad.

Cubicula
: Latin; literally, a little room; bedchamber.

Cularo
: Roman town in the Alps, modern Grenoble.

Curia
(1): Roman public building in which a town council met, modelled on the senate house or
curia
of Rome.

Curia
(2): Small Alpine village controlling the Julier pass; modern Chur.

Cursus Publicus
: Imperial Roman posting service, whereby those with official passes,
diplomata
, could send messengers and get remounts.

Cybele
: Eastern mother goddess adopted by the Greeks and Romans.

Cyclops
: In Greek mythology, mythical one-eyed giant who imprisoned the hero Odysseus.

Cyllene
: Mountain in the Peloponnese associated with various deities in Greek mythology.

Cynics
: Followers of the counter-cultural philosophy founded by Diogenes of Sinope in the fourth century
BC
.

Cyning
: Old English, king.

Cyreneans
: Philosophical sect advocating pure hedonism, founded by Aristippus in the fourth century
BC
.

Cyzicus
: Greek city on the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara.

Dacia
: Roman province on the northern bank of the Danube, occupying much of the Carpathian mountains and modern Romania.

Dactylic hexameter
: The rhythmic meter of ancient epic poetry.

Daedalus
: Skilled craftsman in Greek mythology, credited, among other things, with building the labyrinth.

Daemon:
Supernatural being; could be applied to many different types: good/bad, individual/collective, internal/external, and ghosts.

Damocles
: Courtier of Dionysius II of Syracuse; after praising the good fortune of the king, he was made to sit on the throne under a sword suspended by a single thread to appreciate the constant fear in which he lived.

Danubian
: Inhabitant of one of the Roman frontier provinces abutting the Danube river.

Dauciones
: Germanic tribe living in eastern Scadinavia.

Decorum
: Latin, seemly, proper, well-mannered.

Delphi
: Sanctuary in central Greece, sacred to the god Apollo.

Demeter
: Greek goddess of the harvest.

Deuso
: Settlement of the Lower Rhine, probably located in the modern Netherlands.

Diana of the Lake
: Roman goddess of the moon, hunting and the underworld, worshipped at Lake Nemi.

Didyma
: Greek sanctuary on the western shore of modern Turkey, now known as Didim.

Dignitas
: Important Roman concept which covers our idea of dignity but goes much further; famously, Julius Caesar claimed that his
dignitas
meant more to him than life itself.

Dioscuri
: Roman name for the divine twins Castor and Pollux, said to appear at times of crisis to help those who worshipped them.

Disciplina
: Latin, discipline. Romans considered that they had this quality and non-Romans did not.

Dominus
: Latin, Lord, Master, Sir; a title of respect.

Draco
(plural,
dracones
): Latin, snake or dragon; name given to a windsock-style military standard shaped like a dragon.

Dramatis personae
: Latin, characters of the drama, play.

Duguo
: Old English, a warrior with experience of combat.

Duguth
: Old English, the veteran warriors of a warlord’s retinue.

Dux
: Roman commander, or duke, of a frontier or field army.

Egnatii
: Roman family name attested from the second century
BC
onwards.

Eorl
: Danish, an earl, nobleman.

Ephesus
: Major Greek city on the western coast of Turkey where Ballista was forced to rescue his family from an earthquake.

Epicureans
: Greek philosophers who either denied the gods existed or held they were far away and did not intervene in the affairs of mankind.

Epigrammatic
: From short, pithy poems called
Epigrammata
in Greek, originally carved on to funerary monuments; grew into a major ancient literary genre.

Epiphany
: From the Greek, a miraculous, sudden appearance.

Epithalamium
: Roman word borrowed from Greek; literally, before the bedroom; a wedding poem sung in praise of the bride and groom.

Equestrian
: Second rank down in the Roman social pyramid, the elite order just below the senators.

Equites Singulares Augusti
: Permanent cavalry bodyguard of the emperor.

Equites Singulares Consularis
: Temporary unit recruited from auxiliary cavalry to be the bodyguard of a provincial governor.

Eros
: Greek god of love.

Ethiopia
: Ancient term for the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.

Eupatrid
: From the Greek, well-born, an aristocrat.

Eutes
: Tribe that migrated to the Steppe from the area of modern Denmark and adopted nomadism.

Euxine
: From the Greek word
euxenos
; literally, kindly to strangers. Ancient name for the Black Sea.

Exegesis
: From the Greek; literally, to lead out; a critical discussion or investigation.

Fairguneis
: Thunder god. One of the most important deities of the Goths.

Falernian
: Very expensive white wine particularly prized by the Romans.

Familia
: Latin, family, and by extension the entire household, including slaves.

Farodini
: North German tribe; in this novel placed south of the Jutland peninsula.

Feliciter
: Good luck, hurrah; according to the Roman poet Juvenal, the cry of guests at weddings.

Felix
: Latin, lucky; an attribute of emperors and some legions.

Fenris
: In Norse mythology, a monstrous wolf that will break its chains at the end of days, Ragnarok, and devour Woden, father of the gods.

Ferryman
: In Greek and Roman mythology, rows the souls of the dead across the river Styx to the underworld. Required a toll, thus the practice of leaving coins in the mouths of the dead.

Fides
(1): Latin, faith, as in ‘good faith’, keeping one’s word to men and the gods.

Fides
(2): Name of a patrol boat on the Ister river.

Fiend
: Old English for an adversary or enemy.

Fifeldor
: Legendary battle mentioned in Norse sagas.

Fimbulvetr
: In Norse mythology, a series of severe winters that foretell the end of the world, Ragnarok.

Finni
: Nomadic tribe of hunter gatherers living in the far north of Scadinavia.

Fiscus
: Originally the private assets of the emperor, the
fiscus
eventually played the role of state treasury.

Flyting
: In Norse and Germanic cultures, the ritualized exchange of insults and abuse, a competition of invention, quick thinking and hardiness.

Forum
: Public square of a Roman town, the centre of administration, commerce and legal business.

Forum Romanum
: Ancient political and legal centre of Rome.

Forum of Trajan
: Complex of public buildings erected by the emperor Trajan in central Rome, held to be the most magnificent in the whole of the empire.

Framadar
: Persian military officer.

Franks
: Confederation of German tribes.

Freyja
: Norse goddess of fertility.

Frisia
: Coastal region along the shores of the modern Netherlands and western Germany.

Frisii
: North German tribe inhabiting Frisia.

Frugundiones
: Also called
Burgundiones
in ancient sources, a German tribe living along the Vistula river.

Frumentarius
(plural,
frumentarii
): Military unit based on the Caelian Hill in Rome; the emperor’s secret police; messengers, spies and assassins.

Gallia Belgica
: Roman province occupying northern France and southern Belgium
.

Gallia Lugdunensis
: Roman province of north-western and central France.

Gallia Narbonensis
: Roman province roughly corresponding to the French regions of Provence and Languedoc.

Gallic Channel
: Literal translation of the Roman name for the English Channel.

Gaois
: Old Norse, the growing or whirling one. A sword inscribed with this name has been excavated in Norway.

Geats
: North Germanic tribe; in this novel inhabiting Solfell, the island of Gotland.

Genius
: Divine part of man, some ambiguity, whether external (like a guardian angel) or internal (divine spark); that of the head of a household was worshipped as one of the household gods, that of the emperor publicly worshipped.

Gepidae
: East German tribe.

Germania
: Lands where the German tribes lived; free (as opposed to Roman) Germany.

Germania Inferior
: Roman province along the south bank of the lower Rhine river, occupying much of modern Belgium and parts of the Netherlands.

Germania Superior
: Roman province astride the upper Rhine, in the French region of Alsace and the German Rhineland.

Germanicus Maximus
: Title adopted by the Roman emperors symbolizing victories over the German tribes.

Gesoriacum
: Modern Boulogne, a major military and naval base used by the Romans’ Channel fleet.

Getae
: Thracian tribe living along the banks of the lower Danube in modern Romania and Bulgaria.

Gift-stool
: Literal translation of the Old English term for a throne or seat for formal occasions.

Gladius
: Roman military short sword; generally superseded by the
spatha
by the mid-third century
AD
; also slang for penis.

Gladsheim
: Old Norse, bright home, the meeting house of the gods in Asgard.

Gnitaheath
: Old Norse; literally, Glittering Heath; in this novel, a heath on the island of Abalos where Unferth has his hall.

Goths
: Loose confederation of Germanic tribes.

Graeculus
(plural,
Graeculi
): Latin, Little Greek; Greeks called themselves Hellenes; Romans tended not extend that courtesy but called them
Graeci
; with casual contempt, Romans often went further, to
Graeculi.

Grethungi
: Gothic tribe living on the Steppe north of the Black Sea.

Gudme
: Major early settlement and trading post on the island of Varinsey (modern Funen).

Gudmestrand
: Fictional name for the port of the settlement at Gudme, known today as Lundeborg.

Gymnasium
: Exercise ground. Formed from the Greek word
gymnos
, naked, as all such activities were performed in the nude.

Hades
: Greek underworld.

Hansa
: Gothic, army, band or force.

Harii
: Germanic tribe living around the headwaters of the Vistula.

Hearth-companions
: Translation from the Old English, retainers, companions.