Roman Twins

Marian Hoefnagel

Description

Fictional story with historical facts

Sujets

• Rome
• Fiction
• Roma (serie de televisión)
• Répertoire opérationnel des métiers et des emplois

Informations

• Publié par: Read Zone
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783228430
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Roman Twins
ReadZone Books Limited

© copyright in the text Marian Hoefnagel 2015
© copyright in this edition ReadZone Books 2017

Originally published in the Netherlands as Romeinse Tweeling
© 2015 Uitgeverij Eenvoudig Communiceren, Amsterdam

Translation by Isadora Goudsblom

The right of the Author to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by the Author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Printed in Malta by Melita Press

Every attempt has been made by the Publisher to secure appropriate permissions for material reproduced in this book. If there has been any oversight we will be happy to rectify the situation in future editions or reprints. Written submissions should be made to the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data (CIP) is available for this title.

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ISBN 978-1-78322-842-3

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MARIAN HOEFNAGEL

Roman Twins
Contents
Map of the Roman Empire
Preface
Rome and the Romans
Faith and superstition
The language
Sources
Part 1
The first Roman twins
Part 2
Another Roman twin
Glossary

Preface

Rome and the Romans
This story is set in Rome, about 2,000 years ago.
Rome was a wealthy city at this time, with magnificent buildings. These included palaces for the emperors, for the Senate and for the great military commanders. There were beautiful temples for all the gods. And there were bathhouses and theatres.

Rome was so very wealthy because of the army. The Roman soldiers had conquered large parts of Europe, and a part of Africa and Asia. From those areas they took valuables, that belonged to the conquered peoples, back to Rome. They took things like gold, silver, ivory and gemstones. But they also took people. Strong boys and pretty girls. Rich Romans used them as slaves.

Of course there weren’t only rich people living in Rome. The many slaves, for instance, had nothing. They depended entirely upon their masters.
There was also a group of people who were neither poor, nor rich. They lived in their own house surrounding a courtyard. But the biggest group of Romans lived with their whole family in one room, without a kitchen, without a bathroom, without even a tap. They would be thought of as very poor today, but in Ancient Rome this was a normal way to live. Lastly there were the beggars (often the handicapped), who lived on the streets. They had a very tough time.

Faith and superstition
In Roman life, the gods were very important. The Romans believed that the gods determined the lives of the people. If the gods were angry with you, bad things would happen to you. And if the gods loved you they would look after you. The Romans would therefore always try to please the gods. One of the best ways to do this was by offering worship. In each place, there would be a temple for the gods. In the large, important cities of the Roman Empire there were huge temples.
Forefathers were also very important to the Romans. The Latin word for ‘forefathers’ is lares . In every Roman house there would be a small altar for the lares . The altar was used to protect the family.

And then there was the amulet. This was a small object made out of bronze, leather, wood or baked clay. It was worn on a strap around the neck. The Romans thought an amulet protected against diseases and other evils. Gemstones, coins or animal bones could be used as an amulet.

The language
The Romans spoke Latin. For a while, Latin was the most important language in the world. Until the 19th century, many books were written in Latin. Study books for instance. So if you wanted to read these books, you would have to learn Latin.
Many languages today still include Latin words. Even the English language! Here are some examples: agenda, bonus, dictator, index and museum.

Sources
There are many stories about how Rome came into existence. None of them is necessarily historically correct. For Roman Twins I took the most interesting parts from the stories I could find. I made up the story of Gaius and Julia. In order to make it as real as possible, I used information from the book Young years, wild hair ? Youth in the Roman Empire , by C. Laies and J. Strubbe (2008).

My good friend and colleague, the historian Jan Koster, read the stories. I thank him for his valuable remarks. He put me in contact with professor Fik Meijer. I thank him for the information about the ‘invisible Romans’, the large group of very poor, whom you rarely encounter in literature about Ancient Rome.

Marian Hoefnagel, August 2015
A story of ancient gods and the origin of Rome

The fi