A warm welcome on Historical Authors Across Time to author Brook Allen.

Historically speaking, Antony and Cleopatra have always been known as lovers. Because of their relationship and eventually the damnatio memoriae—damning of memory—that Octavian ascribed to Antony’s name in particular, one pertinent fact is often lost in our perception of this famous couple. 

Cleopatra VII Philopater had already given Julius Caesar a son in 47 BC. When she and Antony became lovers after the Battle of Philippi in late 42 BC, she became pregnant again—this time with twins—during Antony’s time in Alexandria the following winter. It has always amazed me that not only did she give birth to twins, but they both survived! Childbirth was difficult enough in the ancient world, but Cleopatra must have been a robust and healthy woman, carrying the babies full term. Antony left Egypt before they were born, returning to Rome and may not have even known that he and the Queen were to be parents.

Probably born early in 40 BC, fraternal twins Alexander and Cleopatra were raised in Alexandria, and their education had to have been impressive, having both the Great Library and educators from the Alexandrian University at their beck and call. Their mother was multi-lingual, and undoubtedly wanted her children to be just as proficient in languages and known sciences of the day. 

In 37 BC, Antony left Rome for Antioch, busily planning his Parthian campaign. It had been roughly four years since he’d last seen Cleopatra, as upon his return to Rome, he had been coerced into marriage with Octavia, Octavian’s sister. Antony summoned Cleopatra and once their business was settled, they promptly reignited their affair and were likely married in Egyptian tradition. The twins accompanied Cleopatra on this occasion, so their father could meet his children. And during this period, before Antony fought his Parthian Wars, Cleopatra became pregnant again with their third child: Ptolemy Philadelphus.

It’s unknown what sort of parents Antony and Cleopatra were, but due to extended periods of absence, Antony didn’t get to see any of his children much—neither those in Rome or in Egypt. However, I do find it interesting that when Octavian eventually forced Antyllus to choose, this eldest son and heir of Antony chose to leave Rome at age thirteen, to live in Alexandria. 

Nicolaus of Damascus was chosen to teach the twins. Antyllus, Antony’s son who wound up living in Alexandria, was tutored by a man named Theodorus. Caesarion, Caesar’s son, was taught by a scholar named Rhodon. It’s not known who assigned their teachers, but because of her inquisitive mind and love for the arts and learning, maybe it was Cleopatra. She certainly fostered the importance of learning governance upon them, for she and Antony showed all of the signs of beginning a dynasty. 

In 34 BC, Antony and Cleopatra took a huge risk by staging what can only be titled as a “triumph” in all but name. Octavian and the Senate had denied Antony a triumph in Rome when he annexed Armenia, after having been betrayed by the Armenian King Artavasdes. So, in front of thousands of Alexandrians and Roman staff officers, Antony proclaimed his Egyptian children as kings and queens of territories under his jurisdiction—including some that were yet unconquered. It was an incendiary act which broadened the breach between the two powerful Romans: Antony and Octavian.

By this time, the twins were dubbed Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene. In Greek, the names literally meant the sun and moon. The ultimate power couple were making a pretty frank statement, likening their offspring to deities representing the sun and moon. Truth be told, there was a lot of that sort of thing going on in the late 1^st century BC. Julius Caesar was declared a god, Octavian—his heir, declared himself the “son of the god” (divi Filius), and Antony and Cleopatra had been styling themselves after Dionysus, Hercules, and the Egyptian deity, Isis.

After Antony and Cleopatra were defeated, they returned to Alexandria. Most everyone knows their tragic end, but they did attempt to rescue their family. While Antony crawled out of depression to salvage troops, Cleopatra had a ship hauled across the desert toward the Red Sea, for a possible escape to India. However, King Malchus of Nabataea, proving loyalty to Octavian, swept down upon the engineers, soldiers, and sailors involved—destroying them all. 

Backs against the wall, Antony and Cleopatra made a desperate choice before dispatching themselves. They chose to send Antyllus and Caesarion—both teenage boys—away with their tutors. What they didn’t know was that both men, Theodorus and Rhodon had been bought by Octavian. 

Both youths were killed.

But what of the twins and little Ptolemy, who was only about five years old at the time? Alexander and Selene were both ten and undoubtedly old enough to know what was going on. Their parents chose to keep them close and they were taken to Rome by Octavian. All three were forced to parade in Octavian’s triumph, imprisoned in golden chains and made to walk behind the victor’s chariot. What a piteous sight and a horrible thing for the children to endure.

Both boys disappeared from history after that. But Selene’s story is remarkable and her parents would have been proud of her. She married King Juba of Numidia and became a queen herself! Her son’s name was Ptolemy and she was well-respected by her people and esteemed by her husband.

Indeed, history’s real stories are usually better than whatever Hollywood scripts, and I think it’s enlightening to view both Antony and Cleopatra—such legendary figures—as they really were. Not just lovers, but a married couple with children.  

For more resources on this topic, I suggest reading the following materials which I included in my own research: Plutarch: Life of Antony; Eleanor Goltz Huzar: Mark Antony, a biography; Patricia Southern: Mark Antony, a life

Author Brook Allen has a passion for ancient history—especially 1st century BC Rome. Her Antonius Trilogy is a detailed account of the life of Marcus Antonius—Marc Antony, which she has worked on for the past fifteen years. The first installment, Antonius: Son of Rome was published in March 2019. It follows Antony as a young man, from the age of eleven, when his father died in disgrace, until he’s twenty-seven and meets Cleopatra for the first time. Brook’s second book is Antonius: Second in Command, dealing with Antony’s tumultuous rise to power at Caesar’s side and culminating with the civil war against Brutus and Cassius. Antonius: Soldier of Fate is the last book in the trilogy, spotlighting the romance between Antonius and Cleopatra and the historic war with Octavian Caesar. In 2019, Son of Rome won the Coffee Pot Book Club Book of the Year Award. In 2020, it was honored with a silver medal in the international Reader’s Favorite Book Reviewers Book Awards and is currently listed as a finalist in the CIBA Chaucer Division Awards. 

 WEBSITE: https://www.brookallenauthor.com/

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/1BrookAllen

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/Historical.FictionWriter/photos/a.1921073788134240/2748568485384762/

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Diane Scott Lewis joins me today on Historical Authors Across Time and writes about eighteenth-century England, the backdrop for her novel, Beyond the Fall.

 

Due to poor harvests in England—droughts and severe winters—in the later eighteenth century, bread prices soared. Many tin and copper mines in Cornwall closed, putting miners out of work after foreign imports drove down prices for these ores. This combination ignited the people who struggled to survive.

The poor grew angry when they couldn’t afford bread. The tin miners or ‘tinners’ rioted. One of the most noted riots was in Truro, a town where tin was weighed and stamped for selling. The tinners marched through the narrow streets demanding higher wages, cheaper bread, and that the grain should not be shipped off to more profitable buyers.

The London Chronicle reported that due to the scarcity of corn and the miners being out of work, mines abandoned, they rioted in the city. The Justices ordered the 38^thregiment to fire on the crowd, but the soldiers refused.

Towns and Villages Under Attack

The soldiers themselves rampaged through the towns and villages, attacking farms and mills. Their leaders were court-martialed, flogged, forced to kneel on their own coffins then shot.

Methodist preacher, John Wesley, when in Truro, wrote in his journal, August 18, 1789, that he couldn’t reach his chapel to preach because the street was:“blocked up with soldiers to the east, and numberless tinners to the west, a huge multitude of whom being nearly starved, were come to beg, or demand an increase of their wages, without which they could not live.” Wesley gave his sermon at the coinage hall to “twice as many people as the preaching-house would have contained. How wise are all the ways of God!

For modern readers/viewers: Author Winston Graham wrote about the Truro riots in his Poldark series, currently a mini-series on PBS.

The ongoing war with France during their revolution, which began in 1789, involving the provisions for sailors and soldiers, also drove up food prices. In nearby Devon weavers rioted, crying “We cannot starve!” They destroyed a mill that supplied the fleet, but their ringleader, blacksmith Thomas Campion, was captured and hanged at the wrecked mill.

Riots Spread to France

Similar riots were taking place in France, demanding cheaper bread, the poor were starving.

In my novel, Beyond the Fall, a Time-travel Adventure, I involve my main characters, Tamara and Colum, in a fictitious Cornish grain riot in 1789.

Excerpt from Chapter Sixteen:

Nearer to town, buildings grew closer together, hugging the road. As the crowd of tinners marched past them, glass shattered from a swiping pickaxe. Women and children watched, their faces pale in fright, from upper windows.

“Bread for the needy, bread for our children!” men chanted, their stained smocks and drill coats rustling against their quick-moving thighs in worn breeches.

Tamara tripped again and nearly fell. Scared of being trampled in the rushing torrent of humanity, she scooted off to the side and pressed against a timber-frame building. Then she finally saw Colum. She waved toward him. He frowned at her, mouth gaping.

In a thunder of hooves, soldiers rode up to the dissenters. Tamara squeezed harder against the building, her heart lurching.

 

A woman hurtled back in time. In 2018, Tamara is dumped by her arrogant husband, travels to Cornwall, England and researches her ancestors. In a neglected cemetery, she scrapes two fallen headstones together trying to read the one beneath, faints, and wakes up in 1789, the year of The French Revolution, and grain riots in England. Young Farmer Colum Polwhele comes to her aid. Can a sassy San Francisco gal survive in this primitive time and fall for Colum, a man active in underhanded dealings or will she struggle to return to her own time?

Buy Link:  Amazon

For more information, please visit my website: http://www.dianescottlewis.org

TWITTER: @DSLewisHF

Author bio:

Diane Parkinson (Diane Scott Lewis) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, joined the Navy at nineteen, married in Greece and raised two sons all over the world, including Puerto Rico and Guam. A member of the Historical Novel Society, she writes book reviews for the Historical Novels Review. Diane worked from 2007 to 2010 as an on-line historical editor. She had her debut novel published in 2010 and has had several historical and historical-romance novels published between 2010 and 2018.

Diane lives with her husband in western Pennsylvania.

 

Pictures via Wiki Commons, Public Domain.

 

A warm welcome to Sue Barnard, October’s guest author for Historical Authors Across Time, writing about monks and monasteries in medieval times.

 

Medieval Monks

When someone says the word “monk”, what is the first thing that springs to mind?

The word will usually conjure up a mental picture of an old man with a comical haircut – a sort of pudding-basin style but bald in the middle.  He is wearing a cumbersome-looking floor-length robe made of coarse heavy material and tied around the waist with rope.

The other immediate thought is the three rules of poverty, chastity and obedience.  These were originally written by St Benedict (a 6^th-century Italian monk who was founder of the Benedictine order), and have formed the basis of monastic life ever since.  The life is simple, disciplined and minimalist, free from the distractions of the material and physical world.

Days in a Monastery

The daily routine (horarium) in a monastery was determined by sunrise and sunset, and hence would vary according to the seasons.

A monk’s life consisted of a rigorous routine of prayer, spiritual reading and manual work.  There were eight services (known as “Offices”) spread throughout the day, and all other activities were arranged around them.  All the services were in Latin.

 

 

The first office of the day, Mattins(also known as Vigils), was at 2am.  Yes, that’s right – 2am. The monks had been roused from their beds for this office, and some would suck on peppercorns in an attempt to keep themselves awake as they chanted, sang psalms and said prayers for the dead.  Afterwards they were allowed a few hours’ rest.

The second office, Lauds, took place at daybreak and symbolised the resurrection of Christ.  After Lauds, those monks who were priests would celebrate Mass, whilst others would go into the cloister and read.

This was followed by another short service, Prime, after which the monks would wash themselves and dress for the day.  The monastic habit consisted of a simple tunic with a hood (or cowl), and a belt made of rope.  Then came a period of reading or studying, or transcribing religious texts to preserve them for future generations.

The next office was Terce, which took place three hours after sunrise.  The monks would ask the Holy Spirit for strength to deal with the problems of the day.  During the morning there would be a meeting in the Chapter House, after which the monks would set about their manual tasks.  .  When the monks were doing any kind of manual work, the habit would be covered with a full-length apron called a scapula.

These tasks might include cooking and washing for the monastery, tending the monastery gardens and lands, producing ale, wine and honey, offering hospitality to pilgrims, and providing healthcare for the community.   Some of the monks (such as Ellis Peters’ famous Brother Cadfael, and my own Fra’ Lorenzo in The Ghostly Father) were skilled herbalists and infirmarians, and for many people – especially the poor – this was their only access to any form of medical treatment.

Food and Contemplation

At midday, work halted for two more short offices: Sext(at which the monks remembered Christ’s crucifixion) and None(which commemorated his death).

Next came the main meal of the day.  There would be a choice of two cooked dishes made of vegetables and cereal, perhaps with a little cheese, egg or fish added, and a third dish of vegetables or fruit.  Conversation was forbidden in the refectory, so the monks devised means of communicating by gestures.   In summer (when the hours of daylight were longer) the monks might have a siesta in the afternoon, and a light supper would be served to sustain them through the longer working day.

At dusk, the monks would gather for the next office, Vespers, during which candles would be lit to ward off the darkness.  The final office of the day, Compline, took place at sunset.  After this, the monks would retire to their dormitories to sleep on pallets filled with straw, until a bell awoke them at 2am for the first office of the next day.

Monastic Life

Why, you might ask, would anyone choose this kind of life?  Many simply wished to devote their lives to serving God and increasing their chances of getting into Heaven.  Some saw it as a means of escaping from a violent world and live a quiet and peaceful life.  Brother Cadfael, for example, became a monk after a lifetime of being a soldier and crusader.

But for others, such as Fra’ Lorenzo, choice did not enter into it.  Lorenzo was forced into holy orders for reasons which I cannot reveal here, but which will become apparent to anyone who reads The Ghostly Father…

 

 

 

 

Think you know the world’s most famous love story? Think again. What if the story of Romeo & Juliet really happened – but not quite in the way we’ve all been told? 

This part-prequel, part-sequel to the original tale, told from the point of view of the Friar, tells how an ancient Italian manuscript reveals secrets and lies which have remained hidden for hundreds of years, and casts new doubts on the official story of Shakespeare’s famous star-crossed lovers.

If you love the Romeo & Juliet story but hate the way it ended, this is the book for you.

Universal buy link:  http://mybook.to/the-ghostly-father

 

Sue Barnard is a British novelist, editor and award-winning poet whose family background is far stranger than any work of fiction. She would write a book about it if she thought anybody would believe her.

Sue was born in North Wales but has spent most of her life in and around Manchester. She speaks French like a Belgian, German like a schoolgirl, and Italian and Portuguese like an Englishwoman abroad.

Her mind is so warped that she has appeared on BBC TV’s Only Connect quiz show, and she has also compiled questions for BBC Radio 4’s fiendishly difficult Round Britain Quiz. This once caused one of her sons to describe her as “professionally weird.” The label has stuck.

Sue now lives in Cheshire with her extremely patient husband and a large collection of unfinished scribblings.  You can find her on Facebook, Twitter (@AuthorSusanB), Amazon, or follow her blog here.

 

With the August heat upon us, this month’s guest on Historical Authors Across Time is Emma Rose Millar, writing about mental health in the 19th century and the famous Nellie Bly.

The Victorian Asylum

Novel reading, nymphomania, bad habits: just some of the numerous reasons a nineteenth-century woman could find herself locked up in a lunatic asylum. Hailed by some as safe-havens for society’s supposedly most vulnerable men and women, asylums often impressed public officials with their majestic architecture and extensive grounds. However, behind closed doors, they were places of fear – dehumanising, prison-like institutions, where restraint and physical punishment were commonplace. They became yet another tool by which husbands and fathers could control their “unruly” wives and daughters.

But for one woman, investigative journalist, Elizabeth Jane Cochran – better known as Nellie Bly, the locks, bolts and seemingly impenetrable walls were no barrier to the truth.

Who was Nellie Bly?

Nellie Bly was born in 1864 in Cochran’s Mills, Pennsylvania, where her father was a mill owner and county judge. After her father died, her mother married a new husband, John Jackson Ford. Ford was violent and abusive, and in 1878, Nellie’s mother was forced to go through the brutal process of divorce, leaving herself and the family in great financial difficulty.

In 1887, Nellie arrived in New York. After four months of rejection, and almost penniless, she managed to talk her way into the office of Joseph Pulitzer, managing editor of The New York World. Pulitzer hired her, seeing her as fitting into his campaign to “expose all fraud and sham, fight all public evil and abuses,” part of the reformist trend in newspapers of that time.

Ten Days in a Madhouse  

For her first story, Nellie was to go undercover as a patient in the notorious Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum and report first-hand on conditions there.

She first went to a temporary home for females at 84, Second Avenue, where she rented a room, and adopted a vague, anxious air, telling the owner that she was afraid of all the women there – they all looked crazy to her. She stayed awake all night, refusing to sleep in case one of the other residents should murder her. Nellie found it surprisingly easy to convince the women at the home that she was insane. No violence was committed: she only wanted to give the appearance of being scared and alone. The police were called, and from there, she was taken to court, sent to the insane ward at Bellevue Hospital, and finally boarded a ferry, full of unwashed, bewildered women, bound for Blackwell’s Island.

Nothing could have prepared her for conditions there: freezing cold beds with pillows stuffed with straw, women locked away ten to a room, with no means of escape should a fire break out. The most vulnerable patients were tied together with rope and belts, screaming for the keepers to let them go. She endured meagre food rations and degrading washing regimes.

“Rub, rub, rub, went the old woman… My teeth chattered and my limbs were goose-fleshed and blue with cold. Suddenly I got, one after the other, three buckets of water over my head–ice-cold water, too–into my eyes, my ears, my nose and my mouth. I think I experienced some of the sensations of a drowning person as they dragged me, gasping, shivering and quaking, from the tub.” (Nellie Bly, Ten Days in a Madhouse)

She noted the stench, keepers tormenting and laughing at elderly and infirm patients, being forced to sit on straight-backed benches for fourteen hours at a time, and not being allowed to talk or move, young women being slapped about the face and receiving “knocks to the head.” Walking towards the gallows, she said, would be easier than walking into this, “living tomb of horrors.” During her time there, Nellie made the acquaintance of around forty-five other women, and spoke to many of them about their stories, so that she might recount them later.

Throughout her stay, she behaved in a sane manner, repeatedly protesting to doctors that she was not mad, and should therefore be released. They refused to listen.

“There are sixteen doctors on this island, and excepting two, I have never seen them pay any attention to the patients. How can a doctor judge a woman’s sanity by merely bidding her good morning and refusing to hear her pleas for release? Even the sick ones know it is useless to say anything, for the answer will be that it is their imagination.” (Nellie Bly, Ten Days in a Madhouse)

For ten days, she endured the abdominal regime at Blackwell’s Asylum, until the lawyer, Peter A. Hendricks, came and secured her release.

On Sunday, Oct. 9th, 1887, The New York World published the first of a series of Nellie Bly’s reports, entitled Behind Asylum Bars. The contents shook the nation, and a grand jury was impaneled to investigate the poor treatment taking place on Blackwell’s Island. Bly became an overnight sensation. As the series of damning reports continued, the psychiatrists who had erroneously diagnosed Nellie as insane offered profuse apologies, New York City’s municipal government increased funding for the care of mentally ill patients, and conditions inside the asylum quickly improved. Within a month, more nourishing meals were provided, translators were hired for the foreign-born who were not necessarily mentally ill but simply could not understand their keepers, and the most abusive nurses and physicians were fired and replaced.

Nellie sailed from one journalistic triumph to the next, embarking on a daring trip around the world, in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg, reporting from the Eastern Front during World War I, and championing the women’s suffrage movement. She died of pneumonia in 1922, aged 57. One can only imagine what further triumphs and good deeds this remarkable woman might have achieved had she continued her journalistic career a few years longer.

Delirium – by Emma Rose Millar 

1881
Saint Anne’s Lunatic Asylum, London.

One woman whose secret has driven her to the brink of insanity; another who claims she can tell fortunes and communicate with the dead. With seemingly no way out – and everything at stake – only one of them has the tenacity to survive.

Lies, murder, obsession… Delirium.

Find Delirium on Amazon

Author Bio 

Emma Rose Millar was born in Birmingham – a child of the seventies. She is a single mum and lives with her young son. Emma left school at sixteen and later studied for an Open University degree in Humanities with English Literature. She has had a variety of jobs including chocolatier, laboratory technician and editorial assistant for a magazine, but now works part-time as an interpreter.

Emma writes historical fiction and children’s picture books. She won the Legend category of the Chaucer Awards for Historical Fiction, with FIVE GUNS BLAZING in 2014. Her novella THE WOMEN FRIENDS: SELINA, based on the work of Gustav Klimt and co-written with author Miriam Drori was published in 2016 by Crooked Cat Books, and was shortlisted for the Goethe Award for Late Historical Fiction. Her third novel, DELIRIUM, a Victorian ghost story, will be published in 2018, also by Crooked Cat Books. It was shortlisted for the Chanticleer Paranormal Book Awards in 2017.

Emma is an avid fan of live music and live comedy and enjoys skating, yoga, and making pretty things.

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