Companions
When I finished ‘Carrhae’ I realised that although I had written about the Parthian Empire, I had omitted to pen anything about gladiators. Ever since I saw Kirk Douglas and Jean Simmons in ‘Spartacus’ when I was a small boy, a film that made a lasting impression on me (or perhaps it was just the delightful Jean Simmons that did that), I was fascinated by the idea of men fighting to the death in an arena before thousands of paying customers. So I began thinking of how I could combine this interest with the Parthian series that I had just completed, both as a way of paying homage to Spartacus and revisiting Pacorus and the Kingdom of Dura.
I was fortunate in that in my efforts to span the period between the Spartacus slave revolt (73–71BC) and the Battle of Carrhae (53BC), I was forced to leave a three-year gap between the end of ‘Parthian Dawn’ and the beginning of ‘Parthian Vengeance’. So I decided to write a story that took place in that period and that had at its core not only Pacorus but also the gladiatorial games that were held annually at the city of Ephesus in present-day western Turkey.
I have to confess that it was good revisiting my old friends Pacorus, Domitus, Dobbai, Surena and Gallia, as well as finally being able to write about gladiators and their bizarre, horrific and unique world. I hope people like the result.
A map of the eastern Mediterranean in the 1st century BC can be found on the maps page.
