Back from the battlefield

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Your novel begins with a veteran Roman soldier returning from

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The contrast between the respect awarded to courage in war and the dire social and economic conditions to which veterans returned. The army of the Roman Republic was a militia of conscripted peasant farmers. They could serve for up to 16 years, and while they were away at war, their farms often got into debt. Thousands QH NGIKQPCTKGU TGVWTPGF VQ PF VJCV TKEJ GUVCVG QYPGTU JCF HQTEGF VJGKT HCOKNKGU Qʘ the land and out of their homes, either by foreclosure or physical intimidation and the threat of violence. In the last two centuries BC, although these peasant-soldiers conquered a Mediterranean empire for Rome, many survivors came home to face eviction and poverty.

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Apart from the broad canvas for exciting UVQTKGU VJCV CPEKGPV 4QOG QʘGTU WR VJG Romans are, as Mary Beard would say, “good to think with”. In many ways they seem much like us (monogamous, with a respect for political freedom, and a sense of duty), but in others (slavery, gladiatorial combat, and their attitudes to women and foreigners) utterly alien. This tension is endlessly fascinating. Thinking about the 4QOCPU OCMGU WU TGʚGEV QP QWTUGNXGU

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considers a new take on a seminal era of Italian history that intends to overturn the existing narrative – but which perhaps doesn’t go far enough