Author: Richard Blake
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 312
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Book Description
Rome, 609 AD Empire is a fading memory. Repeatedly fought over and plundered, the City is falling into ruins. Killers prowl by night. Far off, in Constantinople, the Emperor has other concerns as The Church is beginning to flex its own imperial muscle. Enter Aelric of England: young and beautiful, sexually uninhibited, heroic, if ruthlessly violent - and hungry for the learning of a world that is dying around him. A deadly brawl outside Rome sucks him straight into the high politics of Empire. Soon, Aelric is involved in a race against time to find answers before he ends up as just another corpse in the gutter. Praise for the Novels of Richard Blake 'Fascinating to read, very well written, an intriguing plot and I enjoyed it very much.' - Derek Jacobi, star of I Claudius and Gladiator 'Vivid characters, devious plotting and buckets of gore are enhanced by his unfamiliar choice of period.... Nasty, fun and educational.' - The Daily Telegraph 'He knows how to deliver a fast-paced story and his grasp of the period is impressively detailed.' - The Mail on Sunday 'A rollicking and raunchy read . . . Anyone who enjoys their history with large dollops of action, sex, intrigue and, above all, fun will absolutely love this novel.' - Historical Novels 'It would be hard to over-praise this extraordinary series, a near-perfect blend of historical detail and atmosphere with the plot of a conspiracy thriller, vivid characters, high philosophy and vulgar comedy.' - The Morning Star Richard Blake is a pseudonym for Sean Gabb, who is an historian, writer and university lecturer. He lives in Kent with his wife and daughter.
Author: Victoria Emma Pagán
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292758812
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216
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Book Description
Conspiracy is a thread that runs throughout the tapestry of Roman history. From the earliest days of the Republic to the waning of the Empire, conspiracies and intrigues created shadow worlds that undermined the openness of Rome's representational government. To expose these dark corners and restore a sense of order and safety, Roman historians frequently wrote about famous conspiracies and about how their secret plots were detected and the perpetrators punished. These accounts reassured readers that the conspiracy was a rare exception that would not happen again—if everyone remained vigilant. In this first book-length treatment of conspiracy in Roman history, Victoria Pagán examines the narrative strategies that five prominent historians used to disclose events that had been deliberately shrouded in secrecy and silence. She compares how Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus constructed their accounts of the betrayed Catilinarian, Bacchanalian, and Pisonian conspiracies. Her analysis reveals how a historical account of a secret event depends upon the transmittal of sensitive information from a private setting to the public sphere—and why women and slaves often proved to be ideal transmitters of secrets. Pagán then turns to Josephus's and Appian's accounts of the assassinations of Caligula and Julius Caesar to explore how the two historians maintained suspense throughout their narratives, despite readers' prior knowledge of the outcomes.
Author: Richard Blake
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 184894828X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 542
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Book Description
If you loved Gladiator and Spartacus, you'll love the second book in the DEATH OF ROME SAGA. 610 AD. Invaded by Persians and barbarians, the Byzantine Empire is tearing itself apart in civil war. Phocas, the maniacally bloodthirsty Emperor, holds Constantinople by a reign of terror. The uninvaded provinces are turning one at a time to the usurper, Heraclius. Just as the battle for the Empire approaches its climax, Aelric of England turns up in Constantinople. Blackmailed by the Papacy to leave off his career of lechery and market-rigging in Rome, he thinks his job is to gather texts for a semi-comprehensible dispute over the Nature of Christ. Only gradually does he realise he is a pawn in a much larger game.
Author: Corrado Augias
Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications
ISBN: 9780847829330
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 456
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Book Description
From Italy's popular author Corrado Augias comes the most intriguing exploration of Rome ever to be published. In the mold of his earlier histories of Paris, New York, and London, Augias moves perceptively through twenty-seven centuries of Roman life, shedding new light on a cast of famous, and infamous, historical figures and uncovering secrets and conspiracies that have shaped the city without our ever knowing it. From Rome's origins as Romulus's stomping ground to the dark atmosphere of the Middle Ages; from Caesar's unscrupulousness to Caravaggio's lurid genius; from the notorious Lucrezia Borgia to the seductive Anna Fallarino, the marchioness at the center of one of Rome's most heinous crimes of the post-war period, Augias creates a sweeping account of the passions that have shaped this complex city: at once both a metropolis and a village, where all human sentiment-bravery and cowardice, industriousness and sloth, enterprise and laxity-find their interpreters and stage. If the history of humankind is all passion and uproar, then, as the author notes, "for centuries Rome has been the mirror of this history, reflecting with excruciating accuracy every detail, even those that might cause you to avert your gaze."
Author: F. Paul Wilson
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780765361370
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 420
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Book Description
Repairman Jack returns to investigate the disappearance of a well-known conspiracy theorist, journeying into a world where aliens are real, the government is up to no good, and apocalypse is just around the corner.
Author: Gianmarco Navarini
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040262112
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 206
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Book Description
This volume explores the role played by conspiracy narratives in the contemporary Italian political, cultural, and social context, through a series of case studies. It begins with a historical and genealogical account of the troubled success of Italian conspiracy thinking from the early 1970s to the present day. Among the issues examined are the unclear division between legitimate/illegitimate forms of knowledge, the use of conspiracy as a confrontational discursive device, the emergence of moral panic, and the stabilization of information outlets against dominant official explanations. The analysis covers the case of a well-known national survey, and a digital platform specializing in conspiracy storytelling. The second axis of the book concerns the pervasive use of conspiracy as a theory or narrative that currently circulates in various Italian cultural fields: multiculturalism, immigration, and racism; Catholic traditionalism; football fandom; small business economics; and cooking and food. This volume will be of interest to researchers of conspiracy theories, and Italian politics and history.
Author: John S McHugh
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1399061593
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305
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Book Description
The greatest danger to Roman emperors was the threat of deadly conspiracies arising among the Senate, the imperial court or even their own families All the emperors that reigned from Augustus to the end of the first century AD faced such efforts to overthrow or assassinate them. John McHugh uncovers these conspiracies, narrating them and seeking to explain them. The underlying cause in many cases was the decline in influence, patronage and status granted by emperors to the Senatorial class, leading some to seek power for themselves or a more generous candidate. Attempted assassinations or coups led the emperors to mistrust the Senate and rely more on freedmen, causing more resentment. Paranoid emperors often reacted to the merest hint of treason, real or imagined, with punishments and executions, leading more of those around them to consider desperate measures out of self-preservation. And of course, amid this vicious circle of poisonous mistrust, there were ambitious family members promoting their own (or their offspring’s) claims to the purple, and the duplicitous Praetorian Guard. John McHugh brings to light a century of assassination, conspiracy and betrayal, exploring the motives and aims of the plotters and the bloody cost of success or failure.
Author: Francesco Piraino
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000782689
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 318
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Book Description
Religious Dimensions of Conspiracy Theories contributes to the study of conspiracy culture by analysing the religious and esoteric dimensions of conspiracy theories. The book examines both historical and contemporary examples to explore transnational and transhistorical continuities between religious doctrines, eschatologies, and conspiracy theories. It draws on a broad range of disciplinary insights from historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and religious studies scholars. The book has a global focus and features case studies from North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. This book will be of great interest to researchers of conspiracy theories, esotericism, extremism, and religion
Author: Thomas Milan Konda
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022658593X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 451
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Book Description
“The most comprehensive intellectual history of American conspiracy theories yet produced.” —The American Historical Review It’s tempting to think we live in an unprecedentedly fertile age for conspiracy theories, with seemingly each churn of the news cycle bringing fresh manifestations of large-scale paranoia. But the sad fact is that these narratives of suspicion—and the delusional psychologies that fuel them—have been a constant presence in American life for nearly as long as there’s been an America. In this sweeping book, Thomas Milan Konda traces the country’s obsession with conspiratorial thought from the early days of the republic to our own anxious moment. Conspiracies of Conspiracies details centuries of sinister speculations—from antisemitism and anti-Catholicism to UFOs and reptilian humanoids—and their often-incendiary outcomes. Rather than simply rehashing the surface eccentricities of such theories, Konda draws from his extraordinary assemblage of conspiratorial writing to crack open the mindsets that lead people toward these self-sealing worlds of denial. What is distinctively American about these theories, he argues, is not simply our country’s homegrown obsession with them but their ongoing prevalence and virulence. Konda proves that conspiracy theories are no harmless sideshow. They are instead the dark and secret heart of American political history—one that is poisoning the bloodstream of an increasingly sick body politic. “Meticulous scholarship . . . essential context for understanding our present mess.” —Survival: Global Politics and Strategy “Incisive and engaging . . . Konda’s assessment of the ‘new dynamics’ of conspiracy theories in contemporary US politics is a significant contribution. Written with a clarity of expression rare in academic writing, the book is accessible to a wide readership.” —Choice
Author: Allison Glazebrook
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 0299235637
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342
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Book Description
Greek Prostitutes in the Ancient Mediterranean, 800 BCE–200 CE challenges the often-romanticized view of the prostitute as an urbane and liberated courtesan by examining the social and economic realities of the sex industry in Greco-Roman culture. Departing from the conventional focus on elite society, these essays consider the Greek prostitute as displaced foreigner, slave, and member of an urban underclass. The contributors draw on a wide range of material and textual evidence to discuss portrayals of prostitutes on painted vases and in the literary tradition, their roles at symposia (Greek drinking parties), and their place in the everyday life of the polis. Reassessing many assumptions about the people who provided and purchased sexual services, this volume yields a new look at gender, sexuality, urbanism, and economy in the ancient Mediterranean world.
