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Roman Wall
Whereas The Fourteenth of October was the story of a Saxon boy who saw the battle of Hastings, in Roman Wall Bryher has turned to a lonely outpost of the Roman Empire in Switzerland, the country where she was born. This book has all the excitement and poetic charm of the first, and from the moment it opens, the reader is gently drawn into thc atmosphere of another age. The sights and sounds are those of seventeen hundred years ago, and one is instantly aware of the lassitude and restlessness, the hopes and the fears of the isolated frontier guards at Orba, as the threat of the German tribes, massed on the other side of the Rhine, grows daily more menacing. Valerius, the commander, wonders whether the storm will break before he can find a wife and retire to his farm. Demetrius, an old Greek merchant, anxiously hurries to complete his last journey home to Verona. Vinodius, the governor of the province, too shrewd to underestimate the danger, yet too obstinate to raise troops and arms, squanders his gold on the arena and a public holiday at Aventicum. Alternately, one is fascinated by the liveliness and colour and awed by the sense of doom as the walls of the Roman Empire begin to crumble.
219 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1954
72 people want to read
About the author
Bryher
23 books29 followersBryher was the pen name of the novelist, poet, memoirist, and magazine editor Annie Winifred Ellerman.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 22, 2016
I loved this book, which was published in 1954! This novel told of Helvetia, 265 AD and "its destruction, of the disappearance of its roads, and walls, and peace" [cf. back cover] because of the barbarian Alemanni.
The story begins with Valerius, a retired centurion, living on a farm near the city of Orba. He is asked by Governor/Military Commander Vinodius of Helvetia [present-day Switzerland], who lives in the capital, Aventicum, to remain in active service. The frontier outposts are severely undermanned. Rome and Emperor Gallien don't seem to care about the limes. We are introduced to Julia, Valerius' widowed sister and her ward, Veria. We are not given the background of the teenager Nennius and why Julia has taken him in. Then we meet Demetrius, a travelling trader, his freedman "surly Felix", Governor Vinodius, various other legionaries, military officers, and civilians. We get to know and care about these people. The threat of invasion from the barbarian Alemanni quickly turns from rumor into reality, as city after city is burned and people are killed. The novel takes us through how all the characters cope with the violent upheaval in their lives.
What was outstanding was the character portraits the author painted, through the actions and dialogue of a whole cast of characters. The descriptions of the Swiss countryside were marvellous and so evocative. I could almost see the landscapes and lakes and smell the flowers. The defense of Aventicum was exciting, told to us through the eyes and actions of a young auxiliary, Plinius. [From his backstory, I'm assuming he was Pliny the Younger, moved to this time period]. The very basic facts of history were accurate, but I think the author used **much** literary license. Bryher's style was often lyrical. I did have to write out a rough 'List of Characters' along with what part each played in the story; the only factual information in the book was modern equivalents for the Latin names. I had to find a map of Roman Helvetia to find the locations of the various places named in the story; I wish the author had included even a simple map. This one was the best I could find: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:His...
I am eager to read more historical fiction by Bryher.
Most highly recommended for lovers of Roman historical fiction in the later Empire!!
Reread October 2014, the latest of two or three rereadings I picked up nuances I had missed before. Bryher seems strongest with her descriptions [she's lived in Switzerland] and character development. Action does seem a bit weak but does flow along...
My rating is unchanged from before.
The story begins with Valerius, a retired centurion, living on a farm near the city of Orba. He is asked by Governor/Military Commander Vinodius of Helvetia [present-day Switzerland], who lives in the capital, Aventicum, to remain in active service. The frontier outposts are severely undermanned. Rome and Emperor Gallien don't seem to care about the limes. We are introduced to Julia, Valerius' widowed sister and her ward, Veria. We are not given the background of the teenager Nennius and why Julia has taken him in. Then we meet Demetrius, a travelling trader, his freedman "surly Felix", Governor Vinodius, various other legionaries, military officers, and civilians. We get to know and care about these people. The threat of invasion from the barbarian Alemanni quickly turns from rumor into reality, as city after city is burned and people are killed. The novel takes us through how all the characters cope with the violent upheaval in their lives.
What was outstanding was the character portraits the author painted, through the actions and dialogue of a whole cast of characters. The descriptions of the Swiss countryside were marvellous and so evocative. I could almost see the landscapes and lakes and smell the flowers. The defense of Aventicum was exciting, told to us through the eyes and actions of a young auxiliary, Plinius. [From his backstory, I'm assuming he was Pliny the Younger, moved to this time period]. The very basic facts of history were accurate, but I think the author used **much** literary license. Bryher's style was often lyrical. I did have to write out a rough 'List of Characters' along with what part each played in the story; the only factual information in the book was modern equivalents for the Latin names. I had to find a map of Roman Helvetia to find the locations of the various places named in the story; I wish the author had included even a simple map. This one was the best I could find: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:His...
I am eager to read more historical fiction by Bryher.
Most highly recommended for lovers of Roman historical fiction in the later Empire!!
Reread October 2014, the latest of two or three rereadings I picked up nuances I had missed before. Bryher seems strongest with her descriptions [she's lived in Switzerland] and character development. Action does seem a bit weak but does flow along...
My rating is unchanged from before.
Read
August 25, 2019I read about this book decades ago in a catalog called The Common Reader. I expected ... more from it? Its briefly sketched characters came alive, but perhaps it was too short for the feelings it evoked, of days gone by and a way of life passing.
December 5, 2017
Plot: 9 (powerful but ends too abruptly)
Characters: 7 (a mixed bag but often likable)
Accuracy: 7 (reliable but perhaps over-influenced by modern experiences)
A short but effective book about the last days of Roman Helvetia. Or at least, the last ones when the people could reasonably believe they were in any way safe. The setting for the novel is Switzerland (or rather Helvetia) during the bad years of the 260s, when two rival emperors and a foreign king rule the lands of the Roman empire. The Alamanni are massing on the border about to invade in one of the endless Germanic invasions during the period. Switzerland doesn't stand much chance of stopping them. Indeed, they were to invade Italy proper and were only stopped by a battle at Milan. But that falls outside the range of this book.
The novel takes a curious approach to the disaster, which is to basically ignore it until its too late. People are aware of the threat, and mildly discomforted, but all assume it won't come until the following year, or the one after that, or the barbarians, if they do eventually come, will do no more than lead minor raids. Rome will endure. Instead of worrying, they go about their normal lives, obsessed with their own comings and goings and local problems. You have a soldier pining over lost loves, a governor throwing gladiatorial matches to attract attention and earn promotion, an ageing mistress scheming ways to keep her lover's affections, and a merchant trying to sell his wares. These are small and intimate issues that you wouldn't normally see, certainly not in a book about a barbarian sack, and they do a very good job at establishing what it felt like to live in a minor country town on the borderlands of the empire.
These distractions are the main narrative of the novel until 2/3 of the way through, at which point the inevitable hell breaks loose. On the whole, the tone rings true. When you're settled into a comfortable life it's very hard to imagine it being suddenly disrupted and everything you've ever experienced destroyed. There's certainly an air of WW2 about it. You could easily imagine these characters placed in France, say, during the blitzkrieg, as I gather the author was. One minute you're in your house and your homeland, the next you're fleeing for your life in a foreign country as your home and all your belongings burn. It's terrifying and the first part of the book needs to establish the mundane sense of routine in order for the invasion to really feel upsetting. Yet I can't help but feel that it needed a bit more to it. The book is very short (under 200 pages) and could easily have spent some more time giving us a bit of a chase or adventure when our leads escape. As it is, while they do worry a lot, their escape is basically pretty simple. It also wouldn't have hurt to split the party up and give us some narrow escapes or adventures.
As you might guess from all this, the book takes a slice of life approach. I think that was the right way to go about it since we get to see the mundane before we see the extraordinary. The characters are mostly good. The Greek trader Demetrius is probably the best, and fortunately he's the one who gets the most pages devoted to him. His freedman Felix is interesting too, a bitter and caustic Christian who rubs people the wrong way. The clueless governor Vinodius and his mistress are entertainingly self-centered and selfish. And there's one more POV character who only shows up to narrate the sack. The only character I actively disliked was, unfortunately, the Roman officer Valerius who the author seems to have intended as the main character. At the least, she uses him to bookend the novel. But he's a boring waste of a character, who mostly sits and pines over a lost love and adds nothing to the story.
The book has the most boring title of any I've read. Don't let that put you off. It's quite good.
Characters: 7 (a mixed bag but often likable)
Accuracy: 7 (reliable but perhaps over-influenced by modern experiences)
A short but effective book about the last days of Roman Helvetia. Or at least, the last ones when the people could reasonably believe they were in any way safe. The setting for the novel is Switzerland (or rather Helvetia) during the bad years of the 260s, when two rival emperors and a foreign king rule the lands of the Roman empire. The Alamanni are massing on the border about to invade in one of the endless Germanic invasions during the period. Switzerland doesn't stand much chance of stopping them. Indeed, they were to invade Italy proper and were only stopped by a battle at Milan. But that falls outside the range of this book.
The novel takes a curious approach to the disaster, which is to basically ignore it until its too late. People are aware of the threat, and mildly discomforted, but all assume it won't come until the following year, or the one after that, or the barbarians, if they do eventually come, will do no more than lead minor raids. Rome will endure. Instead of worrying, they go about their normal lives, obsessed with their own comings and goings and local problems. You have a soldier pining over lost loves, a governor throwing gladiatorial matches to attract attention and earn promotion, an ageing mistress scheming ways to keep her lover's affections, and a merchant trying to sell his wares. These are small and intimate issues that you wouldn't normally see, certainly not in a book about a barbarian sack, and they do a very good job at establishing what it felt like to live in a minor country town on the borderlands of the empire.
These distractions are the main narrative of the novel until 2/3 of the way through, at which point the inevitable hell breaks loose. On the whole, the tone rings true. When you're settled into a comfortable life it's very hard to imagine it being suddenly disrupted and everything you've ever experienced destroyed. There's certainly an air of WW2 about it. You could easily imagine these characters placed in France, say, during the blitzkrieg, as I gather the author was. One minute you're in your house and your homeland, the next you're fleeing for your life in a foreign country as your home and all your belongings burn. It's terrifying and the first part of the book needs to establish the mundane sense of routine in order for the invasion to really feel upsetting. Yet I can't help but feel that it needed a bit more to it. The book is very short (under 200 pages) and could easily have spent some more time giving us a bit of a chase or adventure when our leads escape. As it is, while they do worry a lot, their escape is basically pretty simple. It also wouldn't have hurt to split the party up and give us some narrow escapes or adventures.
As you might guess from all this, the book takes a slice of life approach. I think that was the right way to go about it since we get to see the mundane before we see the extraordinary. The characters are mostly good. The Greek trader Demetrius is probably the best, and fortunately he's the one who gets the most pages devoted to him. His freedman Felix is interesting too, a bitter and caustic Christian who rubs people the wrong way. The clueless governor Vinodius and his mistress are entertainingly self-centered and selfish. And there's one more POV character who only shows up to narrate the sack. The only character I actively disliked was, unfortunately, the Roman officer Valerius who the author seems to have intended as the main character. At the least, she uses him to bookend the novel. But he's a boring waste of a character, who mostly sits and pines over a lost love and adds nothing to the story.
The book has the most boring title of any I've read. Don't let that put you off. It's quite good.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews