2,000 Years Later-- Roxolani Helmet Comes Back

[Nathan Ross]

Writing for a general reader, I used modern expressions, and Fritigern ends up as a captain, gets offered a promotion, but leaves and returns to Gothia to oppose Athanaric's persecution of the Christians.

Just a quick off-topic quibble, perhaps - do you mean you're using modern expressions like 'captain'? Surely not a good idea! Most readers interested in ancient history will be ok with a term like Prefect (or even praefectus equitum), while modern equivalents are often misleading and tend to clang a bit (see the complete works of Stephen Dando-Collins, for example). Praepositus is always a tricky one to translate into english, admittedly - but 'commander' covers it quite nicely I think. I'm actually not too keen on Dux and Comes being translated as Duke and Count, which have connotations of hereditary aristocracy lacking in the Roman terms. 'Commander' (again!) and 'Companion' might work better, at the risk of being a bit obscure... This is something I'd wondered about myself recently...