Beginning of my novel.........I hope

[Legionare Vibius Atimoniu]

Here is the main jist of it. The story willl start out with a messenger wether or not a politician i do not know i am not exactly sure who carries messages. He will arrive at one of the top training "facilities" , if you will, with a message for the head person of the "facility" (what would he be called?) The message is straight from ceasar himself asking for an elite cohort or a smaller force (which do you think it should be?) To to escort him through enemy territory (who were the most hostile towards the romans?) and take him to see some high ranking official of another country to do "buisness". There are a lot of questions in this i apologize but i would like some input on it and some info. It is probably confusing to read as well i apologize again sometimes it is hard to protray my ideas with words they are to big lol. (And i know the plot of thw story needs to be better lol)

[Jeroen Pelgrom]

Hi Ben,

so you want to be a writer!
The main question you propably want to ask yourself is: what is the story you want to tell! Who will be the main person(s) be? Will he be a civilian or a soldier etc. Do you have an idea about that?

[Matt Lukes]

Hi Ben, welcome to the Forum

I might think that the Emperor would send to the Praetorian Guard as opposed to a regular army unit (which wouldn't have been in the city anyway) for escort. The Romans were continually at war in Germania, so one of the tribes there along the Danube could be a good choice. Then again, it really depends on the time you are thinking of where there was danger and where not so much.

Matt

[tlclark]

Basically it's a travel story, with some arduous quest. First you have to decide what the "quest" is don't you? What is the message? Why are they taking it to where they are taking it? What's the mission? Find that, and you will find your story and then the characters' motivations should fall out naturally after that. Good people will see the quest through, bad ones with try to thwart it.

There were lots of envoys and secret missions in the Roman empire. My advice, pick one and elaborate on it.

Also read "Silver Pigs" (can't remember the author!) and other series to get an idea of what has been done before.

Sounds good and good luck!!

Travis

[Legionare Vibius Atimoniu]

THis great guys! Thanks for the support! Should i use a real ceasar's name or should a make up one? The story will mainly focus on the soldiers and their point of view of the hwole trip and stuff so the ceasar won't be mentioned much.

[tlclark]

THis great guys! Thanks for the support! Should i use a real ceasar's name or should a make up one? The story will mainly focus on the soldiers and their point of view of the hwole trip and stuff so the ceasar won't be mentioned much.

Pick an emperor.

Roman history isn't like mythology. We know the names of every emperor. So I would pick the age you want and then pick an emperor from that era. I wouldn't worry about fudging a little bit however, most novels do. For example, if you're in the 20's pick Tiberias or Caligula. You don't have to be too specific.

Small confession. I'm writing something myself and I put it in the last year of the reign of Nero. I couldn't resist putting Seneca in there because he has so many good one-liners at Nero's expense. Small problem, Seneca committed suicide four years earlier. I think that's a forgivable fudge however. However, putting Seneca in the age of say...Augustus, would be a bit of stretch.

So find an era, pick an emperor, and then don't worry too much past that.

Travis

[Graham Sumner]

Hi

Try reading 'Exploratio', by N. Austin and B. Rankov. 1995London.

Deals with Military intelligence. Soldiers like the Beneficarii could be involved with dispatches.

Graham.

[Legionare Vibius Atimoniu]

I know who Nero is but who is Seneca?

[rkmvca1]

Google is your friend
Google is your friend still

But when you do write your novel, you will have to do a lot more reading than just on Google. Best of luck!

rkmvca/rich klein