A reader's companion
The world of 600
In the spring of AD 599 the Roman Empire still runs from the Euphrates to the Straits of Gibraltar. Its emperor, Maurice Augustus, sits in Constantinople; its bishops argue in Greek and Latin; its tax collectors count in gold.
This is the world Andreas walks into. The pages below are for readers who like to know what a siliqua would buy, where the Rotunda stood, and who was who.
No spoilers: everything here is known by the first chapters of Volume I, The Smallest Coin, or is plain history. The companion will grow as each volume is published.
- GlossaryFrom apoche to xenodocheion: the words of the street, the port and the chancery.
- MoneyThe solidus, the siliqua and the follis, and what a house, a passage or a man's wage cost in 599.
- PlacesSyracuse, Thessalonica and the sea between them: what stood there in 599, and what you can still see.
- PersonsThe Emperor, the Khagan, the archbishop, and the strangers Andreas meets on the road.