A Land of Many Names
While writing A Ram for Mars, I had to make a decision about what to call the ancestral homeland of the Jews to which Marcus and Miriam are traveling when the book opens…
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Pro-Roman Jews in First-Century Israel?
Anyone who has even a passing familiarity with the history of Israel in the time of Jesus (for Christians) or Hillel (for Jews) knows that the land was ruled by Rome…
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Magdala and International Trade
The city of Magdala plays a vital role in A Ram for Mars as the final stop on Marcus’s quest to find his mother and the place where he and Miriam decide to settle down…
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Galilee of the Gentiles?
Galilee, the northern district of Israel, plays a vital role in A Ram for Mars as both the homeland of Marcus’s ancestors (through his grandmother)…
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A Roman Island in a Jewish Sea
Golda Meir, former prime minister of Israel, once quipped, “Let me tell you the one thing I have against Moses…
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The Wild, Wild—East?
Anyone who has heard anything about Jesus knows that he was crucified by Roman soldiers after being condemned by the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate…
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Slavery in the Roman world
Mosaic of slaves preparing for or serving at a banquet I anticipate that many of my readers will be surprised to see the relatively…
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Antioch-near-Pisidia
Map of modern Turkey showing the location of Antioch-near-Pisidia The city where much of this story takes place was one of 16 cities in…
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Marking time with the Romans
Since the A Slave’s Story series is written from the vantage point of one of the characters in the story, I made a conscious effort to…
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An empire of cities
Artist’s rendition of a typical Greek city One of the hardest things for modern readers to comprehend about the ancient world, at least…
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