Too Near the Sun
This is the latest in Bill Page’s novels featuring Claudius Caninus (Canio), ex-soldier and owner of a villa in Britannia Prima, in an area we now know as the Severn Estuary. The novel is set in 371 AD, with the region still in a state of shock after the Barbarica Conspiratio of 367-8, when concerted waves of barbarians invaded Britannia, only belatedly suppressed by legions from the continent.
As the province continues to suffer barbarian raids, Canio dreams that his deceased grandfather reveals to him that he was in fact the usurping emperor Allectus, who had survived the battle in which he was supposed to have been killed.
Canio then meets, and is attracted to, Aelia Aureliana, a young widow and a devotee of the sun god Helios, who is convinced that Canio is indeed the grandson of Allectus. Aelia seeks to inveigle Canio in a conspiracy for Britannia to break away from the Roman Empire. At the same time Tribunus Maximus, the local army commander, tries to blackmail Canio into spying on Aelia and the conspirators.
Bill Page possesses an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Roman Empire in the West Country in the 4th century, in what we now know was the twilight of the Roman occupation. A gazetteer and glossary assist the reader. The world of the villa-owning elite is vividly described, as is the landscape, with a loving care reminiscent of H. E. Bates. The contrast between the charmingly cynical Canio and the idealistic Aelia works very well, and the reader is fully engaged in discovering how Canio will navigate his dilemma. A thoroughly entertaining work that tells us much about life in 4th-century Britannia, and how people tried to come to terms with the decline in Roman power.
