On The Road Again In Tarraco
Will you see Cheops Books LLC this summer on the ramparts in the northeastern region of Spain’s Catalonia right along the coast in this ancient port city? This was once the Roman colony of Tarraco. You can stand in a picturesque amphitheater facing the sea. You can hear the waves crash. You can walk along the ramparts with a view either into the city or out towards the Mediterranean.
The Romans colonized Spain early on even during the Republic and called it Hispania. The second group of Roman emperors immediately after the Julio-Claudians hailed from Hispania. Vespasian was a great friend of Pliny the Elder, a main character in Cheops Books’s upcoming historical thriller, Vesuvius Plot. He was also great friends with his son and successor Titus, the conqueror of Jerusalem and the Emperor at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius. Titus appears as a character in the Pliny novel. Pliny spent a lot of his time abroad serving as the governor of various provinces including Germania where he was headquartered in Trier. He might even have visited Spain, perhaps even Tarraco, the Roman ruins before us now.
