Speaking of ancient Rome, you would not believe some of the things I’ve been finding lately in my research. Just two days ago I completed the first draft of a novel I call The Cherusci Plot. The Cherusci were an ancient Roman tribe with a headquarters south of Hamburg and a little to the west. Arminius, or Hermann the German, was the head of that tribe in 9AD. But what I did not realize was that the ancient German and Norse religion used swastikas. It was a symbol of the sun god, or Woden, or Odin. Naturally the 20th century Nazis picked up on this. I had no idea that the Nazis were drawing on all this ancient stuff. I think it is absolutely fascinating.
My novel of course is Edward Ware Thrillers in ancient Rome. I even have a map plot. The hero, who is supposedly a distant ancestor of later day Edward Ware, is fighting the Germans just as Edward was to do years later. In a far fetched way it seems as if he is fighting ancient Nazis which is ridiculous. The more things change the more they remain the same. As the author of The Most Dangerous Book said (the stuff about Tacitus’s Germania) the “German question” is older than you think.
