Since 'upgrading' to Version 2 of 'Sandvox', I've had all sorts of trouble. That's partly why there have been so few updates to these pages - that and the kitchen. The kitchen is totally finished now - I put up the new window blind last Thursday. And, at last, I believe I have a build of Sandvox 2 which does everything I need, though I still have a small problem with uploading the site - it seems, randomly, to upload the whole site instead of just the changes - annoying if it does that when all one was doing was correcting a spelling error!
Anyway, onto the reason for this update... Another volume in Harry Sidebottom's wonderful 'Warrior of Rome' saga. The Caspian Gates, as the title suggests, is set mainly in the Caucasus. In terms of spoilers, that's about as far as I'm going. It is the usual mix of Graeco-Roman culture and high adventure. If you enjoyed the others in the series, you'll lap this one up. The plot is less convoluted than that in 'Lion of the Sun', but that might be an advantage - it's an easier read for those, like me, who are a little 'hard of thinking'. It has the now usual bibliography, potted histories and the like at the end, which I always enjoy delving into.
I wasn't sure, because the book fairly clearly wasn't going to be about one of my primary areas of interest, how much I was going to enjoy it, but there was plenty to 'get my teeth into', and I finished up looking at figures on various manufacturers' websites, wondering about starting new armies (always a sign of an inspiring read)... Before common sense (and a lack of money) ensured that common sense prevailed. Instead (though staying with the third century theme), I ended up thinking about expanding my Sassanid army - which might, or might not, turn out to be a hint about part of the plot of the book.
I have started a small project to broaden my third century Roman army. There's a nice picture of a pair of 'lanciarii' in the Concord booklet 'Imperial Rome at War' (page 37), which shows them with javelins in a 'quiver' slung over one shoulder, fighting off some Parthian horse archers. This is, at a guess, based loosely on the monument to Aurelius Mucianus, from Apamea in Syria - which shows him (a trainee lanciarii in Legio II Parthica) holding a bundle of javelins which appear to be in quiver. So I decided to see if I could scratch-build one. It wasn't too difficult. I'm going to see if Matt, from Elhiem Figures, can cast them for me, as he did with the shields (though I don't intend offering these for sale - I can't see my selling enough to justify the outlay). Once I get the castings, I'll stick them to the backs of some spare Romans and try to add a strap (probably using lead foil).