Computer game Europa Universalis reaches Rome.

From Total Video Games

Veni Vidi Vici will be the words on many a Europa Universalis fan later this year. TVG finds out why…

Following last year's Europa Universalis III, Paradox Interactive is due to take a trip back in time for the fourth incarnation of this classic strategy game. Ancient Rome is the new destination for a series which has traditionally been set during the Early Modern period, so will a couple of millennia make all the difference? TVG caught up with the Head of Development and Project Leader, Johan Andersson, to talk about the game.

TVG: Rome: Total War already offers an in-depth turn based strategy element to its epic RTS battles, within the era of the Roman Empire. As Europa Universalis: Rome doesn't provide the same RTS gameplay, what elements of its turn based gaming will better Rome: Total War's offerings and attract strategy gamers?

Should I answer this humbly, or arrogantly? Well, the thing is, Rome: Total War is a very good game for playing battles, but the strategy game feels a bit more like 'how to get to the next battle'. What we're trying to do is make a strategy game, in the Roman era, where battles are part of the strategy and not everything that the game is about.

Of course, wars are fun in games – people seem to think that – but, for us, war is a means to an end, not the end. So, we're trying to create a deep strategy game where there's more to it than fighting in a war.

TVG: Previous Europa Universalis games, EUII for example, have placed a strong emphasis on real historical events running alongside the progress of a game. It seems like you're going away from this with EU: Rome…

We wanted it to be more open-ended in that you're creating history, not re-living history. You also have characters that live and breathe – well, obviously not breathe… they're computer characters – but they have lives of their own in the game. The characters, the rulers, the families, rivals and friends are driving the game forward.

More

Guardian survey of websites on the Romans

The survey is here.

Because pupils 'do the Romans' in Primary School, the emphasis is on 6 sites suitable for these ages.

New blog with survey of religion in the Roman Empire

This blog, begun this month by someone who identifies himself only as

• an unemployed professional, holding two BA degrees in humanities, impatiently waiting for letters of acceptance to postgraduate programs from several universities
• living in a small southeastern European country

may be useful for students' research. I haven't read the posts carefully, but at first glance they seem to be sound.

The blog is called V(otum) S(olvit) L(ibens) M(erito).

The Romans and India – trade routes and archaeological finds

There's been quite a bit about Romans in India on the net recently, and this book review seems to be a good place to get up to date on the topic.

From the Hindu

The Italian Government has begun to show a welcome interest in the Roman Trail in South India and one of the consequences of this is likely to help in the development of an archaeological park in Arikamedu, 4 km south of Pondicherry and a part of t he Union Territory. As a prelude to this, a fascinating book titled Arikamedu – Its Place in the Ancient Rome-India Contacts, written by Madras archaeologist Dr. S. Suresh, has been brought out by the Embassy of Italy, New Delhi.

For some years now, Suresh has been leading small groups that have followed the Roman Trail in South India on tours organised by INTACH-Tamil Nadu. In his latest book, he spells out that trail in a little more detail, even if his focus is on Arikamedu. The trail stretches from ancient Musiris (generally considered to be Kodunganallur, north of Cochin, but that, Suresh emphasises, is just speculation; “those who claim to go to Musiris, actually go in search of Musiris!”, he feels) to Mylapore.

From Musiris the trail goes to Iyyal on the Trichur-Guruvayur Road where hoards of Roman coins were found in two caves, now called the St. Thomas Caves. Next comes the village of Vellalur, 15 km from Coimbatore, and Perur on the outskirts of the city. Roman coins and pottery have been found in both places and gold Roman jewellery – now in the Madras Museum – in the former. It’s then on to Kodumanal on the north bank of the Noyyal, a tributary of the Kaveri. An iron-processing industry and the manufacture of beads from semi-precious stones were major production activities here in Roman times, the iron ore coming from nearby Chenniamalai and the stones from several neighbouring villages. Excavations at Kodumanal have revealed iron swords and arrowheads, a terracotta head (my picture today), pottery, and Roman coins and gold and silver ornamentation.

Similar manufacture took place at Karur, the ancient capital of the Cheras on the banks of the Amaravathi, and similar finds have been made. The ancient Chola capital of Uraiyur, near Srirangam, is the next stop. Roman pottery and dyeing vats have been found here, the latter some confirmation of muslin that was much in demand in Rome being manufactured there. And so to the east coast, to the ancient port of Kaveripattinam (Poompuhar today, but Kaberis to the ancients from the West), once the chief port of the Cholas and a great entrepot. Roman pottery and coins have been discovered here and in a nearby place intriguingly called Vellaiyan-Iruppu (‘Abode of the white man’).

Heading north from Kaveripattinam you come to Arikamedu, once an important port and, in the 20th Century, site of the most extensive ‘digs’ in search of ancient Roman connections. The first searches were in the 1930s by the French, followed by a Madras Museum-led excavation at the request of the French in 1940. The French, as well as Wheeler, conducted ‘digs’ till 1950 before excavating Arikamedu was given up till an American-funded Indian scholar, Vimala Begley, worked at the site from 1989 to 1992. It’s been all quiet since then. The Archaeological Survey of India purchased the privately-owned site in 2003 and fenced it in 2006. Pottery, beads, coins and other evidence of Roman presence and trade have been unearthed here during every ‘dig’.

And so to the two ancient Pallava ports of Mamallapuram and Mylapore – where the Roman evidence in them long predates the Pallava. Once again, Roman coins and pottery have been the main finds. In fact, Roman coins have also been found in Saidapet and Mambalam!

The Romans followed the world’s oldest sea trade route from the 3rd Century B.C.E., till the 7th Century C.E., though their trading activities with India began to decline from the end of the 1st Century C.E. They came in search of textiles, gemstones, spices, ivory, sandalwood and the exotica of the East, not least its wealth of fauna. They brought with them coral, wine, silver and gold. The Yavanas, as they were known in South India, sailed from Pozzuoli near Capua in southern Italy to Alexandria, then down the Nile, across the desert to the Red Sea ports, particularly Berenike, and, thereafter, in Arab ships to India. It’s a wondrous story that deserves telling in detail by Suresh one day.

S. MUTHIAH