In The Sign of The Blood, two of the main characters, Juliana, a slave, and Sybellina, a Roman priestess, compete for the attention of Constantine, son of the Emperor of the West, a young man destined to become Constantine the Great.
As the book opens Constantine is about to inherit his father's title and can have almost any woman he wants. He is 34 years old and a Roman Tribune, a senior military officer serving at the front lines. Household slaves will be available to him as well as the daughters of the wealthy.
How could a woman who wants his love, succeed?
The first thing I had to set aside as I wrote this story, was the idea that love was simply a matter of attraction or suitability. For most people living at that time, 306 A.D., the gods interfered and had to be placated, and humans could both read the future and influence it through spells, charms, and potions.
Often, such charms or spells were a way for people to imagine that they had a chance with someone, to give them the confidence to seduce someone, or to keep someone they already had.
If we think about how we pray to be loved, wear rings to signify relationship status, and spray ourselves with perfume to attract, we are not that far away from the mindset of spells, charms, and potions, though we like to fool ourselves that we are all very modern and rational in the age of the iPhone.
What you may not have done, however, is what Sybellina does in The Sign of the Blood. As one of the last priestesses of the slowly dying imperial cult, she is both a spy and an assassin, the 2nd and 3rd oldest professions. She is also a skilled practitioner in the arts of divination and dark magic. Anyone who has read the astrology predictions for their star sign can understand the attraction of knowing where you are headed, especially in times of danger. It really can make you strive harder if you believe in your destiny.
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But to steal the heart of an emperor's son who can have a different woman every hour, the challenge is extreme.
And it calls for extreme measures. Something involving blood and human flesh. Something that requires a sacrifice, to represent the sacrifice you would be willing to make to achieve your aim. A spell and a charm and a potion strong enough to make anyone believe in their destiny.
That could work, yes? It could certainly give you the confidence to make your move.
If you think I'm making this up, click through to The Greek Magical Papyri which include love spells and hocus-pocus meant to inspire confidence. If you believe in positive thinking you will understand the benefits of self-belief in everything, including matters of the heart.
Codex with magic spells, 5-6thC A.D. Museo Archeologico, Milan. Wikimedia Commons.
And if you want to know what was written on these charms or chanted as the blood flowed, remember your Virgil who said we could. “… tear love's cure-all from the forehead of a foal.”
Or consider the level of desire evident from the Louvre Doll curse tablet, “…do not allow her to eat, drink, hold out, venture out, or find sleep.”
I am sure you wouldn't use such tactics on the object of your affection, but if the future of an empire was at stake, you never know. And this was at a time when Christianity was being persecuted into annihilation and death loomed every day.
If you think I'm stretching things about the ancients belief in magic, have you read The Apology, where this Roman author states, “magical operations were indispensable scientific experiments.”
And before you dismiss all this as nonsense, consider these questions:
Did you ever feel, when you met a stranger, that you would meet again or had know them before?
And what would you do to hold onto the love of your life?
If you want to read what Sybellina does to get her wish to come true and how she enchanted Constantine, and how Juliana strikes back, you will have to buy The Sign of The Blood.
Laurence O'Bryan is the author of the puzzle series novels and now, The Sign of The Blood, the first novel in a new series set during the bloody and turbulent late Roman Empire.
