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Author | John Christopher |
---|---|
Language | English |
Series | Fireball |
Genre | Alternative history |
Publisher | Gollancz (UK) E. P. Dutton (US) |
Publication date | 1981 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Pages | 148 pp |
ISBN | 0-575-02974-9 |
Followed by | New Found Land |
Fireball is the first book in a trilogy by John Christopher, published in 1981, exploring the adventures of two cousins when they are suddenly transported into an alternative history Earth through a mysterious fireball.
In the year AD 1981, British boy Simon meets his visiting American cousin Brad, but they do not get along, Simon finding Brad to be conceited, but knowledgeable enough to justify his conceit.
The two boys are drawn towards a mysterious glowing ball, which instantly transports them to what appears to be more than a thousand years back in history. After some time they realise that they have travelled not to the past but to an alternative Earth also in the year 1981, but one with a different history - the Roman Empire under Flavius Claudius Julianus Augustus, aka Julian the Apostate or Julian the Philosopher, was successful in his AD 363 Persian Campaign. The victory led stability under Pax Romana, and in turn led to general stagnation of the civilised world, a subsequent absence of major technological development, as there was no motivation for change.
The boys are separated to be sold as slaves. Brad is able to make use of his knowledge of Latin to persuade a Roman Christian to purchase his freedom. It is revealed that as the Emperor Julian survived instead of dying on the Persian Campaign, Christianity never became the state religion. Christianity still survives, but only as a small minority sect. By evidence of his modern wrist-watch, Brad convinces the Bishop that the boys come from a different and more technologically advanced world. The opportunistic Brad offers to help the Pope raise an army to overthrow the Roman authorities, ostensibly to cease oppression of the Christians, but mainly, in return for power, status and wealth for the cousins to rise in the new realms. Simon goes along with the plan because he wants to free the slaves and promote equal status for non-Romans, and because he has fallen in love with a high-born girl.
Brad introduces to the Christian armed forces the stirrup and the longbow, which were never invented in that world. The Christian forces are victorious and the Bishop enters Rome riding on a donkey. However, Simon is quickly disillusioned when the new Church authorities begin forcing all people to convert to Christianity, or face death by the pendulum. Together with Bos, a gladiator, and the staunch pagan, Curtius, both formerly on the side of the rebellion, the boys sail off on a ship towards the New World.
The novel was followed by two volumes in the trilogy, New Found Land (1983) and Dragon Dance (1986)
Constantius II was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germanic peoples, while internally the Roman Empire went through repeated civil wars, court intrigues, and usurpations. His religious policies inflamed domestic conflicts that would continue after his death.
Julian was the Caesar of the West from 355 to 360 and Roman emperor from 361 to 363, as well as a notable philosopher and author in Greek. His rejection of Christianity, and his promotion of Neoplatonic Hellenism in its place, caused him to be remembered as Julian the Apostate in Christian tradition. He is sometimes referred to as Julian the Philosopher.
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The 350s decade ran from January 1, 350, to December 31, 359.
Antioch on the Orontes was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as the capital of the Seleucid Empire and later as regional capital to both the Roman and Byzantine Empire. During the Crusades, Antioch served as the capital of the Principality of Antioch, one of four Crusader states that were founded in the Levant. Its inhabitants were known as Antiochenes. The modern city of Antakya, in Hatay Province of Turkey, was named after the ancient city, which lies in ruins on the Orontes River and did not overlap in habitation with the modern city.
The Tripods is a series of young adult science fiction novels by John Christopher. The series takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity is enslaved by "Tripods" — gigantic three-legged walking machines piloted by an alien race later identified as the "Masters". The first two books were the basis of a science fiction TV series, produced in the United Kingdom in the 1980s.
The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb or Arab conquest of North Africa by the Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates commenced in 647 and concluded in 709, when the Byzantine Empire lost its last remaining strongholds to Caliph Al-Walid I. The North African campaigns were part of the century of rapid early Muslim conquests.
Julian is a 1964 novel by Gore Vidal, a work of historical fiction written primarily in the first person dealing with the life of the Roman emperor Flavius Claudius Julianus, who reigned briefly from 360 to 363 A.D.
Emperor and Galilean is a play written by Henrik Ibsen. Although it is one of the writer's lesser known plays, on several occasions Henrik Ibsen called Emperor and Galilean his major work. Emperor and Galilean is written in two complementary parts with five acts in each part and is Ibsen's longest play.
The growth of Christianity from its obscure origin c. 40 AD, with fewer than 1,000 followers, to being the majority religion of the entire Roman Empire by AD 400, has been examined through a wide variety of historiographical approaches.
In historiography, the Late or Later Roman Empire traditionally spans the period from 284 to 641 in the history of the Roman Empire.
New Found Land is a young adult alternate history novel by John Christopher, the second in his Fireball series. It was first published in 1983.
Christianity began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the 1st century in the Roman province of Judea, from where it spread throughout and beyond the Roman Empire.
Roman Tunisia initially included the early ancient Roman province of Africa, later renamed Africa Vetus. As the Roman empire expanded, the present Tunisia also included part of the province of Africa Nova.
Christianity in the 4th century was dominated in its early stage by Constantine the Great and the First Council of Nicaea of 325, which was the beginning of the period of the First seven Ecumenical Councils (325–787), and in its late stage by the Edict of Thessalonica of 380, which made Nicene Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire.
Byzantine Empire under the Constantinian and Valentinianic dynasties was the earliest period of the Byzantine history that saw a shift in government from Rome in the West to Constantinople in the East within the Roman Empire under emperor Constantine the Great and his successors. Constantinople, formally named Nova Roma, was founded in the city of Byzantium, which is the origin of the historiographical name for the Eastern Empire, which self-identified simply as the "Roman Empire".
Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish diaspora throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. The first followers of Christianity were Jews who had converted to the faith, i.e. Jewish Christians, as well as Phoenicians, i.e. Lebanese Christians. Early Christianity contains the Apostolic Age and is followed by, and substantially overlaps with, the Patristic era.
Christianity in late antiquity traces Christianity during the Christian Roman Empire — the period from the rise of Christianity under Emperor Constantine, until the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The end-date of this period varies because the transition to the sub-Roman period occurred gradually and at different times in different areas. One may generally date late ancient Christianity as lasting to the late 6th century and the re-conquests under Justinian of the Byzantine Empire, though a more traditional end-date is 476, the year in which Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustus, traditionally considered the last western emperor.
The Roman–Sasanian war of 421–422 was a conflict between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sasanians. The casus belli was the persecution of Christians by the Sassanid king Bahram V, which had come as a response to attacks by Christians against Zoroastrian temples; the Christian Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II declared war and obtained some victories, but in the end, the two powers agreed to sign a peace on the status quo ante.