Rome has fallen, and in the empire’s wake, Europe is fractured, ruled by barbarian tribes and petty kings.
One such kingdom has never had a name. Nestled in a beautiful valley in the Iberian Peninsula, the Unnamed Kingdom is a harsh place. Slaves labour under threat of the whip, and all are at the mercy of the cruel king’s whims.
Eubulus, the Master of the Army, has long dreamed of more. Of true freedom, of a kingdom without kings. While serving the throne, he has sought revolution, though it has cost him dearly.
Now, his daughter is due to die at the king’s command. There is no more time to waste.
The kingdom must fall.
Telling the tale of the rise and fall of a post-Roman kingdom through the eyes of kings and slaves, The Unnamed Kingdom is a sweeping epic of romance, revolution and tragedy.
Rome has fallen, and in the empire’s wake, Europe is fractured, ruled by barbarian tribes and petty kings.
One such kingdom has never had a name. Nestled in a beautiful valley in the Iberian Peninsula, the Unnamed Kingdom is a harsh place. Slaves labour under threat of the whip, and all are at the mercy of the cruel king’s whims.
Eubulus, the Master of the Army, has long dreamed of more. Of true freedom, of a kingdom without kings. While serving the throne, he has sought revolution, though it has cost him dearly.
Now, his daughter is due to die at the king’s command. There is no more time to waste.
The kingdom must fall.
Telling the tale of the rise and fall of a post-Roman kingdom through the eyes of kings and slaves, The Unnamed Kingdom is a sweeping epic of romance, revolution and tragedy.
Eubulus’ body had succumbed to age, and his joints hurt when
he walked stooped over on his way to the graveyard in the garden.
He ensured he had a firm grip on his walking stick at every step.
The brisk morning air tingled in his bones, foretelling the
impending rain. He wouldn’t mind a few raindrops; he would
still find solace as he sat beside his loved ones’ graves and thought
of them. Despite his mind being as corroded as his body,
reminiscing about his past had become a precious occupation,
even though he could never start from the beginning.
Perhaps it was because he favoured the many exhilarating,
joyous memories over reliving terrible, shameful experiences.
Or simply that his memory frequently failed him. Sometimes he
could only recall fragments.
He proceeded cautiously through the garden, which greeted
his nostrils with its aroma, pulling him back to a time in the past.
Once, they had all breathed this marvellous smell while taking
late-afternoon strolls in the garden.
When he sighted the cold, carved marble headstones and the
flowers laid at their feet, both fresh and dry, a familiar sense of
loss crept over him, cold as those graves. The garden seemed to
10The Unnamed Kingdom
fade behind him, less vibrant, less alive. He knew, though, that
once he was sitting by the graves, they all would be together in
his thoughts, and then he would feel their warmth.
Eventually, Eubulus seated his rusted body on the bench in
front of them. He kept his gaze at the bottom of the erected
stones. He couldn’t always bear to see the etched names of his
loved ones, especially hers.
Gravestone inscriptions had always given him a sense of
something inexistent. Like a seedling that had sprouted, grown,
blossomed, aged, and eventually died, and now only he knew
where it once stood. He couldn’t look at her epitaph that day.
He would never forget her. In his mind, she remained
effervescent and vibrant as always. If he closed his eyes and
travelled back in time, her footfall and laughter would reverberate
in his ears. Much like her mother, she’d had a wholesome, lovely
laugh. The king had once said that it sounded like a magnificent
tune.
Eubulus remembered when he’d first heard the news about
the king’s engagement, and the horrific days that had followed.
He had worked until late evening that day and was on his way
home. It had been unseasonably warm. He could still feel the
thick heat that lay heavily, stifling, almost buzzing in his ears.
***
It was a short ride to his house, which was inside the castle walls,
but his horse seemed in a rush to be released from its scalding
saddle. It had been trotting when Bertyl, the Master of the Foot
Soldiers, had caught up with him.
“Master, have you heard about the king’s visitors?”
11Camilla Hillberg
“Just that they are from Greece. Anything else to it?” Eubulus
asked.
“I’m sorry. I wish I weren’t the one to tell you this, but the
king has contracted a bride.”
Eubulus felt horror plough into his veins. He became
lightheaded from it, his vision blurred. For if the king remarried,
he would execute Eubulus’ beloved daughter.
Later that evening, the horror had turned into anger. He was
furious with the king and enraged with his own inability to save her.
Long past midnight, he was turning in bed, kept awake by
anger that refused to be reasoned with, when his valet knocked
on his bedroom door. King Valerius had summoned him about a
sighting of barbarians at the river.
An attack by barbarians was what the king Valerius feared the
most. And as Master of the Army, Eubulus was responsible for
the security in Valerius’ unnamed kingdom.
Valerius’ paranoia about barbarians only fuelled Eubulus’ rage.
He was concerned about his daughter, not an imagined enemy.
He had to attempt to save her. He had already lost her mother.
When he thought of Arruntia, his wife who had died a year
before, he smiled sadly. She had been so lovely.
As his valet dressed him, he kept thinking about Arruntia.
His uniform had always held a magical allure for her. In the
mornings, she used to bring him a glass of posca, a watered-
down sour wine with herbs, and then she would stay until all
the pieces of his armour had been fastened to his body. Once,
she had remarked that he still had a youthful appearance despite
being in his forties.
Eubulus wore chainmail over a double-hide breastplate, a
gladiator skirt down to his knees, and leather shin guards. He
12The Unnamed Kingdom
had a long sword and a dagger on his waist. A whip and a plain
shield without characters or heraldry were attached to his saddle.
In contrast to his uniform, his horse’s saddle was left bare.
Arruntia had never accepted that Valerius’ horse was the only one
with decorative tack. Eubulus didn’t care about that sort of thing,
but Arruntia had paid close attention to anything regarding
Valerius. She’d truly loathed him, and fairly so. For nearly six
years now, he had kept their daughter confined in a tiny room in
one of the castle’s towers.
The last piece of Eubulus’ uniform was an impressive helmet
with bright red plumes in the style of a Roman centurion.
Arruntia used to narrow her eyes in admiration when the
valet had placed it over Eubulus’ abundant straight, dark hair.
Although he couldn’t have been happier with her expression, he
wished he never had to wear the helmet or the armour. They
reminded him of battles.
Once fully dressed and armoured, Eubulus rode his horse to
meet his men. At the river, Eubulus sent Bertyl with a group of
soldiers to search for the barbarians while he stayed back. Long
before the collapse of the West Roman Empire, barbarians had
been invading and pillaging homes. It had only become worse
since.
However, the kingdom was too remote even for barbarians.
Eubulus had only realised that when he and Quint had gone all
the way to Rome for their education at the age of fifteen. Until
then, no one in the kingdom had ventured beyond the markets
of Catalonia in the east of the Hispania province.
The kingdom was located in the northwest of the Hispania
province, a vast area also referred to as the Iberian Peninsula. He
recalled that they had travelled east and that it had taken them
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a month to cross the perilous trails of this nearly uninhabited
area. Then, they had reached a high mountain range. They had
proceeded by crossing the mountains close to the sea into the
Franks’ territory. After many exhaustive veers along the coast,
they’d arrived in Rome. The journey had been tedious, tiring,
and exceptionally long.
As the hours passed, Eubulus sat impatiently on his horse in
the thick woodland along the river, waiting for the soldiers to
return. He used to think all of nature’s sounds were pleasant, but
this time the insects’ buzzes, the birds’ chirps, and frogs’ croaks
grated.
Dawn was approaching, and he continued to wait by the
boisterous river. He couldn’t see the river in the early morning
mist, but he knew it was murky and its water abruptly deepened
dangerously into narrow passages between submerged boulders.
On a few occasions, those surging currents had swept guards
away like logs. At first, the raft at the ferry crossing had been
attached to the shores by a single rope. The crossing became safer
after Quint had added a second rope on the other side of the raft,
though it still required intense rowing.
At last, the distant sound of barking. Eubulus felt a rush of
relief; the soldiers were returning. That relief soon soured. It was
too late to go back to bed and too early to go straight to the
king’s event in the courtyard. The king’s event? He shook his head
ruefully. It was really a shameful spectacle.
Over the atonal racket of insects, frogs, birds, and the river, he
heard a single horse approaching. Bertyl, if he had to guess. He
rode towards the sound.
“Master, we rafted to the other side of the river,” Bertyl told
him. “There are several footprints on the shore.”
14The Unnamed Kingdom
Eubulus dropped his shoulders and shook his head.
“Barbarians!” he said in disbelief. After all these years, they had
to come at this crucial time.
Bertyl knew Eubulus well and was sorry to see him so shaken.
“We can follow their tracks while the footprints are fresh,”
Bertyl said. “With luck, the tracks may lead us to their camp.”
Eubulus took a deep breath. “Gather a company of soldiers
and some provisions. We leave soon after the king’s event in the
courtyard.”
“Certainly, Master.”
“From now on, we must anticipate an attack. Order
reinforcements for the night guards. Reinforce the watch in the
mountains as well.”
Bertyl nodded.
“Oh, and report the incident to the king,” Eubulus said and
turned his horse around, galloping through the forest towards
the castle, leaving Bertyl surprised. Eubulus had always reported
everything to Valerius himself.
As he neared the castle, Eubulus suddenly pulled the reins,
wondering why he was rushing. He let his horse set his pace the
rest of the way, only giving it the occasional kick when it tried to
stop to graze.
Eventually, the gong calling for the event in the courtyard
sounded for the third and last time. Soon after, Eubulus stopped
in front of the main entrance of the wall that encircled the castle.
A guard opened a small opening within the heavy gate just wide
enough for a cavalryman to pass through. Before Eubulus entered,
he filled his lungs with fresh morning air, bracing himself, before
riding into the world of tension beyond.
The Unnamed Kingdom is a loosely based, historical fiction novel about a kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula. It is set after the fall of Rome and follows the lives of Eubulus and the reigning king Valerius. Eubulus and his brother study in Rome and Eubulus returns to the kingdom full of ideas about living free from rules and enslavement. He works for this goal throughout the story until Valerius imprisons his daughter.
The novel was well written and an enjoyable read. However, there were a few issues. The one that stood out the most was a historical inaccuracy in the setting. Since the novel is listed as historical fiction, it needs to maintain authenticity to the time period. Most of the story takes place in a castle and the lands surrounding it. The first castles were not built in Europe until, at the earliest, the late ninth century. Chapter three gives the reader the exact date of 472 AD when delving into Valerius’ past and following his grandfather’s escape from Rome. Probus, Valerius’ grandfather, built the castle when he founded his kingdom, which is at least four centuries too early for the first castle to exist. Besides this historical issue, the novel has a few plot troubles as well.
To keep from giving spoilers, these points will be discussed in generalities instead of specifics. One plot issue was that multiple deaths throughout the book seemed to lack a purpose. Death and dying are common in books and can be a needed part of the story. In this book, not all the deaths felt like they furthered the story or were needed at all. Some of them felt almost out of place and unnecessary. The second plot issue was characters making decisions that felt unbelievable. For a character to have a major personality change or to make a huge life decision, there needed to be a concrete reason for the change. There were events presented, but they did not feel or come across as serious enough to alter how a person acts or cause a major life change. The believability of a character’s transformation is important in a book.
As stated above, the book was an enjoyable read. The writing allowed for easy visualization of the settings and it flowed well, which is why the novel received three stars instead of two. It also had its moments of excitement and left the reader wanting more. If someone was looking for a novel with a medieval setting mixed with some Roman aspects, this would be a good choice.