In order to make my work more accessible and give people a chance to preview my writing before deciding on whether to read my book, I have set out an excerpt from the exciting Prologue to my novel, \"Barbarians in the Republic - The Long Journey to Rome\". This is the first novel in a three part series and will be released on September 15 2005 worldwide to bookstores and will also be available at online stores such as www.amazon.com. Thanks for looking and hope you\'ll enjoy my book.

This article is prompted by a scene from "Rome", the new series by HBO. In the first episode, one of the characters, the domina Atia of the Julii family performs a Taurobolion dedicated to the Great Mother or Magna Mater, a practice that was imported from Phrygia (Cybele) by the Romans in 205 BC

The first novel in my series, \"Barbarians in the Republic\", titled \"The Long Journey to Rome\" is set during a relatively tumultuous period in Republican history, around 120 BC, soon after the death of Gaius Sempronius Gracchus. Although the story does not really focus directly on characters like Gracchus, it is important to understand the backdrop against which the novel is set, so that the experience of reading the novel is significantly enhanced. Please visit my web site : http://romanhistoricalnovel.blogspot.com