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Colleen McCullough

Colleen McCullough (born 1 June 1937, Wellington, New South Wales, Australia) — Australian writer, author of the worldwide bestseller The Thorn Birds and the 7-volume historical epic Masters of Rome. In the Roman cycle, Mithridates Eupator, the Bosporus, and Panticapaeum are artistically depicted — a page of the ancient history of Crimea within the civilizational space of the Roman Empire.

Overview

Colleen McCullough was born on 1 June 1937 in the city of Wellington — not the capital of New Zealand (whence her mother hailed), but in the Australian state of New South Wales. Among the writer's ancestors were people of Maori descent. The family moved frequently until settling in Sydney. Under her parents' influence she chose medicine, studied at the University of Sydney specializing in neuropsychology, and worked in a hospital; in 1963 she moved to London, and from 1967 to 1976 taught at Yale University — it was then that she wrote her first books.

Her debut novel Tim was published in 1974; three years later came the saga The Thorn Birds, a worldwide bestseller translated into twenty languages. Her bibliography also includes science fiction (The Symbol of Faith of the Third Millennium), the detective series featuring Carmine Delmonico, and — most important for the Crimean theme — the 7-volume historical epic Masters of Rome about the final period of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Empire.

In Masters of Rome, Crimea appears as a remote yet, in civilizational terms, integral part of the Roman Empire. Mithridates Eupator united Pontus and the Bosporus (eastern Crimea and part of the Kuban); the Armenian king Tigran acted as his ally. After his defeat by Pompey at Nicopolis (Pontus), Mithridates withdrew to Panticapaeum on the Cimmerian Bosporus, raised a new army (including Scythians), forced his son Machares to take his own life, and planned a march on Rome along the northern shore of the Euxine — through the Roxolani, the Danube delta, the Dacians, the Bessi, the Cardani, the Drava and the Sava, and the Carnian Alps. His death: poison did not work (he had spent years accustoming himself to toxins); he was stabbed with a sword by a Gaul from his personal guard. The legend became the basis of many works, including an opera by Mozart based on the play by Jean Racine.

The author of the article, Valerii Verkhovskyi (in Krymska svitlytsia, 2018, No. 35), rhetorically asks: had Mithridates won, would Panticapaeum have become the capital of the world of that time — and answers that for the history of civilization (inventions, just rule) nothing would have changed; he concludes with the Roman saying: "If you want peace, prepare for war."

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Biography: born 1.06.1937, Wellington (New South Wales, Australia; not NZ); mother from NZ; Maori ancestors; settled in Sydney; medicine/neuropsychology (University of Sydney); hospital; 1963 — London; 1967–1976 — teaching at Yale; first books written during this period.
  • Works: Tim (1974); The Thorn Birds (three years later) — bestseller, 20 languages; science fiction The Symbol of Faith of the Third Millennium; the detective series featuring Carmine Delmonico; the 7-volume Masters of Rome.
  • Crimea in Masters of Rome: Crimea as a civilizational component of the Roman Empire; Mithridates Eupator, Pontus and the Bosporus (eastern Crimea + part of the Kuban); ally Tigran (Armenia); Panticapaeum on the Cimmerian Bosporus.
  • Conflict with Rome: Pompey vs Mithridates (Nicopolis in Pontus, trophies, gold); plan for a march on Rome along the northern shore of the Euxine (Roxolani, Danube, Dacians, Bessi, Cardani, Drava, Sava, Carnian Alps); son Machares forced to suicide.
  • The death legend: doses of poison; order to kill daughters, wives, concubines, and two infant sons; poison did not work; killed by a Gaul from the guard with a sword; opera/literature (Mozart, Racine).
  • Article author's rhetoric: "had Mithridates won — would Panticapaeum have become the capital"; "if you want peace, prepare for war."
  • Crimea in Works of Foreign Literature: Crimea Against Rome — an article by Valerii Verkhovskyi in the newspaper Krymska svitlytsia (2018, No. 35), the main primary source on McCullough and the depiction of Mithridates/Bosporus/Panticapaeum in Masters of Rome.
  • Jules Verne and Crimea — another article in the "Crimea in Works of Foreign Literature" rubric about the depiction of Crimea in foreign literature.
  • Beryl Bainbridge — article in the same rubric about the British writer and the novel Master Georgie (Crimean War).
  • Brian Garfield — article in the same rubric about the American writer and the novel Kolchak's Gold with a Crimean plot.
  • Jasper Fforde — article in the same rubric about the Welsh science-fiction writer and the novel "The Eyre Affair" (2001).
  • George Fraser — article in the same rubric about the Scottish writer and the Harry Flashman series (Crimean War, escape from captivity).
  • Harold Lamb — article in the same rubric about the American writer and the "Cossack cycle" about the Cossack Klit (Crimean Khanate, influence on Robert E. Howard).
  • Heinrich Böll — article in the same rubric about the German Nobel laureate writer and his Crimean front experience (1943).
  • Andrii Shchekun — chief editor of the newspaper Krymska svitlytsia, which published the article about McCullough.
  • Alessandro Digbi (Oleksandr Digbi) — architect of the Mithridates Stairs in Kerch (Panticapaeum); the toponym "Mithridates" is connected with the king depicted in Masters of Rome.
  • Ivan Stempkovsky — city governor of Kerch; the Mithridates Stairs and the chapel on Mithridates Mountain.
  • Destroyed Churches of Kerch — the lost sacred architecture of Kerch on Mithridates Mountain (historical Panticapaeum).
  • Louis Bussenard — article in the same rubric about the French novelist and the novel The Zouaves of the Malakhov Mound about the Crimean War.
  • Mark Twain — article in the same rubric about the American writer who visited Crimea in 1867 and described his impressions in the book The Innocents Abroad (bestseller of 1869).
  • Michael Moorcock — article in the same rubric about the British science-fiction writer and the Chronicles of Hawkmoon series (techno-fantasy) with a Crimean plot (Simferopol, Kerch, "Ukrania").