In Saecula Saeculorum - World Without End, Amen

Emperor Antoninus Pius

My novel In Saecula Saeculorum is a time travel adventure set in Ancient Rome. 

I wanted a Latin language title that would somehow encapsulate the concept of time and also touch upon the desperation of the mission depicted in the novel. 

Four young people have been unwittingly trained for a near hopeless mission back in time to Ancient Rome for an outside chance to save the modern world from certain destruction.

The phrase In Saecula Saeculorum turns out to be the perfect vehicle to convey this. Here's why.

 

In Saecula Saeculorum

This phrase is ubiquitous in the Latin Mass, as is its Greek antecedent in the Orthodox Liturgy, εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. 

It occurs multiple times in the Greek New Testament. In the King James translation, it is usually rendered "for ever and ever." In one place, Ephesians 3:21, however, the phrase is translated as "World without End."

Perhaps solely because of the glorious poetry of this felicitous rendering, "World without End" became the common doxology of the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church.  

The word saeculum originally means "a lifetime." How long is that? It depends on each person. As such, what is a lifetime of lifetimes?

The young people in the novel In Saecula Saeculorum sacrifice the only lifetime they have for the outside chance to save the world. Someday the World will indeed end. But if they can do anything about it, our planet will remain a World without End on their watch...










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Thalatta! The Sea!

Xenophon, a mercenary who made the march of the ten thousand, called out with the rest, thalatta, thalatta! The Sea the Sea!

Joseph Brownlee Brown's poem captures the action nicely:

Thalatta!

I stand upon the summit of my years.
Behind the toil, the camp, the march, the strife,
The wandering and the desert; vast, afar,
Beyond this weary way, behold!
The Sea!

The sea o'erswept by clouds and winds and wings,
By thoughts and wishes manifold, whose breath
Is freshness and whose mighty pulse is peace.
Palter no question of the dim Beyond;

Cut lose the bark; such voyage itself is rest.

Majestic motion, unimpeded scope,
A widening heaven, a current without care.
Eternity! Deliverance, promise, course!
Time-tired souls salute thee from the shore.

In my novel, In Saecula Saeculorum, a young man has fixated on the quote, Thalatta, Thalatta, because it reminds him of lost parents and it seems to offer the hope of a future he feels in his heart. Read the novel to ride the seas with him and see if he finds the peace he seeks...

Ab Ovo - From the Egg

Leda and her Twins

The poet Horace wrote that the Trojan War should not be recounted “nec gemino bellum  Troianum orditur ab ovo,” that is to say,  from the story of how Helen of Troy was born
from one of the twin eggs after Zeus turned her mother Leda into a goose. (Horace, Ars Poetica, 147)

From this, we get the Latin proverb "Ab Ovo" (From the Egg), meaning, one need not tell any story from some unnecessary point prior to the event or in unnecessary detail.

This proverb is a nice way to lock in the ablative singular neuter form (following the preposition a/ab).

To learn more about Latin, visit the Latin resources page on my website.

I have a collection of other Latin quotes there that you can explore.

Meet the Team of In Saecula Saeculorum

In Saecula Saeculorum. That's Latin for "Unto Ages of Ages." It's an Espionage-Adventure novel set in Ancient Rome.



 

Four high school students are sent back in time to Ancient Rome on a mission to save the modern world. They thought they were going to a quirky Classical Academy. They were actually duped by MI-6 and the NSA in preparation for this crucial mission.

They've learned Latin, sword-fighting, horseback riding, and other practical skills that the mission requires. Even so, they're high school students with all of the insecurities and angst other kids their age are going through. And now these four have had the survival of the world dropped onto their shoulders.

Click on their cartoon avatars to learn more about them and what part of me they expressed as I was writing this novel.

Will Stanhope

 Will Stanhope. The only Brit on the team. Nobility, Science Whiz, Secretly in love with Layla.

Layla Ramzy

Layla Ramzy.  Linguistic Wizard. Insecure despite her brilliance. Secretly in love with Will.

Carmen Mattila

Carmen Mattila. Best fighter of the group, be it with fists or swords. Also captain of the Chess team.

Jonathan Drake

  

Jonathan Drake. Orphan. Underachiever. Only student at the Academy to have gotten an out-of-school suspension.






An Espionage-Adventure novel set in Ancient Rome? What does Keith Massey know about any of this?






Immediately after 9/11, I sent my resume to the National Security Agency to see if they could use my expertise. I have

my PhD in Biblical Hebrew, with a minor in Arabic. They hired me and I worked there for four years, during which time I was awarded the Global War on Terror Civilian Service Medal for service I performed in Iraq.

I left the NSA in 2006 to become a high school Latin teacher. You see, my undergrad studies had been Latin and Classical Greek. 

In Saecula Saeculorum let me express the full range of my learning and life experience, weaving together my expertise as both a spy and a language scholar. But, more than that, it's a story about young people thrust into greater responsibility than they feel ready for. And who among us has not felt the same? For them, however, the stakes are unbelievably high. Read the book to find out how they race to the save the world while also trying to save one another.



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Meet the Team of In Saecula Saeculorum: Jonathan Drake

My novel In Saecula Saeculorum tells the story of four high school students trained to be sent back in time to Ancient Rome to save the modern world. It combines Espionage/Action/Adventure with a touch of Latin language dialogue for authenticity. 

The team that tries to save our world consists of the following characters. The cartoon avatars of these characters are based on descriptions of them found in the novel.

Jonathan Drake

Jonathan is going through a rough patch. His parents died three years ago. He's been living with an uncle who's so careful not to replace Jonathan's father, that Jonathan feels quite alone. 

And now, as graduation nears, he has to see the other kids' parents at all the events and it reminds him of what he's lost.

I lost both my parents earlier than most people do. And so I feel Jonathan's pain of being an orphan. 

But Jonathan's also about to be thrust into a dangerous mission. And I know what it means to try and set aside my grief to face the challenges of the moment.

Read the book to find out how Jonathan copes and forms a new life on the other side of sorrow.


Click on the pictures to meet the rest of the team:

Will Stanhope

Layla Ramzy

Carmen Mattila

Meet the Team of In Saecula Saeculorum: Carmen Mattila

My novel In Saecula Saeculorum tells the story of four high school students trained to be sent back in time to Ancient Rome to save the modern world. It combines Espionage/Action/Adventure with a touch of Latin language dialogue for authenticity. 

The team that tries to save our world consists of the following characters. The cartoon avatars of these characters are based on descriptions of them found in the novel.

Carmen Mattila

Carmen is quite a contradiction. She's a girlie-girl while simultaneously being the best hand-to-hand fighter at the Academy. She's the best at sword fighting and horse-back riding as well. 

And because of those skills, she will be tasked with fighting and killing the team's enemies when they arrive back in time. 

And her tender heart will not be ready for the trauma of taking another human life.

I worked at the National Security Agency as an Arabic linguist for four years following 9/11. And I served in Iraq for three months in 2004. Did I ever fire a gun in anger? No, thank God. But I worked in a world wherein my actions meant life and death for others. And anyone with a conscience will feel it burdened in the midst of all that.

And so I know what Carmen experiences. Read the book to learn the despair into which she falls and how she finds the grace to move on.

Click on the pictures to meet the rest of the team:

Will Stanhope

Layla Ramzy

Jonathan Drake

Meet the Team of In Saecula Saeculorum: Layla Ramzy

My novel In Saecula Saeculorum tells the story of four high school students trained to be sent back in time to Ancient Rome to save the modern world. It combines Espionage/Action/Adventure with a touch of Latin language dialogue for authenticity. 

The team that tries to save our world consists of the following characters. The cartoon avatars of these characters are based on descriptions of them found in the novel.

Layla Ramzy

Layla is a linguistic wizard. She was a native speaker of Spanish and Arabic before she came to the Academy. Now she's also fluent in Latin, Classical Greek, and every Romance language there is.

But she's insecure. She loves Will but would never dare tell him. She's been driven by her mother to be the best there ever was, but she's stressed beyond her limits.

I love languages and I'm good at learning them. So Layla channels my linguistic talents. I endowed her with something I wish I could have had--a second language as a child. And I envy her the fact that she came to Classical Studies already speaking a Romance language. 

And who among us has not loved from afar and yet kept our heart secret? Read the book to find out if Layla can ever speak her love for Will.


Click on the pictures to meet the rest of the team:

Will Stanhope

Carmen Mattila

Jonathan Drake

Meet the Team of In Saecula Saeculorum: Will Stanhope

Travel back in time to Ancient Rome. In Saecula Saeculorum. Sword fights. Chases on horseback. Adventure. Love. Loss. Latin.

My novel In Saecula Saeculorum tells the story of four high school students trained to be sent back in time to Ancient Rome to save the modern world. It combines Espionage/Action/Adventure with a touch of Latin language dialogue for authenticity. 

The team that tries to save our world consists of the following characters. The cartoon avatars of these characters are based on descriptions of them found in the novel.

Will Stanhope

Will Stanhope

Will is the only Brit on the otherwise all American team. He's a member of the British nobility and a science whiz. Will is also utterly, madly, and unrequitedly in love with Layla.

My overall goal in crafting this novel was to create a team of kids who were from wildly different backgrounds, but would be forced to gel around their common mission. So we needed a Brit on the team (it's a joint MI-6/NSA project, afterall).

Will channels me in several ways. First, Will is the only openly professing Christian on the team. He's an Anglican; I'm Eastern Orthodox. But the novel by no means preaches at you. It's an Espionage/Time Travel/Adventure, not a catechism. Even so, Will's faith creates a plot tension when he faces moral dilemmas in the course of the adventure.

While I was at the NSA, I was occasionally put into a leadership role. And with the stakes so high (force protection of our men in the field, for example), I loathed such responsibility. Will is put in charge of the mission and he at times buckles under the burden because he, and I, are human and feel pain and loss if we can't bring everyone home safely. The other team members will need him to somehow hold it together if they are to survive. Read the book to learn how he does.


Click on the pictures to meet the rest of the team:

Layla Ramzy

Carmen Mattila

Jonathan Drake

Ancient History More Relevant Than Ever...

I am flabbergasted how a blog post I wrote about Spartacus brings a dozen people to my site every single day. There is obviously a hunger out there for a deeper knowledge of some outstanding people from the ancient world.

And that's because, I believe, people today are eager for answers about how to live our lives and find success. And some deep instinct tells us that lessons from the past remain ever relevant today.

And the History of Ancient Rome is chocked full of intriguing personalities worth learning from. Men such as Julius Caesar, Crassus, Cincinnatus, Fabius Maximus, not to mention enemies of Rome such as Zenobia and Hannibal. 

My undergraduate studies were in Classics (Latin and Greek), and I teach Latin today in a public high school. And I find myself constantly citing the stories of the past as examples for how to face the trials of today.

That's why I made an online Udemy course titled "Fortune Favors the Brave: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Success." I'm offering the course for free,  if you'd like to take it for free.

The course is available on a "Pay What You Will" scale, from free to full price ($29.00).  You can view an intro video about the course by clicking on the price link of your choice. (If you decide on a different pay scale, just click out and make a new selection.)

Full Price - $29.00
Discounted - $19.00
Discounted - $9.00
Discounted - Free

If you take the course at the free or discounted rates and decide you want to thank me/support me, you can always purchase one of my books. And the perfect add-on to a course about ancient history is my espionage/adventure/time-travel novel set in Ancient Rome.

In Saecula Saeculorum tells the story of four young people who are unwittingly trained for a mission back in time to save the world. 

In Saecula Saeculorum is the perfect novel for anyone who has ever studied Latin because the heroes who go back in time have to speak it. Don't worry, if you've never taken Latin you'll follow the action just fine, because I always make it obvious what they're saying. But you'll also come away knowing some Latin, which is never bad, right? And if you've studied Latin, this is obviously the perfect novel for you.

Four high school Latin students are on a mission back in time to save the world. If they pull this off, they're making some demands. Mr. President, we want a Prom!

They've got all the typical worries of teenagers. Grades and romance top the list of their dramas. But their last four years have been a lie. They thought they were in high school, but they were actually being trained in a joint NSA/MI-6 mission to go back in time to save the world!

Fighting the Blues: A Blue Monday Antidote...

Click to purchase a print of Annie Lee's beautiful "Blue Monday"

Apparently it began as a marketing ploy, the assertion that the Monday of the last full week in January is the most depressing day of the year and, for that reason, you really ought to book a flight to some vacation getaway.

Well, January here in the Northeast has been cold, snowy, and generally depressing.

So, even if it's not scientifically and certifiably the most depressing day of the year, my novels include uplifting and thoughtful works sure to feed your soul. I'll take this opportunity to make a few shameless plugs!

Strange as it might seem, one of the best antidotes to the winter blahs is a good cry. Readers tell me that In Saecula Saeculorum leaves them reaching for the tissues constantly, though it's also full of just as many laughs, smiles, and cheers. It's a Young Adult, Time Travel, Adventure, Romance,  all rolled up in one.

If you're in the mood for a good old fashioned espionage thriller, Amor Vincit Omnia: an Andrew Valquist Adventure  tells the story of how Dr. Andrew Valquist starts work at the National Security Agency, only to be sent on a dangerous assignment on his second day with the Agency! 





 
A Place of Brightness recounts Dr. Andrew Valquist's history as the son of a Romanian Freedom Fighter. Andrew and his twin brother, Father Stefan, face intrigue, danger, and adventure as they journey back to their mother's homeland to solve the mystery of her past.

Enjoy, dear reader. Be well and God Bless on Blue Monday and every day.

Cheers! To Your Health! Pro Sanitate Tua!

I'm big on the notion that the living Romance languages are the best window into the actual spoken conventions in ancient Latin. In another post I explored this concept with reference to the words for 'yes' and 'no'. But since I'm sitting at home, having begun my Winter Break, and I'm sipping a glass of wine, I decided to explore the ancient Roman conventions on drinking toasts.

It is known that ancient Greeks and Romans, on drinking occasions, poured out wine libations on behalf of the dead. I have seen this practice still in Romania quite commonly. When wine is set forth, someone will lead the group in pouring out a bit onto a plate or the ground (if outside), with the words pentru morți (for the dead). So we can be safe in assuming that when ancient Romans performed this ritual they poured out wine and spoke the words "pro mortuis."

[Worth memorizing here is the Latin proverb De Mortuis nil sed bonum, 'Concerning the Dead, [speak] nothing but good'.]

But, in addition to the dead, the ancient Romans must also have been making toasts for the health of themselves and their guests. And the common words in the Romance languages for this toast points us to the Latin original.

French: santé
Spanish: salud
Italian: salude
Romanian: sănătate

The Romans undoubtedly made a toast for the health of each other using one or both of the words sanitas and salus. 

[Worth memorizing here, salus populi suprema est lex, 'the safety of the people is the highest law']
 
The Latin toast word prosit (may it be good for someone) has come into German as both prosit and the shortened form prost.

In my novel In Saecula Saeculorum, four high school students are sent back in time to ancient Rome on a mission to save the world. But they are not prepared for the fact that this will mean they are drinking wine at nearly every meal. And one of the students, Carmen, quickly develops a problem with alcohol. And this is a bit of a crisis, because she is also the best fighter in the group. The students are surrounded by dangers that Carmen is best suited to face, all while she sinks ever deeper into her addiction. To find out how it all turns out, click on the cover to explore the book further.

The Bibliotheca Ulpia

I adore the Emperor Trajan. Counted among the "Five Good Emperors," he succeeded in pressing Rome's boundaries to what are acknowledged as their furthest extent.

When I was in Iraq in 2004, I thought about the fact that I was in several places that I know Emperor Trajan also stood during his final campaign before he died in AD 117.

But what makes me adore him all the more is that when he wanted to make a lasting monument to his greatness, granted he made a massive column celebrating his victory over Dacia. But he placed that column in the courtyard of two facing buildings--a library--the Bibliotheca Ulpia.

At its height, the Bibliotheca Ulpia was a rival in size and scope with the more famous library in Alexandria. Like the library in Alexandria, we don't know exactly when it ceased to be a functional deposit of human knowledge.

But the fact that Emperor Trajan wanted a library as his legacy speaks volumes about the man. 

In my novel In Saecula Saeculorum, a group of four high school students are sent back in time on a mission to retrieve information the future world hopes may reside in the Bibliotheca Ulpia. Without this information, the world will come to an end in the year 2013. The students will have to grapple with the reality that an ancient library was not a place where you get a card and check things out. It was, instead, a place where you had exactly one chance to convince the guardians that you were a scholar worthy of entrance. And if they don't pull this off, the world will end. That's quite a lot of pressure for a couple of eighteen-year-olds!

Thalassa! The Sea! The Warriors!

I keep hearing rumors of a remake/reboot of the classic 1979 move The Warriors. I'm generally a fan of reboots. I love, for instance, the Abrams reboot of Star Trek (though I have friends who will not even speak of the movie). 

So, I hope the rumors are true. I will no less love the original fantastic film if some modern reinterpretation of the concept is put forth.

After all, the classic movie was itself a modern interpretation of a classical concept.

As Socrates' student Xenophon describes it in his work the Anabasis, a group of Greek mercenaries are thousands of miles behind enemy lines when they bet on the wrong horse and fight for the losing side of a Persian battle.  

And the movie does a terrific job of conveying a group of scared warriors scratching and clawing their way to safety.

When the Greeks, after fighting their way through enemy territory, finally see the water of the Black Sea (which they know are controlled by friendly Greeks), they realize they are finally safe. And so they shout out, Thalassa! Thalassa! The Sea! The Sea! 

I show the movie to my Latin classes when we've covered a lot of ground and I sense the kids need a break. It takes typically just two periods and there are numerous language and historical mini-lessons I draw out of it. Just such terrific film making.

My novel In Saecula Saeculorum includes a character named Jonathon, who has lost his parents and fixates upon the story of the Anabasis, in particular upon the phrase Thalassa! Thalassa! For Jonathon, Thalassa is the memory of a sweet time and a home he knows he can never get back to. But he soon learns, in the course of the novel, that he's to be sent on a mission to save the planet. And the adventure he faces is worthy of anything Xenophon and the Warriors ever endured.