The Barbary Pirates (39 page)

Authors: William Dietrich

BOOK: The Barbary Pirates

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Certainly there has been a steady accumulation of evidence in recent decades that the ancient world was more technologically sophisticated than once supposed. Cicero recorded that Archimedes made an early geared “computer” to imitate the motion of heavenly bodies, and just such an ancient device was discovered by Greek sponge divers in 1900. Dubbed the Antikythera computer and on display in Athens, it calculated the movements of sun, moon, and stars.

Fulton’s idea of a flamethrower is predated to at least A.D. 674, when Byzantium used a new invention called “Greek fire” to destroy an Islamic fleet.

The French legend of a Little Red Man is true, and recorded in some Bonaparte biographies. Also reported is Napoleon’s habit of shooting at Josephine’s swans.

The Palais Royal was the Las Vegas of its day, and the ruins, caves, and cathedrals of Syracuse are mostly as described.

Ioannis Kapodistrias, the Greek patriot whom Ethan meets on Thira, became the father of Greek independence from Turkey. Other characters taken from history include French secret policeman Joseph Fouché, American naval lieutenant Andrew Sterett, and Yussef Karamanli.

The gigantic lizard aboard Aurora’s ship is the famed Komodo dragon of Indonesia. While not documented by Western science until 1910, the animals were most likely known to natives of the archipelago. History records that Yussef did keep lions and other cats in his Tripoli palace.

The Egyptian Rite was a real heretic offshoot of Freemasonry, founded by the con man and conjurer Cagliostro about 1777. Its reach, ambition, and longevity have been fictionalized in my novels.

The island archipelago of Thira is better known as Santorini today, the rim of a shattered volcano. In approximately 1640 B.C., the island blew itself apart in an eruption so violent that the tsunami waves that hit Crete may have toppled Minoan civilization. Some scientists believe that Plato’s story of Atlantis was inspired by that real-life incident. Minoan ruins were uncovered near Akrotiri, and some of the murals described in this novel can be seen at a museum on the island.

Was there ever really an Og, mysterious ancestors, and fantastic ancient weapons? History is just that, a story, and sorting fact from legend will occupy historians and archaeologists for centuries to come. What we do know is that legends once dismissed as complete myth, such as Atlantis, seem to have some basis in geologic truth—and that the more we learn about ancient people, the more ingenious they seem.

This novel was made possible by the research of scores of nonfiction authors who have written on the lives of its principals, the Barbary Wars, and the history of France and the Mediterranean. The book was also a wonderful excuse to visit lovely lairs such as Santorini and Syracuse. Special thanks to Huxley College and to Nick and Cynthia Zaferatos, who introduced me to Greece. Once again, my appreciation to the team at HarperCollins: my editor, Rakesh Satyal, publisher Jonathan Burnham, assistant editor Rob Crawford, senior production editor David Koral, publicist Heather Drucker, online marketing manager Kyle Hansen, foreign rights marketer Sandy Hodgman, and the designers, artists, copy editors, and marketers who make any novel a team effort. My agent Andrew Stuart adeptly keeps me in business. And, as always, my wife, Holly, remains as travel assistant, first reader, necessary skeptic, and muse. May the adventure continue!

About the Author

WILLIAM DIETRICH
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of nine novels, including the most recent Ethan Gage adventures,
Napoleon’s Pyramids, The Rosetta Key,
and
The Dakota Cipher
. He is also a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, historian, and naturalist. A winner of the PNBA Award and Washington Governor Writer’s Award, he is a professor of journalism at Western Washington University.

www.williamdietrich.com

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ALSO BY WILLIAM DIETRICH

Fiction

The Dakota Cipher

The Rosetta Key

Napoleon’s Pyramids

The Scourge of God

Hadrian’s Wall

Dark Winter

Getting Back

Ice Reich

Nonfiction

On Puget Sound

Natural Grace

Northwest Passage

The Final Forest

Credits

Map by Casey Greene for Springer Cartographics LLC

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

THE BARBARY PIRATES
. Copyright © 2010 by William Dietrich. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

ISBN: 978-0-06-156796-4 (Hardcover)

ISBN: 978-0-06-197009-2 (International Edition)

EPub Edition © February 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-198697-0