#presentations and challenging #plenary questions

Happy Thursday!

Yesterday, 13th March 2019, I was giving a presentation on the Roman Invasions of Scotland to a group of retired Professional and Business Men in Aberdeen. The talk went smoothly and, as always, I get so involved in relating information about my current passion - Ancient Roman invasions of Scotland - that the time flies past. 

During the plenary session a number of the 37 or so strong audience asked some very pertinent questions, which I was glad I knew most of the answers to. Only one was an 'I'm not sure' answer, since I was asked when the Christian influence would have begun to make an impact amongst Roman invaders in Scotland. As far as I've read it was very unlikely that any of Agricola's Roman legions and Auxiliary units would have been practising Christians, though I could never rule out that they might have heard of what was a relatively new religion in Rome itself. What I could say was that during the Severan invasion amongst soldiers in southern Scotland - e.g. at Trimontium Roman Fort - there is evidence that the Cult of Mithras was popular and there is evidence of this for the era around A.D. 210. To my knowledge the evidence of Christian worship in the Hadrian's Wall area is dated to the later third and early fourth centuries but I'd need to do a little re-reading to remember that exactly.

The point is that I love being asked challenging questions as well as easy ones!

Ten paperbacks will have been sold as a result of the presentation and a few ebooks. What was a first was an email popping into my inbox even before I got home after the presentation to ask if I'd be interested in giving a presentation to another history group in Aberdeen in June 2019. Yes, I answered, even though I know that these small groups cannot pay me proper author rates. Some day soon I will learn to say no...maybe! 

I love this part of my author job - talking about a subject I'm pretty well obsessed with and which I'll probably never stop researching. 

Slainthe!