Swords and sandals in the future; or Ancient Rome meets the 1920s

So recently I was reading an English translation of Quo Vadis and got the idea to write a kind of Sword and Sandal story set in a future Banana Republic. The plot is basically Quo Vadis meets Spartacus.

Marcus Valerius and Ligia (named after the protagonists of Quo Vadis) are both teenaged state-owned military slaves used by the Aquilian Republican Army for combat and entertainment.

Valerius is a Child Soldier and Ligia is the Aquilian equivalent of a comfort woman, a military slave prostitute, actress and singer performing for the troops and doing various domestic chores because both of them are the results of synthetic biology.

All Valerius wants is for his patron to help him join the Presidential Guard or train as a city watchman, where he can start putting his archery skills to good use and maybe have a chance at increased freedom and something close to citizenship. He also wants Ligia, his childhood friend, to be assigned to him as a concubine in the slave breeding program in order to make sure she's protected from further abuse.

Ligia wants out. She's secretly part of a religious order along the lines of the Knights Templar with Ebionite beliefs called The House of the Branch. Although Valerius is her childhood friend, she hates the idea of being part of the slave system and becoming a concubine while he can't imagine anything other than the life he's used to and thinks rebels are troublemakers. She also is uncomfortable with the idea of him "protecting" her through a relationship.

She dreams of leading a slave revolt with him and overthrowing the Hereditary Republic of the Claudius family. The story is written as a scrapbook collection of letters sent by the two of them to each other and other people, diary entries and transcripts of Internet conversations.

All this is a futuristic take on sword and sandals with increased focus on female characters, set in setting which is a cross between Ancient Rome and The Roaring '20s. How could I make an "Ancient Rome meets the Roaring Twenties" setting make sense and not seem like a weird mix of elements?

edited 5th Feb '15 10:23:41 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

By "futuristic" do you also mean 1920's-equivalent technology when compared with Imperial Rome-equivalent? Rather than "futuristic" compared with our time?

It shouldn't be too hard to make it work - the Post-War gaiety and joie de vivre with the focus on parties, celebrities, enjoying yourselves etc that typify the Roaring Twenties wouldn't be too alien to the "Bread and Circuses", hedonism, orgies etc of Imperial Rome.

You could upgrade the weapons to 1920s tech - rifles rather than bows, no actual swords - without too much difficulty (still using swords and bows when they have all the other technological advances that typified the '20s would seem like Anachronism Stew) and the whole Women's Emancipation aspect could be a good backdrop to the rest of the story, especially given that a major character is a sex slave (especially if you have it that "free" women are becoming emancipated but slaves are not likely to have that happen for them).

Keep the main storyline but just change the setting somewhat - it's been successfully done and I've no reason to doubt you can do it just as successfully. The banana republic you want could easily have the requisite politics, military structure that is similar to that of Rome while populace could be obsessed with fashion, music, celebrity lifestyles and all the craziness that was the '20s.

It's certainly doable.

Frankly, I'd like to see it when it's done, so get writing.

Thanks Wolf! Will keep those in mind.On the other point; it’s kind of like a sandalpunk setting with a 1920s aesthetic.

edited 8th Feb '15 5:50:12 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

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edited 8th Feb '15 5:49:24 PM by MorwenEdhelwen