The Enigma Of Arrival - pg. 92

I didn't think of this as an historical story, but more as a free
ride of the imagination. There was to be no research. I would take pointers from
Virgil perhaps for the sea and travel and the seasons, from the Gospels and the
Acts of the Apostles for the feel of the municipal or provincial organization of
the Roman Empire; I would get moods and the idea of ancient religion from
Apuleius; Horace and Martial and Petronius would give me hints for social
settings.