Venarium is a fortress and the site of a battle involving a young Conan in "Beyond the Black River" by Robert E. Howard. When the Aquilonian Empire attempted to colonize Cimmeria, it built Venarium to hold down the region. The natives would not stand for this, attacking the fortress, razing it to the ground, and killing most of the defenders.
While Howard never depicted the battle directly, other authors have opted to tell the story, including Roy Thomas and Rafael Kayanan in Marvel Comics' "Barbarians at the Gate" (Conan the Adventurer issue 1) (1994), and Harry Turtledove in the novel Conan of Venarium (2003). These are each different interpretations of the battle.
Venarium in Conan of Venarium[]
The Aquilonian Empire pressed into Cimmeria with overwhelming numbers and superior tactics and weaponry, easily overwhelming the natives. The Aquilonians constructed a number of forts to consolidate their conquest, the last of which was called Venarium.
Under the leadership of the military governor Count Stercus, Venarium endured for two years. It was planned to be the nucleus of a genuine Aquilonian city. This was not to be. Stercus' scandalous sexual licentiousness, and his casual murder of a few civilians, provoked the natives to full-blown insurrection. Venarium was razed to the ground, and nearly every soldier guarding it was killed.
See also[]
- Venarium at the Marvel wiki.
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