@Malisky your reasons 1 and 2 are why I tend to dislike prologues and will often pass over books that include them for those reasons.
I included a 3 page prologue to my as-yet unpublished WIP, which I think meets Jannert's quoted definition: A prologue is an episode that pertains to the story but does not include the hero (or includes the hero at a time well before the story proper begins, when he's a child.) A prologue can establish why things are as they are in the world of your story, and why a character is the way he is when the main action begins. - Jeff Gerke, author of Write Your Novel In A Month My prologue is set in 55BC in Carrhae, in Syria, where Roman survivors of that debacle are being executed by the Parthians. As the remnants of the third cohort prepare to march to their deaths, a Parthian officer, accompanied by some oriental-looking individuals tells the centurion (Marcus Lucius), that they are spared, they are wanted as mercenaries. The group, with their wounded in litters, march off the next day, heading east, the gods know where, but alive and going as soldiers. This introduces some historical facts for the reader: 1. Rome and Parthia are NOT friends 2. Roman soldiers are very stoic, going to their deaths with their honor intact. 3. There were survivors of the Carrhae disaster (three self-raised legions under Marcus Licinius Crassus, contemporary of Caesar, were wiped out) 4. Some of them were taken east somewhere. Chapter 1 (4 pages) picks up in Rome in 98AD, 150 years later. An Hanaean (Chinese) diplomatic mission under Gan Ying is in the Senate with Emperor Trajan. Ten very oriental-appearing individuals are on the dais with emperor, but clad in togas and the one woman in a stola. Odd. The other Hanaeans are on the floor, sitting cross-legged, very impassive, and in Hanaean garb. The standards of the lost three cohorts of Carrhae are presented. The emperor announces that the individuals on the dais have had their ancestry researched and their citizenship affirmed from old legion musters. Individually they receive written affirmation of their citizenship in a formal ceremony, as the descendant of a Roman citizen is a citizen. The last two are Marcus Lucius Quintus, and his sister, Marcia Lucia, affirmed as descendants of Marcus Lucius of COH III from the prologue. One of the ten on the dais translates all the pronouncements into the sing-song Hanaean language: they are bilingual Latin/Chinese translators, and the Hanaean mission drew on their skills. The emperor solicits the Senate to approve funding the building of three big ships for a return mission to China under Senator Galba, with some of the translators to accompany him, which is the beginning of my story. In chapter 1, the reader learns 1. The Chinese sent a diplomatic mission to Rome arriving in 98AD. (They actually tried to do so, under Gan Ying, but that mission or may or may not have actually reached Rome.) 2. Rome sent a return mission to China: they had an historical presence in the Chinese court in 166AD, so there HAD to be a first, might as well be this fictional one! 3. Both empires had a desire to know more about the other 4. They both had to have translators: descendants of the survivors of Carrhae, which some believe were resettled in Liqian in Gansu (introduced much later) could be a source, if they kept their Latin and grew up bilingual... though 150 years is a long time! (Later we learn the ten in the mission were all that were left in Liqian young enough to make the trip, Marcia just 12 when she was taken to the court for training ten years before.) 4. They are affirmed as Roman citizens, the woman sine suffragio (without the vote) with all the special rights that come with citizenship. This plays a significant role in the central crisis of the story Interestingly, the area around Liqian was the origin of Chinese red grape wine viticulture at about exactly the time the Carrhae survivors would have arrived, around 40-25BC. I can imagine this would be priority one for resettled Roman soldiers, who would get tired fast of Chinese white rice wine! I think Jeff Gerke's definition, compliments of Jannert, is a good one, and I hope I adhered to it. I called it a prologue, rather than chapter, because it is so far removed in time from the body of the story, but in fact made the story possible... and who knows? They both WOULD have needed translators and in 100AD just where else would one find bilingual, biliterate Latin and Hanaean speakers?
