[presidio9]

Brown lists everything that really does (or did) exist and then makes a point that this book is FICTION.

Of course the book is FICTION from Dan Brown's point of view. All of the main characters are his creations. And the list he provides does not account for the context that he employs historical facts in the story. For example, the so-called "Priory of Sion."

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

I believe that the idea of Mary Magdalene as Christ's spouse is based on some of the Nag Hamadi Gnostic codexes, specifically the so called Gospel of Mary (Magdalene). This material also was part of the basis of The last Temptation of Christ. Of course not even the heretical material actually states that Christ and Mary were lovers, merely that she was rather more important than shown in the Canon.