This is the fifth book in the Empire Series, the story of Marcus Valerius Aquila. For those of you who do not know the series, Marcus’ family has been killed on orders from the Emperor. His father knew that there was some trouble brewing, so he sent his eldest son away from Rome, to an old frien...
Rain yesterday, rain today and rain tomorrow most likely. This bloody damp gets everywhere. My armour will be rusting again by morning.’ ‘You’ll just have to get your brush out again, or that crested bastard will be up your arse like a rat up a rain pipe.’ The two sentries shared a grimace of mut...
Silence for the king!’King Naradoc of the Venicones smiled thinly at the ritual command, more usually issued to the noisy crowds of warriors who thronged the tribe’s royal hall when he held audiences with his people. On those days when the tribe’s elite gathered to pay homage to their ruler the h...
Do I have the honour of addressing Sextus Dexter Bassus?’The man in the doorway nodded, playing a forbidding look over the two men standing before him in the small but neat front garden of his house, rendered private from the main road that climbed the Aventine Hill by a substantial wall that ran...
For my understanding of what it took to transport large bodies of soldiers by sea I am indebted to Jorit Wintjes for sharing his paper ‘Hauling a Legion across the Ocean: Roman Military Sealift Capabilities beyond the Mediterranean’ so generously. I had no idea that many legions had an officer on...
The roads in and out of the city to the south, west and north, the grain stores and the tribe’s treasury, all were to be manned by men whose lack of fortune in the traditional drawing of lots had resulted in their being excluded from the feast other than a quiet mug of beer taken out of sight of ...
The forest’s upper limit was five hundred paces behind the rearmost of the Venicone warriors, whose initial headlong charge from the embattled camp had quickly been reduced to a long loping stride as they had weaved their way through the densely packed trees. His warriors were marching in a long,...