Should his illiteracy be found out-and caring for his 80 men involves a nightmarish number of administrative duties-he’ll be demoted back to the ranks. Macro’s footing as an officer remains unstable. Training legionnaires takes the iron strength and fabulously foul mouth of a Parris Island drill sergeant, and a centurion must be able to inspire his men to hold fast and die should worst come to worst. We follow the rise of Macro, an illiterate soldier risen to the important rank of centurion in the Second Legion. As in any tale of politics and empire, spies and traitors abound. Whoever digs up the chest may well find himself on the way to being Emperor. 42, when everything hinges on a precious scroll of the map. The story begins a century later, during a renewed invasion in A.D. In the prologue, invading Romans, driven back by the barbarians, can’t drag a heavy chest of loot through the ooze of a bog their general orders them to sink it into the mud, and a soldier makes a wax map so it can be recovered by a later expedition. Politics and military maneuvers jointly shape newcomer Scarrow’s mighty plot. A British high-school history teacher goes down, down, down into the world of Roman legions attacking Britain, getting into fine military nitty-gritty.
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