Product Description

Bestselling Simon Scarrow's brilliant adventure novels about the Roman army appear in B-format.

It is spring 45 AD and Centurions Macro and Cato, dismissed from the Second Legion in Britain, are trapped in Rome, waiting for their involvement in the death of a fellow officer to be investigated. It is then that the imperial secretary, the devious Narcissus, makes them an offer they can’t refuse: to rescue an imperial agent who has been captured by pirates operating from the Illyrian coast. With him were scrolls vital to the safety of the Emperor and the future of Rome. However, Narcissus also sends Vitellius, an old enemy of the two centurions. The three officers set out from Ravenna with the imperial fleet but the pirates are forewarned and the Romans pay a heavy price. Outnumbered by the enemy, surrounded by rumours of treachery and endangered by Vitellius’ desire to redeem himself, Centurions Macro and Cato must find the pirate base to avert a disaster that could destroy the Emperor.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1478 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Review
'It's Spartacus meets Master and Commander in this rip-roaring, thoroughly entertaining tale of swashbuckling adventure from one of the most exciting writers in historical fiction' (Scottish Daily Record )

About the Author
Simon Scarrow is a former teacher who now devotes himself to writing full time. He lives outside Norwich with his family.

Customer Reviews

Patrick O'Brian goes to Rome
This is the sixth in Scarrow's series following the exploits of two fetching characters in the Roman army of the first century.
As with the other books, the action is fast paced and vividly depicted so that the reader is right there in the heart of the battle. What impressed me so much about this book was the setting. While there are so many Hornblower type books about there's almost nothing on the Roman navy. Scarrow has set that right. The descriptions of the ships, their crews and their fighting techniques are vastly entertaining and for a writer who has based his heroes on land thus far, Scarrow has a fine feel for the sea. I just hope that he gives Macro and Cato a chance to return to nautical warfare at some point. (Although given the title of the seventh book, it looks like there will be some delay in this!)

All the characters are sharply drawn and the central relationship between Cato and Macro continues to develop in a convincing, and often touching way, accompanied by the ususal amusing banter and occasional hilarious one liners.

This series just gets better and better and to my mind rivals anything written by the biggest names in historical fiction. No, what am I saying? It's better than that. Much better.

Breathlessly Compelling
As compelling and readable as Scarrow's previous books in the series. While not in the league of Conn Iggulden's 'Emperor' novels, few writers can deliver such simple undiluted fun - this is historical fiction as pure romp - action-packed and unputdownable. The blokish dialogue grates at times, but this is a minor quibble. For my money infinitely superior to the likes of Bernard Cornwell.

Get this book today and you will devour it in a single sitting.

Superb
Scarrow’s sixth novel featuring the adventures of the grizzled centurion Macro and his able sidekick Cato takes them out of their comfort zone of the Augusta II in Britannia and plonks them in Rome. It was only a matter of time before we saw how Scarrow would deal with Rome and he neatly avoids it by having a quick trip to the races where their remaining monies are lost in a cloud of crash dust one hundred feet from the finish line and describing a squalid room in the the Subaran district. Other than a final visit to the imperial palace to see Narcissus, Scarrow avoids the place entirely.
It’s a few months after the heroic efforts of ‘The Eagle’s Prey’. Macro and Cato finds themselves penniless, out of commission and still under an execution order unless they obey Narcissus and lead a covert operation off the Ravenna coastline to recover three missing scrolls of immense value to the Empire that have been stolen by a group of pirates lead by the Greek, Telemachus and his son, Ajax. Thrown into the mix is the ever unctuous and viperish Vitellius, who has been appointed Prefect of the Fleet. The immediate antagonism followed by military ineptitude in a battle at sea results in a heavy loss for the Roman fleet and Vitellius’ attempt to blame Cato in official dispatches. Cato’s rewriting of the dispatch results in Vespasian’s arrival on the scene to direct a proper assault on the pirate’s lair, ensuring Cato and Macro are firmly thrust to the fore as the leaders and saviours of the Delphic scrolls.
During the course of the novel the scheming Vitellius somehow manages to land on his feet (and presumably Scarrow will eveentually have him meet his historical destiny come A.D 69), Macro finds his long lost mother and also the marine that stole her away from his father (there’s a nasty oedipan twist at the end) and Cato continues to mature into a fine leader of men. The paternal relationship between the two characters perfectly suits the rough and ready nature of Macro to his intellectual junior and as a pair they are formidable indeed.
This latest effort by Scarrow shows just how far his writing has come. His novels have gradually gained more and more bulk, substance of character, action and plotline. Action sequences are longer, more descriptive and thus possess more reality to them. Our two main characters have grown with Scarrow and possess immense likeability, his plotlines are clean and crisp and, above all, gripping. Reviews of his earlier novels complained about historical naivity and factual inaccuracy but that doesn’t matter with Scarrow (unlike Iggulden). These novels are quite simply superb.
Read them.