Twenty years have passed since the raw recruit Cato faced Centurion Macro on the training ground. Now scarred heroes of the Roman army’s toughest conflicts, they are the first choice when Emperor Nero’s top general, Corbulo, needs the best for a dangerous mission.Over a thousand miles from Rome, on northern coastline of the Euxine Sea, a city’s people face massacre as the Scythian Empire pushes back against Nero’s wild ambitions. The journey alone would break lesser men. And at their destination is a scene of carnage and approaching famine, while an army far greater in number than the Roman force gathers for the finish . . . Always in Cato’s mind is the terrible image of his last hours in Rome: the fearful faces of his wife and son, and Macro’s wife, held as hostages against his failure. The fate of countless Roman citizens, and of everyone Cato cares about, lies in his hands.
