From the bestselling author of the Boudica novels, The Fire of Rome is a gripping race-against-time historical adventure in the bestselling tradition of Robert Harris’s Pompeii . AD 34: Sebastos Pantera is twelve. Training for the time when he too will be a soldier of Rome, he follows his father to a garden tomb on the outskirts of Jerusalem where he watches him greet two men and a heavily pregnant woman. In a moment that changes his life forever, he sees a wounded revolutionary being brought out of the tomb alive . . . Twenty years later, Pantera returns from five years undercover in Britannia as assassin and spy for the Legions. He is sick of spying, but a deadly combination of old loyalties and a sense of unfinished business combine to lure him homeward to the city of Rome where, his former mentor and spymaster, the Machiavellian Seneca the Younger, charges him with rooting out the revolutionaries responsible for the city’s seething unrest. Pantera discovers that the main troublemaker is none other than his closest friend, Saulos, a recent convert to the new religion of Christianity, and Saulos is planning the biggest single act of terrorism the Roman Empire has known. Spying, forbidden secrets, an ancient manuscript and an apocalyptic fire combine in a gripping thriller that will change the way we think about the ancient world. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Rome Series
This series transports readers to the tumultuous world of ancient Rome, following the clandestine missions of a spy serving the infamous Emperor Nero. Amidst palace intrigue and political conspiracies, danger lurks around every corner. Immerse yourself in the dark underbelly of power and betrayal during the reign of one of Rome's most notorious rulers.
Recommended Reading Order
The Emperor: Nero, Emperor of Rome and all her provinces, feared by his subjects for his temper and cruelty, is in possession of an ancient document predicting that Rome will burn. He knows that if he does not, his life - and those of thousands of others - are in terrible danger.
Rome. The Art of War
- 592 pages
- 21 hours of reading
The stunning new Roman novel featuring Sebastos Pantera, set during the year of the Four Emperors. Rome: AD69, The Year of the Four Emperors. Three Emperors have ruled in Rome this year and a fourth, Vespasian, has been named in the East. As the legions march toward civil war, Sebastos Pantera, the spy whose name means leopard, returns to Rome intent on bribery, blackmail and persuasion: whatever it takes to bring the commanders and their men to Vespasian's side. But in Rome, as he uses every skill he has ever learned of subterfuge, codes and camouflage, it becomes clear that one of those closest to him is a traitor, who will let Rome fall to destroy him. Together the two spies spin a web of deceit with Rome as the prize and death the only escape.