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Contents ( 111)
  1. BY ADRIAN GOLDSWORTHY
  2. CONTENTS
  3. MAP
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. I
  6. In the hill country
  7. Nearer the Euphrates
  8. The same night
  9. II
  10. The temporary camp of Legio VIIII Hispana, Fifty-five miles east of Cyrrhus
  11. Fifteen days before the Kalends of March
  12. III
  13. On the training grounds outside Zeugma
  14. Fifth day before the Nones of March
  15. In the house of Simon the merchant, Nicopolis
  16. The next day
  17. IV
  18. The temporary camp of Legio VIIII Hispana
  19. V
  20. Outside Nicopolis
  21. Eleventh day before the Kalends of April
  22. Nicopolis
  23. The same day
  24. VI
  25. On the road to the crossing at Zeugma
  26. Tenth day before the Kalends of April
  27. VII
  28. Zeugma
  29. Seventh day before the Kalends of April
  30. VIII
  31. The camp of VIIII Hispana
  32. One day before the Nones of April
  33. Nicopolis
  34. The same day, late afternoon
  35. IX
  36. Outside Nicopolis
  37. Eighth Day before the Ides of April
  38. X
  39. Near Nicopolis
  40. A little later
  41. XI
  42. In the plain in front of Nicopolis
  43. The Ides of April
  44. Nicopolis
  45. The same night
  46. XII
  47. In front of Nicopolis
  48. Eighteenth day before the Kalends of May First day of the siege
  49. XIII
  50. Outside Nicopolis
  51. Seventeenth day before the Kalends of May Second day of the siege
  52. XIV
  53. Outside Nicopolis
  54. Fifteenth day before the Kalends of May The fourth day of the siege
  55. Nicopolis
  56. The sixth day of the siege
  57. XV
  58. Up country
  59. Thirteenth day before the Kalends of May The eighth day of the siege
  60. XVI
  61. Zeugma
  62. That same night
  63. XVII
  64. The siege lines outside Nicopolis
  65. Eleventh day before the Kalends of May The tenth day of the siege
  66. XVIII
  67. The large camp to the east of Nicopolis
  68. Tenth day before the Kalends of May The eleventh day of the siege
  69. Nicopolis
  70. Late on the fourteenth night of the siege
  71. XIX
  72. Before Nicopolis
  73. Fifth day before the Kalends of April Sixteenth day of the siege
  74. XX
  75. Outside Nicopolis
  76. The Kalends of May The twenty-first day of the siege
  77. XXI
  78. Before Nicopolis
  79. The day before the Nones of May The twenty-sixth day of the siege
  80. Nicopolis
  81. The next day The twenty-seventh day of the siege
  82. XXII
  83. North west of Nicopolis, some miles from the road
  84. Fifth day before the Ides of May The thirty-second day of the siege
  85. XXIII
  86. In front of Nicopolis
  87. The day before the Ides of May The thirty-fifth day of the siege
  88. XXIV
  89. Outside Nicopolis
  90. The Ides of May
  91. The thirty-sixth day of the siege
  92. XXV
  93. The breach in the western wall
  94. XXVI
  95. Outside Nicopolis
  96. Seventeenth day before the Kalends of June The thirty-seventh day of the siege
  97. The prison at Nicopolis
  98. Three days later
  99. The forty-first day of the siege
  100. XXVII
  101. The citadel at Nicopolis
  102. The last hours of the fourteenth day before the Kalends of June
  103. The forty-first day of the siege
  104. XXVIII
  105. Nicopolis
  106. The same night
  107. EPILOGUE
  108. The next morning
  109. HISTORICAL NOTE
  110. GLOSSARY
  111. CAST OF CHARACTERS

RUFUS, M. CORNELIUS From a well-to-do family in Tarraco (modern Tarragona) in Spain, Rufus has recently been directly commissioned into Legio VIIII Hispana. He is now one of the most junior centurions in the legion, specifically the hastatus prior in the fifth cohort. An eager, slightly short-sighted young man, he has a particular enthusiasm for engineering.

SARA A Jewish woman in her late twenties, but still unmarried, belonging to a moderately prosperous merchant family in Nicopolis. She is intelligent and very capable, taking on the main burden of supervising the family business as well as her own workshop.

SENTIUS, CAIUS A centurion in the third cohort of Legio VIIII Hispana, Sentius is stolid, determined and lacking in imagination.

SIMON THE ELDER Sara’s father. He specialises in trading in inscribed gemstones, and many hours of working on them has caused his eyesight to deteriorate. A widower, he is content to let his daughter make most of the key decisions for the family.

SIMON THE YOUNGER Sara’s brother is slightly older than her. He is a bold, restless man, who has spent the last few years travelling to the trading posts on the borders with China. Although suspicious of Romans in general and Domitius in particular, he is a fair man, whose main concern is to protect his family – and after that, his city.

SOSIUS A shadowy agent of Hadrian, the shaven-headed, former slave Sosius is clever, determined and utterly ruthless. Ferox first encountered him in The Fort. TF

SULPICIA LEPIDINA* The wife of Flavius Cerialis appears in the Vindolanda writing tablets, which reveal aspects of their day-to-day life during his command of the cohort stationed at the fort in northern Britain. Nothing else is known about her, and it is an invention in the stories to make her the daughter of a senator. In these novels, she is a major character, friend to Claudia Enica, and in the past briefly Ferox’s lover. V, ES, B, TF

TRAJAN* (MARCUS ULPIUS TRAIANUS, Roman emperor (98-117)) Trajan’s father was a relation and early supporter of Vespasian, the ultimate winner in the civil war following the death of Nero. The family came from Italica in Spain and claimed descent from the original Roman colonists. The son had a good career under the Flavian emperors and demonstrated eager loyalty to Domitian, its unpopular final member. After Domitian’s murder, the Senate accepted the elderly Nerva as emperor, and the latter subsequently adopted Trajan as son, the choice aided by the fact that Trajan was currently commander of a major provincial army. Trajan went down in history as a military emperor and spent more of his reign on campaign than any ruler since Augustus. His conquest of Dacia was celebrated in grand style. However, his subsequent eastern expedition began well, only to be beset by widespread rebellion, and he died on his way back to Rome. Trajan was remembered with great reverence by Rome’s elite as a good ruler who listened to the advice of the senatorial aristocracy and treated them with great respect. TF