Brothers in Blood: Roman Legion 13
The latest entry in Scarrow’s Roman Series begins in 52 AD, with the pursuit of a secret agent through the streets of Rome. It then moves on to Britannia, where the recurring heroes Cato and Macro are pursuing Caratacus, the native leader who has long been troubling Rome. Lengthy battle scenes with plenty of bravery and bleeding are the main business of the series. The first action is a bloody hunt to pursue game for the hungry legion, serving as an appetizer for the main course of combat. A rivalry between Emperor Claudius’s freedmen, Pallas and Narcissus, endangers the Roman presence on the island, and our main characters are possible targets for murder by stealth in addition to death in battle.
The future emperor Otho appears as a tribune, improbably accompanied by his stunning wife, Poppaea. There does not seem to be any indication of their presence there in the historical record, but there are different accounts of the circumstances and timing of their marriage, allowing the novelist some leeway. Otho serves to illustrate how inexperienced politicians are placed above experienced military personnel. Caratacus is captured and then escapes, and the action shifts to diplomacy in an effort to get Roman ally Queen Cartimundia to turn him over, but it isn’t too long before the swords are out again, to the delight of the reader who likes his or her Roman fiction with more stabbing and less dialogue. Caratacus comes off as the most appealing fictional character, as he does in the period’s history. As a postscript, there is “A Brief Introduction to the Roman Army.” I would have preferred a discussion of how and why liberties were taken with the history.
