The Twelfth Vulture of Romulus

By BORIS RAYMOND

The story begins in A.D. 448, at the onset of the century of the Twelfth Vulture when, according to an ancient prophesy made to its founder Romulus, his city would fall. It ends in A.D. 476 when the last emperor of Rome, a thirteen year old boy, coincidentally also named Romulus, is dethroned by a barbarian king:

In A.D. 448, Attila and his Huns capture the Roman town of Sirmium. The fall of the city sends waves of terror among the rulers of the empire. Dowager Empress Galla Placidia Augusta tells her chief of the Imperial Secret Service, Cassiodorus, to devise a way of liquidating the Hunnish threat.

Senator Cassiodorus arrives at Attilas tent city in Pannonia as Roman ambassador and attempts to recruit Orestes, the Hun's Latin secretary, to the Roman cause.