Spartan

By Valerio Massimo Manfredi

An epic story of passion, courage and adventure in ancient Sparta, by the author of the 'Alexander' trilogy. This is the saga of a Spartan family, torn apart by a cruel law that forces them to abandon one of their two sons - born lame - to the elements. The elder son, Brithos, is raised in the castle of the warriors, while the other, Talos, is spared a cruel death and is raised by a Helot shepherd among the peasants. They live out their story in a world dominated by the clash between the Persian empire and the city-states of Greece - a ferocious, relentless conflict - until the voice of their blood and of human solidarity unites them in a thrilling singular enterprise.

The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest

By Peter S. Wells

Peter Wells, professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, follows up his text "Beyond Celts, Germans and Scythians: Archaeology and Identity in Iron Age Europe" with a study of the disastrous battle between the Romans and the Germanic tribes that occurred near modern day Kalkriese in 9 A.D. This authoritative work is scheduled for release in October 2003.

See also: http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Salon/2385/background.html

The Druid King

By Norman Spinrad

By 60 BC the Romans had conquered much of the known world, for few dared to oppose the relentless expansion of the Republic, and those who did . failed. And now Julius Caesar has turned his attention to the invasion of Gaul. Victory there will give him the power he craves. But one man stands against him: Vercingetorix. Vercingetorix knows that the people of Gaul must fight, or else face the destruction of their culture and enslavement to another. Yet few at first believe that Vercingetorix can unite the divided tribes of Gaul, fewer still that he can lead them on to victory. But as the legions battle for survival Caesar soon realises that this time Rome may be fighting a war it cannot win .

The Gates of Hell

By Paul Doherty

It is 334 BC and Alexander and his troops march towards Halicarnassus. A series of brutal killings begins proving that the Persians have infiltrated Alexanders court. With his lord facing the fight of his life, Alexanders old friend Telamon must go through "the Gates of Hell" to find the traitors.

The Legatus Mystery

By Rosemary Rowe

Preparations for the religious celebrations for the Emperors birthday are brought to an abrupt halt when the murdered body of a visiting ambassador from Rome is discovered in the temple of the Imperial cult and once again Libertus is called upon to investigate. Events take a bizarre turn when the body disappears, and then unearthly wails are heard coming from the temple and mysterious bloodstains start to appear from nowhere. A mood of superstitious terror grips the townspeople and Libertus soon finds himself in grave danger when he becomes the target of an angry mob, accusing him of incurring the anger of the gods and demanding his death to appease them.

Hades Daughter

By Sara Douglass

Ancient Greece is a place where mortals are the play things of the gods. But at the core of their city-state is a Labyrinth, where mortals can shape the heavens to their own design. When Theseus comes away from the Labyrinth with the prize and his beloved, the Mistress of the Labyrinth, his future seems assured. But she bears him only a daughter and when he casts her aside for this, the world changes. From that day forward, the Labyrinths decay, and power fades from the city-states. A hundred years pass, Troy falls, the Trojans scatter. Then Brutus, the warrior-king of Troy, receives a vision of distant shores where he can rebuild the ancient kingdom. He will move heaven and earth to reach his destiny, but in the mists is a woman of power who has her own reasons for luring Brutus to these green shores. If Brutus makes this journey successfully it will be the next step in the Game of the Labyrinth, and the start of a complicated contest of wills to span the centuries.

The Lock

by Benita Kane Jaro

When the aristocrat-turned-plebian known as Clodius the Beautiful (Pulcher) claimed he had been out of Rome and therefore could not have defiled the Vestals (and Pontifex Maximus Caesars) home during the sacred Bona Dea festival, Cicero knew better. He couldnt keep silent. Ciceros evidence should have been enough to convict, but corruption had already seeped into all layers of Roman society. Clodius Pulcher didnt shrug off Ciceros words--ever. His faction pursued and threatened Cicero for fifteen years. Not even Ciceros oldest friend Pompey could help.

In The Lock, the principal figures of the age: Julius Caesar, Cicero, Pompey the Great make their appearance and play out their fateful struggle. The novel has a deep rethinking of the character of Marcus Tullius Cicero and a reassessment of his life and work. His warmth and wit, his intelligence, his integrity and his courage make him a hero for our time as well as his own.

Built around the letters and speeches of Cicero, many of which appear in the novel in new and lively translations by the author, The Lock is historically accurate and carefully researched. It may be read independently as a single novel, or as the second volume of the trilogy The Key, The Lock, and The Door in the Wall. It features maps of Rome and the Empire, specially drawn for the novel, and includes a reader-friendly list of Principal Characters and a Chronology of Events in the novel. No other novel so deeply examines Cicero and his times.

The Tribune

By Patrick Larkin

Lucius Aurelius Valens is a young Roman officer with a strong sense of duty and a commitment to justice. Those ideals earn him only a thankless posting to restless and impoverished Galilee. There the massacre of a detachment of Praetorian Guards and the man they were protecting--a member of the Roman Senate and an ally of the emperor Tiberius himself--plunges Valens straight into a deadly web of murder and intrigue, with far more at stake than just his own life and honor.