Harry Sidebottom Books in Order

Set during Alexander the Great’s campaign against Persia, this novel tells the story through Alexander of Lyncestis, the king’s friend and general. Torn between loyalty and the duty to avenge his murdered brothers, he walks a knife edge through battles and court intrigue.

A narrative history of Heliogabalus, the teenage Syrian who seized the Roman throne in AD 218. Sidebottom follows his shocking religious reforms, scandals, and downfall to explore how power, sex, and public image worked in a volatile imperial court.

In AD 265 Gaul, Ballista leads cavalry for Emperor Gallienus against the rebel Postumus. Battling through mountains, sieges, and shortages, he also faces treachery within his own ranks, wondering whether this campaign will finally win his peace or end his life.

AD 265: a slave uprising turns Sicily into a landscape of burning villas and sacked cities. Shipwrecked on the rebel coast, Ballista and his son must cross the island to reach their family, dodging ambushes and choosing which side to trust.

After years of killing for Rome, veteran centurion Gaius Furius Paullus comes home to his farm in Calabria. When a series of mutilated bodies appears and suspicion falls on him, he must track a ruthless murderer while wrestling with the scars of war.

Junior officer Valens joins a crack squad sent deep into Persia to storm the supposedly impregnable Castle of Silence and rescue a royal prisoner. As they cross hostile mountains and men start to die, he suspects a traitor inside the team.

Over a single day and night in third century Rome, Ballista races from the Tiber to the Colosseum to stop a plot to kill Emperor Gallienus. Hunted by the city watch and deadlier enemies, he must unmask the conspirators before sunset.

A three volume reference work co edited by Sidebottom that surveys hundreds of land and sea engagements from archaic Greece to late antiquity. Each entry reconstructs campaigns and tactics, offering a detailed guide to ancient battles across the Mediterranean world.

In this companion tale, the emperor’s spy Censorinus travels to the healing shrine at Abonouteichus to steal the secrets of rich men who trust its oracle. What begins as a cold blooded fundraising scheme soon tangles him in local politics and danger.

Opening in the aftermath of the Gordian defeat at Carthage, this story sends Gordian’s ally Phillyrio and a centurion fleeing into the North African hills. Hunted by Capelianus and the imperial army, they must use the landscape and quick wits to stay ahead.

In the Year of the Six Emperors, Maximinus marches on Italy determined to crush his enemies, while the Senate scrambles to raise new Augusti. From street fighting in Rome to the siege of Aquileia, the struggle for the throne is decided by fire and sword.

This Throne of the Caesars short story follows imperial official Julius Burdo and knife boy Castricius, ordered north in AD 238 to assassinate Emperor Maximinus. Knowing success or failure both mean death, they quietly reshape the mission to give themselves a chance to live.

Set in AD 238, this volume charts the Gordian revolt in Africa and the chaos it unleashes in Rome. As father and son are proclaimed emperors and armies converge on Carthage, assassins, senators, and soldiers all gamble their lives on the fate of the empire.

The first Throne of the Caesars novel follows the rise of Maximinus, a soldier emperor raised from the ranks after Severus Alexander’s murder. While he fights brutal campaigns on the Rhine, fear and resentment in Rome feed plots that could destroy his reign.

Civil war tears the empire in AD 264 as rival emperors fight for control. Ordered up the Amber Road toward his distant homeland, Ballista travels through hostile tribes and shifting loyalties, forced to choose between Rome and the people of his birth.

AD 263: Ballista is sent beyond Rome’s northern frontier to turn warring steppe tribes against each other. Among the savage Heruli, the wolves of the north, his covert mission soon becomes a hunted journey through snow, superstition, and betrayal.

After earthquake and invasion leave Ephesus in ruins, Ballista is ordered north to defend the narrow passes known as the Caspian Gates. Facing Gothic raiders, steppe horsemen, and wavering allies, he must hold the last barrier on Rome’s eastern flank.

Mesopotamia, AD 260: Ballista watches Emperor Valerian humbled and captured by the Persians, a disaster that shames Rome. To protect his family and avenge the betrayal, he must bargain for his freedom and confront new threats on the eastern frontier.

AD 256: returning from the fall of Arete, Ballista finds the Roman court seething with religious tension and political plots. As Christianity spreads and the Persians press harder, he becomes the target of enemies who would rather see him dead.

In AD 255, outsider commander Ballista is sent to the fortress city of Arete to hold Rome’s eastern frontier against a vast Sassanid army. As siege engines close in, he must turn divided defenders into a force that can endure.

An introduction to Greek and Roman warfare that looks at how battles were fought, how armies were supplied and led, and how war shaped classical society and ideas about courage, faith, and justice in conflict.