Legionary Books in Order

Former slave Pavo joins Rome's border legions as Gothic pressure threatens the Eastern Empire. Sent toward the lost kingdom of Bosporus, he becomes entangled in a conspiracy whose consequences reach far beyond his first experience of military service.

With Rome's main armies fighting Persia, Pavo and the XI Claudia must protect a weakened Danube frontier without provoking war. Across the river, a feared leader known as the Viper threatens to unite the Gothic tribes against them.

Rome's depleted eastern frontier leaves it vulnerable to Persian attack while its armies fight the Goths. Pavo leads a small band into enemy territory on a covert mission, also hoping to uncover the truth about his father.

As Gothic forces dominate Thracia, Pavo and the XI Claudia prepare in Constantinople for a decisive confrontation. Hopes of combined imperial reinforcements mingle with uncertainty over his missing brother, drawing personal loyalties into the struggle approaching Adrianople.

Returning from Persia, Pavo finds Rome's battered legions struggling to hold the Haemus Mountain passes against Fritigern's Goths. Ordered to reinforce the defences, he fears for Felicia and his missing half-brother as the imperial heartland faces invasion.

After the disaster at Adrianople, Pavo struggles to keep the surviving XI Claudia together in a shattered Eastern Empire. News of a new emperor revives hope, but also brings renewed conflict and a powerful adversary into his path.

Emperor Gratian's promised intervention offers hope of ending the Gothic War and saving Rome's eastern provinces. Pavo and his legion cannot welcome it unreservedly, since the emperor also considers them enemies, making the approaching campaign dangerously uncertain.

Peace has ended the Gothic War, but exiled Pavo receives none of the honours granted to its heroes. Convinced Emperor Gratian engineered the conflict, he seeks justice for lost loved ones against an adversary protected by imperial power.

In 360 AD, a Roman legion finds itself surrounded in the Persian desert. This prequel to Pavo's story follows soldiers facing a desperate battlefield predicament, with the bonds between fathers and sons central to their ordeal.