R. W. Peake

Marching With Caesar-Catualda the Usurper (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

When Gnaeus Pullus was released from the Praetorian Guard to return to the 1st Legion, he was certain that his days of dealing in the political intrigue created by his social superiors was over. He learns differently even before he and the 1st return to their home base in Ubiorum, when a random event occurs in the form of a man of his new command committing murder in a taverna in Mogontiacum.

As The Fates decree, the victim is a member of the 5th Alaudae, a Legion with which Pullus has his own history, and in this incident the Primus Pilus of the Legion, Quintus Nerva, sees an opportunity for vengeance against Pullus for his savage beating and the subsequent suicide of one of his Centurions. Nerva's desire for revenge happens to coincide with a larger plot to subvert a plan, originally concocted by Tiberius' natural son Drusus Julius Caesar, to replace the longtime King of the Marcomanni Maroboduus, with an usurper by the name of Catualda, a nobleman of the neighboring Gotones tribe.

The subversion of Drusus' idea is facilitated by the acting Quaestor Gaius Visellius Varro, beginning with a false confession extracted under torture by Varro's henchman Canus from Pullus' Legionary, that Pullus was aware that his man intended to commit murder, giving Varro the leverage he needs to force Pullus to participate in Varro's subversion of Drusus' plan. This version ostensibly calls for Pullus, under the watchful eye of Canus, to escort a Gotones nobleman hundreds of miles across Germania to meet with Catualda and inform him that Rome has agreed to place Catualda on the Marcomanni throne, but as Pullus and his scribe Alex, who refuses to be left behind, quickly learn, nothing about this mission is as it seems. Not only is that "nobleman" Catualda himself, but Roman assistance comes in the form of a full Roman Legion, none other than Nerva's Alaudae, who have crossed the Rhenus and are waiting for Pullus and his party to join them.

Together, but in an atmosphere of mutual suspicion and distrust, this small force must cross hundreds of miles, through the lands of tribes that had recently been implacable foes of Rome, to reach the Marcomanni capital of Casurgis, a hilltop citadel just south of modern-day Prague, where a weakened but still dangerous foe in Maroboduus awaits. Over the course of the ensuing events, Pullus learns that nothing is as it seems, that the reach of Rome extends hundreds of miles beyond the Rhenus, that men he considered enemies are not, and that Rome is making a mistake in their choice of Catualda the Usurper as the new King of the Marcomanni.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: R.W. Peake
• Erscheinungstermin: 29. April 2022
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781941226544
• Artikelnr.: 74385693

Autorenporträt

R.W. Peake wrote his first novel when he was 10.

He published his first novel when he was 50.

Obviously, a lot happened in between, including a career as a "grunt" in the Marine Corps, another career as a software executive, a stint as a semi-professional cyclist, and becoming a dad.

But, through it all, there was one constant: his fascination with history, which led him back to school in his 30s to earn a degree in History from the Honors College at the University of Houston.

One morning years later, R.W. was listening to Caesar's Commentaries while he was on his morning commute to a job he hated. A specific passage about Caesar's men digging a 17 mile ditch between Lake Geneva and the Jura Mountains suddenly jumped out at him.

He was reminded of his own first job at 13 digging a ditch in Hardin, Texas. For the rest of the drive that morning, he daydreamed about what life must have been like not for the Caesars of the world, but for the everyday people who were doing the fighting and dying for Rome, and the idea for Marching with Caesar was born.

Not too long after that, he quit that job, moved into a trailer halfway across the country, and devoted the next four years to researching and writing the first installments of Marching with Caesar.

Some of his research methods-like hiking several miles around Big Bend National Park in the heat of summer wearing a suit of chainmail and carrying a sword so he would know what it felt like to be a Roman legionary-were a bit unconventional and made his friends and family question his sanity.

But such was his commitment to bringing these stories to life for his readers with as much detail and accuracy as possible.

Even as his catalog continues to grow, he still brings that passion to every story he tells.

He has moved out of the trailer, but he still lives on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington with his Yellow Lab, Titus Pomponius Pullus and his rescue dog, Peach.