In the discordant and dangerous Rome of 249 AD Centurion Marcus Favonius, youngest son of a politically ambitious family, has attracted the enmity of the powerful Praetorian Guard. He flees to Spain accompanied by two comrades: Flavius Priscus, his loyal and street-wise second-in-command, and Demaratus, a Greek former sailor with a keen sense of history and an outsider's perspective. As the three evade assassination and establish themselves in Spain's VII Legion, they are pulled into adventure and romance so immersive that the reader is firmly planted in the ancient world of Roman-occupied Spain.