Dragon and the Eagles

Simon Scarrow has quickly risen to the list of my “must have” authors. His Under the Eagles series has been feeding my reading frenzy lately. He writes on one subject, and one subject only: military adventures of the sixth Centurion of the second Legion during the reign of Emperor Claudius.

His series blaze through some of the most famous campaigns of Rome as Emperor Claudius’ forces struggled to defeat the Celtic Britons and the upraising for Boudicca.

Scarrow has created two heroes for his stories: First is Cato, a young, idealistic and well-educated young optio, a freedman from the Emperors palace, is new to the army, its harshness and its discipline. While young and idealistic, Marco has great potential and quick wit, and it is through him I suspect most readers live through Scarrows tales.

Marco is a gnarled, tough-as-nails veteran Centurion of a hundred battles, violent, ill-tempered and uneducated, though fair and reliable leader who never abandons his men in battlefield or outside it. He acts as Cato's mentor and friend as the youngster settles into the harsh military life.

While the stories themselves are a good read of warfare and adventure, it is the details that are truly fascinating: you read on how Roman army handled the wounded, how the units were organised, what was given to soldiers when they retired, and what were the career options for nobles and commoners alike.

We are so used to seeing the archetypical image of the Roman army in the battle that it is refreshing to read on the day-to-day problems an officer faced simply to keep his men clothed, fed, and well-armed. As you read the books you can almost hear Marco cursing as he has to wade through the enormous amounts of the paperwork a Centurion had to so every day of his life in order to get replacement heads for the pilums of his Legionnaires.

There is more of course: conspiracies against the Emperor, beautiful but treacherous Roman ladies, noble Celtic warriors who fight to death to protect their island nation, lost buried chests of gold of Julius Caesar –stuff that legends are made of.

If you are looking for a classic epics on the scale of Waltari’s works, this is not for you. But if you are looking for stories of exciting, rip-roar adventures and military excitement during the period when the Roman empire was at its zenith, Scarrow is the one for you

The sleeve of each of his books tells us “…fired by the knowledge gleaned from his exploration of Roman sites, Scarrow decided to write what he wanted to read – military page-turners set during the Roman invasion of Britan in AD 43”

He made the right choice.

Posted by Dragon at 30 January 10:14, 2005