Legionary

In 17 BC, Julius Quintus Quirinius enters the Ninth Legion because service offers an alternative to enslavement in the unsettled years after Rome’s civil wars. Six months later, defeat and unauthorised retreat bring the punishment of decimation. The soldiers must draw lots and kill the selected men themselves, turning military discipline into a test of loyalty, fear and chance.

Ursus, the man condemned within Quintus’s group, charges the younger soldier with protecting their surviving comrades and supporting his family in Rome. Quintus carries that obligation into a campaign against mountain tribes in Hispania, where the damaged cohort hopes to recover its honour. Victory may restore its reputation, but it also sends the men farther from the home and discharge they believed service would eventually secure.