Book
Master of Rome
by John Stack
Book 3 in the Masters of the Sea series.
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Atticus has risen to command in Rome’s expanding navy as the republic carries the First Punic War to North Africa. While his ships maintain a blockade near Carthage, the Roman army is shattered by a Carthaginian counterattack led with elephants and disciplined mercenary troops. Atticus must rescue survivors and withdraw before the enemy can turn a defeat on land into the destruction of the fleet.
The retreat becomes a second catastrophe when a violent storm overwhelms the Roman ships, leaving Atticus among the few officers able to carry news of the losses back to the Senate. In Rome he encounters blame, ambition and renewed suspicion of his Greek birth, while Hamilcar Barca emerges as a formidable Carthaginian opponent. The novel closes the trilogy by forcing Atticus to decide whether service to Rome can be separated from the conduct of the men who claim to embody it.