Sword of Rome

Name: Sword of Rome
Rating: 4.5 (1665 reviews)

by Douglas Jackson Book 4 in the Gaius Valerius Verrens series.

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In AD 68, Gaius Valerius Verrens returns to Rome as Nero’s reign collapses and the empire prepares for a peaceful succession that never comes. Galba’s brief rule begins in bloodshed, and his overthrow opens the Year of the Four Emperors, when armies rather than institutions determine who will hold imperial power.

Serving Otho, Valerius is sent north to persuade his former friend Vitellius to halt the legions advancing in his name. The journey through a divided empire becomes a struggle against civil war, private vengeance and rapidly changing loyalties, with Valerius forced to decide which obligations still matter when every claimant describes rebellion as duty.

The civil war also reveals the political geography of the empire. Emperors are now proclaimed by armies in Spain, Germany and the Danube before Rome has accepted them, making provincial legions decisive in succession. Valerius’s impossible embassy to Vitellius therefore addresses the central weakness of the principate: there is no agreed peaceful mechanism for deciding which armed claimant is legitimate.