Book
The Centurions
First published 1981
Correus and Flavius are half-brothers, sons of the same Roman general but separated by birth and expectation. Correus, the son of an enslaved German woman, has the instinct and physical confidence of a soldier yet no automatic claim to the rank he desires. Flavius is legally legitimate and has always expected to inherit military standing, but must struggle to match the competence that comes naturally to his brother.
Both enter the centuriate during Vespasian’s reign and are sent to the German frontier, where combat places their rivalry inside a larger conflict between Rome and the peoples beyond its borders. Correus’s relationship with the German woman Freita and Flavius’s experience of capture and torture test assumptions about civilisation, status and loyalty. The opening volume establishes the House of Appius Julianus as a family whose advancement depends on two brothers learning to trust the qualities each was raised to resent in the other.
Historical Periods
Historical people
More from this period
5 more top-rated novels about Reign of Vespasian
Ranked by rating and voting volume; books already shown on this page are omitted.
More from this period
5 more top-rated novels about Roman Germania and the Rhine Frontier
Ranked by rating and voting volume; books already shown on this page are omitted.
More by the author
Other books by Amanda Cockrell
Discover more
Authors similar to Amanda Cockrell
Recommended from shared genres and periods.
Rosemary Sutcliff
38 books
Simon Turney
64 books
Gillian Bradshaw
20 books
Henry Treece
35 books