Book description
Southern Anatolia, 260 AD
The town of Edessa, a Roman outpost, is on its last legs, besieged by
the Persian troops of Shapur I. Roman Emperor Licinius Valerianus agrees
to meet his adversary to draw up a peace treaty, but it is only a trap
and the Emperor and his twelve guards are chained and dragged away to
work as prisoners in a solitary Persian turquoise mine.
After months of forced labour the Emperor dies, but his guards make a
daring escape lead by the heroic and enigmatic chief, Marcus Metellus
Aquila. They meet a mysterious, exiled Chinese Prince, Dan Qing, and
agree to safeguard his journey home to reconquest his throne from his
mortal enemy, a eunuch named Wei.
Thus begins the adventures of the Romans and the Prince as they journey
to China. There they will discover that they aren't the first of their
kind to arrive in China: they were preceded centuries before by the
survivors of the 'lost legion'. Valerio Massimo Manfredi is professor
of classical archaeology at Luigi Bocconi University in Milan. He has
published nine works of fiction, including the 'Alexander' trilogy,
which has been translated into 24 languages in 38 countries. He has
written and hosted documentaries on the ancient world, and has written
screenplays for cinema and television.
