Book description
The scene is Rome in the troublesome year 24 B. C. Emperor Augustus is
in ill health and the city is seething with intrigue. There is
speculation about the succession, uncertainty in the capital and unrest
on the frontiers.
The question of an heir is acute. Augustus has only one child, a
daughter, Julia. She is married to Marcellus, marking the young man with
the Emperor's favour, but some disagree with the match. Powerful rivals
engineer crisis and conspiracy.
These events are seen through the eyes of Curtius Rufus, ex-centurion,
gambler, and a man dissatisfied with life. He comes to the attention of
Augustus's lieutenant, Marcus Agrippa, who leads Curtius into the
puzzling affair of the legate's daughter, kidnapped, it appears, by
pirates and held in captivity in the African desert. Wallace Breem was
born in 1926 and educated at Westminster School. In 1944 he entered the
Indian Army Officers Training School and later joined a crack regiment
of the North West Frontier Force. After the war he joined the staff of
the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, where he became Chief
Librarian and Keeper of Manuscripts. He died in 1990.
