Under the Eagle

Under the Eagle is the first book in the Eagle Series, by Simon Scarrow and is his début novel.

It starts on the Rhine Frontier in 42, and centres on Quintus Lucinius Cato, a newly appointed Optio, and his commanding Centurion Macro.

Germania

The book opens with a short prologue set during the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC. A group of legionaries lose the army's pay chest in a marsh while withdrawing to the ships. The action then shifts to the German frontier in AD 43, where a new draft of recruits are arriving at the base of the Second Legion. One young recruit, Cato, bears a letter from emperor Claudius raising him to the rank of optio, the centurion's second-in-command. The letter also contains another, message, written in code. This message tells the legate that one of the emperor's opponents is currently serving in the legion and that the emperor has sent an unnamed imperial agent to deal with the situation. The early part of the book dealing with Cato and his fellow recruits receiving basic training is followed by an attack on a Germanic town.

This attack is caused by the actions of a local settlement chief who cut out a tax-collector's tongue and refused to pay him. In retaliation, the legate, Vespasian, sends the Third cohort, consisting of around five hundred men, to the village. The legionaries are then subjected to an ambush whilst at the village and must hold off the barbarians until the next day when they hope the legate will send reinforcements because the men didn't come back. Whilst holding one of the two village gates, Macro and his century accidentally set fire to the gates during an attempt to destroy the German's rudimentary battering ram as per Cato's idea. The flames quickly spread to the village and whilst the cohort retreats from the flames back to the main village square, Macro and Cato are cut off from their comrades and the former is hit by a javelin. Cato drags his wounded friend into a nearby building and manages to lead him to safety in the ensuing chaos, which later earns him a medal. As Vespasian saw the fire from the burning village, he sent out a relief force from the legionary fort in the night which arrives in the morning to save the survivors. The character of Vitellius, who commanded the Third cohort during the attack, one of the six tribunes attached to the legion, is introduced and Cato falls in love with a young slave girl called Lavinia sold to Flavia, the legate's wife.

Whilst recovering from his wounds, Macro asks Cato to teach him to read, a skill he hasn't yet learnt and which he needs to be a good centurion, having previously delegated all paperwork to the scribe Piso.

Invasion of Britain

The second part concentrates on the march of the Second Legion to the coast of Gaul, where a convoy, commanded by Macro, guarding the Imperial Secretary Narcissus, is attacked by a group of mercenaries with the intention to kill Narcissus, Claudius' former slave and one of the most trusted members of the emperor's court. The convoy successfully reaches the coast where the other legions are gathering. Rumours of mutiny reaches Narcissus, who rounds up the ringleaders and executes them, then goes on to challenge the legionaries in a fight. Seeing a former slave in their commander's position, the troops cry "Io Saturnalia!" (referring to the Roman festival when slaves and masters switch places for the day) and the mutiny ends. The invasion is thus free to continue, and several days after the initial landings Macro and Cato land in Britain, somewhere in the Isle of Thanet. There they are ordered to report to the legate of the Second Legion, the future emperor Vespasian, and are sent on a special mission to recover the pay chest Caesar lost one hundred years ago. Pushing ahead of the army into a bleak, misty swamp, the pay chest is successfully recovered, but Vitellius makes his move with a band of mercenaries and attempts to seize it. He is repulsed and on the return to the legate with the chest, Cato and Macro observe the British warlord Togodumnus setting up an ambush along the legion's line of march. Cato attempts to warn the column, and while the ambush succeeds in killing a great deal of legionaries, it is fought off, Macro killing Togodumnus in single combat as he retreats. Unfortunately, Vitellius turns up and steals the credit for the warning, leaving our heroes with the pay chest and a grudge...

Characters

• Quintus Licinius Cato – main protagonist, an optio, Macro's new second in command in the Second Legion
• Macro a new centurion in the Second Legion
• Narcissus – Imperial Secretary
• Vespasian – Legate of the Second Legion
• Vitellius – duplicitous tribune of the Second Legion

External links

• A review of the book may be found here

• The author's web page on the book may be found here