Currently Reading: Under The Eagle

It is 42 AD, and Quintus Licinius Cato has just arrived in Germany as a new recruit to the Second Legion, the toughest in the Roman army. If adjusting to the rigours of military life isn’t difficult enough for the bookish young man, he also has to contend with the disgust of his colleagues when, because of his imperial connections, he is appointed a rank above them.

As second-in-command to Macro, the fearless, battle-scarred centurion who leads them, Cato will have more to prove than most in the adventures that lie ahead. Then the men discover that the army’s next campaign will take them to a land of unparalleled barbarity - Britain.

After the long march west, Cato and Macro undertake a special mission that will thrust them headlong into a conspiracy that threatens to topple the Emperor himself...

Book blurb came from here

Simon Scarrow’s Under The Eagle is the first novel in his Eagle series chronicling the adventures of two soldiers in the Roman army. Quintus Licinius Cato is a newly-freed slave and a new recruit while grizzled veteran Lucius Cornelius Macro is a newly-minted centurion in Legio secunda Augusta.

I started this book with the impression that the novel centered on military fiction, especially since this would be the first fiction book I’d be reading about the Roman Legions. As with other military fiction books I’ve read, I expected more of the grit and grunge prose as well as POV insights on the nature of war, combat, etc. An intro to how a Roman Legion was organized even set the tone for my expectations.

I was wrong.

Scarrow’s Under The Eagle is more of an adventure/mystery novel with the bigger events framing smaller but more important storylines. The protagonists Cato and Macro are well-defined characters that contrasted each other well. Cato’s naivete is balanced by Macro’s street smarts while his jaded viewpoints are evened out by Cato’s optimism. The two are thrust into a series of mysterious events with shadowy antagonists plotting behind the scenes. I immensely enjoyed a lot of these! From the machinations of Vespasian, his wife Flavia and the villainous Vitellius, the two unwitting heroes learn to rely on each other's strengths and consequently prevail. I enjoyed the novel and this is partly because of the fast pacing. Combat is on a more personal -- a bloodier -- scale. Although the Legion is present as an entity, the action zooms in to the individual men wielding the gladius & the pilum, bringing you up close and personal to the stink of sweat, blood and fear.

Reading this has made me think of how I’ve gamed Imperial Roman Legions. For the most part, these have been mass battles with set piece fights being de rigueur. The gamer thought in terms of unit capability, movement and attrition. The novel though opened my eyes to the alternative of gaming Imperial Romans in skirmishes. A few ideas from the novel that would make great skirmish scenarios include a small unit ( maybe a contubernium or two) being chased by barbarians though a bog or forest, a cohort barricaded inside a village trying to hold out against barbarians until relief comes, a chase inside a burning village and even a mercenary ambush of a Roman patrol in possession of an important object.  

To sum up, Under The Eagle is not hardcore military fiction. It’s more of an adventure novel set amidst a turbulent time in history. Even then, the novel was very enjoyable and I am more than eager to read the next novel in the series. Miniature wargamers can benefit in seeing the possibility of skirmish wargaming small groups of Romans and their enemies. FUBAR anyone?

Check out the books here.