Onslaught The Centurions Ii

The author of the bestselling Empire sequence continues his new trilogy: the epic story of the uprising of the Batavi in AD 69. 'A master of the genre' - The Times AD 69: The Rhine frontier has exploded into bloody rebellion, and four centurions who once fought in the same army find themselves on opposite sides of a vicious insurrection. The rebel leader Kivilaz and his Batavi rebels have humbled the Romans in a battle they should have won. The legions must now defend their northern stronghold, the Old Camp, from the enraged tribes of Germany, knowing that they cannot be relieved until the civil war raging to the south has been resolved. Can they defend the undermanned fortress against thousands of barbarian warriors intoxicated by a charismatic priestess's vision of victory?

AD 69: The Rhine frontier has exploded into bloody rebellion, and four centurions who once fought in the same army find themselves on opposite sides of a vicious insurrection. The rebel leader Kivilaz and his Batavi rebels have humbled the Romans in a battle they should have won. The legions must now defend their northern stronghold, the Old Camp, from the enraged tribes of Germany, knowing that they cannot be relieved until the civil war raging to the south has been resolved. Can they defend the undermanned fortress against thousands of barbarian warriors intoxicated by a charismatic priestess's vision of victory?

The action-filled climax of the epic story of the Batavi uprising in AD 69, from the author of the bestselling Empire series. 'A masterclass in military historical fiction' - Sunday Express Victory is in sight for Kivilaz and his Batavi army. The Roman army clings desperately to its remaining fortresses along the Rhine, its legions riven by dissent and mutiny, and once-loyal allies of Rome are beginning to imagine the unimaginable: freedom from the rulers who have dominated them since the time of Caesar. The four centurions - two Batavi and two Roman, men who were once comrades in arms - must find their destiny in a maze of loyalties and threats, as the blood tide of war ebbs and flows across Germania and Gaul. For Rome does not give up its territory lightly. And a new emperor knows that he cannot tolerate any threat to his undisputed power. It can only be a matter of time before Vespasian sends his legions north to exact the empire's retribution.

Lucius was thrilled when he learned of his father's plan to send him to the Legion to become a Centurion. When his father then engaged Pertinax, a former gladiator, to serve as Lucius' sword-fighting tutor, he could hardly believe his luck. On a business trip to Massilia (Marseille), Lucius gets lost in the harbor district, where a gang of street urchins assails him, beating and robbing him. Gnaeus, Lucius' father, is in such a fury over his son's weakness and public humiliation that he bans him to the family vineyards, located close to Arausio. There, Saxum, a retired Legionnaire, and Pertinax are to toughen him up, body and soul, in preparation for the Legion. Should Lucius fail to gain the rank of Centurion, he will be condemned to working on the winery for the rest of his life. After two years of torture, ridicule and hardship, Lucius survives training and enters the Legion. Now his problems begin in earnest. Soon, Lucius cannot be certain which threat to his life is more imminent, the one outside or the one inside the Legion encampment. While fighting for the Roman Empire against the Raeti, Vindlicans and Germani, the devious Centurion Titus Valens makes his life within the Legion a living hell.

IF YOU DON'T KNOW SIMON SCARROW, YOU DON'T KNOW ROME! CENTURION, a no. 1 bestseller, is the unputdownable eighth novel in Simon Scarrow's Eagles of the Empire series. Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden. 'A new book in Simon Scarrow's series about the Roman army is always a joy' The Times AD 46. Roman army officers Cato and Macro have survived many dangerous missions together. They look out for one another. They're faithful to their Emperor. And from their men they demand bravery and ruthless efficiency. With the news that Rome's old enemy, Parthia, is poised to unleash its might against the border kingdom of Palmyra, Cato and Macro must embark on a desperate quest to protect the Empire. Outnumbered and deep in treacherous territory, they will have to endure a pitched battle that will test their courage and loyalty as never before...

IF YOU DON'T KNOW SIMON SCARROW, YOU DON'T KNOW ROME! CENTURION, a no. 1 bestseller, is the unputdownable eighth novel in Simon Scarrow's Eagles of the Empire series. Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden. 'A new book in Simon Scarrow's series about the Roman army is always a joy' The Times AD 46. Roman army officers Cato and Macro have survived many dangerous missions together. They look out for one another. They're faithful to their Emperor. And from their men they demand bravery and ruthless efficiency. With the news that Rome's old enemy, Parthia, is poised to unleash its might against the border kingdom of Palmyra, Cato and Macro must embark on a desperate quest to protect the Empire. Outnumbered and deep in treacherous territory, they will have to endure a pitched battle that will test their courage and loyalty as never before...

“FDR’s centurions were my heroes and guides. Now Joe Persico has written the best account of those leaders I've ever read.”—Colin L. Powell All American presidents are commanders in chief by law. Few perform as such in practice. In Roosevelt’s Centurions, distinguished historian Joseph E. Persico reveals how, during World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt seized the levers of wartime power like no president since Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Declaring himself “Dr. Win-the-War,” FDR assumed the role of strategist in chief, and, though surrounded by star-studded generals and admirals, he made clear who was running the war. FDR was a hands-on war leader, involving himself in everything from choosing bomber targets to planning naval convoys to the design of landing craft. Persico explores whether his strategic decisions, including his insistence on the Axis powers’ unconditional surrender, helped end or may have prolonged the war. Taking us inside the Allied war councils, the author reveals how the president brokered strategy with contentious allies, particularly the iron-willed Winston Churchill; rallied morale on the home front; and handpicked a team of proud, sometimes prickly warriors who, he believed, could fight a global war. Persico’s history offers indelible portraits of the outsize figures who roused the “sleeping giant” that defeated the Axis war machine: the dutiful yet independent-minded George C. Marshall, charged with rebuilding an army whose troops trained with broomsticks for rifles, eggs for hand grenades; Dwight Eisenhower, an unassuming Kansan elevated from obscurity to command of the greatest fighting force ever assembled; the vainglorious Douglas MacArthur; and the bizarre battlefield genius George S. Patton. Here too are less widely celebrated military leaders whose contributions were just as critical: the irascible, dictatorial navy chief, Ernest King; the acerbic army advisor in China, “Vinegar” Joe Stilwell; and Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, who zealously preached the gospel of modern air power. The Roosevelt who emerges from these pages is a wartime chess master guiding America’s armed forces to a victory that was anything but foreordained. What are the qualities we look for in a commander in chief? In an era of renewed conflict, when Americans are again confronting the questions that FDR faced—about the nature and exercise of global power—Roosevelt’s Centurions is a timely and revealing examination of what it takes to be a wartime leader in a freewheeling, complicated, and tumultuous democracy.