The book “Eagles of the Empire. The Honour of Rome” by Simon Scarrow is the 20th volume of the popular series in the Roman world, in which the prefect Cato and the centurion Macro stand shoulder to shoulder in the fight for the glory of Rome. This time the author takes us to Britain, in the year 59 CE, when the newly established Roman province was experiencing increasingly visible unrest and rebellions of local tribes. The book was published by Książnica Publishing House.
The plot this time tells mainly about the fate of Macro, who moves to Londinium, a rapidly developing urban centre in Britain, where he wants to help his mother run an inn. Macro must face the gangs that dominate the streets and make it difficult to run a business.
Ultimately, Macro has to flee the city and move south-east of the city, to today’s Colchester (Roman Camulodunum), where Roman veterans are stationed. Macron, together with Cato and his army friends, will have to face the rebellious Trinovants.
The book has over 340 pages of plot and provides the reader with new adventures of our heroes. In my opinion, however, the threads in this part are a bit forced and the author could have immediately focused on further events – known to us from history – the rise of Queen Boudica and the invasion of the island of Anglesey, which was a centre of druids in ancient times.
On the plus side – of course, the inclusion of illustrative maps; on the minus side, there are no sources used or an afterword from the author.
To sum up, the 20th part of the novel is not as interesting as the previous ones, but it will certainly still be very interesting for enthusiasts. By creating this part, the author created a basis for the next volume, in which very important events in the history of Roman Britain will take place.
