Showing results by author "Tim Leach" in All Categories

AD 173. The Danube lies frozen. On its banks gather the clans of Sarmatia, their riders winter starved by sickly herds and blighted crops. Petty feuds cast aside and their disparate numbers united in the face of a great enemy. For across the frozen waters stands the mighty Roman Empire, and its Legion marches ever closer.

Eleventh-century Iceland. One night in the darkness of winter, two friends set out on an adventure but end up killing a man. Kjaran, a travelling poet who trades songs for food and shelter, and Gunnar, a feared warrior, must make a choice: conceal the deed or confess to the crime and pay the blood price to the family. But their decision leads to a brutal feud: one man is outlawed, free to be killed by anyone without consequence, the other remorselessly hunted by the dead man's kin.

Ten years after the fall of Babylon, Cyrus's army is on the march again. His slave Croesus, no longer a young man, accompanies him as always, as does the king's son and heir Cambyses, who has inherited none of his father's diplomacy or charisma and all of his vanity and violence. When the warriors of Persia are unexpectedly crushed in battle Cyrus is put to death, and Cambyses assumes the throne.

In the hard, unforgiving land at the northernmost point of the Roman Empire lies a great wall. Once, the edge had been but a thing of thoughts and dreams, but one day the great Emperor from across the water had grown tired of such borders. So, a wall was raised from the earth at his command. From afar, it looked invincible. Yet every wall has its weaknesses—if one looks close enough. In its shadow gather five thousand fearsome soldiers. Men bred to fight and kill. The Sarmatians have suffered capture and defeat, but under a new command they are prepared to fight again.

180 AD. North of the Wall, Sarmatian warrior Kai and his adopted tribe, the Votadini, struggle for survival, cast into unfamiliar lands by Roman reprisals. When news arrives that an old enemy is in charge of the Votadini's hated foes, a confederation of tribes known as the Painted People, and has roused them to action, Kai heads south towards the Wall, hoping to ally with the Romans against this resurgent threat. Meanwhile, the Romans have heard tales of butchery and mayhem beyond the Wall.

A defeated king stands on top of a pyre. His conqueror, the Persian ruler Cyrus, signals to his guards; they step forward and touch flaming torches to the dry wood. Croesus, once the wealthiest man of the ancient world, is to be burned alive. As he watches the flames catch, Croesus thinks back over his life. He remembers the time he asked the old Athenian philosopher, Solon, who was the happiest man in the world. Croesus used to think it was him. But then all his riches could not remove the spear from his dying elder son's chest; could not bring his mute younger son to speak

175 n. Chr., Vinolanda, Britannien: Die sarmatische Kavallerie wurde bei der Donauschlacht von den römischen Legionen zerschlagen. Nun muss sich Kai, ihr stolzester Krieger, das Überleben seines Volkes mit dem Versprechen erkaufen, Rom zu dienen. Obwohl die Sarmaten unter der Schmach der Niederlage leiden, sind sie bereit, für Kaiser Marc Aurel zu kämpfen und zu sterben. Aus ihrer Heimat verbannt, sollen sie sich auf dem Eisernen Weg bis zum Rand des Römischen Reiches begeben.

173 n. Chr. An den Ufern der zugefrorenen Donau versammeln sich die Clans der Sarmaten. Der Winter in der kargen Ebene war hart, und um zu überleben müssen sie den gefrorenen Fluss überqueren. Doch auf der anderen Seite des Eises liegt das Römische Reich, und vor ihnen steht eine ganze Legion. Die Sarmaten sind mit einer starken Kavallerie angerückt, darunter der junge Krieger Kai. Nach Jahren des Krieges ist das stolze sarmatische Volk der einzige Stamm, der den Römern noch die Stirn bietet. Doch diesmal haben sie keine Chance.