THE EAGLE’S PROPHECY

In their sixth adventure (The Eagle’s Prey, 2005, etc.), centurion comrades Cato and Macro go to sea to recapture stolen scrolls invaluable to the emperor Claudius.

After his crew takes control of three Roman ships, bloodthirsty Greek pirate Telemachus hones in on Caius Caelinus Secundus, a patrician who promises him a rich ransom. Inside the elegant chest Caius is transporting are scrolls whose importance he tries to play down. Telemachus isn’t fooled; he holds the patrician and the scrolls hostage, demanding ten million sestertians for their return. Meanwhile, back in Rome, seasoned centurion Macro and his young protégé Cato are adrift. Living in squalor while seeking a new commission, they wander into trouble because of their restlessness and anxiety. Salvation comes from an unexpected quarter. Claudius’s right-hand man, Narcissus, well-acquainted with the centurion duo, hires them to retrieve the scrolls. In a surprising twist, he puts Cato at the head of the rescue party and demands that the hotheaded but much more experienced Macro stay behind. Macro is unexpectedly reunited with his mother Portia, who abandoned him as a baby. (Their reunion and subsequent interactions are awkward, to say the least.) Cato’s meeting with Telemachus goes less well than expected. Not to be intimidated, the Greek speaks slickly of other bidders for the scrolls, which contain secret revelations from the famed Oracle at Delphi. Narcissus decides to seize them by force, putting Macro and Cato under the command of Vitellius, an old adversary with ruthless political ambition. Storms at sea weaken their fleet, making it more vulnerable to the battle-ready pirate force. The centurions almost immediately come to loggerheads with Vitellius, fearing that his inexperience and recklessness will make them easy prey for Telemachus.

Scarrow again provides a vivid sense of history and several believable scenes of maritime action, and his righteous but flawed protagonists are winning heroes.