<P><B>''A master of the genre'' <I>The Times</I></B><br><br>Marcus Valerius Aquila has scarcely landed in Britannia when he has to run for his life - condemned to dishonorable death by power-crazed emperor Commodus. The plan is to take a new name, serve in an obscure regiment on Hadrian''s Wall and lie low until he can hope for justice. Then a rebel army sweeps down from the wastes north of the Wall, and Marcus has to prove he''s hard enough to lead a century in the front line of a brutal, violent war.</P>