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Embers of Empire #6
The Burning Stakes
To unite the warring Roman army under his fresh command, Emperor Julian offers his military enemies a free hand over a sinister show trial purging the late Constantius II's court. As the names of the generals' targets leak out from the Chalcedon tribunal, panic and betrayal engulfs civil servants, imperial eunuchs, and even the agentes in rebus.
Agent Numidianus returns to Rome to discover his headquarters under a new chief and his ailing intelligence master Apodemius gone missing. With a trusted few, he fights to protect the Magister’s most vulnerable secret ever— while defending himself against charges that will tie him to the executioner’s stake.
Packed with action and intrigue, the Embers of Empire series is delighting fans of Bernard Cornwell, Steven Saylor and Robert Harris.
Agent Numidianus returns to Rome to discover his headquarters under a new chief and his ailing intelligence master Apodemius gone missing. With a trusted few, he fights to protect the Magister’s most vulnerable secret ever— while defending himself against charges that will tie him to the executioner’s stake.
Packed with action and intrigue, the Embers of Empire series is delighting fans of Bernard Cornwell, Steven Saylor and Robert Harris.
383 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 15, 2016
3 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 5, 2017
This whole series has given us a different type of hero, a different type of story -- mostly based on writings of Ammianus Marcellinus, historian of that period of history. The novel traces out the history of that period: late 300's AD, through the eyes of our fictional Numidian freedman hero, Marcus, an agens in rebus. This novel covers the coming to power of Emperor Julian. He restores pagan worship, lets the various factions of Christians fight it out among themselves, and disbands the agentes in rebus replacing them with a very much watered-down version. A rescindment order cancelling the execution of Emperor Gallus had not reached the Castra Peregrina [Intelligence headquarters] in time, so the man had been executed. Marcus searches for the directive and for Apodemius, the head of intelligence. Apodemius has vanished into thin air, carrying everything of his with him--even his secret papers, his mice.... Much of the novel is taken up with that search and with the carrying out of arrest warrants for certain people Julian distrusts and feels are treasonous. The accused are to be transported to Chalcedon, near Constantinople to face a military tribunal. It is a "show" trial and is stacked against them. Apodemius and Marcus himself are included in that number because Julian feels they have taken it upon themselves to execute Gallus. What will Marcus's fate be? If found guilty, he could be burnt at the stake.
I enjoyed how all loose ends came together neatly in this novel. I'd like to read more if the author continues the series, but this may be the end of a cycle of six novels, although this is only my feeling.
Most highly recommended.
I enjoyed how all loose ends came together neatly in this novel. I'd like to read more if the author continues the series, but this may be the end of a cycle of six novels, although this is only my feeling.
Most highly recommended.
March 8, 2018
Hunter has taken this reader on a mesmerizing and unexpectedly vivid journey through mid-4th century Roman Empire. An amazing series which grows on you with each book. Is this the last?
While I might quibble with the speed with which Agent Numidianus sometimes travels down the Cursus Publicus as a spy-on-the-run, one can't fault Hunter's extraordinary research, melding politics in the Dominate empire under the Constantine dynasty's rule with lively, touching personal narratives following a single freedman and his extended family of fellow agentes-in-rebus.
I can't think of any other author—can you?— who has delved this deeply, broadly or colorfully into the post-Constantine-the-Great era. This latest book is the best proof of that—the very first fiction I've ever read about the Chalcedon Show Trial used by Julian the Apostate to placate the late Emperor Constantius' army leadership while wreaking revenge on his half-brother Gallus' executioners. (Hunter's book "The Wolves of Ambition" was also the first I'd ever read about the heart-breaking fraud and miscommunication around the usurpation of General Silvanus. I could go on, but you get my point.)
Without sacrificing a single accurate rank, title, conviction, or procedure, this is still page-turning stuff. Agent Numidianus is always barely one step ahead of Julian's cold-eyed henchmen in his race to locate his missing chief of his intelligence service and avoid Julian's purge of everyone loyal to Constantius.
(The search through the mushrooming imperial archives in the court of Milan was totally plausible, set against a suffocating web of imperial bureaucratic authorities and repositories. The scene with the terrified Consul Tarsus hiding in the Castra's temple sticks with me, as does the fetid atmosphere of the temporary sanctuary found by Numidianus in the same brothel in Sirmium where he first hid out from the torturer Notary Paulus Catena (Catena first appears in the second book in this series, "Usurpers."
(In another original thread, Hunter plays on the Three Witches theme, introducing the reader to three very different Vestal Virgins, who realize only too well that, though they still linger feebly on as a forgotten sisterhood, their times and role in society are long past shelf-date.)
For fans of Robert Harris or Lindsay Davis, n.b.: Hunter's characters could never be confused with their Republican or Principate ancestors, as they navigate the growing power of the Church, the incipient decoupling of East and Western capitals, the weakening of legal limits on the use of torture against indiscriminate charges of treason, the disappearance of the senatorial class as a counterweight to imperial whim. Be ready for a period unlike that of Cicero or Trajan.
Hunter has taken the trouble in each book to add historical notes, a glossary of useful Latin terms and modern place-names for ancient locales.
While I might quibble with the speed with which Agent Numidianus sometimes travels down the Cursus Publicus as a spy-on-the-run, one can't fault Hunter's extraordinary research, melding politics in the Dominate empire under the Constantine dynasty's rule with lively, touching personal narratives following a single freedman and his extended family of fellow agentes-in-rebus.
I can't think of any other author—can you?— who has delved this deeply, broadly or colorfully into the post-Constantine-the-Great era. This latest book is the best proof of that—the very first fiction I've ever read about the Chalcedon Show Trial used by Julian the Apostate to placate the late Emperor Constantius' army leadership while wreaking revenge on his half-brother Gallus' executioners. (Hunter's book "The Wolves of Ambition" was also the first I'd ever read about the heart-breaking fraud and miscommunication around the usurpation of General Silvanus. I could go on, but you get my point.)
Without sacrificing a single accurate rank, title, conviction, or procedure, this is still page-turning stuff. Agent Numidianus is always barely one step ahead of Julian's cold-eyed henchmen in his race to locate his missing chief of his intelligence service and avoid Julian's purge of everyone loyal to Constantius.
(The search through the mushrooming imperial archives in the court of Milan was totally plausible, set against a suffocating web of imperial bureaucratic authorities and repositories. The scene with the terrified Consul Tarsus hiding in the Castra's temple sticks with me, as does the fetid atmosphere of the temporary sanctuary found by Numidianus in the same brothel in Sirmium where he first hid out from the torturer Notary Paulus Catena (Catena first appears in the second book in this series, "Usurpers."
(In another original thread, Hunter plays on the Three Witches theme, introducing the reader to three very different Vestal Virgins, who realize only too well that, though they still linger feebly on as a forgotten sisterhood, their times and role in society are long past shelf-date.)
For fans of Robert Harris or Lindsay Davis, n.b.: Hunter's characters could never be confused with their Republican or Principate ancestors, as they navigate the growing power of the Church, the incipient decoupling of East and Western capitals, the weakening of legal limits on the use of torture against indiscriminate charges of treason, the disappearance of the senatorial class as a counterweight to imperial whim. Be ready for a period unlike that of Cicero or Trajan.
Hunter has taken the trouble in each book to add historical notes, a glossary of useful Latin terms and modern place-names for ancient locales.
April 3, 2021
This whole series has given us a different type of hero, a different type of story -- mostly based on writings of Ammianus Marcellinus, historian of that period: late 300's AD, through the eyes of our fictional Numidian freedman hero, Marcus, an agens in rebus. This novel covers the coming to power of Emperor Julian. He restores pagan worship, lets the various factions of Christians fight it out among themselves, and disbands the agentes in rebus, replacing them with a very much watered-down version. A rescindment order cancelling the execution of Emperor Gallus had not reached the Castra Peregrina [the "Camp for Foreigners" = Intelligence headquarters] in time, so the man had been executed. Marcus searches for the directive and for Apodemius, the head of intelligence. Apodemius has vanished into thin air, carrying everything of his with him--his secret papers, his mice... Much of the novel is taken up with that search and with the carrying out of arrest warrants for certain people Julian distrusts and feels are treasonous. The accused are to be transported to Chalcedon, near Constantinople to face a military tribunal. It is a series of "show" trials and is stacked against them. Apodemius and Marcus himself are included in that number because Julian feels they have taken it upon themselves to execute Gallus. What will Marcus's fate be? If found guilty, he could be burnt at the stake.
I enjoyed how all loose ends came together neatly in this novel. I'd like to read more if the author continues the series, but this may be the end of a cycle of six novels, although this is only my feeling. Around the time of my rereading of the lot, to my delight I've discovered the author has written three more novels, adding to this cycle. I've enjoyed how each novel flows into the next episode. I'm sure the next ones will detail how Marcus reconstructs with the aid of some of his former colleagues the espionage organization after Emperor Julian has destroyed it.
Most highly recommended.
I enjoyed how all loose ends came together neatly in this novel. I'd like to read more if the author continues the series, but this may be the end of a cycle of six novels, although this is only my feeling. Around the time of my rereading of the lot, to my delight I've discovered the author has written three more novels, adding to this cycle. I've enjoyed how each novel flows into the next episode. I'm sure the next ones will detail how Marcus reconstructs with the aid of some of his former colleagues the espionage organization after Emperor Julian has destroyed it.
Most highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews