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City of Victory #2
La ciudad
AD 113: NICOPOLIS
In the depths of the desert on the empire's Eastern Frontier, the Roman army lays siege to the city of Nicopolis.
Estranged from his beloved Enica to keep her safe, centurion Flavius Ferox has secured his freedom after being framed once again. His next quest: to uncover traitors within the Roman ranks.
As the siege builds, widespread corruption seethes and soldiers are murdered in cold blood. Meanwhile, Ferox's investigation brings him closer and closer to the imperial court, and uncovers connections to Hadrian himself...
Gritty, gripping and profoundly authentic, The City is the second book in a brand new trilogy set in the Roman empire from bestselling historian Adrian Goldsworthy.
In the depths of the desert on the empire's Eastern Frontier, the Roman army lays siege to the city of Nicopolis.
Estranged from his beloved Enica to keep her safe, centurion Flavius Ferox has secured his freedom after being framed once again. His next quest: to uncover traitors within the Roman ranks.
As the siege builds, widespread corruption seethes and soldiers are murdered in cold blood. Meanwhile, Ferox's investigation brings him closer and closer to the imperial court, and uncovers connections to Hadrian himself...
Gritty, gripping and profoundly authentic, The City is the second book in a brand new trilogy set in the Roman empire from bestselling historian Adrian Goldsworthy.
491 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 9, 2022
159 people are currently reading
351 people want to read
About the author
Adrian Goldsworthy
44 books1,534 followersAdrian Goldsworthy, born in 1969, is the author of numerous acclaimed books, including biographies of Julius Caesar and Augustus. He lectures widely and consults on historical documentaries for the History Channel, National Geographic, and the BBC. He lives in the UK.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
September 3, 2022
The next instalment in the chronicles of Flava Flav Flavius Ferox delivers the goods. I’ll admit that my attention can sometimes wander during long battle scenes in books but this book had the longest battle I’ve ever read in it and it held me rapt all the way through.
Highly recommended to fans of historical fiction, military fiction, the Roman Empire and combinations thereof. Honestly, if this was a fantasy series, they’d stick the ‘grimdark’ label on it.
Highly recommended to fans of historical fiction, military fiction, the Roman Empire and combinations thereof. Honestly, if this was a fantasy series, they’d stick the ‘grimdark’ label on it.
August 12, 2024
No tan buena como la primera parte pero es una historia agradable donde se sigue explorando la historia de Roma en sus límites orientales, en el siglo I y II de nuestra era. Con algo de suspenso, de giros y de acción; en general es una novela entretenida
August 5, 2024
Goldsworthy has created a story that vividly brings to life what it must have been like to besiege a city in the second century C.E. and to be besieged. In addition, he shows how the less-than-competent commanders whose greed for power and status bring suffering and death to legionaries and the common people alike. His detailed descriptions of the technical aspects of siege made me feel as though I was actually there and expanded my understanding of ancient Roman siegecraft. Also, the machinations by Hadrian and others were complex and devious, and again, were for their own self-interest. This is a fascinating and exciting tale made all the more captivating by Goldsworthy's extensive knowledge of ancient Rome. Also, it was good to be in the thick of things with Flavius Ferox again!
June 24, 2023
Roman centurion Flavius Ferox assists in a siege of a Hellenistic-era city on the Parthian frontier in the prelude to Emperor Trajan's Parthian campaign (114-118 CE). Second book of the second story arc City of Victory in Goldsworthy’s Flavius Ferox Roman historical fiction series.
Parthian Horse Archers circa 100 CE
My dead pixels copy was a moderate 452-pages with a 2022 UK copyright. This book includes: a map, a Historical Note, Characters List and a Glossary. Its highly recommend to read the Historical Note before closing the cover for the last time.
Adrian Goldsworthy is a British historian and author of both fiction and non-fiction. He has written more than ten novels in several series. That includes his Flavius Ferox series starting with the Vindolanda trilogy set in 1st Century Roman Britain. The last book of his I read was The Fort (City of Victory #1)) (my review).
This was the second book in the author’s second Flavius Ferox series story arc City of Victory trilogy. Reading the first book (The Fort) of the trilogy is strongly recommended to make this book more understandable.
This is the fifth book in the historically accurate, Roman-era, Sword 'n Sandal historical fiction by an accredited historian. I have a keen interest in Roman history and have read many fiction and non-fiction books on the period. The books in Goldsworthy’s Ferox series build-in some of the more recent information from the literature and Roman-era, archeological record than previous fiction I’ve read. In particular Roman Britain archeology. They are high-quality Edu-tainment. In addition to the clash of swords on shields, this series includes more mundane issues of Roman life. It also includes: a detective mystery; sword wielding, Celtic, warrior women femme fatales; and the pre-Christian era supernatural.
This story was set almost 10-years after The Fort. The series’ protagonist Flavius Ferox has become deeply involved in the machinations of the future emperor Hadrian and is his unwilling agent, sometimes agent provocateur. Ferox complies with Hadrian to ensure the safety and political fortunes of his Celtic Queen wife and their children in Britain.
Prose was good, Goldsworthy loses some of his academic stiffness with each work of fiction. The author’s Oxford education shows in the precision of his writing. He has almost perfect punctuation. This book contains four (4) POVs. Switching between them was good. Four was a manageable number for 450+ page book. There are enough pages that plotlines don’t get starved with each change in context. In addition, the Ferox and Hadrian characters did not receive any development, which conserved word count.
The author heavily leveraged the characters from the earlier Vindolandia and the start of the City of Victory story arcs. Ferox remains the nominal protagonist. He reprises his role as: legionary Centurion, commando, hardboiled detective. Vindex, Ferox’s native Briton, ‘rough cut’, wingman; as well as Philo his Jewish servant, now a married freedman; and Bran his brother-in-law, attached to him by his wife appeared. Although, their parts were small in this story. Crispinus Atilius, a senatorial political intriguer from Vindolandia is politically rehabilitated and commands the besieging legion and once-again Ferox. Domitius an illegal Christian, legionary deserter who takes refuge in the to be besieged city and falls in love (sigh). The future emperor, Hadrian is the Manipulative Bastard in this story arc and Ferox’s frenemy, but mostly an antagonist. The immediate antagonists are a gaggle of descendent Hellenes of a Parthian allied subject kingdom on the far-side of the Roman frontier in Syria demarked by the Euphrates river. The story’s POVs are provided by: Ferox, Cispinus, Hadrian, and Domitius.
The story contained sex, drugs and violence. Sex was abstracted in the fade to black manner. Alcohol was consumed, primarily beer and wine.Boys Legionnaires like their beer. Also, watered-wine was as common as tea in Greco-Roman ancient times. Goldsworthy adds detail by mentioning period wine appellations whose fame survives in the historical record. For example, similar to the estate Bordeaux wines of their time.
Note there was a surfeit of violence in this story. It was: physical, edged-weapon, and projectile weapons inflicted. Archery plays a larger role in the combat than usual, it being a Parthian specialty. There was more than enough sword and spear work to keep a sword ‘n sandal reader happy. Rapine behavior appeared in the narrative, although not graphically. The violence was also rather graphic. I found myself getting fatigued by the bloodletting. Goldsworthy seemed fond of combatants being struck in the body or head, with predictable results by ballistae projectiles . Unfortunately, I felt myself eventually becoming desensitized to the carnage and the gave-up trying to sort-out the action within the mayhem.
This story was more a Sword ‘n Shield story, like The Fort than the detective/spy thrillers of the Vindolandia story arc. It was actually the converse of The Fort. Instead of Ferox being besieged, he was amongst the besiegers. Note that, from my non-fiction reading of ancient siege warfare it was as accurate as the literature. However, there was not a great amount of additional information beyond that found in The Fort. In addition to this large, many phased, primitive engineering engagement of the siege, there were a lot of battles. These ranged from small skirmishes involving swordplay, lethal archery and spear-work to whole legionary engagements. From a military history aspect, Goldsworthy does a good job with his descriptions. He interleaves descriptions from the literature and uses best modern, speculation on how it likely occurred. For example, ancient historical conflicts typically inflate the number of combatants involved, beyond what was either practical or conceivable for the times. Large ancient battles were actually small affairs compared to modern warfare.
One thing I missed in this story was the intervention of the supernatural. Briton, Dacian, and Roman gods have intervened on both sides with a fair bit of magic being credited for events in previous stories. In this story, the Christian religion and early practices first appears. Ancient Judaism, which had previously introduced with the Philo character also has a larger place in the story. A pity, because it’s easier for me to achieve suspension of belief through the fantasy of intervention of the Gods than to tolerate excessive serendipity.
As in previous books, Ferox had several related murders on his mind (as well as murderous Parthians shooting arrows). However, the murder mysteries have not been the most important of plot lines in this new trilogy. In the end it was the usual suspects who were found responsible. The author did resort to his typical The Reveal at the story's end.
World building was on par with all the books in the series. Goldsworthy’s attention to historical detail has always been the strong point of this series. In this particular book, he somewhat reverses what I had thought was an under-emphasis that life was 'Nasty, brutish and short' in ancient times. (Note that Ferox is 'old' by 1st Century Roman demographics.) The author did a better job at the squalor that would result in a siege than expected, particularly the unretrieved bodies that would populate the lines. There was also tidy snippet on legionary sanitary procedures (latrines). Note that the author expects readers to have learned something about the mundanities of Roman life from the previous books. However there is a Glossary.
The current story arc moves the venue of the story from where it started in Britain, to what is now modern Romania, to what is now modern Syria and Turkey. Note that the titular besieged city was ‘made-up’, but based on historical examples. The archeological and historical record for that part of the world is not as complete as it is in the UK. For this story, the reader was not provided with what used to be, the series’ complete geography lesson. I felt it harder to relate to the story with the unfamiliar Southeastern Anatolia Region .
One premo opportunity lost by the author was the barest minimum of reference to the Silk Road economy of the region. The besieged city would have been one of the termini of the Silk Road before it crossed from Parthian and into Roman territory. Generally, silk came west and silver went east on caravans from this region. Its ancient world economic importance was barely hinted at in the narrative.
In addition, Ferox has been in the Eastern part of the Empire for more than 10-years away from Britain and his wife and family. The reader is left with the impression he’s been “doing his duty and likewise Hadrian’s bidding”. That’s a long time, in a hostile and hard environment when lives were very short?
A failing I see in this series that continues, is that the characters only partially act like ancients. It has always annoyed me that the legionaries act like Red Coats and Roman leadership like the English peerage. Having read a lot of non-fiction on Roman history, I’ve come to agree with the school of thought that ancient men and women were quite different from modern men and women. Goldsworthy’s characters are recognizable as moderns with an ancient paint job.
This story also abstracted the historical politics, in the political thriller aspects of the story. (Hadrian is trying to succeed Trajan as emperor in this story arc.) It coaches the geopolitics in terms that could be recognizable as a Great Game plot. The westernized Roman’s being the British, and the Parthians the oriental Persian/Russians. Only the geography, and the ethnicity of the indigenous peoples were the same. It was however simpler for a modern reader to see the story that way.
Finally, the Historical Note and the Dramatis personae at the end of the book cannot be ignored. If you consider yourself an amateur Roman historian, the Note is a must read. Here Goldsworthy describes how he wove the historical record into the story. I found this to be the single most important chapter of the book. It showed how ‘the writer writes’. The ‘Main Characters’ list was a convenient crutch for me. You can’t tell the players without a scorecard. Keeping track of the numerous Roman characters, reminded me of my reading of War and Peace. Roman names are as hard to remember and as similar as were that book's Russian names.
This book only added a little more to my trove of background on 1st Century Roman history. That is the Edu-tainment which the series specializes in. It moves the series’ obligatory, Roman, political conspiracies, murders and warfare deeper into the eastern empire. This story leveraged the characters and most of the backstory of the Vindolanda trilogy. It carries all the plotline baggage of the first books into a second new locale, but with now Hadrian pulling Ferox’s strings. Ferox is now an old soldier by legionary standards, living a hard and dangerous life, very far from home. I would have preferred less edged-weapon combat and more sleuthing in the story myself. So, history-wise this introduced some more of Roman military history to the reader, a bit more of ‘Life in Roman Times’, and a bit of obfuscated Roman political history. Story-wise, it packed along the long-term plotlines from the previous book in the trilogy. Mildly entertaining, but not great for this amateur Roman military historian.
Readers interested in non-fiction on the Roman legions of this period may be interested in The Roman Imperial Army of the first and second centuries A.D. Decent Roman era historical fiction is hard to find, but The Silver Pigs is a good start.
Parthian Horse Archers circa 100 CE
My dead pixels copy was a moderate 452-pages with a 2022 UK copyright. This book includes: a map, a Historical Note, Characters List and a Glossary. Its highly recommend to read the Historical Note before closing the cover for the last time.
Adrian Goldsworthy is a British historian and author of both fiction and non-fiction. He has written more than ten novels in several series. That includes his Flavius Ferox series starting with the Vindolanda trilogy set in 1st Century Roman Britain. The last book of his I read was The Fort (City of Victory #1)) (my review).
This was the second book in the author’s second Flavius Ferox series story arc City of Victory trilogy. Reading the first book (The Fort) of the trilogy is strongly recommended to make this book more understandable.
This is the fifth book in the historically accurate, Roman-era, Sword 'n Sandal historical fiction by an accredited historian. I have a keen interest in Roman history and have read many fiction and non-fiction books on the period. The books in Goldsworthy’s Ferox series build-in some of the more recent information from the literature and Roman-era, archeological record than previous fiction I’ve read. In particular Roman Britain archeology. They are high-quality Edu-tainment. In addition to the clash of swords on shields, this series includes more mundane issues of Roman life. It also includes: a detective mystery; sword wielding, Celtic, warrior women femme fatales; and the pre-Christian era supernatural.
This story was set almost 10-years after The Fort. The series’ protagonist Flavius Ferox has become deeply involved in the machinations of the future emperor Hadrian and is his unwilling agent, sometimes agent provocateur. Ferox complies with Hadrian to ensure the safety and political fortunes of his Celtic Queen wife and their children in Britain.
Prose was good, Goldsworthy loses some of his academic stiffness with each work of fiction. The author’s Oxford education shows in the precision of his writing. He has almost perfect punctuation. This book contains four (4) POVs. Switching between them was good. Four was a manageable number for 450+ page book. There are enough pages that plotlines don’t get starved with each change in context. In addition, the Ferox and Hadrian characters did not receive any development, which conserved word count.
The author heavily leveraged the characters from the earlier Vindolandia and the start of the City of Victory story arcs. Ferox remains the nominal protagonist. He reprises his role as: legionary Centurion, commando, hardboiled detective. Vindex, Ferox’s native Briton, ‘rough cut’, wingman; as well as Philo his Jewish servant, now a married freedman; and Bran his brother-in-law, attached to him by his wife appeared. Although, their parts were small in this story. Crispinus Atilius, a senatorial political intriguer from Vindolandia is politically rehabilitated and commands the besieging legion and once-again Ferox. Domitius an illegal Christian, legionary deserter who takes refuge in the to be besieged city and falls in love (sigh). The future emperor, Hadrian is the Manipulative Bastard in this story arc and Ferox’s frenemy, but mostly an antagonist. The immediate antagonists are a gaggle of descendent Hellenes of a Parthian allied subject kingdom on the far-side of the Roman frontier in Syria demarked by the Euphrates river. The story’s POVs are provided by: Ferox, Cispinus, Hadrian, and Domitius.
The story contained sex, drugs and violence. Sex was abstracted in the fade to black manner. Alcohol was consumed, primarily beer and wine.
Note there was a surfeit of violence in this story. It was: physical, edged-weapon, and projectile weapons inflicted. Archery plays a larger role in the combat than usual, it being a Parthian specialty. There was more than enough sword and spear work to keep a sword ‘n sandal reader happy. Rapine behavior appeared in the narrative, although not graphically. The violence was also rather graphic. I found myself getting fatigued by the bloodletting. Goldsworthy seemed fond of combatants being struck in the body or head, with predictable results by ballistae projectiles . Unfortunately, I felt myself eventually becoming desensitized to the carnage and the gave-up trying to sort-out the action within the mayhem.
This story was more a Sword ‘n Shield story, like The Fort than the detective/spy thrillers of the Vindolandia story arc. It was actually the converse of The Fort. Instead of Ferox being besieged, he was amongst the besiegers. Note that, from my non-fiction reading of ancient siege warfare it was as accurate as the literature. However, there was not a great amount of additional information beyond that found in The Fort. In addition to this large, many phased, primitive engineering engagement of the siege, there were a lot of battles. These ranged from small skirmishes involving swordplay, lethal archery and spear-work to whole legionary engagements. From a military history aspect, Goldsworthy does a good job with his descriptions. He interleaves descriptions from the literature and uses best modern, speculation on how it likely occurred. For example, ancient historical conflicts typically inflate the number of combatants involved, beyond what was either practical or conceivable for the times. Large ancient battles were actually small affairs compared to modern warfare.
One thing I missed in this story was the intervention of the supernatural. Briton, Dacian, and Roman gods have intervened on both sides with a fair bit of magic being credited for events in previous stories. In this story, the Christian religion and early practices first appears. Ancient Judaism, which had previously introduced with the Philo character also has a larger place in the story. A pity, because it’s easier for me to achieve suspension of belief through the fantasy of intervention of the Gods than to tolerate excessive serendipity.
As in previous books, Ferox had several related murders on his mind (as well as murderous Parthians shooting arrows). However, the murder mysteries have not been the most important of plot lines in this new trilogy. In the end it was the usual suspects who were found responsible. The author did resort to his typical The Reveal at the story's end.
World building was on par with all the books in the series. Goldsworthy’s attention to historical detail has always been the strong point of this series. In this particular book, he somewhat reverses what I had thought was an under-emphasis that life was 'Nasty, brutish and short' in ancient times. (Note that Ferox is 'old' by 1st Century Roman demographics.) The author did a better job at the squalor that would result in a siege than expected, particularly the unretrieved bodies that would populate the lines. There was also tidy snippet on legionary sanitary procedures (latrines). Note that the author expects readers to have learned something about the mundanities of Roman life from the previous books. However there is a Glossary.
The current story arc moves the venue of the story from where it started in Britain, to what is now modern Romania, to what is now modern Syria and Turkey. Note that the titular besieged city was ‘made-up’, but based on historical examples. The archeological and historical record for that part of the world is not as complete as it is in the UK. For this story, the reader was not provided with what used to be, the series’ complete geography lesson. I felt it harder to relate to the story with the unfamiliar Southeastern Anatolia Region .
One premo opportunity lost by the author was the barest minimum of reference to the Silk Road economy of the region. The besieged city would have been one of the termini of the Silk Road before it crossed from Parthian and into Roman territory. Generally, silk came west and silver went east on caravans from this region. Its ancient world economic importance was barely hinted at in the narrative.
In addition, Ferox has been in the Eastern part of the Empire for more than 10-years away from Britain and his wife and family. The reader is left with the impression he’s been “doing his duty and likewise Hadrian’s bidding”. That’s a long time, in a hostile and hard environment when lives were very short?
A failing I see in this series that continues, is that the characters only partially act like ancients. It has always annoyed me that the legionaries act like Red Coats and Roman leadership like the English peerage. Having read a lot of non-fiction on Roman history, I’ve come to agree with the school of thought that ancient men and women were quite different from modern men and women. Goldsworthy’s characters are recognizable as moderns with an ancient paint job.
This story also abstracted the historical politics, in the political thriller aspects of the story. (Hadrian is trying to succeed Trajan as emperor in this story arc.) It coaches the geopolitics in terms that could be recognizable as a Great Game plot. The westernized Roman’s being the British, and the Parthians the oriental Persian/Russians. Only the geography, and the ethnicity of the indigenous peoples were the same. It was however simpler for a modern reader to see the story that way.
Finally, the Historical Note and the Dramatis personae at the end of the book cannot be ignored. If you consider yourself an amateur Roman historian, the Note is a must read. Here Goldsworthy describes how he wove the historical record into the story. I found this to be the single most important chapter of the book. It showed how ‘the writer writes’. The ‘Main Characters’ list was a convenient crutch for me. You can’t tell the players without a scorecard. Keeping track of the numerous Roman characters, reminded me of my reading of War and Peace. Roman names are as hard to remember and as similar as were that book's Russian names.
This book only added a little more to my trove of background on 1st Century Roman history. That is the Edu-tainment which the series specializes in. It moves the series’ obligatory, Roman, political conspiracies, murders and warfare deeper into the eastern empire. This story leveraged the characters and most of the backstory of the Vindolanda trilogy. It carries all the plotline baggage of the first books into a second new locale, but with now Hadrian pulling Ferox’s strings. Ferox is now an old soldier by legionary standards, living a hard and dangerous life, very far from home. I would have preferred less edged-weapon combat and more sleuthing in the story myself. So, history-wise this introduced some more of Roman military history to the reader, a bit more of ‘Life in Roman Times’, and a bit of obfuscated Roman political history. Story-wise, it packed along the long-term plotlines from the previous book in the trilogy. Mildly entertaining, but not great for this amateur Roman military historian.
Readers interested in non-fiction on the Roman legions of this period may be interested in The Roman Imperial Army of the first and second centuries A.D. Decent Roman era historical fiction is hard to find, but The Silver Pigs is a good start.
September 15, 2022
A little slower to get through than previous Ferox books but great ending and I’m hoping the next installment is just a good.
February 22, 2023
**Arguably the best improvement of “The City” over “The Fort” is that Peter Noble is back as the audiobook narrator. His work in the Vindolanda trilogy was a masterclass.**
The second installment of Goldsworthy’s follow-up trilogy on Flavius Ferox takes our laconic hero even further from home than “The Fort” did.
On the far side of the Euphrates, the action of “The City” has the ability to draw out a wider expanse of Roman history. As ever, Goldsworthy is a master at seamlessly and grippingly interweaving narrative elements with bits of history.
But something is lost in the story the further east Ferox travels. The entire first trilogy takes place in Britain, and by the end of it, it feels lived in and fleshed out. By going from the Danube in “The Fort” to the Euphrates in “The City,” that depth is necessarily lost. Whereas the Vindolanda trilogy had me feel a part of the mundane life of a Roman in Brittania, the City of Victory trilogy so far has felt like shoehorning Ferox into episodes of Roman history, only to be shunted to the next episode three provinces away. That said, the story is still gripping, and the discussion of a Roman siege was extraordinary.
The second installment of Goldsworthy’s follow-up trilogy on Flavius Ferox takes our laconic hero even further from home than “The Fort” did.
On the far side of the Euphrates, the action of “The City” has the ability to draw out a wider expanse of Roman history. As ever, Goldsworthy is a master at seamlessly and grippingly interweaving narrative elements with bits of history.
But something is lost in the story the further east Ferox travels. The entire first trilogy takes place in Britain, and by the end of it, it feels lived in and fleshed out. By going from the Danube in “The Fort” to the Euphrates in “The City,” that depth is necessarily lost. Whereas the Vindolanda trilogy had me feel a part of the mundane life of a Roman in Brittania, the City of Victory trilogy so far has felt like shoehorning Ferox into episodes of Roman history, only to be shunted to the next episode three provinces away. That said, the story is still gripping, and the discussion of a Roman siege was extraordinary.
September 2, 2023
( Format : Audiobook )
"The Romans are a strange, dirty people."
Continuing the army exploits of Flavius Ferox, 105 AD. War is brooding, trouble continuing to follow Ferox wherever he goes.: this time to participate in the siege of Necopolis. Good characters, vividly visual and atmospheric descriptions of the military daily life both in and out of battles, thrills, humour and a blend of well researched fact and fiction.A
Narration is by Peter Noble, an excellent voice artist who voices the large assortment of protagonists with disparate tones and inflections, keeping them individually distinctive. His reading is clear and well modulated but a little slow: increasing the downloaded speed to 1.3 quickly resolved this leaving an excellent performance.
Second in the Cities of Victory series, The City could be read as a stand alone but perhaps more enjoyable if read after The Fort as some characters besides Ferox, also reappear. The author is a fine historian and his story is punctuated with fascinating details, perfect for lovers of stories set in the times of Ancient Rome, and there is a real feel of the awfulness of hand to hand fighting.
Definitely recommended.
"The Romans are a strange, dirty people."
Continuing the army exploits of Flavius Ferox, 105 AD. War is brooding, trouble continuing to follow Ferox wherever he goes.: this time to participate in the siege of Necopolis. Good characters, vividly visual and atmospheric descriptions of the military daily life both in and out of battles, thrills, humour and a blend of well researched fact and fiction.A
Narration is by Peter Noble, an excellent voice artist who voices the large assortment of protagonists with disparate tones and inflections, keeping them individually distinctive. His reading is clear and well modulated but a little slow: increasing the downloaded speed to 1.3 quickly resolved this leaving an excellent performance.
Second in the Cities of Victory series, The City could be read as a stand alone but perhaps more enjoyable if read after The Fort as some characters besides Ferox, also reappear. The author is a fine historian and his story is punctuated with fascinating details, perfect for lovers of stories set in the times of Ancient Rome, and there is a real feel of the awfulness of hand to hand fighting.
Definitely recommended.
April 4, 2025
We have a TV channel in the Netherlands called RTL7 whose motto is "meer vor mannen" (more for men). This is real RTL7 material, Stallone and Statham Expendibles stuff. There's no questioning Adrian Goldsworthy's knowledge of the Roman world and above all the Roman army and its legions. Profound and super realistic! But as we follow Legio Hispano IX and legatus Crispinus's siege of Nicopolis situated in the desert of the eastern frontier aided,of course, by Ferox and his Brigantine friends and British auxiliaries, we wallow in page after page of manic bloodshed as throats and groins are pierced by hastae and gladii or heads smashed by ballistae bolts and stones. Actually it becomes onerous but somehow, like the Iliad with its list of warrior deaths, Goldsworthy finds a new death after death. I didn't like this as much as its predecessor, The Fort. Per amps because there was less female interaction and sexual tension. Still I will certainly read The Wall where I am sure e will come across Ferox's Brigantine Queen and wide and his two daughters.
November 3, 2022
Well Flavius Ferox, Vindex and a band of Brigantes are at it again. This time they have been sent to the city of Nicopolis on the Eastern Frontier near the Parthian border. A number of the previous Roman characters are assembled too. We learn this adventure is the idea of Hadrian before he came emperor and it wasn't quite sanctioned by the current emperor, Trajan. So it is very important for many of the Roman leaders that this event goes well. Of course, the citizens of Nicopolis decide they don't want to be under Roman rule and decide to resist. So the siege of Nicopolis begins, and a Roman deserter decides he will help the city officials rather than live out his time in their dungeons. He has been befriended by a Jewish family and is in love with their oldest daughter. Lots of action and many plot twists and turns throughout the book. If you have enjoyed reading The Fort, then you will certainly enjoy this book too.
October 17, 2024
This is the second in the Flavius Ferox trilogy , in this installment the Romans are engaged in a siege of a city somewhere in Dacia for somewhat murky reasons inevitably involving Hadrian.
There is a sub plot involving a Roman deserter inside the city who saves a Jewish woman and becomes experiences divided loyalties during the siege, it becomes apparent that he may have had good reason to desert after refusing to swear an oath due to being a Christian and becoming involved in deeper scheming.
While this is a good Roman yarn this installment is not up to the standard of the previous books, the actual intrigues don`t really work and the plot is fairly linear, with various princes, princesses, Hadrian and the appearance of the Emperor Trajan on the scene there was plenty of scope for twists and turns which doesn`t really work. The description of the siege is excellent and i`m definitely a fan of this series and am currently on the next installment...
There is a sub plot involving a Roman deserter inside the city who saves a Jewish woman and becomes experiences divided loyalties during the siege, it becomes apparent that he may have had good reason to desert after refusing to swear an oath due to being a Christian and becoming involved in deeper scheming.
While this is a good Roman yarn this installment is not up to the standard of the previous books, the actual intrigues don`t really work and the plot is fairly linear, with various princes, princesses, Hadrian and the appearance of the Emperor Trajan on the scene there was plenty of scope for twists and turns which doesn`t really work. The description of the siege is excellent and i`m definitely a fan of this series and am currently on the next installment...
November 19, 2022
Romans Speaking Modern English
The book gets much too wrapped around the engineering of a siege and ignores the well-done relationships developed in earlier books.
The action is also well done. Taking out important people in the series is fraught with danger for an author. This one does it quickly and cleanly.
But the use of modern English swearing seems almost lazy in its usage coming out of the mouth of ancient Romans. Daft, bugger, etc., jars my senses and reminds me this is just an Anglicized historical fiction and I leave the immersive quality a good author tries to put the reader into.
Such a shame. That fix would’ve pushed the book up to 4 stars. 5 stars would’ve been reached by making Ferox less of a grumpy stick figure.
The book gets much too wrapped around the engineering of a siege and ignores the well-done relationships developed in earlier books.
The action is also well done. Taking out important people in the series is fraught with danger for an author. This one does it quickly and cleanly.
But the use of modern English swearing seems almost lazy in its usage coming out of the mouth of ancient Romans. Daft, bugger, etc., jars my senses and reminds me this is just an Anglicized historical fiction and I leave the immersive quality a good author tries to put the reader into.
Such a shame. That fix would’ve pushed the book up to 4 stars. 5 stars would’ve been reached by making Ferox less of a grumpy stick figure.
August 7, 2024
In this novel set in AD 113, Adrian Goldsworthy continues the tale of Roman Centurion Flavius Ferox, engaged in the siege of Nicopolis, a Hellenic outpost on the edge of the Parthian Empire.
In contrast to the previous novel in the series when Ferox was being besieged in a Roman fort, this time he is outside trying to get in to the well defended and designed city. The Romans succeed in taking the city and Ferox receives his orders for the next stage in his life from Hadrian, who is plotting to become Emperor after the death of Trajan.
Goldsworthy brings his extensive knowledge of Roman army life to his novels and there is a real sense of the tension, drama and dull routine of a siege.
In contrast to the previous novel in the series when Ferox was being besieged in a Roman fort, this time he is outside trying to get in to the well defended and designed city. The Romans succeed in taking the city and Ferox receives his orders for the next stage in his life from Hadrian, who is plotting to become Emperor after the death of Trajan.
Goldsworthy brings his extensive knowledge of Roman army life to his novels and there is a real sense of the tension, drama and dull routine of a siege.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 22, 2024
I loved the first book in this series, so I was looking forward to reading the second volume. So disappointed. I guess it is hard to make a siege interesting, but the repetitive graphic descriptions of injuries were definitely...overkill. I almost quit.
I am also still trying to figure out where Bran came from - continuity from the previous volume seemed lacking.
I am also still trying to figure out where Bran came from - continuity from the previous volume seemed lacking.
August 3, 2022
A good follow up..
I really enjoyed this novel following on from The Fort. It’s fairly fast moving and never boring. I read it very quickly as I kept wanting to know what would come next…
I really enjoyed this novel following on from The Fort. It’s fairly fast moving and never boring. I read it very quickly as I kept wanting to know what would come next…
August 16, 2022
Really enjoyed this as a story and historic insight to the era and building on the characters from the previous books . There were times though when characters seemed to do a lot of self analysis/pondering that seemed go on for a bit longer than necessary breaking the flow of the story.
August 20, 2022
Eagerly awaited this third book but have to say found it hugely disappointing. Far too many blow-by-blow fight scenes so the actual narrative got lost along the way. Really had to push myself to finish it!
November 16, 2022
Mejor novela que la anterior. La receta resulta familiar pero sigue funcionando. Los arcos secundarios son simples pero exploran facetas interesantes de la época. La descripción del funcionamiento del ejército romano en un asedio es muy interesante.
December 27, 2022
continues the high standard set be previous novels. Ferox fades into the background a little but the humour is still there. Enjoyed the detail of how to siege a city in Roman times and the depiction of the politics of the time. Highly recommended.
July 31, 2023
23 Another great read. The sense of time and place is well done . Somehow though I lost my ‘sense’ of Ferox which is such a pity as he is a well written character. I have a suspicion that it is because I am reading his story out of sequence something that I will be rectifying soon
January 20, 2024
A Roman siege
In the Fort it is the Romans who are besieged. In the city it is the Romans who conducting the siege. Tragically the residents of the city are caught up in a war not of their making. Rip roaring historical fiction which I enjoyed.
In the Fort it is the Romans who are besieged. In the city it is the Romans who conducting the siege. Tragically the residents of the city are caught up in a war not of their making. Rip roaring historical fiction which I enjoyed.
January 31, 2025
Ego vere nescio quid faciam cum me ipso cum haec fabula concluditur.
Ferox amo aliquid terribile.
Scio eum non esse verum sed res quod est fictio historica sine magia me tantum titillat in omnibus rectis modis.
Ferox amo aliquid terribile.
Scio eum non esse verum sed res quod est fictio historica sine magia me tantum titillat in omnibus rectis modis.
July 21, 2022
Adrian Goldsworthy's fiction is somewhat difficult to follow at times, but it it accurate history. HIs non-fiction is better. Still, this was a good read.
July 27, 2022
Part of a series..
August 11, 2022
Excellent
A thrilling story of the Roman war machine with the benefit of personnel lives ,fears and hopes . The background of history
A thrilling story of the Roman war machine with the benefit of personnel lives ,fears and hopes . The background of history
September 4, 2022
Excellent, Part I was the from the point of view of the beseiged and this one is from the point of view of the atatcker. Loved this one, recommended read
October 20, 2022
Really good read made you feel like you were in the siege
April 13, 2024
Another excellent book from Adrian goldsworthy
July 14, 2025
Another enjoyable ood swords&sandals novel from Goldsworthy, albeit less focused on Ferox this time, everyones favorite stubborn Silure.
October 4, 2025
4 Stars
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