The books in this section are usually hardcover and in decent shape, though we'll sometimes offer hard-to-find books in lesser condition at a reduced price. Though we often put images of the book with their original dust jackets, the copies here won't always (or even often) have them. If that is important to you, please call ahead or say so in the order comments!
Before Lucius Calpurnius leaves with the Roman army for Britain, his father gives him a family heirloom to bring him luck. He is to need it. For his posting is a dangerous one; it lies close to the Wall which, stretching from shore to shore over desolate and intractable countryside, had been built a quarter of a century earlier to keep at bay the marauding Picts. But, in addition to the risks inevitable in Wall service, Lucius has personal problems; the troop he has to lead resent so young a commander and determine to make him look a fool, even to the point of forcing him to undergo a peculiarly terrifying endurance test.
The heirloom Lucius is given is a military bracelet engraved with a capricorn device. For over three hundred years this object is passed down from one generation to the next, and in turn it comes into the possession of each of the six men whose stories make up Rosemary Sutcliff's latest book. It is the silent witness of great changes in Roman Britain, it is worn by men of very different character. But for each man it is a link with previous members of his family and to each it brings the confidence necessary for living and fighting in the wild, challenging area round Hadrian's Wall.
—from the dust jacket
Did you find this review helpful?