When poverty strikes, an ageing farmer is forced to make a heartbreaking choice: relinquish his oldest son in the hope of appeasing the gods or see his family face certain starvation.
And so it follows that young Lucius Ulpia Porcianus is sacrificed to Rome.
Embarking on his new life, Lucius travels to Ancona to enlist in the legion.
Accepted into the army of Pompey, the young recruit soon finds himself engulfed in the civil war between Sulla and the Marians.
As a callow youth, torn from the land of Picenum, can Lucius put his days as a pig farmer behind him and embrace life as a legionary? Or will the brutality of war seal his fate?
Legionary by Griff Hosker is published on 21 February, 2025. It’s the first book in his Roman Rebellion series.
Read Griff’s feature A writer’s career.
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