Mark Paren

Marcus, Ingomar, Vitalis and Lucius will be tested soon.

Thanks. The Romans did some amazing things.

Gnaeus acts the way he does because that’s the way he thinks he needs to be. I knew several kids like him in middle school. Thankfully, I was one of the bigger fitter kids and they didn’t dare direct it at me or my friends.

Thanks, appreciate it.

Could be a misunderstanding.

The order came down plain and unglamorous, the kind of duty nobody in the officers' mess had troubled to compete for: a detail to escort a grain shortfall and a wagon of replacement harnesses south along the river road to Asciburgium, gone two days if the weather held, three if it didn't. Gnaeus took the command with the particular sourness of a man who understood exactly how small an honor he'd been handed, and made no effort to hide it from the men assembling in the grey half light before the

Rome had a few hundred dominant years left, but it’s not the case for all civilizations.

The might that was Rome until it wasn’t. Thanks for commenting.

Thanks, I appreciate your support.

I was hoping the harness scene with Marcus and the two boys was enough of a reprieve. There will be more calm scenes interlaced with the tension.

Marcus found Titus and Decimus crouched together outside the stable block, a wooden bowl of polish between them and the better part of Lucius’s cavalry harness spread across a cloth like the pieces of some disassembled puzzle, and stopped a moment just to watch before either of them noticed him. “You have to go in circles, small ones, or it streaks.” Titus held up his own strip of bronze, turning it proudly to catch the light, entirely absorbed in his own expertise. “I’ve been polishing Mas

You’ve cut to the core of it. Will they choose loyalty to their people or to each other or in the end, will they have a choice? Thank you for the comment.

I had many of the same questions. Not much is known about the level of same sex tolerance of the first century Germanic tribes. It gave me some leeway. Thank you for the comment..

“Oooofff...Has Ingomar been cast as a man with no country because of who he loves...Can there ever be a future for him in his homeland? Is there the promise of a possible future standing with Rome and with Marcus?” I could tell you, but it might spoil the fun 😉. Thanks for commenting.

Thanks. An acknowledgment like yours means a lot to me.