The Legions of the Mist

Early in the second century, the demoted centurion Justinius Corvus is transferred to Eburacum in Britain and ordered to restore discipline to the Ninth Legion Hispana. The legion’s earlier prestige has decayed, and Justinius initially regards both his men and the occupied province with contempt. Friendship with the legion’s surgeon and his marriage to Gwytha, an Iceni woman, gradually make Britain a place in which he has obligations beyond military advancement.

The Ninth is drawn into conflict with Vortrix, High King of the Britons, whose resistance challenges Rome’s claim that conquest and civilisation are the same project. Justinius and Vortrix become enemies capable of recognising courage and humanity in one another before the final campaign destroys the possibility of compromise. The novel offers a fictional explanation for the Ninth’s disappearance, treating the absence of decisive evidence as the point where Roman history passes into British legend.