The Hostage of Rome
217 BC. Rome has been savaged, beaten and is in retreat. Yet, in that winter of winters, her garrisons cling on behind the walls of Placentia and Cremona, thanks to her sea-born supplies. If he could be freed, a hostage of Rome may yet hold the key to launching a fleet of pirates that could sweep Rome from the seas. For that hostage is none other than Corinna’s son Cleon, rival heir to the throne of Illyria, held in Brundisium, four hundred miles south of the Rubicon.
But Hannibal is set on a greater prize! Macedon is the great power in Greece, feared even by Rome. Its young king, Philip, is being compared with his illustrious ancestor, Alexander the Great. An alliance with Macedon would surely sound the death knell for Rome.
Given Hannibal’s blessing, Sphax, Idwal and Corinna face an epic journey against impossible odds. Navigating the length of the Padus, past legionary garrisons and hostile Gauls, they must then risk the perils of the storm-torn Adria in the depths of the winter. If the gods favour them and they reach the lands of the pirate queen, only then will their real trials begin.
Purchase Links
UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hostage-Rome-Histories-Sphax-Book-ebook/dp/B09X3L8WLB/
US – https://www.amazon.com/Hostage-Rome-Histories-Sphax-Book-ebook/dp/B09X3L8WLB/
Extract from The Hostage of Rome
The ever-present backdrop in The Hostage of Rome is the epic journey Sphax and Corinna undertake to rescue Corinna’s son, Cleon, held hostage by Rome in Brundisium (modern-dayBrindisi) on the Adriatic coast of southern Italy. Most of this journey is by ship, beginning with a hundred and ninety mile passage of the river Po to its delta wilderness where its waters flow into the Adriatic Sea. Sailing and navigation in Roman times (220 BC) was a risky enterprise, fraught with danger. Because there are so many shipwrecks littered around the Mediterranean, classical scholars know an awful lot about sailing! Vessels rarely sailed in the storm months between October and March. But Sphax is on a mission, and has little choice but to risk the perils of the Adriatic in the dead of winter …
Extract
“It all happened with such shattering suddenness. Now all around their fragile wooden walls, the sea foamed and seethed as white-capped waves began to boil and shower them with spray. Lashing hail turned to driving rain and soon they were shivering and soaked to the skin. What until now had been a steady breeze had become a tempest, its squalls and gusts assailing them from all points west, making steering impossible at times, and control of the sheets a challenge. Zwalia had joined Idwal and Drust to work the great square sail, but sitting in the belly of the vessel they were constantly being thrown and tossed around, causing the sail to flap and billow. Sphax stood behind Corinna, his arms wrapped tightly around herwaist to shield her from the worst of the icy blasts. Grimly, he’d made up his mind that whatever happened, he would not leave her and would cling on to her for as long as he had breath in his body.
Above all, Sphax found the bolts of lightning searing down from the darkened heavens the most terrifying sight he’d ever witnessed. Astrape, shield bearer of Zeus, seemed to be aiming her bolts at their helpless craft. As each blinding flash struck the sea, the waters sizzled and boiled, dowsing their deadly fire.
For an hour they tried to outrun the storm, riding the lurching vessel as a horseman clings to a bolting stallion. And in that desperate hour, they were saved by sixteen ex-slaves, not much older than children, who rowed on in perfect synchrony, indifferent to the tempest raging all around them. But Sphax knew it was a race they couldn’t hope to win. Their lives now depended on reaching land.”
About the Author
When Cato the Censor demanded that ‘Carthage must be destroyed,’ Rome did just that. In 146 BC, after a three year siege, Carthage was raised to the ground, its surviving citizens sold into slavery and the fields where this once magnificent city had stood, ploughed by oxen. Carthage was erased from history.
That’s why I’m a novelist on a mission! I want to set the historical record straight. Our entire history of Hannibal’s wars with Rome is nothing short of propaganda, written by Greeks and Romans for their Roman clients. It intrigues me that Hannibal took two Greek scholars and historians with him on campaign, yet their histories of Rome’s deadliest war have never seen the light of day.
My hero, Sphax the Numidian, tells a different story!
When I’m not waging war with my pen, I like to indulge my passion for travel and hill walking, and like my hero, I too love horses. I live in Pembrokeshire, West Wales.
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