Newly recruited Eighth Legion tiros

must embrace the life; a world of brutal training, merciless discipline and of pitiless Centurios. If young Gaius Crastinus and his comrades hope to survive ambush and death securing trade routes of the Province from Lusitanii hoards routinely crossing the border to raid and pillage; they must first endure their apprenticeship, the Rudimentum Militare.

When disgruntled Senator Catiline arms a desperate army

of ruthless, landless veterans and escaped slaves to terrorize Rome, the Eighth must act. Can these untried and outnumbered Legios survive hundreds of miles of grueling desert, deadly midwinter seas while mutinous internal factions threaten the Legion from within still emerge victorious?