Centurion Marcus Flavius Aquila, the cohort commander leads his men, the Fourth Gaulish Auxiliaries of the Second Legion from Isca Silurium to Isca Dumnoniorum where they will relieve the current garrison. Marcus, who is the Pilus Prior Centurion, had lived his first ten years on the family farm near Clusium with his mother. His father, a
soldier, had travelled to Judea, Egypt and Britain. Marcus and his
mother were planning to join his father in Britain but a rebellion by
the northern tribes forever changed that plan. His father, commander of
the First Cohort of the Ninth Hispana, had marched north and was never
heard from again.
When he arrives at the Roman fort, Centurion Marcus Aquila meets the current commander, Centurion Quintus Hilarion. Quintus warns Marcus to be wary of the wandering Druids whose appearance seems to foretell trouble as they tend to incite the tribes to attack, preaching a holy war.
Soon Marcus slips into frontier fort life, well suited for the hard work of a command. Marcus is also able to take time hunting with his guide, Cradoc, a Britain not much older than himself, who is considered an outstanding charioteer. There are rumours of a wandering Druid having been seen in the district. With a third poor harvest expected in the fall, Marcus worries that this might be a sign of an impending attack.
That attack comes two days after Marcus wins a wager for a spear with Cradoc for being able to drive hi chariot. After two vicious assaults on the Roman fort, Marcus leads a group of soldiers in testudo formation to rescue a scouting party. The third attack happens at this time, involving a charge by chariots that threatens to wipe out the Roman troops. Marcus, determined to break the charioteer charge, hurls himself at the lead chariot driven by Cradoc.The chariot crashes, flinging both Marcus and Cradoc underneath the horses.
Marcus awakens six days later to find himself severely injured and confined to bed. He learns from Centurion Drusillus that both the Druid leading the attack and Cradoc died in battle. Centurion Clodius Maximus, Commander of the relief force informs Marcus that he will leave two Centuries to bring the garrison up to strength and that Centurion Herpinius will be taking command of the fort until Marcus's relief will be sent from Isca. It makes sense to Marcus that a relief would be sent until he is recovered. He has a wound in his should and a badly injured right thigh. However soon Aulus indicates to Marcus that one day his wound will heal and he will be able to walk again, but his service with the Eagles was finished. The new commander, a young man named Cassius, who was the owner of the chariot team Marcus has driven in the Saturnalia Games soon arrives and Marcus leaves for his Uncle Aquila's home on the edge of Calleva.
Marcus's room is a small sleeping cell that opens onto the courtyard colonnade. Living with Marcus and his Uncle Aquila is Stephanos, his uncle's old Greek body-slave and Sassticca who is their cook. Marcus decides after two months at his uncle's home that he doesn't want to return to Italy to live with his uncle Tullus Lepidus and his aunt. This decision is met with approval by his uncle who enjoys living in Britain.
On December 25, Marcus along with his uncle attend the Saturnalia Games in Calleva. At the games, Marcus notices a young girl in attendance with Kaeso, a magistrate like his uncle Aquila and his wife Valaria. When the fighters are paraded out Marcus notices the fear in the eyes of a slave-gladiator, tattooed with blue warrior patterns. This fight turns out to be one to the death in which the blue tattooed warrior fights another called the Fisher who is armed with a net. The blue warrior loses the fight but has his life spared when Marcus convinces the crowd to do so.
Marcus decides to buy the slave as a body-slave and does so the next day. He learns, the man who has been a slave for two years is called Esca, son of Cunoval from "the tribe of Brigantes, bearers of the blue war-shield." During the winter, Esca rescues a wolf pup during a hunt by the town to rid the area of wolves. Marcus names the wolf pup Cub.
Eventually Marcus learns about Esca's past, that he was his father's armour-bearer. His father was a Clan Chieftain of the Brigantes. The Clan rose up again the Romans, but lost and Esca was taken and sold to a trader named Beppo in Calleva. As Esca tells Marcus about his life with his people, he remembers an event ten years earlier. Hidden behind a boulder, he watched a Legion marching north, carrying "a great golden Eagle with its wings arched back...", with men in scarlet cloaks and crests. "But the mist was creeping down from the high moors, and the Legion marched into it, straight into it, and it licked them up and flowed together behind them, and they were gone as though they had marched from one world into --another." Marcus tells Esca that his father was the scarlet hacklet next after the Eagle."
Shortly after this Marcus meets the young British girl, about thirteen-years-old, who had been with Kaeso and Valaria at the Saturnalia Games. She informs Marcus that although her aunt and uncle call her Camilla, her real name is Cottia and that she, like her Aunt Valaria, is of the Iceni. She doesn't like that they pretend to be Roman, forgetting that they are Iceni.
Marcus's old wound begins to trouble him again and his Uncle Aquila brings in one of his old field surgeons, Rufrius Galarius to examine his leg. Rufrius determines that his wound must be reopened and searched before it will mend fully. This is done the next day, with Rufrius finding splinters of wood in the wound. Eventually Marcus's leg heals, somewhat twisted and with Esca's help he regains his strength.
Marcus must now determine what to do with the rest of his life. Just when he decides to approach his uncle about becoming a secretary, he learns that the Legate of the Sixth Legion, Claudius Hieronimianus and his staff, Tribune Servius Placidus are visiting. Claudius, an Egyptian, is a friendly man, but Placidus, an attractive Athenian, is a soft aristocrat not suited for soldiering.
During the course of their dinner, Claudius mentions that Eburacum seems "...more than a little ghost-ridden by the Ninth Legion." He states that the lost legion lingers in the memory of the people there. "...there have been times, when the mist comes down from the high moors, when I have more than half expected to see the lost Legion come marching home." Marcus questions Claudius as to whether he has any theory as to what happened to the Hispana. While Claudius believes they were likely ambushed and killed, Placidus believes that "..in a Province of Valentia, even in the whole of Caledonia, upward of four thousand men could not be destroyed without a trace?" It is Placidus's theory that they killed their officers and deserted to the Tribes.
However, Claudius tells Marcus and his uncle that there is a rumour that the Hispana did fight to the very end and that the Eagle now resides in a tribal temple where it is honoured.In Claudius's mind, if the Hispana went rogue they would have destroyed or hidden their Eagle. However, if it was taken in battle as a trophy it would be a very different situation. "To the Outland Tribes it must seem that they have captured the god of the Legion: and so they carry it home in triumph, with many torches and perhaps the sacrifice of a black ram, and house it in the temple of their own god to make the young men strong in war and help the grain to ripen."
When Marcus questions him as to what he intends to do, Claudius tells him that there is really nothing he can do based on only a rumour. If the Eagle is still in existence, it is a powerful symbol to the Painted People as it would inspire them to fight against the Romans. Claudius cannot send a legion and so Marcus proposes that one might be able to find and recover the Eagle. Marcus proposes that he, along with Esca, and posing as a travelling oculist might be able to find out the truth at the very least. With the blessing and under the order of Claudius Hieronimianus, Marcus Aquila and Esca set out on a quest to learn the true fate of the Ninth Legion and possibly recover the lost Eagle. It will be a journey that will test both men to the limits of their courage and endurance.
Discussion
Rosemary Sutcliff's classic novel for young readers, Eagle of the Ninth is centered around the mysterious disappearance of the Ninth Legion of Hispana, Legio IX Hispana in the second century. The legion had fought in many battles in the Roman Empire and the Roman Republic and was sent to the Roman province of Britain in 43 A.D. The last known evidence for the existence of the Ninth Legion was its involvement in the rebuilding of the fort at Eboracum, known today as York, in 108 A.D. It is not known what happened to the legion after this when it seems to have disappeared from history.
In Sutcliff's novel, the Ninth Legion is identified as having marched into the mists of the northern frontier to put down a revolt by the tribes of Caledonia, now known as Scotland, and was never seen again. Her novel is somewhat based on the discovery of a bronze cast of an eagle, known as the Silchester eage dating from either the first or second century A.D. This cast was discovered in the ruins of Calleva, which was a town in Roman Britain. Like the eagle retrieved by Marcus Aquila in the novel, it was missing its wings. Although it was initially considered potentially to be from a Roman legion, it's now believed to be scrap.
Nevertheless, Sutcliff has crafted an engaging story about a young Roman, Marcus Aquila whose father was the leader of the lost Ninth Legion. When a friend of his Uncle Aquila reveals that rumours indicate the Roman Eagle lies somewhere in a tribal temple in the northern part of Valentia province, Marcus sets out on an epic quest to find the Eagle and clear the name of the Ninth Legion.
That attack comes two days after Marcus wins a wager for a spear with Cradoc for being able to drive hi chariot. After two vicious assaults on the Roman fort, Marcus leads a group of soldiers in testudo formation to rescue a scouting party. The third attack happens at this time, involving a charge by chariots that threatens to wipe out the Roman troops. Marcus, determined to break the charioteer charge, hurls himself at the lead chariot driven by Cradoc.The chariot crashes, flinging both Marcus and Cradoc underneath the horses.
Marcus awakens six days later to find himself severely injured and confined to bed. He learns from Centurion Drusillus that both the Druid leading the attack and Cradoc died in battle. Centurion Clodius Maximus, Commander of the relief force informs Marcus that he will leave two Centuries to bring the garrison up to strength and that Centurion Herpinius will be taking command of the fort until Marcus's relief will be sent from Isca. It makes sense to Marcus that a relief would be sent until he is recovered. He has a wound in his should and a badly injured right thigh. However soon Aulus indicates to Marcus that one day his wound will heal and he will be able to walk again, but his service with the Eagles was finished. The new commander, a young man named Cassius, who was the owner of the chariot team Marcus has driven in the Saturnalia Games soon arrives and Marcus leaves for his Uncle Aquila's home on the edge of Calleva.
Marcus's room is a small sleeping cell that opens onto the courtyard colonnade. Living with Marcus and his Uncle Aquila is Stephanos, his uncle's old Greek body-slave and Sassticca who is their cook. Marcus decides after two months at his uncle's home that he doesn't want to return to Italy to live with his uncle Tullus Lepidus and his aunt. This decision is met with approval by his uncle who enjoys living in Britain.
On December 25, Marcus along with his uncle attend the Saturnalia Games in Calleva. At the games, Marcus notices a young girl in attendance with Kaeso, a magistrate like his uncle Aquila and his wife Valaria. When the fighters are paraded out Marcus notices the fear in the eyes of a slave-gladiator, tattooed with blue warrior patterns. This fight turns out to be one to the death in which the blue tattooed warrior fights another called the Fisher who is armed with a net. The blue warrior loses the fight but has his life spared when Marcus convinces the crowd to do so.
Marcus decides to buy the slave as a body-slave and does so the next day. He learns, the man who has been a slave for two years is called Esca, son of Cunoval from "the tribe of Brigantes, bearers of the blue war-shield." During the winter, Esca rescues a wolf pup during a hunt by the town to rid the area of wolves. Marcus names the wolf pup Cub.
Eventually Marcus learns about Esca's past, that he was his father's armour-bearer. His father was a Clan Chieftain of the Brigantes. The Clan rose up again the Romans, but lost and Esca was taken and sold to a trader named Beppo in Calleva. As Esca tells Marcus about his life with his people, he remembers an event ten years earlier. Hidden behind a boulder, he watched a Legion marching north, carrying "a great golden Eagle with its wings arched back...", with men in scarlet cloaks and crests. "But the mist was creeping down from the high moors, and the Legion marched into it, straight into it, and it licked them up and flowed together behind them, and they were gone as though they had marched from one world into --another." Marcus tells Esca that his father was the scarlet hacklet next after the Eagle."
Shortly after this Marcus meets the young British girl, about thirteen-years-old, who had been with Kaeso and Valaria at the Saturnalia Games. She informs Marcus that although her aunt and uncle call her Camilla, her real name is Cottia and that she, like her Aunt Valaria, is of the Iceni. She doesn't like that they pretend to be Roman, forgetting that they are Iceni.
Marcus's old wound begins to trouble him again and his Uncle Aquila brings in one of his old field surgeons, Rufrius Galarius to examine his leg. Rufrius determines that his wound must be reopened and searched before it will mend fully. This is done the next day, with Rufrius finding splinters of wood in the wound. Eventually Marcus's leg heals, somewhat twisted and with Esca's help he regains his strength.
Marcus must now determine what to do with the rest of his life. Just when he decides to approach his uncle about becoming a secretary, he learns that the Legate of the Sixth Legion, Claudius Hieronimianus and his staff, Tribune Servius Placidus are visiting. Claudius, an Egyptian, is a friendly man, but Placidus, an attractive Athenian, is a soft aristocrat not suited for soldiering.
During the course of their dinner, Claudius mentions that Eburacum seems "...more than a little ghost-ridden by the Ninth Legion." He states that the lost legion lingers in the memory of the people there. "...there have been times, when the mist comes down from the high moors, when I have more than half expected to see the lost Legion come marching home." Marcus questions Claudius as to whether he has any theory as to what happened to the Hispana. While Claudius believes they were likely ambushed and killed, Placidus believes that "..in a Province of Valentia, even in the whole of Caledonia, upward of four thousand men could not be destroyed without a trace?" It is Placidus's theory that they killed their officers and deserted to the Tribes.
However, Claudius tells Marcus and his uncle that there is a rumour that the Hispana did fight to the very end and that the Eagle now resides in a tribal temple where it is honoured.In Claudius's mind, if the Hispana went rogue they would have destroyed or hidden their Eagle. However, if it was taken in battle as a trophy it would be a very different situation. "To the Outland Tribes it must seem that they have captured the god of the Legion: and so they carry it home in triumph, with many torches and perhaps the sacrifice of a black ram, and house it in the temple of their own god to make the young men strong in war and help the grain to ripen."
When Marcus questions him as to what he intends to do, Claudius tells him that there is really nothing he can do based on only a rumour. If the Eagle is still in existence, it is a powerful symbol to the Painted People as it would inspire them to fight against the Romans. Claudius cannot send a legion and so Marcus proposes that one might be able to find and recover the Eagle. Marcus proposes that he, along with Esca, and posing as a travelling oculist might be able to find out the truth at the very least. With the blessing and under the order of Claudius Hieronimianus, Marcus Aquila and Esca set out on a quest to learn the true fate of the Ninth Legion and possibly recover the lost Eagle. It will be a journey that will test both men to the limits of their courage and endurance.
Discussion
Rosemary Sutcliff's classic novel for young readers, Eagle of the Ninth is centered around the mysterious disappearance of the Ninth Legion of Hispana, Legio IX Hispana in the second century. The legion had fought in many battles in the Roman Empire and the Roman Republic and was sent to the Roman province of Britain in 43 A.D. The last known evidence for the existence of the Ninth Legion was its involvement in the rebuilding of the fort at Eboracum, known today as York, in 108 A.D. It is not known what happened to the legion after this when it seems to have disappeared from history.
In Sutcliff's novel, the Ninth Legion is identified as having marched into the mists of the northern frontier to put down a revolt by the tribes of Caledonia, now known as Scotland, and was never seen again. Her novel is somewhat based on the discovery of a bronze cast of an eagle, known as the Silchester eage dating from either the first or second century A.D. This cast was discovered in the ruins of Calleva, which was a town in Roman Britain. Like the eagle retrieved by Marcus Aquila in the novel, it was missing its wings. Although it was initially considered potentially to be from a Roman legion, it's now believed to be scrap.
Nevertheless, Sutcliff has crafted an engaging story about a young Roman, Marcus Aquila whose father was the leader of the lost Ninth Legion. When a friend of his Uncle Aquila reveals that rumours indicate the Roman Eagle lies somewhere in a tribal temple in the northern part of Valentia province, Marcus sets out on an epic quest to find the Eagle and clear the name of the Ninth Legion.
Sutcliff foreshadows the coming change in Marcus's life through the imagery of the rose bush. When Marcus first arrives at the fort he notices the beautiful rose bush in the officers' courtyard. It is a reminder of life in Italy. "And in one corner of the officers' courtyard, some past commander, homesick for the warmth and colour of the south, had planted a rose-bush in a great stone wine jar, and already the buds were showing crimson among the dark leaves. The rose-bush gave Marcus a sense of continuance; it was a link between him and those who had been before him, her on the frontier, and the others who would come after..."
After the attacks, as Marcus begins to heal from his wounds he notices the rose bush outside and how it is coming to the end of its blooms. "Now that he could sit up, he could lok out into the courtyard, and see the rose-bush in its wine-jar, just outside his window. There was still one crimson rose among the dark leaves, but even as he watched, a petal fell from it like a great slow drop of blood. Soon the rest would follow. He had held his first and only command for just as long as the rose-bush had been in flower..."
And when his friend Cassius, the new fort commander, leaves for the bath house, Marcus witnesses the rose-bush shedding its final petals. "Outside in the courtyard, the last crimson petals fell in a little bright flurry from the rose-bush in the old wine-jar." This symbolizes the new chapter in Marcus's life that is about to begin.
That new life turns out to be his quest to find out what really happened to his father's Legion and to that end Marcus ends up succeeding. In Eagle of the Ninth, Marcus is a man of honour. He is courageous, just, and avoids killing whenever possible. Marcus tries to build a friendship with the local tribes while recognizing he is a stranger in their land. In saving Esca from death, treating him kindly as a body-slave and freeing him, Marcus shows himself to be a just and compassionate man. When Esca and Marcus find themselves trapped in an old Roman signal tower, Marcus does not kill the young warrior, Liathan but spares him. He is a fitting hero with a noble quest.
Eagle of the Ninth is an exciting novel that will interest readers from ages nine to twelve, while giving them some perspective on what life was like in the Roman province of Britain. Life was not peaceful for the Romans who were seen as invaders by the people of Britain. They repeatedly rose up against them, only to be punished with destroyed villages and crops and salted fields. From Sutcliff's story, one gets the impression that the northern tribes found in Caledonia were too fierce for the Romans to conquer.
Sutcliff was a masterful storyteller who wrote many wonderful historical fiction novels for children and for adults too. Many are out of print now but can be ordered through Inter Library Loan from local public libraries and are well worth reading. Eagle of the Ninth is the first in a trilogy of novels about Roman Britain. Included are a map of Roman Britain, illustrations by famed C. Walter Hodges and a List of Place Names.
Book Details:
Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
London: Oxford University Press 1967
255 pp.
After the attacks, as Marcus begins to heal from his wounds he notices the rose bush outside and how it is coming to the end of its blooms. "Now that he could sit up, he could lok out into the courtyard, and see the rose-bush in its wine-jar, just outside his window. There was still one crimson rose among the dark leaves, but even as he watched, a petal fell from it like a great slow drop of blood. Soon the rest would follow. He had held his first and only command for just as long as the rose-bush had been in flower..."
And when his friend Cassius, the new fort commander, leaves for the bath house, Marcus witnesses the rose-bush shedding its final petals. "Outside in the courtyard, the last crimson petals fell in a little bright flurry from the rose-bush in the old wine-jar." This symbolizes the new chapter in Marcus's life that is about to begin.
That new life turns out to be his quest to find out what really happened to his father's Legion and to that end Marcus ends up succeeding. In Eagle of the Ninth, Marcus is a man of honour. He is courageous, just, and avoids killing whenever possible. Marcus tries to build a friendship with the local tribes while recognizing he is a stranger in their land. In saving Esca from death, treating him kindly as a body-slave and freeing him, Marcus shows himself to be a just and compassionate man. When Esca and Marcus find themselves trapped in an old Roman signal tower, Marcus does not kill the young warrior, Liathan but spares him. He is a fitting hero with a noble quest.
Eagle of the Ninth is an exciting novel that will interest readers from ages nine to twelve, while giving them some perspective on what life was like in the Roman province of Britain. Life was not peaceful for the Romans who were seen as invaders by the people of Britain. They repeatedly rose up against them, only to be punished with destroyed villages and crops and salted fields. From Sutcliff's story, one gets the impression that the northern tribes found in Caledonia were too fierce for the Romans to conquer.
Sutcliff was a masterful storyteller who wrote many wonderful historical fiction novels for children and for adults too. Many are out of print now but can be ordered through Inter Library Loan from local public libraries and are well worth reading. Eagle of the Ninth is the first in a trilogy of novels about Roman Britain. Included are a map of Roman Britain, illustrations by famed C. Walter Hodges and a List of Place Names.
Book Details:
Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
London: Oxford University Press 1967
255 pp.
