MESOPOTAMIA, GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES

Striking from the desert, the forces of the King of Kings have slaughtered the Imperial garrison of Bibractium. Hungry for Roman blood and the glory of their Fire-God Ahura Mazda, the hordes of the East will not stop until the ancestral lands of Persia are restored. Severely weakened and on the back foot, Rome is battered, but the battle standards of her legions still stand, and the martial flame burns strong in its finest general in generations: Flavius Belisarius.

A FATHER'S SINS

As the Imperium mobilises, the city of Dara is destined to be the centrepiece. But all is not well – discord threatens the legions in the face of invasion. After journeying from Constantinople, the young and inexperienced Lucian Hypatius is tasked with a perilous mission to determine the loyalty of a wavering commander, a man feared by ally and enemy alike, and considered the only equal in ability to Belisarius: Tribune Bouzes, the Scourge of the East. The stage is set, and upon it, Lucian will find his quality – or fall.

A YEARNING FOR RETRIBUTION

On the trail of the Persian commander responsible for the slaughter at Bibractium, Ariadne and Bull pursue their foe across the desert. The demands of justice are countered by the trials of heat and despair that rule in the arid wastes. For Ariadne, the whispers of the past are ever-present, and the soul-destroying need for revenge could come to cost her everything she has come to love.

DESTINY ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF DARA

Stand or fall, the Empire is destined to forever change, for on the battlefield of Dara, history will be written with the blood of the fallen.

And in the aftermath, nothing will be the same.