BOOK ONE - THE SHATTERED FRONTIER - REVISED 2nd EDITIONFar in the east of Rome, along the crumbling borders of the Tigris and the Euphrates, an old legion rots, long since abandoned and neglected by the emperor Valens and his advisors. This is the ancient Twelfth Legion, the Fulminata, the legion that once Thundered, raised by Caesar himself over four hundred years ago. A chance discovery in a dig propels an archaeologist to discover the truth of this legion, now long since forgotten, and its final doom. What he gradually uncovers is a story of betrayal and deception under a strange standard known as the Janus Eagle.This is the first book in a trilogy which tells the story of this Janus Eagle and its final fate deep in the mountains of Armenia, a land riven now with discord and strife. A fate in which the men of this legion are finally forced to confront a shame and a stain over three hundred years old - men who have long since forgotten the thunder that was once the legion's blood . . .Praise for the Author's previous novel 'The Nowhere Legion': " His characters are realistic and dark, the action is intense and unrelenting, and the story within a story will keep you turning the pages. "S. Brabant" . . . bravo to the author for being able to meld that style with the eye to detail that he has for the historical aspects of this novel. "Michael_M"His writing has an elegance and lyrical quality about it, and more than once I caught myself thinking, "I wish I had written that." And I assure you, that is a rare feat."R.W. Peake, Author of the 'Marching With Caesar' novels."Hagan delivers battles as gritty as the Persian desert. This is simply the best description I have read of what it was to fight in the Roman army. From the strategic placement of units to the cut and thrust tactics of the legionary the detail and the drama is unleashed in crashing waves of action."P.A. Gillingwater"The writing is crisp and clear, easily evoking the Late Roman period, the military community and the deserts of the Near East. The landscapes of Syria and Jordan are wonderfully painted in vivid colours. There is a definite sense of suspense and drama in the battle scenes, and bloody realism all the way through."
About the Author: I have been writing on and off since I was a shy lad hiding under the bed and scribbling in an out of date diary (I think it was about my space travels). Most of my works have been either plays populated with grotesques who stumble around ruins and those odd places we forget about - or epic tales of those last Roman legionaries as they falter and fall at the end of Empire. In these stories, the dying light of Rome flutters one final desperate time as I seek to follow the last of the Eagles down into their fates. Here, archaeological record, literary fragments, and my own invention intertwine to set a stage ripe for heroics and betrayal.'The Janus Eagle' is the second in a series of novels I am writing which will delve into that fatal period where the emperor Valens is slaughtered upon the fields of Hadrianople and the Goths break forever into the Roman Empire. It is a period fraught with tragedy and heroics, caught as it is on a cusp between the last of the ancient world and the dawning of what we are later to call the 'middle ages' . . .