Synopses & Reviews
He fought to become a warrior. He dared to become an emperor. He lived to become the most powerful man in the world.
In the year, 354 A.D., Julian, a sheltered scholar and pacifist lives in peace-until a summons from Emperor Constantine the Great changes the young man's life forever. Dispatched to Gaul to help reclaim a beaten Roman territory from German barbarians, Julian displays a surprising and brutal genius for survival against impossible odds. Emerging as an unlikely hero and adored by a legion of zealots, his untapped ambition is ignited-to reign as the new emperor. It's a position of power that'll test the loyalty of his friends, stir the ire of enemies, and cast an ominous shadow over his mad, and most magnificently impossible conquest of all...
From the author of the acclaimed The Ten Thousand comes a breathtaking recreation of the historic rise to power of a ruthless yet unlikely leader plunged into the chaos of war-and his shocking fall that would become one of the most fascinating mysteries of the ages. A novel of courage and conviction, of loyalty and betrayal, of personal victory and dark ambition,
Gods and Legions is epic storytelling at its most riveting.
Review
"[A] magnificent piece of historical fiction." -
Booklist"[A] stirring and adventurous tragedy of the first rank."-Kirkus Reviews
"Powerful and passionate. A truly compelling story-one not just of gods and legions but of men." -Library Journal (starred review)
Synopsis
The year 354 A.D.:
Julian, a young scholar in Athens, is the last survivor of a bloody political purge that killed his entire family. Unexpectedly summoned to the court of the Emperor Constantius, he fears the worst-only to find himself bearing the ring of Caesar of the Western Empire.
Tested by bloody battle and the scepticism of the Roman legions, Julian proves to be a military genius, crushing the German tribes that have threatened Rome for generations. Soon after, defying his own emperor against overwhelming odds, he risks civil war and ultimately seizes the Empire for himself, becoming the most powerful man in the world while still only thirty.
Now the dark side of his ambition emerges. Julian discards the Christianity of his boyhood and sets his sights on the greatest conquest of all-the Persian Empire. In Persia, however, his gods and his sanity desert him, and in one swift stroke, the course of history is altered forever.
Ranging from the forbidding forests of ancient Gaul to the sweltering sands
of Persia, Gods & Legions is a breathtaking historical re-creation of one of the most dangerous periods-and enduring mysteries-of all time.
Synopsis
In the year, 354 A.D., Julian, a sheltered scholar and pacifist lives in peace-until a summons from Emperor Constantine the Great changes the young man's life forever. Dispatched to Gaul to help reclaim a beaten Roman territory from German barbarians, Julian displays a surprising and brutal genius for survival against impossible odds. Emerging as an unlikely hero and adored by a legion of zealots, his untapped ambition is ignited-to reign as the new emperor. It's a position of power that'll test the loyalty of his friends, stir the ire of enemies, and cast an ominous shadow over his mad, and most magnificently impossible conquest of all...
From the author of the acclaimed The Ten Thousand comes a breathtaking recreation of the historic rise to power of a ruthless yet unlikely leader plunged into the chaos of war-and his shocking fall that would become one of the most fascinating mysteries of the ages. A novel of courage and conviction, of loyalty and betrayal, of personal victory and dark ambition,
Gods and Legions is epic storytelling at its most riveting.
About the Author
Michael Curtis Ford is forty-two years old and is a translator and novelist. He has bachelor's degrees from the University of Washington and a graduate degree from Princeton. He speaks several languages and is an avid reader of the classics. He and his wife educate their two children at home.