Warrior of Rome series [1-9] - Harry Sidebottom

Written by Harry Sidebottom
Read by Nick Boulton, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, Rupert Bush
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 64 Kbps

/sample: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart/

#1 Fire in the East

The year is AD 255 - the Roman Imperium is stretched to breaking point, its authority and might challenged along every border. The greatest threat lies in Persia to the east, where the massing forces of the Sassanid Empire loom with fiery menace. There the isolated Roman citadel of Arete awaits inevitable invasion.

One man is sent to marshal the defences and shore up crumbling walls. A man whose name itself means war: a man called Ballista. Alone, Ballista is called to muster the forces, and the courage to stand first and to stand hard, against the greatest enemy ever to confront the Imperium. (Nick Boulton, 14 hrs and 20 mins)

#2 King of Kings

AD 256 - the specter of treachery hangs ominously over the Roman Empire. The sparks of Christian fervor have spread through the empire like wildfire, and the imperium is alive with the machinations of dangerous and powerful men. All the while, Sassanid forces press forward relentlessly along the eastern frontier. The battle-bloodied general Ballista returns to the imperial court from the fallen city of Arete - only to find that there are those who would rather see him dead than alive. Ballista is soon caught in a sinister web of intrigue and religious fanaticism.. (Nick Boulton, 13 hrs and 28 mins)

#3 Lion of the Sun

It’s Mesopotamia, AD 260. Betrayed by his most trusted adviser, the Roman Emperor Valerian has been captured by the Sassanid barbarians. The shame of the vanquished beats down mercilessly like the white sun, as the frail old emperor prostrates himself before Shapur, King of Kings. Ballista looks on helplessly, but vows under his breath to avenge those who have brought the empire to the brink of destruction with their treachery. One day, maybe not soon, but one day, I will kill you …But first he must decide what price he will pay for his own freedom. (Nick Boulton, 11 hrs and 46 mins)

#4 The Caspian Gates

AD262 - the Imperium is in turmoil after the struggle for the throne. Furthermore, Ephesus, Asia’s metropolis, lies in ruins, shattered by a mighty earthquake. Its citizens live in fear as the mob overwhelms the city, baying for blood to avenge the gods who have punished them. Yet an even greater threat to the Empire advances from the North. The barbaric Goth tribes sail towards Ephesus, determined to pillage the city. (Nick Boulton, 11 hrs and 27 mins)

#5 The Wolves of the North

In the north, the tribes are increasingly bold in their raids on the Imperium - their savagery unlike anything Rome has known before. Ballista must undertake his most treacherous journey yet - a covert attempt to turn the barbarians of the steppe against each other. He must face the Heruli - the most bizarre and brutal of all the nomad tribes - the Eaters of Flesh, the Wolves of the North. As Ballista and his retinue make their journey, someone - or something - is hunting them, picking them off one by one, and leaving a trail of terror and mutilated corpses. (Nick Boulton, 11 hrs and 37 mins)

#6 The Amber Road

The Roman Empire is torn in two. The western provinces - Gaul, Spain and Britain - have been seized by the pretender Postumus. To the east, on the plains of northern Italy, the armies of the emperor Gallienus muster. War is coming. Everyone must choose a side. On a mission shrouded in secrecy and suspicion, Ballista must journey The Amber Road to the far north to Hyperborea, back to his original home and the people of his birth. (Nick Boulton, 11 hrs and 56 mins)

#7 The Last Hour

Bruised and battered, he crawls out of the raging river. He is alone and unarmed, without money or friends, trapped in a deadly conspiracy at the heart of the Empire. The City Watch has orders to take him alive; other, more sinister, forces want him dead. As the day dies, he realises he has only 24 hours to expose the conspirators, and save the leader of the world. If the Emperor dies, chaos and violence will ensue. If the Emperor dies, every single person he loves will die. (Dugald Bruce Lockhart, 8 hrs and 33 mins)

#8 The Burning Road

AD265 - In the shadow of Mount Etna, slaves are rising up. As the rebel leader declares Sicily the new land of the free, men and women are slaughtered, and cities across the island are sacked and burned.
When a ship is wrecked off the island’s west coast, all but two survivors are cut down in the surf by the rebel slaves. Ballista, an experienced Roman soldier, has always found a way to survive against the odds - but his son Marcus is still just a boy.
With the burning road stretching out ahead of them, father and son must cross the war-ravaged island in a race against time to save the rest of his family, and somehow find a way to extinguish the brutal rebellion, before it all goes up in flames. (Rupert Bush, 9 hrs and 10 mins)

#9 Falling Sky

AD 265, Gaul - The Roman Empire is on the brink.
Emperor Gallienus has amassed a huge army across the Alps to seize back the mountains from the usurper Postumus.
War has come. (Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, 8 hrs and 59 mins)

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