Built almost 2,000 years ago by the Roman occupiers of Britain, Hadrian's Wall is one of the most famous and identifiable World Heritage Sites. When two old friends, one American and one British, reunited to trek the length of the Wall, they reminisced about the past while sharing apprehension about the future. This memoir of their coast-to-coast voyage examines Roman history, drawing parallels between the fall of the Roman Empire and the recent political developments and uncertainties in the United Kingdom and the United States. The authors also share their often humorous encounters with locals they met along the way while hiking in incessant rain.

Walk the Wall, gaze northwards across hostile territory, man the turrets and milecastles… What was life like for the Roman troops stationed on Hadrian’s Wall? Follow the life of one man, a Tungrian soldier, through recruitment, training, garrison duty and war. Focussing on a single point in time and one fort on the Wall, we explore every aspect of military life on this bleak and remote frontier. Where was he born? What did he spend his money on? How did he fight? What did he eat? Did he have lice or fleas? Archaeology and the accounts of ancient writers come together to paint a vivid picture of a soldier on the Wall soon after its completion in AD 130. Historical reconstruction and experimentation fill in the gaps that are left. Step back into the past, step into the marching boots of Tungrian soldiers as they patrol Rome’s greatest frontier. 21 black-and-white drawings and maps and 34 colour illustrations

Carl Sommer presents a popular study of the faith and life of the early Christians in the first two centuries after Christ. Using documentary evidence and archaeological records, Sommers reconstructs the lives of the early Christians in order to "introduce the treasures of early Christianity to a large number of modern readers". By studying how the early Christians believed and lived, we can learn many valuable lessons on what to avoid and what to strive for today. The Roman world had many facets that are strikingly similar to elements of modern life. Sommer's aim is to help the reader learn how to transform modern culture with the power of the Gospel as was first done in the centuries of the early Church.

Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Steve Berry, Naomi Novik, and Harry Turtledove, Alan Smale’s gripping alternate history series imagines a world in which the Roman Empire has survived long enough to invade North America in 1218. Now the stunning story carries hero Gaius Marcellinus deeper into the culture of an extraordinary people—whose humanity, bravery, love, and ingenuity forever change his life and destiny. In A.D. 1218, Praetor Gaius Marcellinus is ordered to conquer North America and turning it into a Roman province. But outside the walls of the great city of Cahokia, his legion is destroyed outright; Marcellinus is the only one spared. In the months and years that follow, Marcellinus comes to see North America as his home and the Cahokians as his kin. He vows to defend these proud people from any threat, Roman or native. After successfully repelling an invasion by the fearsome Iroqua tribes, Marcellinus realizes that a weak and fractured North America won’t stand a chance against the returning Roman army. Worse, rival factions from within threaten to tear Cahokia apart just when it needs to be most united and strong. Marcellinus is determined to save the civilization that has come to mean more to him than the empire he once served. But to survive the swords of Roma, he first must avert another Iroqua attack and bring Cahokia together. Only with the hearts and souls of a nation at his back can Marcellinus hope to know triumph. Praise for Alan Smale and Eagle in Exile “In Alan Smale, speculative fiction has been dealt a winning hand. Part historian, part anthropologist, part scientist, Smale is a Renaissance man with a storyteller’s gift for letting tireless research inform the narrative without overwhelming it. Smale entertains, educates, and enraptures.”—Myke Cole, author of Javelin Rain “[Eagle in Exile] has the pace and scope of a Michener or Uris epic. . . . Smale’s action scenes slash across page after page, intense and bloody. . . . Grab your dagger and sword, for the battle continues.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Warfare, political conflict, family strife—these are all presented in an epic scope where any decision or wrong move can forever change society.”—Tech Times “Thoroughly believable . . . Marcellinus is a complicated man, a hero we can all get behind.”—Historical Novels Review

Following his widely acclaimed Project X and Love and Hydrogen—“Here is the effect of these two books,” wrote the Chicago Tribune: “A reader finishes them buzzing with awe”—Jim Shepard now gives us his first entirely new collection in more than a decade. Like You’d Understand, Anyway reaches from Chernobyl to Bridgeport, with a host of narrators only Shepard could bring to pitch-perfect life. Among them: a middle-aged Aeschylus taking his place at Marathon, still vying for parental approval. A maddeningly indefatigable Victorian explorer hauling his expedition, whaleboat and all, through the Great Australian Desert in midsummer. The first woman in space and her cosmonaut lover, caught in the star-crossed orbits of their joint mission. Two Texas high school football players at the top of their food chain, soliciting their fathers’ attention by leveling everything before them on the field. And the rational and compassionate chief executioner of Paris, whose occupation, during the height of the Terror, eats away at all he holds dear. Brimming with irony, compassion, and withering humor, these eleven stories are at once eerily pertinent and dazzlingly exotic, and they showcase the work of a protean, prodigiously gifted writer at the height of his form. Reading Jim Shepard, according to Michael Chabon, “is like encountering our national literature in microcosm.”

From the time the Romans first set foot on England's shore in 55 B.C., the British Isles have faced a constant threat of foreign invasion. As a result, the landscapes of England, Scotland, and Ireland are dotted with ancient defensive fortifications as varied as their makers. Iron Age Celtic "hill forts," Roman castra and Hadrian's Wall, Anglo-Saxon dykes and Alfredian burhs, Norman mottes and stone-keeps, Edwardian castles, Irish tower houses--they all served to repel ancient intruders and many still stand as tangible relics of a remarkable past. This study chronicles the development of British fortifications from prehistoric times through the end of Richard III's reign in 1485, providing the history of each type of structure, relevant examples, and information on weapons and siege warfare. More than 250 illustrations vividly detail each ediface's construction and configuration.

This highly illustrated book offers an accessible summary of Hadrian’s Wall, and an overview of the wider context of the Roman frontiers.

A richly illustrated history of military fortifications in ancient and medieval times. For over a thousand years, from the time of the Roman Empire to the classic period of castle-building in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, fortified sites played a key role in European warfare. This highly illustrated history gives a fascinating insight into their design and development and into the centuries of violence and conflict they were part of. The study traces the evolution of fortifications starting with those of the Romans and their successors. Included are the defenses erected to resist Islamic invasions and Viking raids and the castles built during outbreaks of warfare. As the authors demonstrate, castles and other fortifications were essential factors in military calculations and campaigns. They were of direct strategic and tactical importance wherever there was an attempt to take or hold territory. The factors that influenced their location, layout, and construction are analyzed in this fascinating book, as is the way in which they were adapted to meet the challenges of new tactics and weapons.

Arthur: mythical hero, legendary king. But was he, as the legends claimed, an actual Dark-Age Briton? From Glastonbury and Tintagel to the supposed sites of Arthur's Camelot and his famous battles, this book investigates how archaeologists have interpreted the evidence. Might new discoveries and the latest theories finally reveal the real King Arthur? For 800 years the controversy over Arthur's existence has ebbed and flowed. Rusty swords, imposing ruins, the Round Table, even Arthur's body itself were offered as proof that he had once reigned over Britain. The quest was revived by the scientific archaeologists of the 1960s. Just as Greek legends had led to the discovery of Troy, so might the romances lead to Camelot. This optimism did not last. Sceptics poured scorn on the obscure manuscripts and strong imagination on which the questers relied. For 30 years academics closed ranks against King Arthur. The discovery at Tintagel of a mysterious slate, inscribed with names from the Arthurian legends, shook this scepticism to its roots. Was it a clue at last? This book argues that it is time to reassess the possibility of a real King Arthur and acknowledge the importance his legends still hold for us today.

A dramatic retelling of the final years of the Western Roman Empire and the downfall of Rome itself from the perspective of the Roman general Stilicho and Alaric, king of the Visigoths. It took little more than a single generation for the centuries-old Roman Empire to fall. In those critical decades, while Christians and pagans, legions and barbarians, generals and politicians squabbled over dwindling scraps of power, two men – former comrades on the battlefield – rose to prominence on opposite sides of the great game of empire. Roman general Flavius Stilicho, the man behind the Roman throne, dedicated himself to restoring imperial glory, only to find himself struggling for his life against political foes. Alaric, King of the Goths, desired to be a friend of Rome, was betrayed by it, and given no choice but to become its enemy. Battling each other to a standstill, these two warriors ultimately overcame their differences in order to save the empire from enemies on all sides. And when one of them fell, the other took such vengeance as had never been seen in history. Don Hollway, author of The Last Viking, combines ancient chroniclers' accounts of Stilicho and Alaric into an unforgettable history of betrayal, politics, intrigue and war for the heart and soul of the Roman Empire.