Publisher's Synopsis
Four hundred years from its inception, the Roman Republic teeters amid the winds of social unrest. Gaius Marius, once the First Man of Rome, vies against his former protege, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, to determine the Republic's future. They will plunge the Roman people into civil war. Marcus Viatores and his father, Titus, plebeian farmers, share an ambition to rise to the ranks of the equestrians, the second level of Roman society. To achieve that goal, they must deal with the depredations of the landed aristocracy while rejecting the manipulated anger of the urban plebs. Marcus's childhood friend, Horatio Emilius Paulus, a patrician noble, is driven by his mother to pursue a career in politics. Marcus and Horatio, ensnared in the confrontation of classes, take opposite sides. Both will struggle to survive the violence of the times. Only one of them will succeed.
