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It’s hard to be a man of honor when the Emperor wants you dead.

Flavius Stilicho’s quiet provincial life ended the day he was called up to the Emperor’s Own Proctectores, who served both as bodyguards at official functions and as a pool of junior officers for the most prestigious military positions in the Empire. Here, he grew close to the children of Rome’s greatest people, including the barbarian prince Alaric, and fell in love with Serena, the lovely adopted daughter of the Emperor Theodosius.

When Stilicho and his companions foil an attempt on the Emperor’s life, he boldly asks for Serena’s hand in marriage as a reward. The Emperor, to escape this quandary, poses an impossible task for Stilicho as a prerequisite: he would be the Emperor’s plenipotentary, a special ambassador holding the powers of the Emperor himself in bargaining with other nations, and he would bring home a peace treaty with alien and treacherous Persia, Rome’s greatest enemy and rival. While he would be well-provisioned and encouraged to bring a small detachment of men for protection and support, Stilicho’s courage, honor, and skill with diplomacy would determine his success or failure.

But first Stilicho had to survive months of travel through the most dangerous lands on the edges of the Roman Empire, where the Pax Romana had long since broken down. Worse, his own close-knit circle of friends begins to fall apart as it becomes clear that the goals of some diverge from Rome’s well-being.