Tros of Samothrace 4: City of the Eagles

54 B.C.—Rome—Tros treads in the streets of his sworn enemies!

As Tros of Samothrace continues in his attempts to confound Caesar’s plans for the invasion of Britain, he journeys to the Eternal City to seek the aid of its great leaders—and Caesar’s opponents—Cato, Pompey and the Vestal Virgins themselves! While in Rome, Tros bizarrely finds himself serving Caesar’s interests as well as his own and those of his allies. Then his crew is captured. As intrigue follows intrigue Tros becomes embroiled in the Circus Maximus—with its chariot races and sudden death in the gladiatorial arena. This is the fourth Tros of Samothrace adventure—with more in this enthralling series available from Leonaur! Look out for Wolves of the Tiber, Dragons of the North and Serpent of the Waves, all available now—with more to come!

He went straight to the Northmen’s quarters. There were lodged in a barn between the cow-byre and the long, low, crowded sheds in which the Greek’s slaves lived. When he aroused them from sleep they reported there had been no difficulties such as Zeuxis’ slave had spoken of. They had not feared for Tros. They hardly knew he was away. Some slave-women who knew Gaulish had made love to them and tried to persuade them to get drunk. But they had kept their promise and behaved themselves, suspecting trickery. Besides, they had not known when Tros might need their services, so they had slept whenever visitors would let them. Between times they had mended foot-gear, persuading the Britons to do the same thing, to keep the Britons out of mischief.<br>
There was nothing to be done with the weapons or baggage but to leave them all in Zeuxis’ charge. Tros did not dare to enter Rome with armed men at his back. Not even Pompey would have let his followers wear more than daggers openly, when they were once inside the city walls, unless the senate should expressly grant permission—not that Pompey cared a copper as for what the senate thought, but to have done so would have been tantamount to a declaration that he had assumed the sole dictatorship—which would have brought Caesar hurrying from Gaul to wrest it from him.<br>
So Tros told the Northmen to hide daggers in their tunics and make bundles of their other weapons to be left wherever Zeuxis cared to stow them. He disarmed the Britons altogether, since he could not depend on them to keep their heads in an emergency. Then, telling each man to equip himself with a flask and haversack, he bribed Zeuxis’ steward heavily to serve out rations for a day or two. Experience had taught him that the Northmen’s zeal depended on their stomachs much more than was the case with men from southern lands. Well fed, he would have dared to lead them against twice their tale of Roman legionaries; hungry, they would run away from ghosts.<br>
Then he went to his room and dressed himself in his gorgeous oriental cloak and Grecian tunic, presently joining Zeuxis at the supper-table, where they were waited on by girls—descendants of the decadents who ruined Greece. It was the steward, whispering, who broke the news to Zeuxis that Tros’s men were ready for a night-march.