the acclaimed author of emperor the gates of rome returns to the extraordinary life of julius caesar in a new novel that takes us further down the path to glory as caesar comes into his own as a man warrior senator husband and leaderin a sparsely settles region of north africa a band of disheveled soldiers turn their eyes toward one man among them their leader julius caesar the soldiers are roman legionaries and their quarry is a band of pirates who dared to kidnap julius caesar for ransom now as caesar exacts his revenge and builds a legend far from rome his friend marcus brutus is fighting battles of another sort rising to power in the wake of the assassination of a dictator once brutus and caesar were as close as brothers devoted to the same ideals and attracted to the same forbidden women now they will be united again by a shock wave from the north where a gladiator named spartacus is building an army of seventy thousand slavesto fight a cataclysmic battle against rome itself