The Last of the Romans

By: Derek Birks

Narrated by: Mike Rogers

454 AD. Northern Italy.

Dux Ambrosius Aurelianus has served the Roman Empire with distinction.

His bucellarii, a small band of irregular soldiers, have helped to bring a fragile peace to the beleaguered empire in the west. But, with the empire now at peace, his master, Flavius Aetius, decides to chain up his dogs of war.

Ambrosius and his men are left to idle away their days in a rural backwater, but Ambrosius’ boredom is brutally swept aside when old rivals seize the opportunity to destroy him.

Pursued as a traitor by the imperial guard, Ambrosius takes his loyal band, along with other dissident soldiers and a Saxon girl, Inga, into the mountains. Since nowhere is safe, Ambrosius travels north, across the crumbling ruins of the empire, to his estranged family in Gaul. But there too, he finds nothing but conflict, for his home town is now besieged by a small army of rebellious Franks.

Freedom and peace seem a world away.

Whatever course the soldier takes, Ambrosius and his bucellarii will need to muster all their strength and skill to survive.

At the twilight of the empire, they may be the last of the Romans....

©2019 Derek Birks (P)2020 Derek Birks

Plenty of hacking, stabbing and hewing…

But very little in terms of history. More like a John Wick story; somewhat entertaining, but not fulfilling.

entertaining

this is my second time listening to this book. I loved it even more the second time. I can't stress enough how good this book is.

End of an Empire

Very good story when Rome was well into disappearing from power. I didn’t know until I read the epilogue that Ambrosius Aurelianus was based on some facts from that period and nicely fleshed out by Derek Birks. I am looking forward to the next book in this series and will listen to another of Birks series Feud while I wait.

Well I made it to the end.

The story was predictable and the characters shallow. That I made it to the end of the book is all I can say. I was really hoping for better.