The Man With Two Names: A Novel of Ancient Rome

The Sertorius Scrolls, Book 1

By: Vincent B. Davis II

Narrated by: Joshua Saxon

A young man must sacrifice everything to protect his family, enduring betrayals, political corruption, and war in Rome's legion.

Rome, 107 BC. Quintus Sertorius just lost his father, and he may lose his home. When his rural village is stripped of its political status, he must leave his family to secure their food and protection from inside Rome's cutthroat government. As he transitions from countryman to politician, he's thrust into the middle of a bitter political war….

As Quintus struggles to gain the aid his village so desperately needs, he approaches Gaius Marius, the uncle of Julius Caesar himself. But with each passing day in the unforgiving landscape of the Eternal City, he puts his family and his own life in even greater danger.

In a ruthless battle of conscience, will Quintus lose both himself and the ones he loves?

The Man with Two Names is the first book in the gritty Sertorius Scrolls historical fiction series. If you like heroic ambitions, well-researched historical settings, and Roman corruption, then you’ll love Vincent B. Davis II’s powerful tale.

Buy The Man with Two Names to enter the dark world of Rome today!

©2023 Vincent B. Davis II (P)2023 Vincent B. Davis II

Solid story ready to start book 2

Strong narrative lots of details. Pretty straight forward plot not many twists or mysteries. Set the stage for future books

Great Story

This is a very very good story. It had me caught from start to finish.

Surprisingly good!

I took a shot with this story of Rome, and was pleasantly surprised. The style is reminiscent of Bernard Cornwell's books, especially the fight sequences. A great introductory novel that left me eager to listen to the second installment. The performance was also excellent. If you're into stories of Rome, and enjoyed the books of Cornwell's Last Kingdom series, I think you'll like this. Worth a credit!

Gripping Story

It took a bit to get used to the narrator, but once I did, I was hooked.

Simply astonishing

Every once in a while I come across a book that far exceeds my expectations, and this is one of them.

While I am not a big fan of Roman historic fiction, every once in a while I pick one up and listen. Usually I find myself bored and try to struggle through it, but then some of them are gripping, educational and interesting, all at the same time. One of those was Colleen McCullough's First Man In Rome and this is another. Interestingly both are about Gaius Marius, although The Man With Two Names main protagonist is another character.

The character development of the book is exemplary, with this book's main character, Quintus Sertorius, being fully developed and his links to both his friends and his enemies being clearly explained so we know exactly why things are happening to him. While I found the first half of the book a bit tedious with explanations of his childhood and family friends, that information is necessary to the rest of the book and the pace picked up and never diminished again. Indeed some of the later part of the book is so intense that I had to stop reading before I could continue later in the day. The story is not predictable so much of what happened was a surprise to me and the unexpected turns kept my full attention. When I finished the book my first action was to check out the next book in the series.

The narration is very good, although I thought it less than 5 stars, but well above my normal 4 star rating. The narration was always clear, although occasionally the narrator's voice dropped far enough that I had to rewind and turn up the volume to hear what was being said.

All in all I can recommend this book to those interested in the period of Roman history before the birth of the Gaius Julius Caesar with whom we are all familiar. The Gaius Julius Caesar in this book is that Caesar's father and the date of the actions at the end of the book is about 105 BC.