Website: Doug's Book Blog
Twitter: @Dougwriter
Goodreads: Douglas Jackson Author Page
Current Roman novels:
1. Caligula (Rufus series: book 1 of 2)
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, the third Roman Emperor, is better known by another name: Caligula, a name synonymous with decadence, cruelty and madness. His reign was marked by excess, huge building projects, the largest gladiatorial battles Rome was ever to see - men and animals killed in their hundreds - conspiracies, assassination attempts and sexual scandal. Rufus as a young slave grows up far from the corruption of the imperial court. His master is a trainer of animals for the gladiatorial arena.
Rufus discovers that he has a natural ability with animals, a talent for controlling and schooling them. It is at the arenas that Rufus meets his great friend Cupido, one of Rome's greatest gladiators. It is his growing reputation as an animal trainer and his friendship with Cupido that attracts the cruel gaze of the Emperor. Caligula wants a keeper for the imperial elephant and Rufus is bought from his master and taken to the imperial palace. Life here is dictated by Caligula's ever shifting moods. Caligula is as generous as he is cruel, he is a megalomaniac who declares himself a living god and simultaneously lives in constant fear of the plots against his life. But his paranoia is not misplaced, intrigue permeates his court, and Rufus and Cupido find themselves unwittingly placed at the centre of a conspiracy to assassinate the Emperor.
Paperback:
 Latest edition: 2009 Publisher: Corgi ISBN: 978-0552156943 Pages: 496 Availability and latest price on Amazon:  |
Hardcover:
 Latest edition: 2008 Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 978-0593060605 Pages: 336 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Kindle:
File size: 518kb Publisher: Transworld Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
2. Claudius (Rufus series: book 2 of 2)
The year is 43AD. In Southern England, Caratacus, war chief of the Britons, watches from a hilltop as the scarlet cloaks of the Roman legions spread across his lands like blood. In Rome, Emperor Claudius, newly risen to the imperial throne, dreams of taking his place in history alongside his illustrious forebears Caesar and Augustus.
Among the legions marches Rufus, keeper of the Emperor’s elephant. War is coming and the united tribes of Britain will make a desperate stand against the might of Rome. The Emperor has a very special place for Rufus and his elephant in the midst of the battle – as a secret weapon to cow the Britons with the visible manifestation of Rome's power.
Paperback:
 Latest edition: 2010 Publisher: Corgi ISBN: 978-0552162494 Pages: 464 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Hardcover:
 Latest edition: 2009 Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 978-0593060629 Pages: 336 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Kindle:
File size: 510kb Publisher: Transworld Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
3. Hero of Rome (Gaius Verrens series: book 1 of 9)
The Roman grip on Britain is weakening. Emperor Nero has turned his face away from this far-flung outpost. The Druids are on the rise, spreading seeds of rebellion among the British tribes. Roman cruelty and exploitation has angered their British subjects. The warrior queen Boudicca will lead the tribes to war.
Standing against the rising tide of Boudicca's rebellion is Roman Tribune, Gaius Valerius Verrens, Commander of the veteran legions at Colonia. Valerius leads the veterans in a last stand against the unstoppable horde of Boudicca's rebel army. Step by step, the bloodied survivors are forced back into the Temple of Claudius. It is here that Valerius wins lifelong fame and the accolade Hero of Rome.
Paperback:
 Latest edition: 2011 Publisher: Corgi ISBN: 978-0552161336 Pages: 480 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Hardcover:
 Latest edition: 2010 Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 978-0593065129 Pages: 336 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Kindle:
File size: 2784kb Publisher: Transworld Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
4. Defender of Rome (Gaius Verrens series: book 2 of 9)
Gaius Valerius Verrens returns to Rome from the successful campaign against Boudicca in Britain. Now hailed a 'Hero of Rome', Valerius is not the man he once was - scarred both physically and emotionally by the battles he has fought, his sister is mortally ill, his father in self-imposed exile. And neither is Rome the same city as the one he left. The Emperor Nero grows increasingly paranoid. Those who seek power for themselves whisper darkly in the emperor's ears. They speak of a new threat, one found within the walls of Rome itself. A new religious sect, the followers of Christus, deny Nero's divinity and are rumoured to be spreading sedition.
Nero calls on his 'Hero of Rome' to become a 'Defender of Rome', to seek out this rebel sect, to capture their leader, a man known as Petrus. Failure would be to forfeit his life, and the lives of twenty thousands Judaeans living in Rome. But as Valerius begins his search, a quest which will take him to the edge of the empire, he will discover that success may cost him nearly as much as failure.
Paperback:
 Latest edition: 2012 Publisher: Corgi ISBN: 978-0552161343 Pages: 480 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Hardcover:
 Latest edition: 2011 Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 978-0593065143 Pages: 336 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Kindle:
File size: 1504kb Publisher: Transworld Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
5. Avenger of Rome (Gaius Verrens series: book 3 of 9)
Emperor Nero's grip on power is weakening. In every shadow he sees an enemy and like a cornered animal he lashes out at every perceived threat. His paranoia settles on the figure of Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, Rome's greatest General who leads the imperial legions in the East.
So popular is Corbulo with his men that he effective presides over an Empire within an Empire. Is Corbulo preparing to march against Rome and take the purple? Gaius Valerius Verrens, Hero of Rome, is ordered to Antioch with the power of life and death over Corbulo, a soldier he worships. There he finds word of his mission has preceded him and every man's hand is turned against him. But Corbulo's eyes are not on Rome, but on a new threat to the Empire's border. The Parthian King of Kings, Vologases, is marching to war and with such an army that if not stopped he might overwhelm the entire Roman east.
Valerius marches at Corbulo's side. Outnumbered they make a stand in the barren wastes beyond the Tigris to meet Vologases in an epic contest of military might and ingenuity that will decide the fate of the Empire. And while he fights for the Empire, and for his own survival on the battlefield, Valerius must decide whether to complete his mission, or risk incurring his Emperor's dangerous wrath.
Paperback:
 Latest edition: 2013 Publisher: Corgi ISBN: 978-0552161350 Pages: 512 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Hardcover:
 Latest edition: 2012 Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 978-0593065167 Pages: 352 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Kindle:
File size: 1551kb Publisher: Transworld Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
6. Sword of Rome (Gaius Verrens series: book 4 of 9)
AD 68. The Emperor Nero’s erratic and bloody reign is in its death throes when Gaius Valerius Verrens is dispatched to Rome on a mission that will bring it to a close. With Nero dead, the city holds its breath and awaits the arrival his successor, Servius Sulpicius Galba, governor of Hispania. The Empire prays for peace, but it prays in vain. Galba promises stability and prosperity, but his rule begins with a massacre and ends only months later in chaos and carnage. This will become known as the Year of the Four Emperors, a time of civil war which will tear Rome apart and test Valerius’s skills and loyalties to their very limit.
Fortunate to survive Galba’s fall, Valerius is sent on a mission by Rome’s new Emperor, Otho, to his old friend Vitellius, commander of the armies of the north. Vitellius’s legions are on the march, and only Valerius can persuade him to halt them before the inevitable confrontation. In an epic adventure that will take him the length and breadth of a divided land, the one-armed Roman fights to stay alive and stave off a bloodbath as he is stalked by the most implacable enemy he has ever faced.
Paperback:
 Latest edition: 2014 Publisher: Corgi ISBN: 978-0552167918 Pages: 512 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Hardcover:
 Latest edition: 2013 Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 978-0593070543 Pages: 416 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Kindle:
File size: 2038kb Publisher: Penguin Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
7. Enemy of Rome (Gaius Verrens series: book 5 of 9)
Summer, AD 69. Rome and its empire are in turmoil, caught in the coils of a desperate and destructive civil war. The emperor Otho is dead by his own hand and his rival, Aulus Vitellius, occupies the imperial throne. However, a new challenge has arisen in the East – the legions of Titus Flavius Vespasian have declared him their Emperor. In the dry heat of an August morning, Gaius Valerius Verrens prepares for his last day on earth. Wrongly accused of deserting his legion on the field of Bedriacum, it seems he is destined to die a coward’s death.
Then the executioner’s hand is stayed. Vitellius' enemies will spare the life of the man who was once Hero of Rome if he pledges allegiance to Vespasian and his cause. Valerius – tired of the endless slaughter and hoping that he might be reunited with his lost love – agrees. And so he must battle his way south to Rome in order to persuade his friend Vitellius to stand down for the greater good of the city, its people and the Empire. But this is civil war and this is Rome, and Valerius – his loyalties divided and branded an enemy of the people – is trapped in a maze of distrust, corruption, betrayal and blood-letting . . .
Paperback:
 Latest edition: 2015 Publisher: Corgi ISBN: 978-0552167949 Pages: 496 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Hardcover:
 Latest edition: 2014 Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 978-0593070567 Pages: 400 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Kindle:
File size: 2157kb Publisher: Transworld Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
8. Scourge of Rome (Gaius Verrens series: book 6 of 9)
70 AD. Disgraced, dishonoured and banished into exile on pain of execution if he ever returns to Rome, the former military tribune Gaius Valerius Verrens makes his way East through the death and destruction of the savage Judaean rebellion. Valerius knows his only hope of long term survival and a restoration of his family’s fortunes lie with his friend Titus, commander of the Army of Judaea and son of the newly crowned Emperor Vespasian.
But when he reaches the ring of legionary camps around the seemingly impregnable city of Jerusalem he finds Titus a changed man. Gone is the cheerful young officer he knew, replaced by a tough, ruthless soldier under pressure from his father to end the insurrection at any cost. Soon, Valerius finds himself at the centre of a web of intrigue spun by Titus’s lover, Queen Berenice of Cilicia, and her sometime ally, the general’s turncoat adviser, Flavius Josephus, who have an ulterior motive for ending the siege quickly.
Yet the laurels that will regain his honour cannot be won in the negotiations in the murky tunnels beneath Jerusalem. Only amid the fire and blood of battle will he equal the glory that brought him the title Hero of Rome.
Paperback:
 Latest edition: 2016 Publisher: Corgi ISBN: 978-0552167956 Pages: 496 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Hardcover:
 Latest edition: 2015 Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 978-0593070581 Pages: 416 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Kindle:
File size: 2122kb Publisher: Transworld Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
9. Saviour of Rome (Gaius Verrens series: book 7 of 9)
AD 72. Titus Flavius Vespasianus, known as Vespasian, is Emperor of Rome, but his grip on power grows increasingly fragile as economic disaster threatens. The enormous riches from his Judaean campaigns are all but spent, legions go unpaid, and the yields from Rome’s vital Spanish goldfields have fallen dramatically since the civil war. Gaius Valerius Verrens is recently married and building a new home when the summons arrives from the Emperor. Vespasian needs a man with the combined skills of a lawyer and a soldier to investigate what is happening in remote, mountainous Asturica Augusta where the authorities claim a bandit called The Ghost is ravaging the gold convoys.
But when Valerius arrives in Asturica he faces a much more complex situation. Stalked from the shadows he cannot tell ally from enemy, the exploited native tribes are a growing threat, and the tortured landscape itself seems capable of swallowing him up. Gradually he finds himself drawn into a much wider conspiracy, one that could plunge the Empire into a new conflict and that will place him on a deadly collision course with his old friend and most dangerous adversary, the former gladiator Serpentius.
Paperback:
 Latest edition: 2017 Publisher: Corgi ISBN: 978-0552172288 Pages: 448 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Hardcover:
 Latest edition: 2016 Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 978-0593075937 Pages: 384 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Kindle:
File size: 4420kb Publisher: Transworld Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
10. Glory of Rome (Gaius Verrens series: book 8 of 9)
77AD. Gaius Valerius Verrens is an honoured member of Emperor Vespasian’s inner circle, but the enmity between him and Vespasian’s son Domitian means that, even in Rome, danger is never far away. Meanwhile, in the outer reaches of the Empire, in Britannia, trouble is brewing.
The governor, Gnaeus Julius Agricola is preparing to march his legions north and Valerius is Agricola’s chief legal adviser and deputy governor. It's the opportunity he seeks to move his wife and son out of reach of Domitian’s wrath. But Britannia is where Valerius cut his military teeth and whetted his sword - and he will soon discover that the ghosts of his past are never far away and are more dangerous perhaps than Domitian.
The massacre of a Roman garrison and suspicious death of the legate of the Ninth Legion throw Agricola’s preparations into confusion. Now his eyes turn west to Mona, the Druids Isle, where the Celtic priesthood still harbours hopes of ridding Britannia of Roman rule. But to deal with the druids and their savage Ordovice protectors Agricola needs a soldier he can trust at the head of the ‘unlucky’ Ninth. Only one man in the province has the experience and the ability . . .
So a reluctant Valerius must put aside his scrolls and pick up his sword once more and march beside the eagle of the Ninth. It’s only as he stands on the shoreline opposite Mona that he understands any glory his new legion wins is likely to be fleeting and tainted - and that he has placed his family in deadly peril.
Paperback:
 Latest edition: 2018 Publisher: Corgi ISBN: 978-0552172295 Pages: 528 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Hardcover:
 Latest edition: 2017 Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 978-0593076156 Pages: 464 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Kindle:
File size: 2055kb Publisher: Transworld Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
11. Hammer of Rome (Gaius Verrens series: book 9 of 9)
AD 80. Gaius Valerius Verrens is back where he belongs, at the head of a legion. But this is no ordinary legion. His command is the ‘unlucky’ Ninth, tainted by four decades of ill fortune and poor leadership. A unit regarded as expendable by Valerius’s superior, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, governor of Britannia. Yet all that can be swept aside by a single moment of glory, and the long heralded invasion of the north of the province provides the perfect opportunity. Valerius leads his men to a devastating victory against the recalcitrant Brigantes, infuriating Agricola in the process. Soon, even greater honours beckon with the death of Emperor Vespasian and the succession of Valerius’s friend, Titus.
But, back in Rome, the new emperor faces his own challenges, not least from his own brother, Domitian, a man with an insatiable ambition for power and a deadly hatred of Valerius. All Valerius can do is forget the great prizes on offer, concentrate on defeating the savage tribes who lie in the path of the Ninth, and ignore Agricola’s intrigues. But watching his every move is the most formidable enemy he has ever faced: mighty Calgacus, war chief of the Northern alliance.
Paperback:
 Latest edition: 2019 Publisher: Corgi ISBN: 978-0552172301 Pages: 544 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Hardcover:
Latest edition: 2018 Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 978-0593076170 Pages: 480 Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
Kindle:
File size: 1947kb Publisher: Transworld Availability and latest price on Amazon: |
12. The Wall
AD 400. Rome and its Empire are failing. Veteran cavalry commander Marcus Flavius Victor sets out with his regiment to make what may be his final tour of the forts along Hadrian's Wall. Through a combination of military prowess, brutality and bribery, Marcus has spent twenty years keeping the savage Picts at bay. Feared by his enemies and hated by his superiors, his strength of will is the only thing that has held the disgruntled, poorly paid garrisons of the Wall in place as the failing Roman Empire's grip on Britannia weakened. Yet as this tour of the wall progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that this is more than a routine inspection. Why is Marcus stripping the defences of cavalry to strengthen his own force? Is he negotiating with the Picts - or conspiring with them? And who is the mysterious figure who follows Marcus' every move and yet hides in the shadows?
Segeduno, Cilurno, Brocolitia, Vindolanda: each fort holds memories and friendships, hides rivals, or conceals enemies. But what exactly is Marcus Flavius Victor's ultimate objective? It would appear he is willing to risk bloody civil war in a bid to seize Britannia for himself? Or is he raising an army to save the province from the darkness that waits on the other side of the Wall?
Hardcover:
 Publication date: 9 June 2022 Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 978-1787634848 Pages: 400 |
Paperback:
Publication date: 23 April 2023 Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 978-0552178235 Pages: 400 |
Kindle:
Publication date: 9 June 2022 Publisher: Transworld Digital |
13. The Barbarian
AD 406. Abandoned by friends and hounded by enemies, Roman cavalry commander Marcus Flavius Victor and a small band of loyal warriors know that the time has come to leave an increasingly fractured Britannia.
Their journey takes them across the bleak, pirate-infested seas of the Mare Germanicum to Saxonia and on into the dark heart of barbarism. It seems the Britons' only salvation lies with an old comrade, General Stilicho - based far to the east but still within the sanctuary of the Empire. But the general has troubles of his own: his influence with the Emperor Honorius is waning, and a great warrior people are on the march - for Radagaisus, king of the Ostrogoths, has promised his subjects all the riches of Italia, and they will leave a sea of Roman bones in their wake.
But as Marcus and his companions battle their way towards what they hope will a safe haven of sorts, they stumble across a secret which could decide the fate of the Empire. But who can they really trust, and can Marcus reach Stilicho in time - because his every step is dogged by a son who wants him dead... Set during the desperate twilight years of Rome's once all-powerful empire, The Barbarian is the action-packed and thrillingly authentic new historical novel from one of the genre's very best.
Hardcover:
 Publication date: June 2023 Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 978-1787634824 Pages: 368 |
Kindle:
Publication date: June 2023 Publisher: Transworld Digital |
No comments:
Post a Comment