Soldier of Rome: Journey to Judea

Book Five of the Artorian Chronicles

De: James Mace

Narrado por: Jonathan Waters

The year is 31 AD. It is five years into the Judean governorship of Pontius Pilate and the province ever stands on the edge of a knife. The Jewish religious leaders, the Sanhedrin, use their patronage with the Emperor to vent the slightest grievance, and the people themselves burn with a hatred for Rome. Pilate’s only military forces are Samaritan auxiliaries, little more than an undisciplined mob that abuse and torment the populace.

The Emperor Tiberius finally relents and assigns to Judea a single cohort of legionaries to restore order. Pilate tasks his old friend, Centurion Artorius, to command the First Italic Cohort. Though sad to leave the Rhine and the 20th Legion after 16 years, Artorius relishes the chance for adventure in the East. With him will be some old friends, Magnus, Praxus, Valens, and Justus Longinus. In the scorching desert they will encounter bandits, a mad king, his evil seductress stepdaughter, numerous messianic prophets, and unreliable allies, all underscored by the beginnings of a zealot rebellion.

©2013 James M Mace (P)2021 James M Mace

Legion Laurels

Artuius and his cohorts must once again teach the Jews just who owns Judea. His teaching tools are the gladius, pilum, and crucifixion. Aboard a ship, Lady Diana cooly de-hands a pirate with her gladius and drops him into a swarm of circling sharks. Victorious legionaries crucify the vanquished.

An anachronistic story set in Roman Judea

This story tries too hard to be both an historical account as well as an entertaining story; and generally does a mediocre job at both. Circa 31 AD, the story follows a Roman soldier posted to Judea in response to a request from Pontius Pilate … which, given the number of contextual interpretations and anachronistic insertions used to supply the imagined details supporting the dialog and background commentary, was a bit frustrating for me. Unfortunately it was the historical aspect of the story that was my primary interest and I can’t even say the general history is correct, given the lack of apparent understanding of how ranks within a Roman battle formation should actually work. This was actually made worse with the audible narration that overlays English pronunciation and inflections that proved highly distracting and didn’t seem to fit the expected milieu. I could ignore some of the historical liberties if I approach the story as a complete fiction; however, the underlying story of the Roman soldier[s] adventure was just not strong enough to stand on its own … made even more problematic by the very long and rather boring buildup.

I was given this free advance listener copy (ALC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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