R.W. Peake - Caesar Ascending-Conquest of Parthia

By R.W. Peake

Marching With Caesar Birth of the 10 th

Marching With Caesar Conquest of Gaul

Marching With Caesar Civil War

Marching With Caesar Antony and Cleopatra, Parts I & II

Marching With Caesar Rise of Augustus

Marching With Caesar Last Campaign

Marching With Caesar Rebellion

Marching With Caesar A New Era

Marching With Caesar Pax Romana

Marching With Caesar Fraternitas

Marching With Caesar Vengeance

Marching With Caesar Rise of Germanicus

Caesar Ascending Invasion of Parthia

Caesar Triumphant

Marching With Caesar-Antony and Cleopatra: Part I-Antony

Peake has become a master of depicting Roman military life and action, and in this latest novel he proves adept at evoking the subtleties of his characters, often with an understated humour and surprising pathos. Very highly recommended.

Marching With Caesar-Civil War

"Fans of the author will be delighted that Peakes writing has gone from strength to strength in this, the second volume...Peake manages to portray Pullus and all his fellow soldiers with a marvelous feeling of reality quite apart from the star historical name... Theres history here, and character, and action enough for three novels, and all of it can be enjoyed even if readers havent seen the first volume yet. Very highly recommended."

~The Historical Novel Society

The hinge of history pivoted on the career of Julius Caesar, as Romes Republic became an Empire, but the muscle to swing that gateway came from soldiers like Titus Pullus. What an amazing story from a student now become the master of historical fiction at its best.

~Professor Frank Holt, University of Houston

2017 by R.W. Peake

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Cover Art by Marina Shipova

Cover Artwork Copyright 2017 R. W. Peake

All Rights Reserved

I dont know if this is the same for all storytellers, but speaking personally, nothing is quite as maddening to me as an unfinished story. Its like an itch inside my brain, and the only way to scratch it is to get it out of my head and onto paper, so to speak.

When I give talks, in both formal and informal settings, I get asked a fair number of questions about my process, and how I create the stories that comprise both the Marching With Caesar series and this alternate history series. What seems to surprise people is that I am not very structured, with an outline and each chapter and/or plot point carefully mapped out. While I do have the beginning and the end firmly staked out in my mind, the truth is that I have no idea exactly how I am going to get to that ending that I have created. That means that I am every bit as excited as my readers to see what happens next, which is what keeps my fingers typing away.

I have said it before, and it bears repeating; of all the books I have written, the strongest reaction comes from this alternate history series. I have readers who love the series, and, as I have been told on multiple occasions, there are those who hate the series and are not shy about expressing that. Thankfully, the former is in the majority, and Im happy to know that, like me, they are just as fascinated with the what if aspect of history.

That being said, as always, I strive to keep matters at least semi-plausible, and I would argue that, compared to the ending of this serieswhich without any sense of irony, I wrote first Caesar Triumphant , Caesars campaign in Parthia has a much more solid basis in the historical record; it is well established that Caesar intended to both avenge the defeat of Marcus Crassus and retrieve the seven Legion standards, the loss of which was a huge blow to the collective pride and prestige of Rome.

While my grasp of Parthian history is not extensive, the one conclusion I drew is that the decentralization of the Parthian empire, and the mobility of its government, was a sword that cut both ways. And, much as in more modern wars, the key to success lay not in the acquisition of territory and key strategic points, like cities, but in the destruction of the military capability of the Parthians, in the form of their armies, or spads . That, at least, is how I would have gone about it if I was Caesar, although this is not to say that the troubles in Parthia are over for Caesar and his army, particularly Titus Pullus, Quintus Balbus, Sextus Scribonius, Gaius Porcinus, and Diocles, but thats another story.

As always, I thank my editor, Beth Lynne, my cover artist Marina Shipova, but more than anyone, I want to thank you fans, whose gentle but insistent pressure and questioning about when is the next book coming out? provided me the impetus I needed during what, for me, has been a stretch where I have written less than normal. I wont belabor the reasons why; all I will say is that even I knew that I wouldnt be able to sustain what has been a frenzied pace for the last five years, with thirteen volumes of Marching With Caesar and the three volumes of this series. That being said, I am hard at work on the next installment of Titus Pullus the Younger!

Semper Fidelis,

R.W. Peake

May, 2017

That, Quintus Balbus commented, is going to be a tough nut to crack. And, he added, a bloody one at that.

I dont know what kind of nuts you like, Sextus Scribonius replied, but Ive never seen a bloody nut.

This elicited a chuckle from Titus Pullus, as well as some of the other men within hearing, all of which prompted their Legate, Gaius Julius Caesar, to glance over his shoulder at them, giving his Centurions a stern though non-verbal warning before returning his attention to the reason they were gathered there.

That, Balbus whispered to Scribonius, was your fault.

Maybe you both would like it if we just left you behind so you can argue, Titus Pullus said, torn between his amusement caused by this bickering and his knowledge that the general was not particularly interested in hearing the back and forth.

Whatever the cause, the one thing that Pullus had to acknowledge was that, colorful language aside, his second in command was only speaking the truth. This was because, spread out before them, some five miles distant, lay the Parthian capital of Susa, sitting on a vast plain where anyone approaching could be seen for miles. Indeed, Pullus was certain, just as Caesar and his senior officers were observing Susa, so too were the Romans being observed, since the Primus Pilus had learned that, despite the appearance of being a flat, level plain, the ground, in fact, held creases and low points, in which a surprisingly large number of men could hide, particularly the Parthians, for whom this land was their home. This was why this scouting party was conducted in force, with two alae of cavalry and Caesars personal bodyguard of five hundred Germans, although many of the bearded faces were different from those that had first answered his call with a promise of gold and adventure. Even so, there was an underlying tension throughout the party, created by the hard-won knowledge of their enemies ability to use the terrain to their advantage. Because of this, Caesar had taken extensive precautions, stationing groups of ten troopers out more than four hundred paces away from the main party, spread at intervals of no more than a hundred paces apart. This enabled Caesar and his officers to keep their attention on Susa, but it was with equal parts interest and dismay that, for the first time, these Romans saw firsthand evidence that what they had learned just a few months before was true. The evidence before them was in the distinctly different but unmistakable style of the fortifications that surrounded Susa.