The award-winning author of Clash of Eagles and Eagle in Exile concludes his masterly alternate-history saga of the Roman invasion of North America in this stunning novel. Praetor Gaius Marcellinus came to North America as a conqueror, but after meeting with defeat at the hands of the city-state of Cahokia, he has had to forge a new destiny in this strange land. A decade since his arrival, an unstable peace exists between the invading Romans and a loose affiliation of Native American tribes known as the League. But invaders from the west threaten that peace, plunging the continent into war: The Mongol Horde has arrived.Marcellinus and his Cahokian friends must summon allies both great and small in preparation for a final showdown. Alliances will shift and foes will rise as the dramatic final battle for the future of the continent comes ever closer.

In AD 1218, Praetor Gaius Marcellinus was ordered to conquer Nova Hesperia and make it a Roman province. But outside the walls of the great city of Cahokia, his legion was destroyed. Accepted by his captors, Marcellinus vowed to fight with them against all enemies, Roman or native.After successfully repelling an invasion by the fearsome Iroqua tribes, the Cahokians are weakened, and Marcellinus knows that the divided people of Nova Hesperia will be unable to resist the might of Rome. But rival factions threaten to tear Cahokia apart, and the empire he once served will not give up its dream of conquest. Even as Marcellinus struggles to unite his new comrades, a new legion is preparing to set sail...