This was a difficult book for me to read, Roman history not my favourite period. The change in the pace of the writing at times rushed the reading along at a great pace but at others the text was bogged down with detail. Vespasian is in between a rock and a hard place. Should he obey Nero, not knowing that Nero is dead or follow his own ambitions and risk all. Roman history is full political intrigue. Robert Fabbri covers the twist and turns well but I found it difficult to follow at times and had to reread in places to follow the story. It probably doesn't help that this is the first book I've read in this series and also by Robert Fabbri. In that respect I'm probably not the best person to review this but I can say that it has not encouraged me to read the previous books in the series.