Iron and Rust

In the winter of AD234 no one could have predicted the coming catastrophe …

Emperor Alexander Severus has reigned for thirteen years and the Empire remains strong. Popular with the Senate and Rome’s people, his power is known across all four corners of the world. The Severan dynasty, apart from a brief interlude of a few months long ago, has held power for more than four decades. In the east a hard fought war has ended Sassanid Persian attacks. Peace reigns and Rome prospers.

But the unexpected assassination of the Emperor in the spring of AD235, will scupper the peace and change everything, for ever.

The first book in Sidebottom’s major new series set in third century Rome explores an era of unprecedented violence and turbulence which saw, for the first time, Emperors killed on the field of battle, cut down both by barbarians and by the soldiers of Rome herself. In the space of fifty years nearly as many men were to wear the imperial purple.

Dr Harry Sidebottom teaches classical history at the University of Oxford, where he is a Fellow of St Benet's Hall and a lecturer at Lincoln College. He has an international reputation as a scholar, having published widely on ancient warfare, classical art and the cultural history of the Roman Empire. Iron & Rust is the first book in a major new series, Throne of the Caesars, and follows his acclaimed and bestselling series, Warrior of Rome. He divides his time between Oxford and Newmarket in Suffolk, where he lives which his wife and two sons.