Unstoppable and lethal, they move across the battlefields like ghosts. They are the soldiers of the Legio Occulta.

Nola, Roman Italy, 19 August 14 A.D.

History does not acknowledge them, but the Roman Empire knows the debt they owe to this secret legion. Trained not to fight but to read and interpret the messages of the gods, they pave the way for Roman swords, intervening when earthly weapons must give way to the power of the transcendent. With the Legio Occulta, no battle is impossible.

Clad in snow-white armour and tunics as black as night, they are seers, fortune-tellers, necromancers and haruspies selected when they were children from arenas, slave markets and burning villages. Led by a general who speaks only in sign language, their motto is Vigiles in tenebris: watchers of the night.

Iron blades clash with magic. Rome will never be the same.

Praise for Roberto Genovesi:

'Roberto Genovesi is the Italian master of historical fantasy' ANDREA FREDIANI.

'A very original, wide-ranging novel full of characters, full of descriptions and narrative inventions' IL GIORNALE.

'A compelling historical novel with splashes of fantasy' IL SOLE 24 ORE.