With the eastern usurper Niger dead, emperor Septimius Severus turns his attention west to his other challenger, Albinus, and his ferocious battle-hardended legions of Britannia. Legatus Scaurus's Fourteenth legion is sent ahead of the army to block Albinus's path to Rome, a task made perilous by both traitors on their route and enemies within the legion. And the climactic clash of arms that they are marching toward, 300,000 men fighting to the death outside the city of Lugdunum, will put them in the path of the empire's deadliest soldiers and leave them with no choice but one - kill or be killed.