Empire of Dragons
Valerio Massimo Manfredi
401 pages, Paperback
ISBN: 0330438263
ISBN13:
Language: English
Publish: 1136102400000
AdventureChinaFantasyFictionHistoricalHistorical FictionHistorical RomanceItalian LiteratureItalyNovels
This title is set in Southern Anatolia, 260 AD. The town of Edessa, a Roman outpost, is on its last legs, besieged by the Persian troops of Shapur I. Roman Emperor Licinius Valerianus agrees to meet his adversary to draw up a peace treaty, but it is only a trap and the Emperor and his twelve guards are chained and dragged away to work as prisoners in a solitary Persian turquoise mine. After months of forced labour, the Emperor dies, but his guards make a daring escape lead by the heroic and enigmatic chief, Marcus Metellus Aquila. They meet a mysterious, exiled Chinese Prince, Dan Qing, and agree to safeguard his journey home to reconquest his throne from his mortal enemy, a eunuch named Wei. Thus, begins the adventures of the Romans and the Prince as they journey to China. There, they will discover that they aren’t the first of their kind to arrive in they were preceded centuries before by the survivors of the ‘lost legion’.