• Age: 10 to 18
• Grade: 5 to 12

Young Aulus Spurinna’s homeland, Etruria, has fallen prey to a rebel league of soldiers lead by Manlius, an experienced and dangerous Roman warrior. When his uncle dies under a cloud of mystery, Spurinna must take his uncle’s place as the landowner of all Etruria. In order to save his homeland from Manlius, Spurinna travels to Rome to seek help from a Consul, Cicero. On his journey, Spurinna teams up with Cicero’s daughter, Tullia, and together they unravel a conspiracy that could overthrow the Roman Empire. Spurinna soon finds himself thrust into the midst of a deadly battle – and a fight to save his life, his home, and Rome.

This first novel by classical scholar Jack Mitchell is a gripping tale that vaults over the centuries to bring ancient Rome to thrilling life.

Jack Mitchell's profile page

Jack Mitchell was born in Sackville, New Brunswick, and grew up in Ottawa, Ontario. When he was fourteen, his admiration for J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings prompted him to take Latin during his first year in high school, and he has had a keen interest in Roman writers and Roman history ever since. After high school, Jack decided to become a writer: he moved to Paris for a year in 1995, where he wrote his first novel. He studied Classics at McGill University, and he is currently studying the Greek epic poetry of Homer at Stanford University in California.