A Captive of the Roman Eagles

In the sweltering summer of 378 AD, the Roman Empire's grip on its northern frontier is crumbling. At Lake Constance, where the Alps burn crimson at sunset and mist rises from ancient marshes, the Alemanni hold their ground against the dying eagles of Rome. Into this world of clashing steel and ancient hatreds comes Bissula, a young German woman whose fate becomes tangled with the very soldiers who have come to conquer her people. When Roman legions march across the lake's northern shore, Bissula finds herself captive to the empire, yet something unexpected blooms between her and Herculanus, the Roman soldier assigned to guard her. As political winds shift and the empire's legions are pulled eastward to face the Goths, Bissula must navigate a treacherous landscape where loyalty to her lord Adalo wars with the forbidden connection she cannot deny. Dahn renders the late Roman frontier in vivid prose, capturing a civilization at the breaking point and the intimate human dramas that unfold when empires collide.