The Walls of Rome
(The Histories of Sphax Series, Book #1)
By Robert M. Kidd
Publication Date: June, 2020
Publisher: independently published
Pages: 419
Genre: Historical Fiction / Ancient Historical Fiction
‘...not only have we scaled the mighty Alps, I believe
we have climbed the very walls of Rome’
Hannibal
Hannibal
218 BC.
Sphax is seventeen and haunted by the brutal murder of his parents at the hands of Rome. After ten years of miserable slavery he will make his last bid for freedom and go in search of Hannibal’s army and his birthright. He will have his revenge on the stinking cesspit that is Rome!
Destiny will see him taken under the wing of Maharbal, Hannibal’s brilliant general, and groomed to lead the finest horsemen in the world – the feared
Numidian cavalry that would become the scourge of Rome.
From the crossing of the great Rhodanus River, Sphax’s epic journey takes him through the lands of the Gaul to the highest pass in the Alps. This is the story of the most famous march in history. A march against impossible odds, against savage mountain Gauls, a brutal winter and Sphax’s own demons.
This is more than a struggle for empire. This is the last great war to save the beauty of the old world, the civilized world of Carthage, Greece and Gaul. The world of art and philosophy – before it is ground into dust by the upstart barbarity of Rome.
Excerpt
On the last great Alpine pass Hannibal’s army meet an obstacle that stops them in their tracks and threatens the entire campaign. They are faced with a huge rockfall, obliterating the path.
***
‘How far to the next pass?’ he asked. Grim-faced, the guides were staring at each other, unable to meet his gaze. It was Leuca who finally answered.
‘We’re not sure … maybe forty miles … perhaps fifty. We never go that way.’
‘But that could take weeks!’ Sphax cried in despair, looking around at the downcast faces. ‘Then we are lost,’ he said finally as his shoulders and legs slumped and he crumpled to the ground. His men were beginning to arrive and gather around him. Sphax hadn’t the heart to tell them himself, so he waved a lame arm in the direction of the barrier that had dashed all their hopes, and left it to the guides to give them the bad news.
It was much later when Hannibal found them. Most of Sphax’s eshrin and some of Adherbal’s men were still sitting dejectedly on slabs of rock below the rock fall. A pall of silence hung over the gathering and Sphax’s face was buried in his hands. Hannibal strode over to his nephew and gripping him by the shoulders, raised him to his feet.
‘Rise up! Despair is beneath you, Sphax, and I will not hear of it. This is a setback, not a calamity. The gods cast their thunderbolts to test our intelligence and ingenuity. This is a challenge, and we must rise to meet it, not cast ourselves into a pit of despair.’ Hannibal released his grip on his nephew’s shoulders and gazed stoically into the faces of the Numidians who had all risen to their feet in his presence.
‘Did I not say to you all when we set out on our journey together that I will find a pass or make one. Now we must make one!’
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Robert M. Kidd
When Cato the Censor demanded that ‘Carthage must be destroyed,’ Rome did just that. In 146 BC, after a three-year siege, Carthage was razed to the ground, its surviving citizens sold into slavery and the fields where this once magnificent city had stood, ploughed by oxen. Carthage was erased from history.
That’s why Robert is a novelist on a mission! He wants to set the historical record straight. Our entire history of Hannibal’s wars with Rome is nothing short of propaganda, written by Greeks and Romans for their Roman clients. It intrigues him that Hannibal took two Greek scholars and historians with him on campaign, yet their histories of Rome’s deadliest war have never seen the light of day.
The hero of The Histories of Sphax series tells a different story!
When Robert is not waging war with his pen, he likes to indulge in his passion for travel and hill walking, and like his hero, he also loves horses.
Robert lives in Pembrokeshire, West Wales.
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Thank you so much for hosting Robert M. Kidd on your lovely blog today, with an excerpt from his fabulous historical adventure, The Walls of Rome.
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Cathie xx
The Coffee Pot Book Club