Ben Kane Books In Order

The Forgotten Legion

Set in the late Roman Republic, in the first century B.C.E., The Forgotten Legion is a tale of the greatest empire of the ancient world from the perspective of those on the lowest rungs of its society. Romulus and Fabiola are twins, born into slavery to a enslaved mother who is much beloved by them, and much abused by their owner. At 13 years old, they and their mother are sold: Romulus to gladiator school, Fabiola into prostitution, where she will catch the eye of one of the most powerful men in Rome, and their mother into obscurity and death in the salt mines.

Tarquinius is an Etruscan, a warrior and soothsayer, born enemy of Rome and trained by the last haruspex in the forgotten arts of divination. A runaway slave, then an AWOL Legionaire, he has a long foretold destiny that will take him to the very ends of the known world.
Brennus is a Gaul from the Allobreges tribe. In the battle against the Roman army, his entire family, perhaps his entire tribe, is slaughtered, and only he survives to be sold as a slave to be trained as a gladiator. He rises to become one of the most famous and feared gladiators of his day and mentor to the boy slave, Romulus, who dreams night and day of escape and of revenge.

The lives of these four characters are bound and interwoven in a marvellous story which begins in a Rome riven by corruption, violence and political enmities, but ends far away, where Romulus, Brennus and Tarquinius find themselves fighting against the Parthians and overwhelming odds survivors of one of the most legendary battles in Roman military history and destined to become part of one of the most compelling, enduring legends: The Forgotten Legion.

The Silver Eagle

They fought against almighty odds at the very edge of the known world – and lost. Ten thousand legionaries are all that are left of a once powerful Roman army.

In the first century B.C., trapped in Parthia by Crassus’s failed invasion, the legionaries that survived are captured and marched to the edge of the known world. Abandoned by Rome, these men are the Forgotten Legion. Among them are three friends, Brennus the Gaul, Tarquinun the Etruscan soothsayer and Romulus, a runaway slave and the bast*ard son of a Roman nobleman. All men with troubled pasts and united in their hatred of Rome, they never stop dreaming of Freedom. Together they must face the savage tribes that surround them as well as the more treacherous enemies within the ranks of the legion itself. Their character will be tested to the utter limit as they struggle to find a way back to Rome. Meanwhile, Fabiola, Romulus’ twin sister, tries to maintain hope of her brother’s survival while fighting for her own. Freed by her powerful lover but beset by enemies on all sides, she must travel to Gaul to find her lover, the right-hand man of Julius Caesar. But in Gaul, her lover is fighting for his very life against Vercingetorix, whose rampaging army threatens to destroy all who rally around Caesar.

Together these characters, whose lives are intertwined and their stories interwoven, bring to life an truly epic story of the late Roman Republic and the ancient world in which it thrived.

The Road to Rome

The third novel in The Forgotten Legion trilogy takes the main protagonists from North Africa back to Rome in the build up to the assassination of Julius Caesar. Having survived the perils of a journey across half the world, Romulus and Tarquinius are press ganged into the legions, which are under imminent threat of annihilation by the Egyptians. Meanwhile in Rome, Romulus’ twin sister Fabiola lives in fear for her life, loved by Brutus, but wooed by Marcus Antonius, his deadly enemy. Back in Egypt, Romulus fights at Zela, the vicious battle where Caesar famously said, ‘Veni, vidi, vici’. Tarquinius, separated from Romulus in the chaos of war, hides in Alexandria, searching for guidance. But mortal danger awaits them both. From the battlefields of North Africa and Spain, to the lawless streets of Rome and the gladiator arena, they face death daily, until on the Ides of March, the twins are reunited and must decide either to back or to betray Caesar on his day of destiny.