Last year I wrote ?The Shrine?, a short story and prequel to Eagles at War, the first book in the Eagles of Rome trilogy. A fun thing to do, it seemed to go down well with my readers, so I decided to repeat the process and write another story. This one is set between the end of Eagles at War and the start of its sequel, Hunting the Eagles, which comes out in March 2016.
I decided to make the central character of this story someone other than Tullus, the main star of the Eagles books. Piso, one of Tullus? men, is a somewhat hapless soul. As with Degmar, the enigmatic German warrior, I?ve grown to like Piso as the series has continued, and I feel that his adventure at the arena outside the fort at Vetera might have happened to a real legionary. The remains of the arena are still visible near the town of Xanten, and are in use today as an outdoor theatre. It?s very atmospheric to walk to the ruins in the dark, through the fields, as I did in August 2014 with Anthony Riches, a fellow Roman author and friend.
?The Arena? came about partly because of that late-night stroll. I hope you enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
