Legion XXII: The Capsarius: Book 1

Written by Simon Turney

Narrated by Colin Mace

Warrior and combat medic, Titus Cervianus, must lead a legion and quell the uprisings in Egypt in a new Roman adventure from Simon Turney.
Egypt. 25 BC.

Titus Cervianus is no ordinary soldier. A former surgeon from the city of Ancyra, he's now a capsarius – a combat medic. Cervianus is a pragmatist, a scientist, and truly unpopular with his legion.

The Twenty Second Deiotariana have been sent to deal with uprisings and chaos in Egypt. Yet the Twenty Second is no ordinary legion either. Founded as the private royal army of one of Rome's most devoted allies, the king of Galatia, their ways are not the same as the other legions, a factor that sets them apart and causes friction with their fellow soldiers.

Marching into the unknown, Cervianus will find unexpected allies in a local cavalryman and a troublesome lunatic. Both will be of critical importance as the young medic marches into the searing sands of the south, finding forbidden temples, dark assassins, vicious crocodiles, and worst of all, the warrior queen of Kush...

Praise for Simon Turney:

'A page turner from beginning to end ... A damn fine read' Ben Kane, on Sons of Rome

'First-rate Roman fiction' Matthew Harffy, on Sons of Rome

'A nuanced portrait of an intriguing emperor' The Times, on Commodus

• Language: English
• Publisher: QUEST from W. F. Howes Ltd
• Release date: Apr 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781004062515

Reviews for Legion XXII

[Alexander Anderson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The author has become one of my favourite historical novelists on account of his meticulous historical research, his lean, muscular writing style and talent for brining his topics to life.

Turney’s most recent work, The Capsarius (first instalment in a new series, apparently) follows Rome’s XXII LEGION (Gallician) on a military foray into 1st C BC Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush (modern Day Sudan) to rout and punish the Kushan army and its evil and terrible one-eyed warrior queen.

Written in the third person, the novel opens on its main character, Titus Cervanius, a Capsarius, or combat medic, in the Roman Legion, whose complex character and scientific mindset excludes the prevailing superstitious, god-fearing beliefs of his peers and puts him at odds with them, initially turning him into a bit a loner or outsider.

But nevertheless, if he has no use of the gods, they seem to have devised a use for him. So, there’s an interesting tension between science and mysticism that the author suggests in this work.

An engrossing work, well worth your time, ending a little abruptly and designed to keep you hanging, waiting impatiently for the next instalment.

So, if I like it so much, you might ask “why not a 5* rating?”

Because, I have yet to use that rating and find myself unable to bestow it, no matter how worthy the work of art, as it implies that we have been given the best and are unlikely to get anything better.