When the deputy commander of Rome's Imperial Security Service is
assassinated on the island of Rhodes, Cassius Corbulo swiftly finds
himself embroiled in the investigation. Assisted once more by
ex-gladiator bodyguard Indavara and servant Simo, his search for the
truth is complicated by the involvement of the dead man's headstrong
daughter, Annia.
Braving hostile seas, Cassius and his allies follow the assassin's trail
south aboard a ship captained by a roguish Carthaginian smuggler and
manned by his disparate, dangerous crew. Their journey leads them to the
farthest reaches of the empire; to a ruined city where the rules of
Roman civilization have long been abandoned, and a deadly battle of wits
with a brutal, relentless foe.