Under the Eagle

infobox Book |
name = Under the Eagle
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Simon Scarrow
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre = Historical novel
publisher = Headline (UK) & Thomas Dunne Books (USA)
release_date = 6 July 2000
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 256 pp (hardback edition) & 448 p. (paperback edition)
isbn = ISBN 0-7472-7282-4 (hardback edition) & ISBN 0-7472-6629-8 (paperback edition)
preceded_by =
followed_by = The Eagle's Conquest

"Under the Eagle" is the first book in the Eagle Series, by Simon Scarrow.

It starts on the Rhine Frontier in 42, and centres on Macro, a newly appointed Centurion, and his new second-in-command, Quintus Lucinius Cato.

Germania

The book opens with a short prologue set during the first Roman invasion in 55 BC. A group of legionaries lose the army's pay chest in a marsh while withdrawing to the ships. The action then shifts to the German frontier in AD 43, where a new draft of recruits are arriving at the base of the Second Legion. The early part of the book deals with Cato and his fellow recruits receiving basic training, and the attack on a Germanic town. In this attack Macro, whilst fighting off German warriors, is seriously wounded and is left for dead in the streets. However Cato finds and rescues Macro, which earns him a medal. The character of Vitellius, one of the six tribunes attached to the legion, is introduced and Cato falls in love with a young slave girl called Lavinia.

Invasion of Britain

The second part concentrates on the march of the Second Legion to the coast of Gaul, where a convoy, commanded by Macro, guarding the Imperial Secretary Narcissus, is attacked by a group of mercenaries with the intention to kill Narcissus. The convoy successfully reaches the coast where the other legions are gathering. Rumours of mutiny reaches Narcissus, who rounds up the ringleaders and executes them, then goes on to challenge the legionaries in a fight. The watching legionaries laugh at this and the mutiny is crushed. The invasion is thus free to continue, and several days after the initial landings Macro and Cato land in Britain, somewhere in the Isle of Thanet. There they are ordered to report to the legate of the Second Legion, the future emperor Vespasian, and are sent on a special mission to recover the pay chest Caesar lost one hundred years ago. Pushing ahead of the army into a bleak, misty swamp, the pay chest is successfully recovered, but Vitellius makes his move with a band of mercenaries and attempts to seize it. He is repulsed and on the return to the legate with the chest, Cato and Macro observe the British warlord Togodumnus setting up an ambush along the legion's line of march. Cato attempts to warn the column, and while the ambush succeeds in killing a great deal of legionaries, it is fought off, Macro killing Togodumnus in single combat as he retreats. Unfortunately, Vitellius turns up and steals the credit for the warning, leaving our heroes with the pay chest and a grudge...

Characters

*Macro – main protagonist, a new centurion
*Quintus Lucinius Cato – his new second in command
*Narcissus – Imperial Secretary
*Vespasian – Legate of the Second Legion
*Vitellius – duplicitous tribune of the Second Legion