The Eagle of the Ninth

Roman centurion Marcus Flavius Aquila has his first command, and, at his request, it’s in Roman Britain. Marcus’s father was part of the lost Ninth Legion, which disappeared after marching north beyond Hadrian’s wall. Not long after Marcus takes command, his men must defend the fort against a British uprising. Marcus’s uncle has retired in Britain, and Marcus goes there to heal from the battle wound that has left him lame for life. Just as Marcus begins to contemplate his future, he gets the opportunity to head into the north country to see if he can find out what happened to the lost legion and recover their eagle.

This story seems like capture the flag on steroids. Finding the missing eagle is only half the battle. If Marcus is show more successful in locating it, he’ll still need to get it back to the safety of Roman occupied territory. The desperate flight south through Scotland had me thinking of Richard Hannay’s flight across the same landscape almost two millennia later. It’s an exhilarating read! show less

I thought I'd read this, but no. I've certainly read a few of Sutcliffe's books, and I know I picked this up often enough in bookshops and libraries to look at and I certainly saw bits of the BBC adaptation, so I was familiar with the basic plot. A young man sets out to recover the Eagle of his father's old legion, which marched north beyond Hadrian's Wall years before and was never seen or heard from again. It's one of the great adventure story plots that taps right in to a young imagination and excites the primal yearning for a meaningful quest, a loyal friend and companion, a mystery whose solution lies in wild misty lands and a family honour to restore. But I never read it!

I think I just didn't get on with the setting, and show more Sutcliffe's fidelity to the social mores and culture of the Romans and the tribes of Britain confused and alienated me, not being terribly familiar with the period or the setting. I loved her High Deeds Of Finn McCool, though, and her Roman Britain novels always exerted a fascination over me, so I'm delighted to finally read this one, and definitely not disappointed.

So, yes, it is one of the great classic adventures of children's fiction and deserves to be remembered as such. Young Centurion Marcus Flavius Aquila arrives in Britain at the head of a cohort of Gaulish auxiliaries and takes command of the fort of Isca Dumnoniorum. Raw and inexperienced, he has soldiering in his blood, but is haunted by the memory of his father, who vanished along with the rest of the Ninth Legion when they marched north and was never heard from again. Marcus' dreams of a military career are cruelly dashed when he is injured in battle and invalided out of the army. Recovering in his uncle's villa, he impulsively acquires a slave, a defeated gladiator in whom he recognises a kindred spirit. As Marcus heals, the bond between the two men grows until, unexpectedly, an opportunity arises to go and recover the lost eagle of the Ninth Legion and redeem his father's memory.

From the civilised south, where Roman rule is strong and the roads are straight to the wild reaches of the north where the tribes worship gods of their own and follow their own laws, Marcus and Esca's epic journey is vivid, haunting, moving and exciting. It's a boy's tale, with only one semi-major female character, and is full of the lads and their exploits and their friendship and the bond of respect between them that transcends their respective cultures and their master/slave status. That's not to say that it's a book to be read only by boys or, indeed, only by the young. It's a great book and I'm glad I finally got around to it. show less

One of my son (9 years old at the time of reading) is passionate about history, and so I decided to read this with him; not only to satisfy his thirst for action-packed historical adventure books, but, also, as an opportunity for him to learn a bit about Roman Britain. Plus, I had never read it before myself, so it would have been a good opportunity to remediate to my own ignorance when it comes to such a classic author as Rosemary Sutcliff! After all, I had only seen the movie adaptation by Kevin Macdonald (with Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell) so it couldn't be that bad, could it? Well...

The movie was straightforward. The book is not. In other words: if this is supposed to be targeted to a young audience, then the movie is way better show more and more suitable than Rosemary Sutcliff's original story. Indeed, there are many issues here.

First, the author displays her knowledge of Roman Britain at every opportunity, turning this into a showy lecture burdened with too much historical details. The structure of the Roman army, Latin names needlessly peppered all over, anthropological descriptions of the tribes encountered, the characters' different religious beliefs and the rituals specific to each etc. This, surely, is to her credit somehow -she doesn't look down upon her young readers, and think of them clever enough to understand and learn such information. The thing is, this is supposed to be a fiction book above all, and, so, be entertaining; not a crash course on Roman history where such details are crammed just because 'it was part of the era', and without furthering the plot in any way. In other words, a writer's sin has here been committed over and over: if a passage doesn't move the story forward, then it should be cut. There are many such passages here, and their unnecessary presence make this read longer than it should be.

The length, then, is another issue. It's too long. It's also quite dull. Because Rosemary Sutcliff is heavy handed on historical descriptions, her style doesn't fit the theme -an action packed adventure, where an ex-Roman soldier and his previous slave will put themselves in danger across the Hadrian's Wall so as to rescue the standard of a lost Legion. It should be fast paced, punchy, short and to the point like a fight or an army marching onto battle. It's not. Her sentences are too long, too detailed, too descriptive, too flowery even, and, so, slow down the whole read, turning it into a bore. The chase in the end escape such pitfall, but it's pretty much about it. Here's a book whose incipit, after all, takes half of a page to describe... a road! *Yawn*

Some readers, disappointed as I was, also found the characters too shallow. It's true (particularly for Esca, which I found more like an empty side-kick than a character developing on his own, despite being one of the main hero...) but this didn't bother me much. What I found more damaging to how the plot was articulated are the presence of useless scenes and characters. There is a whole chapter dedicated to a chariot race between Marcus and a Briton; about two chapters dedicated to capturing and domesticating a wolf; and, a woman, Cottia, is introduced as if to hint at a romance to be between her and Marcus, while the romance is never fully attended to. Again, this reflects a serious editing issue -characters values can be inferred by other chapters which are useful to the plot without the need of the ones listed above, and, I don't see the point of bringing love in if it isn't built upon properly but just quickly relegated in the end.

Too much useless historical details, long descriptions unfit for such a theme, lengthy to the point of being dull, and, burdened by unnecessary chapters and characters not moving the story forward, The Eagle of the Ninth was very disappointing. My son found it boring, and so did I. Had it been as straightforward as the movie adaptation (by Kevin Macdonald) it would have been very good. As it is, it was quite tedious to go through. show less

An immensely engaging work of historical fiction, Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth, first published in 1954, sets out to answer two unresolved questions from history: what happened to the lost Ninth Legion, stationed at Eburacum (modern-day York) in the early second century, a legion which disappeared without a trace after it marched north into Caledonia?; and how did a wingless Roman Eagle, the standard of a legion, come to be buried in a field outside of Silchester?

The story of Marcus Flavius Aquila - significantly named, as "aquila" means eagle in Latin, and was the word for the eagle standard itself - a young centurion wounded in the course of his first British command, who goes to stay with his Uncle Aquila in Calleva show more (Silchester), acquires a slave, and then a friend, in the form of the Brigante tribesman and hunter Esca Mac Cunoval, and embarks on a seemingly impossible quest to retrieve the eagle standard of the Hispana - his father's lost legion - this book is immediately involving, and consistently engrossing. The characters truly come alive, fascinatingly complex and completely believable, and the story seems - as much as I am able to judge - historically accurate.

I found Sutcliff's narrative as moving as it was entertaining, and appreciated the way in which she depicted the complex issues of identity and loyalty in the multicultural world of the Roman Empire. Etrurians, Egyptians and native Britons all interact in this story, which never vilifies any side, but makes the reader understand each perspective. I was most in sympathy with the Caledonians, of course, but I liked all the characters, and was content with the conclusion. My first work of historical fiction from Rosemary Sutcliff, The Eagle of the Ninth will most assuredly not be my last! show less

I was about 12 when we did Roman Britain in history, and I didn't pay it much attention (we had a very boring teacher for Ancient Greece and Rome). Afterwards I never gave much thought to that period, apart from when it cropped up in some of the Didius Falco mysteries, so this story set in Roman-occupied Britain, with a likeable Roman protagonist, opened up new avenues. I admire the way Sutcliff took two incidents - a lost legion up in the mists of Scotland, a found eagle in the south of England - and wove them together to make quite a thrilling quest. Very enjoyable and not too sentimental.

"Ugh?" said Optio, and blinked.
^ now that's a line that's been living rent free in my head since... whenever I first read this book, I actually can't remember lol I must've been 12 or younger bc my copy bears the orange sticker of Sonlight books on it but I'm feeling silly (AKA first couple days of classes) and felt the sudden urge to read the Dolphin Ring cycle
this is a fantastic book. I love Sutcliff's writing SO much; I don't know what to compare it to but it's something I am deeply fascinated by, the ability to sketch character and landscape quickly and efficiently and beautifully. Marcus and Esca's relationship, Marcus and Cottia, Marcus and Cub, Marcus and Uncle Aquila
You are the builders of coursed stone walls, the makers of show more straight roads and ordered justice and disciplined troops. We know that, we know it all too well. We know that your justice is more sure than ours, and when we rise against you, we see our hosts break against the discipline of your troops, as the sea breaks against a rock. And we do not understand, because all these things are of the ordered pattern, and only the free curves of the shield-boss are real to us. We do not understand. And the time comes that we begin to understand your world, too often we lose the understanding of our own. show less

For someone intrigued by the murky depths of early British history, this young adult novel certainly satisfied. I halfway wish that I would have read this as a young adult, because now I have already read a number of historical fictions about this region and time period which are much more graphic and harsh. Bernard Cornwall and Marion Zimmer Bradley come to mind. Regardless, The Eagle of the Ninth is intriguing because even though it softens some of the rough edges, death is still a very real feature in this story, as is slavery, colonialism, and cultural interactions. Sutcliff gave me little room to doubt the world she recreated for her story, even if she left out the raping and pillaging. Overall, a very enjoyable book if you don't show more mind predictable happy endings. I look forward to reading the sequel, "The Silver Branch". show less