Primus Pilus: Rufus veteran of Marcus Aurelius

By Oriano Galvanini

Rome, in the year 929 ab Urbe condita.

Lucius Valerius Rufus has served the Empire for twenty-five years, rising to the rank of primus pilus. On the Danube he commanded men, knew discipline and blood, and learned that war shows no mercy.

Now he has returned to Rome. Honorably discharged and rewarded with a villa on the Via Ostiense, Rufus believes he can finally enter civilian life and attain the equestrian rank that is his due. But the Eternal City is not a battlefield: here the weapons are words, alliances, favors... and betrayals.

Something is moving beneath the surface of power. A web of interests, secret cults, and men who recognize one another by the faintest of signs, as if they belonged to an invisible order.

Rufus believed he had left war behind. Rome will show him that there are older battles, fought in silence and shadow. And that even the gods, at times, demand oaths.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GX9K8JGC
• ISBN13: 9798255729524
• Release Date: April 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"