The Lantern Bearers

First published in 1959, this historical novel is the last of Sutcliff's Roman-Britain sequence. After the last legions leave, the decurion Aquila stays to defend his family's farm and is captured when Saxon raiders burn it and carry off his sister Flavia. Enslaved, he later escapes into the service of Ambrosius Aurelianus, who is gathering British resistance in the west. The action moves through ruined towns, Saxon shore, and hill forts as Aquila searches for Flavia and for a durable loyalty after Rome. The book is a novel of occupation's aftermath, not a life of Arthur.

Bound in brown cloth, blocked with a design in black and silver by Roman Pisarev. Black slipcase.