An amazing retelling of the Teutoberg Forest Disaster! In 9 AD, three crack legions in Germania were nearly annihilated by a confederation of German tribes, led by the Romanized German prince, Arminius, called herein Julius Arminius. All three Eagles were captured. This was a pivotal moment in history and arguably why **generally** in today's Europe, one could say Romance languages [descendants of Latin] are spoken west of the Rhine and German to the east.

Cassius Aprilis, Tribune in the Roman army, as well as the narrator, comes home to Rome after a horrific battle at the "North-Gate Pass". Thought of as a hero and celebrated by others, he knows in his heart he has succumbed to false pride, is a coward, and escapes into drunkenness and debauchery to flee terror and self-loathing. Since he has been a close friend since boyhood of Julius, and Julius is going to Germania to claim the throne of his tribe, he is tasked by Livia, the Empress, to act as advisor to Varus, the Governor. He travels with a young, naïve, gung-ho, glory-seeking fellow tribune, Marcus Scaeva, anxious to get into battle and bloody his sword. The two finally are assigned reading military intelligence and they make recommendations. Through the onerous taxes of Varus and Varus's unwanted building projects, supposedly bringing Roman civilization so the natives will see its benefits and also through the treachery of Julius, the three legions are lured into tense battle with the Germans.

The novel was well written and paced smoothly. I liked both Cassius's and Marcus's character development; Cassius overcomes his fears and Marcus matures. Proofing errors [although some had been caught in my copy] still marred the novel. There were homophone errors--"pouring through reports" instead of "poring through reports" [p.148]; "I sheaved my blade" instead of "I sheathed my blade" [p. 285] and other places further in the text. The Latin should have been checked more closely, especially singular and plural: p. 115 "praefectus castrorum" should have been used instead of "praefectii castorum", for the different classes of gladiators, p.39, retiarius [singular], not "retiarii" [plural], p. 179 "Pax Romana" not "Pax Romania", p. 356-7, "pila", not "pilums". In Chapter 39, the singular "ballista" instead of the plural "ballistae" should have been used where Cassius and Marcus are shooting ONE ballista. Did the author mean IX [Ninth] Cohort instead of XI [Eleventh] Cohort on p. 284? If I'm not mistaken I thought each legion had only 10 cohorts.

The title was inspired: "Mask" was used as metaphor for several different things in the novel, e.g., the personality Cassius presents to the world and what he reveals in his interior thoughts; the beauty of Rome itself hiding its corruption; the personality Julius presents to the Romans and the one he finally exhibits; the cavalry mask worn by Macarius, at whose death Cassius recovers his courage and self-confidence and really feel hatred for his former friend and his treachery. It could be also the author's nod to the one found at Kalkriese.

I would have rated the novel even higher, if not for the proofing errors. The Latin especially bothered me. Even so, I recommend this novel very highly. ( )

I do love my Roman reading. I will admit to a real fascination with the different Roman leaders – especially those claiming humility while owning dictatorship. In this novel it’s Augustus on the emperor’s throne with strong support from his wife. Rome is still looking to extend it’s borders into Germany but its hold is not as firm as it would like. This sets up the tale of our fictional hero (?) Cassius.

Cassius came home from his first tour of duty in Germany a hero yet he knows that it’s a title he really didn’t earn. That does not stop him from exploiting it as he lives his life from party to party doing little more than drinking, going to the gymnasium to keep in shape to drink more and trying to sleep with beautiful women. He’s enjoying his life of useless pleasure despite pressure from his sister and father to make something of himself.

Then he receives a summons from the Emperor and he fears he has been caught for his decisions have been somewhat questionable. What he doesn’t expect is to be meeting with the Emperor’s wife and to be recruited back into the legions for an assignment back to Germany. He is not at all happy but of course there is no way to decline. He has just a few days to get himself organized to go back to what he considers the worst experience of his life.

Little does he know what is ahead of him, for you see this is a novel of the battle of the Teutoburg. For anyone familiar with Roman history you will know that this was the site of one of the greatest defeats for the Roman legions. It was a horrible loss of men and a betrayal the likes of which Rome had never seen before.

I’ve read several other books covering this period in Roman history and it was a truly horrifying bit of warfare. There is no getting around the evil man can do and these soldiers where in a forest they were not familiar with, a storm had created further problems and they had a leader too full of himself and the might of Rome. What followed was nothing short of a massacre. Rome would never really reconcile to the loss of its three Eagles and it would not try to well, Romanize these Germanic tribes again.

The book is exceptionally researched and very well written. I was drawn in from the very first page. Ancient Rome comes to life in all of its glory and menace. It’s a weighty book but one that read quickly because it is one of those books where you just get lost in the story and time flies by. Despite the dark subject matter and the gore – war is gory, there is nothing to be done about that – I didn’t want the story to end. I just love books that bring a world to life like this. ( )