Rome Adventure

Tribune Cato and Centurion Macro are based on the eastern border of the Empire, facing Rome's deadly enemy, Parthia. The signs are that Parthia is preparing for war. And the two battle-hardened veterans are ready for their greatest-ever military challenge.

The far-flung and isolated citadel of Arete faces out across the wasteland, awaiting the inevitable invasion. One man is sent to marshal the defences of this lonely city; one man to shore up the crumbling walls of a once indomitable symbol of Roman power; a man whose name itself means war, a man called Ballista.

Meet our fearless adventurers Cassandra, Otto and Missy AKA the smartest raven in the universe as they set out on their next action-packed Ladybird Audio Adventure! On this adventure, we're travelling back in time on our chariot to Ancient Rome! We will learn about Romulus and how he founded Rome, and the importance of the senate in this powerful empire.

Fifteen years after Rome's invasion of Britannia, centurion Marco is back. The island is settled now, bustling with commerce. Macro's goal is to help run his mother's Londinium Inn and exploit his land grant. He's prepared for the dismal weather and the barbaric ways of the people. But far worse dangers threaten all his plans.

On a small estate just outside Rome in the first century BC, two boys become blood brothers, little imagining the extraordinary future that lies before them. As friends and rivals, Gaius and Marcus are destined to find lasting fame.

Britannia, 45 AD: Vespasian's brother, Sabinus, is captured by druids. The druids want to offer a potent sacrifice to their gods – not just one Roman Legate, but two. They know that Vespasian will come after his brother and they plan to sacrifice the siblings on midsummer's day. Vespasian must strive to save his brother whilst completing the conquest of the south-west of the haunted isle, before he is drawn inexorably back to Rome and the heart of Imperial politics.

The emperor: Nero, emperor of Rome and feared by his subjects for his temper and cruelty, is in possession of an ancient document predicting that Rome will burn. The spy: Sebastos Pantera, assassin and spy for the Roman Legions, is ordered to stop the impending cataclysm. He knows that if he doesn't, his life - and that of thousands of others - is in terrible danger. The chariot boy: Math, a young charioteer, subject to the wiles and schemes of the emperor and the spy.

Rome, AD 41. Caligula has been assassinated and the Praetorian Guard have proclaimed Claudius Emperor – but his position is precarious. His three freedmen, Narcissus, Pallas and Callistus, must find a way to manufacture a quick victory – but how? Pallas has the answer: retrieve the Eagle of the Seventeenth, lost nearly 40 years before. Who but Vespasian could lead a dangerous mission into the gloomy forests of Germania?

When Senator Aulus Aemilius Galba is tapped to lead the first Roman mission to China, he anticipates an easy path to fame and fortune. Gaius Lucullus sees a bright military future, but his reluctant centurion Antonius Aristides would rather be somewhere else. Translators Marcia Lucia and her brother Marcus were taken from their village in China to serve the Han court, abused and despised, hiding a horrible secret.

In the depths of the desert on the empire's Eastern Frontier, the Roman army lays siege to the city of Nicopolis. Estranged from his beloved Enica to keep her safe, centurion Flavius Ferox has secured his freedom after being framed once again. His next quest: to uncover traitors within the Roman ranks. As the siege builds, widespread corruption seethes and soldiers are murdered in cold blood. Meanwhile, Ferox's investigation brings him closer and closer to the imperial court, and uncovers connections to Hadrian himself...

'The story I now commence is rich in vicissitudes, grim with warfare, torn by civil strife, a tale of horror even during times of peace.’ Tacitus, The Histories AD 68. The Emperor Nero’s erratic and bloody reign is in its death throes when Gaius Valerius Verrens is dispatched to Rome on a mission that will bring it to a close. With Nero dead, the city holds its breath and awaits the arrival his successor, Servius Sulpicius Galba, governor of Hispania. The Empire prays for peace, but it prays in vain.

Rome, AD 67. Vespasian is tasked with the impossible: should he quell the revolt in Judaea, as the emperor Nero has instructed? If his conquest succeeds, he risks becoming the sole object of the emperor's jealousy. If he fails, then his punishment will be severe. But Nero has committed suicide. Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, is caught between the warring factions of Aulus Vitellius, a cruel opportunist, and the noble Marcus Salvius Otho, who finds himself severely outnumbered.

Treachery hangs ominously over the Roman Empire and sparks of Christian fervour have spread through the empire like wildfire. The battle-bloodied general Ballista returns to the imperial court from the fallen city of Arete only to find that there are those who would rather see him dead than alive.

Rome, AD 51: Vespasian brings Rome's greatest enemy before the emperor. After eight years of resistance, the British warrior Caratacus has been caught. But Agrippina, Emperor Claudius' wife, pardons Caratacus. Claudius is a drunken fool, and Narcissus and Pallas, his freedmen, are battling for control of his throne. Separately,they decide to send Vespasian east to Armenia to defend Rome's interests. Meanwhile the East is in turmoil.

Atticus, captain of one of the ships of Rome's small, coastal fleet, is from a Greek fishing family. Septimus, legionary commander, reluctantly ordered aboard ship, is from Rome, born into a traditionally army family. It could never be an easy alliance. But the arrival of a hostile fleet, larger, far more skilful and more powerful than any Atticus has encountered before, forces them to act together.

AD262 - the Imperium is in turmoil after the struggle for the throne. Furthermore, Ephesus, Asia's metropolis, lies in ruins, shattered by a mighty earthquake. Yet an even greater threat to the Empire advances from the North. The barbaric Goth tribes sail towards Ephesus, determined to pillage the city. Only Ballista, Warrior of Rome, knows the ways of the barbarians, and only he can defeat them.

It is April of 69 A.D., and Rome’s first civil war in a hundred years has ended. Emperor Otho, who violently overthrew the tyrannical Galba just three months before, is dead. The triumphant armies of the Rhine coerce the senate into ratifying their governor, Aulus Vitellius, as emperor. While there is an uneasy hope that peace has returned to Rome, Vitellius’ cronyism and utter incompetence soon alienates most of Rome’s patricians, along with many of the provinces.

AD 58. Rome is in turmoil once more. Emperor Nero has surrounded himself with sycophants, and together they rampage by night through the city. Meanwhile, Nero's extravagance has reached new heights. The Emperor's spending is becoming profligate at the same time as the demands of keeping the provinces subdued have become increasingly unaffordable. Could Nero withdraw from Britannia, and at what price for the Empire?

Rome, AD 63. Vespasian has been ordered to a far-flung empire in Africa to free 200 Roman citizens who have been enslaved by a desert kingdom. But when Vespasian reaches the city, he discovers tensions spilling over into bloody chaos. Battling thirst and exhaustion, Vespasian must help the Romans escape, their only route to survival a desperate race across a barren desert with a hoard of heavily armed rebels at their backs. Meanwhile, back in Rome, Rome's elite fear for their lives as Emperor Nero's extravagance goes unchecked.

Treason waits at the furthest reaches of Empire...When the deputy commander of Rome's Imperial Security Service is assassinated on the island of Rhodes, Cassius Corbulo swiftly finds himself embroiled in the investigation. Assisted once more by ex-gladiator bodyguard Indavara and servant Simo, his search for the truth is complicated by the involvement of the dead man's headstrong daughter, Annia.