After sustaining heavy losses, the attack falters, and only the Second Legion's intervention saves the day. The Ninth Legion, supported by artillery fire from triremes on the river, crosses and assault the enemy ramparts. Cato finds one, and the next day the attack goes in. As the Britons under Caratacus have heavily fortified the opposite bank, Macro and Cato are ordered to scout ahead for a ford upstream. Soon afterwards the Legion moves off again, heading to the River Meadway (present-day Medway river, in Kent). Meanwhile, the legate of the Second Legion, Vespasian, worries about his wife Flavia back in Rome, whom he has learned has connections to "The Liberators", a group of conspirators who want the feeble-minded Emperor Claudius out of power. Optio Cato is bequeathed an ivory-hilted sword by the chief centurion, Bestia, who was mortally wounded in the British ambush and respected Cato for his tenacity. The book opens immediately after the events of Under the Eagle, with the troops relaxing and watching prisoners of war fight to the death in a makeshift arena. It is the second book in the Eagles of the Empire series. The Eagle's Conquest is a 2001 novel by Simon Scarrow, about the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD.
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