It is the seventh book in the Eagles of the Empire series, starting with Macro and Cato's transfer to the eastern provinces of Rome.

The troops are in deplorable state, while the corrupt behaviour of their senior officers threatens to undermine the army's control of the region.

To restore the competence of the men defending a vital fort, two experienced centurions are dispatched to Judea from Rome.

Bannus, a local tribesman, is brewing up rebellion amongst the followers of Jehoshua, who was crucified in Jerusalem some seventeen years earlier.

Macro and Cato must stamp out corruption in the cohort and restore it to fighting fitness to quash Bannus - before the eastern provinces are lost to the Empire for ever...