The Eagle of the Ninth
A Brief Introduction and Study Guide
The Roman Empire, at its furthest point of expansion, reached into the Northern part of the island we know as Great Britain. There are numerous sources which recount the Roman invasion of Britain (both from the Roman perspective and that of the later inhabitants of the island). With a mix of history and legend we get to see one rather intriguing account from Geoffrey of Monmouth. Monmouth wrote (or as he says, translated) The History of the Kings of Britain which includes one of the earliest tales of King Arthur and Merlin. The venerable Bede gives us another account in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. From the Roman perspective there is the well known 1st century A.D. historian, Tacitus, who gives us good bit of information on the matter. Perhaps most famously, however, Julius Caesar writes about his two forays into Britain (once in 55 and once in 54 A.D.) in his book The Conquest of Gaul.
The Britons (a later people came to be known as the Britains) were a sturdy folk and proved irascible and hard to conquer. Eventually, for a time, Rome gained a strong footing on the island and kept the people under their sway. Nonetheless, there were tribes from further up North on the Island that Rome found impossible to break. It was difficult to give enough troops and support to a place so far away from Italy and with all of the other fronts of the empire to care for as well. In the end Rome decided to make its peace with the territory they had subdued and they built a wall to separate Roman Britain from the wild men of the North. This is known as Hadrian’s Wall and construction began on it in 122 A.D. It was a true marvel of Roman engineering and for a long time, while Rome remained strong at home and soldiers were supplied to maintain and patrol the wall, it proved an effective deterrent.
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff is a modern classic. Its setting is Roman Britain just shortly after Hadrian’s wall has been built. The main Character, Marcus, has just taken his first command as a newly minted centurion in the Roman military. He has requested to go to the furthest outskirts of the Roman Empire for a particular reason, namely, to find some news of his missing father.
Marcus’ father had “been appointed to command the First Cohort of the Hispania, which meant having charge of the Eagle and being something very like second-in-command of the Legion”. However, “when the Ninth Hispania…had marched forth to deal” with rebelling tribes in North Britain they “never came marching back.”1 The entire Legion disappeared without a trace and it was a complete mystery as to what became of them. Marcus, understandably, wanted to know what happened to the father he loved and admired and so he took his post as close as possible to that vanishing point. Will he ever find out what happened? Might he ever be able to recover the Eagle (the symbol of the pride of the Ninth Hispania which is so closely tied to his own family’s honor)?
I guess you’ll have to read the book to find out.
As you do you are sure to get a great story full of action and adventure but also of interaction with important ideas in literature and in life. This book interacts with themes like the Wilderness vs. Civilization, the importance of family, friendship, honor, and more. So grab a copy and dive into the fun and enjoy the study guide that will help you think through the ideas in the book, and their implications, all from the perspective of a biblical worldview.
This post is the landing page for the Study Guides on The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff. Below you will find links, as they become available, to discussion questions for each lesson. Please feel free to use them for your own private enjoyment and reflection, in your classroom, or for homeschooling. To see the growing list of completed Study Guides you can click HERE.
Ch. 8 “The Healer with the Knife”
Ch. 12 “The Whistler in the Dawn”
Ch. 14 “The Feast of New Spears”
Ch. 15 “Venture into the Dark”
Rosemary Sutcliff. The Eagle of the Ninth. (Square Fish, New York, NY) 2.