The Embers of Empire Series

In the second volume of The Embers of Empire series, Rome's intelligence agent Marcus must escape the court of young Emperor Constans after he uncovers the humiliating secret of the young emperor’s vice-ridden entourage. But his flight lands him in greater danger—a delicate assignment to investigate a military conspiracy to usurp Constans’ throne. Worse, this mission means spying on the very man whose trust Marcus craves more than anything. Moving from the Late Roman imperial courts to Mursa, the bloodiest battleground of fourth century Europe, the ex-slave Marcus must outwit Gallo-Roman rebels, vicious imperial siblings and ruthless espionage rivals—all of them embers of an empire blindly smoldering toward extinction. Richly researched and packed with action and intrigue, The Embers of Empire series will delight fans of Steven Saylor, Robert Harris and Bernard Cornwell. Author Q.V. Hunter lives in a Jurassien village which was once a lookout point for Roman soldiers posted to Julius Caesar's colony Noviodunum. They were assigned the resettlement and administration of Celtic Helvetic 'barbarians' defeated in the Battle of Bibracte in 58 BC. Hunter is married to a descendant of Alemannic refugees of the Roman Empire. They have three adult children, all of whom managed to study Latin and Greek in high school before the Cantonal authorities slashed the Classics budget for state schools.

Roman intelligence agent Numidianus' secret assignment to spy on the Caesar Gallus and his vicious consort Constantia tosses him into Antioch's cesspool of corruption and violence. Should he risk his career by betraying the unstable Gallus to his cousin, the Emperor Constantius II, or play it safe and let the Eastern Empire fester? More urgently, can he rescue his own son Leo from mutilation into a eunuch by the powerful Lord Chamberlain Eusebius? A thrilling espionage adventure set in the fourth-century Roman Empire, this third Q.V. Hunter adventure pits Marcus against the warring heirs to the Constantine dynasty and the eunuchs who rule them--all of them embers of a empire blindly smoldering towards extinction. Packed with action and intrigue, this new series is a delight for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Steven Saylor, and Robert Harris.

Freshly stained with the blood of Caesar Gallus, Agent Numidianus must spy on a rising Franco-Roman hero rescuing Roman Gaul from Alemannic raiders. The dashing General Claudius Silvanus once betrayed Marcus’ father but later saved Marcus himself from execution. Is Silvanus now the man to save the Roman Empire of the West—or destroy it? Should Marcus warn him of treachery in Emperor Constantius II’s court or let the Fates exact revenge on his behalf? The Wolves of Ambition is the fourth in a thrilling espionage adventure series set in the post-Constantine era. It plunges Marcus Gregorianus Numidianus into a contest between military heroes versus intrigant courtiers for influence over the paranoid Constantius—all of them embers of an empire blindly smoldering toward extinction. Packed with action and suspense, the Embers of Empire series is delighting fans of Bernard Cornwell, Steven Saylor, and Robert Harris.

To unite the warring Roman army under his fresh command, Emperor Julian offers his military enemies a free hand over a sinister show trial purging the late Constantius II's court. As the names of the generals' targets leak out from the Chalcedon tribunal, panic and betrayal engulfs civil servants, imperial eunuchs, and even the agentes in rebus. Agent Numidianus returns to Rome to discover his headquarters under a new chief and his ailing intelligence master Apodemius gone missing. With a trusted few, he fights to protect the Magister’s most vulnerable secret ever— while defending himself against charges that will tie him to the executioner’s stake. Packed with action and intrigue, the Embers of Empire series is delighting fans of Bernard Cornwell, Steven Saylor and Robert Harris.

Imperial agent Numidianus gets more trouble than he can handle when recruiting barbarian informers. The fiery Alemanna Gunda agrees to testify before an imperial hearing pitting the bookish Caesar Julian against his resentful general. But is Gunda’s evidence backing Julian only a self-serving lie? And when Julian’s campaign to cleanse Gaul of Alemanni settlers endangers Gunda’s chieftain father, Marcus must use all his wits to manage the volatile beauty who holds the key that may save Numidianus' entire service. A thrilling espionage adventure set in the post-Constantine era, "The Deadly Caesar" plunges Marcus Gregorianus Numidianus deeper into the tensions between the heirs to an overstretched Roman Empire and encroaching border peoples—all of them embers of an empire blindly smoldering toward extinction. Packed with action and intrigue, the Embers of Empire series is delighting fans of Bernard Cornwell, Steven Saylor, and Robert Harris.

"The Veiled Assassin" is the first in Q. V. Hunter’s ground-breaking series, ‘The Embers of Empire,’ introducing Roman fiction fans to a little-used setting when the Republic and Imperium periods had become fading memories. The Dominate period ruled by Emperors Constans, Constantius II, Julian the Apostate, and the Valentinian brothers was a world of usurping barbarian generals, competing Christian factions, intrigant eunuchs, overstretched borders, and the rise of the rival ‘New Roma’ or Constantinople in the East. In this first adventure, “The Veiled Assassin” pits young Marcus Gregorianus Numidianus, half-African slave-turned-spy, against religious suicide martyrs destroying the stability of Roman African colonial exports vital to a hungry empire. Even if Marcus’ mission to find the powerful mastermind behind the mutilating ambushes is a success, will his army master honor an obligation to free the stubborn young hero? Marcus will survive to face Gallo-Roman army rebels, corrupt imperial eunuchs ruling the East, and a pair of Christian emperors struggling to maintain order in the face of Goths, Alemanni, Saxons, Berbers, Persians, and Franks—all amidst embers of a world blindly smoldering toward its extinction. Migrant surges, religious suicide martyrs, imperialist commodity extraction, spiritual faddism, gender battles, child sex abuse, people-trafficking—even a forerunner of Brexit—the men and women of the 4th century faced all of it already, and they’re all in “The Embers of Empire” series, delighting fans of Bernard Cornwell, Steven Saylor, and Robert Harris.