The Eagle of the Ninth

The Eagle of the Ninth
First edition cover
Publication	1954
Length	Novel
Audience	Young adult
Historical era	Roman
Adaptation	The Eagle of the Ninth (1977 series) The Eagle (2011 film)
Series	The Dolphin Ring
Next →	The Silver Branch

The Eagle of the Ninth is a novel for children first published in 1954 by Oxford University Press. It is the first of Rosemary Sutcliff's Roman Britain stories and the first of eight novels loosely connected by an heirloom signet ring.

The Eagle of the Ninth was Sutcliff's breakout novel and remains her best-known work. It was adapted for radio by the BBC programme Children's Hour shortly after publication, then into a BBC television miniseries in 1977. In 2011 it was loosely adapted into the film The Eagle.

Plot

Marcus Flavius Aquila, orphaned son of the senior centurion of the lost Ninth Legion, commands the replacement garrison of auxiliaries at Isca Dumnoniorum, a frontier fort in the far west of Britain. The departing commander advises him to watch out for stray Druids, who are capable of whipping up revolt among the local tribes (1). Marcus settles into the routine of Isca Dumnoniorum, getting to know his officers and a young local hunting guide named Cradoc, who challenges him to a test of chariot-driving and judges him fairly good. Yet Cradoc's wife Guinhumara is oddly guarded, and there are rumours of a Druid in the neighbourhood, worsening Marcus's concerns over a poor harvest (2). Two nights later, the fort is attacked in the predawn by the Dumnonii, led by a Druid. Marcus leads a small force out to escort a returning patrol and is attacked by Cradoc in his chariot, which Marcus sacrifices himself to crash (3). Marcus survives and a Relief Force saves the fort; Cradoc is killed, the revolt suppressed, and Isca Dumnoniorum laid waste. Marcus's badly broken leg does not heal and he is discharged from the Legions, with no idea what else he will make of his life (4).

Marcus goes to live with his Uncle Aquila in Calleva, who takes him to the Saturnalia Games, where they watch the defeat of a young gladiator whom Marcus sways the crowd to spare (5). Marcus buys him the next day, and Esca pledges his loyalty to Marcus, but remains reserved about his background. Esca presents Marcus with a wolf-pup acquired in a hunt, during which he was insulted by a Tribune; Marcus insists that he does not regard or treat Esca as property, and Esca eventually tells him that he is the son of a dead clan chieftain of the Brigantes, orphaned and enslaved after a revolt two years ago; and that ten years ago he saw pass by the legion that disappeared in the North (6). In early spring, Marcus meets his neighbours' young niece, Cottia of the Iceni, who bitterly resents being raised as a Roman, and Esca explains to Marcus that the Frontier tribes like his recognise Roman efficiency but hate losing their own less straightforward worldview (7). In late summer, Marcus's injury flares up, and Aquila sends for his old surgeon comrade Rufrius Galarius, who reopens the wound to remove the remaining splinters, telling Marcus that he will recover in a few months' time. Marcus realises in hindsight that despite his homesickness and uncertainty, Esca, Cub, and Cottia have made the summer a good one (8).

The next spring, Marcus and Esca set Cub free in the woods, and Aquila hosts his old comrade Claudius Hieronimianus, Legate of the Sixth Victrix, and his elegant aide-de-camp the Tribune Placidus, who insulted Esca during the wolf hunt. Cub returns once and for all as they welcome the guests (9). At dinner, the Legate mentions a rumour in Eburacum that the Eagle standard of the Ninth Legion has been seen in a holy place of the Northern tribes, perhaps making a focus for unrest but he has no more to go on. Marcus begs for the chance to investigate, with Esca's help, in hopes that the Eagle might be the core of a re-formed Legion, and Aquila and the Legate grant permission with some misgivings. Placidus cynically advises Marcus to free Esca before counting on his loyalty, and Marcus takes him at his word. Like Cub, Esca chooses to remain (10).

Weeks later, in early summer, they cross the Wall at Chilurnium [sic], Marcus disguised as a travelling oculist named Demetrius of Alexandria, inspired and instructed by Rufrius Galarius. In a glen in Valentia, Marcus builds an altar to sacrifice the olive-wood bird he has carried with him since boyhood (11). All summer they cast northwards back and forth across Valentia without finding the trail of the Ninth, and turn south again at the firth. In the ruined fort of Trinomontium, they meet Guern the Hunter, a man of the Painted People, singing a Latin marching song he claims to have learned from the Legionaries (12). After Guern invites them to his homestead, Marcus sees the callus of a Roman helmet strap on his shaven chin and taxes him with his identity. Guern admits that he was once a centurion of the Ninth Legion, which bore an old curse and a tactless Legate into Valentia during unrest following the death of the Emperor Trajan. After severe losses from guerrilla attacks on the march north, they suffered one assault in their crumbling Agricolan wall fort before petitioning the Legate to make terms and retreat. The Legate refused, was cut down, and the fort overrun, many of the men retreating with the tribesmen. The remaining two cohorts, led by Marcus's father the Senior Centurion, fled south in the night and were hunted down. Guern, who dropped out and crawled into a village, saw the Eagle carried northward by the Epidaii tribe. Marcus, brutally disillusioned, resolves to find the Eagle for the sake of Frontier peace, though such a Legion can never be re-formed (13).

They search Epidaii territory to no avail until they meet Dergdian, a Chieftain whose baby has a severe eye infection; while Marcus remains at their dun treating it, Dergdian's Seal Clan hosts the Feast of New Spears at the Place of Life, where the Eagle of the Ninth is brought out of the barrow to show the crowd at the end of the ceremony (14). Dergdian's grandfather Tradui tells Marcus the story of how a great hosting of tribes ten or twelve autumns before had hunted a Red Crest army to their last stand in the bogs north of Trinomontium, and shows Marcus the emerald signet ring he took from their leader, Marcus's father. That night, Marcus and Esca return to the Place of Life to steal the Eagle, hiding it under the banks of the lake before creeping back into their beds (15). The next day they take their leave with the rest of the festival-goers, and the day after, as expected, meet Dergdian and his men looking for the Eagle, and let themselves be searched, fruitlessly. That night they beg the shelter of an outbuilding in which Marcus can cast out the fever supposedly afflicting Esca, and Esca doubles back to the Loch of Many Islets to retrieve the Eagle. The next evening, still two days from the frontier of Valentia, they notice that the brooch is missing from the cloak the Eagle is wrapped in, and Esca remembers that it caught on the bank while he collected the Eagle. If the tribesmen find it, there can only be one reason for Marcus and Esca to have returned (16).

They make tracks down from the highlands, sell their horses at the river crossing into Valentia, and travel by night halfway across it until pursuit catches up with them. Abandoning their horses and fleeing downriver, they meet Guern the Hunter leading a strayed cow (17). The next night, while his tribe is out hunting for Marcus and Esca, he leads them through the only unguarded route south, a nearly impassible bog. Marcus invites him to return with them, but he chooses to remain in the life he has made with his wife and children. Two days later, a few miles from the Wall, the hunt catches up with them, and they go to ground in an abandoned signal tower, not expecting to come out again (18). They ambush the three young hunters who follow them in, and threaten to throw the Eagle into the tarn below if Liathan, Dergdian's young brother, doesn't wave the others off. Liathan tells Marcus that Tradui recognised him for his father's son and sent his ring to bury Marcus with. They take the tribesmen's ponies and make for the Wall, collapsing before the Commander of Borcovicus fort (19).

In late October, Marcus and Esca arrive home in Calleva, where they deliver the Eagle and their story to Claudius Hieronimianus, passing north again. He confirms Marcus's not-quite-hopeless guess that the Legion cannot be re-formed, and Uncle Aquila suggests that they lay it to rest in his hypocaust (20). Marcus's leg injury relapses in reaction to months of overuse, and he spends the winter recovering and once again uncertain about his future. In spring, a newly grown-up Cottia returns from winter vacation and a letter from the Legate arrives on behalf of the Senate: Esca is granted Roman citizenship, and Marcus awarded a full legionary pension in land and a little money, enough for him and Cottia to marry on. His friends expect him to claim land in the Etruscan hills, but Marcus discovers that like Uncle Aquila, he has made the north his home, and he will take his land here in Britain.

That evening, Uncle Aquila mentions that the rebuilding of Isca Dumnoniorum has begun (21).

Chronology

The Foreword notes, "Sometime about the year 117 AD, the Ninth Legion, which was stationed at Eburacum where York now stands, marched north to deal with a rising among the Caledonian tribes, and never came marching back." The events of the novel take place nine to twelve years later, 126 to 129 CE.

Timeline

• 61 ("sixty [68] years ago"): the Ninth crossed Boudicca (13).
• c. 100 ("thirty years ago"): Valentia and Trinomontium abandoned (12).
• 103: Aquila's last visit to Eburacum, 25 years ago, when he "took a contingent of the Second up there in one of the Troubles" (10).
• 107: Marcus born (1). Esca born (6). Placidus born [likely] (9)
• 107-117: Marcus and his mother lived on the family farm in Clusium (1).
  • Marcus's father soldiered in Judaea, Egypt, then Britain (1).
• 109, August: Claudius Hieronimianus's year-long (1) post as tribune of the Tenth Fretensis begins (10).
• 110: Uncle Aquila is primus pilus of the Fretensis (10)
  • August: Hieronimianus leaves the Fretensis (10)
• c. 114: Cottia is born (12-13 in spring 127) (7)
• 115: Guern is promoted to centurion in the Ninth Hispana and transferred to Britain, from his previous post in the Thirtieth [Ulpia Victrix] (13).

117 CE (Foreword)

• Marcus is 10 (1). [Alternatively, "since he was eight years old" (13)]
• Ten years ago: Uncle Aquila begins the History of Siege Warfare (5)
• Death of Emperor Trajan [9 August] (13); [August 10: Emperor Hadrian assumes power]
• Immediately afterward: Rebellion in the North; Iceni and Brigantes put down (1,13)
• Autumn
  • the Ninth ordered north (1,13)
  • Esca, aged 9-10, watches the Ninth march north (6)
  • Arrival on the northern wall and attack (13)
  • Mutiny; general slaughter and desertion
    • That night: the survivors run south
  • Next morning: the tribes take up the hunt
    • That evening: Guern deserts
  • "A few nights later": the Eagle passes north

• c. 117-118: Marcus's mother dies "soon afterwards" (1)
• c. 117-125: Marcus age 10-18 lives in Rome with his paternal aunt and her husband Tullus Lepidus (1)
• c. 122-123, "a year and more" before the revolt: Esca initiated, age 16 (6).
• 124, two years ago: Esca's clan revolt; his family killed; he enslaved, age 17 (6).

125 CE

• Marcus applies for a centurion's commission at 18, "a year ago" (1)
• Marcus lands at Anderida (7)
• Late autumn: Marcus arrives at Isca Silurium, HQ of the Second Augusta (1)
• Prior to December 24: Marcus is initiated into the Raven degree of Mithras (5)
• Saturnalia Games [December 17-23]: Marcus beats Cassius in a chariot race (2)
• At some point this year ("three years" ago), Claudius Hieronimianus arrives in Britain (10)

126 CE

• ​Spring or summer: Marcus, aged 19, brings Fourth Gaulish Cohort garrison to Isca Dumnoniorum (1). Roses are in season (2).
• Next day: Quintus Hilarion takes old garrison to Isca Silurium (1).
• (2) Marcus meets Cradoc, "not much older"
• Late summer: rumours of a Druid in the neighbourhood. Bad harvest expected. Marcus and Cradoc wager (2).
• Next day: Cradoc to Durinum (2).
• More than 8 days later, still summer: Harvest is in and bad. Cradoc returns; Marcus's driver's test (2).
• Night after: New moon (3).
• 2nd night after: Dumnonii revolt. Lutorius, Cradoc killed; Marcus, Galba injured (3).
• 6 or 7 days later: Marcus wakes up (4).
• Next day: The Relief Force leaves for Isca [Silurium] (4)
• 3 weeks later: Marcus is told he will be discharged (4)
• A few days later: Cassius takes command of the fort, bringing two centuries of the Third Cohort [of Gauls]. The last rose petals drop. (4)
• End of October: Marcus arrives at his uncle Aquila's in Calleva (5)
• Soon afterward: Marcus receives word of the Fourth Gaulish's decoration and his own (5)
• December 24: "eve" of winter solstice; Marcus and Aquila discuss his future (5)
• Next day, December 25 (5): Saturnalia Games [Saturnalia=17-23 Dec]; Marcus sees Esca, Cottia, and "a bored young tribune"
• Next day, December 26 (6): Marcus buys Esca

127 CE (6):

• Late winter (6): Marcus mending. Guern's daughter born (13).
• One day (6): Wolf hunt, Esca meets Placidus
• Next dawn (6): Esca brings back Cub
• "A few days later", March (6): Esca tells Marcus how he was enslaved
• "Some days later", "very early spring" (7): Marcus gets to go outside; meets Cottia, aged 12-13
• 3 days later (8): Cottia returns; Marcus asks Aquila to open relations with Kaeso and Valaria
• Before late spring (8): Cottia a regular visitor
• August (8): Marcus's wound worsens
  • Rufrius Galarius comes from Durinum to examine it
  • Next morning: the wound is re-searched
• Winter (9): Marcus trains with Esca to recover his strength

128 CE

• April, 8 months after the surgery (9): Marcus and Esca release Cub. Claudius Hieronimianus and Placidus arrive. Cub returns.
  • That evening (10): Marcus decides to go north after the Eagle, manumits Esca.
  • Next morning (10): Hieronimianus leaves for Regnum, Rome
  • That evening (10): Marcus entrusts Cub and his decoration to Cottia
  • Next morning (10): Marcus & Esca leave for Durinum
• Early summer (11): Marcus and Esca lodge in Chilurnium
  • A few days later: they cross into Valentia
• All summer (12): they zig-zag up Valentia
• August
  • (12): They turn back at the Firth of Forth
  • Days later: they arrive at Trimontium
  • Next morning: they meet Guern
  • A day later: they leave for Guern's rath
  • The next morning: Guern shaves. Marcus, Esca, and Guern depart (13)
  • That evening: Guern tells them about the mutiny (13).
  • Next morning: Marcus and Esca ride north (13).
• "more than a month later", (September?): Marcus and Esca meet Dergdian (14)
• "many days" later: Marcus catches wind of the Holy Place (14)
  • Next day: the clans arrive
  • 2nd day: the New Spears "die"
  • 3rd day: the Night of the Horned Moon and the Feast of New Spears (14)
  • 4th day/night: Marcus and Esca steal the Eagle (15)
  • 5th day: they leave town with the other festival-goers (16)
  • 6th day/night: Dergdian catches up with them; Esca "falls ill", walks back to the Loch of Many Islets (16)
  • 7th day/night: Marcus waits in the shed; Esca waits in the woods, swims the lake, retrieves the Eagle (16).
  • 8th day/night: Marcus waits; Esca returns (16)
  • 9th day: They cross the mountains; discover the brooch missing (16).
  • 10th day: down Loch Lomond to Are-Cluta (17)
  • 11th day: the sell the horses and cross the Cluta (17)
  • 3 days later, 4th evening: the hunt finds them, 3 days from the Wall; they meet Guern (17)
  • Next day: they hide out in an abandoned quarry (18)
  • That night: they cross the bog and leave Guern (18)
  • 2 days later: They meet Liathan (19)
  • That night: they arrive at Borcovicus (19).
• Late October: Kaeso, Valaria, and Cottia go to Aquae Sulis for the winter (20)
  • A few days later: Marcus, Esca, and Claudius Hieronimianus meet in Calleva (20)
• Before new year: Marcus planning a secretarial future (21)

129 CE

• Winter: Marcus is sick from his wound (21)
• Spring: Marcus begins to recover; rebuilding of Isca Dumnoniorum begins
• One day in March: Kaeso, Valaria, and Cottia return to Calleva; the Legate's letter arrives.

Characters

The Flavius family

• Marcus Flavius Aquila (1), nineteen-year-old Pilus Prior of the Fourth Gaulish Auxiliaries attached to the Second Augustan Legion at Isca Dumnoniorum. Etrurian by birth, of equestrian rank and a military family, orphaned son of the senior centurion of the Ninth Legion (1).
  • alias Demetrius of Alexandria, the Demetrius of Alexandria (11), Greek quack-salver
  • Cub (6), a wolf cub rescued by Esca and presented to Marcus
  • Argos (8), Marcus's dog in Clusium
  • Vipsania (11), Demetrius of Alexandria's ex-cavalry mare

• Marcus's father (1), Senior Centurion of the Ninth Legion. "a slight, dark man" who served in Judaea, Egypt, and Britain. His first and last commands were in the Ninth (1).
• Marcus's mother (1), died soon after his father
• Marcus's paternal aunt (1), "rather foolish", who takes him in
• Tullus Lepidus (1, 4), Marcus's uncle by marriage, an official with whom he does not get along
• Uncle Aquila (1, 4), Marcus's paternal uncle, retired from the legions in Britain
  • Procyon (5), Aquila's wolfhound
  • Margarita (5), Aquila's dog buried at Luguvallium

Isca Dumnoniorum

• Fourth Gaulish Cohort of auxiliaries (1), "yellow-haired giants" from "Upper Gaul", under the Second Legion.
• Quintus Hilarion (1), centurion, Marcus's predecessor as commander of Isca Dumnoniorum, native born from Durinum.
• Aulus (2, 4), Isca's Surgeon, "who appeared, like the Quartermaster, to be a fixture, was a gentle soul, content enough in his backwater so long as it contained sufficient of the fiery native spirit" (3).
• The Quartermaster (2), "a little red angry man who had missed promotion"
• Lutorius (2), "who commanded the [Isca] fort's one squadron of Dacian Horse, spent all his friendliness on horses and was reserved to the point of sullenness with his own kind." (2). Killed in the battle (4).
• Paulus (2), one of Marcus's 5 "ranker" centurions at Isca, "overfond of using his vine-staff on his men's backs"
• Galba (2), one of Marcus's 5 "ranker" centurions at Isca, accepts bribes against fatigues (2). Out on patrol during the attack (3).
• Drusillus (2), one of Marcus's 5 "ranker" centurions at Isca, "a veteran of many campaigns, full of odd wisdom and hard counsel" (2). Marcus's 2IC (3). Promoted Commander of Borcovicus on the Wall (20).
• Dacian auxiliaries (2), cavalry commanded by Lutorius
• Cradoc (2), a hunter and horse-dealer, Marcus's hunting guide, "not many years older" (2). Killed in his chariot wreck (4).
• Guinhumara (2), Cradoc's wife, tall and reserved
• Fulvius (3), one of Marcus's 5 "ranker" centurions at Isca
• Clodius Maximus (4), Legionary centurion in command of the relief force from Durinum, "a fine soldier, but a chilly-mannered, bleak-faced man." Commended Marcus and the Fourth.
• Herpinius (4), Legionary centurion of the relief force left to command the fort
• Cassius (4), Marcus's friend, "an elegant and very dusty young man", owner of the chariot team Marcus drove. His successor in command of Isca, at the head of two centuries of the Third Gaulish from the Wall.
• Third Gaulish Cohort (4), two centuries transferred from the Wall to Isca Dumnoniorum

Calleva

• Sassticca (5), Aquila's overbearing cook
• Marcipor (5), Aquila's steward
• Stephanos (5), Aquila's body servant
• Ulpius (5), doctor at Calleva, fat
• Valaria (5), wife of Kaeso, Icenian maternal aunt of Cottia
• Kaeso (5), fellow magistrate and neighbour of Aquila, husband of Valaria
• Cottia (5,7), Valaria's niece. Her mother and brother live with her step-father.
• Esca Mac Cunoval (5), unenthusiastic gladiator. Son of a rebellious clan chieftain of the Brigantes, whose parents and brothers died in an uprising (6).
  • Minna (12), Esca's ex-cavalry mare
• Beppo (6), the Calleva circus-master
• Servius Placidus (6), tribune from the transit camp, a good hunter (6).
• Lucius Urbanus (6), "the contractor's son", a chariot-driving neighbour in Calleva
• Sull-Minerva (6), goddess with a temple in Calleva
• Narcissa (7), "Nissa", Cottia's nurse

Up North

• the Painted People (4), unfriendly locals to the Wall
• Cunoval (6), Esca's father the chieftain
• The Brigantes (6), Esca's warrior-tattooing, wolf-cub-taming Frontier tribe
• Claudius Hieronimianus (9), Legate of the Sixth, old friend of Aquila, an Egyptian
• Tungrian Cavalry Cohort (11), stationed at Chilurnium
• Sextus (11), a decurion with questionable eyesight
• The Thirtieth Legion (13), Guern's ranker days
• The Legate of the Ninth (13), unbending. "He was a brave man, though a fool." Murdered by his men.

Beyond the Wall

• Guern (12), a Latin-speaking, Mithras-branded hunter of the Painted People, definitely not a Roman at all (12). Sixth Centurion of the Senior Cohort of the Ninth Hispana (ret.) From Northern Gaul (13).
• Murna (13), Guern's wife, much younger than him. She nursed Guern after he deserted with a wound (13).
• A small boy, an even smaller boy, and a very small girl (13), their children
• The Epidaii (13), captors of the Ninth's Eagle, inhabiting the west coast mountains of Caledonia.
  • Seal People/Clan (14), Dergdian's clan, keepers of the Place of Life
  • Wolf Clan, Salmon Clan, swan, otter, badger, etc. (14), but not eagle
• the little Dark People (14), the Ancient People, barrow-builders
• Dergdian (14), young Chieftain of the dun of the Seal People. Savaged by a seal (19).
• Liathan (14), Dergdian's young brother. Sent with the ring to return it to Marcus (19).
• Fionhula (14), Dergdian's wife, mother of a baby with an eye infection
• Tradui (14), Dergdian and Liathan's maternal grandfather, who witnessed the demise of the Ninth (15)
• Conn (16), owner of the cow-byre in which Marcus and Esca hide out
• the Dumnonii (18), Valentian tribe who will join the Epidaii in searching for the Eagle
• The Selgovae (18), Guern's adopted tribe
• Gault (19), fisherman who found Marcus's brooch

Elsewhere

Historical people and mythological figures are linked to Wikipedia entries.

• The Ninth Hispana (1), a vanished Spanish legion with a bad name
• Suetonius Paulinus (1), dealt with the Druids 60 years ago
• the Iceni (2), British horse-breeding tribe. Cradoc's team is descended from their Royal Stables.
• Dexion (4), mutual acquaintance with whom Cassius left his team
• Virgil (6), author of the Georgics
• Lugh the Light of the Sun (6), Esca's god
• Prasutogus (7) dead Icenian king
  • Prydfirth (7), a horse loved by King Prasutogus
• Typhon (7), unpleasant Greek god
• Perseus and Andromeda (8), Greek hero and damsel in distress
• Rufrius Galarius (8), ex-field surgeon of the Second Legion, a Spaniard now of Durinum
• Bacchus, Roma Dea (9), Placidus swears by them
• Hadrian (10), conducting renovations
• Aesculapius (11), medical deity
• Alexander (11), an inquiring soul
• Domitian (12), a face on a coin
• Agricola (12), a cultivator of forts
• the Horned One (13), a praiseworthy god. The Place of Life is sacred to him (15).
• Ahriman the Dark One (13) a devil to pay. Alleged father of Guern's cow (18).
• Boudicca (13), Queen of the Iceni, who cursed the Ninth Legion for their treatment of her.
• Emperor Trajan (13), inveterate campaigner
• Cartimandua (17), Queen of the Brigantes, purported owner of Vipsania and Minna
• Jupiter (20), the Thunderer

Places

Britain

• The Fosseway (1), highway
• The Red Mount (1), on which Isca Dumnoniorum sits
  • Isca (Dumnoniorum) (1), [Exeter] a Roman frontier fort and barely Romanised town on the river [Exe]. Burnt in reprisal for the uprising (4). Rebuilding begins in early 129 (21).
• Durinum (1), [Dorchester] Quintus Hilarion's home. Cradoc sells horses there (2). Rufrius Galarius practices there (8).
• Calleva Atrebatum (1), [Silchester] Uncle Aquila's retirement home
  • The Forest of Spinaii (4), outside Calleva. Means "the forest of thorns", after the blackthorn trees (21).
  • The transit camp (5), outside the walls
  • The arena (5), outside the walls
  • The Golden Vine (9), where they out hire ponies
• Isca (Silurium) [Caerleon] (1), base of the Second Augustan. Hence the Fourth Gaulish to Isca Dumnoniorum; thither the relief force (3). Where Marcus was branded in the cult of Mithras (5).
• Hadrian's Wall (4), where the Third Gaulish of the Second have been stationed (4). Beyond and before which Aquila had a "painted tribesman" blood brother (5). 80 miles of wall, fort, ditch, road, and towns (11).
  • Luguvallium [Luguvalium] (5), [Carlisle] Aquila's dog buried there (5). Westernmost wall fort (11).
  • Segedunum (5), [Wallsend], Uncle Aquila served there (5). Easternmost wall fort (11).
  • Chilurnium [sic, usually Cilurnum] (11), [Chesters, Walwick] where Marcus and Esca lodge, then cross. An eastern wall fort in a wooded river valley.
  • Borcovicus (19), [Housesteads] where they cross back. Sits a hundred feet above the burn of the glen. Commanded by Drusillus.
• Dubris (5), [Dover], Uncle A's first sight of Britain, as a young man
• Glevum (5), [Gloucester] Uncle Aquila's girlfriend buried there
• Silurian territory (5) [Wales], Aquila hunted boar there, with Rufrius Galarius (8).
• Eboracum, Eburacum (1, 6), [York] HQ of the Ninth, then Sixth Legion, including Hieronimianus and Placidus
• The Forest of Anderida (7), above Anderida, contiguous with the Spinaii
• Anderida [sic, usually Anderitum] (7), [Pevensey] port where Marcus first landed, and bought his flowered dagger
• Regnum (9), southern port of Claudius and Placidus's departure
• Valentia (10), nominal province between Hadrian's Wall and Caledonia.
  • A glen (11), where Marcus raises an altar
  • Trinomontium [sic, usually Trimontium] (12), [Eildon] the Place of Three Hills, fort raised by Agricola.
  • Guern's rath (12), a day or more west of Trinomontium
  • Bog country a day north of Trinomontium (15), where the Ninth made its last stand
  • Place of the fighting stags (17), where they shake off pursuit
  • Old sandstone quarry (18), abandoned by the Romans, where they hide
  • A bog (18) at the edge of Guern's hunting runs, two days north of the Wall, the only unguarded route south
  • A Roman signal-tower (19), 12-14 miles forward of the Wall
• Caledonia (10), in Celtic, Albu (13)
  • Epidaii territory (13), [Argyll & Kintyre], the firths of the west coast north of the Cluta
    • the Royal Dun (13), Marcus visits there sometime before Dergdian's dun (14)
    • Cruachan (14) [Ben Nevis], northern mountain, "the shield-boss of the world"
    • A lot of holy places (14)
    • the Loch of Many Islets (14) [Loch Awe]
      • dun of the Seal People (14), on its western shore
    • the Place of Life (14), the Holy Place, a barrow at the north end of a glen above the sea
    • [Loch Fyne] (16), unnamed sea loch east of the Loch of Many Islets
    • Unnamed village at the head of Loch Fyne (16), where Esca "recovers from fever"
    • A broch on the other side of the mountains (16), two days north of the Valentian frontier
    • [Loch Lomond] (16), south of the broch, which they followed on the trip north
• the Firth [of Forth] (12), divides Valentia from Caledonia. Where they double back south.
• the northern wall (13), built by Agricola [not really], now ruined, about 40 miles north of Guern's rath. [Actually a line of forts built by Agricola; the Antonine Wall did not yet exist.]
  • Agricola's old base (13), the Ninth's HQ on the last campaign, a death trap
• Firth of Cluta (13) [Firth of Clyde], beyond which Caledonia
  • the river Cluta (13)
  • Are-Cluta (17), former Roman frontier town, now a native market port
• Aquae Sulis (20) [Bath], a fashionable watering-place
• The South Downs (21), countryside in which Calleva sits

Overseas

• Hibernia (8) [Ireland], across the Western Ocean. Rufrius Galarius knew an oculist who travelled there (8). Called Eriu by the Celts (17).
• Upper Gaul (1), home of the Fourth Gaulish auxiliaries
• Italy
  • Etruria (1), hill country where Marcus grew up
    • Clusium (1), site of Marcus's parents' farm, sold
  • Rome (1), where Marcus lived with his aunt and uncle
    • the Colosseum (2), where they race chariots
    • Mars Field (2), where Marcus learned to drive
  • Vesuvius (1), a by-word for trouble
  • Tiber-side (5), where slum women get water
  • The Alban Hills (9), where Senators have estates
  • The Apennines (21), beyond the Etruscan farmsteads
• Judaea (1), Marcus's father served there; Uncle Aquila discharged there (5); First Cohort of the Fretensis; Claudius Hieronimianus Tribune (9).
  • Jerusalem (6), Aquila writing about the siege
  • Caesarea (10, 11),
• Egypt (1), Marcus's father served there
  • Memphis (5), Uncle Aquila served there
• Achaea (10), Roman province of Greece
• Spain (12), where the Ninth was recruited
• Thrace (12), featured in "The Girl I Kissed at Clusium"
• Portus Itius (21), a continental port
• Thessaly (21), where there are witches
• Tartarus, Tophet (3), fiery hells
• the Elysian Fields (4), where Lutorius may find horses
• the fields of Ra (10), where dead spirits go
• Lethe (18), a river you can't cross twice

Background

Sources

Sutcliff's foreword discusses the novel's archaeological inspirations:

"Sometime about the year 117 AD, the Ninth Legion, which was stationed at Eburacum where York now stands, marched north to deal with a rising among the Caledonian tribes, and was never heard of again.

"During the excavations at Silchester nearly eighteen hundred years later, there was dug up under the green fields which now cover the pavements of Calleva Atrebatum, a wingless Roman Eagle, a cast of which can be seen to this day in Reading Museum. Different people have had different ideas as to how it came to be there, but no one knows, just as no one knows what happened to the Ninth Legion after it marched into the northern mists.

"It is from these two mysteries, brought together, that I have made the story of ‘The Eagle of the Ninth’."

Claudius Hieronymianus, Legate of the Sixth Legion at Eburacum, is attested in an inscription viewable at British History Online and Roman Inscriptions of Britain (RIB 658).

Rudyard Kipling's three Roman stories in Puck of Pook's Hill (1906) were Sutcliff's avowed earliest inspiration for her own Roman Britain stories (see Rudyard Kipling (1960), "Kipling for Children", Blue Remembered Hills).

•  "A Centurion of the Thirtieth" describes a young Roman officer's first march with his new auxiliary command and mentions the fictional cavalry unit, the Dacian Horse, also seen in The Eagle of the Ninth.
• "Young Men at the Manor" features a Norman knight named De Aquila.
• "The Roman Centurion's Song" from A History of England (1911), whose narrator begs leave to retire in Britain, includes the phrase "changeful Northern skies." It is echoed by Uncle Aquila's speech on retiring in the north, "Ever notice how changeful British skies are?" (5) and "would there not be another hunger on him all his life? For other scents and sights and sounds; pale and changeful northern skies and the green plover calling?" (21).

George Whyte-Melville, The Gladiators: A Tale of Rome and Judaea(1863) features characters named Esca, Placidus, and Valeria (Valaria). Sutcliff's mother read it to her as a child.

Cradoc is named for Rear-Admiral Christopher Cradock, the former commanding officer and hero of Sutcliff's father mentioned in Blue Remembered Hills.

In the 1975 essay "Lost Summer" and the memoir Blue Remembered Hills, Sutcliff describes an early manuscript in which a lonely little girl staying with a stifling aunt befriends her neighbour's son, a young soldier recuperating from a battle wound which has to be re-searched, over a summer in an idyllic garden. She later reused the scenario for Marcus and Cottia.

In an interview in British Children's Authors (Jones & Way, 1976), Sutcliff discussed the circumstances in which she wrote the novel:

"I think The Eagle of the Ninth is my favourite among my books. I think and hope that I have written better books since, but you know you don’t love people for their brilliance or anything of this sort. The Eagle of the Ninth has always been my favourite and probably always will be. I think I’m so fond of it because when I wrote it I was going into the hospital to have an operation. I’d had quite a lot before but they’d been a long time before and I was out of practice. You can get out of practice with operations. I was scared stiff and wanted, really, someone to keep me company. I created Marcus and had him for a companion. I’ve always felt rather special towards him, as though he was a friend who’s been with me in a tough corner."

Sutcliff's "best-beloved"

In interviews and articles from the 1960s and '70s, Sutcliff invariably chose The Eagle of the Ninth as her favourite of her own works.

Elaine Moss, "Rosemary Sutcliff: A Love of Legend", Books & Bookmen, 1960:

"The note of affection in her voice prompted me to ask which of her books was her favourite. Unhesitatingly she chose The Eagle of the Ninth, the first of her Roman novels."

"Combined Ops", The Junior Bookshelf, July 1960:

"Once, and only once to date, my Daemon has completely taken over the making of a book for me, telling me what to write and how to write it, and presenting me with a set of ready-made characters who only required putting down on paper, as though they were people I had known and loved rather than creations of my own imagination. The result was The Eagle of the Ninth, for which I have had a very special affection ever since."

From More Junior Authors, ed. Muriel Fuller, 1963:

"Certainly the three Roman stories in Rudyard Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill, which she read me many times, were the start of my feeling for Roman Britain, which I later put into The Eagle of the Ninth, my favourite so far among my own books."

From A Sense of Story by John Rowe Townsend, 1971:

"The characterization, the motivation, the ethos of The Mark of the Horse Lord are very far removed from those of The Eagle of the Ninth, which is still, alas, my favourite among my own books."

"Lost Summer" in The Thorny Paradise, 1975:

"For me, there have been two, among my published books, written with this effortless delight. The first was The Queen Elizabeth Story. [...] The other was The Eagle of the Ninth. I hope and think that I have written better books since; but Eagle, with this quality of specialness, of delight, of coming as a bird sings, remains my best-beloved among my own books, and – presumably something of all this passes through the writing, to reach out to the reader on the far side – it still seems to be the most generally popular with children, too."

Historical accuracy

• The reason for the Ninth Hispana's disappearance from the historical record remains the subject of scholarly debate. Inscriptions discovered in Nijmegen, Netherlands in 1959 attest to its presence there, and a simple relocation of all or part of the legion has also been theorised. Coincidentally, the novel notes that "two of our cohorts were serving in Germany" when the legion was destroyed in Britain.
• The Silchester eagle, suggested by its discoverer in 1866 to be a legionary standard, is thought by modern scholars to have been part of a statue.
• Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) was the base of the Second Legion in the mid-1st century at the western end of the Fosseway, rather than a frontier outpost on a secondary road as in the novel. By the period of the story, the legion had moved north to Isca Silurum. Roman presence is now known to have extended, albeit thinly, over Devon and Cornwall. (The author's foreword to Frontier Wolf notes that when The Eagle of the Ninth was written, there was no evidence of Roman remains in Exeter.)
• The novel's "lost province" of Valentia extends between the lines of Hadrian's Wall and the future Antonine Wall, and is implied to have been abandoned after the campaigns of Agricola. Historically, Valentia was formed during the reigns of Valens and Valentinian beginning 364 CE, and its location within Roman Britain is unknown. Sutcliff's use of the name probably derives from Kipling's stories set in the 380s CE.
• The Northern Wall in the novel is a ruined frontier fortification from the Agricolan campaigns, dividing Valentia from Caledonia to the north. Though Agricola established lines of forts, no such wall existed until the building of the Antonine Wall, begun circa 142 CE.
• Some place names in the novel use non-standard spellings, e.g. Trinomontium for Trimontium (Newstead), Chilurnium for Cilurnum (Walwick Chesters), Isca Silurium for Isca Silurum (Caerleon), Luguvallium for Luguvalium (Carlisle).

In popular culture

• The flawed emerald signet ring reappears in Megan Whalen Turner's 1996 novel The Thief. A 2017 sequel, Thick as Thieves, follows the journey of a young soldier and a freed slave, which Turner stated in interviews was a direct reference to The Eagle of the Ninth.
• M.C. Scott's 2012 novel The Eagle of the Twelfth, about the recovery of a legionary eagle in Judaea, nods to Sutcliff's title. Scott's foreword explains that Sutcliff's novel inspired her interest in the Roman period.
• Lindsey Davis's 2012 novel Master and God mentions Sutcliff's marching song "The Girl I Kissed at Clusium."

Adaptations

Radio

• "The Eagle of the Ninth", ad. Michael Hyde, For the Schools, BBC Home Service, 1955
  • Part 1: Marcus (BBC Home Service Basic, 10 June 1955)
  • Part 2: Esca (BBC Home Service Basic, 17 June 1955)
  • Part 3: The Eagle (BBC Home Service Basic, 24 June 1955)
• "The Eagle of the Ninth", ad. Felix Felton, Children's Hour, BBC Home Service, 1957, rerun 1958, 1959, 1963
  • Part 1: The Attack on the Fort (BBC Home Service Basic, 27 February 1957)
  • Part 2: The Saturnalia Games (BBC Home Service Basic, 6 March 1957)
  • Part 3: Marching Orders (BBC Home Service Basic, 13 March 1957)
  • Part 4: Across the Frontier (BBC Home Service Basic, 20 March 1957)
  • Part 5: In Enemy Country (BBC Home Service Basic, 27 March 1957)
  • Part 6: Tradui's Gift (BBC Home Service Basic, 3 April 1957)
• "The Eagle of the Ninth", ad. Felix Felton & Susan Ashman, Story Time, BBC Radio 4, 1971
  • Part 1: The Frontier Fort (BBC Radio 4 FM, 9 August 1971)
  • Part 2: Attack! (BBC Radio 4 FM, 10 August 1971)
  • Part 3: The Saturnalia Games (BBC Radio 4 FM, 11 August 1971)
  • Part 4: Esca the Slave (BBC Radio 4 FM, 12 August 1971)
  • Part 5: Marching Orders (BBC Radio 4 FM, 13 August 1971)
  • Part 6: Across the Frontier (BBC Radio 4 FM, 16 August 1971)
  • Part 7: Guern the Hunter (BBC Radio 4 FM, 17 August 1971)
  • Part 8: The Feast of New Spears (BBC Radio 4 FM, 18 August 1971)
  • Part 9: The Wild Hunt (BBC Radio 4 FM, 19 August 1971)
  • Part 10: The Letter from the Legate (BBC Radio 4 FM, 20 August 1971)

• The Eagle of the Ninth, ad. Sean Damer, Children's BBC Radio 4, 1996
  • Part 1 (BBC Radio 4 FM, 2 June 1996)
  • Part 2 (BBC Radio 4 FM, 9 June 1996)
  • Part 3 (BBC Radio 4 FM, 16 June 1996)
  • Part 4 (BBC Radio 4 FM, 23 June 1996)

Television, stage, and film

• The Eagle of the Ninth, ad. Bill Craig, BBC One London, 1977
  • Part 1: Frontier Fort (BBC One London, 4 September 1977)
  • Part 2: Esca (BBC One London, 11 September 1977)
  • Part 3: Across the Frontier (BBC One London, 18 September 1977)
  • Part 4: The Lost Legion (BBC One London, 25 September 1977)
  • Part 5: The Wild Hunt (BBC One London, 2 October 1977)
  • Part 6: Valedictory (BBC One London, 9 October 1977)
• The Bengal Lancers! (1984), ad. Stephen Weeks, unfinished film set in the British Raj
• The Eagle of the Ninth: A Play, ad. Mary Renstan (1991)
• The Eagle (film, 2011)

Publication history

Note: This bibliography has been sourced partly from online library catalogues and booksellers' listings, and is not complete.

In English:

1. London : Oxford University Press, 1954. Illus. C. Walter Hodges. Hardcover.
   • 2nd printing: 1955
   • 3rd printing: 1957
   • 4th printing: 1959
   • Reprinted 1963, 1969
2. New York : Henry Z. Walck, 1954. Illus. C. Walter Hodges. Hardcover.
   • Reprinted 1961
3. London : Oxford University Press, 1970. Illus. C. Walter Hodges. Paperback.
4. London : Puffin in assoc. w. OUP, 1977. Illus. C. Walter Hodges, cover by David Smee. Paperback.
   • Reprinted 1981, 1982, 1984
5. London : Oxford University Press, 1980. New Oxford Library series. Illus. C. Walter Hodges. Hardcover.
6. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1986. Illus. C. Walter Hodges.
   • Reprinted 1987
7. London : Windrush (Isis Large Print Books), 1988. Hardcover.
8. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1993. Paperback.
   • 6th printing: 1999
9. London : Puffin in assoc. w. OUP, 1994. Puffin Modern Classics series. Illus. Tony Karpinski. Afterword by John Rowe Townsend. Paperback.
10. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1998. Oxford Children's Modern Classic series. Paperback.
    • 2nd printing: 1999
11. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2000. Paperback.
12. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2004. 50th anniversary edition. Illus. C. Walter Hodges. Paperback.
13. London : The Folio Society, 2005. Illus. Roman Pisarev. Preface by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Hardcover with slipcase.
    • 2nd printing: 2006
    • 3rd printing: 2007
14. The Eagle. New York : Square Fish (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), 2010. Paperback.
    • 2nd edition: 2011
15. The Eagle / The Eagle of the Ninth. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2011. Film tie-in edition. Paperback.
16. London : Oxford University Press, 2011. E-book.
17. New York: Everyman's Library Children's Classics (Alfred A. Knopf), 2015. Illus. C. Walter Hodges. Hardcover.
18. London : Slightly Foxed, 2019. Illus. C. Walter Hodges. Hardcover.
19. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2020. Centenary edition. Illus. C. Walter Hodges. Paperback.

Collected editions

1. Three Legions. London : Oxford University Press, 1980. Hardcover.
2. The Eagle of the Ninth Chronicles. London : Oxford University Press, 2010. Paperback.
3. The Eagle of the Ninth Chronicles. London : Oxford University Press, 2011. E-book.

Adapted texts

1. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1980. Alpha Historical Fiction series. Ad. Rosemary Wagner. Glossary, no illustrations. 90 pp. Paperback.
2. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1995. Oxford Bookworms Series, stage 4. Ad. John Escott. 76 pp. Paperback.
   • 2nd edition: 2000. Illus Ron Tiner. 88 pp. Paperback.
   • 3rd edition: 2008. Illus Ron Tiner. 88 pp. Paperback.

Audiobook

1. Naxos AudioBooks, 2006. Abridged. Read by Charlie Simpson. 4 hrs 32 min.