The story begins in A.D. 364 when the author of this memoir, Marcus Cedranus, is

born into a middle class landowners family in western Britain. While his material

prospects are promising, his deteriorating relationship with his parents causes

him to leave home for the continent. In Gaul he becomes a teamster for a freight

hauling company, meets an older woman who will eventually play a major role

in his life and is drafted into the Roman army in 382.

He is assigned to Legion XXII in Mainz and in 383 is temporarily transferred

to Belgrade on the Danube. A revolt in the west makes this transfer permanent.

He participates in several military campaigns and takes part in a triumph in

Constantinople in 386. In 388 his regiment takes part in the eastern offensive

against the revolt in the west that has by now spread to Italy. With the revolt

suppressed, he is assigned to a new imperial guard regiment for the restored

western emperor, Valentinian II. During another transfer to the east Marcus

suffers a terrible personal tragedy from which it is impossible to recover. Another

civil war breaks out in the west and is suppressed with terrible casualties.

Marcus is appointed tribune and made a member of the personal staff of Stilicho,

the new generalissimo of the west. Further military adventures take place in

Greece, Britain and Italy. A massive barbarian invasion of the west on December

31, 406 triggers political instability leading to revolts in both Britain and Italy. This

inevitably leads to the sack of Rome by Alaric and his Visigoths in 410.