Simon Scarrow Reading Order: Eagles of the Empire and Other Series

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Start with Under the Eagle and read the Eagles of the Empire books in publication order. That order is also the story’s chronological order, so there is no prequel to sort out and no reshuffled timeline. Twenty-four Cato and Macro novels are out as of October 2026, and a 25th, The Sword of Rome, is announced for November 5, 2026.

Simon Scarrow has written several other series, too. Below you’ll find the full Eagles list with settings, then short reading orders for his Napoleonic quartet, his Gladiator books for younger readers, his Berlin crime novels and the books he co-wrote with T. J. Andrews.

What the Eagles of the Empire series is about

The series follows two Roman soldiers. Macro is a hard-bitten centurion who came up through the ranks. Cato arrives as a bookish recruit from the imperial palace and is made his second-in-command, an optio, almost at once. The first book opens on the Rhine frontier in Germania and moves into the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43.

From there the pair are sent wherever Rome has trouble. They fight in Britain for several books, then turn up in Judaea, Syria, Crete, Egypt, Spain, Armenia and Sardinia, with regular returns to Rome and its palace politics. Each novel has its own main plot, but the characters age, get promoted, marry and lose people, so the books build on one another. The emperors change as well: Claudius rules in the early books and Nero in the later ones.

Eagles of the Empire books in order

Years below are UK first publication by Headline. Settings are the approximate year and main location of each story.

#	Title	Published	Setting
1	Under the Eagle	2000	AD 42–43, Germania and Britain
2	The Eagle's Conquest	2001	AD 43, southeast Britain
3	When the Eagle Hunts	2002	AD 44, southwest Britain
4	The Eagle and the Wolves	2003	AD 44, southern Britain
5	The Eagle's Prey	2004	AD 44, Britain
6	The Eagle's Prophecy	2005	AD 45, Rome and the Adriatic
7	The Eagle in the Sand	2006	AD 46, Judaea
8	Centurion	2007	AD 46, Syria and Palmyra
9	The Gladiator	2009	AD 48–49, Crete
10	The Legion	2010	AD 49, Egypt
11	Praetorian	2011	AD 51, Rome and Ostia
12	The Blood Crows	2013	AD 51, Wales
13	Brothers in Blood	2014	AD 51, Wales
14	Britannia	2015	AD 52, north Wales
15	Invictus	2016	AD 54, Hispania (Spain)
16	Day of the Caesars	2017	AD 54, Rome
17	The Blood of Rome	2018	AD 55, Armenia
18	Traitors of Rome	2019	AD 56, Syria
19	The Emperor's Exile	2020	AD 57, Rome and Sardinia
20	The Honour of Rome	2021	AD 59, Britain
21	Death to the Emperor	2022	AD 60, Britain
22	Rebellion	2023	AD 60, Britain
23	Revenge of Rome	2024	AD 61, Britain
24	Tyrant of Rome	2025	AD 62, Rome
25	The Sword of Rome	Announced for Nov. 5, 2026	Black Sea (Euxine) coast

A few notes on the list. Books 20 through 23 cover the years around the Boudican revolt in Britain, so they read as a connected run. The Sword of Rome sends Cato and Macro on a mission for Nero’s general Corbulo to a city on the northern coast of the Euxine, the Roman name for the Black Sea. Headline’s description puts it about twenty years after the two men first met on the training ground.

US titles and availability

The titles are the same in the US and the UK. Some American listings add long marketing subtitles (the US ebook of Under the Eagle, for example, carries the subtitle “A Tale of Military Adventure and Reckless Heroism with the Roman Legions”), so search by the short title plus the author’s name. The early books had US hardcover editions from Thomas Dunne Books. Many later titles are sold in the US as Headline editions, the UK publisher’s print runs, which means paperbacks of some volumes can be harder to find on a bookstore shelf or may arrive as imports.

Do you need to read Eagles of the Empire in order?

We recommend it. Each book has a complete central plot, so a later volume can be followed on its own. The trouble is what you lose. Cato’s rise in rank, his marriage, the friendships and feuds with other officers, and Macro’s life outside the army all carry forward from book to book. Reading the later Britain novels before the early ones also gives away who survives.

If a reader wants to sample before committing to 25 books, Under the Eagle is still the right test. It sets up the partnership that everything else depends on. A reader most interested in Roman Britain could also read books 1 through 5 as a self-contained block, since they cover the invasion and the first campaigns.

Simon Scarrow’s other series, in order

Revolution quartet (Wellington and Napoleon)

Four novels that follow Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, and Napoleon Bonaparte in alternating threads, from their births in 1769 to Waterloo. Headline also sells the four as a single collected edition titled The Wellington and Napoleon Quartet.

1. Young Bloods (2006)
2. The Generals (2007)
3. Fire and Sword (2009)
4. The Fields of Death (2010)

Gladiator series (younger readers)

Written for middle-grade and young teen readers and published by Puffin in the UK. The hero is Marcus Cornelius Primus, a boy in 61 BC whose father is murdered and whose mother is sold into slavery. Marcus is taken to a gladiator school and later works for Julius Caesar.

1. Gladiator: Fight for Freedom (2011)
2. Gladiator: Street Fighter (2012)
3. Gladiator: Son of Spartacus
4. Gladiator: Vengeance

Berlin wartime thrillers (Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke)

Crime novels set in Nazi Berlin. Schenke is a police detective trying to solve ordinary murders while the Gestapo and Party officials lean on every case. The first book opens in December 1939, during the blackout; the third picks up in May 1940. Kensington published US editions of the first two, starting with Blackout in 2022.

1. Blackout
2. Dead of Night
3. A Death in Berlin

Collaborations with T. J. Andrews

Scarrow and T. J. Andrews have co-written several shorter Roman series. Most began as ebook novellas and were later collected into single print volumes. They are standalone stories and can be read in any order relative to Eagles of the Empire.

1. Arena: the gladiator Pavo in Rome. Collects five novellas (Barbarian, Challenger, First Sword, Revenge and Champion) first released 2012–2013.
2. Invader: the Roman officer Figulus in first-century Britain. Collects five novellas released 2014–2015; the collected novel followed in 2016.
3. Pirata: Telemachus, an orphan who rises to captain a pirate ship.
4. Warrior: the British war leader Caratacus resisting the Roman invasion of AD 43. It is the other side of the war Cato and Macro fight in the early Eagles books.
5. Warlord of Britannia: the follow-up to Warrior, published by Headline in May 2026.

Where to start

For most adult readers of historical fiction, start with Under the Eagle. That holds whether the reader likes battle scenes, Roman history or long-running character series.

For a reader who prefers Napoleonic history, Young Bloods is the entry point, and the quartet is finished, so there is no wait for the next volume. For crime fiction readers, Blackout stands apart from all the Roman material and needs no background.

For a teen reader, start with Gladiator: Fight for Freedom. The Gladiator books were written for that age group and have a hero close to the reader’s age. A teen who finishes all four and wants more can move up to Under the Eagle, though parents should know the adult Eagles novels contain graphic battlefield violence and some adult content.

Buying Simon Scarrow books as a gift

If you are unsure whether the person has read Scarrow, give the first book. Under the Eagle is a low-risk choice, and a reader who enjoys it has two dozen sequels waiting. Avoid buying a mid-series volume for someone who has not started; the later books assume you know the characters.

For a reader who already likes the first book, a multi-book collection makes a larger gift. Boxed paperback sets of the early Eagles novels are sold, though the exact contents vary by seller, so check which book numbers are included before you order: Eagles of the Empire Series Books 1 – 10 Collection Box Set by Simon Scarrow. For Napoleonic fans, the one-volume Wellington and Napoleon Quartet covers that whole series.

On formats: the Eagles books come in hardcover, paperback, Kindle and audiobook. A Kindle edition or an audiobook sidesteps the uneven US paperback stock mentioned above. If the person is already partway through, the newest title is the safest single-book gift; Tyrant of Rome is the latest release, and The Sword of Rome can be preordered ahead of its November 2026 date.

Frequently asked questions

How many Eagles of the Empire books are there?

Twenty-four have been published as of October 2026, ending with Tyrant of Rome (2025). The 25th book, The Sword of Rome, is scheduled for November 5, 2026.

Is the publication order the same as the chronological order?

Yes. The series runs forward from about AD 42 in Under the Eagle to the early 60s AD in the latest books, with no prequels inserted along the way.

Is The Gladiator (Eagles book 9) part of the Gladiator series for young readers?

No. The Gladiator is the ninth Cato and Macro novel, set on Crete. The young-reader series uses titles that begin “Gladiator:”, such as Gladiator: Fight for Freedom, and follows a different hero.

Is Britannia the same book as Warlord of Britannia?

No. Britannia (2015) is Eagles of the Empire book 14. Warlord of Britannia (2026) is co-written with T. J. Andrews and continues the Caratacus story begun in Warrior.

Who publishes Simon Scarrow’s books?

Headline publishes the Eagles of the Empire novels, the Napoleonic quartet and the Arena, Invader and Warrior collaborations in the UK. The Gladiator books came from Puffin, and Kensington published the first Berlin thrillers in the US.

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