A little over a decade before the historical Roman invasion of Britain two Romans, refugees from the Emperor Tiberius fled to the island. They had wealth and planned to buy land for an estate and live in comfort on the edge of civilization, but out of the reach of Rome. Gregorius was the remaining son of a patrician family, who unusually had been educated in Alexandria by Heron the engineer, Lucius his adoptive brother was an officer in the Roman legion.Although their plans to buy land fail, a fortunate set of circumstances induces the elderly king of South eastern Britain to use the in settling a small fortified town on his northern border. This is named Windubro.Windubro prospers commercially and develops a small trained army. As a result of increasing rumours of a Roman invasion, the decision is made to develop another town (Cantodunon) further north as a fall back position. The army has grown to over a thousand, several small battles have been fought and Windubro has become a force to be reckoned with. More importantly, a number of Gregory's improvements and the gradual education of his Britons has made the town wealthy and attractive to neighbours seeking citizenship.Both towns are situated on the Trent, about one hundred miles apart. Smaller settlements are developed around them, using water wheels for powering workshops, sawing timber, grinding corn, lines of signal posts and a network of roads begin to link the villages. Over the course of a few years, the two towns become major exporters of iron goods, cut timber and grain whilst expanding their population and legions. The legion adopts Gregory's invention of mobile ballistas and the stirrup and there are major confrontations with Caradoc prince of the south east, Venutius a prince of the Brigante federation and his erstwhile wife, Cartimandua 'queen' of the federation.Success in each episode is a result of good luck, the experienced men of the legion, artillery, cavalry and turpentine fuelled incendiary ballista bolts. The influence of the towns has grown to the extent that they form a new nation and the archdruid bestows the name Camelod with due ceremony and the recital of an ancient prophecy. Expeditions to the north and west add new land and curtail Brigante raids in the midlands.The Roman threat becomes more intense and then on the eve of the invasion, Caradoc approaches with an army of seventy thousand with the clear intention of taking the two towns.
About the Author: Laurie Penman is a mechanical engineer and inventor with a strong interest in history particularly Romano-British history. At a time when he was confined to hospital bed after having a couple of vertebrae fused he became interested in what might have been the result if history had been just a little bit different - and he started to write Seeds of Empire whilst lying flat on his back with stern instructions not to move while the chips of bone in his spine became firmly cemented. It is not easy writing whilst supine and he only managed a hundred pages or so but when the ward dragon permitted him to get out of bed, writing became much faster. Over the years the first book grew and was joined by three and half more (the latest will appear next year (2016) we hope) and Laurie has watched the growth of Camelod and its North European empire with a great deal of pleasure. Many developments in technology gave Camelod the strength to resist the mighty Roman Empire and seemed at one time to be too fast to be credited but a little historical research showed that what took place over thirty three years in the fictional empire only took twenty eight in the real world of 1772 to 1800.