Trilogy: The VIRTUE of ROME: Book I: The Philosopher's Legacy (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798254894506)

What if history's greatest mistake never happened?

A.D. 175. The ice on the Danube breaks, and with it, the fate of Rome. In our timeline, Emperor Marcus Aurelius died leaving the Empire to his son Commodus-the cruel tyrant who accelerated Rome's decline. In this story, Commodus dies first.

Marcus Aurelius, the last great philosopher, stands at the edge of the abyss: allow Rome to bleed in a civil war, or attempt the impossible. On his deathbed, he designs a desperate utopia: The Council of the Four Virtues. There will be no single Emperor. There will be four.

• The Sword: Tiberius Pompeianus, the general who prefers honor to power.

• The Purse: Avidius Cassius, the ambitious aristocrat who rules with gold.

• Justice: Helvius Pertinax, the son of slaves who has not forgotten the sting of hunger.

• The Mind: Claudius Severus, the jurist who believes the law can tame beasts.

Bound by an oath of blood and surrounded by mutual distrust, these four rivals must govern an Empire trying to devour them. The Emperor's chair is empty, and the question is not who will sit in it... but who will be the first to betray the others to claim it.

"Game of Thrones" meets "I, Claudius" in this brutal and enthralling political alternate history about the Empire that might have been.