A tale of vicious rivalry, corruption and power in the greatest sporting arena in history - the Circus Maximus - that will ultimately decide the fate of the Roman Empire itself.

THE CHAOTIC A.D. 69
When the obese and tyrannical Aulus Vitellius seizes the reins of power in Rome, the empire is the grip of a fierce civil war. But the new emperor's first priority is both personal and deeply symbolic: he plans to crush the Green chariot racing faction - the mortal enemies of his beloved Blues - at the Plebeian Games in the Circus Maximus.

To save the Greens from certain destruction, two former charioteers - the stoical and determined Corax and the flamboyant and cocksure Alector (once the firmest of friends, now the bitterest of rivals) - have just twenty-six days to transport four champion chariot horses across the breadth of Europe to Rome. Braving blizzards, bandits, floods and wild storms at sea, theirs is an unforgettable odyssey and race-against-time adventure.

A.D. O'Neill steers a thundering epic around historical events and real-life characters to a breathtaking climax in the greatest sporting arena of all time - the Circus Maximus.