The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
"The Eagle of the Ninth" by Rosemary Sutcliff is a historical novel set in Roman Britain, centering on the quest of a young Roman officer named Marcus Aquila. His journey begins with a mission to uncover the fate of his father's lost legion, the Ninth Hispana, which vanished years before while marching north. The narrative unfolds in three parts, showcasing Marcus's evolution from a capable leader defending a frontier fort to a convalescing individual grappling with physical and emotional challenges after sustaining a serious injury. During his recovery, he builds relationships with his uncle and a newly acquired slave, Esca, culminating in a joint quest to retrieve the lost Eagle standard of the Ninth Legion.
Sutcliff's storytelling captures the complexities of loyalty, sacrifice, and identity against the backdrop of Roman civilization, which is portrayed as fragile and ultimately doomed. The novel reflects themes of personal growth and the search for belonging, as Marcus learns about his own humanity and the harsh realities of war and loss. Ultimately, "The Eagle of the Ninth" is a poignant exploration of a hero's journey toward self-discovery, symbolizing the intersection of Roman and British cultures during a transformative period in history.
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Subject Terms
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
First published: 1954; illustrated
Type of work: Historical fiction
Themes: Coming-of-age, friendship, and health and illness
Time of work: The second century c.e.
Recommended Ages: 13-15
Locale: Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter), Calleva (Silchester), and the countryside of Caledonia (Scotland)
Principal Characters:
Marcus , a young Roman, in search of the truth about his father’s lost legionAquila , his uncle, a retired legionnaire, now a landowner at CallevaCottia , a young British girl who has been adopted by her Romanized aunt and uncle at CallevaEsca , a British gladiator whom Marcus purchases from the arenaCub , a wolf rescued by Esca and brought up in the householdRufrius Galarius , a retired surgeon, friend of AquilaClaudius Hieronimianus , legate of the Sixth LegionPlacidus , a young tribune, representing the most snobbish, insensitive sort of Roman officerGuern , now a hunter among the Painted People, once a Centurion of the Ninth Legion
The Story
Like many great historical novels, The Eagle of the Ninth centers on a quest—a double quest, whose answer affects not only the honor of Marcus and his family but also the very future of the Roman legions in Britain. The plot falls into three parts, with Marcus first a young officer, then a recovering invalid, and last a daring spy in enemy territory.
When Marcus arrives in Britain at eighteen, he already has a mission: to find out what became of his father’s lost legion, the Ninth Hispana, which marched north eight years before and never returned. Marcus acquits himself superbly in his command at the frontier fort of Isca Dumnoniorum, discovering an ability to command effectively as well as a real affinity with the British tribesmen—an affinity that helps him foresee a native uprising and prepare for it. His defense of the fort culminates in his single-handedly stopping a British chariot attack led by his former hunting companion, Cradoc. Although relief arrives in time to save the garrison, Marcus, with a shattered leg, sees his career with the legion come to an end.
The second part of the novel concerns Marcus’ convalescence under the care of his father’s elder brother, Uncle Aquila, an immense and kindly old man, who has retired to Calleva to write a history of siege warfare. There, Marcus learns much about himself and his family. Forced for the first time to confront physical weakness and pain, he initially tries to reject others but then gradually reaches out. His new humanity is tested at the Saturnalia Games, where he takes pity on a defeated British gladiator and purchases him. The new slave, Esca, soon brings home a young wolf, Cub, and another misfit, Cottia, from the snobbish and over-Romanized household next door, becomes a frequent visitor. This pastoral interlude ends when two visitors from Uncle Aquila’s past change the future for Marcus. First Rufrius Galarius, an old army surgeon, re-treats the wound and enables Marcus to walk again; then Claudius Hieronimianus, legate of the Sixth Legion, sends Marcus and Esca on their long search for the lost Eagle of the Ninth Legion.
Throughout the third part of the story, the quest itself, Marcus must constantly balance sacrifice against gain. A treasured olive-wood bird, preserved since his childhood, goes up in flames as a sacrifice; his father’s emerald signet ring, taken at the last stand of the Ninth by warriors of the Epidaii, returns to Marcus in an unexpected way. The truth about the rotten legion balances the discovery about its officers’ heroic end. The rescue of the lost Eagle leads, as it must, to its burial forever. In the end, the happy resolution that enables Marcus, Cottia, and Esca (now a Roman citizen) to begin a farm near Calleva seems not merely a trite reward for valor but also a true homecoming for a hero who has discovered who he really is, and where he belongs, in the course of his adventure.
Context
The Eagle of the Ninth is the first of Sutcliff’s novels of Roman Britain, and she describes it as the only story that has ever come to her, characters and plot and all, ready-made; she has felt for it “a very special affection ever since.” Though she had written other children’s books, it was in the history of Britain at certain key moments from the Roman occupation, through the times of Arthur, to the Viking invasions, that she really found her voice. Like the other Roman novels, The Eagle of the Ninth portrays a civilized way of life surrounded by barbarism. It is clear from the first that the Roman culture is merely superimposed upon the older one and that it is ultimately doomed. Sutcliff’s recurring imagery is of a light flickering against a backdrop of impenetrable darkness, a light that will one day go out.
The Silver Branch (1957) and The Lantern Bearers (1959) continue the story of the Aquila family several generations later, with the Roman system clearly disintegrating in The Silver Branch and the final auxiliaries departing in The Lantern Bearers. Conflicting loyalties abound in both books, particularly the latter. The elegiac approach in the Roman trilogy has a particular appeal to post-World War II readers; one critic has spoken of Sutcliff’s “fatal mastery of plangent cadences,” and indeed she sometimes risks overwriting and sentimentality. Her characters, however, show a willingness to accept the consequences of their choices that is anything but sentimental (as appears in The Lantern Bearers and in the 1980 addition to the trilogy, Frontier Wolf).
In The Mark of the Horse Lord (1965), Sutcliff again takes up the problem of a hero with loyalties both to Rome and to Britain, and, this time, the story inevitably ends with the hero’s death by his own hand. The time for happy endings is past; that is perhaps why the post-Roman novels Dawn Wind (1961), Blood Feud (1977), and The Shield Ring (1956) have heroes forced into degrading slavery, a motif that, significantly, begins with the capture of Aquila just after the final Roman departure in The Lantern Bearers.
Though other writers for children, some very distinguished, have imaginatively re-created the past, none has equaled Sutcliff’s fusion of history with great storytelling. Certainly, no other historical writer can match her vision of the essence of early British history, with “the dynamics of two civilizations clashing,” not only once but again and again.