"WHAT HAVE WE HERE ..." CRASSUS STARTED.

He shoved me back and staggered toward Boudica. Adair reached for his glev, his battle knife. I managed to grab Adair's wrist before he put us all in it.

Crassus, wide-eyed, "A veritable wog amazon ... my own Hippolyta ..."

Crassus put his right hand on Boudica's shoulder; his left hand began rising toward her chest.

Boudica's right fist connected with the corner of Crassus's left eye. He staggered back, falling. The back of his head hit the field desk which tumbled over. The ceramic pitcher came down on Crassus' head with a satisfying thud spilling its contents over his face and chest. Crassus hit the ground and didn't move.

Death on the Sambre is the sixth book of the Gaius Marius Chronicle, the memoir of a retired Roman soldier, Gaius Marius Insubrecus - a legionary who fought with Caesar throughout his Gallic campaigns and the Roman civil war, and supported Caesar's heir, Octavius, against Caesar's murderers and finally against Antony and the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra.

Death on the Sambre, the second installment of The Belgian Affair, continues the saga of Boudica as Insubrecus travels across the ocean to Britannia, to prevent an invasion of Belgium and a devastating attack on the Roman army. Insubrecus then rejoins Caesar's army in eastern Belgium to face the bloody-thirsty Nervii on the banks of the Sambre.