So much of this echoes with me! It was my first exposure to historical fiction, and that it was written for teens was even better because all the descriptions were fresh and immediate, it wasn't written as literature but as a story to be enjoyed. I loved all the tiny simple word-pictures that do so much to conjure up a mood or tell the passing of time (that pot-bound rose-bush that Marcus can see from his window in the fort at Isca Dumnoniorum that tells the passing of the one summer he has command there in such a poignant way)

I think that the scope for so much fanfic comes with the fact that Esca is such a private person and that all we ever know of him is what he tells Marcus.

I bought the book as an adult to replace my childhood copy and it's so well written that it stands the test of time to be enjoyable even as an adult. I wish I could remember which on of Lindsey Davis' novels is dedicated to Rosemary Sutcliff but she's been an inspiration to a lot of people, and I'm pretty sure out of all her books, it's Eagle of the Ninth that's been the most inspiring.