Die Reiter der Sarmaten

In the second century A.D., the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius made a deal with the barbarian Sarmatians: The fighting would stop if they supplied the Romans with 8,000 horsemen. Thus begins the Roman life of Ariantes, a warrior-prince in a land not his own. While his fellows chafe under Roman rule, appalled at the Romans' clumsiness with horses, and resistant to any and every command, Ariantes alone realizes that in order to preserve his regiment's culture--and its survival--he must learn to be Roman.