Mediolanum, Northern Italia, 34 B.C.E.: it is eighteen years after Julius Caesar's conquest of the Gallic city of Alesia. Ronan Antonius, a Gallic survivor of the battle and Caesar’s former slave, is jumped by two men, both of whom had their hands hacked off after Caesar's victory. They blame Ronan for it because they believe he negotiated Alesia's surrender. Passersby intervene, the two handless men get hauled off to jail and Ronan is not seriously harmed. When the local magistrate consults Ronan about the attack, Ronan asks if he can tell his story to the two men so he can set them straight about his real role in the negotiations. The magistrate allows it on the condition that he too gets to hear the story.

 

Ronan once fought alongside Romans as an auxiliary archer in Iberia, and is a longtime friend of the Gallic leader Vercingetorix. He speaks Latin and has even met Caesar before. He acts as a go-between during negotiations between the two leaders. Due to a leg injury, Ronan cannot fight in a regular archer unit, so Vercingetorix asks him to teach archery basics to some boys to make them militarily useful for the coming battle. Each of the boys has a physical or mental shortcoming that limits his military capability. Undaunted, Ronan teaches them how to shoot and ponders the best way to deploy them in battle.

 

Meanwhile, there are thousands of warriors inside Alesia. At least a quarter of a million more warriors are coming but do not arrive before the Alesians run out of food. Soon no dog, cat, or mule is left in the city. There are accusations of hoarding and rumours of cannibalism. The allies’ delay is at least partially caused by Caesar, who exploits the tribes’ traditional disunity with bribes and promises to the various tribal leaders. Some allies send token forces that do not include their best men, and some barely fight at all. Unlike Vercingetorix and Ronan, they fail to see that the Romans are the greatest threat to all Gauls.

 

Ronan’s colourful special-needs archers surprise him with their courage in battle. Despite being outnumbered and surrounded, the Romans win the battle, although just barely. Ronan relays the final conditions of surrender: the Alesians will be enslaved but their lives spared if Vercingetorix personally surrenders to Caesar. 

 

Ronan also tells how he ended up in Iberia as an archer. He describes the single incident that makes Caesar remember him years later. After the battle, Ronan becomes Caesar’s slave but is treated better than most survivors. He translates for Caesar’s envoys when they contact other Gallic tribes. After Caesar’s death, Ronan is freed and thrives as a gems dealer, which makes some of his fellow Gauls suspect that he was in cahoots with the Romans all along.