Tiberius Claudius Maximus served under the emperor Trajan in the great wars in Central Europe and the Middle East. He was decorated three times for bravery and became famous for hunting down the Dacian king Decebalus. This volume and its companion The Legionary trace the Maximus's career from the day he entered the Seventh Legion on the Danube frontier to the day he retired as a cavalry officer in Mesopotamia some thirty years later. Connolly draws on a vast arsenal of archaeological material to draw a unique portrait of the life of an ordinary man who became a participant in an extraordinary period in Western history.