With the release of the First Edition of Caesar Triumphant in 2013, which is set ten years after the fateful Ides of March in 44 BCE, readers were introduced to an alternate history in which Julius Caesar heeds the warning of Plutarch's Seer.After Caesar and his Legions conquered the vast expanse of Parthia, they invaded India as part of Caesar's ambition to outstrip the exploits of the Macedonian king Alexander. Then, they traversed Asia to reach the fabled end of the world known as the Isle of Wa, modern-day Japan, the invasion of which is the subject of Caesar Triumphant.Caesar Triumphant became a bestseller, and readers were engaged enough that it spawned the six-volume Caesar Ascending series, which covers the ten-year period prior to Caesar Triumphant, beginning with Caesar Ascending-Invasion of Parthia.While the Second Edition of Caesar Triumphant contains the engaging and exciting battle scenes originally released with the First Edition that made it a bestseller, it has been updated to include the storylines of several characters readers were introduced to over the previous six volumes of Caesar Ascending, and is now divided into two parts to accommodate these new subplots and resolutions.Part Two of the Second Edition contains a new Epilogue that hints at what the ancient world may have looked like if Caesar had heeded the warning, "Beware The Ides of March". R.W. Peake wrote his first novel when he was 10.He published his first novel when he was 50.Obviously, a lot happened in between, including a career as a "grunt" in the Marine Corps, another career as a software executive, a stint as a semi-professional cyclist, and becoming a dad.But, through it all, there was one constant: his fascination with history, which led him back to school in his 30s to earn a degree in History from the Honors College at the University of Houston.One morning years later, R.W. was listening to Caesar's Commentaries while he was on his morning commute to a job he hated. A specific passage about Caesar's men digging a 17 mile ditch between Lake Geneva and the Jura Mountains suddenly jumped out at him.He was reminded of his own first job at 13 digging a ditch in Hardin, Texas. For the rest of the drive that morning, he daydreamed about what life must have been like not for the Caesars of the world, but for the everyday people who were doing the fighting and dying for Rome, and the idea for Marching with Caesar was born.Not too long after that, he quit that job, moved into a trailer halfway across the country, and devoted the next four years to researching and writing the first installments of Marching with Caesar.Some of his research methods-like hiking several miles around Big Bend National Park in the heat of summer wearing a suit of chainmail and carrying a sword so he would know what it felt like to be a Roman legionary-were a bit unconventional and made his friends and family question his sanity.But such was his commitment to bringing these stories to life for his readers with as much detail and accuracy as possible.Even as his catalog continues to grow, he still brings that passion to every story he tells.He has moved out of the trailer, but he still lives on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington with his Yellow Lab, Titus Pomponius Pullus and his rescue dog, Peach.
