World Tribune

The tribune Marcus Aulus arrives in a distant province to oversee the building of an aqueduct, where he clashes with the centurion Gaius over his brutal treatment of slaves. Gaius provokes them to a bloody revolt, then falsely accuses Marco of inciting it. The escaped slave Balisten, grateful to Marcus for an earlier mercy, joins up with other slaves to exonerate Marcus and expose Gaius’ treachery.

Ralph Waldo Barnes was an eyewitness to history. From Mussolini's Italy, Stalin's Russia, and Hitler's Germany, he reported first hand on the events of the 1930s for the readers of the New York Herald Tribune. In "Dispatches and Dictators," historian Barbara Mahoney chronicles the short life and brilliant career of Ralph Barnes. Her biography of this extraordinary reporter provides new insights into the tumultuous decade leading up to World War II.