History Literature / FrontierWolf

* EatTheDog: The starving Frontier Wolves are scandalised that Alexios expects them to eat a dead pony. He assures them that the proper apologies have been made to the goddess of horses.

* [[spoiler:AlasPoorVillain]]

* FiveManBand: The Third Ordo's officers.
** ThreePlusTwo: Besides Alexios, his second and third in command Hilarion and Lucius receive more characterisation than Kaeso and Anthonius, the quartermaster and medical officer.
** Ducenarius Alexios: TheHero, TheCaptain, OfficerAndAGentleman, ReasonableAuthorityFigure, RookieRedRanger, HeroesPreferSwords
** Senior Centenarius Hilarion: TheLancer, DeadpanSnarker, MeaningfulName, MrExposition
** Junior Centenarius Lucius: TheSmartGuy, DeadpanSnarker, BadassBookworm, GoodShepherd
** Quartermaster Kaeso: TheBigGuy, TheAlcoholic
** Anthonius: TheMedic, TheQuietOne
** Druim of the Arcani: TheSixthRanger, TheSpymaster, [[spoiler:the SixthRangerTraitor, TheMole,]] InnocentBlueEyes
** Cloe: the TeamPet.

* InfantImmortality: Nope. The SoleSurvivor at the Rath of Skolawn kills somebody with the spearhead she pulls from her baby's cold little corpse. [[spoiler:Not even kittens are immune.]]

* UnfamiliarCeiling: Alexios wakes up from wound fever in the [[spoiler:Onnum]] infirmary, which he doesn't recognise ''per se'' but which looks exactly the same as every Roman army building the length and breadth of the empire.

* GreyEyes: He most resembles the Greek part of his family, but Alexios's eyes are the outward sign of his British heritage, and [[HiddenDepths his feel for the place and people]].

* ABoyAndHisX: Rufus the junior trumpeter and his vicious kitten Typhon (named after a Greek hell-monster).

** Ducenarius Alexios: TheHero, TheCaptain, AnOfficerAndAGentleman, ReasonableAuthorityFigure, RookieRedRanger, HeroesPreferSwords

* ContinuityNod: The Frontier Wolves first appeared in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'', and were linked with Castellum in the story "Frontier Scout" from ''The Capricorn Bracelet'', where it's called the Cramond fort. A Pict king named Bruide and a scout called Bericus also appear in that story.

''Frontier Wolf'' is a HistoricalFiction novel by Creator/RosemarySutcliff published in 1980. A company of Roman scouts are caught in the British uprising of 343 CE.

''Frontier Wolf'' is the third novel in Literature/TheDolphinRing sequence. The Frontier Wolves also made earlier appearances in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'' and ''The Capricorn Bracelet'', and ''Frontier Wolf'''s setting is revisited in ''Literature/TheShiningCompany''.

'''''Spoilers ahead.'''''

* JobTitle

* ReferencedBy: Characters in Sutcliff's later novel ''The Shining Company'' camp out in the ruins of Castellum.
** Megan Whalen Turner's ''[[Literature/TheQueensThief The King of Attolia]]'' also opens on a HowWeGotHere framed by a young soldier contemplating the suicide possibilities of a fibula pin while confined to quarters awaiting judgement for disgracing himself on the job. Costis is modelled after typical Sutcliff soldiers including Alexios.

* ShoutOut: The "two inches in the right place" that Alexios contemplates in his cell, and of which Connla makes an IronicEcho, are a maxim from Vegetius's military manual ''De rei militari''.

''Frontier Wolf'' is the third novel in Literature/TheDolphinRing sequence. The Frontier Wolves also made earlier appearances in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'' and ''The Capricorn Bracelet'', and ''Frontier Wolf'''s setting is revisited in ''The Shining Company.''

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Castellum ([[ShapedLikeItself Latin for 'fort']]) is a real archaeological site, the equally creatively-named Cramond Roman Fort in Cramond, Scotland, but it wasn't occupied anytime near the period of ''Frontier Wolf'' in 341-3 CE.

** Ducenarius Alexios: TheHero, TheCaptain, AnOfficerAndAGentleman, ReasonableAuthorityFigure, GreyEyes, HeroesPreferSwords

* UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire

* {{Scotland}}: Most of the story takes place on the shores of the Firth of Forth, just on the western side of Edinburgh at the mouth of the River Almond. Castellum is an invented name for what is now called the Cramond Roman Fort.

[[caption-width-right:300:Black sheep in wolf's clothing]]

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The emperor Constans did visit Britain in the early months of 343 CE, and there was some kind of tribal unrest that year, in which Bremenium (High Rochester), Habitancum (West Woodburn), and Castra Exploratorum (Bewcastle Roman fort) suffered damage. Castellum is the Cramond Roman fort on the west side of Edinburgh, but was abandoned before the period of the novel. The adventures of the Frontier Wolves were based on 20th century [[KiplingsFinest Indian Scouts.]]

* HistoryMarchesOn: The most notable artifact from "Castellum", a piece of sepulchral statuary called the Cramond Lioness, makes no appearance in ''Frontier Wolf'', as it was not discovered until 1997.

* PlotParallel: The siege and retreat from Abusina are a smaller-scale preview of the events of Castellum.
** Alexios and Cunorix's bringing Alexios's wolf to bay in the ruins of Credigone, where Alexios goes to kill it solo, foreshadows [[spoiler: the Votadini and Picts running the Wolves to ground in Bremenium, and Cunorix fighting Alexios alone while the Picts stand back.]]

* GoingNative: Despite being an ArmyOfThievesAndWhores who have been ReassignedToAntarctica, Frontier Wolves are expected to put aside family and tribal loyalties and form a BandOfBrothers. Each one has to kill a wolf and wear its skin, and the outgoing commander tells Alexios he'll be superstitiously touching their [[CargoCult good-luck rock]] before he knows it.

* SarcasticDevotee: To Alexios's surprise, Hilarion, perhaps because they've become FireForgedFriends. He [[spoiler:applies for a transfer]] in order to stay with Alexios in [[spoiler:his new command.]]

* UsefulNotes/CelticMythology: The Votadini find the woman from the Rath of Skolawn bathing her dead child, and she vengefully points them down the trail of the Pict warband. She's so creepy they momentarily take her for the Washer at the Ford, a forerunner of death.

''Frontier Wolf'' is the third novel in a loose eight-book GenerationalSaga that begins with ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'', preceded by ''The Silver Branch'' and followed by ''The Lantern Bearers''. The Frontier Wolves made earlier appearances in ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'' and ''The Capricorn Bracelet'', and ''Frontier Wolf'''s setting is revisited in ''The Shining Company.''

[[EnsignNewbie Centurion Alexios Flavius Aquila]] has [[YouAreInCommandNow made a terrible error in judgement]] that resulted in [[TrappedBehindEnemyLines the deaths of half his men]]. Posted [[ReassignedToAntarctica beyond the frontiers of Roman Britain]] to finish his career in quiet disgrace, he must earn the trust of the [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores disreputable Frontier Scouts]], called the Wolves, and their equally lawless neighbours, the Votadini tribe – until he finds himself once again [[MyGreatestSecondChance facing the same terrible decision]].

* AStormIsComing: In the chapter "Thunder Brewing", Alexios likens his misgivings about the rumoured Pict-Attacotti alliance to "a feeling like thunder at the back of my neck." A literal storm destroys the Votadini's harvest shortly beforehand. On the retreat, the Wolves sense snow coming that materialises on the day that they meet the war bands.

* DuelToTheDeath

* AFatherToHisMen: Julius Gavros, Alexios's predecessor at Castellum, and eventually Alexios himself, who frets over their rations and pay and makes a HeroicSacrifice for them.

* UsefulNotes/LatinLanguage: Certain Latin military terms are given for verisimilitude, but function pretty much like modern equivalents. An Ordo ('order'), at two hundred men, is essentially a company, and is commanded by a Ducenarius (two hundred leader, more or less a captain) and two Centenariuses (hundred leader, basically lieutenants.) The three Ordos of Frontier Scouts make up a Numerus ('number'), basically a regiment. Optios ('chosen') are sergeants, and Arcani ('secret, hidden') are spies or intelligence-gatherers.

* [[spoiler:YankTheDogsChain: The DwindlingParty makes it to their fallback position at Bremenium. . . where EverybodysDeadDave.]]

** Junior Centenarius Lucius: TheSmartGuy, BadassBookworm, GoodShepherd

* AnimalMotifs: The Frontier "Wolves", obviously, who sometimes refer to themselves as a pack. Each Scout kills a single wolf to wear its skin as a cloak, and never hunts wolves otherwise, whom they call their "four-footed brothers." The tribesmen suspect lycanthropy.

* AnAssKickingChristmas: Two of the book's action set-pieces take place at Midwinter, when the Frontier Wolves celebrate Christmas, the [[MysteryCult birth of Mithras]], and sketchy tribal gods. In Alexios's first winter with the Wolves, they start recalling their ethnic feuds during their Midwinter knees-up and Alexios wins their respect by breaking up the ensuing brawl. On his second Midwinter with the Wolves, Alexios fights a DuelToTheDeath.
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Cunorix emerges from the Chieftains' Death Place as the new chief after Ferradach Dhu's funeral. At his chief-making feast, is wife gives birth to their son, the Wolves beat the Votadini at pseudo-polo, and Alexios hears the first whispers of the Attacotti invasion.
* BatmanGambit: The Votadini's casually-mentioned dislike of fighting at night (lest their ghosts get lost in the dark) is a critical point [[spoiler:in both the evacuation of Castellum and Alexios's plan to stall for time at Bremenium]].

* BreakTheCutie: Connla is the carefree, impertinent younger son of Ferradach Dhu. [[spoiler: He steals a horse as a prank and ends up getting executed for the deaths of two Frontier Wolves sent to retrieve it]].
* BringNewsBack: The critical factor in Alexios's decision to abandon Abusina is that the messengers carrying the distress call to headquarters were intercepted. [[spoiler: One of them got through, but the Marcomanni killed someone else in order to show his severed head to the garrison.]] Later, Castellum is given last-minute notice of the Pict invasion by a single mortally-wounded Arcanus who rides in to warn them.
* CargoCult: The garrison of Castellum pay their respects to a tall stone standing beside the ford called the Lady by brushing its poll every time they ride by. Alexios reckons that he'll have truly gone native when he starts doing it without noticing. It takes about six months.

* ChasedByAngryNatives: First when Alexios abandons his first fort in Germany, then again when he withdraws the Frontier Wolves from Castellum [[spoiler: and the Votadini hunt them back to Bremenium]].

* CycleOfRevenge: Connla borrows the Praepositus's horse as a prank because the Praepositus insulted Cunorix. The Praepositus has [[spoiler: Connla executed for theft because the horse is killed. The Votadini attack the Frontier Wolves because Cunorix now has a blood feud with them. Alexios can end the feud by defeating Cunorix in CombatByChampion, because he's the man who actually executed Connla. Alexios notes that if he's defeated, the Wolves will try to avenge him]].

* TheEmperor: Co-emperor Constans turns up in Onnum in time to see the Valentian garrisons' arrival. He functions as the TheBigGood, deploying the legions to break up the invasion [[spoiler:and officially recognising Alexios's conduct]].

** Ducenarius Alexios: TheHero, AnOfficerAndAGentleman, TheCaptain, ReasonableAuthorityFigure, HeroesPreferSwords, GreyEyes

** Junior Centenarius Lucius: TheSmartGuy, BadassBookworm

** Anthonius: TheMedic
** Druim of the Arcani: the SixthRangerTraitor, TheMole, InnocentBlueEyes

* ItHasBeenAnHonour

* UsefulNotes/LatinLanguage: Certain Latin military terms are given for verisimilitude, but function pretty much like modern equivalents. An Ordo, at two hundred men, is essentially a company, and is commanded by a Ducenarius (two hundred leader, more or less a captain) and two Centenariuses (hundred leader, basically lieutenants.) The three Ordos of Frontier Scouts make up a Numerus, basically a regiment.
* LeaningOnTheFurniture: ''Modus operandi'' of Alexios's [[RuleAbidingRebel vaguely insubordinate]] second-in-command, Hilarion, who is frequently described with the verb "to lounge".
* TheMole: Druim and the Arcani are Castellum's spies (this seems to consist of going on longer patrols, since they obviously operate from a Roman fort). They fail to inform Alexios of a rumoured Pict invasion, except for a single loyal Arcanus who gets a knife in the back, and desert ''en masse'' the night before the Votadini attack. When the Third Ordo finds Bremenium opened from within and the garrison slaughtered, the SoleSurvivor points to the First Ordo's Arcani. Alexios never finds out why they betrayed the other Wolves.

* MyGreatestSecondChance: After his terrible misjudgement at Abusina, Alexios is ReassignedToAntarctica, out of the way of serious responsibilities for the rest of his career. TheNativesAreRestless in Castellum too, however, and he is horrified that once again YouAreInCommandNow while TrappedBehindEnemyLines. The example is slightly unusual in that he not only revisits the same situation, but has to retain enough confidence in his judgement to make the same choice, which was disastrous the first time around, but the right call now.
* MysteryCult: Christianity has recently become the empire's official religion, co-existing with paganism. Lucius and Anthonius are Christians, but Alexios and Kaeso keep to the soldiers' cult of Mithras, celebrated in a "cave" in Castellum.
* TheNativesAreRestless: Unluckily for the Frontier Wolves, their falling-out with the friendly Votadini coincides with an invasion of the Picts, the Attacotti, and the Damnonii. The Romans seldom have any idea ''why'' the tribes revolt when they do, but suspect it often originates at a piss-up.

* ItsPersonal: Cunorix's clan joins forces with the Picts for the sole reason that the Wolves killed Connla. Alexios reflects that if not for his death, the Votadini would have been arming against the invaders, who may still have devastated their territory in their absence. The upside is that the Votadini-Wolf conflict can resolved personally between the two people directly involved in the blood feud, Cunorix and Alexios, who was the executioner.
* PlotParallel: Rather than a parallel, the siege and retreat from Abusina are a smaller-scale preview of the events of Castellum.

* PostVictoryCollapse: Alexios drops from the infected wound in his sword-arm the moment they get to Onnum.
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Cunorix and the other Votadini.

* TheRustler: A sympathetic version, in which livestock theft is a tolerated aspect of local culture – even their favourite sport is called ''Tain Bo'', Cattle Raid – and the inflexible new Praepositus of the Frontier Wolves destroys Castellum's good relationship with Cunorix's clan by punishing it mercilessly.

* SarcasticDevotee: To Alexios's surprise, Hilarion, perhaps because they've become FireForgedFriends.

* TheSiege: At Abusina, while the commandant is away, and at Castellum from the morning after Connla dies to the next night, when Alexios decides to do a moonlight flit.
* SnowMeansDeath: The snow begins to fall on the second day of the retreat and is falling when [[spoiler:Lucius]] is [[YouShallNotPass killed at the bridge]], when they reach the garrison at Bremenium, and when [[spoiler:Alexios kills Cunorix]].
* SoleSurvivor: Two: the woman at the Rath of Skolawn, and the wounded artilleryman at Bremenium.
* AStormIsComing: In the chapter "Thunder Brewing", Alexios likens his misgivings about the rumoured Pict-Attacotti alliance to "a feeling like thunder at the back of your neck." A literal storm destroys the Votadini's harvest shortly thereafter. On the retreat, the Wolves sense snow coming that materialises on the day that they meet the Votadini.
* TakeItToTheBridge: The bridge over a river called the Roaring-Water is the Votadini's last chance to ambush the Wolves before they reach the safety of Bremenium. Lucius pulls a YouShallNotPass in the Rear Guard while the other Wolves pull the bridge down.

* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: Relations between the Frontier Wolves and the Votadini collapse and dozens of people die, because Connla couldn't resist borrowing a horse.
* TrappedBehindEnemyLines: The Frontier Wolves have to steal out of their fort under cover of darkness and take a back way out of Votadini territory, then find that the Picts have overrun the neutral Selgovae, the Bremenium fort has been compromised, and the Habitancum fort is on the point of evacuation, leaving no safe refuge between Castellum and the Wall.
* TurbulentPriest: Morvidd the Oak Priest, or druid, is a bitter fanatic who lost face to Alexios's predecessor Julius Gavros and does his best to sway Cunorix's clan against the Romans. He accompanies them on the warpath and when the feud seems resolved, tries to inspire them to fight on after nightfall, contrary to their custom.
* UnfamiliarCeiling: Zigzagged. Alexios wakes up from wound fever in the [[spoiler:Onnum]] infirmary, which he doesn't recognise ''per se'' but which looks exactly the same as every Roman army building the length and breadth of the empire.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: Cunorix and Alexios, before [[spoiler:Alexios has to stab his little brother to death]].
* WellDoneSonGuy: Subverted. Alexios's uncle the general washes his hands of him, his mother despairs of him, and he feels he's disgraced [[FamilyHonor the line of soldiers who wore the family signet before him]]. After he redeems himself and wins his uncle's respect, Alexios reflects that he did it to keep faith with his men and his own integrity, not an abstract idea of his ancestors.

* XanatosGambit: Alexios offers Cunorix a chance to kill him in CombatByChampion. [[ThanatosGambit If Cunorix kills Alexios]], the Frontier Wolves will try to avenge him, but if Alexios kills Cunorix, the rest of the Votadini will leave the Frontier Wolves alone. Cunorix accepts this not particularly enticing offer, despite the Votadini's numerical advantage, because [[BatmanGambit they have a religious prohibition against possibly getting killed after sunset]] (and because Alexios calls him chicken.)
* YankTheDogsChain: The DwindlingParty makes it to their fallback position at Bremenium. . . where EverybodysDeadDave.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Happens twice to Alexios. The first time, when his commander is absent and the second-in-command is killed, he misjudges disastrously. The second time, when the Praepositus is killed, he performs well, with results only slightly less disastrous.

''Frontier Wolf'' is the third novel in a loose eight-book GenerationalSaga that begins with ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth''. It's preceded by ''The Silver Branch'' and followed by ''The Lantern Bearers'', and its setting is revisited in ''The Shining Company.''

* AnimalMotifs: The Frontier "Wolves", obviously. Each Scout kills a single wolf to wear its skin as a cloak, and never hunts wolves otherwise, whom they call their "four-footed brothers", and themselves a pack. The tribesmen suspect lycanthropy.

* AssInAmbassador: Glaucus Montanus, the new Praepositus of the Frontier Scouts, comes up to inspect Castellum and meet-and-greet the Votadini, but he doesn't bother to conceal his contempt for the irregular Wolves or the tribes, and offends Cunorix and Connla by disparaging their horses. He isn't a GeneralFailure, though – he's a competent soldier, but a bad diplomat.

* TheBigBad: The Picts, the powerful tribe that lives beyond the Northern Wall and organises the invasion of Valentia with the Attacotti of Ireland [[spoiler:who are partly redeemed by joining the Wolves after they're taken prisoner]], and are responsible for the massacres at the Rath of Skolawn [[spoiler:and Bremenium.]]

* BreakTheCutie: Connla is the carefree, impertinent younger son of Ferradach Dhu. He steals a horse as a prank and ends up getting executed for the deaths of two Frontier Wolves sent to retrieve it.
* TheCavalry: A lone patrol of the First Ordo that happened to be out when Bremenium fell and unwittingly returns to find the Third Ordo under attack.
* ChasedByAngryNatives: First when Alexios abandons his first fort in Germany, then again when he withdraws the Frontier Wolves from Castellum and the Votadini hunt them back to the frontier.
* ChekhovsHobby: Alexios's skill with a sword is fairly irrelevant until he has to fight a duel.

* CoolHorse: The Praepositus's stallion, whom Cunorix wants to borrow for stud.
* CycleOfRevenge: Connla borrows the Praepositus's horse as a prank because the Praepositus insulted Cunorix. The Praepositus has Connla executed for theft because the horse is killed. The Votadini attack the Frontier Wolves because Cunorix now has a blood feud with them. Alexios can end the feud by defeating Cunorix in CombatByChampion, because he's the man who actually executed Connla. Alexios notes that if he's defeated, the Wolves will try to avenge him.
* DanceBattler: The Wolves' "weapon dance" drills. If the Votadini and the Damnonii are dancing the Bull Calves, it might end in actual battle.

* TheEmperor: Co-emperor Constans turns up in Onnum in time to see the Valentian garrisons' arrival.

* ReassignedToAntarctica: Alexios is technically KickedUpstairs to the rank of Ducenarius after his pardon for Abusina because his uncle is the commander of Britain, but it's with the Frontier Scouts at the ends of the empire and his uncle reflects cheerfully on the possibility that they might cause him to have a fatal accident.
* RecycledInSpace: The "retreat with unreliable troops across hostile country in the face of a native uprising" scenario was inspired by [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory an incident in the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919.]] Sutcliff apparently learned about it from fellow novelist Wallace Breem, who wrote a more direct dramatisation of it called ''The Leopard and the Cliff'', and to whom ''Frontier Wolf'' is dedicated.

* TheRustler: A sympathetic version, in which livestock theft is a tolerated aspect of local culture, and the inflexible new Praepositus of the Frontier Wolves destroys Castellum's good relationship with Cunorix's clan by punishing it mercilessly.
-->'''Hilarion:''' I don't count horse thieves, that's a gentleman's sport in these parts–

* {{Scotland}}: Castellum is a Roman site in the western suburbs of Edinburgh.