THE LOST LEGION

The
story, half true, half legend, tells the adventure of the lost
legion, perhaps the only contact between Roman and Chinese empires
(first century B.C.). It’s 53 B.C. when Rome suffered one of the worst defeats in Carrhae by Parthians. Died  40,000 legionaries, but it’s known that 10,000 were imprisoned, some were assigned to mines. So this is historical. Since here, no one knows. Some seem have been posted by Parthians to defend their Empire Eastern borders from the Xiongnu, the
Tibetans and the Chinese. The Chinese general Cheng Tang’s chronicle talks about how they defeated an
army that defended with the tortoise formation, the “testudo”, an exclusive formation from Roman soldiers.
In
our picture book, the last legionary, integrated in a Chinese village, explains to his grandson, ready to go to trade by the Silk Road, how he survived three
empires: Roman, Parthian and Chinese.
The aesthetic is based on the typical Roman mosaic art.