Arena

In the 1960's John Jakes, the best-selling author of The Kent Family Chronicles and The North and South Trilogy and who has been bestowed the title -the godfather of the historical novel,- wrote ARENA under the penname Jay Scotland. The son of a bear-trainer and accustomed to life inside the ring, Cassius willingly bound himself to learn the dangerous game of surviving inside the Circus Maximus, a deadly arena where bloodshed is the highest form of entertainment. But Cassius is swept up in an adventure of love, blood and death that will not set him free until he conquers his final enemy.