Circus Maximus

Twelve-year-old Dido dreams of becoming the first female charioteer at the great Circus Maximus. She's lost her heart to Porcellus, a wild, tempestuous horse she longs to train and race. But such ambitions are forbidden to girls and she must be content with helping her father Antonius - the trainer of Rome's most popular racing team, The Greens - and teaching the rules of racing to Justus, the handsome young nephew of the Greens' wealthy owner. When her father is brutally murdered, she is forced to seek refuge with an unlikely ally.

Twelve-year-old Dido dreams of becoming the first female charioteer at the great Circus Maximus. She's lost her heart to Porcellus, a wild, tempestuous horse she longs to train and race. But such ambitions are forbidden to girls and she must be content with helping her father, Antonius - the trainer of Rome's most popular racing team, The Greens. When her father is murdered, she is forced to seek refuge with an unlikely ally. And the threat to her life isn't over as she faces a powerful and terrifying new enemy...the emperor Caligula.

Dido is reconciled to leaving the racing track and staying at home to train horses with Scorpus and Parmenion. But a storm is brewing. It brings with it a fiery black stallion, uncannily like Dido's beloved Porcellus. Word arrives from Rome that her cousin, Abibaal, a talented young charioteer, has been recruited to compete for the evil emperor Caligula. To save Abibaal, Dido must return to the great Circus Maximus track where she once drove to glory herself, confront her enemy Caligula, and face the toughest, most dangerous race of her life.

When her beloved horse Porcellus sires a new foal, Dido hopes he will be the missing piece in her quest to train the greatest team ever seen at the Circus Maximus. But grief and a desire for revenge are clouding her judgement. Then her old friend Parmenion asks her to shelter the runaway son of her bitterest rival and help him fulfil his dream of becoming a charioteer. Can Dido and the boy, Damon, help each other find a way out of darkness?