Eagle in the Snow

Eagle in the Snow (ISBN 1-59071-011-8) is a historical fiction novel. Written in 1970 by Wallace Breem, the novel is set in Britannia and Germania in the late 4th and early 5th century, and centres on the Roman general Paulinus Gaius Maximus, a Mithraic in an age of Christianization. Maximus and his friend Quintus command the defence of Hadrian's Wall, but when news comes of an impending Germanic invasion across the Rhine, Maximus is promoted to 'General of the West' and reassigned to Moguntiacum, where he and his one legion are tasked with defending the entire border between Germania and Gaul.

As he is carrying out his duties, more and more of his allies—including those who were once his enemies—try to persuade Maximus to seize the Western Emperorship for himself. Maximus finds himself fighting for an empire rapidly converting to Christianity where his traditional pagan beliefs are only reluctantly tolerated.