Goldman appears to fall into a trance and is transported back to the day of Jesus' execution and spots Casey, now a Roman legionary called Casca Rufio Longinus, acting as part of the escort to make sure the condemned man is executed. Casca eventually decides to end Jesus' agony by spearing him on the cross but only wounds him. Jesus condemns Casca to live forever until the Second Coming and a spot of Jesus' blood falls onto Casca's tongue, purifying him.
Casca dismisses the curse as nonsense until he receives what should be a fatal blow from his sergeant in a fight over a girl. Casca kills the assailant and lies down to die, only to make a miraculous recovery the next day. For killing his superior, he is sentenced as a slave to serve in the Greek copper mines, where he works for the next fifty years.
Saving the life of an overseer, Lucius Minitre, during a cave-in, Casca is at last allowed out into the open air and the overseer and Casca devise a plan to get him freed by saving the life of the mine Governor. However the Governor decides to make Casca his personal property and when he returns to Rome with Casca, enrols him into a gladiator training school. During the voyage to Rome Casca befriends a Chinese slave called Shiu Lao-Tze who teaches Casca a few unarmed combat techniques.
Casca soon learns the techniques and rises high in the rankings, much to the envy of one gladiator, a Nubian called Jubala, who vows to kill Casca and eat his heart. When Jubala kills a friend of Casca, the former legionary swears revenge. The school trainer decides to pit the two against each other in the arena of Rome and in an epic fight Casca kills Jubala using the techniques Shiu showed him. This act earns Casca the wooden sword from the hand of Emperor Nero, freedom in other words, and Casca goes on a three-day bender which ends with him arrested for desecrating Nero's statue.
This time he is sentenced to life on the slave galleys and spends many years on board ship, until a storm destroys the vessel he is in and the slave is washed ashore, alive and free. He wanders the Greek countryside until he finds himself at a farm which is being attacked by bandits, and saves the life of a woman, Neda, who in thanks accepts Casca into her house and before long the two are living as man and woman.
The years go by and Casca does not age and he moves on, knowing Neda was beginning to question his appearance. He enrols in the legion for the campaign against Persia and helps the Romans destroy the Persian capital, Ctesiphon. The battle is one huge slaughter and Casca asks aloud if this is all he is to know in his immortality, and tries to commit suicide, but the sword he has driven into his body removes itself and he recovers again. In despair, Casca abandons the battlefield, wondering where he will go to avoid war.
Goldman awakes in the Vietnam hospital alone. He suspects, however, that he will meet Casey - or Casca - again.
I liked the no-nonsense and down-to-earth style Sadler writes in, and a lot of historical facts have been carefully researched. The only inaccuracy I found was in the timeline of the story. Jesus died in the reign of Tiberius (14-37AD) and Nero ruled between 54-68AD, so Casca could not have been down the mines for fifty years - thirty at the most, maybe.
I checked the Persian campaign and found it to have taken place in 163AD. The facts of this campaign mirrored the book which is a testimony to the work the author put in.
I don't think you could find more realistic historical war stories than in this series, which is why they were such a hit.