Book II of Earth Legions. A collection of five stories set in the same universe as David Drake's novel Ranks of Bronze, as well as the original short story from which that novel grew. Ranks Of Bronze: Lots of soldiers work for civilians they don't like, but these millennia old Romans had it worse than most - their commanders were blue-skinned aliens. The guilds of star traveling merchants had strict instructions to prevent their technology from falling into the hands of the natives of the primitive worlds they exploited - military operations had to be carried out with weaponry no more complex than the natives already possessed. So the merchant princes came to Earth for soldiers and returned to the stars with the best the planet had to offer and for over two thousand years the aliens thought they had succeeded brilliantly - but then things changed...Other stories in this volume: Sir George And The Dragon, David Weber; Lambs To The Slaughter, David Drake; A Clear Signal, Mark L.Van Name; The Three Walls - 32nd Campaign, S.M. Stirling; Carthago Delenda Est, Eric Flint. Cover art by Dru Blair.