Robin, as a longtime fan of yours, I was so relieved to see that you are still on line. I recall enjoying your writings about Maximus ever since 2001 when I was so wrapped up in the film that inspired your excellent Felixlegions website. The alternate adventures of my favorite fictional character were believable and well-written, as if you were a soldier in the Armies of the north. I recall you were in the military as well and your extensive knowledge of ancient history is amazing. . it would be great to know what you are doing in real life now. In a special way you have made Maximus et al (and redeemed Quintus, in this story so far, the first of this series) real historical personages and I am now 80 and still enjoying your talents. I was gratified to find to find the very same Robin Roberts who created Felixlegions and brought fanfiction writing to a refined art and now your stories have become classics, a treasure trove. Being a lifelong history buff, I could tell it was you by the elegant effortless style rare in modern writing. If it were a book i'd be calling it a page-turner. Still reading... Tara Stuart

That..was...fantastic. Wow. You have a wonderful writing style, capturing everyone oh, so well. It really makes you wonder how life would be different if one who such as Maximus took over the HRE before its downfall. I absolutely loved everything, from the plot line to the characters; everything was so thought out. Thanks for the utter amusement that derived from this.

This, in my opinion, is one of the best Gladiator fics ever written.. If not, the best.. Your character portrayal felt real, if Maximus did get a chance to become the emperor..

Till next time,
Harryfan011.

Isn't he married?

Hi!
I think your story (and the sequel) is very well written and I enjoyed every minute of it!
The only nitpick I have is that the breaks don't seem to work, so that there is no sign that a scene ends and a new one begins. (but it didn't really slow my reading or made it less enjoyable :-D )

I loved the movie, but I was never completely satisfied with it because I wanted things to happen different... So when I found your story I was very happy because you wrote exactly what I wanted to happen :-)

Excellently written story and a fitting alternate take on what Gladiator could have been. Of all the fics I looked through in this category, yours is the best. So thanks for writing it and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel!

Great story. Thanks for writing and sharing! Just wonder what the modern world would look like if the Roman Empire came into the hands of Maximus instead of Commodus. The world would be forever changed...

please continue this!

Ran across this while looking for other fics. :)

I like this interesting AU look at how the events of "Gladiator" would have played out with a few shifts of sequence. Rome would still have fallen eventually, but perhaps a little more gently and with a little less burden on the ordinary people at the time.

A good story. :)

Looking around in your stories, I found this. An interessting idea, and I am curious how you spun it on. There is only one small nitpick I have. You used the term Spaniard/Spanish for Maximus. The Romans called Spain Iberia, and thus he'd be an Iberian. But that isn't a big deal.

Hey,

this story is great!

you are a very talented writer.

funny thing is I always wondered what would have happened if Maximus came into the tent when Commudus was killing his father, you just answered this :D

again, great story

spaceape

I just wanted to tell you how happy I am that this story is still online to read. I re-watched Gladiator earlier today with my brother, and I realized about ten minutes into it that I honestly couldn't remember exactly how the movie went- because I've read your version so many times that the movie had ceased to be canon to me. And of course, at the end of the movie, the first thing I did was come back and read Echoes in Eternity again. If that doesn't show you how much I love your story, then I don't know how I can say it. So, quite simply: thank you.

~c.i.

This was a very good story! I have always loved Gladiator but I also always knew it to be a tragedy of the saddest kind. You have a remarkable talent for writing AlternateUniverses. I'm off to read the sequel to this marvelous story.

~NLW~

This is one of my favourite AUs. Love the Lucilla/Maximus history. I've read your other stories (accidentally in the wrong order) and I must say that I've enjoyed them all. A bit sad that Quintus has to die. Maybe you can work on the relationship between Maximus' new wife and sister, that would be an interesting story.

OMG, I absolutely love your story! It almost made me cry...

I like how you solved the situation with Commodus, I appreciate that you didn't just let him disappear completely.

I also enjoyed the love story between Lucilla and Maximus, you did a wonderful job in describing their feelings.

There's only one thing that disturbed me a bit, and that's the language. "I think it's cool" does not seem to be a fitting response of a child in that time. It might be the fact that I love to read that beautiful, old language, but this somehow did not sound right. Other than that you did, in my opinion, a really good job as language is concerned.

I especially liked how you portrayed the relationship between Maximus and the Emperor. I have to admit, I always tend to love these strong father-son/friendship-relationships, because of some very personal reasons. You managed to describe this special type of love very well, I could basically feel the warmth of their emotions. And I certainly appreciate that you didn't turn them into teary-eyed softies.

I loved the movie, because it's full of sentimentality and drama and tragic heroes. I loved your story because of the same reasons. And I had always wondered "what if..."

Thank you for giving me such an enjoyable answer.

You made me cry. And you made me smile. Thank you for that.

Vale,

sockie