Marcus is a blond Roman soldier who often visits Daniel’s blacksmith shop, to Daniel’s chagrin. Unbeknownst to Daniel, Marcus has befriended Leah and visits her when Daniel isn’t home. Marcus is from a German warrior tribe, he is homesick, and he has no particular loyalty to the Romans; he serves in the army so that he’ll get citizenship one day. He begins talking to Leah in halting Aramaic over the garden wall, and they grow fond of one another. When Daniel finds out, he furiously forbids them from seeing each other. However, after he becomes Jesus’s follower, Daniel gives up his hatred of the Romans and invites Marcus to see Leah once last time before he leaves for a different army posting.