A madman who murders his way into power lusts for ever-greater glory and domination. A capital city awash with corruption, sensuality, and political intrigue is at the flash point. And caught between the crushing currents of history are a new but growing religious group known as the followers of The Way. Award-winning historian and best-selling author Paul L. Maier has created a compelling style of documentary fiction, using only known historical events and persons to bring to life first-century Rome in all its excess, treachery, and insanity. This is the Rome that the apostle Paul visits, where he’s placed on trial, and which is forever changed by his testimony and witness. Maier takes readers into the courtroom of imperial justice and into the homes of the people struggling with the new faith they’ve encountered to answers questions such as: How did Christianity first reach Rome? Why did Paul have to wait two years for trial and was he condemned or set free? Why does the New Testament account in Acts end so abruptly? Who set fire to Rome and why did Nero persecute Christians so horribly? Following the the family of Flavius Sabinus, mayor of Rome under Nero Maier captures all the drama and tension of the political conflicts that precede and follow the Great Fire of Rome, and the epic political and religious clashes of the world’s capital. This is the sensational story of pagans at their worst—and Christians at their best. Readers won’t want to put it down.

The splendor and pagan excesses of Roman society are confronted by the life-changing faith of Christianity in this historically accurate fiction work. Guaranteed fiction!

The splendor and pagan excesses of Roman society are confronted by the life-changing faith of Christianity in this historically accurate fiction work. Guaranteed fiction!

At the start of book 2 in the Tales of Rome series, we find 13-year-old Bryn working a baker's shop in Rome but still dreaming of returning to his British homeland. Nero has been emperor for ten years and many fear him. Nero particularly dislikes Christians, who worship their own God instead of the emperor, and has had some arrested and killed. A great fire breaks out in the city, and Bryn and his friends escape to the outskirts, to the home of a rich slave-trader, Septimus. Bryn returns to the city to see the damage and finds a city in ruins. However, he also sees members of Nero's own Praetorian Guard setting fire to houses. Rumours fly that the Emperor has had the fire started deliberately in order to clear ground to build a grand new palace, but others blame the Christians. Bryn is amongst those arrested. Nero wants to round up a hundred Christians and have them set alight as a mighty spectacle. Will Bryn and his friends survive?

"May Steven Saylor's Roman empire never fall. A modern master of historical fiction, Saylor convincingly transports us into the ancient world...enthralling!" —USA Today on Roma Continuing the saga begun in his New York Times bestselling novel Roma, Steven Saylor charts the destinies of the aristocratic Pinarius family, from the reign of Augustus to height of Rome's empire. The Pinarii, generation after generation, are witness to greatest empire in the ancient world and of the emperors that ruled it—from the machinations of Tiberius and the madness of Caligula, to the decadence of Nero and the golden age of Trajan and Hadrian and more. Empire is filled with the dramatic, defining moments of the age, including the Great Fire, the persecution of the Christians, and the astounding opening games of the Colosseum. But at the novel's heart are the choices and temptations faced by each generation of the Pinarii. Steven Saylor once again brings the ancient world to vivid life in a novel that tells the story of a city and a people that has endured in the world's imagination like no other.

A lively and accessible guide to the rich literary, philosophical and artistic achievements of the notorious age of Nero.

Rome has ruled Syria for over three centuries. But now the weakened empire faces a desperate threat: Queen Zenobia of Palmyra has turned her Roman-trained army against her former masters. The once invincible legions have been crushed and now Antioch, Syria's capital, stands alone and exposed. Cassius Corbulo is a young intelligence agent fresh from officer training. He is the only ranking Roman officer left in the line of the Palmyran advance and must take command of the fort of Alauran, the last stronghold still in Roman hands.