Description
Can one man's madness destroy the faith for which so many would die?
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 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.
About the Author
Paul L. Maier is the former Russell H. Seibert Professor of Ancient History (retired) at Western Michigan University and an award-winning author whose expertise in first-century studies and extensive travels in the Middle East and Asia Minor provide historical authenticity and compelling drama to his writing. His other writings include the ECPA Gold
Medallion Award-winning volume Josephus: The Essential Writings, as well as The Flames of Rome, and the best-selling novel, A Skeleton in God's Closet.