Domitian the Younger: A Novel

by S R Holman

Historical Fiction; Back cover In 95 AD the Roman emperor, Domitian, murdered one of his most high-ranking consuls, T. Flavius Clemens. The charge was political "atheism" or religious deviance. Clemens' two young sons, heirs to the throne, disappeared from history. This novel follows closely the trail of this mystery to suggest what might have happened to the younger boy, Domitian's namesake. Smuggled out of Rome the night of his father's death Domitian, now called Bekis, emerges as a ragged orphan in a small Christian sect near Ephesus in the same year, according to some traditions, that St. John returned from exile on Patmos. When John notices the boy and puts him in the care of a local bishop, disaster follows. Bekis finds his past pursuing him in unsettling ways. Beginning with a winter night's slaughter in Rome, this novel explores the development of Christian communities in the first half of the second century. The story weaves the texture of everyday life through one young man's desperate search for identity in a religious and political world eager to destroy all memory of his name.

231 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999