Book II: The Sagittarius Chronicles

Gaius Segusiavus “Sagittarius,” the Archer, follows in the giant footsteps of his grandfather, Gaius the Peregrinus.

 

122 – 155 A.D.

 

Hadrian is in the 3rd year of his reign which will last until his death in 138. He has consolidated the boundaries of the Empire. He has not undertaken any military adventures. His only major military activity will be the suppressing of the Jewish Bar-Kochba revolt. This graeculus, lover of all things Greek, travels the empire with his lover Antinous, a restless emperor seeking…?

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Following his death his adopted son Antoninus Pius becomes emperor. This refined, contemplative man lives quietly, unobtrusively, rarely leaving Rome until his death in 161.

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Stability is the hallmark of these two emperors. Rome enjoys peace and prosperity—could another thousand years pass under Roman rule?

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Where decades of relative peace prevail, not so in the Family Segusiavus. And not so for the small but growing Christian ekklesia in Gaul and elsewhere.

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Sagittarius, the young Lord of the Segusiavi, is confronted with a growing rift with his Uncle Juvencus, head of the family business in Rome and Ostia… and his scheming wife, Octavia.

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Likewise, the family of Marcus Africanus, head of the Carthage statio, grows more distant.

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At home in the Villa of the Three Crows, his grandmother, Fionna, and his mother, Isolde, wage a “silent” test of wills for the heart and soul of young Sagittarius. Will he remain true to his traditional Celtic roots as Lord of the Segusiavi, or will his Christian faith and mother guide him elsewhere?

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Lurking behind all is the sinister, shadowy presence of Sagittarius’ father, Gaius the Younger, The Wolf, Perditus—the lost one—whose hatred and appetite for revenge remain insatiable.

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The growing Christian movement is split by schism as the charismatic Marcion, son of an Asian bishop, seeks to take the Christian “Way” in a radically new direction. Sagittarius’ friend, Polycarp, the Christian bishop of Smyrna, confronts the dynamic heresiarch.

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Book II, The Sagittarius Chronicles, closes with the venerable Polycarp, now 89-years old, following in the footsteps of his long-dead friend Ignatius, the martyred bishop of Antioch, coming to a fiery end.

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The Family Segusiavus, the Christian movement, the golden age of the Roman Empire teeter on the cusp of tragedy.

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Who will survive?