Saturnine

It's 384 CE Rome, dawn of the Christian monotheistic state. Emperor Theodosius has decreed the Nicene version of Christianity the exclusive religion of the Empire. For the first time in a thousand years of Greco-Roman civilization, mere thought could be a crime.

 

In Saturnine, Lupicinus-moody intellectual leading a duplicitous life as a clandestine non-believer, once powerful advisor to the bishop of Rome-writes of the life of Saturnine, the woman who became the famed and reviled Saturnine atheos of Alexandria. Unconverted wife of a Christian senator, writing in secret about disbelief, Saturnine is crushed by Rome; but in unfolding circumstances, she learns what it means to take a stand-even against an empire. An encounter with Kharapan, a wandering Stoic-barbarian of Hellenica, changes the course of Saturnine's life, and ultimately the course of history; and Kharapan's challenge to Lupicinus not only endangers their lives, but is a far-reaching challenge to live. In Kharapan's country, Hellenica, the schools of philosophy still thrive, and people still live philosophy as a way of life, but the confrontation between Kharapan and Lupicinus imperils the existence of Hellenica itself.

 

Deeply relevant to our time, Saturnine explores the idea of the immutable character, the power of words and the danger of fanaticism, and the soul-rending decisions people are forced to make when history is against them and on course to annihilate all they value.