Caesars lord, p.1
Caesar's Lord, page 1
Praise for Every Knee Shall Bow
“Bristling with tension and undergirded by impeccable historical research, this tale of courage, defiance, and humble submission to God continues the captivating saga of two unlikely allies in the age of imperial Christianity.”
Inspirational Historical Fiction Index
“Fast-paced, with plenty of adventure and intrigue. . . . the story will fascinate fans of drama and history.”
Compass Book Ratings
“If you’ve read the first book in this series, then you will enjoy the continued adventures of Rex and Flavia. . . . Litfin dives deep into research to set up accurate portrayals of the time period as well as supporting historical characters. If you like this type of history (as I do), then you will enjoy sitting down and spending some time with this book.”
Write-Read-Life
“All good fiction brings the reader into another world so that they might think differently about their own.”
Marks of a Disciple
Praise for The Conqueror
“Bryan Litfin brings a historian’s background to the story he tells about Constantine the conqueror, giving you a feel for the time and actions of a historic figure. This is still fiction, but it tells a good story well. Enjoy.”
Darrell Bock, Executive Director for Cultural Engagement, Howard G. Hendricks Center for Christian Leadership and Cultural Engagement; senior research professor of New Testament studies
“With an eye for detail and an engaging fictional story, Dr. Bryan Litfin makes history come alive. If you’ve ever wondered what life was like for early believers, you will love The Conqueror.”
Chris Fabry, author and radio host
“The Conqueror is a wonderful mix of excellence in storytelling and keen insight into the setting’s historical context. This is what you get when a historian crosses over the authorial divide into the world of fiction. Read this book! Read all of Bryan’s books! They are enjoyable from beginning to end. This is certainly on my list of Christmas presents for the readers in my family.”
Benjamin K. Forrest, author and professor
“A deftly crafted and fully absorbing novel by an author who is an especially skilled storyteller.”
Midwest Book Review
“I thoroughly enjoy a well-researched novel concerning ancient Rome, and Litfin did not disappoint. The Conqueror is filled with rich Roman history and lush tidbits of the early church in Rome. If you’re a fan of this time period and history, it will definitely need to find a way to your bookshelf.”
Write-Read-Life
“Entertaining and overall well-done. Litfin gives readers an enjoyable and thought-provoking story with relevant theological themes.”
Evangelical Church Library
Books by Bryan Litfin
FICTION
CONSTANTINE’S EMPIRE
Book 1: The Conqueror
Book 2: Every Knee Shall Bow
Book 3: Caesar’s Lord
NONFICTION
Getting to Know the Church Fathers
Early Christian Martyr Stories
© 2022 by Bryan M. Litfin
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2022
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-3879-2
This is a work of historical reconstruction; the appearances of certain historical figures are therefore inevitable. All other characters, however, are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.
To Carolyn,
my beloved wife
and faithful companion
in all of life’s ups and downs
Contents
Cover
Endorsements
Half Title Page
Books by Bryan Litfin
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Spread of Christianity
Aelia Capitolina (Hierusalem)
City of Rome
Historical Note
The Dynasty of Constantine
Gazetteer of Ancient and Modern Place Names
Glossary
Prologue
Act 1: Exclusivity
1
2
3
4
Act 2: Deity
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Act 3: Humanity
12
13
14
15
About the Author
Back Ads
Back Cover
Historical Note
THE EARLY FOURTH CENTURY (the AD 300s) was one of the most pivotal times in church history. Everything changed dramatically for the Christian church in a span of about twenty years. I have set the Constantine’s Empire trilogy in this era for precisely this reason. It is the fascinating moment when Emperor Constantine was coming into power, and at the same time, gradually realizing what the Christian faith was all about.
Historians debate the exact timing of his personal conversion. In fact, some scholars debate whether it was a genuine conversion at all or just a clever political ploy. In this novel, I treat Constantine’s conversion as both real and something he grew into as he left his pagan worldview behind. Over time, he became more fully committed to Christianity, backing up his beliefs with government support and generous funding for the church.
The sequence of Constantine’s personal conversion began with the famous “solar vision” in which he saw a brilliant, crisscrossed figure in the sun. He interpreted it as a Christian omen that told him to conquer by the powerful sign of the cross. In contrast, his brother-in-law Maxentius was a tyrant and occultist who oppressed the people of Rome. Confident in the power of the cross, Constantine set out for Rome to meet Maxentius in war. The run-up to this confrontation and its climax at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge form the historical background of book 1, The Conqueror.
Book 2, Every Knee Shall Bow, tells the story of Constantine’s civil wars with another brother-in-law, this one named Licinius. Their struggle took place within a political framework that distributed power among four emperors, an arrangement the ancients called a “college.” (Modern historians call it the Tetrarchy.) Two great battles were fought and the outcomes of both were inconclusive. After a fragile truce was reached, a few years of relative calm allowed Constantine to initiate his plan of supporting Christianity. It was during this time that the foundations were laid for the great Roman churches of Saint John Lateran and Saint Peter’s Basilica.
But the peace within the Tetrarchy was not to last. By AD 323, the two brothers-in-law were back at war again. In Caesar’s Lord, you will read the story of Constantine’s final confrontation with Licinius by land and sea, as well as the important events in church history that happened afterward. I won’t offer any plot spoilers here, but I will tell you that the key cities were Alexandria, Nicaea, Rome, and Jerusalem.
As always in a work of historical fiction, some characters in this novel are real figures from history while others are made up. Though Rex and Flavia are not real people, the basic historical storyline that they follow is true. I have not violated any known historical facts in order to tell a better tale. The characters whom we know actually existed are:
Emperor Constantine
Emperor Licinius
Helena, Constantine’s mother
Fausta, Constantine’s wife
Constantia, Licinius’s wife and Constantine’s half sister
Caesar Crispus, Constantine’s son by Minervina, not Fausta
Constantine II, Constantius, and Constans, the sons of Constantine by Fausta
Licinius Junior, son of Licinius and Constantia
Sophronia (but the name Sabina, which I have attached to her, is imaginary)
Pope Sylvester of Rome
Bishop Ossius of Corduba
Bishop Alexander of Alexandria
Arius, a heretical priest of Alexandria
Athanasius, a deacon of Alexandria
Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, the church historian
Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, an Arian
Bishop Macarius of Hierusalem
Cyril of Hierusalem, a young acolyte who later became the city’s bishop
Lactantius, a Christian rhetorician and theologian; the tutor of Caesar Crispus
Vincentius, a Roman priest
Abantus, a naval officer
Alica, a Gothic ally of Licinius
Rausimodus, a Sarmatian warlord
Perhaps in this third and final novel, I should say something about the historicity of Lady Sabina Sophronia, the heroine’s mother. She is listed above as a real person. However, all we know about her is the record of her noble suicide. Bishop Eusebius, in his Church History and Life of Constantine, mentions an unnamed
The fictional element I have added to Sophronia is twofold. First, I have imagined that while her death by suicide was widely believed by her contemporaries, in fact, she secretly survived. Second, I have imagined that she can be equated with a woman named Sabina, who is associated with a church on the Aventine Hill. Atop that hill today, there stands one of the loveliest buildings in all of Rome: the Basilica of Santa Sabina. This church was constructed in the early 400s and still retains much of its original appearance. We know nothing of the “Saint Sabina” for whom the church is named, since the legends about her aren’t historically valid. In fact, this person probably didn’t even really exist but was just a creation of popular Christian folklore.
Therefore I have imagined in my novels that Sophronia (who is actually attested in history) and Sabina (whose real identity is unknown) are the same person, and that she lived with her husband in a mansion on the Aventine Hill where many senators had their homes. Archaeologists haven’t excavated beneath the church of Santa Sabina, but if they did, they would probably find the remains of a Roman house. This would be the house that I portray as the childhood home of Flavia, where she lived with her godly mother and rascally father until she set out on her adventures with Rex. Then it was turned into a house church. Later, after the time frame of these novels, Flavia’s house was demolished and the current Basilica of Santa Sabina was built on the site—or so I imagine. In truth, however, no one knows whose house originally occupied the site where the beautiful church stands today.
Another important historical question in this novel is, What Bible version did the characters use? At that time, the Bible didn’t yet exist as a single book. It was a collection of separate texts. Though the exact boundaries of the canon were still being determined, there was widespread agreement among Christians about the core, such as the Mosaic law, the psalms, the four Gospels, and the Pauline epistles.
The Greek Old Testament of the ancient church was the Septuagint, or the Translation of the Seventy. In this version, the numbering of the psalms was usually behind our modern numbering by one. This was because the Septuagint combined psalms 9 and 10 into a single psalm (and there were some other discrepancies elsewhere). Prior to the fifth century, virtually no ancient Christians read or translated the Hebrew text like modern Bibles do today.
The New Testament of the early church was identical to our Greek New Testament, at least at the macro level, though the specific wording varied among manuscripts. Some rough Latin translations of the Greek also circulated in the western Roman Empire. At the time in which this novel is set, the church father Jerome had not yet published his famous Vulgate. Also, our modern divisions into chapters and verses had not yet been invented.
Here are a few other historical notes that may be of interest:
The Romans had an advanced travel system as part of their post office whose purpose was to send official government messages. People with high-level access could use this system and travel quickly by exchanging horses at intermittent stations (like the Pony Express in US history). Inns were stationed about a day’s ride apart. In this novel, “a mile” refers to a Roman mile, which was about 90 percent the length of our modern mile.
There is no actual record of an Arian assault on the Church of Theonas or a Manichaean attempt to invade and occupy the Lateran Basilica. However, something similar did happen a little later in Milan, during the time of Bishop Ambrose. This was an age of highly inflamed religious passions on all sides.
The Romans calculated their dates by counting the days (inclusively) prior to three key points in each month: the Kalends, or the first day of the next month; the Nones, either the fifth or the seventh day; and the Ides, the thirteenth or fifteenth day. By the time period of this novel, the Romans had a twelve-month calendar with the same names (in Latin) as the months we use today: Januarius, Februarius, Martius, etc.
In terms of an overall timeline for the trilogy, the events of the Constantine’s Empire novels take place from AD 309 to 328. These are perhaps the two most crucial decades in all of church history. Why? Because the tide-turning battles, triumph over persecution, rise of beautiful church architecture, councils and creeds, initial steps toward finalizing Scripture’s canon, and the formation of a Christian society instead of a pagan one all fundamentally changed the nature of Christianity forever.
These momentous events make for great storytelling. In my three novels, I have tried to blend real history with thrilling plotlines to narrate a grand, epic saga. It is my heartfelt prayer that you will enjoy reading this adventure as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Dr. Bryan Litfin
Gazetteer of Ancient and Modern Place Names
Note: the modern names of Rome and Italy are used in this book because of frequent appearance.
Aegyptus. Egypt
Aelia Capitolina. Imperial name of Jerusalem; some Christians called it “Hierusalem”
Aenus. Enez, Turkey
Aethiopia. Ethiopia
Africa. Corresponds to Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco
Aila. Eilat, Israel
Alexandria. Alexandria, Egypt
Alps. Mountain range across northern Italy and central Europe
Ancyra. Ankara, the capital city of Turkey
Antiochia. Antioch, Turkey
Aquileia. Aquileia, Italy
Arelate. Arles, France
Ascalon. Ashkelon, Israel
Athenae. Athens, Greece
Bosporous Strait. Strait of Istanbul, Turkey
Britannia. Corresponds to England, Wales, and parts of Scotland
Byzantium. Istanbul, Turkey
Caesarea. Ancient ruins are now part of Caesarea National Park, Israel
Capernaum. Ancient ruins are now part of the archaeological site of Capernaum, Israel
Carthago. Ancient Carthage, near Tunis, Tunisia
Catacombs, the. Catacombs of San Sebastiano, Rome
Chalcedon. Kadıköy, Turkey
Chrysopolis. Üsküdar, Turkey
Classis. Military port of ancient Ravenna, now the archaeological site of Classe, Italy
Constantinople. Istanbul, Turkey
Corduba. Córdoba, Spain
Creta. Crete
Dacia. Corresponds to parts of Bulgaria and Serbia
Danubius River. Danube River
East, the. Diocese of Oriens, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, corresponding to parts of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey
Eboracum. York, England
Euxine Sea. Black Sea
Gaul. Corresponds to France, Belgium, Netherlands, and portions of a few other countries
Gaza. Gaza City, Palestinian National Authority
Germania. Corresponds to areas north of the Rhine and upper Danube, including Germany, Poland, Czechia, Austria, and other central European countries
Graecia. Greece
Hadrianopolis. Edirne, Turkey
Hadrian’s Wall. Defensive wall near today’s border between England and Scotland
Hall of the Church. Basilica of San Crisogono, Rome
Hebrus River. Maritsa River, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey
Hellespont. Dardanelles Strait, Turkey
Hibernia. Ireland
Hierusalem. Christian name for Jerusalem, Israel
Hispania. Spain
Iericho. Jericho, Palestinian National Authority
Iordanes River. Jordan River, Israel and Jordan
Kallipolis. Gelibolu, Turkey
Kythira Strait. Waterway off the southern coast of Greece, known for hazardous passage
Libya. Libya, North Africa
Mediolanum. Milan, Italy
Mons Aetna. Mount Etna, Sicily, Italy
Mons Olympus. Mount Olympus, Greece
Neapolis. Naples, Italy
Nicomedia. İzmit, Turkey
Nilus River. Nile River, Egypt
