During the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D., many citizens of Pompeii fled their doomed city to settle elsewhere in the Roman Empire. Among them were Gaius Tullius, his wife Ariana, and their infant son. They traveled to the family's estate in the hills overlooking Agrigentum in Sicily. There "Little Gaius"--Gaius Tullius Junior--grew to manhood, and it was expected that he would eventually take over his family's olive oil exporting business. But the business held little interest for Gaius Junior. As he approached his nineteenth birthday, he found himself increasingly drawn to the sea. He yearned to sail across what the Romans called "Our Sea" and visit strange and foreign lands. In time he prevailed upon his parents to let him go. The Villa Kerylos tells the story of Gaius's journeys--both his ocean voyages and his own voyage of self-discovery--not just from his perspective but also from those of his family, his ship's captain and friend, the merchants he deals with, and the woman who loves him. It tells of his dream of building a villa on an island: the Villa Kerylos, named for the sea-swallows that swoop and dive in the wake of his ship. It tells of his courtship and marriage, and the enduring truths he learns along the way. It is a tale of love and loss, adventure and peril, hope and despair, and the sheer joy of coming home at last.
It is 61 A.D. The Roman occupation of Britain has reduced its native tribes to client kingdoms, subservient to Roman administrators backed by four Roman legions. But for the Emperor Nero, dominance is not enough: He wants money, and his tax collectors are only too happy to obtain it for him by force. Among Nero's targets are the Iceni, a peaceful and prosperous tribe led by their Queen, Boadicea. When Roman soldiers raid her village in search of plunder, she is bound and beaten, her young daughters raped, and her people captured to be sold as slaves. She vows revenge, and under her leadership the British tribes rise up against their Roman oppressors. Boadicea has often been described as a "warrior queen" leading the British tribes in a ruthless and relentless attempt to kill every Roman in their path. But she is much more than a warrior: She is a mother outraged by the Romans' cruel treatment of her daughters, a lover of peace transformed into an avenging fury, a woman torn between loyalty to her cause and her secret love for Suetonius Paulinus, the leader of the forces arrayed against her. What will happen when she and Suetonius finally face each other on the battlefield?
In Pompeii's beautiful House of the Vettii, thirteen-year-old Ariana works as a kitchen slave. Unbeknownst to her, she is the daughter of her master, Claudius Vettius, a wealthy wine merchant. Ariana must deal with the smoldering jealousy of Claudius's wife, Julia, and the misplaced ardor of her half-brother, Marcus, a handsome teenage rebel. Not far from the House of the Vettii is the stately House of the Faun, notable for the bronze statue of a dancing faun, a mythical woodland creature, at the center of its spacious atrium. The master's son, Gaius, is almost fifteen, and hopes to follow in the footsteps of his father, an official in the city government. When Ariana is sent to the House of the Faun to serve as a maid, she and Gaius meet and fall in love. But they know that a slave girl and a government official's son have little chance of a future together. Numerous obstacles stand in their path, not the least of which is Marcus's jealousy. An absorbing and passionate tale, The House of the Faun tells a story of young love set against the intriguing backdrop of ancient Pompeii.
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