Titus and Berenice

<h4><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>For five years the fate of the last Jewish polity of the ancient world hung on the outcome of a romance:</strong></h4><h4><br></h4><h4><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>A romance between the middle-aged thrice-divorced Jewish queen Berenice and the youthful son of the first emperor of the Flavian dynasty.</strong></h4><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>This volume the first in a series of three on the subject of the Herodian Dynasty describes the events of AD 66-69:</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>--the outbreak of the First Jewish War</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>--Nero's artistic tour of Greece</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>--his overthrow and death by suicide</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>--the outbreak of the Roman Civil War</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>It couches the narrative in a broad intellectual and spiritual panorama of the times featuring many fascinating developments:</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>--the strange Jewish sect of the Essenes</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>--another strange Jewish sect: Christians</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>--its most dangerous opponent the charismatic Simon the Magus whose followers worshipped a prostitute</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>--other wonderfully zany erotic religious practices of the Middle East of the period</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>--the pagan prophet Apollonius of Tyana--the pagan Jesus</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>--the powerful temple of Aphrodite in Paphos Cyprus--the main clearinghouse of secrets in the East and a business rival of the Temple of Jerusalem</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>and more!</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>And among those events and within that milieu the book situates the love between the middle-aged queen and her youthful Roman prince the future destroyer of the Temple; a romance which will go on to inspire hundreds of dramatic operatic poetic and graphic works in the European culture for the next two thousand years.</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Give yourself a thrilling sojourn to a strange zany place. Pick up your copy today.</strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Aleksander Krawczuk (1922-2023) was a scholar professor a the Jagiellonian University in Krakow minister of culture of Poland (1986-1989) and author of over 30 immensely popular books on Graeco-Roman antiquity. His delightful books written in an accessible conversational highly readable style address complex topics in an approachable manner without ever dumbing them down. International best-sellers in Europe his books have shaped three generations of antique lovers but as a consequence of Soviet cultural policies they appear in English only now. We are publishing a new title every 4-6 weeks.</span></p><p><br></p>