Publisher's Synopsis
A witness to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Marcus Antonius Crescens, born in Pompeii in ancient Rome in the year 59 AD, left a chronicle of his young life until he reached the age of twenty-one years in 80 AD, deposited in his room in the house of his father. Marcus is the son of a very successful fuller or launderer and cleaner of clothing. The young Marcus was skilled in sewing and weaving from a young age. Here, through his eyes, see what was ancient Pompeii and life there, the culture, the superstition, the gods, and state-sanctioned fertility rites known as "magic." A city where 80% were poor and prostitution was its biggest business; a city that served the rich nobility who built sumptuous villas there in Campania and the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Baiae to get away from the crowded streets and a million people in the city of Rome. A typical young man of the second class of tradesmen, the adolescent Marcus Crescens, tall, handsome, and well-developed, becomes involved with noblewomen as he plies his father's trade. Soon, he comes under the influence and teaching of a woman who owns the largest house of prostitution in the city, Aurelia Celestia, the brothelkeeper. She sees in him an opportunity to make much money, and she uses her body, and all her powers and skills of persuasion to make him a performer to entertain the nobility. This eyewitness will inform you of what it was like to attend Roman bacchanals in villas, private sex clubs, and clubs for women who used fertility rituals or "magic" for debauchery and intriguing to secure power and influence. From a young man who once delivered laundry, and who sewed in the Forum offering clothing repair, to performing in the richest homes of the nobility as performer and prostitute, and in the beds of many noblewomen who sought his prowess and youth for sex, and for children. Then, while delivering his father's cloth in Neapolis (Naples), Mount Vesuvius erupts and his world seems to end. Yet, mysterious forces and entities are present and all is not what it seems. Seeking his cousin, an employee of the Aquarius in charge of the aqueduct, the Aqua Augusta, Marcus begins again in that profession only to find himself swimming for his life when the naval ship he is on is damaged in a storm and grounded on a sandbar. He makes it to a rocky beach and thanks the gods for allowing him to live. Then, an apparition, a tall woman in strange clothing approaches him, gives him water and food, and a strange, metal blanket that is soft and folds. Two more female companions appear to join her. Regaining his strength, he regains his feet. A simple question stuns him: "Would you like to see the stars, Marcus?" And from there, he journeys with them and to a new life and a new series of worlds that await him, and an immense surprise as to why he has been rescued. Some 500 pages of life and times in Pompeii and 278 pages of the faraway worlds among the stars and about this race that has saved him, and why. An epic adventure and journey! Stunning twists and conundrums of time. The brothelkeeper's every beguiling word, the descriptions of his performances as the god "Priapus", and his love affairs with some of the richest women in the Roman Empire will keep you entertained along with the surprise rescue and his journey to the stars!
