The Price of Purple

Barbarous intrigues in the era of Emperor Constantine drive a young Roman from Trier to distant Carthage.

Bedazzled by the radiance of the Roman Empire, Flavius, the ambitious alderman of Trier (Germany’s oldest city), finds himself in the midst of a morass of political feuds. His rival has Flavius’ wife Aqmat arrested, because she has aligned herself with the Christians. In a dramatic fight Flavius succeeds in saving her from execution and banishing his opponent. When, many years later, Flavius is appointed governor of Africa by Emperor Constantine, it would appear that he has reached the pinnacle of his ambitions. But on their arrival in Constantinople, Aqmat encounters a powerful and sinister man of the church, who awakens terrible memories for her and, as they discover, has just been biding his time…

Frank S. Becker, born in 1952, studied physics and is currently the head of educational matters for a large German industrial company. Interested in the time of the Roman emperors and in archaeology, he has travelled widely in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. His debut novel, »The Night of the Eagle«, was published by Herbig in 2004. The author lives in Munich.