The Emperor — Volume 02
Ancient Alexandria holds its breath. Emperor Hadrian is coming, and the city trembles with anticipation, ambition, and unease. In the shadow of the great library, palace steward Keraunus schemes for his daughters' futures while blind to the financial ruin creeping toward his household. His daughter Selene bears the weight of his impractical dreams, navigating a world where women's choices are measured in marriages rather than ambitions. Meanwhile, Pontius the architect moves through these political currents, his own designs extending far beyond stone and mortar. Ebers weaves a rich tapestry of personal ambition against the sweep of empire: a supper scene crackles with tension and dark humor as characters reveal their true selves, their prejudices, their desperate hopes. This is a world where the arrival of a single man can unsettle everything, where a family's private struggles reflect the larger tremors of a civilization at a crossroads. Volume Two continues the saga with the textured detail and psychological depth that made Ebers one of Victorian Europe's most beloved storytellers.
