The Woman from Lydia

by Angela Hunt Book 1 in the The Emissaries series.

First published 2023

Amazon

4.6(519)

Widowed Euodia moves to Philippi and builds a new life as a merchant known for her Lydian origins. Paulos’s preaching gives her prosperity a new purpose, especially when she learns that Sabina, an enslaved girl exploited for divination, is being abused by men who value her only for the income she produces.

Euodia purchases Sabina intending to free her, but the disputed sale allows the former owners to seize the girl and seek someone who can restore her profitable ‘gift’. The ensuing pursuit turns Christian conversion into practical resistance to slavery: hospitality and belief are tested by travel, financial loss and the willingness to treat a vulnerable person as free even when Roman law does not.