A Thorny Path

by Georg Ebers Book 2 in the Roman, Christian and Early Islamic Egypt series.

First published 1892

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2.5(5)

Alexandria, 215 CE. The emperor Caracalla arrives in a city whose inhabitants have mocked him, and imperial resentment turns into the threat of collective punishment. Melissa and those around her are drawn into the dangerous proximity of a ruler whose suspicion and violence can transform private encounters into matters of life and death.

Ebers builds the novel towards the massacre associated with Caracalla’s visit, combining court tension with the densely mixed social world of Roman Alexandria. The emperor’s family history, including the murder of his brother Geta, hangs over a story about arbitrary power and the vulnerability of a great city before it.