Axios

The Year of the Four Emperors was preceded by one of the more dissolute and depraved emperors in Roman history. Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, known as Nero, governed the most powerful political power in the known world. He surrounded himself with panderers and pleasure-seekers of all sorts. His reign was marred by a variety of disasters, both natural and man-made. The Great Fire destroyed huge portions of the Eternal City. But another upheaval of epic proportions was already shifting the sands beneath his Throne. It was during Nero's reign that Peter and Paul sowed the seeds of a new religion. Mistaken at first for a Jewish cult, Rome quickly perceived that this creed would shake the foundations of her empire. She could not contain it. Not through persecutions legendary for their bestiality, not through raids, proscriptions, punishments, and outrages of all descriptions could she root out this burgeoning vine that had sunk its roots deep into her dirt. Claudia Acte was a gifted and highly intelligent hetairi (women of Greek origin who were educated to be companions for wealthy men in their leisure moments). She was purchased and brought to Rome to be Nero's consort and to act as an influential agent for interested politicians. She had everything a cosmopolitan woman of her time could possibly hope for, except her freedom. Traded in a secret deal to the next rising star within Nero's Court, Ofonius Tigellinus, she found herself cornered into a degrading and hopeless situation without any future for her or the child she was forced to carry. And then on a warm and sunny day, she simply wandered off into Rome, away from her slavery, away from the life of degradation she had known and accepted throughout her existence, into a new world from which she could never return. Recaptured, re-enslaved, but redeemed, Claudia Acte quietly dwelt in joy and peace, awaiting her time of release. The profound change within her rippled its influence