The year is 37 AD, and a young Roman nobleman named Sextus
Marcellus Ennius is on a mission. His dying uncle, Pontius Pilate, has charged
him with a task, a task he must complete if he wishes to inherit the estate: he
is to discover the truth about a criminal who was executed a few years ago
under Pilate’s authority. This man was reputed to possess supernatural powers,
and his body disappeared after his death, apparently due to his resurrection.
This has inspired a bizarre new religion, and Sextus must discover something to
discredit its founder, Jesus-bar-Joseph.
So, accompanied by the Greek Freedman Eros Dion, Sextus
travels to Jerusalem. There, they discover that Jesus-bar-Joseph’s middle years
are virtually unknown. Nobody knows anything about his life from about age 12
to the beginning of his ministry. There can only be one logical conclusion from
this: there must be something criminal or humiliating hidden in
Jesus-bar-Joseph’s missing years, and Sextus must find it as soon as possible,
in order to discredit this new god and laugh him off the face of the earth…
