Search - Pilate's Wife: A Novel of the Roman Empire

Claudia's dreams have an uncanny way of coming true. She often "sees" things, real things, before they happen. But her gift can also be a curse in a time of deadly politics and social unrest. While destiny leads her to the temple of Isis, to Pompeii's Villa of Mysteries, the infamous snake pit of Pergamon, and into the arms of the Roman magistrate, Pontius Pilate, her heart always seems to belong somewhere else.

As a rebellious child seated beside the Emperor Tiberius, Claudia first sees the powerful gladiator, Holtan, who will become her one true love. But, young and impressionable, she evokes the power of Isis to beguile and win the ambitious Pontius Pilate. When Claudia accompanies Pilate to Judaea, she is plunged into a seething cauldron of open rebellion, and despite her deep longing for Holtan, she struggles to aid Pilate, whose career depends on his maintaining order in this troubled land.

Into this morass comes Miriam of Magdala, Claudia's longtime friend. When Miriam confides her ecstatic love for the religious radical, Jesus, Claudia is beset by terrifying premonitions. Jesus is arrested by high priests who fear his power, and in the hours before his trial, Claudia has an overwhelming dream of the crucifixion in which she hears the words "suffered under Pontius Pilate." Tormented by these visions of war, injustice, and devastation, Claudia desperately seeks to save the divine martyr.

Pilate's Wife is an impressive marriage of research and imagination in which Antoinette May introduces Claudia, one of the Bible's most enigmatic figures, in an extraordinary new light. Set in a world of political intrigue, passionate family rivalries and alliances, assassinations, and unmatched social upheaval, this visionary tale rings with historic credibility and captures the spirit of the Roman Empire. Pilate's Wife puts a provocative new spin on the "greatest story ever told."