Death at Pergamum

October A.D. 440: Roman surgeon Getorius Asterius and wife Arcadia arrive at Constantinople with their slave, Brisios, and guide Herakles. Caught in a bread riot, they board a galley of ill patients sailing to the Asklepion, a pagan healing center at Pergamum. There physician Apollonios, an enemy of a woman Christian minister, Epiphania, has been accused of burning her church. Presumed dead, she is hiding in an abandoned Egyptian temple and planning a bizarre resurrection ritual to discredit Apollonios. When abusive patient Basina Bobo is found drowned in a therapeutic mud pool, her meek husband and slave-lover, Hermias, are missing. Getorius assumes the slave killed his masters, but when his mutilated body is found, Flavius is suspected. He surprises Ephania in the temple, rants against all women, and stabs her in the abdomen. Mortally wounded she insists on being carried to the "Throne of Satan" on the ancient acropolis for the Egypto-Christian ritual. She dies there and fanatical monks incite spectators into destroying the Asklepion. Herakles disappears, stranding the couple. Brisios, freed in a manumission ceremony, finds his misplaced love to be a heart-breaking blunder in his new found liberty.
A harrowing climax occurs in the temple of the god Asklepios, where a traitorous plot is thwarted.


Genre: Mystery