The Christian and the Lion - Paperback

by Wesley a. James (Author)

Paethias Demidus Arius, a legatus of Rome, had led legions against Gaul, Germania, Parthia and served under Vespasian in the Judean War. It is after Caesar Nero summons Paethias to take a small contingent of Rome's elite centurions to Greece that Paethias encounters Antiachus Miltiades Delphanae, the last thread of the ancient Spartan military. At the cost of thirty-three of his centurions, Paethias is able to capture the last Spartan. Fearing this Greek more than any man he has ever known, Paethias shackles Antiachus next to a Christian, an evangelist, who converts Antiachus on the voyage to Rome. In Rome, Antiachus becomes the focus of Nero's vindictive hatred, as the Christian is tortured and forced to fight gladiators and beasts before the endless audiences in the Circus Maximus. In the prisons of the Circus Maximus, he learns of Judas, a famous overgrown lion Nero uses to kill Christians for Rome's entertainment. Knowing his wife's soul is at stake, Antiachus must endure the pain and exhaustion of impossible odds in order to take the truth of salvation to his wife. Seeing the grief Antiachus endures, many Romans convert to this new faith, but fear being discovered, knowing they too may stand in the Circus Maximus where Nero tested the innocence and pristine beauty of a faith he despised. Wesley A James grew up on a farm and worked for his father doing construction. After serving in Central America, he also became a respiratory therapist and a nurse to further his capacity in to serve in Guatemala and Honduras. Ten percent of all proceeds of The Christian and the Lion will go directly to servicing destitute families in Central America.