249 AD. Rome is bleeding from a thousand wounds. And beyond its borders, something far deadlier than an army is approaching.
The Roman Empire is entering one of the darkest periods in its history. Emperors rise and fall at the will of their legions. Gothic tribes gather beyond the Danubius. Christians fear a new wave of persecution. Yet far to the south, beyond the frontiers of Aegyptus, an unknown sickness is already consuming entire communities.
In the scorched lands of Nubia, Cora of Peiraieús, daughter of a renowned Greek physician, fights desperately to understand a disease that kills with terrifying speed. With little more than her mother’s knowledge, a scarce medicinal root, and the lessons learned from those who survive, she races against an enemy no sword can defeat.
Far to the north, Odokar, a Herulian warrior scarred by Roman cruelty, leads a band of elite Gadrauhts deep into imperial territory on a secret mission, one that could finally give his people the advantage they have sought against Rome for generations.
As disturbing rumors travel from Alexandria to Carthage, Rome, and the Danubian frontier, physicians, soldiers, bishops, emperors, and barbarian warlords are drawn into the same gathering storm. Loyalties will be tested. Faith will collide with fear. And an empire already fighting for survival will discover that its greatest enemy may be one it cannot see.
History remembers the Plague of Cyprian.
It remembers the Crisis of the Third Century.
But history does not tell us how the nightmare began.
The Herulian Strain is an epic historical thriller blending documented figures and events with a fictional story of war, survival, faith, ambition, and one of antiquity’s most mysterious pandemics. Free on Kindle.
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