The Emperor

The Emperor is a sweeping historical novel set in ancient Rome, juxtaposing the opulent, ruthless world of Emperor Vindex with the humble, enduring life of the Sabine farmer Titus. Vindex, young and calculating, rules through wealth, beauty, and the manipulation of desire, collecting women from across the empire as symbols of his dominion and shaping Rome itself as a theater of power. In stark contrast, Titus tends his olive groves, preparing for harvests and nurturing his betrothed, Livia, embodying simple devotion and the quiet rhythms of rural life. Their worlds collide when imperial agents seize Livia, claiming her for Vindex’s palace, a stark assertion of the emperor’s reach and cruelty. Titus, left with only grief and determination, vows justice and sets out to reclaim his love. The story explores themes of power and subjugation, freedom and obedience, wealth and virtue, and the personal cost of imperial ambition. The novel intricately renders Rome’s grandeur, the politics of wealth, and the human stories hidden behind marble palaces and gold leaf, contrasting the permanence of beauty and desire with the fleeting resilience of the human heart.