Unknown (8 page)

Yeshua ben Miriam
is Hebrew for “Joshua, son of Mary”; Yeshua being a variation on
Yehoshuah
(also “Joshua”). There have been several quests by historians to discover what kind of man Yeshua was outside of the Bible, all of which have failed. Based on the third quest, we may assume that Yeshua was indeed a Jewish messiah who was also fond of making apocalyptic prophecies. In addition to being a harbinger of social change, Yeshua is thought to have been both a Cynic philosopher and a charismatic healer.

Diogo Morgado
(17 January 1981) is best known in his native Portugal as a soap opera star. After he finished shooting
The Bible
, Diogo had two movies, a short and a television series waiting for him. He is the father of a four year old son and speaks fluent English, French and Spanish, in addition to Portuguese.

Pontius Pilatus
was the Roman governor in charge of Judaea from 26 – 36 CE. Four years after the death of Yeshua, Pontius was recalled to Rome for acts of intolerable cruelty, the last of which was the wholesale slaughter of thousands of Samaritan pilgrims. His official cause of death is unknown, but the popular theory is suicide; another is exile.

Greg Hicks
(27 May 1953) is far from suicide and exile. A six-year veteran of Great Britain’s Royal Shakespeare company, Greg has—at the time of this writing—recently finished a six-month run as the Elder Hamlet in
Hamlet
and three months in
All’s Well that Ends Well
, in which he played the King of France. When not at work, he is living at his new home in Madrid with his wife and daughter Olivia, who was born earlier this year. Greg’s two elder children are out in the world and pursuing the performing arts for themselves.

Drusilla Claudia Tiberii
’s full, historical name is unknown. In fact, very little of her is mentioned in history or the bible, save for a passage in Timothy where she attempts to persuade her husband not to harm Yeshua.

Louise Delamere
(1969) is a prolific actress, with five credits alone in 2013. A graduate of Glasgow’s Royal Academy of Scottish Music and Drama, Louise is a long-time friend of David Tennant’s, having shared a flat with him while in school. In 2007, Louise married Tony nominee Stephen Mangan and together they have a son, Harry.

Caiaphas
was a Jewish high priest best known for plotting Yeshua’s death. During his time on the Sanhedrin, Caiaphas was a member of
Bet Shammai
, a zealot group known for their desire to kick the Romans out of Israel. Knowing that the prefect would not execute Yeshua over a simple charge of blasphemy, Caiaphas used his influence to prove to Pontius Pilatus that Yeshua ben Miriam was a threat to Roman rule and public safety in general.

Adrian Schiller
(21 February 1964) is far better known to the British theatrical world than to the television and film scene. He has been in at least two different RSC productions and could be found performing in Regent’s Park of London earlier this century.

Mary Magdalene
is at once the best and worst known woman of the Bible. Portrayed at different turns as being mentally ill, a prostitute and a Pagan priestess; the only certainty is that she was the most devout female follower of Yeshua, earning her the title “The Thirteen Apostle” in some circles. This devotion was repaid when Yeshua permitted her to be the first to see him after his resurrection.

Amber Rose Revah
(24 June 1986) has already played a lesbian, a daughter of Saddam Hussein, a Jew and Mary Magdalene in her twenty-seven years of life, even having the privilege of appearing in
From Paris with Love
with John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. Currently, Amber can be seen in the British series
What Remains
as Vidya.

Despite what he thought were explicit instructions, the prefect’s guards only managed to ensure that Julia was properly exiled. The rest of the priestesses were simply told to “Get out of Jerusalem. But don’t go anywhere near Rome.”

Aliyah
made it onto a ship bound for Sardinia, but it somehow got diverted to Rome, where she was subsequently sold as a prostitute. She only made it a year and a half until her
manus
was sold to a wealthy patrician. During the following eight and a half years, the patrician’s constant rape caused Aliyah, a number of slaves and other dissenters to plot in the back streets and fornices. They were caught in 43 and Aliyah was executed for treason against the empire. She was only twenty-seven.

Aurelia
was hoping to make it back to her native Egypt, but ended up onboard a ship in the same fleet as Aliyah, this one also diverting to Rome. Aurelia quickly found acceptance in a Temple of Hera, where she stayed until she renounced her vows in favor of marriage in 46. Sadly, Aurelia only lived for another six years and passed away during a pandemic at sixty-three.

Claudia
was the only one who was successfully exiled to Sardinia, as Pontius Pilatus wished. She spent twenty-two years in slavery there and died in the summer of 55. She was forty-six.

Legend doesn’t tell us where
Hadas
landed. Instead, we learn that her healing skills were immediately put to work and she spent the next thirty years delivering babies and helping the sick and less fortunate. She passed away in 63, at age fifty-three.

Livia
made it to Londinium, where she later married. It isn’t known what kind of life she led, only that she passed in her sleep in 72, at the age of sixty-seven.

Sabrina
made it a mere seven months before her death. She had planned to start her life over again in Sicily, but she was mistaken for a member of the Sabine family and murdered by one of their rivals.

Tatiana
arrived in Rome some three months after Aliyah and Aurelia. She, too, was sold as a prostitute, but the buyer of her
manus
was a kindly madam who allowed her ladies to keep all their tips. Seven years later, Tatiana bought her
manumission
and set up life as a shopkeeper. One of her former clients began to tutor her, but his wife thought they were having an affair. Rather than ruin his reputation as a politician, she arranged to have Tatiana poisoned. The fourth try was a success and Tatiana was thirty-three when she was finally assassinated in 45.

55 was a hard year for the former priestesses.
Ziva
traveled all the way to Greece, where it is said she became a priestess of Athena. However, she died in a chariot accident twenty-two years later at the age of fifty-three.

Our heroine didn’t reach Hibernia until the following year. Whether or not Pontius Pilatus intended it that way,
Julia
was on the edge of the Roman Empire on 14 December 33 when she gave birth to a daughter the Roman registrar insisted upon naming Juliana Alexandra Selena Pontia and whom the former imperial priestess usually referred to as “Juli”.

In 44, Juli was accepted to the Hibernian Order of Druids as a novice. Unlike her mother, Juli was known for her musical skills, including her exceptional talent on the harp. After her initiation, Juli was called Selene Harper and later earned her silver branch. With the permission of the archdruid, Selene married a sort of chieftain in 60, at the age of 27. It is said she had three children; sadly, none of them followed her into the priestly arts. Selene lived a long and happy life for that era and died in 105 at the age of seventy-two.

Her mother, on the other hand, enjoyed much more mystique. Julia quickly became renowned across Hibernia for her healing skills as much as her sorcery. Those who knew her well called her “Daughter of Danu”, while those who feared her swore that she worshipped the Morrigan. It is the crossing of these legends, perhaps, that is responsible for the story that Julia was such a powerful sorceress that she was able to enchant and marry a minor king or prince regnant. From then on, she is often referred to as “Queen Danu”. Despite her great magic, Queen Danu faded from history in her winter years, only resurfacing when she died in 90 at the age of eighty-five.

Ankh:
the Egyptian symbol of life.

Aramaic:
the language of Judea at the time Jesus was alive.

Asinæ:
(Latin) “ass”.

Avia:
(Latin) “grandmother”.

Bet Shammai:
“House of Shammai”. One of the two primary schools of Judaist thought; the other being
Bet Hillel
.

Chiton:
(Greek) a body-length tunic sewn all the way up to the arms and pinned at the shoulders. Most commonly worn by women.

Cubicularius:
(Latin) “chamberlain”.

Domina:
(Latin) “Lady”. Sometimes “madam” or “mistress of the household”.

Domina Templum:
(Latin) “Lady of the Temple”.

Dominus:
the masculine form of
domina
.

Dominus Praefectus:
(Latin) “Lord Prefect”.

Domus:
(Latin) “house”.

Duat:
the Ancient Egyptian underworld.

Equestrian:
the third highest Roman social class, supposedly based on money. Only the Senatorial and Imperial classes were higher.

Fibula:
(Latin) “brooch”.
⁴

Flaminica Imperialis:
(Latin) “Imperial Priestess”.

Hoshana:
Hebrew rendering of the Christian praise word “hosanna”.

Isis:
Egyptian mother goddess revered the world over.

Lake Gennesaret:
another name for the Sea of Galilee.

Latrinum:
(Latin) “toilet”. Almost certainly the origin of the modern word “latrine”.

Maiden:
lieutenant to the high priestess and usually the next in line for the role.

Manus:
(Latin) “hand”. In ancient Rome, the
manus
was a form of ownership; a girl’s father kept her
manus
in childhood and it was given to her husband when they married. The term also applied to slaves—whoever had the
manus
owned the slave, which is why freeing a slave was called
manumission
.

Maudlin:
(Yiddish) “sentimental”.

Night of Tears:
(June 16) an ancient Egyptian holy day marking the time in which Isis was said to flood the Nile with her tears for her lost husband.

Palla:
a long piece of material worn by Roman women as a mantle or cloak and pinned in place by one or more
fibulae
.

Passover:
spring holy day that celebrates the Jews being freed from Egypt.

Per Medjat:
(ancient Egyptian) “house of books”.

Puella:
(Latin) “little girl”.

Sanhedrin:
(Hebrew) “sitting together”. A religious judiciary made up of twenty-three men that often made up a sort of governing body of the Jews.

Sekhmet:
the Egyptian goddess of war, who was depicted as having the head of a lion.

Silver branch:
a staff reportedly carried by Druids that included silver bells and other symbols that indicated a certain level of achievement. The highest of these awards was the golden branch; it is unknown if there was anything lower than silver.

Stola:
a long, pleated dress worn over a tunic; the feminine analogy to the toga.

Stultus:
(Latin) “idiot”.

Subura:
lower-class Roman neighborhood where Julius Caesar grew up.

Tetrarch:
(Greek) a subordinate prince or the governor of one quarter of a territory.

Tiberias:
a city on the western shore of Israel, established in 20 C.E. in honor of Emperor Tiberius.

Vestalis Maxima:
(Latin) title of the chief Vestal; also
Virgo Vestalis Maxima
.

One of the hardest things about publishing independently is writing the acknowledgements. Not many people are involved, so the section is usually short; however, I inevitably feel like I forget someone I ought to be thanking. (You would think that by my fourth book, I would have this part down, but not so.)

Before I get started with
Early One Morning
, I’d like to solve a little mystery I created with
Barefoot on the Couch
. You’ll notice that there is a paragraph in the acknowledgements there that is completely in Spanish—it’s dedicated to the truly adorable Tim Hutton (“Timoteo”) and shares best wishes for his sons Noah (“Noé”) and Milo, as well as his lovely wife Aurore. I thought about putting the paragraph in French, thereby forcing Aurore to read it to him (*mischievous giggle*), but I was worried it would be a ferocious mess. Spanish, at least, holds few grammatical secrets for me, so it was less of an effort.

)O(

I’d like to start out by thanking Mark Burnett and Roma Downey for their tireless effort. If you haven’t seen their miniseries
The Bible
by the time you read this book, put it in your Netflix queue, rent it from your local library…whatever! Just don’t miss it…
The Bible
is not only a fantastic piece; it was partly the inspiration for this book.

I always thank Tana Siemaszko for being the best mother a girl could have…now I’d like to thank her for being the best editor, too. After so many nights discussing plot holes in the television shows we watch, I thought she’d be the perfect person to look over my manuscript.

You’ll notice that
Early One Morning
is dedicated to two people, the second being Bill Johnston. He was my language arts teacher in sixth grade and was a great inspiration, whether it was reading Poe aloud in a darkened classroom or teaching us the nuances of biology and physics. Sadly, Bill passed in 2011 after a lengthy battle with cancer. I promised his widow, Sarah, that I’d dedicate my next book to him; but I forgot when it came time to decide who to accompany the likes of Kira Leyden-Andrea and Christian Kane. (I’m sitting here thinking that I should’ve created a character named Sarah, but that name is most commonly associated with Saint Sarah and not Rome, so that wouldn’t have worked. [Maybe next time!])