The Philosopher Prince

the long version

It's 355 AD. In a late-Roman world of ambitious bureaucrats and power-hungry courtiers, two young friends of the British nobility, Drusus and Marcellus, have fallen foul of the prevailing authority. There is no place to hide, no turning back. They must face the irresistible might of the Roman state. It seems a fight they cannot win. For Drusus and Marcellus their only ally is the young imperial prince, Julian. But Julian has troubles of his own: his very success has made him hated by his uncle, the emperor. With spies and adversaries all about them, they link their fate with Julian's in a life-or-death struggle that takes them from one end of the empire to the other and set themselves against the forces determined to crush them. A novel of hope, "The Philosopher Prince" is a story of human values pitted against the cold and calculating machine of an all-powerful tyranny. And at its heart, a victim of the very forces he controls, lies the emperor himself.