Who Was This Man?

His mother called him “a monstrosity of a human being, one that Nature began and never finished”, and if he dozed off during dinner gatherings, guests were encouraged to pelt him with the stones of olives and dates.

Because of his physical ailments and illnesses, Claudius faced rabid opposition from Rome’s senators. To help prove himself as a leader, he launched one of the most audacious military campaigns of the first century CE: the conquest of Britain. 

Perhaps also to prove himself, he organized and attended chariot races and gladiatorial bouts religiously, often staying glued to his seat for hours at a time to avoid missing even a second of the bloodshed. But if you ask what Miriam’s brother thought of him, he’d tell you this:

When I was a kid, the gladiators were like gods to me, flexing their well-oiled muscles in the early morning light. And how I thrilled to those waves and applause when I was a retiarius, the kind of gladiator to fight with only a net and trident. No helmet. That was so Claudius, that prick, could watch our faces when our throats were cut.

Well, Binyamin was no bargain either as you’ll see in the first story of my latest book, The Deadliest Returns. In “The Bodyguard”, Binyamin returns home to serve as a bodyguard to the son of a legionnaire. Does it matter that he’s already been declared dead and buried? To find out, just click here.