At the height of the Roman Empire, a young Jewish boy, Saul, is taken from his family in Palestine to be a slave to Marcus Tiberius of Rome. But though the father of the house is obsessed with the boy, it is Marcus' son, Flavius, whose interest Saul returns, brewing a storm within the family which Saul can only hope to weather. As years pass and the boys grow into men, their love will be tested, the marriage Marcus plans for his son bringing a selfish and jealous woman between them. And if she cannot tempt Flavius from Saul with kindness, it will have to be cruelty... In a time when jealousy, honor, and rivalries were questions of life and death, how can a slave protect himself from the jealousy of his masters? P. J. Mann's 6th book, Aquila et Noctua tells a story of love across boundaries in ancient Rome, a deeply humane tale from a world thousands of years and leagues away.