The book is around 160 pages written by an unknown author. It was said to have been found on an abandoned American sailing ship in 1876.
The book is something like historical fiction. It’s a fictional story set in a history. You follow a Roman soldier named Marcellus as he is tracking a group of criminals in Roman around A.D. 251. The criminals are Christians who are persecuted under the Roman Emperor Decius, hated and forced to live out their lives in the Catacombs.
We follow the rather quick conversion of Marcellus who goes from Roman soldier to a persecuted Christian himself. Marcellus finds faith in Christ among the tombs of Christian martyrs.
The one thing I did like was the description of the events in the Coliseum. The book somewhat reminded me of the movie "Gladiator" or the HBO miniseries "Rome" although not as enjoyable to read as those were to watch.
The fictitious story is alright but there are parts of the book that were bogged down and slow. The book isn’t all that great and I really can’t recommend it. Save yourself the time and read something else or watch a good documentary on the martyrs.
