Deliverance: Part 1 of the Flavius Josephus Journals

Born into a priestly family, the young Joseph ben Matthias (Josephus) is selected by the Grand Council of Jerusalem to undertake a mission to free several of his countrymen who have been held captive in the city of Rome for over a decade. The trip by merchant ship into the heart of the Empire is fraught with danger, as life on the Mare Nostrum is perilous at best, besieged by pirates and unpredictable storms. Attacked by brigands, shipwrecked, and losing his closet allies, Joseph ben Matthias finds himself involved with suspicious characters that might have their own hidden motives behind their reason to befriend him. Nevertheless, in order for his mission to succeed, he must accept help from any source available, only to learn that nothing was ever as simple as he had been led to believe and other forces were already in play to interfere with his mission. With insurgency already brewing in Rome and back home, Joseph finds himself thrust into the middle of Roman politics, with the future of his own people resting uncomfortably on his shoulders. As he walks the narrow tightrope of being a servant to Rome and possibly the next victim of one of Nero's savage purges of the despised immigrants to the city, in all the chaos that surrounds him, Joseph finds love in one of the most unexpected places, which only embroils him further into the madness that exists within Caesar's palace. The balance between doing what is right an what is necessary becomes the ultimate contest as he searches for sanity in a world gone mad. What price is a man willing to pay in order to succeed? Deliverance is the riveting story of one man, his destiny, and his quest to change world history as he attempts to find the answer to that question.