My Urchin Empress

History tells that Elena was the daughter of a tavern keeper who met and cohabited with a Roman officer and bore a son Constantine. She was divorced in favor of a dynastic marriage and disappeared from history. She reappeared to be Empress Helena in Constantine' court. "My Urchin Empress" is told by the slave girl Linia. It takes place during the great religious persecutions which ended with the conversion of the empire to Christianity. Saint George and Saint Mauritius are martyred in...
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History tells that Elena was the daughter of a tavern keeper who met and cohabited with a Roman officer and bore a son Constantine. She was divorced in favor of a dynastic marriage and disappeared from history. She reappeared to be Empress Helena in Constantine' court. "My Urchin Empress" is told by the slave girl Linia. It takes place during the great religious persecutions which ended with the conversion of the empire to Christianity. Saint George and Saint Mauritius are martyred in the book. Elena becomes Christian under the influence of a friend, and is obliged to watch as the friend is killed in the arena.Her young son Constantine is taken as a hostage in the pagan east of the empire, while his father is Caesar of Britain and Gaul. Elena engineers Constantine's escape to England, where he arrives as his father is dying. She then joins her son and becomes his close advisor. Constantine's ruthless quest for total imperial power results in increasing paranoia, moderated by his mother, although she herself suffers from bouts of deep depression. These problems result in appalling family tragedy and the Empress Helena's final great pilgrimage. The book covers the great issues of the day in the Roman Empire and has many similarities with today. Religious persecution, the suppression of women, unwanted immigration, slavery, the corruption of power, rape as a weapon of war, and mental illness all play their part.