In the basalt citadel of Machaerus above the Dead Sea, the tetrarch Herod Antipas faces Roman officials, rival sects and an Arab army at his borders. From a pit beneath the fortress the prisoner Iaokanann thunders against Herodias, who is plotting how to silence him at her husband’s birthday banquet.
The last of Flaubert’s Three Tales, a dense, glittering recreation of the ancient world in a few pages. Download the free EPUB.