The Nero Prediction - Hardcover

Knipe, Humphry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0976082225 ISBN 13: 9780976082224

Publisher: Process, 2005

Synopsis

It is 48 AD, a time when Rome rules the world and astrologers rule Rome.

Agrippina, the emperor Claudius’ niece, reads in the stars that someone born in Alexandria on July 19, 32 AD, is destined to help raise her son, the future emperor Nero, to the throne of the Caesars. This fated young man is Epaphroditus, a library slave and the book’s narrator, who at the age of 16 is taken by force to Rome to serve young Nero.

Epaphroditus becomes Nero’s confidant as the art-obsessed Caesar dreams of an age when music rules the world. After Nero performs his musical spectacles in public, apocalyptic Christians—believing him to be the antichrist—set Rome afire.

Revolutionary unrest strikes Rome, a fiery comet makes a foreboding appearance, and the young emperor makes a concert tour of Greece as enemies sprout like Hydra’s heads. Epaphroditus, fortified by the return of his faith in astrology, discovers that he, Nero’s protector, is fated to kill his Caesar.

Author Humphry Knipe’s brilliant historical novel shakes the rafters of conventional belief about Nero and his Rome and the ancient science of astrology. As Michael Grant, the preeminent published expert on the Roman Empire, says: “The belief in astrology was so predominant in the Mediterranean world that it exceeded every religion in power and influence. I admire Humphry Knipe’s ingenuity in weaving an imaginative and fascinating story around it in The Nero Prediction.”

Miriam T. Griffin, the author of Nero: The End of a Dynasty, writes: “The Nero Prediction captures very imaginatively an aspect of ancient thinking that conventional scholarship ignores. . . . It contributes to understanding the ancient mental landscape.”

About this title

From the Publisher

This groundbreaking historical novel reads like a thriller and utilizes ancient and modern astrological charts to provide a unique insight into a misunderstood legend and the time in which he lived.

The Nero Prediction combines information gathered from astrologers and historians during the time of Nero with modern astrological software to recreate a predictive natal reading for the most infamous of emperors as well as a number of other key figures of the time. Knipe reveals how the predictions of ancient astrologers were uncannily accurate and shook the Empire to its core.

James Herschel Holden, Research Director of the American Federation of Astrologers, calls Nero: "Fascinating ... Fans of astrology will delight in this compelling narrative, as will the lover of historical novels. The book is enhanced by an appendix explaining the fundamentals of natal astrology and listing the birth dates of first century celebrities."

About ancient astrology... Though modern astrology emphasizes the psychological effects of the zodiac, ancient astrology concerned itself much more with prediction. Due to its perceived ability to foretell the downfall of emperors and the most auspicious moment for revolution, astrology’s influence on the world of ancient Rome was powerful and subversive. Tradition relates that the emperor Tiberius would order hurled from a cliff those astrologers whose advice and predictions he did not find satisfactory.

Due to its emphasis on the forecast of the future, classical astrology has enjoyed a small revival in recent years from astrologers who feel that its practical take on divination can breathe new life into modern practice.

"Classical astrology puts meat on the bones of astrology while adding height and depth to its soul and spirit. As a divinatory art and science (in its original meaning of ‘knowledge’), it helps to put us back in touch with the divine." —Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum, classicalastrology.org

About the Author

Humphry Knipe is co-author of The Dominant Man (Delacorte), screenwriter, and editor. He lives on a horse ranch in Malibu with his wife, glamour photographer Suze Randall, and their children. This is his first novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Process
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0976082225
• ISBN 13: 9780976082224
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280