The Philosopher Prince - Softcover

355AD. In a late-Roman world of ambitious bureaucrats and power-hungry courtiers two young friends of the British nobility, Drusus and Marcellus, have fallen foul of the prevailing authority. There is no place to hide, no turning back. They must face the irresistible might of the Roman state. It seems a fight they cannot win. For Drusus and Marcellus their only ally is the young imperial prince, Julian. But Julian has troubles of his own: his very success has made him hated by his uncle, the emperor. With spies and adversaries all about them, they link their fate with Julian's in a life-or-death struggle that takes them from one end of the empire to the other and set themselves against the forces determined to crush them. A novel of hope, The Philosopher Prince is a story of human values pitted against the cold and calculating machine of an all-powerful tyranny. And at its heart, a victim of the very forces he controls, lies the emperor himself.

Paul Waters is a well-travelled classicist; though educated in Britain, he has lived much of his life abroad, including in Africa, America and Greece. His first novel, Of Merchants & Heroes, was published in 2008, followed by Cast Not the Day in 2009.