The doomed city

"The doomed city" by John R. Carling is a novel written in the early 20th century. It is a historical romance-adventure set in the first century under Nero, centering on the Roman patrician Crispus Cestius Gallus as he is drawn into Judea’s tensions, a secret marriage, and the orbit of figures like Princess Berenice, Titus Flavius, and the procurator Florus. The likely arc follows rising unrest toward a catastrophic siege, with personal loyalties, politics, and faith colliding around Jerusalem. The opening of the novel follows Crispus on the Syrian coast as he meets his friend Titus, then is secretly summoned by Polemo, King of Pontus, who offers him a crown on the condition that he immediately wed a veiled bride, “Athenaïs,” without seeing or hearing her and remain faithful for three years; Crispus consents, marking the union with a ring engraved like a temple aflame. Arriving in Cæsarea, he attends Florus’s lavish banquet, where Berenice deflects a blasphemous libation to Nero, Crispus tells the eerie “Great Pan is dead” tale, and pressure mounts to try the Zealot bandit Simon the Black. A staged “Queen of Beauty” contest makes Crispus judge by lot; despite a hint that his unknown wife is among the rivals, he awards the golden girdle to the modest maiden Vashti over the radiant Berenice and receives a kiss. Later, in the palace gardens, Crispus and Vashti speak of her Greek learning, Josephus’s guardianship, and a curious omission of her name from public rolls, before Berenice joins them under signal-fires marking the new month, and Crispus admits he seeks the temple because of a troubling dream.

The doomed city, by John R. Carling. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #77443.