Pilate's Wife: A Novel of the Roman Empire [Hardcover]

Antoinette May (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 24, 2006

A daughter of privilege in the most powerful empire the world has ever known, Claudia has a unique and disturbing "gift": her dreams have an uncanny way of coming true. As a rebellious child seated beside the tyrannical Roman Emperor Tiberius, she first spies the powerful gladiator who will ultimately be her one true passion. Yet it is the ambitious magistrate Pontius Pilate who intrigues the impressionable young woman she becomes, and Claudia finds her way into his arms by means of a mysterious ancient magic. Pilate is her grand destiny, leading her to Judaea and plunging her into a seething cauldron of open rebellion. But following her friend Miriam of Magdala's confession of her ecstatic love for a charismatic religious radical, Claudia begins to experience terrifying visions—horrific premonitions of war, injustice, untold devastation and damnation . . . and the crucifixion of a divine martyr whom she must do everything in her power to save.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Biographer and journalist May (Adventures of a Psychic) turns to fiction to offer a privileged woman's view of religion, spirituality, sex and marriage in the time of Christ. May imagines 14-year-old Claudia Procula living with loving parents and holding a secret devotion to the goddess Isis and a gift for seeing the future. Six years later, Claudia marries the handsome and ambitious Pontius Pilate just before her family falls from imperial favor. While Pilate busies himself with affairs of state (and those of the extramarital variety), Claudia chats with her Jewish slave Rachel, visits her gladiator lover Holtan, tangles with the conniving Empress Livia, dines at Herod's palace and attends Jesus' wedding. Though blessed with the ability to see the future, Claudia never manages to prevent the tragedies she foresees. May is at her best when unencumbered by literary or historical precedent; Claudia's sister, the unwilling Vestal Virgin Marcella, for example, is better realized than the shallowly rendered Caligula, and descriptions of Antioch and Caesarea are more compelling than those of well-known locations like Pompeii. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

May displays a deft flair for historical fiction in this authentically detailed account of Claudia Procula, the wife of Pontius Pilate. The daughter of a distinguished Roman military commander distantly related to the emperor, Claudia spends her childhood in one army camp after another. During a stint in Egypt, she hones her gift of second sight, concocts a magic serum to snare handsome Pontius Pilate, and becomes a handmaiden of the goddess Isis. Indeed, her devotion to Isis and her visionary powers will become the guiding forces in Claudia's life. Of course, reader's familiar with the Bible will remember Claudia's unheeded warning to Pilate about the enigmatic Galilean, but this is not at the heart of the story; rather, May concentrates on painting a portrait of a remarkable woman firmly entrenched in her time and place. Though some might balk at the author's alternative view of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, readers who suspend their disbelief will be amply entertained. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (October 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061128651
• ISBN-13: 978-0061128653
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,232,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Silly, January 14, 2008

By 

Andrew Wilkins - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pilate's Wife: A Novel of the Roman Empire (Paperback)

May's Claudia resembles an airheaded, self-indulged American socialite traipsing through ancient Rome. The book is mostly a series of vignettes describing her costumes, villas and parties. The other characters in the story are hollow, wooden and inscrutable. Historical events and the tragedies surrounding her are rolled through in as footnotes. Claudia's reaction is usually a few words of dismay before she heads off to another party or liaison with her gladiator.

Sillyness pervades the novel. The wedding of Jesus tops the cake--held at his rich uncle's villa, which May describes as the biggest and flashest house in the region, to a wealthy ex-Roman courtesan. There is a crisis at the wedding, they run out of wine!! No problem, Jesus to the rescue turning jugs of water to wine! Ok.

If you're looking for a light romance novel this might be an interesting diversion. If you are a fan of historical fiction I would steer away.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flaws bug me - but the plot sucked me in, December 30, 2006

By 

Lisa Shea "medieval swordfighting enthusiast" - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Pilate's Wife: A Novel of the Roman Empire (Hardcover)

I've done a lot of reading on the times involved in The Da Vinci Code story, including the alternate theories of Mary Magdalene, Jesus, his mother and followers. I was very intrigued when Pilate's Wife came out - offering to cover this same time period from the point of view of Pontius Pilate's dream-seeing partner.

I *love* the Mists of Avalon story, where dream-seeing young Morgause is brought up by her mom and powerfully-driven aunt. I immediately saw the similarities here. Both begin with a young girl on the cusp of womanhood, seeing visions, which the adults around her sometimes dismiss and sometimes pay attention to. With Claudia, she grows up in a military family, only coming into the grand city of Rome after a childhood in army camps. Her family is extremely powerful, so she mixes with the high and mighty, sitting besides Tiberius at the gladiator games, living the high life.

In short time she has dedicated herself to Isis (against her father's wishes), become obsessed with Pilate and drugs him with a love potion, then marries him. But all the not-so-subtle warnings of the potion provider go right over her head - he quickly starts having affairs. Soon she becomes obsessed with a muscular gladiator and starts sleeping with him. It's only at the very end of the book that she actually runs into Jesus, and it's a Forest Gump situation - suddenly she's at every key scene with him. I was surprised that she wasn't at the Last Supper somehow.

There are many aspects of the story which I really enjoyed. I liked the descriptions of the lives of the Vestal Virgins, the political intrigues of Tiberius, the descriptions of ancient towns of all sizes and styles. The story kept me involved and reading to the end through one sitting.

This is my own bias, but it really bugged me that Mary Magdalene was presented in this story as a whore. This was a mistake made by Pope Gregory in 591 which propagated until 1969, when the Vatican admitted the error. The fact that a modern book *still* has to say that the only way this wealthy woman could support Jesus was by selling her body irks me to no end. I'm quite fine with the theory - true or invented - that Jesus married her. We know he "loved" her, and that can be interpreted as a loyal follower or as someone he kissed and was intimate with. But in this book she was cast out by her family for being raped, then makes her fortune by sleeping around with wealthy men. Jesus' mom dislikes Mary quite vehemently and is sulky at their wedding.

Another nit-pick which bugged me is that when (in again a Forest Gump situation) Claudia runs into Jesus as a child in Egypt, Jesus says his name is Yeshua, known by the Romans as Jesus. Hah! If he went around telling people his name was Yeshua as a child, that is what they would call him. In *Greek writing* the name is Iesus since Greek doesn't have a "Y" or "sh" letter, and then they put Ss at the end of their names. So that would be pronounced "eeae-soos" . The only reason there is a J in there is because of the Germans, who use the J letter for a I sound. They also meant for it to be said "eeae-soos". It's only the ignorant English who saw that and started pronouncing it with a J sound. That was *long* long after his death. So the English all mis-pronounce his name.

Many researchers feel that the reason the gospels slanted towards "Jews caused it all, the friendly Romans tried their best to stop it" was because the gospels were written during times the Romans were in power. It's like a newspaper in Germany in WWII slanting pro-Germany. It's something that happens. To have this book push so heavily that "it was all the nasty Jews' fault - those poor Romans were completely on Jesus' side" seemed unrealistic to me.

The book slips into the "ha ha we future people can laugh at your past mistaken ideas" situation a few times. The characters will make comments along the lines of "Nobody will remember this silly messiah in the future" that we the reader are supposed to chuckle at. I don't mind these when they are subtle and fit into the storyline, but the ones here were rather on the blatant side.

For some reason, I also found the clothing discussions confusing. I do enjoy visualizing what the characters look like and how typical dress was worn - but the use of strange terms without enough description of how they looked or were worn made it hard to do. It actually got frustrating when the story would then mention a term, because it was a reminder that I still didn't know what that item was.

In general, I had trouble sympathizing with Claudia. While Morgause in Mists of Avalon was smart and engaging - even while she had typical angst and issues during her life - Claudia seemed incredibly self absorbed and shallow. All she wants is to dedicate herself to Isis. No wait, all she wants is Pilate by her side. Oh wait, all she wants is her uncle to live, forget how Pilate feels. Wait, all she wants is to rut with a gladiator she saw once or twice.

I suppose you could argue that she has to go with the "do what you want NOW, damn the consequences" lifestyle because all around her she sees betrayals at any moment. Her sister, for one brief teen sexual encounter, is condemned to a life as a celibate. When she later has a sexual encounter, she is buried alive. Her parents both are forced to commit suicide. Her uncle is cursed and dies. She has a miscarriage. Other cousins of hers are slain. Still, it would have been nice to get the sense that she was making these choices rationally. I hate to keep comparing the book to Mists, but in Mists you really got a sense of the power of the attraction between Morgause and the men she fell for - and the difficulty of some of the decisions she made. In Pilate's Wife, it was more like a fleeting thought passed through her brain, and she became obsessed with it.

I think if the story had revolved around "random nobility" that these issues wouldn't have bothered me nearly the same. The issue is that Antoinette May is writing about very important people in history - people who have been researched and studied. It's the same issue as with the Da Vinci Code. You need to get those basic, important facts correct if we are going to be able to immerse ourselves in the world. If there are inaccuracies, it jars you out of that immersion.

Still, even though I kept hitting issues that made me wince, the general storytelling drew me along, and as I mentioned, I did read the book straight through and enjoyed it. So go into it knowing that these things exist, and read it for what it does offer. If Antoinette writes her next book about less well known people, I think I'll enjoy it much more!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Who is Francine Rivers?, February 25, 2008

By 

Angela Nelson "2cents" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pilate's Wife: A Novel of the Roman Empire (Paperback)

Between Dan Brown and Francine Rivers the author did not have an original idea to call her own. I found that for her `historical research' she had to go no farther than the Mark of the Lion series, with her secular ideas being borrowed from Brown. Whether you are looking for alternative ideas regarding the deity of Christ or insight into Roman culture you will find this book unoriginal in either regard.