The Bathhouse

Roman Spain, 42 A.D. Marius longs for glory beyond harvests. A bathhouse contract promises wealth, until floods devastate his land. Suspecting sabotage, not divine wrath, he uncovers a hidden dam and must decide where his loyalties lie… Roman Spain, 42 A.D. Marius is the proud son of a prosperous olive-growing family and a restless soul who craves more than harvests and household honour. A supporter of the Whites chariot faction, he thrives on rivalry and risk, fighting in the streets as passionately as he cheers in the arena. When his childhood friend Aius – now enslaved to the ambitious patrician, Kaius – secures him a prestigious contract to supply oil for a grand bathhouse destined to rival Rome itself, Marius sees a path to wealth and lasting glory for his family’s name. Then the floods come. Fields are swallowed. Whispers rise of an angered spring goddess. Drawn to a captivating Greek seer who claims the waters carry a warning, Marius begins to suspect that the disaster is no act of divine wrath but the result of a hidden dam built to serve the bathhouse – Kaius’s monument to ambition. As suspicion deepens and desire entangles him in a forbidden triangle with both Aius and the seer, Marius must decide where his loyalty lies. To protect his family’s legacy, he may have to challenge the gods or defy Rome itself…