Exile – A living death to a Roman AD 395. In a Christian Roman Empire, worshipping the traditional gods is a death sentence.

Three Ancient Romans, Maelia, Lucius and Galla, faithful to their beliefs in Rome’s thousand-year religion and values, must choose. Do they stay, hoping for the best, or leave Rome forever – a rupture from everything they know – to search for a safer life?Maelia Mitela, her dead husband condemned as a pagan traitor, leaving her on the brink of ruin, grieves for her son lost to the Christians and is fearful of committing to another man.

Lucius Apulius, ex-military tribune, faithful to the old gods and fixed on his memories of his wife Julia’s homeland of Noricum, will risk everything to protect his children’s future. Galla Apulia, loyal to her father and only too aware of not being the desired son, is desperate to escape Rome after the humiliation of betrayal by her feckless husband.

For all of them, the only way to survive is exile. Sequel to JULIA PRIMA (Historical Novel Society Editors' Choice).

Set at the dusk of the Ancient Roman Empire, the origin story behind the modern Roma Nova thriller series"EXSILIUM offers serious food for thought with this page-turning adventure of twelve determined families fighting to salvage their ancient culture in the face of a newly Christianized Roman Empire. In this origin story poised on the jumping-off point from recorded history into Morton’s Roma Nova series, Morton upends the historical novel trope of persecuted Christians in a thought-provoking look at what happens when any single religion becomes dominant over its competition.

" – Amanda Cockrell writing as Damion Hunter"‘Alison Morton proves she is a master of her craft with Exsilium, the engrossing story of two Roman families fighting for survival as the society and culture that has nurtured them for generations disintegrates before their eyes. Her research and knowledge of the period is evident on every page, but delivered with the deftest of touches.

As darkness closes in and they decide to flee the all-consuming clutches of a dangerous new fanaticism, the reader is swept along with the characters every step of the way. EXSILIUM creates the perfect foundation for the alternative history of the Roma Nova series.

" – Douglas Jackson. .