The Victorious Centurion

It was the time in history when Rome with its legions ruled much of the known world with an iron fist.  Latinus Berinas, one of Rome's young centurions, had returned from his conquest of a Germanic tribe that had withstood the advance of Tiberius' army seventeen years earlier.

Now the streets of Rome were alive with throngs of jubilant people, young and old.  They lined the steets to Capitoline Hill and Jupiter's temple in anticipation of seeing the centurion Latinus Berinas lead his troop of hundred of the empire's most accomplished wariors from the Field of Mars to Victory Square.

Latinus had risen quickly in rank to Legatus Legonis, the second highest rank to which a legionnaire could aspire.  In campaigns he commanded ten cohorts, nearly seven thousand men.  His fighting and strategic planning skills were envied by most officers of the highest rank.  His men admired him.  They trusted him with their life. Tiberius, the emperor, held him up as the ideal commander and rewarded him generously after each victorious campaign.

His future looked bright. He had riches and property. Antonia, a senator's beautiful daughter, loved him.  No one doubted that he would lead other legions to victory in years to come.  Yet, there were powerful men in Rome who devised secret schemes aimed at disgracing and crushing him.  They saw his victories and the emperor's praise of his conquests a threat to their evil ambitions. While he defeated their wicked plots and remained victrorious, a man hanging on a cross, whose heart he pierced on a hill called Golgotha in far-off Israel, conquered his soul.