The Final Inquiry (L'Inchiesta)

It is the year 35 of the Vulgar Era. The Emperor Tiberius is troubled by strange phenomena, an earthquake and the sky turning black as an eclipse. His astrologers give him fair warning: their omens indicate that the world is in the throes of a great upheaval and that old gods have been annihilated. A new kingdom is about to rise in the East. The Emperor calls Tito Valerio Tauro, the most prominent investigator in Rome, back from his exile. He was ostracized years earlier because he had discovered too much regarding the death of the great Emperor Augustus, the predecessor of Tiberius. Tiberius entrusts Tauro with a mission that will require all his talent: should he conduct it successfully, his good name will be completely restored. He must discover the truth regarding the death sentence of a poor Judean rabbi. His name is Jesus of Nasareth and they say he has resurrected from the dead. Tiberius is convinced that it has something to do with the prophecies and the celestial omens that shook the world some months earlier. Tauro is a septic and the only thing he believes in is reason, but a series of mysteries that will put his intelligence to the test awaits him in Judea. Nothing is as it seems in Jerusalem. Governor Pilate is an ambiguous man, both discredited and treacherous, who weaves his way among the opposing Pharisee and Zealot factions. During his inquiry, Tauro comes face-to-face with individuals he has never met before: Saul of Tarsus, a valiant defender of Mosaic tradition and an unshakable prosecutor of Christians; the mysterious and nearly insane Judas of Iscariot, who is presumably one of the disciples of Jesus of Nasareth; and the alleged leader of the Christians, a poor fisherman named Shimon Peter. They are humble and powerful men, belonging to one faction or the other, but who share one obsession: an idea of faith that the Roman eyes of Tauro seems to be simply incomprehensible and quite dangerous. He withstands this idea with all his might. He believes that Jesus is only a quack, some kind of impostor and his presumed resurrection must be a public hoax staged in order to exploit the credulousness of the poor lot, the first to be converted to the Christian sect, the followers of Jesus, nearly all of them belonging to the lowest social levels of society: fishermen, farmers, even slaves - all of them treated as free men. And the same holds true, more surprisingly yet, for women - equal to men in the eyes of the Christian God. One of these women who believe in Jesus will finally offer Tauro the key to understanding the mystery of Jesus of Nasareth's death and conclude the mission that the Emperor has entrusted him with. Her name is Tabitha. She is not yet twenty years old and she will unveil the mystery of love to the cleverest and most disenchanted Roman investigator.