The Cross and the Centurion

By Jimmy Campagna

Two thousand years ago in Jerusalem, a young Centurion in the Roman Empire named Marcus Plavus was ordered to command a squad of legionnaires to crucify a Jewish man named Jesus. Tribune Quantus was a friend of Jesus and Marcus' commanding officer. This story is based on actual facts as revealed in the Holy Bible and the imagined impact of the crucifixion of Jesus on Quantus, Marcus and his wife Maria, who was a true daughter of Rome. The events are both fascinating and thrilling.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886446692

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Prologue

The Cross and the Centurion

Epilogue

About the Author

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The Cross and the Centurion

Jimmy Campagna

ISBN 979-8-88644-668-5 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88644-669-2 (Digital)

Copyright © 2022 Jimmy Campagna

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Dedicated to Christians all over the world.

Acknowledgments

I have had the pleasure and joy of writing this novel, yet I would be remised if I did not thank my brother, Alan, and his wife, Tami, for their many hours of typing and editing, but most of all for their encouragement for me to finish this novel.

Prologue

This novel is based on the actual facts, teachings, and crucifixion of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Holy Bible. It is also a story of fiction. names, characters, places, and incidents are purely products of the author's imagination. The story is also about a young Centurion named Marcus Plavus, who recently graduated from the Military Academy of Rome, and is assigned to the Garrison in Jerusalem. By a strange turn of events, he was ordered to command the crucifixion of Jesus.

This story is also about Tribune Quantus, a friend, mentor, and commanding officer of Marcus. It is a story about Maria, a true daughter of Rome and Marcus's wife.

The Cross and the Centurion

Marcus Plavus had just finished polishing his leather boots for the third time. He bent down and slipped his feet into the boots, laced them with rawhide laces, and tied them just below his knees. Next, he stepped into a pleated skirt, made of heavy wool cloth, with the length to his knees. He tied it around his waist with an ornamental ribbon. He slipped on an embroidered sleeveless tunic reaching to mid-thigh, then put a sash over his shoulder as a symbol of his rank, a Centurion second class, commanding one hundred troops of the Roman army. He tied a four-inch-wide leather belt around his waist and hooked a two-foot sword to it. He tied five wrist cuffs and a pair of gloves to the belt, fastened a sheath, and slid a foot-long stiletto knife with a tapered blade, pointed at the tip into the sheath. Maria, his wife of six months, stood in the opening between their two-room apartment. Marcus asked, How do I look?

Maria smiled and said, You look beautiful, Marcus, you will make a good impression, the Gods will look after you.

Marcus laughed, Which one, Maria?

She answered, All of them, Marcus.

A little irritated, Marcus replied, Maria, when will you stop believing that foolishness?

He headed toward the door when Maria flirtatiously asked, Centurion, aren't you forgetting something? as she teasingly waved a packet containing his orders and personal papers.

He reached for the packet, but she pulled it away, and conquiciously said, Not until you say you're sorry.

Marcus smiled at her flirtatious ways and said, I am sorry; he kissed her and headed down the street. Maria stood in the doorway and thought to herself, A little boy trying to look like a man, trying to act like a Roman Centurion.

*****

As Marcus was strutting down the street with a little swagger, he noticed a horse barn and a paddock with a few horses. He knew he lived in a complex that housed all the officers assigned to all of the Jerusalem's garrisons. This must be where they stable their horses when they are off duty. He wondered if the horse he will be assigned would be one of those horses. After all, no Roman officer walked; they always