RE: Akaba A Christian action, adventure historical novel.

Dear Agent,

In 1990 a manuscript was found buried in stone boxes in the hills behind Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Some gold coins were found nearby with images of two kings and a prince unknown to history. The Saudi government commissioned an American linguist to translate the manuscript written in Koine Greek. It was the memoirs of Pentaurius, King of Elab, a commercial kingdom that once existed on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Akaba. Founded by ancient Israelites as an outlet for King Solomon's African trading expeditions and later annexed by the Greeks in the 4th Century B.C., it existed into the First Century A.D. when it mysteriously disappeared from history. It was the first country to adopt Christianity as the state religion. The translator copied the manuscript on to a computer disk and smuggled it out of the country via another American expatriate. He attempted to escape from Saudi Arabia, was captured and detained until his release was negotiated in the backdrop of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

The "novel" is the translation of Pentaurius' memoir. I wrote this book based on my interest in First Century and early Christian history. I lived and worked in the Middle East (including Jeddah) for several years giving me an interest in Middle Eastern history as well. The manuscript is 973 pages with a word count of 2,101,348. It has excellent possibilities as a single work or a trilogy. Given the success of Gladiator and The Passion of the Christ, there is a market for ancient historical and religious movies.

Thank you for your consideration. I hope you share my faith in this work.

Tom Reidy

Akaba Synopsis

A two thousand-year-old manuscript found near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia reveals the existence of a hitherto unknown commercial kingdom with close ties to First Century Rome. It tells about King Polonius of Elab who is stricken with a fatal disease. He has read about a healer in Judea called Jesus. He sends his son Leonidas along with Pentaurius and Dardanus to Judea to find Jesus. They arrive to discover that He has been crucified. Leonidas and Dardanus return to Elab while Pentaurius stays in Jerusalem locating the Apostles and Mary, the mother of Jesus, on Pentecost eve. Mary tells him that Polonius has been cured. Pentaurius stays and hears the apostolic sermon on Pentecost. Pentaurius returns to Elab with the Apostle Jude who receives license from King Polonius to teach about Jesus but only to the Graeco-Elabites who, for the most part, worship the Greek pantheon. The Old Elabites practice a form of Judaism and their religious leaders do not want them to abandon their traditional faith. Eventually, the Old Elabite religious hierarchy under the High Priest Rua succeeds in getting Jude banished from Elab.

Diocles, Polonius' other son and Leonidas' half-brother, conspires with the King of Parthia to overrun the Elabite trading outpost at Kadimah (modem Kuwait) using Arab surrogates. Diocles never enjoyed favor with Polonius, partly because his mother was a daughter of Herod the Great, who was an Idumaean by birth. Idumaeans were outcasts in Elabite society. Idumaea bordered Elab on the north and Idumaeans were common laborers and household servants. Leonidas has a Roman mother. Elab is bound to Rome by a treaty that hands it over to Rome if the reigning monarch dies without an heir. Diodes has been unable to produce children while Leonidas has a son through an unhappy marriage to a Roman wife.

Leonidas and Pentaurius lead a naval expedition into the Persian Gulf where they are ambushed by a Parthian fleet. Leonidas is killed and Pentaurius is rescued by Vashtar, a Parthian and boyhood friend. While in Parthia, Pentaurius meets Basemath, an Elabite girl taken captive from Kadimah, who was converted to Christianity by Jude and Simon, another Apostle, who are now preaching in Parthia. After bringing Jude to the attention of the Parthian king through a series of spiritual combats with pagan priests, the king frees Pentaurius and the surviving Elabite prisoners-of-war. They return to Elab via Kadimah and kidnap Tryphon, the former Elabite governor of Kadimah, who had conspired with Diocles to betray the city. Tryphon confesses to Polonius who exiles Diodes to Arabia.

Polonius' grandson (Leonidas' son) drowns leaving Elab without an heir. Achillas, Pentaurius' father and the court physician, discovers a loophole in the treaty that allows Polonius to adopt an heir. He adopts Pentaurius. En route to Rome to secure the approval of Emperor Tiberius, Pentaurius visits Mary in Jerusalem. She foretells that Elab has a destiny to save the East from a threat that will someday emerge out of Arabia; however, this destiny hinges upon Pentaurius' choice of his own successor.

Polonius dies, Pentaurius becomes king and Diodes escapes from Arabia. Diodes enlists the aid of the new emperor, Caligula, who sends an army to invade Elab. Pentaurius defeats the Roman army through a series of clever deceptions. He captures a young general, Vespasian, who vows to annihilate Elab and erase it from history. Pentaurius releases Vespasian and the other surviving Roman generals. Caligula executes Diodes and is himself assassinated. Pentaurius forges another treaty with the new Emperor, Claudius.

Christianity takes hold in Elab under the Apostle Thomas causing the High Priest Rua to incite a civil war. Pentaurius takes the field against him and is captured along with Thomas by the rebels during a sudden and mysterious deluge. Pentaurius and Thomas are on the verge of being executed when three suns (representing the Trinity) appear in the sky ending the downpour. The ground is dry and the mud and grime disappear from everyone's clothing. After a few minutes the sun resumes its normal appearance. Thomas preaches to the rebel soldiers and nearly all of them come over to Christianity. Rua and some fanatics retreat into Arabia where a caravan finds their remains tom to pieces by a pack of wild dogs.

Twenty-five years pass. Pentaurius' son, Nepulon, seizes the throne and allies with Judea in its revolt against Rome. He is killed or disappears in battle in Judea. Pentaurius is restored to power but is later forced to abdicate by Vespasian, now Roman emperor, who promises to rescind his oath and allow Elab a certain autonomy if Pentaurius will go into exile. Pentaurius retires to Jeddah in Arabia. Two years later Vespasian unleashes his legions upon Elab leveling its cities and towns and exterminating the population (except for a few who escape into Arabia) and erases all references to Elab from Roman records. Pentaurius writes his memoirs and a history of Elab and buries a copy of them in the hills between Jeddah and Mecca.