Aldo Schiavone is the author of Spartacus and was a professor of Roman law at the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, which he founded. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he lives in Rome. Jeremy Carden lived in Italy from 1987 to 2014. Now based in the UK, he works as a freelance translator.
In this slender, elegantly translated work geared toward lay readers, Schiavone navigates between memory by the four writers of the Gospels, especially John, the closest to the context of first century Palestine and history Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, two first-century intellectuals to help in the reconstruction of these contested events . . . . A levelheaded, engaging reading of the Gospels and historical account that forms a solid sense of this pivotal personage and his role on the epic stage.