These hinterlands are the homeland of Ruso's slave, Tilla, who has scores of her own to settle there: Her tribespeople are
fomenting a rebellion against Roman control, and her former lover is implicated in the grisly murder of a soldier.
Then, after a few months, at best only three years, of a public career in which He was hailed by a crowd which proved fickle and had won the adherence of a coterie of men and women who did not fully understand Him, He ran afoul of the leaders of the organized religion of His people, was accused by them of
fomenting rebellion against the civil government, that of Rome, and was crucified by the order of the local representative of that government.