Book dossier

The Beacon at Alexandria

by Gillian Bradshaw

A fictional story set in late antiquity in the Mediterranean, mainly in the cities of Ephesus (western Turkey) and Alexandria (Egypt), about a young aristocratic girl with a gift for medicine and science who flees her home in Ephesus, disguises herself as a eunuch, and studies medicine at the school in Alexandria, eventually becoming a well respected surgeon and physician and even serving a stint in the Roman army. Her teachers and mentors include a Jewish physician practicing in Alexandria and the Archbishop Athanasius (a historical figure). Her life path takes her into the way of many adventures that reveal the social and political atmosphere of the fourth century CE (AD), including religious quarrels and scientific debates.