Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997. dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - "In a city called Tarcisis, on the western edge of the Iberian peninsula in what will one day be Portugal, Lucius Valerius Quintius is [the Roman Emperor's] humble servant--the duumvir, or magistrate. Dedicated and loyal, Lucius lives in a contentious time, caught between the dominance of what he calls 'Romanity' - built on its Latin heritage as well as the Empire's global reach - and the fast-growing influence of the cult of Christianity.... Elegant and erudite, Carvalho's novel is an absorbing study of a single man's moral code, as well as a provocative meditation on the difficulty of leading a virtuous life in as era of tumultuous change." (New York Times Book Review) SIGNED and dated in the month of publication Oct/97 by the author on the title page. Also SIGNED by the translator Gregory Rabassa. Winner of the Pegasus Prize for Literature and of The Portuguese Writers Association Grand Prize for Fiction. 265 pp. ISBN: 0-807122351.