Catholic priest Casimir "Fr. Jake" Jakubowski reaches the retirement age of 70, yet wishes to continue his Michigan ministry. As a favor to Santa Fe's Prelate, the Archbishop of Detroit offers the liberal Fr. Jake a temporary post in Providencia, a New Mexican village on the Rio Grande. A local pastor, the saintly Fr. JesUs Mora, is ill, yet he and most villagers resent the appointment of an outsider to their church of San Isidro―only auto mechanic Armando Herrera and teacher Cynthia Plow befriend Fr. Jake. Within a month, Fr. Mora is murdered; evidence suggests he might have been...

In the spring of 58 BCE the Celtic tribe of Helvetii, then settled in present-day west -central Switzerland and pressured by Germanic tribes from across the Rhine River, voted to migrate to lands in Gaul near the Atlantic Ocean. Gaius Julius Caesar opposed their passage through a Roman province, subsequently defeating an army several times larger than his available legions. In eight campaign seasons, Caesar made Gaul part of Rome's growing empire: Roman institutions of government, law, and customs were veneered onto those of the Celts. The Gallo-Roman culture that prospered formed the...

Julius Caesar's political successes at Rome earn him governorship of two provinces and three legions. Although absent, he effectively runs the government with Pompey and Crassus. After Caesar's Helvetian victory he remains in Gaul to defeat Ariovistus, a German king encroaching on Celtic lands. Yet as Gallic tribes resent a continued presence of Roman legions, talk of rebellion flares and culminates in the massacre of Roman merchants. A rebel leader emerges in the person of Vercingetorix. With ten legions now in Gaul, Caesar establishes a chain of camps, pacifies some tribes, and...