... implebit ruinas: conquassabit capita in terra multorum. When General Georgi Zhukov enters the ruined Reichs Chancellery in Berlin and discovers a curious lance in a felt-lined box, he realizes he`s unearthed a symbol, an instrument of incredible power, a totem of total domination... Tracing the Lance of Phineas from the dawn of history, through Tiberius Caesar and Cheruski warriors to a Syrian soldier called Gaius Longinus, and then to a scene of world-shattering import on Golgotha, the author blends mysticism with historical fact to keep the past vividly alive. Charlemagne, Parsifal, Napoleon, Emperor Franz Josef of Austria... and a young watercolor artist from Linz - all are fascinated by the sacred lance and the prospect of world domination that it brings. But it also carries the seeds of its owner`s destruction, and none knows this better than the doomed Reichs Chancellor, Adolf Hitler...