Hello! Can you all help me find the name of a book?
Published circa 2000-2002, it was on the new shelf at the public library when I read it during high school. While I was reading it as a teen, and there wasn't really a designated teen/YA section, it was definitely geared towards adults. Set in ancient Rome, it featured a hunky, muscled guy in Roman-style armor on the cover. It's about a child that was either born a demigod or was an answer to someone's prayers that aged rapidly into adulthood (as in, over the course of a few short years grew from a baby into a young man in his 20s) and eventually found his way to becoming a hero. I don't remember much about what he did, except that at some point he travelled to the underworld and discovered a realm of dying gods - gods who have no living worshippers and are on the cusp of total annhilation. One helps him find his way through the underworld, asking only that he build a shrine to the god when he returns to the living world. And when our young hero said the god's name, the god glowed so brightly. This is not a major plot point of the book, but one that proved most memorable to me. And the hero kept his word, building shrines wherever he traveled thereafter.
Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Thanks in advance!