The Guardians of Byzantium by Justin Isaacs
Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres. I read a
lot of WWII historical fiction but wanted to share with you another time period,
395 AD. As part of Love Book Tours, please enjoy learning about this book. I’ve
included an excerpt so you can have a little taste of what waits for you!
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About the book:
The year is 395AD, Theodosius the last sole ruler of the
Roman Empire is dead. The Western Roman Empire falls under the control of the
Vandal General Stilicho, regent to the child emperor Honorius, whilst in the
East the adolescent Arcadius comes under the control of the Praetorian Prefect
Rufinus.
When the murder of the Praetorian Prefect in front of
thousands of witnesses goes unpunished, the Imperial Court of the East is
plunged into chaos as senators and officials scheme and connive to gain the
control of the Empire. Out of the chaos rises a eunuch, ruthless, hungry
for power and determined to put his troubled past behind him.
The murder also triggers an army of barbarians commanded by
a Gothic King to go on the rampage through Greece unchecked. In the midst of
the carnage, a farmhand and army veteran make a journey to Constantinople to
raise the alarm but become entrapped in the intrigue and street politics of the
city.
Meanwhile, a young ambitious procurator discovers a plot
that threatens to undermine the very fabric of the Roman Empire. With the help
of a Persian moneychanger and a loyal Gothic bodyguard he follows the trail of
clues deep into the underworld of Constantinople, and across the sea to
Cyzicus, where strange happenings in the Imperial Mint raise more questions
than answers.
Events come to a head in the Peloponnese when the Western
Empire lands an army to remove the barbarian hoard from Greece, but
Constantinople employs a daring political gambit which causes the two halves of
the empire to lock horns in a battle, both sides vying for supremacy over the
whole Roman Empire.
It is in these years, that the Guardians of Byzantium are
born. A secret organization that guards the Byzantine Empire and keeps it alive
for a thousand years after the West has fallen to the barbarians.”
Excerpt:
And after many torrid years, many bloody campaigns, many
agonizing wounds, and many hard-earned promotions, here he was.
No, he could not quite believe it.
Inside, he was still that desperate, scrawny youth, unworthy
to be mingling with the illustrii, the rulers of the empire. He was encompassed
on all sides by them as they gathered on a raised dais standing on the vast,
flat, sand-covered parade ground within the confines of the Campus Tribunalis
at Hebdomon. One of the largest training camps for Imperial troops of the Eastern
Empire, it lay seven miles from the Milion stone in Constantinople. New Rome.
From their elevated position, with the sun at their backs,
the Imperial party could see in the distance, the glints from the spears and
helmets of men marching along the Via Egnacia, the thousand-mile-long road from
Dyrrachium to Constantinople. Where the road passed the Campus Tribunalis, the
men had peeled off from the cobbled stone surface, marched through the huge
gates of the camp, past the tents and barracks, along the dusty thoroughfares
and onto the immense parade ground in front of the dais.
The empty road to the right wound its way towards the
seventh hill of Constantinople, disappearing into the hazy distance. Gainas
watched apprehensively as the parade ground filled with men. His men. Men who
had been marching for days. The praepositi officers organised them neatly into
their centuries, with the experienced veteran optios yelling and bellowing out
orders. The general, with his practised military eye, could see that they were all
tired, thirsty, and hungry.
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