In 685 AD a 16-year-old boy had been crowned Justinian II, Emperor of Byzantium, the rump of the Roman Empire in the East.  It was the most powerful position in the world at that time.  He was intelligent and capable and despite his youth very ambitious.  He set out to emulate the achievements of his famous namesake Justinian I who had lived more than a hundred and fifty years before him.  He met with some success but failed to keep the people sweet in doing so.  After ten years of high taxation he was deposed by one of his generals, by the name of Leontios.  Justinian's nose and tongue were sliced off, to prevent him from ever aspiring to the throne again, and he was exiled to Cherson in the Crimea.

The novel opens eight years later.  Justinian has recovered his health, and to some extent his ambition, and he has acquired a small following of eccentrics who still consider him to be the true Emperor.  Justinian comes from a far more distinguished line than either Leontios or the present Emperor, Tiberius Apsimar who had deposed Leontios after a reign of just three years. The group is starting to cause trouble and Tiberius Apsimar sends out assassins to kill Justinian.

These attempts are foiled with the help of Michael, who was Justinian's chamberlain when he was Emperor, and who still serves him and by Harald, Justinian's self-appointed Danish bodyguard.  He escapes with them and Cyrus, the abbot of the monastery in Cherson where he was nursed back to health, to Khazaria, a newly founded state on the edge of the Empire.  Here he is received with full honours by their ruler, the Grand Khagan, Ibouzeros.  Although the Khazars have no army of any size the two of them form an alliance and Justinian, whose own wife is dead, but who has a daughter, Constantia, is offered the hand of the Khagan's stepsister in marriage.         

     The 19-year old girl, who is given the Roman name Theodora, is less than enthusiastic about marrying a man with no nose, ex-Emperor or not, but gradually as they come to learn more about each other, a mutual respect develops between them.  Theodora discovers the man she has married is not only physically disfigured but with his dark moods and passions he is mentally scarred as well, a tortured soul.   But she also becomes aware of his charismatic nature, the effect he still has on others, how they are drawn to him, how the most ardent would still be prepared to die for him.

     Theodora finds it difficult to get Justinian to talk about his past, but she is intrigued by what she learns from him about the greater world outside, and by how very quickly he has widened her horizons.  Despite the uncertainty and the danger in her new life she soon comes to realise that she would no longer wish to go back to her old one.   Now that she is learning about the world there is so much more of it she wants to see; she is impatient to go to new places and to meet new people.  And Justinian?  What about him?  He is so strong and yet so vulnerable, so....so frustrating!  And maybe she loves him - but why won't he talk to her about his past, about what had happened to him?

     Justinian for his part cannot appreciate why Theodora wants to understand him.  He had never really opened up to anybody since his brother died when he was ten years old.  He is extremely talented in so many ways, particularly in his powers of persuasion, but he is subject to periods of darkness, of great despair.

He is capable of both great compassion and mean cruelty.  Theodora is a revelation to him and despite their rows his love for her grows until it is all-consuming.  He could have even have forgotten about his Imperial ambitions if only Tiberius could have left them in peace. 

     But Tiberius doesn't leave them in peace - he again sends out assassins to kill his rival and Justinian has to flee for his life leaving the now pregnant Theodora under house arrest in the city of Doros, the Khazar capital.  Justinian's thirst for revenge which had lain dormant is rekindled as a furnace.

     So it is about these central pillars - Justinian's quest to regain the Imperial diadem, and his turbulent love affair with Theodora - that the book revolves, but it also tells the tales of several other players whose lives are all to change significantly, in some way or other, within its pages.

     There is the eunuch, Nicolas, the steward of Justinian and Theodora's household, and a talented singer and musician.  It is Nicolas who has always organised everything, even though Michael often gets the credit.  He is a free man but he is a loyal servant and friend, very popular with everyone especially Theodora.  However when Tiberius threatens Ibouzeros and Khazaria, Ibouzeros betrays his sister and her noseless husband.  Nicolas is killed and Theodora put under house arrest while the Emperor instigates a manhunt to find her husband who vanishes into the night, as do his principal supporters.

      Michael, Justinian's ex-Chamberlain, flees to the Black sea city of Trebizond where he meets up with Honorius.  By now we know much of the defrocked monk's life story, of how Justinian had once got him out of prison when all his other friends had deserted him and he was close to death, and of how he acted as Justinian's spy in Constantinople liaising with Justinian's mother, the ex-Dowager Empress Anastasia.   Honorius, who had been expelled from Cyrus's monastery for breaking his vows of celibacy, though still a devout man, thinks about women and sex all the time and he even modifies his own religious beliefs to match his lifestyle.      

      But although Honorius has slept with so many women, there has never been one he loved.  In Trebizond he thinks he is in love for the first time, but the married woman rejects him once she finds she is pregnant, and returns to her husband. Honorius, having impregnated her, as her husband had seemed unable to do, had served his purpose. The woman had 'used' him as he now realises he has exploited so many women. 

      While Michael and Honorius are in Trebizond and Justinian hidden in a fishing village, Harald, Justinian's bodyguard, spends his time in the wilderness training a young ex-slave boy Balt  to become a warrior.  Balt proves an exceptionally capable bowman as he later proves in the battle to take Constantinople.

 Justinian's forces eventually regroup and they set sail, in the teeth of a gale, for the land of the Bulgars where Justinian has been offered sanctuary and military support by Tervel, the Bulgar Khan.

          Only Michael, who had been with Justinian for twenty years, misses the boat to Bulgaria, having stayed behind in Trebizond when Honorius left.  For, to his great delight, he has discovered that he has a son in Trebizond whom he thought had died in childbirth  (His wife had died giving birth )  He had hoped to spend a week or two longer with his son and his family before returning to Justinian's service.   He had certainly not expected Justinian to sail off into the blue so precipitantly.  He is distraught when he realises that there is no way he can follow him to Bulgaria.

      While an army is being trained in Bulgaria Honorius broods on the woman who had rejected him in Trebizond.  He remains celibate throughout his six months in that backwater and indirectly begins to teach Christianity to some of the young Bulgars.  He records not only the details of the day-to-day activities but also his own thoughts. He reflects on Justinian's ambitions.  If Justinian were to become Emperor again would it be God's will that he did so or was he going against the will of God? Was it possible for a determined man to do such a thing?

          No news comes from the land of the Bulgars through the long winter of 704-705 A.D. , and the angst Michael suffers as a consequence, in due course causes him to cast away his new-found happiness  and to make his way to the gates of Constantinople, to be reunited with Justinian who is by then  besieging the city with the help of the barbarian Bulgar army.  Here he immediately makes an invaluable contribution to the beleaguered army, which has already made two failed assaults on the walls, and from which men are beginning to desert .  Michael knows of a tunnel beneath the city walls.

          Meanwhile in the Khazar capital, Doros, Theodora's child has been born.  She names him Tiberius after the Emperor, in an attempt to save his life, and Ibouzeros, under the influence of his mother, stays his hand even though he knows Tiberius wants the child murdered.  After all as unlikely as it seemed at the time, what if Justinian were to be successful? However when eventually Justinian and Tervel are encamped outside Constantinople, Tiberius sends direct orders that he wants the baby killed, and Theodora herself to be publicly hanged as a traitor to the Empire.  Ibouzeros, who until now has seemed Tiberius's pawn, suddenly shows some backbone and disobeys the order.

      One of the conditions of their alliance is that Justinian agrees to allow Tervel to marry his daughter, Constantia, from his first marriage.  When Honorius finds this out he is horrified.  He had once met Constantia, and although she is totally out of his class socially, he had considered her the most beautiful young woman he had ever seen.  For Justinian to even consider marrying her to Tervel who is a pagan barbarian, and who has two wives already, is outrageous.  As far as Honorius is concerned Justinian has now sold his soul to the devil and he decides he can no longer serve such a man.  He would have left there and then but unexpectedly Justinian asks him, of all people, to go to Nicomedia in preparation for escorting Constantia to Constantinople, to marry Tervel, when and if Justinian's uprising is successful.   Keeping his opinions to himself Honorius leaves on his mission, but  when he gets to Nicomedia he falls in love with Constantia and she with him.

      Two hundred men crawl through a narrow tunnel beneath the city walls into the cisterns, the water reservoirs of the city. They are betrayed by Trouhegh and ambushed by an Imperial brigade.  Harald is killed saving Justinian's life and Michael badly wounded.  Fortunately for the invaders Balt, having followed Trouhegh, shoots three separate messengers who are sent  for reinforcements. By targeting the Emperor's residence, Justinian quickly captures the city, with soldiers coming over to him in droves, when they find that he already has a large number of Byzantines in his army.

     The 16-year old Balt,  rather than feeling elated about his invaluable contribution to the successful campaign, instead suffers pangs of regret for what had seemed to him cold-blooded murders , and when he finds that his mentor Harald has been killed, he becomes thoroughly disillusioned with warfare. Despite being hailed as a hero he sinks into depression. 

      Theodora, the first foreign-born Empress to ascend the Byzantine throne arrives in the city two months later with her son, to cheering crowds thronging the quay.  Even to those who still considered Justinian a monster – and  there had been a wave of revenge killings - the love the two of them have for each other is only too apparent.  Any initial resentment to Theodora is quickly dispersed and in a matter of months she becomes a favourite with the masses.  Even Anastasia who had been contemptuous of Theodora's rank comes to recognise her daughter-in-law's warm generosity and her astuteness in political matters.

      When Constantinople falls, Honorius, who simply cannot face the task he has been given, tries to run away but  Constantia follows him.  They try to hide in Ephesus but Justinian's men track them down. However to Honorius's surprise, for he is expecting to be arrested, Justinian encourages the two runaways to marry, but to remain out of the public view.  For it transpires that he is only too pleased to keep Constantia out of Tervel's clutches and he considers his old friend, Honorius, a worthy husband despite his lowly class.  Honorius's relationship with Justinian which had reached rock bottom is at least partially repaired and he is once again reminded of Justinian's unpredictability and the dichotomy of his nature.

          The complex relationships between the four of them, Justinian,Theodora, Honorius and Constantia, their hopes and fears for the future are explored further when Theodora and Constantia meet each other for the first time a year later.

     Justinian has achieved his goal but he is still restless.

     Theodora has proved surprisingly adept at political manoeuvring for a 'country girl' as she likes to describe herself to Anastasia.

     Honorius is being hailed as a saint by the newly converted Bulgars and has another reason to lie low.

     Constantia, who has spent most of her life in hiding, is happy with Honorius but she does sometimes miss the limelight to which she knows now she can never return. 

      Meanwhile Balt leaves the city on a journey to England to repay a debt to Harald. (the sequel )

 

In summary the book has three main themes:-

      The first of these concerns determination and perseverance - how one man, Justinian, never gives up in a great endeavour against tremendous odds.

     The second  relates to the passionate, sometimes stormy, love affair between the mutilated Justinian and Theodora, the Khazar princess he marries and the inspiration she brings to him when he is at his lowest point. 

     Thirdly the book deals with the continually changing relationship between Justinian, who had once been a Byzantine Emperor, the most powerful man in the world, and a defrocked monk, Honorius, who had been born into absolute poverty.  Honorius narrates much of the story and it is with him that the reader is most likely to empathise.