Rise of the Golden Heart

by Gordon Doherty Book 2 in the Strategos series.

First published 2013

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4.4(695)

In 1068 CE, Seljuk victories weaken Byzantium and the empire searches for a soldier capable of restoring its eastern armies. Apion has become strategos of the Chaldian frontier force and is summoned to Constantinople for the accession of Romanos Diogenes.

The ceremony becomes part of a palace conspiracy intended to redirect imperial power. Apion must protect the new emperor, navigate enemies within the capital and then lead him east before further Seljuk attacks destroy the confidence of an army already close to collapse.

Romanos's accession offers Byzantium a chance to reverse the military decline of the eastern frontier, but palace politics make reform dangerous before the army even marches. Apion must navigate factions whose interests do not necessarily align with defeating the Seljuks. The novel places battlefield preparation beside the internal rivalries that will eventually undermine imperial strategy in the years before Manzikert.