Imperial Vengeance

by Ian Ross Book 5 in the Twilight of Empire series.

First published 2017

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4.5(573)

AD 323–326. Constantine controls the western empire, but Licinius still rules the East and another civil war will decide whether either man can claim sole power. Aurelius Castus has risen to high command and is drawn into the final campaigns, where Constantine’s son Crispus is both a talented military leader and a potential focus for political opposition. Victories on land and sea bring the empire together under one emperor, but they do not end the danger around the imperial family.

Ross then turns from civil war to the obscure dynastic crisis of 326. Crispus and the empress Fausta become entangled in accusations whose historical basis remains uncertain, while Constantine’s growing ruthlessness places Castus in an impossible position between service, friendship and self-preservation. The novel uses the gaps in the surviving sources to construct a political tragedy around some of the most controversial deaths of Constantine’s reign.