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Historical person
c. 685–741
Leo III was Byzantine emperor from 717 to 741. He seized power during a period of severe imperial instability and almost immediately faced the Umayyad attempt to capture Constantinople. Under his government the city survived the siege of 717–718, aided by its fortifications, naval defence and attacks on the besieging army by Bulgarian forces.
Leo III’s survival of the siege of 717–718 stabilised the Byzantine throne and helped prevent the Umayyad conquest of Constantinople. Leo III the Isaurian was born in Germanikeia and died in Constantinople.
Theodore Brun’s A Burning Sea brings Erlan and Lilla to Constantinople as Leo III prepares the capital for the great Umayyad siege of 717–718. The emperor’s defence of the city supplies the documented military framework in which the fictional travellers seek survival and political assistance. A Savage Moon opens immediately after that victory, with Leo’s Constantinople still the point of departure for Erlan and Lilla before the story turns north again into a more openly legendary and supernatural adventure.
Series
The Wanderer Chronicles follow Hakan—later Erlan Aurvandil—from the pre-Viking societies of eighth-century Scandinavia into the wider political world of Byzantium. A Mighty Dawn begins with exile from northern Jutland; A Sacred Storm moves to Sweden and the legendary Battle of Bråvellir; A Burning Sea carries Erlan and Lilla…
All books in this series
