Avenging Africanus: Belisarius and the Roman Empire's Return to Africa (Legend of Africanus) - Softcover

Storm, Matthew Jordan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1511676752 ISBN 13: 9781511676755

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

Synopsis

For centuries children of the West have been taught that sometime in the 5th century Rome "fell" and with it, the world fell into the Dark Ages. This is only partially true. The Western Roman Empire did fade but in the East, in the old city of Byzantium on the Bosporus, the Romans would survive for a thousand years longer. 
 
Half a century after the Western Roman Empire was toppled by the Goth warlord Odoacer, a new Caesar ascends to the throne in Byzantium. This man, the Emperor Justinian, refuses to accept that Rome's best days have passed. With the help of his extraordinary young General Belisarius, Justinian will attempt the impossible - to expel the barbarians from Rome's Lost Lands and to restore the Empire to its former glory. Join them on their stunning adventure in the LEGEND OF AFRICANUS trilogy. 
 

In AVENGING AFRICANUS, the sequel to FROM AFRICANUS, General Belisarius leads Valentinian and the Roman Army on a perilous journey across Mare Nostrum to Africa in order to punish the Vandals for the Sack of Rome a century before, their invasion of Rome's African province, and their role in the collapse of the Western Empire. The journey is perilous - many prior expeditions against the Vandals had been tried and failed. The Vandal horde outnumbers the Romans twenty to one. If they fail there will be no rescue. If they prevail, the Emperor Justinian's plan for restoring the Western Empire will be within reach.

About this title

From the Author:

AVENGING AFRICANUS is the sequel to From Africanus, and it is followed by Immortal Africanus (the last book in the Legend of Africanus trilogy).  These books are the product of my obsession with this Rome, Rome on the cusp of the dark ages - a darkness that had already engulfed the Western Empire and now menaced the East.
A peculiar man had risen to the throne in Constantinople, 51 years after the last Western Emperor was forced off the throne by the Goth warlord Odoacer.  This new Caesar, Justinian I (born Pietrus Sabbatius), was most peculiar because he did not accept the status quo of a dismembered Empire where barbarian princes ran roughshod over Roman peoples and principles.  He would be the last Roman Emperor to speak Latin as his native tongue.  And he would be the last to include the city of Rome, the birthplace of the Empire, among his dominions.  That Justinian sought to restore what had been rent asunder was noble but not novel.  What made this dream relevant is that he found a general, a truly extraordinary man to help him realize his vision on the field of battle (and after the battle was won) by the name of Flavius Belisarius.
Avenging Africanus picks up precisely where From Africanus closed, in the summer of 533CE in Constantinople.  Belisarius' fleet has just raised anchor and sails south from the Golden Horn through the Dardenelles on a 1,000 mile journey to what had once been Roman Africa before it was stolen by the Vandals, precipitating the fall of the Western Empire.  Once there he would make for Carthage and seek battle with Gaiseric, King of the Vandals.
 
The world fully expected the Romans to fail as Roman armies had failed in the field against the Vandals and their Germanic 'barbarian' cousins for generations.  If they lost to the Vandals there would be no retreat and no hope of reinforcements.  And if Justinian and Belisarius lost this war, the Eastern Roman Empire itself would be in grave jeopardy.What happens next is part of the historical record and I won't spoil the plot for readers but I promise you that the pure history is as gripping as any fiction.  I do hope that my readers find my rendition of these events equally engaging.

About the Author:

Mr. Matthew Jordan Storm is a Roman History nut. If he had more time and aptitude he would have become an archaeologist or historian but now moonlights as a writer of historical fiction instead. Mr. Storm has lived and worked in three former capitals of the Roman Empire: Rome, Milan and Istanbul - experiences that marked him, contributing greatly to his novels and fomenting his obsession for Rome on the cusp of the Dark Ages. Mr. Storm is author of the LEGEND OF AFRICANUS trilogy - three novels of historical fiction set in the Roman Empire of Justinian the Great, fifty years after the Fall of the West. Volume I: From Africanus Volume II: Avenging Africanus Volume III: Immortal Africanus

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1511676752
• ISBN 13: 9781511676755
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 326