FREDERICK
HARRISON
Theophano was a fateful woman for three emperors—Romanos II, Nikephoros Phokas, and John Tzimiskes—and her name was also associated with two others: her father-in-law Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos and her son Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer. She herself was a chosen figure of destiny: the daughter of an innkeeper who rose to sit upon the purple throne of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The vivid narrative transports us to the flourishing Constantinople, which had by then found its identity, maturing on the waters of the Bosporus, between East and West, between North and South.
As we wander through its glittering palaces, its taxes, stadiums, monasteries, mighty walls, military camps, and harbors, we experience History itself—perhaps as it truly was—shaped by passions, loves, hatreds, envies, ambitions, ideals, and self-interest.
An endless mosaic of figures—both obscure and heroic—scheming clerics, power-hungry officials, and greedy palace favorites, teaches us how history inspires fiction and fiction draws from history. After all, Byzantium uniquely nourished this relationship.
