Trebizond

The Byzantines are a forgotten people. They called themselves Romans. In reality they were Greeks who saw themselves as the heirs of the Roman Caesars. When the Dark Ages enveloped Europe, they were the sole lantern bearers from a distant and glorious past. Their disciplined and iron-clad armies, a legacy of the Roman Legions, ensured their survival. By the eleventh century, they were still the greatest power in Europe. Their Empire extended from Syria to the Danube. It was in these years that a new enemy appeared from the Asian steppes...

Trebizond is set in the eleventh century, when Turkish hordes from Asia are storming into the Byzantine empire, slaughtering the imperial armies. Only one man can defeat them: a nobleman and true historical figure called Theodore Gabras. Only he can save the city of Trebizond and make it into the last bastion of Byzantine power in the East.

The story is seen through eyes of three main protagonists: Gabras himself, his wife, Eirene, who is cruelly betrayed and captured by the Turks and makes her own perilous escape to re-join her husband, and the greatest of the Turkish warlords, Afsin, renowned for his brutality, who is entranced by Eirene. He vows to take Trebizond and kill Gabras...

"As a student, I travelled to Istanbul and was captivated by the remains of the huge Byzantine buildings,"says NJ Holmes. "I wanted to know how the Turks had conquered this great civilization. The answer lies in Trebizond. The true story is one of treachery and desperate heroism."