A Flame In Byzantium Author:Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Olivia: Atta Olivia Clemens, Saint Germain's truest love, who died to mortal life in the bloody era of Nero's Rome. Now, five hundred years later, Olivia must flee the security of her Roman villa; for the armies of the Emperor Justinian, led by the noble General Belisarius, are advancing on the ancient capital to free it from occupation ... more »by the Ostrogoths. Justinian, from his seat of Empire in constantinople, is determined to retake all of Italy...as long as the price is not too high.
Olivia, to save what she can of her heritage, places herself under the General's protection. With her servent Nikolaos and the handsome yound soldier Drosos, she undertakes the painful voyage to the City of the Golden Horn: Byzantium, Constantinople, where she is plunged almost immediately into the tortuous political intrigue of that time. For Constantinople is a city that claims to be Roman while embracing the ways of the Orient; a city where the tenets ofChristianity are being hammered out by Imperial fiat, by philosophy, and by force of arms. And worst of all for Atta Olivia Clemens, a city where women have lost all their traditional Roman rights. For Olivia has very special needs if she is to survive.« less