That's excellent timing--I just finished the chapter summaries for the first nine chapters of the story. If anyone finds anything missing or has suggestions on how to make it better, please let me know!
ROME AARISEN BOOK SUMMARIES:
BOOK ONE: THE KOMMNENID RISE
Chapter One- Limitless Ambition - Alexios Komnenos, Prince of Kappadokia and Conqueror of Damascus, dies at his palace in the same, leaving his lands and title to his sixteen year old son Demetrios. Demetrios, just coming of age, is married to Anastasia Diasorenos, daughter of local nobility—the marriage looks to be one of love and promise. The husband and wife piece together that Emperor Michael VII is not in fact a friend of the Komnenids at all, as Demetrios’ rather infamous uncle Manuel sidles up to him. Demetrios invades Tripoli, both to increase his lands and test the Emperor’s response—which is chilling at best. In a moment foreshadowing the future, Demetrios sires a bastard named Michael. The Hungarians declare war on the Empire, but the Emperor and his armies remain close to Tripoli, warily eyeing the young Prince of Kappadokia. Demetrios decides to beat the emperor to the punch, and declares a rebellion in 1090. The Prince arrives safely before the Theodosian Walls outside the capital, before the Imperial navy blockades the Bosphorus, cutting him off from supplies and without hope. Demetrios later finds out that his uncle Manuel has been promoted to
Megas Doux, commander of the fleet, and is offering to end the blockade if Demetrios names him
Kaisar. Manuel implies that if Demetrios doesn’t, he’ll let his nephew starve before the walls. Demetrios agrees, Manuel lifts the blockade and Konstantinopolis opens its doors. Michael VII is deposed, and the Komnenid dynasty begins.
Chapter Two – An Emperor Enthroned – Anastasia dies in childbirth, leaving Demetrios to mourn on the eve of his coronation. In the name of peace with the Hungarians, Demetrios marries Hajnal, daughter of the Hungarian King, but the marriage is a loveless one—indeed, Demetrios is cruelly ambivalent to her. Demetrios’ mother, as master of spies, begins a correspondence with the
hashashin—making empty offers to prod them into attack the family of the Seljuk Sultan. Uncle Manuel alienates an ally and makes a grab for the throne—a coup that is summarily crushed. Demetrios then invades the Holy Land and takes Jerusalem after a difficult fight, as Hajnal gives birth to Demetrios’ first legitimate child—Nikolaios, a clearly intelligent boy primarily raised by his mother. The Sultan discovers the correspondence between the Romans and the
hashashin, and plots revenge. Hajnal, angered by her husband’s callousness and boorish behavior, plots his demise to put Nikolaios on the throne.
Chapter Three – The Turkish Saga – The Sultan convinces the Cyrenaican Emir to attack the Croat Kingdom to the west of the Romans, intending to distract them from his main preparations for war. The Croat army is massacred, its King killed. Demetrios et al fear a two-front attack by the Muslims, and at decide to preemptively strike, taking over Croatian lands, as well as Cyrenaica. The Turks invade, and the Roman response is two pronged—Demetrios’ friend Isaakios Thrakesios leads a mottled Norman/Croat/Roman army from Egypt to save the Holy Land, while Demetrios launches a daring invasion of Mesopotamia. Nikolaios gets his first taste of combat with Thrakesios’ unit at the crushing victory of Mount Tabor, and realizes he has feelings for the general’s son Ioannis. Demetrios suffers a disastrous defeat at Arbela, but manages to recover enough to force the Sultan into a stalemate. A budding father-son bond is shattered when Nikolaios tells his father he needs to end the war. At the triumphal return to Konstantinopolis, the
hashashin attack Demetrios and the newly legitimate Michael.
Chapter Four – Rise of an Heir – Michael dies in the assassination attempt, but Demetrios lives, and orders Hajnal’s execution. Distrusting her son, he sends Nikolaios into exile as a backwater noble. Nikolaios finds out Ioannis shares feelings for him also, and the two begin an illicit relationship. Demetrios launches a foolhardy invasion of the Cuman Empire. While his father fights the Cumans head on in battle, Nikolaios, head of a smaller side invasion, using cunning and guile to win Imeretia from its Cuman Khan. Demetrios is defeated and captured at the Battle of Lukomorie. Nikolaios saves the day by realizes a civil war among the Cumans is imminent, and uses that information to gain his father’s freedom, as well as the title of “co-Emperor of the Romans.” Demetrios is left in charge of the military and is senior emperor, while Nikolaios runs the day to day affairs and foreign relations of the Empire.
Chapter Five – Tools of Manipulation – Demetrios’ lustiness continues, and he sires a bastard by his spymistress, Siddiqa Mazin, who immediately begins plotting to get her son put on the throne. Siddiqa uncovers evidence that Nikolaios is homosexual, and plans to use it to destroy him. Nikolaios however foils her plot, instead exposing her as a traitor. A furious Demetrios leads the army against the traitors, chasing Siddiqa into Aswan, where Nikolaios’ love is killed in battle. Enraged at the loss, Nikolaios goes after the only one of Siddiqa’s coconspirators he can attack, a priest whom is brutally punished. Demetrios and Nikolaios create the Kingdom of the Rus by fiat in an effort to try to get the Rus to stop sending annoying requests for help. Demetrios leads the Romans into war against the Turk one last time, crushing the combined armies of the Turkish Empire at Nineveh. The Turkish Empire collapses into civil war, as Demetrios et all take massive tracts of land in spoils. The Empire secured, her borders stretching from the Crimea to Egypt, Demetrios finally dies at age 67, father to 8 sons and 7 daughters.
Chapter Six-The Succession- Demetrios is declared a saint by the Orthodox Church, as well as the
Megas. However, his numerous children threaten to break the empire apart by squabbling. Nikolaios is now sole Emperor, but refuses to name his brother Christophoros, the
Megos Domestikos as a co-Emperor, instead naming him
Kaisar. Christophoros creates a war with Beni Halal to gain notoriety for himself. Nikolaios’ younger brother Manuel proves himself adept at treachery as well as command, seizing Norman Egypt by surprise and storm soon after becoming Prince of Aswan. Manuel and Nikolaios plot a joint power arrangement against Christophoros—but Manuel is secretly playing both sides. Manuel’s schemes eventually pit Nikolaios against Christophoros on the battlefield, where Nikolaios loses and commits suicide. Christophoros returns in triumph to Konstantinopolis, only to be poisoned by Manuel in a daring scheme. 18 year old Manuel becomes sole Emperor.
Chapter Seven – The Italian Sideshow – Manuel seemingly becomes obsessed with creating a new Patriarchate to change Church doctrine at his own whim. However this is a ploy to gain a
casus belli to retake southern Italy from the Normans as well as exile Christophoros’ son Zeno and other ‘political unreliables.’ Duke Godfrey of Campania sends his beautiful daughter Basiliea to Konstantinopolis, hoping to lure the Emperor into backing his bid for the Norman throne. Instead, Manuel marries her and uses her father’s predicament as a pretext for invasion. Manuel’s first invasion goes swimmingly well—the Norman Kingdom folds, and only the intervention of the Holy Roman Emperor prevents Manuel from moving further. Manuel’s golden tongue turns Emperor Hermann from and enemy to an ally, much to the chagrin of the Pope and his chief advisor, Cardinal Rimini. Stymied, Godfrey aligns with the Pope, and openly begins scheming with Rimini as well as his daughter to undo the Roman Emperor.
Chatper Eight – The Building Storm – Zeno Komnenos, now stationed in Italy, has figured out what happened to his father, and is already plotting his own vengeance and rise to power. Empress Basiliea, along with her two young sons Basil and Niketas, sails to Italy to “visit her father.” In fact, she, her father, and Cardinal Rimini are meeting to discuss planning a rebellion, the greatest since Demetrios
Megas overthrew Emperor Michael VII. Basil, a boy not keen to read with bad eyesight, meets Rimini, who discovers Basil is highly intelligent, he just has problems reading. Under Rimini’s tutelage, Basil begins to blossom intellectually, and soon shows himself incredibly stubborn and dedicated to training. To the East, the Turkish civil war has finally ended, and Sultan Sulieman III is keen to retake the lands lost to the Romans long before. Basiliea et al strike, but their plot to assassinate the Emperor is foiled by Manuel’s sense of smell. The Great Rebellion lasts three years, but ends in the defeat of the rebels, thanks to the efforts of Manuel’s cousin Kosmas Komnenos. As the imperial forces close in on Basiliea and her sons in Taranto, the Empress commits suicide. Persons unknown attempt to kill Basil in his sleep, and do manage to kill Niketas. Rimini saves young Basil and his friends by whisking them to Rome. Manuel finds out where his son is, and marches on Rome, threatening to level the city for the Pope ‘kidnapping’ his eldest eligible son. Pope Innocent II meets Manuel’s army with an army of pilgrims, and through brazen talk, convinces the Emperor to take the rest of southern Italy but leave Rome to the Papacy. Basil returns to Konstantinopolis, where he is smitten by a young girl named Sophie. Basil doesn’t know her father is Theodoros Komnenos, a distant cousin from Antioch who has joined Zeno’s plot to kill Emperor Manuel. On a fatal hunt, Manuel, Basil and their escorts are ambushed, and Emperor Manuel is grievously wounded.
Chapter Nine – – Sulieman III launches his massive invasion, taking advantage of the chaos caused by Manuel’s injury. With the Emperor incapacitated, the government has fallen on Zeno as Regent and an unwieldy committee. The war effort suffers, as the Sultan advances from victory to victory. Zeno’s hopes for a quick victory he can claim credit for are dashed when Kosmas, by far the best of the Roman commanders, is defeated at Tell Bashir, his army utterly destroyed. Basil, angry at how poorly the war is going, suggests to a still sickly Manuel that Zeno be raised to co-Emperor, so the blame for the war falls on him, while Basil goes to Apulia and raises an army with the help of his friend Rimini. Emperor Manuel reluctantly agrees. Sophie joins in the plotting as well, suggesting Basil use the offer of emperorship to get Zeno to consent to their marriage. While Basil discovers training an army isn’t easy, a newly married and already pregnant Sophie discovers Manuel is not as sick as he’s been letting on. Basil leads his army into Syria, at first suffering defeat before launching a legendary campaign in the summer of 1166 that would see the Turks completely driven from Syria and the Levant and Basil become immensely popular. At the Battle of Jerusalem, Basil is badly wounded, and goes unconscious. He sees a vision telling him that the Romans need to not destroy the Turk. Basil comes to, only to hear the Sultan himself is marching into Syria to end the war once and for all. Basil moves north as well, and as the two armies meet, messengers arrive stating a peace treaty has been signed. Zeno has stopped the war, ceding territory to the Turks, in order to undercut Basil’s massive popularity. Basil meets the Sultan to discuss arrangements, and finds out the two are more alike than he ever thought possible. Meanwhile, Sophie has spent much coin and money to unseat Zeno, only to find she knows far less about plotting than she thought. Emperor Manuel comes back into his own, and orders Zenos’ execution for treason and incompetence. The Emperor, bored with Konstantinopolis and aware of his own failings, then gradually hands power to his son, practically waiting till his son ousts him in a bloodless coup and sends him into exile.
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