An Age of Darkness and Light

Years of war and plague have left Italy depopulated and divided. Under the new king Totila, the Ostrogoths recover territory from overstretched imperial forces, while Italian communities lose confidence in distant government from Constantinople. Justinian recalls Belisarius to the western campaign but provides too few troops and too little money to reverse the collapse.

Varus returns to Italy beside his former commander as Rome, Ravenna and the surviving imperial garrisons face renewed Gothic attack. The novel follows the second phase of the Gothic War, setting Belisarius’s loyalty and friendship with Varus against Totila’s reconquest, Theodora’s declining health and the emperor’s distrust of a general whose victories have made him politically dangerous.