As the Empire Falls: The Fractured Crown

By Anthony Nichols

1071. Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes marches east to meet the Seljuks at Mantzikert. But the army behind him is already divided.
Alexios Palaiologos and Constantine of Ancyra have spent their lives defending Byzantium's eastern frontier. They know the danger of Turkish horsemen, broken roads and cities left too long without help. What neither can control is the struggle for power travelling with the imperial army itself.
At Mantzikert, battlefield confusion, divided loyalties and one disastrous failure of command threaten far more than a single campaign. In the aftermath, surviving armies remain in the field, rival claims harden, and men who once faced east begin watching one another.
Drawn between Emperor Romanos, the court in Constantinople and commanders with loyalties of their own, Alexios and Constantine are forced into a different kind of war, one fought with sealed orders, oaths, negotiations and sudden violence. Every attempt to prevent civil conflict carries a price. Every decision made to save the empire risks weakening the frontier it was meant to defend.
The Fractured Crown is the final volume of As the Empire Falls, a sweeping work of Byzantine historical fiction built around medieval warfare, military conflict and political intrigue, where friendship, duty and betrayal can turn a battlefield defeat into an imperial crisis.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HJNM9D6L
• ISBN13: 9798173931542
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"