The ''Videssos cycle'' (sometimes also referred to as the ''Lost Legion'' series) is a
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures.
The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
novel
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
series by
Harry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949) is an American author who is best known for his work in the genres of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery fiction. He is a student of history and completed his ...
and set in the Videssos
fictional universe
A fictional universe, also known as an imagined universe or a constructed universe, is the internally consistent fictional setting used in a narrative or a work of art. This concept is most commonly associated with works of fantasy and scie ...
. Turtledove uses his knowledge of
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...
history and military experience extensively within the story.
Novels
* ''Videssos'' series
** ''
The Misplaced Legion'' (1987)
** ''An Emperor for the Legion'' (1987)
** ''The Legion of Videssos'' (1987)
** ''Swords of the Legion'' (1987)
* The ''Tale of Krispos'' series
** ''Krispos Rising'' (1991)
** ''Krispos of Videssos'' (1991)
** ''Krispos the Emperor'' (1994)
* The ''Time of Troubles'' series
** ''
The Stolen Throne'' (1995)
** ''Hammer and Anvil'' (1996)
** ''The Thousand Cities'' (1997)
** ''Videssos Besieged'' (1998)
* ''The Bridge of the Separator'' (2005)
Plot summary
During an encounter with a Celtic force, a Roman legion is magically transported to another world when the two opposing leaders' swords touch. The Roman force and Celtic leader find themselves in an empire called Videssos. This empire hires them as a mercenary force to help defend their lands from an enemy nation, Yezd. It quickly becomes apparent to the leader of the legionaries, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, that the Empire is rife with political intrigue. With steadfast loyalty to the Emperor and a certain bull-headedness, Marcus manages to safely navigate the particularly dangerous political landscape and advance the place of himself and his men.
At a party to celebrate the arrival of the Romans held by the Emperor Mavrikios, Marcus, slightly inebriated, slips on the floor and bumps into the emissary of Yezd, Avshar. He tries to apologize, but is rebuffed and a duel results. Marcus wins, but chooses to spare Avshar rather than kill a helpless man. Avshar then sends an assassin after Marcus, but the assassin fails and the Emperor uses this attack as an excuse to declare war upon Yezd.
Avshar leads the enemy army of Yezd nomad warriors against Mavrikios' Videssos soldiers and mercenary forces. When Avshar casts a magic spell at the commander of the left wing, Ortaias Sphrantzes, the entire wing of the army is set into chaos as Ortaias turns his horse and flees at full speed. Only the quick actions of Gaius Philippus, the sub-commander of the legion and the aid of a clever ally Laon Pakhymer kept them from falling to the nomad forces. Mavrikios, seeing his grand army destroyed, leads a charge of his personal bodyguards directly at Avshar, hoping that he can at least take the life of this one great enemy. He fails and is struck down. His brother Thorisin, leader of the right wing of the army, is forced to flee and Yezd wins the battle.
Both Ortaias and Thorisin declare they are emperor of Videssos after the battle, but Ortaias, with the help of his uncle, controls Videssos the city. Civil war erupts. Eventually, Thorisin emerges victorious as the citizens inside the city turn on Ortaias and open the gates for Thorisin's troops. It is revealed that the leader of the city guards put in place by Ortaias is none other than Avshar in disguise. Avshar manages to escape.
In an attempt to bolster his forces, Thorisin sends emissaries to other countries to recruit more mercenaries for his Empire. Unfortunately, before he can organize any such force, a group of his own mercenaries turn on him and declare the western half of the empire their own. Thorisin sends a force, including the Legionaries, to the west to put down the rebelling mercenaries while he deals with threats to the east. Half the western army turns in favor of the usurpers, and Marcus is forced to take over and do the best that he can to follow Thorisin's orders. He engages in guerrilla tactics that eventually bring down the mercenary usurpers.
As he is bringing the leaders of the rebellion back to Thorisin in Videssos the City, he is betrayed by his wife, who frees her brother and the rest of the prisoners. He returns to Videssos in shame. While suffering through the betrayal of his wife, Marcus begins a relationship with Alypia, Thorisin's niece. When discovered, he is hauled to jail to await his fate. Thorisin sentences him to death, but commutes the sentence provided that Marcus, alone, remove from power a heretic to the west. Marcus agrees on the condition that he can openly pay suit to Alypia. Thorisin agrees and sets Marcus on a boat to his destination.
After successfully defeating the heretic, Marcus flees the city in front of an advancing barbarian army (his own Legion coming to rescue him.) He signs up with a caravan train and ends up going to Mashiz, capitol of Yezd. There he witnesses the overthrow of the King of Yezd by Avshar. Fleeing Avshar, Marcus manages to escape in the company of an army of nomads who have come to seek revenge upon the Yezd. Together they flee to the east to find Thorisin and plan a campaign against Avshar and Yezd.
At the final battle, Avshar kills the Videssian Patriarch and seems on the edge of total victory when Marcus and Viridovix touch their blades to one another again and the released magic transports Avshar to another world, apparently Skotos' hell. These acts lead to Marcus being granted a title, a significant position in the empire and permission to marry Alypia.
Fictional universe
"Videssos" can mean either the Empire of Videssos, or its
capital city
A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state (polity), state, province, department (administrative division), department, or other administrative division, subnational division, usually as its ...
. The Videssian Empire is very similar to the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...
, and much of its history and geography is analogous to Byzantine history. The main differences are the religion, the existence of
magic as a usable force, and some details of the history of surrounding states. These states strongly resemble neighbours of Byzantine Empire – for instance, Makuran is
Sassanid Persia
The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...
and Vaspurakan is
Armenia
Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...
(
Vaspurakan is in reality a historic Armenian province). The map shown of the known world in the time of the various Videssos stories is based on Mediterranean region, flipped east to west.
Like Byzantium, Videssos is an
absolute monarchy, ruled by an
Emperor
The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...
. The Emperor is assisted by a numerous, influential
bureaucracy
Bureaucracy ( ) is a system of organization where laws or regulatory authority are implemented by civil servants or non-elected officials (most of the time). Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments ...
. The bureaucracy and military are traditionally rivals for power and influence. Even Videssian offices and titles are the same as the Byzantine ones (e.g. ''
autokrator
''Autokrator'' or Autocrator (, from + ) is a Greek epithet applied to an individual who is unrestrained by superiors. It has been applied to military commanders-in-chief as well as Roman and Byzantine emperors as the translation of the Latin ...
'', ''
sebastokrator
''Sebastokrator'' (, ; ; ), was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used by other rulers whose states bordered the Empire or were within its sphere of influence (Bulgarian Empire, Serbian Empire). The word is a compound ...
'', ''
vestiarios'', ''
drungarios'').
The Videssian emperors and their history strongly resemble the Byzantine emperors.
* Genesios is the usurper
Phocas
Phocas (; ; 5475 October 610) was Eastern Roman emperor from 602 to 610. Initially a middle-ranking officer in the East Roman army, Roman army, Phocas rose to prominence as a spokesman for dissatisfied soldiers in their disputes with the cour ...
.
* Maniakes, the main protagonist of the ''Time of Troubles'' series is Emperor
Heraclius
Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas.
Heraclius's reign was ...
, and the name recalls the famed general
George Maniakes.
* Anthimos III, the dissolute emperor, is
Michael III the Drunkard.
* Krispos, of the ''Tale of Krispos'' series, is
Basil I
Basil I, nicknamed "the Macedonian" (; 811 – 29 August 886), was List of Byzantine emperors, Byzantine emperor from 867 to 886. Born to a peasant family in Macedonia (theme), Macedonia, he rose to prominence in the imperial court after gainin ...
, with elements of
John I Tzimiskes and
Basil II
Basil II Porphyrogenitus (; 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer (, ), was the senior Byzantine emperor from 976 to 1025. He and his brother Constantine VIII were crowned before their father Romanos II died in 963, but t ...
.
* Mavrikios Gavras, of the original ''Videssos Cycle'', resembles
Romanos IV Diogenes
Romanos IV Diogenes (; – ) was Byzantine emperor from 1068 to 1071. Determined to halt the decline of the Byzantine military and to stop Turkish incursions into the empire, he is nevertheless best known for his defeat and capture in 1071 at ...
, and the two rival imperial families, the Gavras and the Sphrantzes, are analogous to the
Komnenos
The House of Komnenos ( Komnenoi; , , ), Latinized as Comnenus ( Comneni), was a Byzantine Greek noble family who ruled the Byzantine Empire in the 11th and 12th centuries. The first reigning member, Isaac I Komnenos, ruled from 1057 to 1059. ...
and the
Doukas dynasties.
The Videssian Empire is rather
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...
, with powerful landowners wielding great influence. The class of yeoman farmers, who provided much of the best recruits for the military, is dwindling, analogously to what happened at several stages of Byzantine history.
Characters
*Marcus Aemilius Scaurus - Tribune of the Legion. Trained in the stoic arts, he is able to keep his head in the most trying and surprising of situations.
*Gaius Philippus - Senior Centurion of the Legion. Career military man.
*Viridovix son of Drappes - Leader of the Celtic forces. He loves war, wine, and wenching.
*Gorgidas - Greek physician for the Legion. Sharp-tongued and acerbic.
*Mavrikios Gavras - Avtokrator of Videssos. A successful leader of a rebellion, he has a temper tempered by years as emperor.
*Thorisin Gavras - Brother of Mavrikios. Hot-headed and impetuous, he is blunt, direct, and very competitive.
*Vardanes Sphrantzes - Leader of the administrative functionaries of the empire (called pen-pushers.) His uncle was the immediately preceding Avtokrator and he craves both power and Alypia.
*Alypia Gavras - Only child of Mavrikios. She is quiet, studious, and reserved. When pushed, she does show a temper similar to that of her father and uncle.
*Avshar - Sorcerer. Leader of the Yezd forces plaguing Videssos. He delights in cruelty and has waged a long campaign against Videssos.
Reception
Anna Wołek noted that the series is not among Turtledove's most popular works.
Wołek, Edgeworth and Stypczynski discussed how Turtledove reused numerous elements of history of the real ancient world (in particular, Rome), in his world building in the Videssos cycle.
[Edgeworth, R. J. (1990)]
The Poverty of Invention
Extrapolation, 31(1), 15[Stypczynski, B. (2005)]
No Roads Lead to Rome: Alternate History and Secondary Worlds
. Extrapolation (Pre-2012), 46(4), 453-468,417.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Videssos Cycle
Fantasy novel series
Novels by Harry Turtledove
Videssos
Sequel novels