THE HARLOT EMPRESS Theodora-the eerie beauty whose name stands in history beside Helen of Troy and Cleopatra. The daughter of a circus performer, a footloose vagabond and harlot, whose fierce ambition drove her from man to man until she finally married Justinian, one of the greatest emperors of the ancient world.THE PEASANT KING Peter Sabbatius-the weak, indecisive son of a Macedonian peasant who lived to become Justinian the Great, emperor of Byzantium. The shy, lonely scholar who secretly dreamed of uniting the whole world under one church over which he alone would rule supreme. Behind them lay a dying Rome-ahead of them a fantastic age of Byzantine splendor.THEODORA AND THE EMPEROR The magnificent, true story of the shepherd boy and the circus girl who forged the mighty empire of Byzantium from the ruins of barbarian-ravaged Rome.