Historical References Book II Cycle Marco Valerio: Western Darkeness

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481 AD: Western Darkness

Sent by his empress at the head of a handful of clibanarii to represent the Empire for the coronation of a very young barbarian king, Marcus finds back the land he left as a boy to fight in the name of Rome against the barbarians who had submerged it. Now that Rome is no more, the last centurion in the West finds himself protecting a pagan sovereign just fifteen years old but wrapped in a mystical aura of power and charisma that the Christian hierarchies themselves recognize as a light in the darkness that has now fallen over the West. In a world that represents the opposite of the golden and decadent Empire in the East, Marcus will rediscover his family and his loved ones, but also the reasons why he had left them behind. But above all, he will discover how the pitfalls of the Frankish court are no less lethal than those of Constantinople.

A - Examples of late 5th century dresse