Chapter Summaries

Vitus reorganized the navy, ordered it to attack the Mamluk coast and intercept arms shipments, and arranged for Venetian glassworkers to establish a workshop in Anatolia. The artisans reached a remote valley in northeastern Galatia, where soldiers planned to protect them from bandits.

• Vitus divided the former battle fleet into the Aegean, Ionian, and Black Sea Fleets, appointed their admirals, and ordered the Aegean Fleet to raid the Mamluk coast and seize ships carrying firearms.
• Vitus decided to display recovered imperial burial goods at the Church of the Holy Apostles and settled twenty families of glassworkers in a remote Anatolian workshop.
• Vitus visited the Church of the Holy Apostles and the Hippodrome, where he rejected rebuilding the Hippodrome as too expensive.
• The glassworkers and their families arrived by ship on the southern Black Sea coast and traveled inland past rice paddies and mountain roads toward their new settlement.
• The party reached an abandoned valley in northeastern Galatia on October 12, and a Deputy Battalion Commander planned to station seventy militiamen around the workshop.

Ruggiero established a high-end glass workshop that produced transparent glass for the Arsenal, while Vitus reviewed the empire’s finances and plans. As the treasury returned to surplus and Roman patrols targeted arms smuggling, Felix learned that the Scala had arrived in Crete before an expedition to the Black Coral Islands.

• Ruggiero and the craftsmen built a furnace, produced transparent glass, and shipped sixty crates of glassware to Constantinople.
• Vitus and Romanus inspected the glass and discussed the painters who had depicted the Venetian campaign.
• At the Cabinet’s review, Vitus reported that 1448 revenue exceeded spending and said the empire would eventually move against the White Sheep Dynasty.
• The Gray Parrot intercepted a Neapolitan merchantman, but its crew found little contraband and released the ship after suspecting it had dumped firearms overboard.
• Felix reported the incident to the Admiralty and later discovered that the Scala had arrived in Crete to join an expedition to occupy the Black Coral Islands.

The Scala and another cruiser carried settlers to Black Coral Island, where they found twelve survivors from a Venetian warship and began establishing a settlement. The ships left the island with some survivors returning to Europe and others staying, then encountered three Castilian ships exploring the African coast.

• Felix inspected the supplies and forest seeds aboard the Scala, then treated his former comrades to a night out in Candia.
• The two cruisers sailed from Candia on February 1, resupplied along Iberia and the Moroccan coast, and reached Black Coral Island on April 4.
• The crews discovered twelve Venetian survivors on the island, including Lorenzo, and learned that five of their original party had died.
• Horace Palaiologos took charge of the settlement as the newcomers built homes and a pier, cleared fields, and planned crops with Lorenzo's advice.
• On April 20, the Scala and her companion left the island; six Venetian survivors sailed home while five chose to remain.
• More than a week later, the two cruisers encountered three Castilian ships sailing south along the Sahara's western coast.

Renaf visited Mykonos, the hereditary island fief granted to him, while Vitus considered the empire’s new noble titles, diplomatic pressures, and plans for a campaign against the White Sheep Dynasty. The chapter ended with Vitus deciding to build two lines of trace italienne fortresses along the Persian frontier after defeating the White Sheep.

• Renaf arrived on Mykonos with Simon, learned the island’s population and boundaries from its administrator, and toured its villages before deciding he might retire there and open a smithy.
• Renaf told Vitus that he liked Mykonos and recalled his youth as a blacksmith in Cyprus.
• Vitus reflected on creating a rare hereditary noble title for distinguished commanders and planned to discuss formal merit requirements with the Cabinet.
• Vitus reviewed diplomatic letters from Italian coastal towns and sent the Naples king a stern reply accusing him of aiding the Mamluks and obstructing the recovery of Jerusalem.
• Vitus planned new light and dragon cavalry brigades to train in Anatolia before a future campaign against the White Sheep Dynasty.
• Vitus decided that after defeating the White Sheep, he would build two lines of trace italienne fortresses along the frontier.

The Army Department and Vitus selected officers for two new cavalry brigades, and Boranov was promoted to deputy brigade commander and sent to recruit mounted troops on the northern shore of the Black Sea. His recruitment effort began slowly in Chersonesus, where few townspeople were interested in joining.

• The Army Minister screened cavalry officers and submitted a shortlist of fifty-one candidates for twenty brigade and battalion command posts to the Cabinet and Vitus.
• Boranov received an imperial decree transferring him from command of the Dragon Cavalry Brigade's Third Battalion to deputy brigade commander of the Second Dragon Cavalry Brigade.
• Boranov and other transferred officers traveled from Thessaloniki to Constantinople, where the emperor formally appointed them and the Army Department assigned recruitment duties.
• The Army Department sent Boranov to recruit three mounted ranger battalions on the northern shore of the Black Sea, while rejecting a proposal to recruit converted Ottoman herders over loyalty concerns.
• In Chersonesus, Boranov reunited with retired soldiers from his former company and warned them that the coming campaigns would be long and arduous; two still considered reenlisting.
• Boranov observed that few Chersonesus residents signed up for the Dragoons, as one construction worker asked whether recruits could receive land.

Simon Mykonos was sent with Antimos’s scholars to survey the ruins of Delos, where he gradually took an interest in archaeology but declined to study history. Meanwhile, Lorenzo returned to a weakened Venice, reported his Atlantic voyage, and saw how the city’s declining trade and industry were driving craftsmen away.

• Simon Mykonos watched a merchant ship arrive at Mykonos and complained that the island offered little to do.
• Mrs. Mykonos persuaded Antimos and the scholars to take Simon on their expedition to Delos, where he reluctantly helped document the ruins.
• Antimos invited Simon to join the School of History and Classical Philosophy, but Simon said he planned to study law and become a civil official.
• Lorenzo returned to Venice and learned that his family had moved to Vicenza, the arsenal had been destroyed, and the city was struggling to revive shipbuilding.
• Lorenzo discovered that Urban, a Hungarian cannon-foundry craftsman, had fled with technical documents after his pay was cut.
• Lorenzo reported his Atlantic voyage to the admiral, who feared Venice’s decline but hoped disputes over overseas claims would pit Portugal against Palaiologos.

Lorenzo reunited with his family in Vicenza and saw Venice’s displaced residents reclaiming land, while Vitus reviewed agricultural reforms and municipal planning in Constantinople. Vitus agreed to lower the agricultural tax next autumn but continued preparing to confront the rising White Sheep Dynasty.

• Lorenzo paid his cousin three hundred ducats, spent half a month in Venice, then traveled to Vicenza after his father summoned him.
• Lorenzo saw migrants reclaiming farmland outside Vicenza and learned that his family had bought land and planned to settle there permanently.
• Vitus approved using prisoners of war to drain marshes and expand farmland in Moesia and Northern Thrace.
• Chrysafi Noratas urged Vitus to restore the agricultural tax to twenty percent, and Vitus agreed to lower it starting next autumn.
• Vitus chose to attack the growing White Sheep Dynasty with more than seventy thousand troops and considered Savard for prime minister.
• Vitus ordered new housing rules for sunlight and ventilation, while weighing the cost of streetlights and proposing research into gas lamps.

Vitus arranged Church funding and military preparations for a campaign against the White Sheep and Mamluks, while the Holy See found itself unable to provide meaningful support. The chapter left Nicholas V wary of the great powers surrounding Italy as Portugal and Austria pursued their own interests.

• Vitus asked the Patriarch to raise money for the war to reclaim Jerusalem, and the Patriarch promised a fundraising drive expected to provide four hundred thousand Florins.
• Chrysafi Noratas resigned as Prime Minister, Savard succeeded him, and Carlo Santis became a Deputy Prime Minister.
• Vitus ordered Trebizond prepared as a supply center for an army of one hundred thousand ahead of next year's war.
• Anna gave birth to Romanus's son, Manuel, and the imperial family attended his baptism at Hagia Sophia.
• Nicholas V concluded that the Holy See could not finance Vitus's campaign, while the Portuguese envoy complained about Palaiologos and Castile's expansion in Africa.
• Nicholas V agreed to mediate the Swiss civil war after the Austrian envoy offered no troops for a campaign to reclaim Jerusalem.

Urban arrived in Ruse seeking work as a cannon founder, and Vitus evaluated his cannon and research into cast iron before offering him a choice between selling his records or joining the Arsenal under restrictions. Vitus then inspected a gas streetlight project, canceled it over its cost, and proposed that its artisan investigate using coke to smelt iron.

• Urban reached Ruse, introduced himself as an experienced Venice Arsenal cannon founder, and was referred to the Balkan Frontier Army.
• Constantine assessed Urban and sent him with an introduction to the Eastern Thrace First Arsenal, where Urban successfully cast and test-fired a heavy cannon.
• Vitus visited Urban, judged the cannon too cumbersome for his needs, and became interested in Urban's ideas for producing tougher gray cast iron.
• Vitus offered Urban payment for his records or a restricted chief-artisan position in the Arsenal's research and development department.
• Vitus inspected the Second Arsenal's working gas lamp, rejected citywide streetlights as too expensive, and noticed the coke left by the coal-distillation process.
• Vitus proposed that the artisan lead a project to test coke-fired iron smelting.

Tucha faced a difficult evaluation as governor of Galatia, then learned he would be transferred to Epirus. Meanwhile, Vitus reviewed the empire’s finances and considered how to govern Armenia as he prepared for a future war.

• Tucha submitted Galatia’s records and defended his security and tax failures under questioning by five ministers.
• After the evaluations ended, Tucha toured Constantinople and saw the expanding tram route, the Hippodrome, and the nearly completed dome of the Naval Church.
• Vitus reviewed the 1449 accounts, confirmed a surplus of 300,000 Florins, and considered how to organize Armenia as a borderland rather than a vassal kingdom.
• At the New Year banquet, Tucha avoided strong wine while Vitus thought about military preparations and Armenia’s governance.
• After the banquet, Ilya told Tucha he had heard Tucha was being transferred to Epirus, and Tucha accepted the posting as a fortunate outcome.

The French Duke of Alençon accepted Portuguese efforts to keep him on Gorée Island and reported that sub-Saharan Africa was unsuitable for settlement. Meanwhile, Vitus launched the Eastern Roman expedition against the White Sheep Dynasty, and his fleet reached Trebizond as Georgia prepared to support the campaign.

• The Portuguese official persuaded the Duke of Alençon to remain on Gorée Island, and the duke sent the king a report repeating the official’s claims about the region.
• Uzun Hasan inspected Tabriz’s unfinished defensive wall and prepared for a Greek invasion, considering retreats through Mesopotamia to Southern Persia if his army lost.
• Vitus outlined his eastern campaign to the Privy Council, leaving Romanus in charge of Constantinople while Romanus warned that the expedition had too few effective field troops.
• Leo and Thomas joined Vitus’s expeditionary force, which sailed from Constantinople and reached Karasu harbor before continuing along the Pontic Mountains.
• Vitus established his temporary headquarters in Trebizond and learned that Vakhtang had sent grain and was assembling Georgia’s army to attack from the north.

Vitus’s army reached Erzincan after capturing the city and began preparing its advance toward Erzurum. As cavalry units reconnoitered the Armenian Highlands, Boranov negotiated with villagers and a local landowner, whose family welcomed the return of Roman rule.

• Vitus received news that the Eastern Roman army had captured Erzincan and ordered his staff to prepare to join the main force.
• Leo traveled with the convoy through the Pontic Mountains, reached Erzincan, and saw the city’s damaged walls and streets.
• Vitus heard that Damien was advancing on Erzurum, dispatched units to cover the expeditionary army’s flank, and kept the main force at Erzincan.
• Boranov’s cavalry searched a village, and Boranov reassured the priest that Rome would not requisition grain before the harvest or force the churches to unify.
• Boranov reached a valley fortress, met George Kamsarakan, and learned that George’s family claimed lifelong loyalty to Rome.
• George brought out grain, sheep, and pigs as gifts for the emperor, apparently hoping to secure his family’s safety.

George joined the emperor’s war effort with his militiamen and grain, while Leo left the siege guns to accompany Thomas on a mission to clear White Sheep strongpoints. Thomas taught Leo to question reports and search carefully for supplies, leaving him with a lesson in practical military experience.

• Boranov explained that George could earn a hereditary lordship in the Armenian borderland by contributing to the war, and George pledged grain and militiamen.
• George brought 140 militiamen and twenty wagons of grain to Erzincan, where Vitus assigned them to the Armenian Second Auxiliary Brigade and arranged their training.
• After a siege cannon cracked, Leo’s crew was ordered back to Trebizond, so Leo asked Thomas to join his troops on a mission to clear strongpoints.
• Thomas led 3,000 soldiers to capture enemy positions north of Erzurum, and Leo accompanied him.
• When White Sheep soldiers fled a village with little visible grain, Thomas ordered a search and Fat Joe found hidden stores in a dry well and an oak tree.
• Thomas told Leo about his military experience and urged him to observe carefully and learn from his seventh uncle.

Vitus’s army joined forces with Vakhtang’s Georgians, captured Kars, Gyumri, and the surrounding region, then advanced toward Lake Van as White Sheep forces appeared on the border. Uzun Hasan gathered more than seventy thousand men and marched toward Erciş, setting the stage for a decisive battle.

• After Erzurum surrendered, Vitus besieged Kars and Gyumri while waiting for Vakhtang’s nearly ten thousand Georgians to join him at Lake Çıldır.
• Vitus and Vakhtang agreed that Georgia would feint toward Tabriz while Vitus led the main campaign, with their territories divided according to their earlier agreement if they won.
• Thomas led auxiliary troops east, granted Armenian soldiers leave to celebrate Pentecost at Lake Sevan, and later returned to his post.
• Kars surrendered, but Vitus dismissed reports of White Sheep cavalry in Cappadocia as a feint and continued his campaign; Gyumri and the Lake Sevan region soon came under Roman control.
• Vitus assembled sixty-five thousand troops and advanced toward Lake Van, while Uzun Hasan decided to fight rather than retreat and gathered more than seventy thousand men at Erciş.

Vitus's Roman army met Uzun Hasan's White Sheep Army near Lake Van, where Vitus exploited the enemy's disorganized center with artillery, rockets, and heavy cavalry. The White Sheep center collapsed, and Uzun Hasan withdrew his forces from the eastern flank as the battle turned decisively in Vitus's favor.

• Vitus marched toward Lake Van and camped near the river after Roman cavalry skirmished with White Sheep horsemen.
• On June 27, Vitus deployed his forces against the White Sheep Army and ordered the Tuna and Konya Legions to attack the center.
• Roman artillery destroyed the White Sheep Army's field guns, while enemy forces moved to attack Thomas's eastern position and a hidden force of nearly twenty thousand approached from the northeast.
• Vitus launched over a thousand rockets at the enemy's eastern center, then sent the Heavy Cavalry Brigade and Tatar horsemen through the disorganized conscripts.
• The White Sheep center collapsed, prompting allied troops to flee; Uzun Hasan learned of the rout and ordered his forces attacking Thomas to disengage and retreat.

After defeating the White Sheep army, Vitus captured Van and most of the strongholds around Lake Van, then advanced into the Diyarbakir Basin and besieged Diyarbakir. He left the siege underway while preparing to deal with the Mamluks the following year, and reviewed the army’s substantial replacement costs.

• Uzun Hasan ordered troops in Van to hold their ground, but panic spread among the residents and the defenders at the North Gate deserted after hearing the East Gate had been abandoned.
• Boranov reached Van and found its gates shut; after Vitus arrived with the Roman army, defenders surrendered the city, while a handful retreated to the hilltop castle and refused to yield.
• Vitus ordered prisoners to build fortifications around the castle and assigned auxiliary battalions to garrison Van, then occupied strongholds around Lake Van and marched toward the Diyarbakir Basin.
• After crossing the Nymphaios River, Vitus spotted abandoned irrigation works and planned to use prisoners to build fortifications and waterworks in the region.
• Vitus rejected Diyarbakir’s terms, crossed the Tigris with a pontoon bridge, and besieged the city while leading the rest of his army west to Adıyaman.
• Renaf reported Mamluk troop movements, but Vitus postponed an offensive until the next year; he later reviewed campaign losses and replacement costs while resting in a garden.

Vitus’s army secured the Diyarbakir basin and prepared to advance against the White Sheep, while Georgia’s Vakhtang avoided battle and Uzun Hasan planned to abandon Tabriz. The chapter left Uzun Hasan confident that he could retreat south and rebuild his power if Vitus pursued him.

• Vitus discussed recording the empire’s past wars and proposed an annalistic history of the Eastern Roman Empire, while Thomas urged him to praise their father and eldest brother.
• The Eastern Roman army captured Adıyaman on September 5 and paused to harvest crops before its planned advance toward Tabriz.
• Boranov surveyed forested terrain for a possible garrison district and reflected on how joining the Roman army as a dragoon had advanced his career.
• Vakhtang inspected a nearly completed fortress north of the Aras River and refused to interfere with enemy fortifications as his troops delivered supplies.
• Uzun Hasan gave up trying to lure Vakhtang into battle and prepared to move his capital from Tabriz to Basra before the Roman army arrived.

Vitus captured Tabriz and established two new Borderland Regions, assigning Armenian lords hereditary domains and requiring them to build defensive fortresses. George Kamsarakan accepted his domain at Goris, then set out with eighty militiamen to take possession of it.

• After Uzun Hasan retreated to Basra, Vitus halted the offensive and prepared to make Tabriz the headquarters of the eastern Frontier Army.
• Following a week of mortar bombardment, Tabriz's western gate defenders surrendered, and Vitus appointed Marcus frontier general in the city.
• Vitus divided the highlands into provinces and Borderland Regions, invested Armenian lords, and ordered them to build fortresses while restricting their estates and private troops in Roman provinces.
• George Kamsarakan received his hereditary domain at Goris and worried about the costs of fortifications, weapons, and taxes.
• After officials completed the survey, George gathered eighty militiamen who agreed to follow him and led them north toward Goris.

George reviewed the cost and schedule for fortifications in the Armenian Highlands, while Vitus withdrew west, prepared for war with the Mamluks, and reorganized his forces. On Black Coral Island, Horace sheltered Diego, a Castilian survivor whose account of a shipwreck conflicted with the Portuguese who came searching for him, and decided to keep him guarded until he could be sent to the homeland.

• George learned that prisoners of war and engineering officers would support construction of the trace italienne, which was expected to take three or four years.
• Vitus crossed the Tigris, assigned civil officials to the western provinces, rejected a Mamluk peace offer, and organized his forces for the next campaign.
• Leo accepted an appointment as deputy commander of a Six-Pounder Cannon company in the Third Auxiliary Infantry Brigade.
• Horace questioned Diego, a shipwrecked Castilian nobleman, after Diego claimed his exploration ship had been attacked by the Portuguese.
• A Portuguese ship arrived at Black Coral Island searching for survivors, but Horace denied knowing about the Castilian vessel and refused to let the Portuguese search.
• Horace ordered Diego confined under guard and planned to send him back to the homeland for the navy to question.

Romanus oversaw the departure of Western knights, then handled the empire’s annual finances and administration as the war continued. In Lycia, Vitus learned Georgia had suffered heavy losses, welcomed another contingent of Western knights, and inspected new cannons before deciding to send weapons and observers to Georgia.

• Romanus concluded the three-day tournament, awarded the champion three thousand Florins, and told the Western knights they would sail to Lycia to aid in reclaiming Jerusalem.
• At the January 10 annual meeting, Romanus and the Cabinet reviewed the budget deficit, war supplies, and the costs of governing the Armenian Highlands, while Romanus ordered Demetrius watched and deferred plans for an imperial history.
• Vitus learned from a Georgian envoy that Vakhtang’s army had retreated to Tbilisi after a bloody battle against Shirvanshah forces assisted by the White Sheep, and he delayed deciding whether to help.
• More than two hundred Western knights arrived in Mersin, and Vitus placed them under Thomas’s command as a second heavy cavalry battalion.
• Urban presented Vitus with new cast-iron and composite cannons, and Vitus chose to sell the batch to Georgia and send officers to observe the weapons in battle.