Chapter Summaries

Vitus weighed possible landing sites for the campaign while Theodore joined him in Mersin and Leo continued artillery training. The Roman fleet then began its operation against Alexandria, destroying much of the harbor's Mamluk fleet but leaving the enemy ships unwilling to sail out.

• Vitus reviewed reports of Mamluk fortifications and considered plans to bypass them by landing at Alexandria or along the Levantine coast.
• Theodore arrived in Lycia and complained to Vitus, Thomas, Andronikos, and Leo about his poor returns from investing in Portugal's southern trade route.
• Leo returned to military camp life and led his artillery company through routine drills before demonstrating its guns to the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller.
• Thomas explained that the Hospitallers had pledged five hundred knights and four thousand soldiers to help the Eastern Roman Empire recover Jerusalem.
• Felix led eight Roman warships to Alexandria and launched a thousand Candia rockets under cover of darkness.
• Felix learned that the attack had damaged or destroyed more than half the ships in Alexandria's harbor, while the surviving Mamluk vessels remained there.

Jean de Anjou sought foreign support to claim Jerusalem, disrupting Pope Nicholas V’s plans for a campaign coordinated with Vitus. Meanwhile, Renaf began a siege at Block Fortress as Vitus sailed with an expedition toward the Levant, leaving the fleet anchored off Cyprus for the night.

• René of Anjou warned his family against challenging Vitus, but Jean de Anjou argued that their claim to Jerusalem was legitimate and wrote to Charles of Bourbon, Charles VII, and Henry VI for support.
• Pope Nicholas V urged European rulers to ignore Jean’s appeal and worried that Vitus might abandon their agreed plan, but he decided against excommunicating Jean.
• Renaf’s thirty thousand troops attacked toward Block Fortress, where soldiers dug trenches under Mamluk cannon fire as Renaf prepared to use the assault as a feint.
• Vitus sailed from Mersin with troops from the Attica Legion and Hermes Brigade, while the Ionia fleet remained alert for foreign forces near Sicily and Tunisia.
• The expedition rounded northeastern Cyprus and anchored offshore for the night as Vitus discussed the island’s growing sugarcane production and expected demand.

Vitus’s Eastern Roman forces captured Acre after a naval bombardment and a difficult street battle against Mamluk defenders and a passing force of heavy cavalry. By March 16, the city was secured, supplies were being unloaded, and most of the fleet had departed to bring the second wave of troops from Lycia.

• Vitus chose Acre as the landing site and ordered an assault after scouts reported weak sections in its landward walls and coastal guns in the harbor.
• Mamluk cavalry attacked the first wave on the northern beach, but a barrage drove them back and prompted Vitus to order both a harbor assault and a second landing.
• Caboto led nine battleships against Acre’s coastal batteries, and sustained bombardment silenced the forts and opened a breach in the city wall.
• Damien landed the assault force, and Orlando’s troops fought through the streets against defenders and dismounted heavy cavalry as the Eastern Roman army captured the walls and gates by dusk.
• On March 12, Vitus’s twelve thousand troops cleared the remaining defenders, and over the following days they unloaded supplies and repaired the harbor.
• On March 16, most of the fleet returned to Lycia for the second wave while Vitus kept his troops within Acre and avoided attacking the surrounding areas without cavalry.

Vitus led the Eastern Roman army from Acre to capture Tiberias and secure the Sea of Galilee, positioning his forces to intercept the Mamluk Frontier Army. As Mamluk cavalry crossed the eastern desert and gathered near the lake, Vitus anticipated a trap and prepared to let the enemy’s difficult route drain its strength before a decisive battle.

• On April 3, Vitus marched east from Acre, and Leo’s artillery company was assigned to help capture a nearby castle after Leo identified a weak section of its wall.
• The six-pounders breached the castle’s defenses, the mountain company stormed inside, and Leo killed a surviving defender before receiving his share of the loot.
• On April 6, Vitus’s army captured Tiberias and established its main encampment beside the Sea of Galilee, where Vitus planned to block the Mamluk army’s route south.
• When Mamluk cavalry entered the eastern desert, Vitus suspected they were baiting his army into an ambush and shifted his forces southeast along a route with better access to water and food.
• By April 25, the enemy had gathered east of the Sea of Galilee, while Vitus assessed his troops’ morale and planned to keep the Knights Hospitaller on the edge of the coming battle.

Vitus’s army defeated Guwaz’s Mamluk force at the Battle of the Sea of Galilee, capturing thousands of soldiers and their commander. Vitus offered Guwaz favorable terms, but Guwaz refused to engage with him.

• On April 21, Vitus rejected Guwaz’s envoy’s proposal for a decisive battle the next day and waited for reinforcements to arrive.
• On April 25, Guwaz learned Vitus’s larger army was approaching Taysile, detained several chiefs who opposed fighting, and prepared to face the enemy.
• Vitus detected Mamluk ambushes and deployed his forces, sending the Dragoons and Knights Hospitaller against the heavy cavalry while his legions attacked the eastern main force.
• The Knights Hospitaller clashed with the Mamluk heavy cavalry as Boranov’s Dragoons harassed them, while Vitus’s legions routed the Mamluk infantry.
• Vitus’s forces captured twelve thousand Mamluks, including Guwaz, and suffered about a thousand casualties; the Knights Hospitaller lost over six hundred men.
• Vitus offered Guwaz local self-rule and freedom of custom and faith, but Guwaz said the outcome had nothing to do with him.

Vitus entered Jerusalem, arranged the Knights Hospitaller’s relocation from Rhodes in exchange for land south of the city, and completed a ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He then reached Jaffa and prepared to advance into Egypt after gathering supplies and camels.

• Vitus found Jerusalem nearly deserted, with only about three thousand residents, and agreed with Grand Master Rastique to give the Knights Hospitaller land south of the city in exchange for Rhodes and its dependent islands.
• Vitus announced plans to form a Holy Land Guard Legion from Orthodox volunteers, then entered Jerusalem on May 6 and completed the ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
• Vitus traveled to Jaffa, where he told Western knights they could make their own way to Jerusalem and said he would soon advance south into Egypt.
• Vitus warned Theodore to stay near cities and main roads, while Thomas chose to visit Jerusalem and asked Vitus to notify him when the campaign began.
• Vitus reviewed documents at Jaffa, dismissed news about Naples, and relied on the Eastern Roman fleet to deter any intervention by the House of Anjou.

Vitus planned to cross the Sinai by using the Road of Horus as a feint while the fleet carried supplies, and he selected a landing site in the eastern Nile Delta. Damien’s army captured Rhinocorura, but contaminated wells and the route’s supply problems left Vitus facing a likely amphibious assault.

• Vitus studied the Road of Horus and the Nile Delta’s coast before choosing a small fishing village in the eastern delta for a gradual amphibious landing.
• Thomas learned from Leo that pyrethrum incense repelled insects, tested it among camels near Jaffa, and told Vitus of its effectiveness.
• Damien led a feint along the eastern Road of Horus while the fleet supplied the marching army and supported it with naval guns.
• The Eastern Roman army breached Rhinocorura’s walls, repelled fleeing defenders with broadsides, and captured the town and fourteen hundred defenders.
• Damien discovered that the defenders had contaminated the town’s cistern and many wells, ordered prisoners to dig new wells, and recommended that Vitus launch an amphibious landing.

Vitus’s army landed in the Nile Delta, gathered supplies and Coptic support, and pressured the Mamluks to surrender while advancing toward Damietta. As Thomas’s forces reached the rising Nile, they fought off crocodiles and prepared to cross the river.

• The Sultan reinforced Alexander and Aboukir Bay, expecting Vitus to attempt a coastal landing.
• Vitus landed near the Nile’s Eastern Mouth, established a beachhead, and found the fertile Delta largely undefended.
• Vitus recruited Coptic militiamen and received a personal surrender offer from the Mamluk lord Varzama, giving him five days to secure Damietta’s surrender.
• Thomas led fifteen thousand soldiers to the Nile, where his troops killed a crocodile attack and received orders to approach the river only in groups.

After taking Damietta, Vitus split his forces and marched south across the plains toward Cairo while Thomas stayed behind to draw the Sultan’s attention. The chapter ended with Sanggebu’s cavalry scouting Cairo and leaving a letter announcing that Vitus would arrive the next day to visit the Sultan.

• Thomas accepted Damietta’s surrender and learned that the commander had yielded because the Sultan’s demands left him fearing dismissal or imprisonment.
• Vitus established an Inland River Fleet, left Thomas to feint at Mansoura, and set out for Cairo with twenty-three thousand troops.
• Vitus reinforced his vanguard after it routed a force sent from the Road of Horus, then inspected the captured soldiers’ damp, deteriorated equipment.
• Sanggebu’s cavalry scouts reached Cairo, mapped its defenses and surroundings, and withdrew when more than a thousand defenders rode out.
• Before retreating, Sanggebu planted a Purple Double-Headed Eagle Flag and left Vitus’s letter announcing his arrival on July 3.

Vitus led the Eastern Roman army into battle outside Cairo and defeated the Sultan’s forces, capturing more than ten thousand soldiers. He cut off river traffic to the city and expected the Sultan to surrender or flee south.

• Vitus led his army toward Cairo, leaving Athanasius and two thousand Coptic militiamen to guard the town.
• The Sultan’s forces attacked outside Cairo, and Vitus’s infantry squares and wagon formations held against the cavalry and infantry assaults.
• Vitus sent rockets and three cavalry brigades against the desert horsemen, then used heavy cavalry to drive the Sultan’s infantry toward Cairo.
• The defenders shut Cairo’s North Gate as their retreating troops approached, trapping more than ten thousand soldiers outside, who surrendered to Vitus.
• Vitus occupied high ground by the river, severed shipping between Cairo and the cities downstream, and ordered Thomas to reach Cairo within a week.

Vitus organized Egypt after taking Cairo, dividing authority among Mamluk nobles, Copts, and other groups while planning defenses against the Mamluk remnants in Upper Egypt. In Suez, he assessed Red Sea trade and the proposed Pharaoh’s Canal, concluding that the Eastern Roman Empire lacked the machinery and resources to build a navigable Suez Canal or project naval power into the Indian Ocean.

• Thomas received orders to occupy six Egyptian towns and clear a supply route between Cairo and Damietta.
• Vitus inspected the pyramids and Sphinx, then set a deadline for Mamluk nobles to submit and retain their lands.
• Vitus distributed lordships among Mamluks, Copts, and other groups, and had the nobles elect five Tribunes to assist the Governor.
• Vitus ordered surveys and bastion forts in Upper Egypt and planned a ten-thousand-strong garrison to guard against Mamluk remnants.
• Vitus inspected Suez and reviewed plans for a canal linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas, but judged the project beyond the empire’s current means.

Vitus oversaw construction at Pelusium and assigned Thomas to conquer Cyrenaica while planning to send Demetrius to East Africa and an envoy to Abyssinia. When a fleet of European nobles arrived, Vitus discussed Jeanne d'Arc's religious concerns and rejected the Teutonic Knights' request to return to Acre.

• Vitus inspected the harbor and canal works at Pelusium, then weighed proposals for connecting the city to Suez against spending the money on military expansion.
• Thomas reported recruiting Coptic Auxiliary Brigades, and Vitus appointed him to occupy Cyrenaica and establish the Cyrenaica Borderland Region.
• Vitus decided to send Demetrius and his family to East Africa and appointed Andronikos as an envoy to the Abyssinian Kingdom.
• A fleet carrying European nobles arrived at Pelusium, where Jeanne d'Arc questioned Vitus about his tolerance of Monophysitism in newly conquered territories.
• Vitus discussed Jeanne's political position with Thomas, then rejected the Teutonic Knights' request to move their headquarters back to Acre.

Vitus organized the Levant’s provinces, borderland regions, and eastern defenses while reviewing military appointments. Leo received orders to leave his artillery company and travel to Jaffa, where Vitus was preparing to return to Constantinople, and departed Jerusalem feeling uncertain about what came next.

• Vitus assigned the Antioch region as a province, designated Phoenicia, Aintab, and Sinai as borderland regions, and approved plans for thirty-six new garrison districts.
• Vitus approved the release and resettlement of Venetian war prisoners to help fill the garrison districts, while continuing to scrutinize hereditary officer appointments.
• Leo led his artillery company on a logging detail near Jerusalem and told the soldiers to avoid the woods belonging to the Knights Hospitaller.
• Edric delivered Vitus’s orders for Leo to hand over his company duties and join him in Jaffa, and Leo completed the transfer and said goodbye to his soldiers and recovering commander, Caligas.
• Leo visited his second uncle, Theodore, in Jerusalem, then rode west with his escort and looked back at the city, missing his First Artillery Company.

After returning from the campaign in Egypt, Vitus reached Constantinople and set priorities for rewarding troops, securing the newly conquered territories, and expanding the civil service. He considered the empire’s policies and past, then ordered the Army Department to include camels in its plans as the empire’s military administration adapted to its new desert territories.

• Leo arrived at the governor's residence in Jaffa, where Vitus explained that officers had given him ornate horse equipment and other gifts after the invasion of Egypt.
• Vitus and Leo sailed from Jaffa toward Constantinople, stopping at Rhodes, where Vitus inspected the island’s defenses and reflected on the Knights Hospitaller’s resistance to the Ottomans.
• The fleet reached Constantinople, and Vitus joined a triumphal procession that scattered captured coins before he viewed the Naval Church’s detailed mural of a naval battle.
• Vitus met with Romanus and the Cabinet to set priorities for military rewards, frontier defenses, and civil service examinations, then discussed relief policy and historical accounts with Romanus.
• Vitus saw Manuel crying in the palace gardens, recalled Demetrius’s request to leave his confinement, and reaffirmed that Demetrius would remain in the northern Horn of Africa.
• Vitus inspected the stud farm’s crossbred Tauris warhorses and ordered the Army Department to include camels in its plans for the empire’s new desert territories.

Vitus reviewed investiture appointments and considered the Eastern Roman Empire’s strained manpower as it expanded its forces. In December, Boranov received a hereditary garrison command, then learned he was being transferred to command the Eighth Frontier Brigade in Damascus.

• Vitus approved appointments for the Sixty-Fifth Garrison District and planned to appoint Boranov commander of the Eighth Frontier Brigade.
• Vitus discussed coffee trade and the empire’s military manpower with Agnes, concluding that its rapid expansion strained its limited core population.
• An imperial delegation reached Acre with investiture decrees and orders for the Holy Land Guard Legion to take over northern Jerusalem.
• Boranov attended a meeting about hereditary military posts and traveled to Acre with the first group of appointees.
• On December 8, Boranov became a hereditary garrison commander during a ceremony in Acre, where 120 men received appointments.
• Renaf informed Boranov that he had been transferred to command the Eighth Frontier Brigade in Damascus and had to report within a week.

Andronikos traveled from Suez to Massawa aboard the newly built Long-Haired Rabbit to begin a diplomatic mission to the Kingdom of Abyssinia. The ship reached the port, where Abyssinian officials recognized Vitus’s name and escorted the envoy to the fortress.

• Andronikos inspected the Long-Haired Rabbit and learned from Captain Samuel that the ship would carry him to Massawa.
• Demetrius arrived in Suez with his family and followers after being exiled, and Andronikos promised to plead his case while enduring his brother’s constant complaints.
• After sea trials and repairs, the Long-Haired Rabbit departed Suez on January 28, carrying Andronikos and ten attendants; Demetrius remained behind, destined for a future settlement on the East African coast.
• Samuel guided the ship south through the Red Sea, avoiding reefs and anchoring at night, while the crew caught and cooked a large grouper.
• On February 15, the Long-Haired Rabbit reached Massawa, where Andronikos identified himself to the gathered soldiers and was taken to the fortress after the governor verified his identity.

Andronikos traveled inland from Massawa to Gondar, where he negotiated firearms sales and equal trade access with Zara Jacob. Meanwhile, Samuel’s voyage reached Mogadishu, where he encountered a Portuguese ship and its astonished captain.

• Andronikos crossed the Ethiopian Highlands and reached Gondar, where Zara Jacob welcomed his delegation.
• Andronikos demonstrated Roman muskets and cannons, then agreed to sell Zara Jacob 2,500 muskets and 30 cannons while establishing reciprocal trade access.
• Andronikos declined to sell slaves, and Zara Jacob agreed to let Roman merchants trade at Massawa while Abyssinians could trade at Suez.
• Samuel sailed south around the Horn of Africa and reached Mogadishu to buy provisions and spices.
• Samuel spotted a Portuguese ship in Mogadishu harbor, and Portuguese captain Clement was startled to find a Greek vessel in the Indian Ocean.

Samuel evaded Portuguese ships in Mogadishu, and reports of Portugal’s growing presence prompted Vitus to order the Red Sea Fleet to take Socotra. Vitus then addressed Anatolia’s finances and banditry before deciding on a standardized education and succession policy for imperial princes.

• Samuel judged that the Portuguese ships had superior guns and crews but would be disadvantaged in Mogadishu’s harbor, so he sailed the Long-Haired Rabbit out before they could catch him.
• Clement learned that the Greek ship had come from the north and that the Mamluks had lost the Nile Delta and Suez; he returned to Zanzibar and warned Governor Boccaro that Vitus could threaten Portugal’s Indian Ocean ambitions.
• After Samuel recommended Socotra as an outpost, a fast mail ship carried the Red Sea Fleet’s reports to Constantinople, where Vitus ordered the fleet to take control of the island.
• Vitus rejected a request for central relief funds for flood damage in Galatia, ordered inland provinces to intensify their suppression of bandits, and allowed governors to request field-legion reinforcements.
• After visiting Romanus’s newborn son John, Vitus decided that princes would receive standardized schooling and military training, while princes without succession rights would be barred from holding fiefs in the homeland and from participating in government.

Vitus attended the consecration of the Army Church, where the battle murals and casualty records reminded him of the empire’s human cost. Afterward, he toured Constantinople, learned that water-intensive workshops were relocating to other cities, and reflected on the capital’s growth and limits before returning to his carriage.

• Vitus attended the Army Church’s consecration and admired Balsamo’s mural of the Battle of Sakarya with the generals.
• Damien told Krezer that he avoided returning to Attica because the war’s casualties had devastated his hometown and nearby communities.
• Vitus examined the church’s casualty records and cemetery, then reflected on the toll of the empire’s wars.
• A merchant told Vitus that his paper workshop was moving to Bandırma and that many textile mills were relocating from Constantinople to Bursa because of water and cost limits.
• Vitus toured Constantinople’s streets, considered the city’s planned growth and public improvements, and spoke with retired printing merchant Eli.
• Vitus returned to his carriage at two in the afternoon, concluding that further municipal development would have to wait for the Industrial Revolution.

Vitus negotiated a discounted arms sale with Abyssinia while Naqueto explored Constantinople and sought a refuge near Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the Red Sea Fleet captured Socotra and left Demetrius to govern the island with a small garrison.

• Vitus discounted Abyssinia’s muskets but kept the prices of its other requested weapons unchanged after Naqueto cited Portuguese competition.
• Naqueto toured Constantinople, worried that Abyssinia’s nobles might resist Roman-style government, and used rubies to qualify for a land auction near Jerusalem.
• The Red Sea Fleet sailed through the Gulf of Aden, where Demetrius watched whales follow the ships before they reached Socotra.
• Samuel’s fleet bombarded the fortress at Suq Harbor, and the defenders surrendered without a landing assault.
• Samuel gave Demetrius control of Socotra, supplies, weapons, and a trained garrison, but refused to leave the marines behind.