Justinian II of Byzantium

Justinian II of Byzantium by Head, Constance. Hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780299060305.

This is the first complete book on the Emperor Justinian II, who despite having had one of the most colorful and tempestuous careers of any historical figure, remains largely enigmatic. Ruler of the great Byzantine Empire from 685 to 695, Justinian was deposed by the usurper Leontios, who severed the emperors nose in a brutal warning to him never again to return to Constantinople. Defeated, disfigured, and alone, Justinian wandered among barbarian tribes beyond the far borders of the Empire. Finally, after 10 years in exile he gathered together an army of Bulgar mercenaries and returned victorious to Constantinople where with the adornment of the Golden nose, he ruled again until 711. In that year he fell to a mutinous army and was captured and slain. Little has been written about Justinian II since relatively little source material from the period is available. And the sketchy picture historians have traditionally held of Justinian has been blackened by early chroniclers who sought p