Front of the book
The house of Herakleios
Four generations of heirs, with the mothers, on one page.
Basileia, book two · new
Pyrphoros
Leon III and the Siege of Constantinople
In 717 the largest army and fleet the Caliphate ever sent stood before the walls of Constantinople.
In 641 Herakleios died, and within the year his widow and her son had been maimed and sent into exile.
126 pages · full colour · coming soon
ΕΙΚΟΝΕΣ
From the pages
ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΑ
Chapter by chapter
A prologue, six chapters and a coda. Every chapter opens on a mosaic in fire amber and silver, in the sparse manner of the seventh century, followed by a map of the years left to the siege.
ΒΑΘΥΤΕΡΑ
Deep dives in the book
The book opens with the house of Herakleios and a map of what was lost, and closes with four deep dives and the sources.
Map
The empire and the Caliphate, 641 and 717
What was lost in seventy-six years.
Deep dive
Why a maimed man could not rule
Mutilation as politics, and the one emperor who came back.
Deep dive, spread
Byzantium and Islam, 634 to 718
Conquest, frontier, trade and coexistence, told from both sides.
Deep dive, spread
The City as a machine
Walls, water, grain, the chain across the Golden Horn, and the fire.
Deep dive
The coin war of 692
The face of Christ on one coin, the standing caliph on the other.
The people in it
The game of the book · live now
Hold the City
Rule as Leon III, 716 to 718. One year, one siege, the largest army the Caliphate ever sent. Keep the City fed, the walls manned and the fire ready, and decide whom to trust: Armenians, Bulgars, or the enemy’s own crews.
The CityThe armyThe fireGrain
Ride for the CityLive now · thirteen endings · about ten minutes
About the book
Between those years the empire lost the sea, then Africa, and crowned and maimed its own emperors one after another, while a fire brought by an architect from Syria waited in the City's arsenal. The man who held the walls was born on the Syrian frontier and had no claim to the throne but his record.
Pyrphoros is the second book of Basileia, a series on the Byzantine empire. It is true where the sources allow, and it says so where it invents.
What is in the book
- A prologue, six chapters and a coda, from the death of Herakleios in 641 to the end of the siege in 718 and the volcano at Thera in 726
- The house of Herakleios as a family tree, a cast page, a world map of 641 and 717, and a map for each chapter
- Deep dives on why a maimed man could not rule, Byzantium and Islam from 634 to 718, the City as a machine, and the coin war of 692
- The sources, an afterword and further reading
Sources
Theophanes and Nikephoros on the Byzantine side, with the Syriac and Arabic chronicles beside them. The back of the book names them, and the afterword says where the story goes beyond the record.
Questions
Do I need to have read Basileus?
No. Pyrphoros stands alone. It begins in 641, with the death of Herakleios.
How much of it is true?
No event in the book was invented. Faces, clothes, rooms and some of what people say are reconstruction, and the afterword lists where the story goes beyond the record.
When can I buy it?
The paperback and the Kindle edition were published in October 2026 and reach the Amazon store within days. Sign up below and you will hear the day it is there.
How was the book made?
The artwork is made with AI image tools under the author's direction, and the book says so. How these books are made
Hear when it’s out
One email when a new book is out, and now and then a short letter between books, about one thing from the sources or one idea from the Lab. Never more than once a month.