In A.D. 476, Rome fell. The last emperor of the West, a 12-year-old boy named Romulus, was deposed by barbarian conquerors and disappeared from history. Sixty years later, the Eastern Roman army of Byzantium has returned to reconquer the West. With them is Procopius of Caesarea, a historian determined to learn the fate of Romulus and avert another fall. In his search, he discovers something else: a history of Rome's last days, written by the boy-emperor himself. Romulus's history is a mosaic of conspiracy within conspiracy, of bloodshed and betrayal, tragedy and loss. At its center is a...