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Paul Kastenellos is a nom de plume for the author of two novels of Byzantine: Antonina, A Byzantine Slut about the maligned wife of the famed sixth century Roman general Flavius Belisarius, and Count No Man Happy, A Byzantine Fantasy, which recounts the sad life of the Emperor Constantine VI who was blinded by his own mother in the eighth century. Before publishing these books Kastenellos was briefly a newsman and then a news archivist for forty years, creating and maintaining a system to catalog news films and tapes. His concise style reflects his years of writing and abstracting and a reluctance to stereotype either contemporary or historical figures as simply good or evil. He also studied the medieval Byzantine Empire, a passion from his college years in the nineteen-fifties. The Byzantine Empire was the continuation of the Roman in the east after the western part of the empire was dismembered by barbarian invaders: particularly Vandals, Franks, and Goths. As such it continued to rule from the Balkans, Greece, and modern Turkey, to the Holy Land and Egypt. His interest in the Byzantines was revived after visiting Constantinople and Turkey, Greece, and Italy during the '80s and '90s and he decided to devote himself to clearing the name of Antonina and bringing to the attention of modern readers of fiction the history and sophistication of this neglected successor state of Rome. In both books the author tries to stay as true to the historical record as is possible within the framework of a novel. Antonina is an unusually sympathetic recounting of the adventurous but adulterous life of Belisarius' wife. It is based on the biography of Belisarius by Procopius of Caesaria. According to Procopius “Belisarius let his wife have her own way in everything” and she “hoodwinked him by enchantments.” 〔Procopius of Caesaria, ''The Secret History''. Penguin Classics , 2007. (ISBN 978-0140455281 )〕 This liberated one time prostitute had risen from the streets of Constantinople to be the confidant of the Empress Theodora. She even raised and led an army in Italy where she with her husband had been besieged for over a year. "Antonina together with the commanders began at daybreak to consider means of transporting the cargoes. ... They therefore selected the small boats belonging to the larger ships, put a fence of high planks around them on all sides, in order that the men on board might not be exposed to the enemy's shots, and embarked archers and sailors on them in numbers suitable for each boat. After they had loaded the boats with all the freight they could carry, they waited for a favoring wind and set sail toward Rome by the Tiber.” 〔Procopius of Caesaria, ''The Wars''. Harvard University Press, 1914. (ISBN 978-0674990548 )〕 Throughout the empire's history of over eleven hundred years its culture was far in advance of the west and was matched only by the Arab and Chinese. Count No Man Happy tells of this sophisticated court and Constantine's biography as known from the Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor. It describes the family feuding, treachery, wars, and religious extremism of the late eighth century, together with a fantasy twist involving a leather clad model of whom Constantine dreams. This Beth is inspired by the smile of the fifties' pinup Bettie Page. According to Theophanes, Constantine was eventually “shut up in the purple chamber where he had been born. By the will of his mother and her advisers … he was terribly and incurably blinded with the intention of killing him. For seventeen days the sun grew dark, making ships wander and go astray … In this way his mother, Irene, took power.”〔Harry Turtledove, ''The Chronicles of Theophanes''. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982. (ISBN 978-0812211283 )〕 Constantine did not die however. He lived on and in the novel it is Beth who eventually carries him to the paradise of his dreams. ==See also== Paul Kastenellos' first novel set in the Byzantine Empire, about the life and loves of the wife of Belisarius. *Antonina: A Byzantine Slut Paul Kastenellos' other novel set in the Byzantine Empire, about the reign and fantasies of the Emperor Constantine VI. *Count No Man Happy: A Byzantine Fantasy 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Paul Kastenellos」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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