As a child I was infatuated with historical tales and larger-than-life figures. Gazing at portraits of Julius Caesar or Queen Elizabeth I, I would fall into daydreams, imagining myself crossing the Rubicon or navigating the intrigues of Tudor life. Historical fiction was a way to keep living in those dreams.

Yet when I scoured the library, I found almost nothing on the figure who fascinated me most: Flavius Belisarius. The Last of the Romans is my attempt to give him his due. Across seven novels, the series follows Belisarius and the young Herulian warrior Varus from the desert fortresses of the Persian frontier, through the reconquest of Africa, to the long agony of the war for Italy and the plague that nearly ended the ancient world. It is a story of loyalty, ambition, faith, and survival, drawn as closely as I could manage from the history itself.

By day I am a scientist studying complex systems and the drivers of systemic shock. If there is one thing writing these novels has taught me, it is that the problems modern societies face are nearly identical to those our forebears endured, though they often had it far worse than we do.