In the book "Byzantium: The Early Centuries," John Julius Norwich narrates the epic story of the second capital of the Roman Empire up to Christmas Day in 800 AD, when Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne as a rival emperor. This second volume of his magnificent history covers the next three centuries. In it, he continues his captivating narrative up to the coronation of the heroic Alexios Komnenos in 1081. The other two volumes of the trilogy, "Byzantium: The Early Centuries" and "Byzantium: The Decline and Fall," are also published by Penguin.