The Eagle Soars Over Byzantium

In the year 1019 of the first millennium, during the Fourth Age, Queen Anna, the most powerful, intelligent, and beautiful woman in the entire Roman Empire, adorned with a purple crown, stood before the Palace of Blachna. Before her lay the resplendent Golden Horn, as she gazed at the triumphant imperial fleet, countless banners and sails reflecting like flames in her eyes—she admired and loved him, the liberator of Anatolia, the Christian warrior wielding the holy lance, the destroyer of the Norman Kingdom, the conqueror of the Frankish Crusader kingdoms, Zeta, and Epirus, the restorer of Bari and the Two Sicilies, the patron of the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy City, the most glorious shadow of the Lord on earth, the master of the purple palace, the savior of all flesh and souls. Well, it is now a luxury to expect Queen Anna to write the biography of this legendary figure; let her indulge in pride and sweetness, perhaps it is more realistic for me to take up the pen.

--- "Chronicles of the Varangian Dynasty" by "Nisitas of Phrygia", on the title page