Basil Argyros

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Depiction of Greek fire in the Madrid Skylitzes manuscript. Thanks to Basil Argyros, the Byzantine Empire has both it and gunpowder, too.

Basil Argyros is the eponymous main character of a sequence of short stories (by Harry Turtledove) set in an alternate 14th Century.

In this universe, the Prophet Moaumet, instead of developing Islam, converts to Christianity. As such, by the time the stories take place, the Eastern Roman Empire is still the pre-eminent power in the Mediterranean world, has reconquered much of southern Europe and North Africa, and is still — as it was in our history up to the advent of Islam — involved in a never-ending cold war (occasionally flaring up into actual fighting) with its Persian arch-enemy.

Basil works as an agent for the Roman Emperor, and as such is sent across the Empire to solve problems — sometimes as a spy, sometimes as a negotiator, and sometimes as a soldier.

Stories in the Basil Argyros universe (in order written) are:

• Unholy Trinity
• Archetypes
• The Eyes of Argos
• Strange Eruptions
• Images
• Superwine
• Pillar of Cloud, Pillar of Fire

Most of the above were collected into a single book, Agent of Byzantium. An additional story in the universe, "Departures," was written by Turtledove; Basil was absent from it as it took place hundreds of years earlier, and focused on the future St. Moaumet. Furthermore, "Pillar of Cloud, Pillar of Fire" was not published until after the first edition of Agent of Byzantium. It was including in the second edition of the book (published by Baen Books).

[edit] Description

The world of the Basil Argyros series.

Much of the fun of the series is to see how familiar inventions and social institutions crop up in this world far ahead of schedule, and under very different circumstances than they did in our world. Among these are:

• The telescope, discovered among the shamans of the Jurchen nomads who threaten the Empire from the north
• Vaccination for smallpox, which is discovered during a terrible plague inflicting Constantinople itself
• Trade Unions and strikes, appearing first among the builders engaged in the dangerous erection of a great lighthouse in Alexandria, Egypt
• Black powder, developed by the monks in the Abbey of St. Gall and used with great effect by the empire's Frankish enemies — until stolen by Argyros, with the help of agents from an Anglo-Saxon England which has known no Norman Conquest
• Printing, invented by the empire's Persian enemies and used to foment sedition and dissension inside its borders, until this secret is also apprehended by Argyros.

The Byzantine-Persian cold war gives Turtledove countless chances for small jokes referring to its Twentieth Century equivalent, for example when Argyros's superior, the Master of Offices (the head of the corps of Magistrianoi, the Roman espionage/secret police agency), is at first inclined to classify printing as a top Imperial secret and needs considerable convincing before accepting that it may also have non-military applications. (Argyros uses it to print several copies of one of the Master of Office's epic poems in preparation for a reading given at a dinner party.)

There are also numerous obvious nods to the James Bond series. In the best tradition of that genre, Argyros is furnished with a perfect enemy/lover — a beautiful and fiendishly clever Persian spy, Mirrane, as adept in the arts of love as she is highly professional in the field. (Randall Garrett also provided his Lord Darcy with exactly the same kind of opponent, in his own alternate reality).

So, Argyros and Mirrane cross swords and wits again and again, and simultaneously come to realise that they are two of a kind, and fall more and more deeply in love with each other. In the chronologically last story of the series, they join forces against Caucasian enemies who threaten both empires (as Western and Soviet agents occasionally do in Cold War thrillers).

In the conclusion, Argyros manages to capture Mirrane, and rather than treat her as a key enemy agent from whom secrets could be extracted, he proposes marriage and life together in Constantinople — which she accepts, though the reader may doubt that she either would or could truly renounce her Persian allegiance and Zoroastrian beliefs.