Fifty years after the Western Roman Empire was toppled by the Goth warlord Odoacer, a new Caesar is crowned in Byzantium. This man, the Emperor Justinian, refuses to accept that Rome's best days have passed. With the help of his extraordinary young General Belisarius, Justinian will attempt the impossible - to expel the barbarians from Rome's Lost Lands and to restore the Empire to its former glory. Join them on their adventure in the LEGEND OF AFRICANUS trilogy. In AVENGING AFRICANUS, the sequel to FROM AFRICANUS, General Belisarius leads Valentinian and the Roman Army on a perilous journey across Mare Nostrum to Africa in order to punish the Vandals for the Sack of Rome a century before, their invasion of Rome's African province, and their role in the collapse of the Western Empire. The journey is perilous - many prior expeditions against the Vandals had been tried and failed. The Vandal horde outnumbers the Romans twenty to one. If they fail there will be no rescue. If they prevail, the Emperor Justinian's plan for restoring the Western Empire will be within reach. "AVENGING AFRICANUS IS A WONDERFUL WORK OF HISTORICAL FICTION THAT WILL APPEAL TO ANY LOVER OF THE GENRE, ANY HISTORY BUFF, OR ANY PERSON LOOKING FOR A WELL-RESEARCHED, FASCINATING READ. STORM'S OBVIOUS PASSION FOR THIS TIME PERIOD HAS MADE HIM A MUST-READ AUTHOR FOR ANYONE LOOKING FOR A GREAT STORY THAT WILL PULL THEM INTO ANCIENT ROME AND NOT LET GO." - CLARION FORWARD REVIEW (FIVE STAR REVIEW) "PART HISTORY LESSON, PART DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION, THIS NARRATIVE SHEDS LIGHT ON A PERIOD OF FASCINATING CONFLICT. " - KIRKUS REVIEW OF BOOKS AVENGING AFRICANUS is the sequel to  From Africanus , and it is followed by  Immortal Africanus  (the last book in the  Legend of Africanus  trilogy).  These books are the product of my obsession with this Rome, Rome on the cusp of the dark ages - a darkness that had already engulfed the Western Empire and now menaced the East. A peculiar man had risen to the throne in Constantinople, 51 years after the last Western Emperor was forced off the throne by the Goth warlord Odoacer.  This new Caesar, Justinian I (born Pietrus Sabbatius), was most peculiar because he did not accept the status quo of a dismembered Empire where barbarian princes ran roughshod over Roman peoples and principles.  He would be the last Roman Emperor to speak Latin as his native tongue.  And he would be the last to include the city of Rome, the birthplace of the Empire, among his dominions.  That Justinian sought to restore what had been rent asunder was noble but not novel.  What made this dream relevant is that he found a general, a truly extraordinary man to help him realize his vision on the field of battle (and after the battle was won) by the name of Flavius Belisarius. Avenging Africanus  picks up precisely where  From Africanus  closed, in the summer of 533CE in Constantinople.  Belisarius' fleet has just raised anchor and sails south from the Golden Horn through the Dardenelles on a 1,000 mile journey to what had once been Roman Africa before it was stolen by the Vandals, precipitating the fall of the Western Empire.  Once there he would make for Carthage and seek battle with Gaiseric, King of the Vandals.   The world fully expected the Romans to fail as Roman armies had failed in the field against the Vandals and their Germanic 'barbarian' cousins for generations.  If they lost to the Vandals there would be no retreat and no hope of reinforcements.  And if Justinian and Belisarius lost this war, the Eastern Roman Empire itself would be in grave jeopardy.What happens next is part of the historical record and I won't spoil the plot for readers but I promise you that the pure history is as gripping as any fiction.  I do hope that my readers find my rendition of these events equally engaging. Mr. Matthew Jordan Storm is a Roman History nut. If he had more time and aptitude he would have become an archaeologist or historian but now moonlights as a writer of historical fiction instead. Mr. Storm has lived and worked in three former capitals of the Roman Empire: Rome, Milan and Istanbul - experiences that marked him, contributing greatly to his novels and fomenting his obsession for Rome on the cusp of the Dark Ages. Mr. Storm is author of the LEGEND OF AFRICANUS trilogy - three novels of historical fiction set in the Roman Empire of Justinian the Great, fifty years after the Fall of the West. Volume I: From Africanus Volume II: Avenging Africanus Volume III: Immortal Africanus