In 5th-century BC Athens, ravaged by plague, famine, and war, Menas accidentally discovers a powerful weapon: a fire that never goes out, destined to become known as "Greek fire." As the city collapses, his wife Kora seeks to use it to gain power, but Menas, faithful to Athens' democratic values, opposes her. Their choice divides them forever, giving rise to two family branches destined to clash for centuries. Across the seven greatest empires in history—from Macedonian to Roman, from Persian to Byzantine, from the Holy Roman Empire to the Ottoman Empire, passing through the vast Mongol Empire—the descendants of Menas and Kora will always find themselves at the center of history's great events: over the centuries, they fight and sacrifice, establish sects and religious brotherhoods, and create a shadow power to control the secret of the eternal fire. Only after two thousand years of parallel adventures, which sometimes intersect on the battlefields and in the imperial courts, will the showdown come, in the dramatic setting of the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
With The Seven Empires (Newton Compton, 2025, pp. 992, also e-book) Andrea Frediani, a recognized master of the Italian historical novel, constructs a gripping and epic saga that intertwines freedom and tyranny, ambition and altruism and unfolds over two millennia.
We asked Andrea Frediani: how did the idea for such a far-reaching novel come about?
"It was specifically requested by the publisher, actually. And honestly, such an 'unreasonable' request could only come from someone who isn't exactly a history expert. But I accepted the challenge and got to work. After all, although I've had success with ancient times, I love all history, and it was a good opportunity to explore the centuries."
What were the difficulties in writing a novel that is a true thousand-year saga?
First of all, giving the saga coherence. It was truly difficult to find an unforced way to create a two-millennia-long timeline, a link between the eras that would allow me to develop a coherent and logical narrative. And then, of course, there were the difficulties related to documentation: perhaps for us Westerners, the sources on the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire are familiar and easily available. But moving on to the Ottoman Empire, things get more complicated. Honestly, if I had written this book at the beginning or middle of my career, it would have taken me years, or I wouldn't have succeeded at all. But now I have a career spanning almost forty years behind me, and what I had learned beforehand, researching for dozens of books and hundreds, perhaps thousands of articles, was important...
How much of the novel is historical and how much is fictional?
I've included a quote from the sources in each chapter of the book precisely to demonstrate to the reader that I've based my work on contemporary accounts. The goal was to represent all the key moments in history between the 5th century BC and the 15th century AD. In theory, therefore, almost everything I describe actually happened, and all the characters I mention actually existed. Only the members of the fictional dynasty that competes for Greek fire are fictional; all but three: Callinicus, who is considered the inventor of Greek fire, and Chelubey and Alexander Peresvet, who are part of the Russian epic.
How does this work differ from your previous novels?
In everything, I'd say. In form, first of all: I told the story as if it were a TV series. So there are no chapters and paragraphs, but seasons and episodes. Each season corresponds to a historical era, each episode to a historical context/event. And I wrote it as if it were a potential screenplay, like a live report. So the narration is in the historical present, not the past tense as is usual with historical novels. Naturally, the content also differs from my other novels: it's the first time I've tackled so many eras and so many civilizations all at once in a single novel. Until now, at most, I'd tackled the history of multiple generations, such as, for example, in Roma caput mundi, the story of Constantine and his dynasty: but that had only been little more than half a century of history...
What does Greek fire represent in the book?
Greek fire was the weapon of mass destruction of the Middle Ages. Thanks to it, the Byzantines maintained their empire for centuries. It was a fire that couldn't be extinguished even in water, and we have many depictions of a kind of flamethrower mounted on ships. But the formula remained unknown, and perhaps the Byzantines themselves lost it, at a certain point in their epic, because they stopped using Greek fire (which was later superseded by the advent of firearms). In any case, Greek fire was precisely the solution I adopted to create a logical line across the centuries: a family that preserved the secret formula and passed it down from generation to generation. But in my novel, Greek fire is also a metaphor for power itself: you can use it to impose yourself on others, or simply to defend yourself. For this reason, the book is also a long reflection on democracies and absolutism.
And now, what do we do after such a demanding book?
Good question... I feel a little empty right now. I'd like to write a story set in real time, perhaps describing 48 hours of an event. Just to do the exact opposite of The Seven Empires... Or, this novel could be a fitting end to a career, who knows...