John Julius Norwich tells, in the first of three volumes, the story of that astonishing phenomenon, from its earliest beginnings to the emergence — with the coronation of Charlemagne on Christmas Day, 800 — of its only European rival, the Holy Roman Empire. Those first five centuries saw the adoption of Christianity by the Graeco-Roman world; the fall of Rome, and with it the Roman Empire of the West; the reigns of Constantine, Theodosius the Great and Justinian; and the intrigues of such Empresses as Eudoxia and Theodora, whose very names have become synonymous with luxury and sensuality.