The first series Harry Turtledove set in the Empire of Videssos took a Republican Roman legion and set it into this magical realm which was based on the seventh century Byzantine Empire which Rome would eventually become. Naturally enough, none of the legionnaires discovered that they were, in effect, seeing the future of their world. In the two series and three short stories which have followed the original Videssos Cycle, Turtledove has examined the history of Videssos, continuously exploring earlier periods of Videssian history and her struggle with Makuran and Yezd. In the novel Bridge of the Separator, Turtledove examines Rhavas's origin as well as the beginnings of Kubrat and how it separated from Videssos. Since much of the cycle is loosely (and sometimes not so loosely) based on By