"A Struggle for Rome, v. 1" by Felix Dahn is a historical novel written in 1876. After Theodoric the Great's death, his successors fight to preserve the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I's campaign to reclaim Italy and restore the Roman Empire. As weak heirs and shifting alliances erode Gothic power, a series of kings—aided by Theodoric's faithful armourer Hildebrand—struggle against Eastern Roman forces while a scheming Roman prefect pursues his own vision for Italy's future. (This is an automatically generated summary.)