A Short History of Byzantium
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5.0 • 9 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
With wit, intelligence and his trademark eye for riveting detail, John Julius Norwich has brought together the most important and fascinating events from his trilogy of the rise and fall of the Byzantine empire.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1995, the third and concluding volume of Lord Norwich's magnificent chronicle of Byzantium was published to wide acclaim; now the author has condensed his sprawling narrative into a single volume of locomotive power and magisterial concision. Norwich presents deft and wide-ranging scholarship (backed by a lengthy bibliography but no footnotes) through dry but invigorating prose as he guides the reader at breakneck speed through Byzantium's defining moments, from its foundation in A.D. 330 by Constantine the Great through the agonies of its final conquest in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks. The result is a dizzying litany of plots and intrigues, palace revolutions, theological controversies and encounters with myriad hostile neighbors over the course of 11 centuries. Norwich buoys his colorful narrative with trenchant assessments of individual potentates, linking the character of each to the destiny of the empire as a whole. A rich--and ultimately poignant--epic of Christendom's great empire in the East, this history brims with humanity, historical understanding and unrelenting drama. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Customer Reviews
A riveting history of the Byzantine emperors...
Who would have thought that 12 centuries of history and the approximately 88 emperors of Constantinople could be so interesting?
Every paragraph contains a new twist to the plot or some unexpected dastardly deed so what could have been a dry and dusty historical textbook reads more like a fast-paced thriller taking the reader from the time of the Romans right through to the late middle ages just before the Renaissance.
It is a tale that is often difficult to stop reading and the temptation is always to go on for just one more chapter to discover what happens next. So the whole book was consumed in just five sittings.
The only criticism is that there is little detail on the daily lives of the citizenry and the remarkable art and buildings of the empire. The narrative focuses mainly on the intrigues of the emperor and his immediate circle. Those readers that dislike the antics of the pope, the schisms and the iconoclasts may find the ample theological details somewhat tiresome.
However it seems that Byzantine society put inordinate emphasis on minute theological details so the religious background is vital to the evolution of the tale.
Along the way there is much supporting detail on the history of Eastern and Western Europe and the countries bordering the Black Sea and the reader will encounter many well known characters from other stories.
Ultimately this story has an unhappy ending on a Tuesday at the end of May in 1453 with the capture of the city of Constantinople by the Turkish sultan Mehmet II aided by a german engineer.
It is ironic that the real culprits in the destruction of Byzantium were probably the Christian knights of the fourth crusade encouraged by the pope and transported there in a fleet constructed by the Venetians.
Legend has it that when the Turkish conquerors entered the cathedral of Hagia Sophia and interrupted the mass of Matins, that was then in progress, the priests officiating disappeared together with all their holy vessels into the southern wall of the cathedral.
At some future date, when the time is right, those same priests will reappear and resume the mass from the exact point where they broke off; but such is the stuff of legends...
Very readable
Great book. Extremely readable run through the thousand years of thus remarkable Empire.