A Short History of Byzantium

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The Byzantine Empire, one of its most eminent students reminds us, lasted "for a total of 1,123 years and 18 days," which is an astonishing duration matched by only a few others. Condensing Norwich's three-volume history, this overview captures the splendor and strangeness of Byzantine rule, marked by family intrigues, constant warfare, political and religious strife, and personal ambition--a "somewhat lurid background," as Norwich modestly declares in passing. Norwich is a master of the telling vignette. In one, he writes of imperial guards made up of "Anglo-Saxons who had left their country in disgust after Hastings and had taken service with Byzantium." Facing a Norman enemy in southern Italy, these Anglo-Saxons exacted terrible vengeance until the Normans rallied under the leadership of a fearless woman, one Sichelgaita, and massacred their enemy. Norwich's book abounds in similarly surprising and absorbing episodes.

Book Description

Published to coincide with a major exhibition on Byzantium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the spring of 1997, Byzantium tells the dramatic story of Byzantium, from its beginnings in A.D. 330, providing readers with a spirited, gripping, and original account of a great lost civilization and its magnificent artistic heritage. 24 pp. of illustrations, 8 pp. in full color. Size C. 432 pp. 20,000 print.

Customer Reviews:

Standard, Fast-Moving Poltical/Military History.......2007-08-19

A Short History of Byzantium is aptly-named. It covers over a thousand years of history in 381 pages. As such, it is necessarily short on depth and contains no analysis--or footnotes for the serious historians. More concerning to me, however, was its lack of any material beyond male military leaders and emperors. There is no cultural history, a little religious history, and the presentation of the few women in the book is a joke. Casual readers will probably won't be bothered, but anyone with a serious interest in history should read the original three volume work and be prepared to supplement it with additional works.

Disappointment.......2007-07-22

I had high hopes for this book. A Short History of Byzantium, however, reads like little more than a laundry list of people, places, and dates, all passing by at a breakneck pace.

Norwich formula for writing about Byzantine history goes something like this:
Emperor X... 1) assumes the throne, 2) eliminates any perceived threats to his authority, 3) weds a young woman (probably named either Theodora, Eudoxia, or Zoe) in the hopes of siring a male heir, 4) sends his army to wage war against Enemy Y, and 5) is subsequently overthrown by conspirator Z, who now becomes Emperor Z. Repeat steps 1 to 5. Norwich's approach nicely illustrates an antiquated approach to historical writing that focuses exclusively on the lives of the sovereign, his family, and high officials.

Even more unfortunate, Norwich makes little effort to place those people, places, and dates within any broader cultural, social, or political context, resulting in a tedious and lifeless narrative. He also neglects to discuss topics that may interest the average reader, such as Byzantine art, culture, or military tactics. He does spend some time describing events surrounding the great monophysite debate (which concerned the nature of Christ), but still fails to adequately discuss the ideas that made the debate important in the first place. So what's the point?

Norwich is correct in asserting that the Byzantine Empire has been long neglected in Western scholarship (see the book's introduction). Unfortunately, I cannot imagine how this book could help to reverse that inattention. I love reading history, but Norwich made it impossible for me to get excited about the Byzantine Empire. It is books like this that give the field of history a bad name.

True, Norwich's prose is smooth and the book provides some detailed maps and thorough chronological listings of emperors, popes, and sultans. Still, if the author's overall approach is terribly flawed and the storytelling dull, who really cares to know that Alexius Comnenus ruled from 1081 to 1118?

Istanbul and Constantinople.......2007-03-11

It's fascinating to come upon the reviews for John Julian Norwich's, "A Short History of Byzantium" and see how many reviewers are complaining about the pace. Mr. Norwich has explained the difficulty of reducing three volumes into one volume of 380 pages and I wonder if he had to do it over again if he would. It must have been a hair raising editing process and for anyone so inclined by all means get the three volume version (but it's hard to find) and give the author a break. One reviewer who did said she was very much more enjoying the pace and seemed quite settled down. This shortened version has made me hungry to find all three but in the meanwhile I found it a very compelling read, jam packed with information about the Empire of the East. What a story! I think Norwich is right in saying that this is a whole forgotten chunk of time and place in the west and it seems to have been his pleasure to help us find it and unravel it. To say that a situtation or relationship or organization is "Byzantine" implies all of the tangled confusion which we have associated with that civilization for centuries and this short history now makes me totally aware of how that word is applicable. And I thought the Plantagenets were confusing! This work has at least begun to clarify for me the movement of power from west to east, the movement into orthodoxy and finally into islam. And how it remains with us today throughout the Middle East, the Balkans and Central Asia. For anyone who would like some enlightenment on this long period of history pick up a copy of this book, then hold on to your seat. It's quite a ride.

A narrative summary of the Byzantine empire, not an academic work.......2007-02-12

I've noticed a number of reviewers complaining that this book, A Short History of Byzantium, contains absolutely no analysis. They seem surprised at what the book is: a brief summary of Byzantium. It doesn't claim to be anything else. In the introduction, John Julius Norwich clearly states that it is not an academic work for the purpose of historical analysis. It is a summary of a relatively unknown and overlooked empire in history, written for the purpose of spurring interest in the Byzantine world.

Having defended the purpose of Norwich's work, I still can't give it an wonderful review because of some pronounced internal problems. Such a short summary of over 1100 years naturally feels like the reader is racing through events, and soon the names and controversies blur into one another. For this reason the reader can expect to have an unusually low rate of retention for the information presented in the book. On a better note, the maps and family trees in the front of the book are helpful to keep things straight.

Norwich likes to put in exact dates of events, but often leaves out the year so that you have to stop and do simple math for context. For instance, here is an excerpt of page 134:
"They had captured Alexandria in 818; seven years later, forcibly expelled by the Caliph Mamun, they headed for Crete...Within only two years of the capture of Crete another company of Arabs invaded Sicily..." Of course the math is easy, but it interrupts the reader's flow of thoughts on the content itself.

Furthermore, because Norwich has created a non-academic work, some of his choices for the flow of the story are controversial. The reader must therefore approach the events cautiously. For instance, Norwich narrates the life of Constantine the Great as if the emperor truly believed Christianity was the true religion. And yet in a class on Constantine and the Council of Nicea I took in college, an excellent case was made that Constantine used Christianity almost solely for political gain.

I have not read the longer, three volume version of this work, but since the biggest issue is the neck breaking pace, I would imagine the longer works would do much to overcome the major problem of this specific edition.

Old fashioned and trivial.......2007-02-07

Perhaps the shortcomings of this book are due to the fact that it's an abridgement of a three-volume work, but I'm not so sure. I found it to be extremely tedious and very old fashioned. It is merely a catalog of events with strong doses of the salacious and a great deal of "looking down the nose" opinion.

There is absolutely no analysis and no sense of what the events meant for their own time and for the future. It is firmly rooted in a very old fashioned, indeed 19th-century British, approach to history. I'm very sorry I wasted my money and enough time to decide it wasn't worth reading on it.

Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World

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Entertaining biographical sketches that shaped the world after 1453
Tremendous work
A Great History of a Lost Empire
Forget Byzantium at Your Peril!
Cultural and religious dispersal

Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World
Colin Wells
Manufacturer: Delacorte Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0553803816
Release Date: 2006-07-25

Book Description

A gripping intellectual adventure story, Sailing from Byzantium sweeps you from the deserts of Arabia to the dark forests of northern Russia, from the colorful towns of Renaissance Italy to the final moments of a millennial city under siege….

Byzantium: the successor of Greece and Rome, this magnificent empire bridged the ancient and modern worlds for more than a thousand years. Without Byzantium, the works of Homer and Herodotus, Plato and Aristotle, Sophocles and Aeschylus, would never have survived. Yet very few of us have any idea of the enormous debt we owe them.

The story of Byzantium is a real-life adventure of electrifying ideas, high drama, colorful characters, and inspiring feats of daring. In Sailing from Byzantium, Colin Wells tells of the missionaries, mystics, philosophers, and artists who against great odds and often at peril of their own lives spread Greek ideas to the Italians, the Arabs, and the Slavs.

Their heroic efforts inspired the Renaissance, the golden age of Islamic learning, and Russian Orthodox Christianity, which came complete with a new alphabet, architecture, and one of the world’s greatest artistic traditions.

The story’s central reference point is an arcane squabble called the Hesychast controversy that pitted humanist scholars led by the brilliant, acerbic intellectual Barlaam against the powerful monks of Mount Athos led by the stern Gregory Palamas, who denounced “pagan” rationalism in favor of Christian mysticism.

Within a few decades, the light of Byzantium would be extinguished forever by the invading Turks, but not before the humanists found a safe haven for Greek literature. The controversy of rationalism versus faith would continue to be argued by some of history’s greatest minds.

Fast-paced, compulsively readable, and filled with fascinating insights, Sailing from Byzantium is one of the great historical dramas–the gripping story of how the flame of civilization was saved and passed on.

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining biographical sketches that shaped the world after 1453.......2007-08-28

This readable history of the historical waves emanating from Byzantine influences is an indispensable work. The style is partly biographical sketches and partly telling of a story making it easily accessible and useful to novice and professional historian alike. The biographical flavor provides the structure for history as events involving human beings with complex characters and mixed motivations acting on the society in their time. The story-telling aspect provides the glue that sweeps the characters and their influence through their geographical dispersions to reveal their influence in Russia, western Europe, and Islam.

An enjoyable read for any historian looking for hints of the Byzantine in the world today. Well done.

Tremendous work.......2007-08-14

This is a great work about an empire that was - and indeed still is - important in our world today. Back when I took a course in Classics in college, my professor lectured us on the importance of the Byzantine Empire, and yet, how few people understand it, and can convey the importance. The author, in my view, has done a truly tremendous job of condensing history down into a very readable, non-intimidating book, which conveys the entire history of Byzantium, from its founding in 500 A.D. to its end in 1493 A.D. The author commands an encyclopedic knowledge of the Classical world, as well as an ability to write. I can't say enough about this work of history. And anyone who might think this is ancient history and doesn't affect us: the history of the clash and cooperation between Islam and Christian civilizations continues to this day (of course). As the author mentions, if the walls of Constantinople had not been so well designed, the Muslims might well have put Europe in a pincer movement in 750 A.D. Instead of being stopped by Charles Martel at Poitiers in France, and turned back, the Muslims might have conquered all of Europe. We would be speaking Arabic now. Yes, it is relevant ! At the same time, the author shows attempts made inside the Arabic Muslim world (which stretched from Spain to Afghanistan) to integrate Greek rationalism and Greek knowledge. Averroes was a famous Arab philosopher who not only championed rationalism, but also kick-started the European Scholastic movement. Unfortunately, Averoes lost out in the Arab world, and the reaction to rationalism, in 850 A.D. began, and continues to this day as Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia. We feel the reverberations to this day...

A very valuable work, at once encyclopedic, and very accessible.

A Great History of a Lost Empire.......2007-06-18

I have always had a fasination with byzantium. This book as well as John Julius Norwich's series of books has helped to appreciate this lost empire more than ever. I especially liked the end of the book where it is just abruptly ended. In a way it made me cry a little to see what could have happened to the world if Byzantium had never have existed. I feel that more people should read this book and be aware of the several contribution that Byzantium has bestowed upon out modern world.

Forget Byzantium at Your Peril!.......2007-05-19

Ignorance of Byzantium (in two senses: lack of knowledge and lack of attention) has confounded Islamicists and Western European historians alike in the past 100 or so years. Colin Wells offers a concise and cogent description of the role Byzantium,including exiled or conquered Byzantines, played in the preservation and transmission of ancient Greek science and philosophy to the Muslim empires of the pre-Crusade "golden age" and directly to Western Europe chiefly by way of Italy. For nearly a thousand years, Byzantium WAS Rome, the hinge of civilization, linking rising and sinking cultures from the Visigoths of North Africa to the Vikings who called themselves Rus, from the humanists of Renaissance Florence to the Nestorian Christians of Syria, the primary translators of the Greek classics into Arabic.
Yet despite the significance of the material presented, it's a fun book, a quick read, written in a relaxed and simple style, accessible even to people who couldn't locate Byzantium on the map. (Hint: "Istanbul is Constantinople, now you can't go back to constantinople...")

Cultural and religious dispersal.......2007-04-20

This is not a "history" book in the exact sense of the term, if you think of "history" books as a linear progression of events. What this author has done is written a very valuable work detailing how the Byzantine Empire spread its culture and religion to its neighbors. The book is divided into three parts, each one showing the effect of Byzantium on 1: Western or "Latin" Christianity, 2: the states in the Balkan area, and 3: what eventually bcame Russia. It's a fascinating tale, extremely well told, and reveals to us that, even though 1453 saw the political end of the Empire, its influence in many different aspects spread and remain even today in many areas. These are subjects rarely, if ever, covered in this context, and should be required reading for anyone interested in obtaining a well-rounded knowledge of Byzantium.

The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (3-Volume Set)

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Great!
ODB

The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (3-Volume Set)

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0195046528

Book Description

The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium is a three-volume, comprehensive dictionary of Byzantine civilization. The first resource of its kind in the field, it features over 5,000 entries written by an international group of eminent Byzantinists covering all aspects of life in the Byzantine world. According to Alexander Kazhdan, editor-in-chief of the Dictionary: "Entries on patriarchy and emperors will coexist with entries on surgery and musical instruments. An entry on the cultivation of grain will not only be connected to entries on agriculture and its economics but on diet, the baking of bread, and the role of bread in this changing society." Major entries treat such topics as agriculture, art, literature, and politics, while shorter entries examine topics that relate to Byzantium such as the history of Kiev and personalities of ancient and biblical history. Each article is followed by a bibliography, and numerous maps, tables, architectural designs, and genealogies reinforce and clarify the text. The new ODB will be the standard research tool and reference work for Byzantinists from graduate students to advanced scholars, and an essential resource for college and school libraries. It will also be an invaluable guide for classicists, Western medievalists, Islamicists, Slavicists, art historians, religious historians, and scholars of archaeology.

Customer Reviews:

Great!.......2001-07-24

I am Byzantine history buff, and after looking through this set in a college library, I decided to get it for myself. I plan eventually to read most of it. A feature I like is the inclusion of brief histories of important cities of the empire and also of provinces. So, for example, there are entries on Bari and Sardinia. The careers of important personages are also outlined, not just emperors. I expect to learn a lot from the articles on special topics, some of which are indicated in the editorial review. The maps are clear and not overloaded with detail, but I would have liked a map of the empire around 700 to be included, instead of skipping from 565 to 1025. But that's a minor quibble. I expect to be using this book for years to come, so it should be well worth the money.

ODB.......2000-03-26

This is a great reference for the thousand years of Byzantine history, covering everything from Amulets to Zoe. It is really helpful in starting any research paper, and is also great just to look things up in that you find of interest.

The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium

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The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium
Kathryn M. Ringrose
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch (Original Fiction in Paperback)

ASIN: 0226720152

Book Description

The Perfect Servant reevaluates the place of eunuchs in Byzantium. Kathryn Ringrose uses the modern concept of gender as a social construct to identify eunuchs as a distinct gender and to illustrate how gender was defined in the Byzantine world. At the same time she explores the changing role of the eunuch in Byzantium from 600 to 1100.

Accepted for generations as a legitimate and functional part of Byzantine civilization, eunuchs were prominent in both the imperial court and the church. They were distinctive in physical appearance, dress, and manner and were considered uniquely suited for important roles in Byzantine life. Transcending conventional notions of male and female, eunuchs lived outside of normal patterns of procreation and inheritance and were assigned a unique capacity for mediating across social and spiritual boundaries. This allowed them to perform tasks from which prominent men and women were constrained, making them, in essence, perfect servants.

Written with precision and meticulously researched, The Perfect Servant will immediately take its place as a major study on Byzantium and the history of gender.

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The Oxford History of Byzantium
Excellent
Missing the point....
One of Oxford's Less Successful Enterprises
an extremely disappointing work

The Oxford History of Byzantium

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0198140983

Book Description

The Oxford History of Byzantium is the only history to provide in concise form detailed coverage of Byzantium from its Roman beginnings to the fall of Constantinople and assimilation into the Turkish Empire. Lively essays and beautiful illustrations portray the emergence and development of a distinctive civilization, covering the period from the fourth century to the mid-fifteenth century. The authors - all working at the cutting edge of their particular fields - outline the political history of the Byzantine state and bring to life the evolution of a colourful culture. In AD 324, the Emperor Constantine the Great chose Byzantion, an ancient Greek colony at the mouth of the Thracian Bosphorous, as his imperial residence. He renamed the place 'Constaninopolis nova Roma', 'Constantinople, the new Rome' and the city (modern Istanbul) became the Eastern capital of the later Roman empire. The new Rome outlived the old and Constantine's successors continued to regard themselves as the legitimate emperors of Rome, just as their subjects called themselves Romaioi, or Romans long after they had forgotten the Latin language. In the sixteenth century, Western humanists gave this eastern Roman empire ruled from Constantinople the epithet 'Byzantine'. Against a backdrop of stories of emperors, intrigues, battles, and bishops, this Oxford History uncovers the hidden mechanisms - economic, social, and demographic - that underlay the history of events. The authors explore everyday life in cities and villages, manufacture and trade, machinery of government, the church as an instrument of state, minorities, education, literary activity, beliefs and superstitions, monasticism, iconoclasm, the rise of Islam, and the fusion with Western, or Latin, culture. Byzantium linked the ancient and modern worlds, shaping traditions and handing down to both Eastern and Western civilization a vibrant legacy.

Customer Reviews:

The Oxford History of Byzantium.......2007-09-06

An excellent introduction to the subject for non-specialists. Lucidly written covering all the main topics. Good bibliography for further in depth reading

Excellent.......2007-05-03

This is an excellent book that has already become almost a classic among the specialists. In a highly scientific manner it describes the most essential aspects of Byzantium avoiding the prejudices that have plagued the area for so long. All contributors are leading experts in the subject and have managed to incorprorate a substantial amount of current research in their articles.

Missing the point...........2006-10-05

The other reviewers here seem to be missing the point. Oxford has a very large text covering this period in great detail...this book is not meant to cover everything in depth...that is the job of the other text. This book is designed to INTRODUCE readers to Byzantium, no go into great depth, hence its shortness. It is an OVERVIEW not a compilation of all of our knowledge of Byzantium. As an OVERVIEW it does an acceptable job at covering the materials. It has its shortcommings, but is an alright text.

One of Oxford's Less Successful Enterprises.......2004-08-05

The Oxford History Series is usually well done, with two exceptions, this book and the volume on the Crusades. Both are woefully short for their subject matter and just does not cover the subject in the depth that one is used to in other volumes of the series. I am highly disappointed in Oxford for this one.

an extremely disappointing work.......2004-01-27

While one certainly can't expect the history of Byzantium to be dealt with exhaustively in a 300+ page book, this book falls seriously short of Oxford University Press's typically high standard. 12 contributors' work make up this compilation of articles on the history of Byzantium. Most of the articles seem rushed and many are tedious to read (this coming from someone fascinated by the subject.) Additionally, many of the authors write in a condescending tone. There isn't a footnote or endnote to be found, although there is a chapter by chapter bibliography. I would seriously consider looking elsewhere for books on the subject, especially considering the price.

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Byzantium after Byzantium
Nicolae Iorga
Manufacturer: Center for Romanian Studies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9739432093

A History of Private Life, Volume I, From Pagan Rome to Byzantium (History of Private Life)

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A disorganized, disjointed, and disappointing read
Invaluable resource
Classic of the Annales School
Motley crew
good peek into the private of early times

A History of Private Life, Volume I, From Pagan Rome to Byzantium (History of Private Life)

Manufacturer: Belknap Press
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0674399749

Book Description

First of the widely celebrated and sumptuously illustrated series, this book reveals in intimate detail what life was really like in the ancient world. Behind the vast panorama of the pagan Roman empire, the reader discovers the intimate daily lives of citizens and slaves--from concepts of manhood and sexuality to marriage and the family, the roles of women, chastity and contraception, techniques of childbirth, homosexuality, religion, the meaning of virtue, and the separation of private and public spaces. The emergence of Christianity in the West and the triumph of Christian morality with its emphasis on abstinence, celibacy, and austerity is startlingly contrasted with the profane and undisciplined private life of the Byzantine Empire. Using illuminating motifs, the authors weave a rich, colorful fabric ornamented with the results of new research and the broad interpretations that only masters of the subject can provide.

Customer Reviews:

A disorganized, disjointed, and disappointing read.......2007-06-21

This book is one of those doppelgangers which appear to be something good and excellent on the outside but wind up being something, well, otherwise. The cover art at once draws you in, and just flipping through the pages, the multitude of interior plates, both color and b&w, are completely engrossing.

Sadly, the text of this book is practically worthless from a scholarly perspective. The authors make a variety of highly questionable claims throughout the book, very few of which are backed up with meaningful citations. For such a large book, the reference list at the back is pathetic. Hardly any primary sources are listed at all, even though many are mentioned in the text. Worse, the various authors write in a style which makes it appear that their claims are universally accepted and completely above debate. No serious academic would long tolerate such flaws in a work which pretends to make a contribution to scholarship.

It appears, however, that the book is meant for undergraduate level students and general readers. The publisher has clearly produced it with an eye to a wide audience. But this is precisely the type of book that a student or a reader with scant knowledge of ancient history should avoid. One doesn't have to read very far before it becomes clear that this book is primarily a philosophical/political tract masquerading as history. That's not to say that there is no presentation of valid historical facts here. The trouble is, these facts are often cherry-picked to fit neatly into a certain philosophical point of view that is never explicitly defined, only hinted at. Other extant facts that might harm or invalidate this point of view are routinely de-emphasized or ignored. If you want a clue as to what this over-riding philosophical point of view might be, you need only read the tribute given to Michel Foucault, a destructive critic of western civilization, by Paul Veyne in his introduction to the section on the Roman Empire.

There are simply too many questionable claims made in this book to challenge in a review, so I'll limit my criticisms to a couple big picture issues. The single greatest problem I had with this book is that it is not really a "History of Private Life." Discussions of hygiene, diet, maternity, child growth and development, adolescence, play, religious practices, trades, occupations, domestic architecture (except for one very out-of-place chapter), furnishings, farm life, medical care, personal finance, etc. are scanty when they exist at all. Meanwhile, the subjects of slavery, death, and sexuality (particularly deviant forms of sexuality) are covered in exquisite detail, again and again, chapter after chapter. If nothing else, one is left with a very clear notion of what the authors consider the key elements of "private life."

Another major problem involved the scope of the work. Though claiming to cover all the ground between "Rome and Byzantium," the book is highly idiosyncratic in what it covers and what it leaves out. The authors spill a great deal of ink on classical Roman civilization, but expend comparatively little on Christian Roman life between the 4th and 7th centuries. And aside from a brief foray into Merovingian private life, there is nothing on the other Germanic successor states that conquered the western empire. The chapter on Byzantium is completely cursory and covers only the 9th through 12th centuries, leaving everything from the 6th through 8th centuries, including the well-recorded Justinianic period, completely ignored.

Last but not least, there are also some very basic content and consistency problems with this book. A particularly humorous example is on page 81 where the author parenthetically claims that "cats were not yet domesticated in Rome." Meanwhile, an image directly to the right of this text shows a Roman relief of a young girl holding a cat, very obviously domesticated. There is also at least one example of a photo bearing the wrong caption. But these are certainly minor quibbles compared to the ones above.

Lest I sound completely down on this book, however, I should point out that the chapter on domestic architecture in Roman Africa by Yvon Thébert was as excellent as it was out of place. It deserved a book of its own, rather than to be a single grain of wheat amidst a heap of chaff.

Over all, this is a terrible book dressed up in a nice package. Its ultimate goal is to attract unsuspecting non-specialist readers and to fill their minds with a very scholarly-sounding but poorly-grounded and skewed version of history. As such, it is a subtle piece of propaganda which should not be confused with an actual description of what private life was really like in ancient Rome or Byzantium. Admittedly, though, the pictures are nice. Had the authors left the text in the original French, I would heartily endorse this book for an English speaking audience.

Invaluable resource.......2006-11-17

Fascinating in parts; illustrative of things I had not known or even suspected, things I had read allusions to previously, and things I never would even have thought studied. Of course, you need an interest in Roman and Byzantine life; and even if you have such an interest, not all the details will hold your attention. Some of the cross cultural comparisons were beautifully illustrative (one that sticks was a comparison between the economy of a present day middle eastern country to that of the Empire). I am pretty sure this suffered from some sort of idiological bias, as it was weirdly contradictory in places, though it is an original/odd enough bias that it it probably unique to the authors. One of the authors at least, seemed to be an intimate of Michel Foucault. All were french, and the prose suffers for it to the point of being occasionally downright nonsensical. The book certainly rid me of any "golden age" delusions I might have had, regarding Roman times. I'll stick with my electric can opener, microwave ovens, annoying legal system, and Blue Cross HMO thanks very much.

Classic of the Annales School.......2004-11-03

This book is the product of the methodology created by the annales school of historians in france. Founded in the late 20's, the Annales school pioneered the use of the methods and teachings from other schools of social science in the service of history. This approach spurned a focus on wars and politics in favor of a focus on "everyday life" i.e. the life of non-presidents and generals.

The general editors of this book (Durby and Aries) were pioneers of the approach, along with it's most famous author: Braudel. See his work on the mediteranean, or Aries' classic "In the Hour of Our Death".

These authors are second and third generation. The work is, on the whole, excellent, but it's a distinct style of scholarship, which may account for some of the confusion in the other reviews.

Each chronological segment is written by a different author. The section on Rome is an anchor to the whole five volume series. The secton on late antiquity is a bit brief. I skipped the chapter on roman domestic architecture in africa. The period on the early middle ages is rich and fascinating, but too brief. I could have read a whole book on the Merovinigian empire in northern Gaul! The chapter on the Byzantine empire focuses on the later empeire (900-1200(?) and the source material for the last chapter seems to consist almost of entirely of information on monastery life.

Over all, one is struck by the dramatic, though gradual, shift from pagan rome to early christianity. It is a unique book, and well worth reading.

Motley crew.......2002-08-11

This is the first volume of a multi-author endeavor to trace the changes in private attitudes, beliefs, benaviors, and lifestyles from the early Roman Empire to the late twentieth century. The first volume begins with the early Roman Empire and ends with the apogee of the Byzantine Empire. Containing five lenghty essays by different authors (mainly French -- the whole project is a French one) dealing with the early Roman Empire, the late Roman Empire, housing and architecture in Roman Africa, Merovingian Gaul, and tenth and eleventh-century Byzantium.

The project is a fresh and invigorating look at the ways that societies change. There are several excellent illuminations in this book. We are shown that the notion of Roman "sexual liberation" is not well-founded; that Christianity did not change Western views on sex and the body, but that Christianity adopted the views of the poorer (and more numerous) Roman classes; how architecture can reveal much about a society; and that the major change between the late Empire and the early medieval had to do with notions of "private" and "public."

Although the book is interesting and useful, there are some reasons to criticize it. Most of the attention is given to the early Roman Empire, which consumes almost one third of the book. Entirely too much space is given to the chapter on architecture in Roman Africa -- it is significantly longer than the chapter on the late Empire. The chapter entitled "The Early Middle Ages in the West" is really only about Merovingian Gaul, and does not always have the change between the late Empire and early medieval as a focus. The chapter on Byzantium did not seem to fit with the rest of the book. The reason for including Byzantium in this volume rather than the next volume (Middle Ages) was to show Byzantine culture as a continuation of Roman culture. Unfortunately, the piece was not about the early Byzantine, but rather the middle Byzantine era, thus having no connection with the rest of the book. It is also dubious that the book begins with the Roman Empire, not the Roman Republic or classical Greece. Paul Veyne says that this decision was made because Rome was essentially Greek in character, and that a section on Greece and a section on Rome would be repetitive. This is weak reasoning at best, but, given the lenght of the book as it stands now, it may still have been a good decision. Finally, the book is not footnoted or endnoted. There is a lengthy bibliography and a small notes section in the back, but assertions, ideas, and evidence are not clearly referenced. I do not know if this is how French scholarship is done, or if this major chunk of scholarship was left out in the interest of marketing the book to a lay audience. Either way, it is frustrating, and only hurts the academic value of this major project.

Despite these critical comments, I view the book as an excellent effort and an enlightening read. Too often history is about events, not people, and these historians have made a noble attempt to humanize our past.

good peek into the private of early times.......2002-05-02

This book covers about 1,000 years of private life, from the polytheistic era of classical Rome through the acceptance there and then institutionalization of Christianity in the dark ages. It is a dazzling side glance into the cultural evolution of these tumultuous times with some reference to the larger political context.

The distinctions between these cultures are at once subtle and brutal. First, we view the civitas of Rome, that is, the obligation that Roman citizens felt towards their cities, which involved complex community-oriented mores and expensive public displays that were paid for by private means; aristocratic children, brought up with relatively less sense of their individuality than we enjoy, saw their lives and careers as reflections of the glory of their cities. The reader is also treated to the way that slaves and families were treated in great detail.

Then, in the early Christian era, more privatized cultures arose, first with the increased introspection that the christianization of the empire entailed. Next, the barbarian invasions - in which nomadic tribes smashed the urban cultures in whose wealth they had wanted to partake - merely accelerated this trend; they greatly valued their possessions, often war booty that they had to carry with them, and hence had little regard for fixed property and its supporting laws that enabled cities to flourish. Infrastructure and larger communities and political units in this period deteriorated, which severely impacted trade and hence economic welfare. The standard of measure of a life at that time became purely personal wealth and power.

A sub-theme of the book is the influence of monasticism, which created its own closed communities and became the model for family life at the beginning of the gothic era. Monks and the clergy were the holders of standards of conduct and literacy through this little-known period, and exerted immense influence on the mores of the people who lived nearby. In all its detail, this was new to me. Indeed, if it were not for their labors, much of classical learning would have been lost forever. They are also virtually the only source for information about life in Byzantium.

While there is something lost in having so many authors involved in a single volume, the chapters in this book are so long and detailed that they are like self-contained books. Ample illustrations transport the reader to each era, revealing the mystery of what made us who we are in the west over so many centuries. Nonetheless, the chapters are uneven. The chapter on Roman architecture in N. Africa is very boring indeed, and the one on Byzantium is dull as well. But those on pagan and then Christian Rome are superb, as are those on the dark ages.

Finally, this book relies more on written sources than on archaeology, which is a pity in my opinion, as the sources written after pagan Rome are rather formulaic and outright boring in their rhetorical flourishes as you read about them over hundreds of pages. At times, it reads like a compendium of obscure sources, including exhaustive analysis of funery inscriptions, though that is often what academia comes down to. Another odd thing is that there are only two pages of footnotes, which are followed by a rather poor bibliography. While the book is trying to strike a balance between popular and specialized audiences, I would have preferred better info on sources.

Book Description

This book presents the first analytical account in English of major developments within Byzantine culture, society and the state in the crucial formative period from c.610-717. The seventh century saw the final collapse of ancient urban civilization and municipal culture, the rise of Islam, the evolution of patterns of thought and social structure that made imperial iconoclasm possible, and the development of state apparatuses--military, civil and fiscal--typical of the middle Byzantine state. Also, during this period, orthodox Christianity finally became the unquestioned dominant culture and a religious framework of belief (to the exclusion of alternative systems, which were henceforth marginalized or proscribed).

Byzantium: Greatness and Decline (Rutgers Byzantine series)

Average customer rating:

The paradox that was Byzantium is thoroughly examined.

Byzantium: Greatness and Decline (Rutgers Byzantine series)
Charles Diehl
Manufacturer: Rutgers Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Medieval | World | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0813503280

Customer Reviews:

The paradox that was Byzantium is thoroughly examined........1998-07-06

In a series of essays, the late French historian Charles Diehl analyzed the contradictions inherent in Byzantine civilization throughout its 1000-year existence. The imperial government, the military, foreign/domestic policy, religion, art, and literature (to name a few topics) are discussed, along with a very brief, cursory history of the Byzantine Empire as a backdrop to this great analysis. Diehl candidly assessed political corruption and intrigue, serious foreign/domestic policy blunders, and overall rebelliousness which plagued the Byzantine state even in its glory days, yet he reminds us at the same time of the priceless legacy the Romans of the Byzantine era left not only within the former boundaries of their empire, but also throughout Western Europe and Russia. Professor Peter Charanis of Rutgers University (whose publishing arm released this fine English-language edition) contributed an introduction which presents a background of Diehl's work and rectifies some of the author's original views on Byzantine history. Professor Charanis also compiled a massive bibliography of English and non-English language books published up to the mid 1950s, when the English translation of "Byzantium" was published. After reading this book, it becomes evident to us that the contributions of the Byzantines to the present cultures of both East and West are nothing short of impressive.

The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World (Dumbarton Oaks Other Titles in Byzantine Studies)

Average customer rating:

Good term paper book
Reconsidering the Crusades

The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World (Dumbarton Oaks Other Titles in Byzantine Studies)

Manufacturer: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Medieval | World | History | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0884022773

Customer Reviews:

Good term paper book.......2006-02-27

This book is excellent for college research papers and oral reports. Facts are current and unbiased. I would highly recommend.

Reconsidering the Crusades.......2004-04-04

Use this for a different perspective. Avoides all the bashing that is so common on the topic, keeps it in perspective, rather balanced.

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