Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire

Judith Herrin

Princeton University Press, Sep 28, 2009 - History - 416 pages

Byzantium. The name evokes grandeur and exoticism—gold, cunning, and complexity. In this unique book, Judith Herrin unveils the riches of a quite different civilization. Avoiding a standard chronological account of the Byzantine Empire's millennium—long history, she identifies the fundamental questions about Byzantium—what it was, and what special significance it holds for us today.

Bringing the latest scholarship to a general audience in accessible prose, Herrin focuses each short chapter around a representative theme, event, monument, or historical figure, and examines it within the full sweep of Byzantine history—from the foundation of Constantinople, the magnificent capital city built by Constantine the Great, to its capture by the Ottoman Turks.

She argues that Byzantium's crucial role as the eastern defender of Christendom against Muslim expansion during the early Middle Ages made Europe—and the modern Western world—possible. Herrin captivates us with her discussions of all facets of Byzantine culture and society. She walks us through the complex ceremonies of the imperial court. She describes the transcendent beauty and power of the church of Hagia Sophia, as well as chariot races, monastic spirituality, diplomacy, and literature. She reveals the fascinating worlds of military usurpers and ascetics, eunuchs and courtesans, and artisans who fashioned the silks, icons, ivories, and mosaics so readily associated with Byzantine art.

An innovative history written by one of our foremost scholars, Byzantium reveals this great civilization's rise to military and cultural supremacy, its spectacular destruction by the Fourth Crusade, and its revival and final conquest in 1453.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - stillatim - LibraryThing

A flawed effort, within a noble campaign to explain that Byzantium probably can't be summed up by an incense-bearing eunuch paying off manly masculine men from [wherever the author is from] until ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - le.vert.galant - LibraryThing

A competent and readable history of the Byzantine empire. It updates earlier histories, such as the eloquent trilogy of John Julius Norwich, incorporating a more skeptical eye and covering a broader ...

Contents

• The City of Constantine: 3
• Constantinople the Largest City in Christendom: 12
• iii: 15
• The East Roman Empire: 22
• Greek Orthodoxy: 33
• The Church of Hagia Sophia: 50
• The Ravenna Mosaics: 61
• Roman Law: 70
• The Bulwark Against Islam: 83
• Icons a New Christian Art Form: 98
• Iconoclasm and Icon Veneration: 105
• A Literate and Articulate Society: 119
• Saints Cyril and Methodios Apostles to the Slavs: 131
• Byzantium Becomes a Medieval State: 139
• Greek Fire: 141
• The Byzantine Economy: 148
• Eunuchs: 160
• The Imperial Court: 170
• Imperial Children Born in the Purple 18 Mount Athos: 185
• Basil II The BulgarSlayer 21 EleventhCentury Crisis 212: 212
• Anna Komnene: 232
• A Cosmopolitan Society: 242
• Varieties of Byzantium: 253
• The Fulcrum of the Crusades: 255
• The Towers of Trebizond Arta Nicaea and Thessalonike: 266
• Rebels and Patrons: 281
• Better the Turkish Turban than the Papal Tiara 28 The Siege of 1453 299: 299
• The Greatness and Legacy of Byzantium: 321
• Further Reading: 339
• List of Emperors Named in the Text: 354
• Chronology: 357
• Maps: 363
• Acknowledgements: 375
• Index: 377

About the author

Judith Herrin is professor emeritus in the Department of Classics at King’s College London. Her books include Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe; Unrivalled Influence: Women and Empire in Byzantium; Margins and Metropolis: Authority across the Byzantine Empire; Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium; and The Formation of Christendom (all Princeton). She lives in Oxford, England.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire
• Author: Judith Herrin
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2009
• ISBN: 0691143692, 9780691143699
• Length: 416 pages
• Subjects: History / Ancient / General; History / Ancient / Greece; History / Europe / General; History / Social History