A Short History of Byzantium

It's not easy for an author to put 1,000 years of history into 1,000 pages of text and still provide enough detail so that the reader comes away with more than a simple chronology. This book manages the task well. It is a condensation of Norwich's three volume history of Byzantium, and he gives us a good overview of Byzantine history and culture. By necessity, it's a top-down view that focuses mostly on the history of the rulers rather than on the history of the ruled. The strong points: Norwich manages to present the high points of what could have been a mind-numbing pageant. He has a wry sense of humor. He brings in some of the cultural and architectural elements and does well at explaining arcane religious quarrels that roiled society. He evaluates the intelligence and competence of the many players and rather than giving us just the dry facts he speculates that this or that sudden and unexplained fatal illness was probably parricide or fratricide or plain old homicide. And the useful maps and family trees at the beginning of the book help the reader find his or her way through the maze of places and emperors. The weak points: What's missing here is a better job of proving context. Norwich does well enough at linking the history Byzantium with major events in the West, but he does a less effective job of linking it to the contemporanius history of the Arabs. And he links it in only the sketchiest way to events in the Persian empire. The lack of context is particularly noticeable if you compare the book to Jason Goodwin's "Lords of the Horizon" on the Ottoman empire, or Bernard Lewis' "The Middle East", both of which provide excellent historical context. So he gets four stars and not five -- but the book is enjoyable and very well written.

I read this good and concise book, here in Brazil. In just about 400 pages, you can read about more than 1,000 years of Byzantine history. Below, I'll show you twenty great parts of this book:1- Page 28 > About King Julian, the apostate.2- Page 45 > About the Patriarch Nestorius.3- Page 62 > About King Justinian.4- Page 88 > About King Phocas' crimes.5- Page 95 > About Islamic grow.6- Pages 98 and 99 > About Byzantine incompetence.7- Page 134 > About Admiral Euphemius.8- Page 142 > About and eunuch and patriarch.9- Page 154 > About how Bulgary became orthodox.10- Page 161 > About Byzantine use of astrology, ending in complete failure.11- Page 169 > About massive use of eunuchs, in high levels of government.12- Page 176 > About Russia.13- Page 192 > About King Nicephoro's bad policies.14- Pages 208 to 210 > About how Russia became Ortohdox.15- Page 236 > About Byzantine economy; mainly by the state.16- Page 256 > About Cruzades coming from Byzantine's will.17- Page 261 > About Byzantines against Cruzades.18- Pages 358 to 361 > About Byzantine doom.19- Page 366 > About Byzantine famine and cmplete decadency.20- Page 369 to 371 > About how Byzantine Empire died as a Catholic city.Even with so many great parts, I should give four stars for this book, because:1- About the begins of Islam, this book is weak. The creation of Islam remains the most important thing, in all human history and this book is very weak, about this very important subject.2- This book hasn't any map.3- This book has a mainly pro-Byzantine bias. The religion organization of Catholic Europe was far better, than Byzantine religion and politic. The patriarch was a Byzantine King's secretary, not a person with autonomy, such as the pope in Rome.

This is essentially an abridged version of the author's three volume work on Byzantium. I began with this, the short version, and found it somewhat abrupt (compressed) in its treatment of many persons and events. So I tried the first volume of the three volume work. To me, it fully lives up to its reputation as being among the finest treatments of the subject. The wealth of detail and analysis make it a much more rewarding read -- an easy five stars. But if you don't have the time or inclination to read over 1,000 pages on the Byzantine Empire, the short version can be recommended as well-researched and written.

I bought this book to bring it along as a companion on a trip to Istanbul, present day Constantinople, and former capital of the Byzantine empire. It gave an abbreviated retelling of the Byzantine story, from its inception in the 3rd century to its demise and inevitable fall in 1453. It worked superbly as an in-depth guide through the ancient pats of the city, providing a deep historical background to the sights.The only catch is that it is packed with details, making it a somewhat listining of names, places and events (as the author himself points out in the preface), including palace intrigues, religious controversies and the wider international political scene that shaped Byzantine history. This bieng said, the authors voice comes through nice and clearly in the narration of it all.I would therefore recommend this book as an introductionary text to the manifold subject of Byzantine history, and the authors more in-depth works on the same.

Disclaimer: I read history purely for fun. I previously listened to podcasts on Byzantium and read books and articles here and there, but do not have deep or wide knowledge of the subject.The author wrote in a somewhat flowery style that reminds me of original byzantine sources, from which he/she probably drew a lot of materials from. The narrative is chronological, centered around the byzantine emperors and the church, with adequate details for the reader to understand the story. Once I finish this I plan to buy the author's trilogy.

This is a condensed edition of the author's three-volume tome on Byzantium (Byzantine Empire). It is a concise and very readable book on the long political history - spanning over 1,123 years - of the empire. Its rise and fall are chronologically described.Some maps of Constantinople, the Mediterranean world, etc. as well as family trees of various notable emperors are included. But, on top of these, maps showing the border of the empire at various times would have been very useful since the author frequently mentions its constantly-changing border as a result of military conquests and defeats. For these maps, the reader will have to refer to "The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History" by Colin McEvedy.Being political history focusing on the rulers (emperors, empresses and their regents) and their policies, the lives of ordinary people or its great art and architecture are not covered. For these, we have to turn to other books.In summary, this book has opened my eyes to this fascinating, but generally overlooked, empire which passed the ancient Greek cultural legacy to Western Europe and brought religion to Russia and Eastern Europe.

It can be a bit “and then and then and then....” but isn’t that all you can expect with such a massive subject? I think that the Byzantine empire is still woefully under estimated. They truly held the candle of civilization for such a long time. Perhaps the whole Renaissance can be considered Western Europe finally taking over as a seat of learning from this wonderful place.

This book should not have left the printers.The covers and ALL pages are mis-printed, so that what should be horizontal is at an angle of 15 degrees.I am re-ordering and hope to receive a quality product.

Too many emperors to enable a proper account of the history of Byzantium. As a result the account of great events have been skimped. Nevertheless, a good starter to provide a framework for more detailed study.

This work summarizes the three more detailed tomes on Byzantium by the same author. It is a new work rather than a collection of passages of the previous (more detailed books). I am amazed to see people here giving this 4 stars claiming that it glosses over some details or that it sensationalizes the historical facts in part. I find both observations to be irrelevant; the former because this work is a summary and thus necessarily terse, the latter because the author is passionate about this period in history and can so be excused for expressing disappointment when a virtuous emperor is overthrown or some such.Make no mistake - if you are interested in an introductory (and compelling) read of the history of the Eastern Roman empire, this is it! Buy it and you will not regret it.