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.
Introduction: A Different History of Byzantium
Chapter 1. The City of Constantine
Chapter 2. Constantinople, the Largest City in Christendom
Chapter 3. The East Roman Empire
Chapter 5. The Church of Hagia Sophia
Chapter 6. The Ravenna Mosaics
Chapter 8. The Bulwark Against Islam
Chapter 9. Icons, a New Christian Art Form
Chapter 10. Iconoclasm and Icon Veneration
Chapter 11. A Literate and Articulate Society
Chapter 12. Saints Cyril and Methodios, ‘Apostles to the Slavs’
Chapter 14. The Byzantine Economy
Chapter 16. The Imperial Court
Chapter 17. Imperial Children, ‘Born in the Purple’
Chapter 19. Venice and the Fork
Chapter 20. Basil II, ‘The Bulgar-Slayer’
Chapter 21. Eleventh-Century Crisis
Chapter 23. A Cosmopolitan Society - Byzantium Becomes a Medieval State
Chapter 24. The Fulcrum of the Crusades
Chapter 25. The Towers of Trebizond, Arta, Nicaea and Thessalonike
Chapter 26. Rebels and Patrons
Chapter 27. ‘Better the Turkish Turban than the Papal Tiara’
Conclusion: The Greatness and Legacy of Byzantium
List of Emperors Named in the Text