Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsGood read tracing the course of Byzantium
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2024
As the continuation of the Roman Empire, even as the Greek language mostly replaced Latin, Byzantium had a long, proud history, even in its own years from about 400 AD to 1453 and its final collapse to Muslim invaders who were intent on taking it for centuries. I've been interested in this story since I wrote a (very good!) college paper on it long ago. It's heroic tale, with many venal characters. I especially value this realm for the way Christianity grew up within its protection, from Italy all the way around to what is now Libya, especially nurturing the Holy Lands of the Levant. I view it as an historical tragedy that Byzantium succumbed so steadily, albeit gradually, to the Mohammedan invasions, enabled as they were by the lack of seriousness and foresight of Byzantine leaders.
Byzantine history will someday be presented in detail as the world's longest, most complicated ("byzantine'), extraordinary and all true soap opera. There are many lessons to learn from its rule, successes & failures that still apply.
This book tells it well with a very manageable style and unavoidably condensed events and personae. It is easy reading, but with informative footnotes. There is a bit of duplication here and there, but overall this is a book worth embracing and keeping in one's library thereafter.