Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World

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Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World

3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 · rating details · 243 ratings · 55 reviews

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 y...more 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.

From the Hardcover edition.(less)

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published December 10th 2008 by Delacorte Press (first published 2006)

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Aug 29, 2008 Ryan Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction-2008, ancient-history

Wells offers us three different tales emanating from a central source point: Byzantium. The issue that unites all three stories is the role Byzantium played in the civilizations of Renaissance Italy, Islam, and the Slavic lands.

The book begins with the Byzantine Greek influence upon the Renaissance humanists who wanted to learn Greek. The central conflict is the religious schism between the Catholic west and the Orthodox east. By the 14th century, Byzantium was in such a desperate situation that...more Wells offers us three different tales emanating from a central source point: Byzantium. The issue that unites all three stories is the role Byzantium played in the civilizations of Renaissance Italy, Islam, and the Slavic lands.

The book begins with the Byzantine Greek influence upon the Renaissance humanists who wanted to learn Greek. The central conflict is the religious schism between the Catholic west and the Orthodox east. By the 14th century, Byzantium was in such a desperate situation that some were willing to accept western stipulations for re-union in an effort to secure help against the Turks. The envoys and diplomats sent back and forth between Italy and Constantinople over this issue played a key role in the reacquisition of Greek and Greek texts in the west.

Part II looks at how the Muslims embraced the Greek philosophical, scientific, and medical texts which had been preserved in Byzantium, and then further preserved them by translating them into Arabic. Once they had mastered ancient Greek knowledge, they were then able to expand upon that knowledge, making great advances, particularly in medicine, before a movement to reject reason and Aristotle in favor of faith and the Qu'ran. Throughout this story, the Byzantines make regular appearances, even though most of the history of Islamic-Byzantine relations amounts to steady warfare and conquest, although it took until 1453 and the rise of the Turks to finally bring down Constantinople.

In the last section, we see the passing of the Orthodox torch from Byzantium to Moscow, the Third Rome. A long narrative describes the Byzantine emperor's attempts to deal with the rising Slavic peoples in Bulgaria, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Russia. In eastern Europe, Byzantium's main role was as political legitimizer for the various Slavic states that arose. This role was expanded as the Slavs become Christians, and their metropolitans were subordinate to the Patriarch in Constantinople.

The three sections are tied together thematically, Byzantium serving to unite all three sections. Wells wants to clarify the central role that the Byzantine Empire played in three regions which remain significant today. The idea is that Byzantium passed the torch of the ancient world, as the remnant of the Roman Empire, on to the modern world, embodied in the states that developed out of Renaissance Europe, the Islamic Middle east, and Eastern Europe.

A sub-theme that makes the book particularly interesting is the regular conflict between faith and reason. The Byzantines themselves had to wrestle with this issue, particularly with the rise of Hesychasm, as did the Muslims, the Italians, and the Slavs. Of these latter, Islam retreated away from reason, the Europeans embraced it more and more, while the Slavs essentially ignored it, focusing more on political expediency. And in this way, Wells makes an interesting commentary on the bequest of the Byzantines to the modern world.

Note: I listened to the audiobook, rather than reading the paper version.(less)

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Jun 03, 2008 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

An interesting little book about the influence of the Byzantine empire on Western Europe, Islam, and the Slavs. Each is addressed chronologically in its own section. I found the sections of the book about Islam and the Slavs very compelling. Each section, however, suffers from an annoying characterstic: devolution into a flood of names of obscure historical personalities by its conclusion. But other than that, a great book.

(And on a personal note, this book did a great job of depicting the begin...more

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Jan 21, 2009 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

Byzantium's cultural legacy, as it affected societies arising in Western European, Islamic, and Slavic/Russian lands. The Byzantine Empire was not brief, and its decline was long and resisted to the end. Much in the way one may fashion a drinking cup from the skull of a favorite enemy, this empire did not simply vanish.

Part one shows how the intellectual capital of ancient Greece was preserved by the Byzantines. As their empire weakened they retreated into a mysticism at odds with Greek rational...more Byzantium's cultural legacy, as it affected societies arising in Western European, Islamic, and Slavic/Russian lands. The Byzantine Empire was not brief, and its decline was long and resisted to the end. Much in the way one may fashion a drinking cup from the skull of a favorite enemy, this empire did not simply vanish.

Part one shows how the intellectual capital of ancient Greece was preserved by the Byzantines. As their empire weakened they retreated into a mysticism at odds with Greek rationalism. Unwelcome at home, many scholars found a more appreciative clime in nearby Italy. Those cultural refugees, their numbers bolstered by the mass exodus of eggheads precipitated by the fall of Constantinople, helped forge the humanism of the Italian Renaissance.

This part relies pretty heavily on biographical detail to substantiate its premise; I wasn't so keen on that.

Part two focuses an the bits borrowed by the Islamic societies that contested with, and eventually overwhelmed, Byzantium. The Dome of the Rock captures in architecture the pomp borrowed by an upstart imperialism from an older one. As the Arabs unified under their great God, and fused together into a great people, they needed to dispense with their early disdain for the trappings of wealth and cloak their new-found power in earthly majesty. Later on they would forget the Byzantines and borrow from the Persians, or make their own way.

Also in part two is an examination of how Greek rationalism (translated into Arabic from Byzantine sources) co-existed or conflicted with Islamic mysticism. Things came to a head in the 9th century. With the backing of many faylasufs (philosophers), one al-Mamun undertook a rationalist inquisition called the Mihna. One of those imprisoned and tortured during that time was Ahmad ibn Hanbal. During the brief time after his release and before his death he went on to found the Hanbali school of sharia law, the main source of today's Wahabi Islam and the ideological substrate of al-Qaeda. Torturing people is bad, okay?

Part three covers the Byzantine-sponsored conversion of the then relatively undeveloped peoples of Eastern Europe and Russia to Orthodox Christianity. As the pagans converted to Christianity the Latin church of Rome competed with the Orthodox church based in Constantinople for the hearts, minds, souls, and, ultimately, the armies of the Slavic world.

I have a friend whose heart is full of murder. Something a long time ago killed his soul. He reads histories like these looking for the echoes of an adversary, some malignant outline that he might conjure into reality and punish. Poor fool.(less)

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Nov 02, 2011 Michael Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, politics, thought

Sailing from Byzantium is a history book about Byzantium. Unlike many previous books on the topic, this focuses on the way Byzantine ideas---of commerce, of science, of culture---influenced the Christian, Islamic, and Slavic worlds.

Colin Wells shows an excellent ability to summarize historical sources and existing scholarship, and succeeds at creating a readable narration from a Byzantine setting. I particularly liked the (speculative) analysis where, albeit not being too novel (by the author's...more

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Mar 28, 2010 Dan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Dan by: George Dobbs

This book traces the export of Byzantine culture–both humanist and religious–in three directions: to the West, initially via Italy, to the Muslim cultures in the near east, and to the Slavic lands, primarily Bulgaria and Russia, but others as well. These exports are presented as a kind of life after death for the Byzantine Empire, which terminated politically and geographically when the Turks took Constantinople in 1453 and turned it into beautiful Istanbul, graced now with elegant minarets as w...more This book traces the export of Byzantine culture–both humanist and religious–in three directions: to the West, initially via Italy, to the Muslim cultures in the near east, and to the Slavic lands, primarily Bulgaria and Russia, but others as well. These exports are presented as a kind of life after death for the Byzantine Empire, which terminated politically and geographically when the Turks took Constantinople in 1453 and turned it into beautiful Istanbul, graced now with elegant minarets as well as impressive domes and columns.

As Wells presents the case, Byzantine exports fell in two general categories. One export or influence was the humanist thought in the narrow sense of ancient Greek and Latin literature and philosophy, but, as I read it, also with the implications that secular thought is worthwhile. The transmitters of this thought, with concentration in Aristotle and Plato, were a surprisingly small number of individuals who ignited others, especially in Italy, but enough in Islamic societies to inspire the Arab translations and preservation of the ancients. Humanist thought seems notably missing in the Slavic arena.

The other category of Byzantine influence was artistic and religious. Wells characterizes the artistic merits by the (religious) frescos in Istanbul’s Church of the Chora, which are indeed impressive. Even more so the frescos in Ravenna made during Theodoric’s time as Exarch. But I personally can’t forget the sterility of the icons, the individually painted but mass produced look- alike pictures of Jesus that were so happily superseded by real art once Giotto hit the scene Italy. I take it that the lasting artistic influence was in the slavic lands like Russia and to some extent and briefly in the Islamic world, which for a while used architecture as western powers did-- to symbolize great power. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is the major example.

The religious exports were different. Art and architecture can directly affect politics, as when they are used for propaganda and when they are used to demonstrate wealth and power. Religion can have more direct uses in supporting a particular regime or a particular policy of the governing powers through its prestige or through its carrots and sticks of eternal paradise or damnation. Wells does not explain how much, if any, of the influence of the Orthodox Byzantine church derived from threats of damnation so common in the West. But, as we know from familiar Western history, religion and secular power do usually support each other–the Pope crowned Charlemagne and Charlemagne supported the Pope with secular might. Wells tells us how this worked as Byzantine Orthodox religion managed to save itself form Western and Catholic domination and to export itself to Russia and other Slavic lands in a period when Russia was just beginning to form. That particular story begins with the power of the Orthodox Byzantine religion, still influenced from Constantinople, lending legitimacy to Russian rulers, and ends with the rulers dominating the Orthodox religion to use it for their own political purposes.

The two categories, I’ll call them religion and humanism, were to some extent at war with one another, and that is an interesting substory. Wells speaks of it metaphorically as the conflict between Athens and Jerusalem, although it does not appear to me that humanism stayed true to Athens once it flowered in Italy or that religion stayed true to what I take Wells to mean by Jerusalem once it became important to define true Christians precisely so that could get Constantine’s tax subsidy. At any rate, the monks, who came to be a big force in Byzantium, invented a kind of religious revival or renewal called Hesychasm that involved meditation, controlled breathing and repetitious prayer–self-hypnosis to unbelievers, I suppose. This was supposed to lead to theosis. Not a word we hear so much in the West, but it is known in some religious thinking. It refers to a claimed mystical union with God, where the human individual is actually absorbed into God’s “energy” if not God’s “essence.” Western mention of this idea like to use the watered down version–the human individual “partakes” of God (maybe for good reasons–it’s pretty strong stuff, this theosis).

The most interesting thing is that the monks and their mysticism grew to be enormously influential, to the point that humanists in reaction began to visit the West. This was part of the flow that drove the Renaissance, introduced or re-introduced the thought of Greece. And led to many conversions by Byzantine humanists to the Catholic Church.

Another substory of interest, whose significance is celebrated in this book but not really proven in detail, is the effects of the unique Slavic alphabet and language. Wells says it intellectually and religiously isolated the Slavic lands and also protected them–from domination by the Western thought and religion. The language and alphabet was the creation of Byzantine missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, and Wells tells that part of the tale well, but it would have been interesting to me to see him support with details, examples, and connections just how and to what extent this worked as an isolating factor that permitted self-development.

This book is reader-friendly. It is a popular book, not one of original scholarship; but Wells brings existing original scholarship of other to general readers in prose that is easy to follow (except for the hundreds of unfamiliar, very foreign-sounding names). Wells also includes up front a list of 40 or 50 major characters to help you keep track of all those names. He also gives readers several actual maps in case they have not memorized geography of the middle ages and renaissance. Cheers to him and Bantum Dell/Random House for this rare decency in publishing. (And yes, I do mean to imply that publishers who do not include needed maps are not doing the right thing.) Wells also provides detailed notes that most people won’t use, and a Timeline table that many people will. The table gives comparative headlines of conditions in Byzantium, the West, the Islamic and the Slavic world between the 6th century and the fall of Constantinople. I found the index useful, except that humanism was not an entry, perhaps because references were so pervasive. (less)

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Jul 04, 2011 David Berry rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book but would have liked it much more if it did not claim to do something it doesn't.

It was fascinating to learn how Plato's dialogues wound their way to Florence through immigrant and exiled Byzantine scholars. And it was equally fascinating to learn how the Umayyad scholars preserved Greek philosophy even after the Byzantines banned or suppressed it. This is a tale of scholars, and a good one, but it is not really a chronicle of the Byzantine Empire's historical influence. It...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

I have long had an interest in Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman history, and I also enjoy vertical histories (those books that cover a narrow subject but in depth). Sailing from Byzantium by Colin Wells is a vertical history that in its three parts attempts to describe the legacy of Byzantine culture. The importance of Byzantium, or the Eastern Roman Empire, lies beyond its territorial acquisitions or military prowess (or the loss of both as the centuries bore on until 1453).

Part I focuses on west...more I have long had an interest in Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman history, and I also enjoy vertical histories (those books that cover a narrow subject but in depth). Sailing from Byzantium by Colin Wells is a vertical history that in its three parts attempts to describe the legacy of Byzantine culture. The importance of Byzantium, or the Eastern Roman Empire, lies beyond its territorial acquisitions or military prowess (or the loss of both as the centuries bore on until 1453).

Part I focuses on western Europe, primarily Italy, and the role of humanism that led to the Renaissance. As Catholic and Orthodox worked to re-unite, as the Crusades sent large numbers of westerners east, or as the Fourth Crusades captured Constantinople, both east and west interacted ever more frequently. For the west, this meant rediscovering classical Greek texts and Greek itself. Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Florence all felt the influence, which began the process of lifting the Dark Ages from western Europe.

Part II, the shortest part, explores the Byzantine influence on the Islamic world, particularly on effects of Aristotle on the development of a rationalistic philosophy epitomized by Averroes in Moorish Spain.

Part III returns to Europe but investigates the Slavic and, more importantly, Russian embracing of Orthodoxy, the battles between Catholic and Orthodox for supremacy in various regions, and Orthodoxy's Hesychasm movement on the development of Russian Orthodoxy.

Wells does a good job of describing the influences, how the Byzantium influenced the rest of its neighbors, and how Byzantium itself was influenced. Wells remains at a high level, and we only really get glimpses and quick overviews. And that is my main criticism of this book. At only 368 pages, I do not think it went in detail enough, did not take the various alleys and side stories it could have. Perhaps I have now read too much of this history and much of it seemed familiar to me. So my caution is that this is a good introduction, but for those well versed in Byzantium, the Renaissance, and so on, the book may seem light.(less)

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Jul 25, 2011 Glyn Longden rated it 4 of 5 stars

Rating: 6/10. The author's intended purpose was to write a book which was accessible to the general reader. The problem is that the history of the Byzantine Empire is full of obscure religious and philosophical issues which, did, in fact, have an important role to play in its history. You wonder how an Empire, which seemed so incapable if defending itself and constantly refused to make important security decisions actually lasted for a thousand years. The three main issues in the book are Byzant...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Jacob Aitken added it · review of another edition

This was an attempt to shed light on a forgotten aspect of history. Most westerners, when they think of Rome, think of the Western empire. In terms of religion, the debate is between Protestants and catholics. Wells (and others) open a new page of history for us.

Wells divides his work into three sections. He shows how Byzantium influenced and was influenced by the Romans, The Muslims, and the Slavs. And at the end of each epoch of Byzantine history, Wells shows how causes that led to Byzantium's...more

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Feb 08, 2012 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book traces the Byzantine Empire's influence on Western society, Islamic society, and Eastern Orthodox society. It is well written, although clearly intended for a popular, as opposed to a scholarly, audience. I found the sections on the Islamic world and the Eastern Orthodox world particularly interesting, since I'm less familiar with that history than I am with the Western history. However, I was disappointed that Wells didn't make the case that Byzantium continues to influence our world....more

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Jun 27, 2009 Mel Vincent rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical

This book emphasizes the unanimous fact that this forgotten and less noticed empire shaped the world in terms of influence and culture. without Constantinople the domes of the Islamic mosques would not have come to be ( the Blue Mosque, the Dome of the Rock and many Omayyad and Turkish Mosques) and without the resurrection of ancient Greek works many sciences would not have come to be and those sciences would not have been enhanced by the Muslims if Constantinople did not provide the works. I le...more

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May 10, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

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 W...more

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Aug 02, 2012 David rated it 1 of 5 stars

Wells takes a very interesting premise, slaps on an interesting title, and then fails to deliver the goods. Minutae and exceptionally obscure individuals scattered throughout the Byzantium's history dominate the book, and Wells in my opinion never gets to the meat of what his title promises. The Sack of Constantinople by knights of the Fourth Crusade gets PART of a paragraph, the final fall of Constantinople at the hands of Mehmet II in 1453 only gets tangentially mentioned in paragraphs about o...more

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Aug 10, 2011 James Murphy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I hadn't known Byzantium was so important. Wells's book relates how, in the centuries following the end of the Roman Empire, Byzantium, the surviving portion in the east, continued to influence the Mediterranean world and the Middle East, as well as Russia and the Balkans. By preserving Greek culture and transporting it to those areas, Byzantium made possible the philosophic, religious, and artistic movements behind the Renaissance, the era of Arabic science and learning, and the rise of Russian...more

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Feb 07, 2009 Justin rated it 3 of 5 stars

A quick read that gives a little flavor to the Middle Ages, a period I don't normally appreciate in terms of European History. It'll get you from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Renaissance with a good amount of intellectual ferment and Mediteranean opulence, while avoiding the gratuitous beheadings, filth and fratricide of Western Europe.

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Aug 24, 2011 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"As the author admits, this is a work of popular systhesis, not a scholarly tome. However, there is much interesting--and to me--new information. The insights on the cultural impact of the Byzantines on the Italian Renaissamce, Islamic learning, and Russian society is noteworthy."

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Jul 18, 2011 Lyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Cool book, I realized how little I knew about the Byzantine Empire. Scholarly yet approachable and at times entertaining, it can also be pedantic and thick. Segmented into Constantinople's influence on Western Europe, Islam and Russia. Altogether OK, though, I liked it.

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Jan 26, 2013 Glenn Robinson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Learned a great deal of the Byzantines, and the Orthodox Church, both Greek, Russian and then Catholic churches. Many new notables, philosophers, scientists, military leaders and rulers of a wide part of the world from 500-1550 and how they all tie in to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire.

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Jul 11, 2008 Jessica Howard rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

I learned a lot of things that I didn't know about Byzantium before I listened to this audiobook. However, I can't really place anything I learned in a cohesive pattern in my mind. Perhaps it would've been different if I'd read the book instead of listening to it--but all I've got are vignettes about Venetians, Ottomans, Romans, and Greeks all mixed up in my head. I'd recommend this if you're interested in the history of the Mediterranean, and tidbits about Byzantium's influence on that world--b...more

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Aug 30, 2011 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Carolyn

A very well written book. I liked the book, its style, and its flowing read. It is nonfiction. Constantinople is the epicenter and the narrative is divided into three major spheres of impact; West (Rome and Athens), Islam, and the Slavs. Interesting...............

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Dec 03, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very good book. Details intellectual decline in Byzantium hundreds of years before it finally fell. However, as it fell, books and translators left the city and sparked the Renaissance in Italy.

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Aug 09, 2011 Patrick Santana rated it 3 of 5 stars

I found Wells' storytelling to be fascinating. Even without knowing all the minutiae about the scholars and intellectuals he describes, the way he weaves his story of Byzantium's contributions is compelling. I am a decent student of history, but I learned a lot about things i didn't know in the course of reading "Sailing". A great read if you're any kind of fan of Classical civilization, the fall of Rome, the Middle Ages, or the Renaissance.

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Oct 30, 2008 Larry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: history buffs

This was a book that filled in a gaping hole in my knowledge of world history. It seems that after Rome fell to the barbarian hordes all knowledge of Greek, Roman and mid-Eastern literature was lost in western Europe. A couple of scholars from Constantinople were sent to Italy to tutor scholars there in Greek and Hebrew. From this seed grew all western knowledge of the ancient world. Byzantium, the western Christian empire lasted a 1000 years before falling first to the Venetians, in the strange...more

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Nov 12, 2009 Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides marked it as decided-not-to-read

Shelves: could-not-finish, history, history-of-knowledge

Sadly the inside didn't live up to the outside. The cover is lovely, and the back of the dust jacket has comments about the city's beauty from the 4th through 15th centuries (rather than modern reviewers blurbing the book). But the book ... just seemed like random things strung together, and the author didn't bother to explain why they were important. Lost to the West is also on my list of things to read; perhaps it handles this theme and material in a more interesting way.

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Apr 27, 2012 Karen E. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Disappointing. Will I ever find a book about the Byzantine Empire that is readable, scholarly, and thesis driven? This certainly isn't it.

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Aug 23, 2011 Chris Faulkner rated it 3 of 5 stars

You have to really really be interested in Byzantine and Renaissance history to enjoy this. It was a tough slow read but really meaty.

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Jan 13, 2009 Dee rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is interesting because I have a good grasp of the era from previous reading. It is informally written for the lay reader, so the author adds footnotes -- at the bottom of the page -- yea!! -- to give basic info. to that lay reader.

The section about Humanism and its birth and growth in Italy is pretty good. Sometimes Colin Wells seems to resort to a sort of serial biography, but most of the time, the info. is developed clearly and with some differeniation to help the reader begin to se...more

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May 29, 2010 smboro rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: maybe

Recommended to smboro by: my own find on the topic

I think it’s an interesting book that should have been titled “Sailing from Byzantium, How a Lost Empire Shaped the 19th and 20th centuries Briths fancy for Greece.” This book is a difficult read and the fact that (for some unknown the reader reason) the historical timeline is scrambled (if not confused) makes it even more difficult.

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Dec 09, 2008 Bizzaro! rated it 3 of 5 stars

An interesting look at the influences of the Byzantine Empire on Europe and Asia, Christians and Muslims.

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Feb 10, 2011 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was far better than I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a lightweight summary of Byzantine culture for people who have barely heard about Byzantium, but it turned out to be quite a bit deeper. The second act dealing with the Italian Renaissance was especially well done.

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