Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire

by Judith Herrin

A captivating account of the legendary empire that made Western civilization possible

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Medieval History, Religion, European History, Ancient History

392 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

Judith Herrin studied history at the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham, receiving her doctorate from the latter; she has also worked in Athens, Paris and Munich, and held the post of Stanley J. Seeger Professor in Byzantine History, Princeton University before taking up her appointment as the second Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King's. Upon her retirement in 2008 she became a Research Fellow in the Department.

She is best known for her books, The Formation of Christendom (London 1989), Women in Purple (London, 2000), and Byzantium: the Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire (London, 2007); she has also published widely on Byzantine archaeology and other fields. Her current research interests include women in Byzantium and Byzantium in relation to Islam and the West. In 2002 she was awarded the Golden Cross of Honour by the President of the Hellenic Republic of Greece.

Reviews

[Jaidee · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 "looking forward to my Wed eve class" stars !!

A ribbon of Excellence read for 2023

Last year I partied with Eleanor of Aquitane. This year I completed a superb book on medival dynastic politics and a good book on Duke Thomas Howard. I have continued my amateur study of the medieval period with a focus on Byzantium with this book.....and I am pumped to learn so much more.

Prior to early retirement both my partner and I were workaholics (60 plus hour work weeks) but we always made sure to attend a weekly university alumni continuing education course that we always looked forward to despite being pretty sleepy and exhausted....

This book reminds me of those evenings...a quick bit of Japanese bento before heading to class.

This book is solid, topical, interesting and a very good foundation for further reading in this area of history. At times it veered, at times a bit sparse, and at times a bit rushed...just like those continuing ed profs. Not quite excellent but certainly better than very good...hence 3.8 stars rounded up to four.

Here is a quick listing of what was covered...remember done by topic and not chronologically...

-Sketch of founding father Constantine and his mother Helen (4th century)
-a quick overview of Constantinople over 17 centuries
-the functions of royalty, church and state
-Greek Orthodoxy....a historical overview of the Eastern Christian church
-Hagia Sophia church and her significance....as well as exploration of arts and crafts
-Ravenna and her history with Byzantium
-the development of Byzantine law
-Byzantium as a bulwark towards Islam and Arab invasion
-significance and history of icons
-Iconoclasm vs. icon veneration
-Byzantine education
-saints Cyril and methodios and conversion of the Bulgars
-the mystery of Greek fire
-Byzantine economy and different classes of citizens
-the role and power of Eunuchs
-the imperial court and and all its traditions and rules
-imperial children
-history and significance of Mount Athos
-Venice and her relationship with Byzantium
-Basil II....powerful military emperors...10th century
-eleventh century Byzantine crisi
-relationships with North Europe, middle east and Central asia
-Anna Kommene...princess and historian
-1st crusade
-outposts of Trebizond, Nicaea and Thessalonike....Byzantine diaspora
-conquest of Constantinople
-and so much more....

Throughout the book, this historian shows utmost respect and admiration and dispels many myths and prejudices against historical and current prejudices about the Byzantine Empire. There are many photographs and maps as well.

My Byzantine juices are flowing and I have shortlisted A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich.

[WarpDrive · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book deals with the history of the Byzantine Empire. The author, rather than adopting a traditional chronological approach, uses a more thematic approach: she looks at various aspects of Byzantine culture including religion, education, government and the influences that Byzantium had on other cultures. Although it is not organized along a strictly chronological template, there is some temporal ordering.

The recurring theme and overriding thesis of this book is that there has been, from the Renaissance to the present and especially within the Western historians community, an ongoing prejudice against the Byzantine civilization, which the author successfully tries to counter and dispel.
In fact, the very term "Byzantine Empire" is itself an invention of Western historians, and a reflection of their prejudices. None of its citizens regarded themselves as Byzantine, but simply Romans, and their empire was the Roman Empire, founded in 753 BC.

The author demonstrates very compellingly how the Byzantine civilization, contrary to many prejudices still commonly held, was in fact a dynamic, resilient, surprisingly creative and flexible civilization capable of re-inventing itself and successfully managing the transition from a Late Antique successor to the Eastern Roman Empire to a brilliant, multicultural, polyglot Medieval polity with a trading network encompassing most of the known world.

The author convincingly demonstrates Byzantium's importance as a political, cultural and historical link that connected Classical Antiquity with modern Europe. She also shows how the Byzantine civilization, far from being a monolithic and fundamentalist theocratic state, expressed in reality a brilliant synthesis of classical Hellenistic and Christian culture.
The evolving complexity and fundamentally ambiguous (and occasionally conflictual, such in the case of the 4th Crusade) relationship between Byzantium and Western Christianity are also highlighted.

Overall, it is a pretty decent work of scholarship about the Byzantine civilization. The presence of good maps and relevant plates/pictures, and a brief chronology of major events and the succession of emperors, are all very helpful.

However there are a few negatives that prevent this book from being a really good one:

a) while the author is very knowledgeable about the Byzantine Empire, and is an author who clearly loves her work, she has made several mistakes (some of them quite disconcerting) whenever she ventured outside her specific field of competence:
- page 13: "the last Roman emperor in the west was deposed in 476, leaving a half-Vandal, half-Roman general, Stilicho, in control of Italy". Actually, the last Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, was deposed by the "general" Flavius Odoaker (also called Odovacer) who was most likely of Scirian descent (an East Germanic tribe). Stilicho is one of the most famous (and sometime controversial) characters of late antiquity, who held a virtual regency for the underage emperor Honorius, almost a century earlier.
- page 204: "King Desiderius captured Ravenna in 751". Well, it was actually King Aistulf who did it. Desiderius became king only after the death of Aistulf in 756.
- “In the late third century, Emperor Septimius Severus had strengthened its walls, which were always a weak point, and added new monuments. Septimius Severus made improvements to the city at the end of the third century." Actually, Septimius Severus died in 211AD.
- page 33: "followers of Jesus were confident that death was not the end.. it set them apart from the Jews and members of other cults". Wrong again: the statement that the Jews did not believe in an afterlife is questionable at the very least, and the author forgets that many secret cults and mystery religions in the Roman Empire DID believe in the afterlife, most notably the cult of Mithras.
- page 37: “Ulfila, a Gothic leader, visited Constantinople". Actually, he was no Gothic,
as his parents were of Cappadocian Greek origin. He was raised a Goth. Also, he was no Gothic "leader"."
b) there is, in my opinion, too much focus on the cultural aspects, at the expenses of a satisfactory treatment of critical political/ military developments; the thematic approach occasionally creates some loss of coherence, logical flow and interest; the writing style is sometime a bit too dry and repetitive.

Overall, a decent introductory book about some aspects of the Byzantine civilization. 3 stars.

[Hana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm lucky enough to have actually visited the great Byzantine cathedral of Hagia Sophia.



In the vast light-filled space you feel the impossible weight of the building and yet the domes rise up suspended miraculously--as if from the heavens.

So I'm predisposed to appreciate the Byzantines and Judith Herrin had no need to convince me of their importance. There were plenty of fascinating tidbits in Herrin's book. I loved the thematic chapters and the vivid picture she painted of this venerable civilization with its roots deep in ancient Greece and Rome. Though they spoke Greek, the common language of the Levant, the Byzantines saw themselves as Romans and built their empire on a foundation of Roman law. They inherited and cherished the philosophical teachings of Plato, Aristotle and the Greek and Roman scholars and fused that wisdom with new Christian understandings.

Theirs was a cosmopolitan, syncretistic society, fascinating in its oddities as well as its undeniable artistic and technical accomplishments. The chapters on icons and iconoclasm were illuminating and filled in some large gaps in my understanding of the doctrinal controversies. I confess I found the chapter on eunuchs and their role in court ceremony and palace life utterly absorbing, as were Herrin's comments on the royal women's' high level of education and political power. And how clever of the Byzantines emperors to construct a special room in the Great Palace that was lined with porphyry (purple marble) and perhaps also hung with purple silk; that chamber became the room in which empresses delivered their children, who all bore the epithet 'born in the purple'--porphrogennetos.

In trying to compress a thousand years of history into 300 pages, Herrin skims over subjects that I would like to have seen treated in more detail. Her essay on the Byzantine economy merely touched on trade routes and stressed the importance of Byzantium's gold standard, but I found myself longing for more insight. Why did the Byzantine emperors devalue their currency after an nearly 700 years of monetary stability? Why did they allow the Venetians to gain such primacy in trade and naval warfare? And somehow I'm more puzzled than ever about the horrific 4th Crusade and even less enlightened on the hows and whys of the Turkish conquest.

Herrin provides excellent illustrations as well as helpful maps and tables with chronologies and lists of the emperors, but I missed a coherent sense of political and military events. I suspect Byzantium: The Surprising Life Of A Medieval Empire would be better as a second or third read on the Byzantine empire, rather than as an introduction.

I enjoyed some of my excursions out to the web more than I did the book, but the book sparked my interest so Herrin gets credit; in particular the Kahn Academy's free online courses in Byzantine art and architecture and New York Metropolitan Museum's thematic essays on Byzantine art deepened my understanding and appreciation. The History Book Club thread on Herrin's book provided a link to a CBS 60-Minutes documentary on Mt. Athos that looks absolutely wonderful--like time-travel back to the world of the Byzantines: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mt-athos-...

[Koen Crolla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too many people have this vague idea that in 476, the Roman Empire poofed out of existence, taking with it all of its people, most of its infrastructure, and the Celts (except for a few on the British Isles), and then various Germans moved into the empty buildings, converted to Christianity, and just sat around doing nothing much except wait for the Renaissance to happen. Maybe there's a vague awareness of the Muslim invasion of Iberia and possibly the Crusades, but that's about it.
In actual fact, the Roman Empire had moved its capital from Rome to Byzantium (redesigned and renamed Constantinople) over a century and a half before, and just continued to exist without interruption even as it lost control of the city that gave it its name. They'd eventually reconquer Italy (and lose it again), and would continue to stick around, as the Roman Empire, for another millennium.

Obviously, this book is about this. It describes in impressive detail the transition from the classical Roman Empire to the medieval Christian Byzantium, and the decay of its culture caused by conversion to that pernicious new religion; its rifts with the upstart bishops of Rome, who felt they should really be in charge of this whole Christianity thing; how it provided Europe's most important line of defense against the Islamic Holy War, first of the Arabs and then of the Turks; and its eventual destruction at the hands of traitorous Papists, incessant civil wars, and the Turks (in roughly that order).

Despite Western attitudes towards Byzantium both then and now, its influence on the world around it cannot be overstated; everything from the symbolism of royalty to most Christian traditions to the shape of mosques to eating with forks was popularised by them. At the same time, it was a very alien civilisation, with its eunuchs (the third gender) and its Roman and Greek traditions and its Orthodox Christianity. Its complete disappearance without a clear successor state (despite pretensions of Romania, Moldavia, and even Turkey) only adds to the mystique.

Not nearly enough people know anything about the second half of the history of the Roman Empire, and the things they think they do know are often half-remembered baseless caricatures by malicious twits like Montesquieu and William Lecky. This book is a surprisingly excellent introduction that will certainly put to rest a whole host of misconceptions.
And though it undoubtedly wasn't the intention, it also illustrates very clearly the destructive effects of religion taken seriously.

[M.M. Bennetts · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review was originally published in The Christian Science Monitor.

It is spoken of in fiction and histories as an enigma, a shrouded maze of privileged deception and perfumed deceit, an insular, ossified, jewel-encrusted court, where guile and honeyed treachery reign supreme–a mediaeval Middle Eastern version of the Versailles of Louis XV. It is Byzantium.

But that image, as cinematically enticing as it may be, is one of the most effective examples of disinformation the world has ever seen, as Judith Herrin reveals in her remarkable new history, Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Mediaeval Empire.

By the third century A.D., the Roman Empire had grown so large, its distant borders so besieged, that it was decided to split it between two or even four emperors who would govern jointly. The plan was not a success.

The emperors fought each other for domination. The western half continued to buckle under the constant pressure of tribal onslaughts. Then in 324 A.D., Emperor Constantine moved his capital from Rome to build a fortified classical city, a ‘new’ Rome, in Constantinople (modern Istanbul). Though frequently threatened and over time its land base diminished, still this devoutly Christian Byzantine Empire flourished for nearly another thousand years.

Yet rather than treating us to another dry linear history about power struggles at the apex of this vast and varied empire, Herrin takes a fresh approach and focuses on the manifold aspects of the Byzantine culture, civilization, and religion.

From Constantine’s conversion, Herrin details the transformation of Christianity from persecuted sect to state religion. She provides a fascinating overview of early Christian ascetism and the organisation and development of the first monasteries, whilst paying special attention to those around Jerusalem, Christianity’s holiest city. Later, she demonstrates the Byzantine openness of thought as when in the 9th century, they encouraged the creation of an alphabet for the Slavic language which would enable them to communicate with the unruly and ungovernable Slavs; the emperor then supported the translation of the Bible into this newly invented Cyrillic language so that the Slavs could read the Bible in their own tongue and be converted.

Subsequently, the Bible was translated into Russian, and the Russian peoples similarly converted. (The translation of the Bible into the vernacular remained controversial and heretical within western Christianity until well past the 15th century.) Herrin also provides an unbiased look at the uneasy relationship between the western Church based in Rome and what became the Eastern Orthodox church.

As her position as Professor of Byzantine History at King’s College, London would suggest, Herrin’s scholarship is impeccable, yet she writes like the very best of travel writers. Her country is the distant past. Nonetheless, she paints vivid pictures of this prosperous and pious culture whose capital was a fortified city of sunlight glinting off the gilded church domes and spires, surrounded on three sides by the shimmering Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus.

From the first page of the preface, the author embraces the reader in the love of her subject. She entertains and captivates while throwing open the doors to her formidable treasury of knowledge with such examples of Byzantine artistry, intellect and innovation as their legal separation of church and state, the first encyclopedia, a water-powered organ, their building of the colonies of Venice and Ravenna, relations with such far-flung places as Scandinavia and Iceland, and their introduction of the fork to European dining.

She shows that far from being ossified, the Byzantines were a highly educated society whose ancient and Christian heritages combined to give them enormous strength and resilience–a people who prized scientific and engineering excellence alongside their classical past, with centers of learning in Alexandria and elsewhere, where Plato and Aristotle as well as early Christian writers formed the core of the curriculum.

So technologically advanced were they that scientists are still unable to penetrate the mystery of the water-borne incendiary, Greek fire. Moreover, the governmental and economic structures were so sound that their gold standard was maintained without debasement for nearly 900 years!

Yet in 1204, in a sustained bout of frenzied savagery, the warring knights of the Fourth Crusade sacked Byzantium. They desecrated churches, burned the contents of centuries-old libraries, robbed and pillaged, destroyed and slaughtered, leaving “the greatest city in Christendom…full smouldering ruins.”

To justify this barbaric treatment of their co-religionists and allies, to prove that the Byzantines had ‘deserved’ it, the myth of the treacherous, deceitful Byzantine was invented. Wonderfully, now, at last, in Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Mediaeval Empire, Professor Herrin brings us the thrilling and powerful rebuttal, and beautifully redresses the balance.

[M. D. Hudson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has several virtues. It's author is an expert (professor of Byzantine history at University of London). She obviously loves her subject. She is eager to explain rather than show off. She is methodical.

Nevertheless this is one of the most awkward popular history books I have ever read. It reads like a collection of lecture notes for a Byzantine history class for freshmen. Repetitions abound. For instance, we are told a multitude of times that the "Attic" Greek spoken at court was being replaced by demotic Greek on the streets. Again and again, as if it might turn up on the test. Years of teaching undergraduates has apparently made Professor Herrin despair of anybody learning anything without beating it into their skull.

Another problem is an utter inability to develop anything approaching drama or even a coherent story. Part of the problem with this might be the book's organization, which rather than following events chronologically, takes on different aspects of Byzantine life: Greek Orthodoxy, the Hagia Sophia, the Court, etc. This approach is fine, but nothing really hangs together, and each individual chapter is more dutiful than exciting. Lost opportunities abound. Let me give an example. In the chapter "Imperial Children, 'Born in the Purple'" we are told about the purple palace room in Constantinople where heirs to the throne were born. It was purple because of its purple stone (porphyry) and purple textiles (from the murex shellfish). I know about porphyry and the murex because these things are repeated a gazillion times. Anyway, the born in the purple chapter dutifully gives examples, including this one, buried in the fourth paragraph:

"The porphyra was also used for other purposes, for instance when Empress Irene ordered the blinding of her son Constantine VI in the chamber in which he had been born." (p. 186)

Now that's interesting! But that's all the information we really get. A chapter on political mutilation would be helpful (see the Wikipedia article), since in Constantinople mutilation was considered less offensive to God since He said "thou shalt not kill" but He never said anything against cutting off noses or poking out eyes.

Herrin also seems a bit supercilious about ancient economics. I am just learning about Byzantine history, but I am kind of obsessed with ancient currency at the moment and here she is on devaluation:

"While we can now appreciate the dangers of devaluation, it is difficult to assess how Byzantine emperors understood and controlled the overall economics of their state. They probably could not gauge the long-term effects of reducing the gold content." (p. 223)

I find this somewhat amusing when modern people scoff and ancient people and their currency devaluation. The gold content of a solidus went down to 10%! What a scandal! And yet 10% gold is still gold. So yet ask yourself, as the TV commercial urges: "what's in your wallet?" Scraps of papers and rectangles of plastic with magnetic strips glued to them. We've only been off the gold standard since 1971 (sort of) and I don't think any government or bourse or Wall Street really understands or controls "the overall economics of their state" and we sure as heck don't "appreciate the dangers of devaluation" as we are now, historically speaking, as utterly devalued as it is possible to be.

Anyway, Herrin gets an A for effort and attitude, but the book is too often a bore despite its fascinating material and its author's expertise.

[Yair Zumaeta Acero · Rating 4 out of 5]

De la historiadora y arqueóloga británica de la Universidad de Cambridge y especialista en historia medieval y estudios bizantinos Judith Herrin, nos llega su obra más conocida sobre el Imperio Bizantino titulada simplemente "Bizancio". Contrario a la vieja usanza de una mera descripción cronológica del imperio heredero de la madre Roma y que se mantuvo en pie desde que Constantino fundara Constantinopla en el año 330 e.c., hasta aquel 29 de mayo de 1453 cuando el sultán Mehmet II asaltó sus -otrora- inexpugnables murallas y adquirió para su Imperio Otomano la llamada "Nueva Roma"; la autora opta por estructurar su obra en capítulos que más o menos obedecen a un orden cronológico pero cuyo punto central son hitos que distinguieron al Imperio Bizantino no sólo de su predecesor romano, sino también de los reinos cristianos de occidente que surgieron durante la Alta Edad Media. El reinado de Justiniano; la construcción de la impresionante basílica de Hagia Sophia ; los conflictos iconoclastas de los siglos VIII y IX; la expansión del Islam; el "renacimiento macedónico" del Siglo IX; la ortodoxia cristiana; el "fuego griego"; las cruzadas; el saqueo de Constantinopla por los cruzados de 1204 y el efímero "Imperio Latino"; o el asedio de Constantinopla de 1453, entre otros temas.

El mayor logro de este libro además de ser uno de los relatos más asequibles para quienes se acercan por primera vez al Imperio Bizantino; es que Herrin logra a través de estos capítulos independientes tejer la historia de un imperio que duró un milenio y que logró resistir los embates de persas, musulmanes, kurdos, búlgaros, normandos y selyúcidas. La grandeza e importancia de Bizancio es retratada aquí a través de su arte, de su inexorable espíritu religioso, de la veneración a sus tradiciones, de su cosmopolitismo y de su cultura excelsa. Mientras los reinos europeos salían de la "barbarie" e iniciaban su proceso de formación y consolidación; el Imperio Romano de Oriente era ya una cultura refinada, afianzada y de cierta manera, estable y poderosa.

La tesis principal de la autora se sustenta en que la Europa actual existe gracias al Imperio Bizantino y a su papel de "freno y tapón" ante la expansión musulmana del Siglo VII. Una tesis arriesgada e interesante aunque bastante excesiva de entusiasmo y fácilmente controvertible. Peca además Herrin de cierta "prepotencia bizantina" al querer en todo momento demostrar que el Imperio Bizantino fue mucho más que una parranda de "afeminados, cobardes, corruptos y místicos enzarzados en discusiones inútiles" , como los describiesen Monstesquieu, Voltaire; William Lecky o el gran Edward Gibbon; cuando en el mismo texto (o en cualquier otra historia de Bizancio) queda claro que en un período tan largo de tiempo es imposible no encontrar a emperadores beodos e inútiles; dirigentes afeminados que preferían a sus eunucos antes de asumir la responsabilidad del imperio o a emperadores cobardes que mendigaron en Europa por recursos y soldados, o que simplemente desertaron o escaparon. Tampoco ayuda mucho al lavado de cara que se pretende, la práctica constante y común de mutilar y cegar a los rivales políticos.

Comete la autora un par de errores imperdonables para una historiadora como afirmar -y cito textualmente- "La primera Cruzada obtuvo un sorprendente éxito. Tras seis semanas de asedio a Jerusalén, los latinos vencieron a los defensores de la ciudad y masacraron a toda su población" en lo que para mí resultan los dos capítulos más flojos y desaprovechados de todo el libro: La descripción de la primera y la cuarta cruzada y el asedio a Constantinopla de 1453; un millón de veces mejor narrados por su señoría Edward Gibbon en su inmortal Historia de La Decadencia y Caida del Imperio Romano de quien Herrin quiere "acabar con los estereotipos y las caricaturas de la pasividad y la decadencia de Bizancio", caricaturas que a mi parecer, confirma más que desmiente.

En todo caso me parece un más que decente libro para arrancar con el estudio de Bizancio y ahondar en otros eventos y personajes menos conocidos como Belisario, Justiniano II, Constantino V, Basilio II o mi siempre favorito, el turbulento, brillante, trágico y aventurero Andrónico I Conmeno. La edición de Debate que poseo es además una soberana maravilla, con láminas a todo color del arte religioso y la arquitectura bizantina, mapas, cronología y lista de emperadores. Un libro para estar de frente al Bósforo e imaginar un milenio de historia en la esquina donde Europa y Asia confluyen.......

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of the Byzantine Empire is a mystery to many who are otherwise knowledgeable about western civilization. In recognition of that fact, the author undertook this book with the hopes from providing an introduction to the Byzantine phenomenon. The author successfully describes the 1,100 year Byzantine civilization in 300 pages – no mean feat – by eschewing a standard chronological narrative of events in favor of a series of topical essays, each addressing a different aspect of Byzantine society. If you can get past the atrociously juvenile title, the author’s writing is scholarly yet accessible. However, her endless bemoaning of history’s lack of appreciation for Byzantium quickly grows tiresome. One cannot help but wonder if her frustration is not in fact kindled by her academic colleagues' insufficient appreciation for Byzantine studies. Kissinger, who famously said, "Academic fights are more brutal than our fights in the real world because the stakes are so low," would undoubtedly recognize an underappreciated specialist crying out for broader recognition.

As mentioned above, the author does an admirable job of covering so much time in so little space, and the book is not written as litany of great events, let alone a military history. Yet a few sentences here and there offering some detail into these matters would have gone a long way. I wanted to know more about the legendary walls of Constantinople, and their final breach after a millennium of impregnability. On all such details, the book is silent. Instead, the book focuses almost exclusively on the cultural aspects of Byzantine history. The reader will learn more than he ever hoped to know about Byzantine currency and court life. Indeed, the author’s zest for Byzantium seems to grow out of her appreciation for its long history as a cultural crossroads that cross-pollinated Islamic, Greek, and Latin influences throughout the Mediterranean. With each turn of the page, one cringes that the dreaded word "diversity" will rear its ugly head at any moment, but that seems to be Byzantium’s greatest virtue in the author' estimation. If so, perhaps it has not been underappreciated at all, though I think there is more to be told about what was truly a remarkable and unique civilization.

Strangely, in the final pages, the author tackles Pope Benedict’s Regensburg lecture of 2006. The author can barely contain her contempt at Benedict’ use of the now famous quotation by Emperor Manuel II. She rejects what she takes to be Benedict’s thesis – namely, that whereas Latin Christianity synthesized ancient Greek reason and God’s revealed truth, Islam by its very nature is incompatible with and unfriendly to reason, and relies solely upon subservience to the revelation presented by the Prophet Muhammad. It turns out that the Pope's error is made manifest by – uh oh – the diversity of Islamic expressions to be found throughout the Mediterranean over the years. This odd detour at book’s end is actually revealing of one of the book’s other deficiencies – one that is perhaps unavoidable in such enterprises. The author is unable to confront the Pope’s theological analysis on its own terms because for the skeptic, theology is only sociology. When faith is reduced to mere culture, any history of events driven by people of faith can never hope to penetrate to the truth of the matter. And so throughout the book, the complicated and intensely theological tension between east and west is ultimately a cultural struggle and no more. And the Pope's reasoning is refuted by cultural indicators that in fact have little bearing on his actual point.

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is clearly a labour of love: Herrin knows her stuff, and is trying to communicate it to a broader audience. Sometimes this results somewhat in insulting the general reader’s intelligence, and yet at other times she gets deep into minutiae rather than covering the stuff that might really interest people — like the role of mutilation (instead of assassination) in political takeovers. I wanted a lot more of that, and yet this one review explains it much more thoroughly. And yes, that’s a very brief explanation, but it’s more than Herrin did.

Byzantium is a fascinating empire, and we do owe more to it than we often believe. Rome dominates our thoughts, both in religion and in history — especially in Britain, of course, since we were ruled by Romans and then our entire state religion is based on a reaction to Roman Catholicism. But Byzantium has much to teach us about the European past as well.

Herrin definitely has a bias toward Constantinople and their way of worshipping and… just about everything. At times, an apparent hostility to Roman Catholicism breaks through, which is rather odd from a scholar (and yet, might have made the book more interesting if it were a bit more apparent — you have to choose which way to go, and make it clear).

Interesting read, but does get a bit bogged down in details and repetitive.

Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.

[Sud666 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Genesis of this book begins at the end of a school day at King's College, London. Dr. Herrin was accosted by two construction workers who saw her sign that said "Professor of Byzantine History", and they were curious what exactly Byzantine was. Dr. Herrin's attempt to explain this massive topic to laymen in about a ten-minute nugget revealed the enormity of the task. It is an enormous task. The history of Byzantium covers eleven hundred years. Books often describe the 90 Emperors, 125 Patriarchs, innumerable battles, political maneuvering, and religious conflicts. It can be a truly Brobdingnagian task.

Dr. Herrin's history book tackles this problem by focusing each chapter around a theme, event, monument, or historical figure, and juxtaposing it within the framework of Byzantine history from the Greeks, to Constantine to the Ottomans.

Not only is this not dry, but it is rather fascinating. Full of information and historical perspective, this is an excellent book on Byzantium. Dr. Herrin challenges the typical view that "Byzantine" means effeminate or corrupt. (This view was especially espoused by Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Gibbon). She shows that Byzantium was quite active, surprisingly creative, as it created a superb civilian administration, secular education, and the foundations of the Orthodox Church. Byzantium was also a bulwark against the Islamic menace and protected the West from Muslim invasions.

One of the best history books on Byzantium i'ver read about. Highly recommend this one for anyone interested in Byzantium.

[Historygirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent, but challenging, book about Byzantium. The author provides thematic chapters on aspects of culture and society that later had an influence on European history. Topics such as Greek philosophy and literature, the law, and bureaucracy are covered. The influence of intellectual women threads through the story. The context is that Byzantium outlasted the Roman Empire by 1000 years and considered themselves Romans. The East and West completely severed contact after Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade. I recommend reading the conclusion first, because it clearly states her argument. Impressive work of history with a unique viewpoint.

[Taymaz Azimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolute joy to read. It also felt like a fresh breath after the terrible experience of reading Jerusalem: The Biography which had caused me so much anger and disgust.
Judith Herrin shows in this very short introduction to the extremely long life of the Byzantine Empire that how one can write a work of history accessible to the general audience without sacrificing academic values. Herrin stays as far away from historical biases as possible and informs her reader of different viewpoints of events when something is controversial. The text is also refreshingly engaging.

There are of course some issues with this work but none would stop the reader from enjoying every page of this book. One such issue is with the superficiality of the narrative at many points; Herrin literally just scratches the surface and leaves the reader craving for more details. This annoyed me at several points but then I went ahead to find some accounts [mostly scholarly] to find out more. Also, when you look at the size of the book you realise that no one can do anything more than what Herrin has done when it comes to more than a thousand years of events in less than 400 pages! so no hard feelings there! But in relation to find such accounts a big issue with this book is that Herrin actually doesn't provide a bibliography at the end of the book; she only offers a section to suggest further readings in relation to each chapter in which she really doesn't offer much.

I am reading a lot about the Byzantine Empire these days and I am enjoying every bit of it; Judith Herrin's book is that one overview of the subject that has clarified what would be interesting for me to pursue. In this respect, this book has been almost perfect.

[Joshua Angun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein wirklich sehr gut geschriebenes Buch, welches ein Licht auf die Geschichte einer der wohl interessantesten Imperien der Menschheitsgeschichte durch vielfach interessant gesetzte Schwerpunkte wirft. Wo der Diskurs um das Phänomen Rom bei vielen auf die Antike beschränkt ist, weist Judith Herrin nach, inwieweit das uns heute als „Byzanz“ bekannte Reich durch seine römische Identität, gekoppelt mit einer christlichen Weltanschauung, informiert wurde, um neue Paradigmen im Raum von Kunst, Gesetz, Architektur etc. zu schaffen, die bis heute fortwirken. Obwohl das Adjektiv „byzantinisch“ häufig etwas negatives konnotiert, wehrt sich Herrin gegen das Stereotyp eines von Hofintrigen geprägten Byzanz, das in westlicher Historiographie lange Zeit nur eine weltgeschichtlich ephemere Rolle gespielt hat. Stattdessen zeigt sie auf, wie das Konzept „Europa“ überhaupt erst „in“ und „durch“ Byzanz überlebt hat und wie der Westen Europas lange Zeit Ostrom hinterherhinkte. Natürlich zeigt sie im selben Zuge auf, dass die Beziehung zum Westen Europas nicht schwarz-weiß geprägt war. Ganz im Gegenteil sogar, da die Idee der Kreuzzüge selbst aus der Idee einer gemeinsamen christlichen Identität zwischen West und Ost entstanden ist. Da Byzanz eine sehr „kosmopolitische Gesellschaft war“ beschränkt sich diese Beziehung zum „anderen“ natürlich nicht nur auf Mitchristen. Vor allem die Beziehung zum Islam, der ab dem 7. Jahrhundert immer mehr in die europäische Lebenssphäre eindrang, wird vielfach erläutert, wobei die Ambivalenz zwischen Konflikt und Annäherung auch hier eine entscheidende Rolle spielt.

Das eben Genannte spielt vor allem im letzten Drittel des Buches eine gesonderte Rolle. Denn ich bin gar nicht imstande dazu, all die interessanten Informationen, die ich im Laufe des Buches gelernt habe, adäquat zusammenzufassen. Byzanz bleibt in vielerlei Hinsicht vielleicht enigmatisch, jedoch hat Herrin es geschafft, mir die wunderbare Geschichte,Lebenswelt, Kultur und das Erbe einer wunderbaren Zivilisation näherzubringen. Deshalb eine klare Empfehlung meinerseits.

[Stephen Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several years ago I had the opportunity of completing a History Honours degree that I had had to leave unfinished because of lack of funds. I had to choose three papers out of several on offer, and one of them was Medieval History. I asked the professor what it covered. "Diplomatic and political history of England, France and Germany," he told me. I lost interest, and enrolled for courses on other places and periods.

The syllabus illustrates the prejudice among Western historians, from the Renaissance to the present, that Judith Herrin's book attempts to counter. Perhaps it was just as well that I was put off from taking the course on Medieval history, because this book was not available back then, and so even if the course had covered the so-called Byzantine Empire, I would have lacked an important resource for understanding it.

The term "Byzantine Empire" is itself an invention of Western historians, and a reflection of their prejudices. None of its citizens regarded themselves as Byzantine, or would even have known what it meant. In their own view they were Romans and the empire was the Roman Empire, founded in 753 BC. But even if we do regard it as Byzantine, it lasted for 1123 years, from 330 to 1453, which is longer than any other polity in Europe.

Herrin's book is about the life of the Empire. She touches on diplomatic and political history, but includes far more. Economics and trade, religion and spiritual life, education, art and everything else. The way she tells the story is fascinating, and she gives a rounded picture.

The book is an excellent introduction for anyone who wants to study Byzantine history in more detail. But even if one reads nothing else on the subject, it plugs a significant gap in many people's knowledge of world history.

As an Orthodox Christian I found it especially interesting, because it helps to place much church history into context, and especially the divide between the Christian East and West, which was fixed by the Western occupation of Constantinople in 1204. Herrin maintains that it was in an attempt to justify this that the West denigrated the Byzantine empire, and Western historians did so down to the present. Twenty years ago, just before the outbreak of the Wars of the Yugoslav Succession, the Western press was full of op-ed articles trying to re-awaken the old prejudices. We have learnt since that a lot of this was the work of public relations firms hired by Croatian and Slovenian secessionists. Herrin notes the essence of it, quoting an Irish historian, William Lecky

Of that Byzantine empire, the universal verdict of history is that it constitutes, without a single exception, the most thoroughly base and despicable form that civilization has yet assumed. There has been no other eduring civilization to absolutely destitute of all forms and elements of greatness, and none to which the epithet 'mean' may be so emphatically applied... The history of the empire is a monotonous story of the intrigues of priests, eunuchs and women, of poisonings, of conspiracies, of uniform ingratitude.

That there were intrigues and conspiracies there can be no doubt, and Herrin describes many of them, but such things were not lacking in the West either, nor, indeed, in other parts of the world. The book is also helpful in understanding Christian-Muslim relations over a period of many centuries.

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to keep this short... this is a good read.

OK, I'll say a bit more.

Some histories can be very dry and actually painful, and this is particularly true of the history of Byzantium. In many ways, Byzantium, although familiar because it is a continuation of the Roman Empire and had quite an impact on us via the Renaissance, is quite an alien entity. It hovers over there, on the fringes of Europe, almost in Asia. It has had a number of names (that alone would make one quite suspicious). It is linked to Orthodoxy which is to the east, again alien, not European (in the sense that didn't Europe end at the Iron Curtain?). If you have read any of those dry histories then all that really sticks with you are those weird names such as "Comneni", "Murzuphlus" and (my favourite) "Palaiologos", the "Great Schism", "iconoclasm" and, of course "the fall of Constantinople".
Judith Herrin makes this history interesting. Don't be fooled by how apparently long it took me to read the book, this is a book you can dip into, read in short chapters, leave alone and come back to. This is a GOOD read. Each chapter is a stand-alone topic, informative yet not dry. The book as a whole is full of fascinating facts (I loved the bit about the Western European condemnation of the Byzantine princess who used a fork - for the very first time! - and wore silk).
Enjoy!

[Alex Sarll]

Inspired by some puzzled builders, a specialist attempts to write an introduction to Byzantium, and also put paid to what she considers myths about it (encapsulated in the derogatory term 'byzantine' for bureaucracy &c). And she's clearly tried her best, but in places the over-fluency of an expert confuses - not helped by a slipshod editing job (there's gaps and unclear sentences which really should have been spotted and corrected). On top of which, she never quite convinced me that Byzantium's history *wasn't* a fairly repetitive millennium of intrigues by emperors who mostly have the same name, and quarrels over impossibly abstruse points of theology. Still, she shows how without Byzantium we wouldn't have had Europe - and at times there are glimmers of a book which could be written about a glorious, slowly decaying yet feverishly lively empire at the edge of the known world, the secrets it retained and the things it had lost.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. One thousand years is a long span of time to fit into one book. I think what I didn't like was the formatting of the chapters into subject matters instead of chronological time lines. I had to keep an outline of events so I could fit the history together cohesively (at least for me!) The author had interesting stories to tell; however, I felt like a butterfly flitting around the flower of Byzantium.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

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Gibbon very unfairly neglects the Byzantine Empire, and Judith Herrin here argues for its rehabilitation as a vibrant civilisation in its own right, until it was dealt a deadly blow by Western Christianity in 1204 (and yet still survived another quarter of a millennium). She avoids doing a straight historical narrative, instead concentrating on different aspects of Byzantine politics and culture, arranged roughly in chronological order; there is an early chapter on the Hagia Sofia, a late chapter on Trebizond and the other post-1204 splinters. I felt that the risks of this approach did not quite pay off - there ends up being some repetition between chapters, and the whole thing seemed a bit unmoored from a firm timeline. Of course the risk of going the other way is that you would get too much into the dynastic politics of the people at the top, to the neglect of the rest.

Speaking of the people at the top, I had not appreciated that several women ruled the Byzantine Empire in their own right, or that two of them responsible for ending the two spells of iconoclasm. And having complained about the weak connection to the passage of time, I must say that I was very satisfied with the book’s treatment of the shifting geography of the Byzantine empire, particularly the account of how the Ravenna mosaics came to be in Ravenna. Fans of Guy Gavriel Kay’s Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors will be enlightened by this book, which may be better absorbed chapter by (short) chapter, rather than reading through in a few sittings.

[Rasmus Salén · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to read something on this subject because I find it so goofy that 1/2 (and then a smaller part, and then an even smaller part) of the Roman Empire survived until the 1400s? And I wanted to know more? And know more I do: Herrin paints a vivid portrait of a dynamic civilization with arrogant emperors, crusades, 1000 years of Christian theology and schisms, the rise of Islam, Greek fire (medieval flamethrowers), mountaintop monasteries, colorful mosaics, treacherous Venetians, the rediscovery of Ancient Greek philosophy, and ultimately a dramatic fall to the Ottoman Turks and the rise of new empires. She does an excellent job at limiting the scope of this introductory, mostly chronological overview while still tying in the history of the byzantines with preceding, contemporary, and anteceding events. Nonetheless, the timespan is so long that I lose myself in the bigness of it all, which is inevitable with this sort of history volume.

[ExtraGravy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Byzantium history is long, very long and this book does an admirable job providing an overview that manages to provide broad understanding of major changes and the forces involved with enough human detail to make it come to life a bit. I've read other books covering this time frame and this is one of the best.

Recommended

[asagao · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Joe Court]

It's a fine book, but I think my era of broad-netted historical dabbling is over. I've formally studied four ancient European and Middle Eastern civilisations, and I'm not sure how much energy or inclination I have for attempting to master another long-dead cast of thousands—in Byzantium's case, thousands of Michaels, Basils, and Leos. That isn't to say that I won't read books like this again, only that I'll read for feel and overall trends rather than (as I most naturally do) for details and chronologies. Nor will I ever abandon the Near East or the Classics.

So. Pleased to report that the feel and overall trends of Byzantium are pretty swell.

[Xavier Patiño]

I reached 100 pages before I quit. Herrin squeezes a lot of information into short chapters – thus I found myself drowning in names and dates. The book quickly turned into a slog. Maybe a book that concentrates on specific people or events would be a better approach for me.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

On page xiii, the author notes that a couple workers in hard hats, after having seen from her office door that she taught Byzantine history, wondered what Byzantine history was. She tried in a few minutes to explain, and they followed up by asking "why she didn't. . .write about it for them?" And, indeed, she decided to write this volume for a broader audience. Her goal in this book (Page xiv): ". . .I want you to understand how the modern western world, which developed from Europe, could not have existed had it not been shielded and inspired what happened further to the east in Byzantium."

Byzantium originated as the eastern portion of the Roman Empire, while Rome still stood as the center of the Western Empire. Over time, the Western Empire declined and fell. The book considers the evolution and development of Byzantium and the Eastern Empire from its start as a Roman bastion in the fourth century (under the Emperor Constantine, after whom the city Constantinople was named) to its final fall in 1453.

There is much material covered in this volume. It is not organized along a strictly chronological template, although there is some temporal ordering--from its foundations to the medieval era to its final demise. However, in each of these sections, there is coverage of a variety of aspects of the Eastern realm. The Foundations portion considers Greek Orthodoxy, the great churches, such as Hagia Sophia, continuing links with Rome and, after its fall, Italy, and Roman Law.

As we move toward the Medieval era, the author, Judith Herrin, points out the key role of Byzantium in protecting Europe from Islam, by standing as a bastion between Islam and Europe. Also considered is the art and religious artifacts (such as icons) of the Empire. Greek fire, a key part of Byzantium's defenses, is discussed, as are other factors such as the economy, politics, sometime internal instability as intrigues sometimes led to the replacement of one emperor by another.

Finally, the inevitable fall, as Byzantium became more and more compressed, surrounded by a new force--Turks. Finally, in 1453, the Turks with their heavy cannon, breached the walls of Byzantium and its existence as an independent state ended.

There is, of course, so much more detail. The book is solidly written by Herrin (the words don't flow magically, but the language is accessible to most people). Her appraisal of the major role of Byzantium in western history goes into much greater depth than what I am able to mention. Each reader will have to determine how convincing her arguments are, as she strove the answer the two workers.

[Corey James Soper · Rating 2 out of 5]

An incredibly hit and miss book. Some really fascinating chapters yet many are simply devoid of personality, list-like and listless as they pile up names upon names and deeds upon deeds with no real narrative cohesion or flair. I've read 'heavy' history -I've got a first-class History degree - this is not my being lowbrow, it's Judith Herrin being dull.

The intended audience is apparently a group of builders who were renovating Herrin's office, and people who are coming from a position of complete ignorance about the byzantine world of Byzantine Studies - these same builders are assumed to be comfortable with some of the following examples of Herrin's vocabulary: 'chilliastic' 'ceonbitic' 'hesychast' and 'archimandrites'. They are entirely comfortable with in-depth descriptions of the Greek theological position on the Nicene Creed. I would dearly like to meet these builders.

Herrin's thesis is twofold: we should all admire Byzantium's contribution to civilization and stop the strange orientalist associations with mutilation, eunuchs poisoning people, complex religious debates and geese performing cunnilingus on royalty in the Hippodrome.* Fair enough. The second bit, about how Byzantium saved us (Western Europeans) all from the slavering hordes of the East is problematic for a few reasons.
At the risk of sounding glib, Byzantium WAS conquered by Muslims who then used Constantinople as a base to conquer the Balkans. The initial expansion of the Caliphate subsumed the majority of the Empire. They didn't prevent anything, and in the intervening centuries broadly failed to defend themselves or recover any territory even with Western support .. Secondly, Islamic sources on the Battle of Tours (where, erm, Western Europeans defeated Islamic forces) show that they basically had no interest in conquering Western Europe. They were content with Al-Andalus by then - the momentum of Islamic expansion and the types of society that facilitated it were gone. Thirdly, why would a 'Dark Ages' Europe experiencing all the benefits of Islamic civilization that we saw in Al-Andalus be so terrible anyway?

To sum-up, the book meanders with little chronological structure. It is not an introduction to Byzantium. It is a polemic in defense of charges leveled against an extinct empire by dead historians.

The best bits, ironically enough, involve mutilation, eunuchs poisoning people and complex religious debates.


*This is actually something Empress Theodora was accused of. Herrin does not dignify it with a response (unfortunately)

[Pablo Rossello · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly-entertaining introduction to the Byzantine Empire, that seeks to re-establish Byzantium's importance as a political and historical link that connected Classical Antiquity with modern Europe (and hence enabled the emergence of the latter).

The author narrates the history of the Eastern Roman Empire through small chapters, each of which concentrate on events/issues/battles of a relevant period. This avoids a straightorward, lineal chronological account, and allows instead a highly-detailed description of the Byzantine world and worldview.

Beautiful Penguin edition; good selection of images and very useful maps. A great read for beginners.

[Calahir · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although it was the first book about Byzantium I have ever read, I had had good background and knew a lot about history which made me feel seeing too many truisms in this book. I also did not enjoy the style of the author and illogical order of the book's structure. It might be a choice for someone who knows nothing about history to get a simply, non-chronological introduction to the byzantine topics. However, I do think there are plenty of better books.

[Carl Barlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wherein Judith Herrin sets out to correct centuries of prejudice against and misunderstanding of the Byzantium empire. With me, however, she was preaching to the converted, not possessing the learning in the first place to look down upon it (and what little I did know being mainly positive) - I was more than happy to better myself however, especially with such a good teacher.

As a medieval buffer between East and West, how could Byzantium -and, in particular, Constantinople- be anything but fascinating? Lynchpin for Crusades (indeed, the target of one of them); beautiful artwork; beautiful -and innovative- architecture; home of iconoclasts and iconophiles both; cosmopolitan; relatively civilised; surprisingly modern and forward-looking in many of its societal attitudes; its laws the basis for many we still hold today; its religions born in its father empire's ancient Roman mythology and rising uneasily into a glorification of Christianity at odds with the Western version... only to be eventually engulfed by Islam.

Other than the author's opinions, there's probably little new here for those well-versed in Byzantium history, but for those -like me- with a casual interest, this is a wonderful overview and introduction.

[Steven Poore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the title, this isn't as immersive as I'd hoped it would be. Herrin has set herself a formidable task - explaining Byzantium in 336 (plus notes) pages - and given that the Empire lasted over a thousand years and had such influence across that time, it's not surprising that there's a hell of a lot of information to take in. A vast procession of names, of Emperors, Patriarchs, consorts and scholars, is the least of it. Herrin takes in Greece, Venice, the Holy Lands, Manuel II Palaiologos's miserable winter in England, Anna Komnene, the divided Empire, and iconoclasm in short order. I would happily have read more about any of them, but here Herrin is both driver and guide on the tour bus, and the bus is screaming round the Alps like Charlie Croker's coach and there's no time to stop, get out, and enjoy the scenery.

That's not to say that Herrin doesn't achieve her stated aim of making us want to know more, as she argues that Byzantium's reputation has been unjustly slandered over the last several hundred years. As a starting point, this serves more than adequately and offers a variety of paths onward.

[Brayden Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably a 3.5 like I said in my reading update. There's more here I'm likely to forget than remember. Not necessarily a bad thing , and this wasn't the worst place to start on a potential journey of future reading about Byzantium. A friend pointed out that unlike other empires this one often doesn't have as much background knowledge widely known or taught so you start much more fresh, which means a lot of the info is brand new learning (myself included in that).