Byzantine Empresses

by Lynda Garland

Byzantine Empresses provides a series of biographical portraits of the most significant Byzantine women who ruled or shared the throne between 527 and 1204. It presents and analyses the available historical data in order to outline what these empresses did, what the sources thought they did, and what they wanted to do.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, European History, Medieval, Womens, Greece

364 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

The problem with a book like this - focusing on one type of person - is that to understand the individual stories, you really have to know the broader history. So the book will either be disjointed and unclear or not much about its proclaimed subject. What's more, the need to trawl the sources for every titbit on empresses (in this case) means that the narrative is distorted. The idea is to 'restore' the proper place of women in the historical account, but if you read older history books (Bury, Oman, etc), there is absolutely no veiling of female impact - if anything, women's stories are highlighted because they are especially interesting for their rarity. All of this means that Garland's book was doomed to be seriously flawed before it began, but she did manage to make a reasonably accurate and readable job of it.

[Bettie]

Opening: You were selected by divine decree for the security and exaltation
of the universe; you were joined to the purple by God’s will.
Almighty God has blessed you and crowned you with his own
hand. ( de cer. 1.39)

These words formed part of the ceremony of the marriage of an emperor
and empress and reflect the ideology implicit in the act of imperial coronation.
In the Byzantine empire power was technically vested in the emperor. Nevertheless a number of empresses played an important part in government and even took control of the empire in appropriate circumstances. Most commonly empresses came to power as regents for young sons, implying a fixed period of caretaker government until the young emperor came of age, usually at sixteen.

[Jaclynn (JackieReadsAlot) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Women in power in an age when women were nothing more than breeding stock. I love reading about strong woman throughout history, and Byzantium has more than its share. Not a dry history text, it is written for the everyday reader who has an interest in the period. Gossip, romance, economic reforms, battles of religious sects...a good book to read if you're interested also in general knowledge of Byzantine Empire.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Garland manages to flush out many sources for the women in power of the Byzantine Empire. The documentation and genealogical charts were great additions. Although some people may be disappointed in the quality of the pictures, this reviewer appreciated the use of the coins (the few images available) to illustrate the text.

[Greta Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the very few (if not only) books that exclusively deals with the topic of Byzantine empresses. It’s a well-researched and fascinating insight into the lives of royal women at the Byzantine court. You’ll need a foundational understanding of Byzantine history to appreciate this book, as it assumes pre-existing knowledge throughout.

[Gordon Goodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely requires a decent background knowledge of the surroundings history to be able to place everything, but this was great! The book and it's historical narrative are structured well and Garland is particularly good at strong conclusions and summaries. I particularly liked her revisitation of the reputation of Empress Irene and her survey of her policies and successes.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

such a fantastic, well researched secondary source for a very fascinating topic

[Usturoi8 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pur și simplu ce femei

[Hans Kerrinckx · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding book about some strong ladies. Those of you who think that the Julio-Claudian dynasty was a vipers nest, should read this well documented work. Not for novices of Byzantine history. Keep the list of Byzantine emperors and dynasties ready.

[Bettie]

nutty nuut

[Kurt · Rating 4 out of 5]

my favorite history subject.