Byzantium Quotes

“As the emperor assumed responsibility for religious affairs, it was inevitable that tensions would arise between the state and the Church. In situations where the interests and jurisdiction of the two overlapped, which authority should prevail? This question remained unresolved through the centuries of Byzantium’s existence.”
― Robert Wernick, Byzantium

“One candidate, Casia, who later became a nun and a poet of distinction, lost the throne by speaking out of turn. As the emperor was about to hand her the apple, he remarked that it was through women that evil had entered the world. Casia retorted that it was also through women that the Supreme Being - Jesus Christ - entered the world. Her outspokenness startled the emperor, who quickly selected another candidate. The empress had her own court in the women’s quarters”
― Robert Wernick, Byzantium

“By the early part of the sixth century, Italy was in the hands of the Ostrogoths, Gaul had been seized by the Franks, the Visigoths held Spain, and the Vandals had conquered North Africa, leaving the West in turmoil and darkness.”
― Robert Wernick, Byzantium

“Constantinople had no distinctly upper-class neighborhoods. The houses of the rich were flanked by the modest homes of the middle class and the hovels of the poor. The wealthy were afforded a certain amount of privacy, however, because the exterior walls of their houses faced the street while the rooms opened out on an interior courtyard, invariably containing a fountain and elaborate landscaping.”
― Robert Wernick, Byzantium

“The Roman Empire had become a top-heavy bureaucracy, demanding more men, more goods, more taxes from provinces already wrung dry.”
― Robert Wernick, Byzantium

“Even the fork - the instrument central to Western dining - was introduced to Venetian society by a Byzantine princess.”
― Robert Wernick, Byzantium