Byzantium: A History

The remarkable 1,000- year history of one of the world’s greatest and most misunderstood empires. The Byzantine Empire was one of the longest-surviving empires in world history, spanning nine centuries and three continents. It originated as the eastern half of the mighty Roman Empire, and established its centre at Constantinople, a glittering capital straddling the frontier of Europe and Asia. From the outset, Byzantium was surrounded by potential enemies. Persians, Arabs and Ottoman Turks in the east, Slavs and Bulgars in the north, Saracens and Normans in the west; all vied to control the rich empire of the Bosphorus. John Haldon’s comprehensive short history tracks the chequered past of an historical enigma, a ‘lost empire’ which stood for a thousand years against the might of Islam and which preserved and transmitted the literary and linguistic heritage of ancient Greece and Rome. He tells the story of the cycle of conquest and reconquest of its lands and finally its complete destruction by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. AUTHOR: John Haldon is Professor of Byzantine History at Princeton University. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the world’s leading experts on Byzantine history and his other books include Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era: A History. Born in Britain, he now lives in Princeton, New Jersey. 40 colour, 69 b/w illustrations