Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire - Softcover

Judith Herrin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141031026 ISBN 13: 9780141031026

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2010

Synopsis

For a thousand years, an extraordinary empire made possible Europe's transition to the modern world: Byzantium. An audacious and resilient but now little known society, it combined orthodox Christianity with paganism, classical Greek learning with Roman power, to produce a great and creative civilization which for centuries held in check the armies of Islam. Judith Herrin's concise and compelling book replaces the standard chronological approach of most histories of Byzantium.Instead, each short chapter is focused on a theme, such as a building (the great church of Hagia Sophia), a clash over religion (iconoclasm), sex and power (the role of eunuchs), an outstanding Byzantine individual (the historian Anna Komnene), a symbol of civilization (the fork), and a battle for territory (the crusades). In this way, she makes accessible and understandable the grand sweeps of Byzantine history, from the founding of its magnificent capital Constantinople (modern Istanbul) in 330, to its fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"This book provides an introduction to Byzantium in a nonconventional fashion. It explores, in chronological order, basic questions about Byzantine history and society. I know of no other book that attempts this approach to the millennium-long history of Byzantium. Judith Herrin is a scholar at the top of her form."--Michael Maas, author of Exegesis and Empire in the Early Byzantine Mediterranean

"A very readable and enjoyable introduction to Byzantium. Judith Herrin is a major scholar of Byzantium with much to teach us."--Robert Ousterhout, author of Master Builders of Byzantium

About the Author:

An acclaimed historian of medieval Europe, Judith Herrin is the author of The Formation of Christendom, devoted to the Mediterranean world from the mid-sixth to the mid-ninth century A.D., A Medieval Miscellany and Women in Purple. She worked in Birmingham, Paris, Munich, Istanbul and Princeton before taking up her current position as Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King's College London. She has published many scholarly articles, excavated in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, and was on the editorial board Past and Present 2000-2013.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0141031026
• ISBN 13: 9780141031026
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416