Fourteen Byzantine Rulers (Paperback)

A vivid account of the decline of the Byzantine Empire after the death of Basil II in 1025 A.D.

After fifty glorious years as sole emperor, the death of Basil II ushered in decades of turbulence, corruption, and incompetence. Michael Psellus, one of the greatest courtiers and men of letters of the age, chronicled the following half-century of extraordinary decline.

His vivid and forceful account, full of psychological insight and deep understanding of power politics, is a historical and literary document of the first importance. Recent scholars have shattered forever the view that the Byzantine Age was just a shabby and disreputable appendage to the Roman Empire; Psellus, a man of striking refinement and humanity, both portrays and exemplifies at its best the Byzantine way of life.

Michael Psellus, Byzantine philosopher, historian, and man of letters, was born in Constantinople in 1018. An infant prodigy, he attracted the notice of important patrons and eventually entered the government service, and, as one short-lived emperor succeeded another, became extremely influential. Falling into disfavor on Constantine IX’s death, Psellus for a time became a monk, but finding he had no vocation returned to court to resume a leading role in government, becoming chief minister of the empire under Michael VII Ducas. His literary output was immense, and not all of it has been identified, let alone published, but he is regarded today as one of the greatest courtiers and men of letters of his age.

E. R. A. Sewter was a well-known Byzantine scholar and the editor of Greece and Rome. His translation of The Alexiad of Anna Komnene is still published in Penguin Classics. He died in 1976.