Byzantine Books - Page 5

Law and Society in Byzantium: Ninth-Twelfth Centuries (Dumbarton Oaks Other Titles in Byzantine Studies)

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Editorial Review:

The essays in this volume investigate themes related to the place of law in Byzantine ideology and society. Although the Byzantines had a formal legal system, deriving from Justinian's codification, this does not solve the problem but rather poses important questions. Was this a society which was meant to be governed by law? For answers, one must look at the intent of the legislators (to address specific problems, or to order society according to an ideal pattern?); the attitudes toward the law; the relationship between law, religion, literature, and art. What were the spheres--political, economic, private--that the laws and the lawgivers sought to regulate? The concepts of law and justice are quite different from each other, and the relationship between them is investigated here. Of importance also, in this medieval society, are the connections between law and religion. There is the problem of the provenance of the law--whether the Emperor or God himself is the source of law--and the broad implications of the answer. At another level, ecclesiastical law was very important for everyday life, and the question arises of how much knowledge people had of it and how profound was their knowledge. Both people's perceptions and their practices were shaped by their views of human justice and divine justice: whether these coincided, and whether they were administered through the same means, for the intervention of saints or icons might be seen as an alternative to human justice. As for human justice, there are questions that involve both society's view of it and the education, knowledge, and interests of those who administered it. Such issues are present in all medieval societies; the case of Byzantium is of particular interest because of the interplay between formal law and the conceptualizations and practices--some quite divergent from the ostensible purpose of legislation--which affected the legislators, the practitioners, and all of society.

Byzantium and Venice: A Study in Diplomatic and Cultural Relations

Donald M. Nicol

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Changing of power 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Nicol describes in a most accurate way the changing relations between Byzantium and Venice. Venice started of as one of the last remaining part of the Byzantine Empire in the North of Italy. Nicol shows how Venice gained it independence, became the equal and finally the overshadowed the crippling Byzantine empire.

Nicol shows carefully what the difference is between the official documents and reality. Byzantium saw itself as the rightful ruler of even Venice, although in the later stages Venice was equal and even stronger than Byzantium.

I found the book easy to read and very interesting. The book beautifully reflects the changing of power from the East to the West. However some general knowledge about Venice and Byzantium are preferable. Since I'm missing the former a bit, some things where more difficult to place it historical.

Editorial Review:

This book traces the diplomatic, cultural, and commercial links between Constantinople and Venice from the foundation of the Venetian Republic to the Fall of the Byzantine Empire. It aims to show how, with the encouragement of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Venetians came to dominate first the Genoese and thereafter the whole Byzantine economy. At the same time, the author points to those important cultural and, above all, political reasons why the relationship between the two states was always inherently unstable.

The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East: Problems in the Literary Source Materials (Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam, No. 1)

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Editorial Review:

This book presents a series of critical analyses of the structure, historical development, and composition of the elite strata of late Roman, Byzantine, and early Islamic societies in the eastern Mediterranean basin. Elite culture and elite strata in societies leave an unmistakable record in the literature and in the visual and material culture of the world. The contributors to this volume set out to analyze aspects of these phenomena in the late ancient and early medieval eastern Mediterranean world. Culture change, economic foundations, political roles and function, social composition, and background and origins of old and new elites are the focus of the contributions by scholars who deal with the fate of the later Roman elite and its successors. The ways in which elites perceived themselves and how they created, maintained, and enhanced their identity, and the ways in which others both within and outside of their own society and culture saw them are important! themes. The structure of new Byzantine elites and the role of late Roman and Byzantine provincial elite society, the development of new elites in early Islamic society, the role played by pre-state elites and their fluctuating identities in the context of clan and tribal social organizations are all treated.

In addition, the volume includes important studies of the ways in which elite culture expressed itself in these different socio-cultural environments, both through literary as well as visual media. Contributors include: Hugh Kennedy, Leslie Brubaker, Zeev Rubin, Nadia-Maria El-Cheikh, William Lancaster and Felicity Lancaster, Averil Cameron, Claudia Rapp, Michael Morony, Elizabeth Jeffreys, and John Haldon.

Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204 (Dumbarton Oaks Research Library)

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Editorial Review:

The imperial court in Constantinople has been central to the outsider's vision of Byzantium. However, in spite of its fame in literature and scholarship, there have been few attempts to analyze the Byzantine court in its entirety as a phenomenon. The studies in this volume aim to provide a unified composition by presenting Byzantine courtly life in all its interconnected facets. One important theme that unites these studies is the attention paid to describing the effects of a change in the social makeup of the court during this period and the reflection of these changes in art and architecture. These changes in social composition, mentality, and material culture of the court demonstrate that, as in so many other aspects of Byzantine civilization, the image of permanence and immutability projected by the forms of palace life was more apparent than real. As this new work shows, behind the golden facade of ceremony, rhetoric, and art, there was constant development and renewal.

The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453 (Second Edition)

Donald M. Nicol

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The Long Journey of Byzantium's Tragic but Noble End 5 out of 5 stars.
42 of 42 people found this review helpful.

Donald Nicol's account of the last 250 years of Byzantine history is accurate, well written and neatly organized. Unlike studies of earlier ages for the Empire where the Empire and the Arabs ruled the East, Eastern Mediterranean history after the Fourth Crusade can get rather complex and confusing, as not only the Empire, but the "crusading" Latins, the Islamic nomads, and the Slavic Christian Kingdoms must all be considered. A tale that could easily become entangled and confusing for the reader, Nicol superbly narrates the events and provides detailed accounts of the players. He cleverly demonstrates how entrenched the beleagured Byzantines were, with the greedy Italians to the west, the encroaching Turks to the east, the growing Serbian Empire to the north, and the festering internal decay of Imperial decentralization from within. Yet, the Empire still produced great leaders like Theodore Laskaris I, John Vatazes, Michael VIII, John Cantacuzene, and perhaps the most tragic of all medieval heroes, Constantine XI Palaeologos, who all, in better times and without so many encoaching powers from the outside, may have saved the Empire from such tragedies. But in addition to this sad tale of Byzantium's fall, Nicol also narrates the flourishing of Orthodoxy in the Imperial and Slavic world, as well as the flowering of learning and thought at Mistra, in the lower Peoloponese. This alone, was the spark that triggered the resurgance of knowledge and arts in the Italian Peninsula, less than 100 years after the Fall of Constantinople. What many, scholars and readers alike, tend to forget is that Byzantium's lasting legacy lay in its cultural achievements in the Orthodox Church, as well as providing the materials and teachers that would reawaken Western Europe into that period of rebirth so commonly referred to as the Renaissance.

Editorial Review:

The Byzantine empire in the last two centuries of its existence had to rebuild itself after its conquest and dismemberment by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Its emperors in exile recovered Constantinople in 1261 and this book narrates their empire's struggles for survival from that date until its final conquest by Ottoman Turks in 1453. First published in 1972, the book has been completely revised to take account of recent scholarship. It remains the best synthesis of the political, ecclesiastical and historical events of the period.

Byzantium

Giles Morgan

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Editorial Review:

So what-s so significant about the Byzantine Empire? It is now recognised as having had a considerable influence on the Renaissance and a significant impact in the shaping modern Europe and modern historians are increasingly acknowledging the role the Byzantine Empire played in the development of both Islam and Christianity, and the relationship between the two.

The term -Byzantine- derives from the ancient Greek city of Byzantium founded in 667 BC by colonists from Megara. It was named in honour of their leader Byzas. It later became better known as Constantinople, that gateway between West and East and played a crucial role in the transmission of Christianity to the West.

Constantine is now generally known as the first Christian Emperor, and in recent years interest in him has grown, with his role in the development of Christianity being questioned by Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, amongst others. A closer examination of this formative period in the history of the church reveals a struggle to gain a coherent and cohesive religious identity. Christianity would emerge as the major religion of the Byzantine Empire in a departure from the pagan worship of the Roman Empire.

The Byzantine Empire was often at the centre of profound geopolitical, cultural and religious forces that threatened to pull it apart. When Byzantine forces suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert for example, appeals to the West precipitated the First Crusade. In 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, Constantinople was conquered by the Crusader army. The dramatic siege and subsequent fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire is often seen as marking the end of the medieval period.

The Byzantine Empire lasted for over a thousand years, created remarkable art and architecture and created a lasting cultural and religious legacy - even its decline and fall was to have ramifications that reached far beyond its borders. The fall of Constantinople which had been a key city on the ancient Silk Road, linking East and West led many to consider the prospect of opening up new lines of trade, sea exploration that would eventually lead to major new discoveries, new routes and new worlds...

The Byzantines

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Impressive introduction into the Byzantine peoples 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I picked up this book solely for the fact that it was a Byzantine book. I was not disappointed with the content, however. The book covers the following:
The poor:
The peasantry:
The Soldiers:
The Teachers:
Women:
Entrepreneurs:
Bishops:
Saints:
Emperors:
Functionaries:

The book also explains what sources were used and why when describing how these people lived. It does a good job contrasting these groups to their western and Islamic eastern counterparts. It offers a broad view of each group while also focusing in on particular time periods. The Book also has several authors so getting bogged down in a certain authors style is unlikely to happen and it give a chance to compare styles. I were to teach an introduction in Byzantine Studies, or an Overview course this book would be on my list.

Editorial Review:

For more than a thousand years, Byzantium flourished at the crossroads of the Eastern and Western worlds. But who were the people of the first modern civilized state? What features distinguished them from earlier civilizations, and what cultural characteristics, despite their multi-ethnic origins, made them uniquely Byzantine?

Through a series of remarkably detailed composite portraits, an international collection of distinguished scholars has created a startlingly clear vision of the Byzantines and their social world. Paupers, peasants, soldiers, teachers, bureaucrats, clerics, emperors, and saints--all are vividly and authentically presented in the context of ordinary Byzantine life. No comparable volume exists that so fascinatingly recovers from the past the men and women of Byzantium, their culture and their lifeways, and their strikingly modern worldview.

The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus and his Reign: A Study of Tenth-Century Byzantium (Cambridge Paperback Library)

Steven Runciman

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Romanus Lecapenus Rise to Power 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This book is a wonderful introduction not only to Emperor Romanus and the various challenges he faced in his reign but also to the state of the east Mediterrianian world in the first half of the Tenth Century. Runciman manages once again to apply energetic prose to sound scholarship. He also navigates the reader through the complicated intrigues at the Imperial Court in Constantinople which can be hard to understand for the beginning Byzantine Scholar. Runciman makes the reader conscious of the fact that the soldier-emperors Nicephorus Phocas, John Tsmiszes and Basil II of the second half of Tenth century benefitted from the leadership of Romanus and the well- oiled Byzantine administrative and military machine he guided for twenty-five years. I warmly recommend this book.

Editorial Review:

This study, centred around the reign of the usurping Emperor Romanus Lecapenus, was originally published in 1929, reissued in 1963, and has been out of print for several years. It contributed to the revival of interest in Byzantine studies at that time, and has since remained one of the most authoritative and readable accounts of the period.

The Byzantine Empire

Robert Browning

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This revised edition presents the history of the Byzantine Empire from the 6th to the 15th century, not merely in terms of political events, but also through the art, literature, and thought of Byzantine society. It emphasizes the constant tension between continuity and change, between conservation of the traditions of the Roman Empire of Augustus and Trajan and the Christian Roman Empire of Constantine and his successors on the one hand, and on the other, the need to react positively to the loss of the Latin-speaking west and the successive challenges offered by the Arab conquests, the Crusades, and the inexorable expansion of the Ottoman Empire. Browning rejects the almost traditional concept of decline and fall - an empire whose decline lasted a thousand years must have had an inner strength of its own - in favour of that of a changing and developing state that at some periods was the "superpower" of Europe. But great power status is always fragile, and the story of the Byzantines' response to being overtaken by others is not without its lessons for today. The complex problems of relations between the Christian and Muslim worlds, and between the Catholic/Protestant western Europe and Orthodox eastern Europe (including Russia), cannot be understood without some acquaintance of Byzantine history. Addressed to the general reader as well as to students and scholars, this volume encourages readers to be wary of unconscious prejudice and to reject hasty and superficial solutions.

The Byzantine Empire 1025-1204: A Political History (2nd Edition)

Michael Angold

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Engrossing and Thought-Provoking 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Angold's is a wonderful and wonderfully readable analysis of two periods of Byzantine history: the fall of the Macedonian regime (1025-1081), and the rise and fall of the Comnenian regime (1081-1204). His explanation of the former goes well beyond the conventional story of incompetent emperors and courtly intrigue, bringing to the foreground the political, social, and intellectual changes of that time and the regime's attempts to cope with them. His portrait of Psellus is particularly illuminating. The analysis of how Alexius Comnenus adapted the government to meet these challenges is also penetrating. Only in the final part of the book is these a loss of focus (as indeed there was in the empire itself). Not a book for beginners, but useful for anyone who wants to look deeper at a fascinating period of history.

An excellent account of an exciting period 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Michael has brought his vast knowledge of the subject to bear in a lucid and very readable account of one of the most fascinating periods of this great civilisation. A joy.

I was disappointed 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

As a Byzantine history buff, I bought this book when it first came out, and was disappointed, though it's hard to say precisely why. It wasn't written, for my taste, in a particularly engaging style. (For point of comparison, I love Treadgold's style). Or perhaps it's just that is a time in the history of Byzantium when everyone appears to be pursuing their individual interests to the detriment of the state as a whole, and this simply made for a depressing read. In any case, I found myself skipping through the book to find those portions that interested me. On the other hand, since this is the only book I know of that covers this period in detail, I will keep the book in my collection.