Byzantium: The Early Centuries
- ISBN-10
- 0394537785
- ISBN-13
- 9780394537788
- Series
- Byzantium
- Pages
- 407
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1989
- Publisher
- Knopf
- Author
- John Julius Norwich
Description
In this brilliant narrative, John Julius Norwich tells the story of the Byzantine Empire from its beginnings to the emergence of its only European rival, the Holy Roman Empire, with the coronation of Charlemagne on Christmas Day AD 800. Those first five centuries were marked by stupendous changes and dramas: the adoption of Christianity by the Graeco-Roman world; the fall of Rome; the reigns of Constantine, Theodosius the Great, and Justinian; and the intrigues of such empresses as Eudoxia and Theodora. They were centuries of bloodshed, in which the empire struggled for its life; centuries of controversy, in which men argued passionately about the nature of Christ and of his church; centuries of scholarship, in which the culture of the ancient world was kept alive and preserved; and centuries of creativity, in which the Byzantine genius brought forth art and architecture inspired by and infused with a depth of spirituality unparalleled in any other age. "Byzantium" evokes the mystery and magic of this most remarkable empire. -- From publisher's description
