The Oxford History of Byzantium

The Oxford History of Byzantium is the only history to provide detailedcoverage of Byzantium from the Eastern Roman Empire to the fall ofConstantinople and assimilation into the Turkish Empire. Lively essays andbeautiful illustrations portray the emergence and development of a distinctivecivilization, covering the period from the fourth century to the mid-fifteenthcentury. The authors - all working at the cutting edge of their particularfields - outline the political history of the Byzantine state and bring to lifethe evolution of a colourful culture.In AD 324, the Emperor Constantine the Great chose Byzantion, an ancient Greekcolony at the mouth of the Thracian Bosphorous, as his imperial residence. Herenamed the place 'Constaninopolis nova Roma', 'Constantinople, a new Rome' andthe city (modern Istanbul) became the Eastern capital of the later Roman empire.The new Rome outlived the old and Constantine's successors continued to regardthemselves as the legitimate emperors of Rome, just as their subjects calledthemselves Romaioi, or Romans long after they had forgotten the Latin language.In the sixteenth century, Western humanists gave this eastern Roman empire ruledfrom Constantinople the distinctive Latinized name of Byzantium.Against a backdrop of stories of emperors, intrigues, battles, and bishops, thisOxford History uncovers the hidden mechanisms - economic, social, anddemographic - that underlay the history of events. The authors explore everydaylife in cities and villages, manufacture and trade, art, machinery ofgovernment, the church as an instrument of state, minorities and languages,education, literary activity, beliefs and superstitions, monasticism,iconoclasm, the rise of Islam, and the fusion with Western, or Latin, culture.Byzantium linked the ancient and modern worlds, shaping traditions and handingdown to both Eastern and Western civilization a vibrant legacy.

Cyril Mango was Bywater and Sotheby Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature at Oxford until his retirement.