Byzantium - The Decline and Fall (edition 1999)

I'll treat the three volume as one, as the latter parts would make little or no sense without having read the earlier ones.



It's an epic tale of an empire lasting over 1100 years and has all the requirements of an epic. There are good kings and bad kings, benevolent kings and mad kings all mixed up together. There's sucess, reversal and ultimately failure and the loss of the inpregnigible city. To have withstood almost enemy for over a millennium is a pretty impressive defensive record. To say nothing of the artistic and cultural achievements. And all this through a time when the western world was retreating into the dark ages.



It's a subject I knew very little about and this series was highly informative, as well as being a fairly entertaining read. Obviously written by somone with a passion for their subject, and communicating this to the reader with lots of little details that bring it vividly to life. ( )

John Julius Norwich provides in his trilogy an excellent overview of Byzantine civilization. For the general reader looking to get the whole picture, or for the scholar probing into a new field, this book is an excellent introduction. For someone already well acquainted with the Byzantines, this is a narrative history, useful for quick consultation but not as deep in any particular subject as you would probably require. ( )