August HistoryCAT : The Byzantine empire

From Constantin (4th c), going through the reigns of Julian the Apostate or of Justinian and Theodora, to the capture of Constantinople by the Turks (1453) : the Byzantine empire is up to you.

In historical fiction for example :
Julian the Apostate by Gore Vidal
Stephen R. Lawhead's Byzantium
Count Belisarius by Robert Graves

With a turn towards alternative history :
G.G. Kay Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of emperors
Jean d'Ormesson The glory of the Empire

I don't know of English speaking historians (I'm French), but I'm sure you'll find them :)

I'll be reading Judith Herrin's Byzantium and rereading the fascinating The glory of the empire by d'Ormesson (I first read it 50 years ago when it was published in 1971!)

The wiki is here

I may continue the Death in Byzantium series of mysteries about John the Eunuch set in Justinian's reign with Ten for Dying or read Outlandish Knight, Minoo Dinshaw's biography of the historian Steven Runciman.

I have Count Belisarius on my TBR. I'll go with that!

I'm planning on A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich. It's got 29 chapters, plus front matter and back matter, so if I read one chapter per day I should be able to finish it during August...fingers crossed!

I think I have a few non-fiction books for this...

Shouldn't the title say August rather than July?

>6 susanna.fraser: You're right! I've used my magical admin powers to change it.

>7 christina_reads: Thank you! I was just writing to you when I saw the new title. Magical :)
Sorry, I have the brain of a goldfish as we say in France...

>8 h-mb: You're welcome!

I'm in. Likely to read John Julius Norwich but will poke around before deciding!

Looks like a few options for me (and this is only looking at the 13th and 14th centuries!):
Footsteps in Time / Sarah Woodbury
Passionate Brood / Margaret Campbell Barnes
Three Sisters, Three Queens / Philippa Gregory

Ich war den Hunnen untertan is a historical novel from Hungary who see themselves as descendants of the Huns and are quite proud of Attila. The wars against the Huns and their numerous allies and subjects occupied the early years of the East Roman Emperors.
The tale is told by a young Greek from Constantinople who lived a few years at Attila's court and fought in the famous battle on the Catalaunian Fields. Unfortunately, the writing style is very pedestrian (fault of the translation??) and the hero not very likeable. I remember having similar problems with another of Gardónyi's books.

All the recommendations sound interesting. Count Belisarius is on Kindle Unlimited, so I'll be attempting that one.

COMPLETED
Ten For Dying
Murder in Megara
An Empire for Ravens

all by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer

Mysteries set in the reign of Justinian after the death of Theodora.

Footsteps in Time / Sarah Woodbury
4 stars

Teenage siblings David (14) and Anna (17) crash their car and appear someplace unexpected. They are in a field of bodies and horses. It’s not long before they figure out they seem to have travelled back in time. Not only that, they ended up on a battlefield where they saved the life of Prince Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, who should have died in this fight with England. Lucky for David and Anna, their mother is a historian with a particular interest in 13th century Wales, so they know quite a bit about the time period. Due to their saving Llewellyn’s life, they are taken in and taken care of. Not only that, David is being trained to help out in this Welsh war. And Anna is a bit bored, since women aren’t really allowed to do much. But they make the most of it, though with David rightfully scared with a real war happening that it appears they are training him to help in!

I really liked this. I was thinking this was 2nd in a series, but it’s technically the first; I’ve just read the prequel already (I would actually recommend reading the prequel first). The time travel is really just the first part of the book, and after that, it’s primarily historical fiction (one of my favourite genres); ah, I guess the time travel does come up again a couple of times. 13th century Wales is definitely not a place nor time period I know much about, so that was definitely interesting. I also loved the pronunciation guide at the beginning of the book – I did refer back to that a few times!

I did indeed end up reading A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich. Does what it says on the tin, with a lively and occasionally tongue-in-cheek writing style. But would probably be more interesting/useful to someone who has more than a cursory interest in the subject!

I did finish The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora by Stephanie Thornton It was quite good!