I love John Julius Norwich's writing and his grasp of history. I'll spare you all ten different reviews. This is narrative history without jargon and without poor writing. It has an air of authority that, in a lesser historian, might be covering a lack of knowledge. I don't seem to get that impression here, and, as I am pretty widely read on Byzantium, I feel qualified to say that Norwich consistently tells the story accurately and well.

gunpowder was a mistake
t. constantine palaiologos

The third volume it this informative series chronicles the tragic decline and ultimate fall of the Eastern Roman Empire. Western Europe, though still in the middle of their own wars of state/kingdom building, certainly seemed complicit in the decline and fall from shear neglect and indifference to the fate of the Orthodox Greeks to outright hostility during the Crusades. Petty arguments over fine and what seems to me pretty irrelevant points of Christian theology in both east and west certainly didn't help. All three volumes well worth a read. I am now going to try Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire who understand was much less sympathetic to Byzantium than Norwich's series.

John Julius Norwich's work on this trilogy can only be described as magnificent. Although he doesn't go too in detail at some places (which he himself freely admits and encourages the reader to look further into) his work is nonetheless a masterpiece with regards to Byzantium and his final book is a well deserved sendoff to the civilization that has so engrossed his and our minds.

Why do the Greeks hold Tuesday to be unlucky? Why were the Hesychats real navel gazers? Why did the Russian use the double headed eagle in their coat of arms and how did Moscow become known as the third Rome? Why must you never trust a Venetian or a Genoese? Why were the Crusades a ultimately disaster for Christendom? Why were there three Popes ruling at one time? Why was the ugly looking John called beautiful? Why was Andronicus terrible? Which Pope, a former pirate was deposed by a general council after being found guilty of piracy, murder, rape, sodomy and incest (these were not the worst crimes apparently - the most scandalous charges were suppressed)?
Answers to all these questions along with a heartbreaking final chapter describing the final tragic, heroic fall of Constantinople are found in this, the final volume of Norwich's History of Byzantium.

Please see my review of Byzantium: The Early Centuries, which covers this volume as well.

Having read all three volumes of Byzantium by Norwich, I found that they filled in the blank spaces of my knowledge of medieval history, especially of the Levant and Greece, where I had roamed much of my mature youth in my 20's up to my 50's (and still roaming). My reading of Norwich's trilogy eventually revitalized my interest in ancient Rome and the history of the Church. Having travelled and lived in these areas before I read the trilogy, I found myself "connecting the dots" so often that I kept copious notes on tiny notebooks (my way of consuming a well written book).

The richness with which Norwich writes drives the narrative forward. I loved this intellectual light that shone down dark paths of my ignorance and capturing subjects that, being married into the Greek culture, I had to know perforce. By the time I finished reading the trilogy, I found that I was ahead on many points of accuracy on the other side of what most people who had grown up with this history that had been passed down to them through osmosis.

Now I would like to go to Runciman, whose name even sounds medieval and whose books I saw in a Beirut bookstore in the 60's and had vowed to read but never got around to it and then of course, Gibbon.

Note: Jan 2014 The whole trilogy: Early Centuries, Apogee, Decline and Fall is some of the best popular writing of history as I've ever read. It's a long read and a slow one because of the detail. You want to hold each page on your tongue like a rich chocolate bon-bon and wish that it would melt into your brain. I intend to read the whole trilogy again very soon. The history of Byzantium links for the modern student of history the ancient age with the beginning of the modern.
15 likes

A fitting end to a solid trilogy. I learned loads since I was starting from basically nothing. It's quite a tale. Alex Comenius pulling the empire back from the disaster at Manzikert, the heart break of the fourth crusade and the slow painful dwindling to the Ottomans that at least ends with a bang.

Byzantium is such an alien culture to us in the West now. I was struck by that over and over in this series and its so fun to read about for that reason. The issues that had popular resonance were so esoteric to my eyes. To have a really devoutly Christian Empire is fascinating.

The Fourth Crusade was actually gutting to me. The way the Doge of Venice played that hand of cards was incredibly effective, but so horrible at the same time. I was very struck by the ambivalence of the Crusades from a Byzantine perspective from the get-go. I hadn't thought before about how much of a mixed blessing they were. The whole thing is again so foreign, I think I'll have to do some more reading into them. It was really the end of hope in 1204 when the Crusaders sack the city. Everything else from then on is a holding action.

The final siege was gripping as well. Quite the classic epic last stand with a fitting end for another Constantine.

Final verdict: a very good intro series to a little studied and little understood story that has a big impact of the West in general. We tend to give the Islamic empires all the credit for saving ancient Greek thought glossing over the important contributions of Byzantium.

its taken me about 10 years to read the whole series so I feel a huge sense of achievement as well as the highest regard for the author of this scholarly but highly readable work.

After reading the complete set an observation. Why, do humans at any place or time in history continue to ignore the threat that will kill and pursue short term goals? As you read this work Norwich points out again and again European rulers who used Byzantium weakness and picked the carcass of the Empire. Instead of assisting the Byzantines against the Arabs or Turks. A shortsighted policy that led to another 200 years of Ottoman conquest through the Balkans and the continued shrinking of Christian lands in the East. A policy that today we continue to see with European involvement in the Balkans as the West try's to get the people of the Balkans to call a cop instead of the Blood feud. Short term goals of personal wealth and glory that lead to long term destruction, pain, death, and continued heart break. And we don't get any better. Our politicians in the U.S., England, Russia, and China along with innumerable Third World dictators use their people for their own gain. Use their land up instead of being good stewards of it. Pollute the air and water and then ask the people to fix their errors. All this done while they hold on to their political empires and or attack the carcass of what is left. It is obvious to me, that out side of a good, well written, and quick moving history the questions that the history asks are just as important.

Reading this book is kind of like watching your neighbors bicker with other as they saunter down the path toward a bitter divorce. Alternately, it's like reading a history of the Cubs' drive for a World Series ring. In each case there are moments of happiness and hope, but you know that inevitably they will end in heartache.

But the sadness of the story is not Mr. Norwich's fault; he's just the storyteller of a tale that ends ruefully. And what a storyteller he is! I am tempted to rate this book five stars and re-rate the previous two books in the series likewise as they contain such well-told stories filled with life and realism. I heartily recommend this series, and despite the sometimes swirl of confusion (which is why I've rated the series four stars), Mr. Norwich's wit, style, respect, and love of writing shine forth as he retells the story of Byzantium. Well done, Mr. Norwich!

I'm very hard-pressed to decide which one I liked better: the story of Byzantium itself or the way Mr. Norwich told it. I have to confess, this was my second try at the trilogy but I'm positive that I'll read it again and again.
I'm a bit ashamed to admit that up until now I knew next to nothing of Byzantium besides the rudimentary basics, and I cannot tell how many ways this trilogy widened my horizon and deepened my knowledge of the world. Mr. Norwich's books read like very rich and at times almost incredibly complicated but utterly spellbinding mysteries. The final chapters of the final book blew me away. The fall... I was and still am heartbroken. What a story! What a storyteller!

4.5 / 5.0

Wonderful Finish to Trilogy