A Game of Thrones has absolutely nothing on the true story of the Byzantine Empire. Except for dragons, this last volume of Sir Norwich’s brilliant trilogy on the history of Constantinople has it all: mad kings and sultans, barbarian hordes, epic battles raging across continents, shifting alliances, diplomatic double crosses, lots of action between the sheets and a Hollywood ending full of death and glory.

A touch of sadness tinges this final volume as the Byzantines are betrayed by their fellow Christians, pillaged by Crusaders passing through to the Holy Land, besieged by the ever strengthening Ottomans, and let down by their leadership at every crucial turn. Nevertheless, it is a hell of a ride watching the only Christian theocracy ever (the Papal States don’t count to me) slug it out against all odds for the final 250 years of its existence.

This is the way history should be told, with plenty of facts, but never a dull moment. Highly recommended.

The last in the series is an ever-more dizzying whirligig of passing characters and incidents, few of them with enough purchase for this to be more than a shallow parade. Maybe that is the nature of the subject matter, given the sources – but who were these people?

Among the positives, what does stand out is that the Roman Empire, for some time before the end came, was at last truncated to a few scraps of land around Constantine’s city and in the south of Greece, and to almost complete powerlessness; that the population of the great city was reduced to a few tens of thousands, with much of the land within its walls given over to agriculture; and that in its final decades its emperors were obliged to go on tours of Europe begging for military and financial support (rarely forthcoming), one even going as far as England, where he spent a month with Henry IV at Eltham in what is now the Borough of Greenwich.

But when the end came, it came heroically; and the knowledge disseminated by the refugees, having been kept in-house for a thousand years since the end of the classical age, now kick-started the modern world. Byzantium seems so far away, yet it is the chief conduit through which we know about what went before as well as having been an astonishing civilization in its own right (if also barbarous in its ruthlessness). This version of it, while often seeming superficial, at least sets the record straight on how important it was, while much of the time spinning a good yarn.

Fantastic end of the series that first sparked my interest in the Byzantine Empire!

See my comments about volume 1

and so concludes john julius norwich's excellent three-part history of the byzantine empire. this volume charts the decline of the fated empire as it's savaged by foreign powers and fractured by internal squabbles, before the final blow is dealt by the ingenious and ferocious mehmed ii. fascinating reading

No matter how many times I read the story I will still cry every time. Byzantium was too beautiful for this world.

ну вот наконец движ - крестовые походы (как будто здесь раньше все спали). я не знал, например, некоторых подробностей самой организации крестовых походов: что Византия обеспечивала этим отрядам отребья проход и питание по Виа Эгнатия, а также полицейское сопровождение в виде наемников, которыми были печенеги.

странность всей этой истории заключается в том, что период ее, который автор считает "апогеем" (т.е. предыдущий том) довольно уныл и безрадостен, а также полон опасностей, в то время как период "распада и падения" (этот вот том) вполне весел, лих и даже местами благополучен, хотя мало что есть гаже теократических государств.

новое (для меня) в понимании истории городка: кровавый захват Салоники сицилийцами в 1185 году на 3 месяца из-за идиотизма ее византийского военного коменданта. прежние историки, кого я читал, об этом как-то умалчивали. ну и то, что происходило в городке в 13 веке, стало яснее: некое государство франков, сиречь крестоносцев. просуществовало, впрочем, недолго.

про захват города турками тоже кое-что интересное выяснилось: город сперва отдали в правление двум венецианцам, но те так заебали местное население, что оноьготово само было Пехпету ворота открыть. впрочем, не открыли, хотя монахи монастыря Влатадон предлагали султану Мураду перерезать водовод в город с горы Хортиатис (а сам монастырь стоял и стоит, образно говоря, на распределительном резервуаре этой воды, так что монахи знали, что советуют). турки делать этого почему-то не стали, а просто взяли город штурмом, хотя осташиеся венецианцы пытались его оборонять со стен (эффективные менеджеры между тем попросту съеблись из города на последних галерах; им это не помогло, и в Венеции дож их посадил за сдачу города). но это, в частности, и объясняет, почему турки практически не тронули монастырь. там просто сидели коллаборанты.

Византию, в общем, тоже крестоносцы же просрали - реальный имперский упадок начался с отъема Константинополя латинянами у греков, до этого были флуктуации. но "Латинская империя Константинополя" - одна из самых нелепых страниц средневековья и подлинная кульминация того идиотского и кровавого балагана, который представляло собой христианское престолонаследование Византии на протяжении многих веков.

занимательное: ход византийско-генуэзской войны весной 1349 года (когда один берег бухты Золотой Рог воевал с другим, по сути): загадочная паника, овладевшая сперва византийскими необученными моряками, побросавшими все свои суда, потом жителями, наблюдавшими за боем со стен, а потом и солдатами, посланными зайти Галате в тыл. натурально массовая истерия, объяснения которой нет до сих пор, - что это было-то? вирус? газ? лучи? и железные военные шапочки не помогли.

хотя во многом другом автор, как и в прежних двух томах, играет в сослагательное наклонение: что было б, если. мы же, примерно понимая, как устроена история, отдаем себе отчет, что ничего другого б не было.

из потешного: автор, похоже, смешивает печенегов с половцами, считая, что это примерно одно и то же. ну и порой, как и раньше, забалтывается и мешает метафоры: "Венецианцы вышли на тропу войны", например.

еще из потешного: турки традиционно считали Римом Анатолию, потому что это наследие Римской империи. примерно такие же представления у них были и об остальном глобусе.

а вот потешное профессиональное: из письма Михаила Палеолога Папе Урбану (1263 год), очередная попытка примирить восточную и западную церкви:

In the past, legates and nuncios were often sent back and forth, but they could not speak to each other and, since they conversed through ignorant interpreters, they seldom arrived at the real truth.

т.е. игре "пни переводчика" много веков, эта традиция гораздо древнее, чем нынешние русские читатели "думают". кто виноват в этой их христианской хуемыргии? конечно, "невежественные переводчики".

...ну и история Византии - как, в принципе, и любая другая - сильно выиграла бы от пересказа Стивена Фрая. хотя надо признать, что и в таком виде исторический нарратив Византии несколько более упорядочился в голове, пусть у меня и плохая память на имена (все, впрочем, одинаковые) и даты (тут вообще караул). и еще более очевидна стала вся нелепость и чудовищность христианства.

Again wonderful work on Byzantine tragedy, series of tragical times for whole Christendom.

Frankokratia and Latinokratia derive from the name given by the Orthodox Greeks to the Western French and Italians who originated from territories that once belonged to the Frankish Empire.

So Greek brotherhood, kinship is well placed in Rome, Macedonia(Slavic) and France. (Apart from that there was large migration of Greeks to Poland itself, indeed, in XX c. )

Also about crusades,and event that caused them all, Crusade of the Paupers, peoples crusade, Rhineland massacres, also known as the German Crusade - series of mass murders of Jews perpetrated by mobs of German Christians

About Emir nur Ed-Din whos victory at battlein of Inab was motive for secend crusade. And victory of Zangid dynasty, that was a Muslim dynasty of Oghuz Turkic origin, which ruled parts of the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia on behalf of the Seljuk Empire.

About Council of Clermont, an assembly for church reform called by Pope Urban IIon November 18, 1095, which became the occasion for initiating the First Crusade. The Council was attended largely by bishops of southern France as well as a few representatives from northern France and elsewhere. - And deus volult cry.

About attack in 1156 on Cyprus Raynald of Châtillon and Thoros II, Prince of Armenia. Garrison defended bravely by distinguished general Michael Branas.

About The Treaty or Peace of Venice, 1177, was a peace treaty between the papacy and its allies, the north Italian city-states of the Lombard League, and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor. - And yes Venice back then was Power No1, before Mediterranean sea became just sea, and oceans took its place in trade.

About

Germany that was torn apart by civil war over the succession and England and France has been similar.
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So in England Norman Conquest, after the Battle of Hastings (October 14, 1066) resulting ultimately in profound political, administrative, and social changes in the British Isles.

Was prelude to yet another threat, in spite of Battle of Gisors that was victorus of English, Richard the Lionheart,was shot in the shoulder with an crossbow bolt, at siege of Châlus-Chabro. The wound turned gangrenous, and he died on 6 April 1199.

And so Treaty of Le Goulet was proclamied for over the Duchy of Normandy and finalising the new borders of what was left of the duchy.

The English sovereigns continued to claim them until the Treaty of Paris (1259) but in fact kept only the Channel Islands.

And finally about Battle of the Maritsa River that was disaster not only for Serbs, but for Byzantine and truly whole of Christendom. No longer was there any barrier for invaders to invade Serbia, Macedonia and Greece. Surviving nobility of Serbia became vassals of Turkish overlords, bound to recognize suzerainty of the ottoman sultans.

So Hundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War ended with startup of The Long Turkish War or Thirteen Years' War , Peace of Zsitvatorok ended Long Turkish and Fifteen Years' War between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy .
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And this
The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, who had conquered Constantinople in 1453, died in 1481, and his two sons Cem and Bayezid fought a civil war over who would succeed him.

Desperate for money, Andreas sold his rights to the Byzantine crown in 1494 to Charles VIII of France, who attempted to organize a crusade against the Ottomans. The sale was conditional on Charles, who Andreas hoped to use as a champion against the Ottomans, conquering the Morea and granting it to Andreas.

Andreas Palaiologos sold all his titles to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.

Enjoyed the all although it was a lot of reading, and now I'm begging for polish literature.

Finished the whole series now. It was a wild ride. I put this one off because I thought it would be depressing, but not so much. It has re-stirred those romantic yearnings to visit the Orient again. This is a fabulous series as a whole and important for anyone who loves reading non-fiction history. Byzantium lives on!

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"...this is what I was thinking while reading this last great chapter of the Byzantium Empire. Eventually the enemies within and out got to be too much that eventually it blew in their face. There is enough blame to go around for it's destruction and the author does a good job remind us from time to time. Great book and must read.

Great trilogy, magnificient history of Byzantium..

This, the final volume of a three book series, brings to end a rivetting and excellent history of the Byzantium Empire. I cannot add anything to the other reviews and comments on this series other than to say if your enjoy reading about history you should love these accounts of this Empire and its times. I found my first volume in a second hand bookshop without knowing anything about its author or the subject matter. It was a great read and I could not wait to buy the following two volumes. I only wish I had read these books before I visited Istanbul in 1990. I loved them, they are excellent histories, the author does a great job in bringing the characters and times to live. Read the series and lose yourself in the history. Great books!