Kitabın dili çok akıcı, yazar bilimsellikten uzaklaşmadan olayları hikaye anlatır gibi bir üslupla anlatıyor. Bu topraklarda hüküm sürmüş koskoca bir imparatorluğun tarihini öğrenmek için çok güzel bir kaynak.

In the author's own words, this is a strictly non-academic narrative work on those terms it's a very worthy effort, carrying on for the opener to this trilogy. It's not a lengthy work and the pace is fast but it hits all the important points. Byzantine studies is an emerging field and this lacks some of the nuance of the most recent scholarship but as far as getting a grounding goes, this is absolutely fine.

As was stated in the introduction, the period of history covered in the book is less heroic conquest and more internal squabbling.

History is drama, played out on a grand scale; of betrayals and counter betrayals. Ironically, the best emperors were those who seized the purple via assassination and other unsavory methods.

The second volume lived up to the first. Again the biggest downside is how fast the whole thing goes!

I enjoyed the parade of intrigues, coups, betrayals and eunuchs. It certainly feels like a foreign and exotic story. Again the pervasiveness of interest in the nuisances of Christian theology is hard to wrap my mind around.

I found it very interesting how the bureaucracy of the government structures became its own force that was too politically powerful toward the end of the story as personified by Michael Psellus. I just found it interesting that they could lose sight of the big picture so strongly.

Can't wait to see how the story ends. Still 400 years left!

Reading about the empire during this time is similar to reading about a train wreck where the passengers are fighting each other to take control of the train. During my reading I couldn’t help but feel bad for the empire as Norwich described the catastrophes brought on by the infighting and political scheming and the toll they exacted.

With that being said this book serves as an over view of the “apogee” of the Byzantine Empire. The second book in the trilogy picks up where the first one ended in 800, and details the chaos and glory of the empire until the disastrous battle of Manzikert in 1071. This book ends in 1081 after discussing the chaos and civil unrest following Manzikert, with Alexios Komnenos 1 becoming emperor.

Full review here:

http://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/2...

These have been fascinating reads to me, particularly since most Western Histories mention the split between the East and West, then really don't mention Byzantium again until the Crusades. Given exactly how much knowledge survived in the East, this is almost criminal.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/4

A great but also tragic sequel. The detail of Manzikert felt like such a sad ending to what was before a fantastic tale. It's insane that only about 50 years after Basil II's reign that the empire was to be dealt it's worst blow to that point, more existential than the Arab conquests. And the way in which it happened, so ridiculous. Treachery all around. One of those semi-fluke events in history, that if they went another way, may have drastically altered the path of history. The details from Irene to Basil are also quite fascinating, the slow but eventual re-assertion of Byzantine dominance. So was that worrisome intermezzo between Basil and 1071 (Manzikert). But just finishing this book all I can remember is the final chapter. As a book it's great of course, a 10/10.

For years I have wanted to understand how the ancient world gave way to the Middle Ages. This three-volume set illuminated many of the details of the Eastern Empire with its oriental influences and often dysfunctional theocracy. It is, however, a survey, and leaves one wanting the details which such an ambitious work cannot possible contain. I highly recommend it though and think it would be one way to discover that atrocities were not committed only by the Christians of history as we often hear nowadays. If Americans were as obsessed with medieval history as Muslims are, we would certainly teach our children about the Muslim hoards (the Ottomans) that took Byzantium in a bloodbath, slaughtered and enslaved its people, and turned its churches into Mosques. The Ottoman era is often referred to as a kind of "golden age" of Islam by some Muslims while others, Wahabis, for example, campaign for a far more severe regime. To understand more about that I suggest Dore Gold's excellent book, Hatred's Kingdom.

You can't get better history than this.

Very readable and entertaining history of the twists and turns of Byzantine history.

Serinin ikinci kitabında, tahtta en çok kalan Makedon hanedanı ve son olarak Komnenosların geldiği dönemi kapsıyor.

Türk ve Arap istilalarına kadar, II. Basileios "BulgarKıran" (Bulgaraktonos) Bulgaristanı, imparatorluk topraklarına katıp imparatorluğu doğunun hakimi kılmıştır. Bu arada Hz. Muhammed'in ölümünden sonra dağılan Müslümanlar Abbasiler Halifeliği altında toplanmış, Konstantinopolisi tehdit etmeye başlamıştır. İmparatorluğun şansına o sıralar becerikli imparatorlar gelmiş, gerek entrika gerek diplomasiyle Müslüman akınından korunmuşlardır. Ta ki 1071'e kadar... Ama her şeyin sonu daha gelmemiştir, bu karışıklardan sonra askeri bir darbe yaparak tahta cçkan I. Aleksios Komnenos ve hanedanı imparatorluğun hala kolay bir lokma olmadığını herkese gösterecektir.