Rome fell in a.d. 474? Tell that to the Byzantines, who for centuries persisted in being an afterimage of the classical world, evolving through the medieval before their collapse a century after the west had fallen to barbarism. A Short History of Byzantium takes in over a thousand years of history, from Diocletian’s administrative division of the Roman Empire into two halves to the fall of the great city Constantinople to the Turks. There is great difficulty in a hurried survey like this, subjecting the reader to a tide of dates and names, but John Julius Norwich is a storyteller; under his pen, some events, and some people, are so outstanding that they serve as landmarks for the rest.

A Short History of Byzantium begins with a story more familiar, for the first chapters are a history of the Roman Empire as the west remembers it: Roman. Constantine the Great moved the center of the Roman Empire to the east, founding a new Rome on the site of an old trading-city, Byzantium, a city that would later assume his name: Constantinople. The move created a fresh start, but allowed the Emperor to focus on the nation’s rising threats: powers to the east, especially the Parthians. Rome vs. Persia; it’s a battle between titans of the classical era. The book’s scope is such, though, that the classical gives way to a world at its conclusion which is more like ours; we see here the birth of the Holy Roman Empire, the rise of Islam, the explosive expansion of the Ottoman Turks. Throughout all this tumultuous change was the Empire, warring against and making common cause with these changing powers through the ages. Byzantium was also witness and party to Christianity’s evolution. The effective founder of the Byzantine heritage, Constantine, was the man who legitimized Christianity within the Empire as a whole, and put it on the path to becoming the binding religion of the west as a whole. But that binding could not quite stand the stressors of the ages, the gulf of cultural differences between Rome proper and the east, and Christianity once unified eventually severed into two halves, Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. But the cut was never a clean one; instead, there were tiny fractures that opened and closed through the centuries, forever dynamic but trending in the end toward rupture.


The empire itself is the subject of considerable interest, somehow holding on through the centuries despite the staggering variety of challenges it faced. It defended itself from one invasion after another, from Bulgars, Goths, Vikings, and later on Arabs and Turks, and relied on the oddest allies. In resisting the Norman attack on southern Italy, for instance, it employed disgruntled Anglo-Saxons who had left England in disgusted after the Normans conquered it. A nation surviving a thousand years of history must have some institutional stability, but it is hard to see after this survey; only 88 people held the throne in that span, but they seem to go with great haste, and often bloodily. At times even western Rome appears sane by comparison, though that’s excepting monsters like Caligula and Nero. Not that Byzantium is without its characters, listing as emperor men like “Michael the Sot”. There are utter boors and monks, noble heroes and complete, degenerate cowards. There are women, too, some who reign through their husbands, and some who reign in their own right. They make for a colorful cast, and though I knew the general trend of the story (an image of the Turks besieging Constantinople has haunted my mind since seeing it in grade school), the turns it took were surprising indeed. The empire rose and fell through the centuries, contending against all manner of adversaries, but the fatal dagger came at the hands of those who ought to have been its defenders; the Crusaders, who in the Fourth Crusade, sacked the city. Even the fluke victory the Turks inflicted on it years prior did not break the empire so badly as that sacking.

This was in short quite a treat, exposing me to a world of information previously hidden away, but of utter interest. From the word go, Byzantine history was wrapped up in the west; how its memory became lost is a puzzle, considering how important western powers viewed it almost until the last, straining to wed into its line to unite the German 'Roman' empire and the empire of Old. Entertaining in many respects, it also delivers a history of Europe from another aspect, and is quite commendable.

Related:

Twelve Byzantine Rulers, Lars Brownsworth. Based heavily on the book, as it turns out.

How history should be written, a great story from start to finish. You can definitely tell it’s abridged and shortened at times, but a thousand or so year story in just a few hundred pages is pretty incredible.

Mille cent vingt-trois ans d'histoire, quatre vingt-huit empereurs et tout ce qui sépare la gloire de l'Empire Romain d'Orient de sa déliquescence puis de sa destruction, et John Julius Norwich s'en sort admirablement bien, dans un récit dense et d'une grande fluidité. On pourrait regretter que ce soit trop court, et que l'auteur ait fait un sort bien modeste à certains événements ou personnages, mais synthétiser "l'Histoire de Byzance" en assez peu de pages - et dans une très belle langue - relève assez de l'exploit pour qu'on ne s'en fâche pas.

A lire absolument pour ceux qui recherchent une première introduction à ce qui fut une des plus imposantes - et importantes - puissances de notre histoire, et dont la vie, la gloire, l'inévitable destin et finalement la légende ont marqué l'humanité.

This book was my introduction to the Byzantine empire and its history. I read it since most Byzantine empire historians recommended this and it was said to be a condensed book of his earlier works on the Byzantine era.

This book started off well but as I read it slowly over a month, I started to lose interest. There is no fault of the author in this, and I believe it was due to the fact that I was not able to make sense of a large amount of history and names narrated in this book.

This is around 1,000 years of history collected in one volume of 400 pages. I plan to revisit this part of European history sometime in the future. Nevertheless, I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

I had high hopes for this book but was utterly disappointed and had to abandon it halfway through.

The first warning signs began at the introduction, with something in the fashion of:

''Had it not been for the oriental bastion of Christendom, what chance would Europe have had against the army of Persia? What language would we be speaking today? What God would we worship?''

Already, this hints at the classic Eurocentric narrative (a modern construct).

Why not speak of the invasions of the Goths, Lombards or Normans in the same tonality? Now that you are applying modern narratives into this, you might as well say the Byzantines were protectors of the 'East' against the 'Western' Germanic invaders.

Anyways. That's not the reason I dropped this book.

The real reason was a somewhat dry writing style. Personally, when I read historical books of concise nature, I need an even balance of entertainment and education, especially when the author in question falls under the category of ''pop history.'' Ironically, specialized historians such as Adrian Goldsworthy write in a much more engaging and readable style.

I am well aware that it is a notoriously difficult task to condense 1123 years of history into a book of 300 pages or so. But overall, it felt like a phone book or catalog of names, marriages, assassinations, and executions. Sometimes names such as ''Constantine, Constantius, and Constans'' were all recklessly spread out on the same page in a randomized and unpredictable manner; keeping track of those became a chore. I had to revisit pages multiple times. (At some point, it felt like the author was deliberately trying to introduce some confusing tongue twisters.) The 'glue' or 'spirit' so to speak between those events were simply not there, and I was not feeling it.

I am not claiming my review is fully objective and not emotionally loaded, because I am a human with imperfections and biases, just like the author. Perhaps it gets better later, perhaps I abandoned it too early, perhaps you disagree with me after reading the book yourself.

Anyway, even when expectations are not met, there's always something to learn. Two stars.

I will be looking elsewhere.

I absolutely loved this book. I wish I had the time to read the 3 volume version. This is a condensed version of that, which is a great introduction to the the topic. I was ignorant of a lot of this history, so part of my history reading is just my continued self education. This was a surprisingly readable narrative of a long span of history, that many would consider to be a dry subject. It is anything but. There is an incredibly rich imperial history in the east, and I think many of us know too little about it.

This book is not "short". An amalgamation of JJ Norwich's trilogy this book reads at a brilliant pace. Perhaps in a few years when the facts are fuzzy I will read the true version, the full trilogy. I had no idea what a force the byzantine empire was and never truly understood the link to the roman empire or the religeous schism. Consider me enlightened. I need to read more on Heraclius one of so many characters of whom I am now fascinated.

A Short History of Byzantium
John Julius Norwich
Read it in Hardcover at 431 pages including extensive Index, biblio, Maps, Lists, etc.

This is the third Norwich this year for me. While not a historian by trade he's managed to write some pretty fantastic history in both this and Kingdom of the Sun. A Short History of Byzantium is actually a trimmed up work from a previous publication. The original being a much more detailed account which I had a hard time finding (it was published in three volumes). Since this is my first work on Byzantium I wanted a pretty quick pace and Norwich does just this but in some instances it's kind of a whirlwind so this isn't the book for people looking for a more detailed record.

That's not to say it isn't extensive though because it is. Norwich uses 383 pages to cover over 1000 years of history. A lot happens. Some people and events get significantly more pages than others, the broader analysis of issues facing the empire are cut for a streamlined approach in which Norwich tries to focus on the most important things and motivations but has to cut an in-depth look on the Empires opponents. Somehow he still manages to paint a detailed picture. Byzantium itself is full of intrigue between the ruling families, their sunder with the West involving the Papacy and Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire as an eternal thorn, and ater threatened by the rise of the Muslim Dynasties in the Levant and later Crusades. Byzantium's existence was a tight rope walk full of blinding's, castrations, banishments, battles, and assassinations. The Roman East still held onto all of the intrigue of Ancient Rome and it's absolutely fantastic reading.

I'd suggest this to anyone looking for an exciting historic whirlwind through the Byzantium Empire.
3.5 rounding up for Goodreads deficient 5-star system.

This is a richly told version of an often-neglected section of history. The Byzantine Empire continued the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire for another thousand years. Subsequently, there was a rich tapestry of Emperors, scheming councillors, religious strife and beautiful art. A fascinating story beautifully told

Long and full of gory detail throughout, but beautifully written and very readable. It didn't feel like a cut-down version of the 3 volumes. I felt it really gave the flavour of the ruling classes of a specific place and times. Fascinating and food for thought about what came before us and is part of our joint inheritance, positive and negative.

Constantinople fell today 563 years ago. Kind of poetic I finished the story of its 1000 year history today as well (this was totally unplanned). I just love Byzantium - its history is even crazier than Game of Thrones, and the setting is the stuff of dreams: gold mosaics, enamel pieces, rich silks, scintillating jewels, massive defensive walls designed by angels, nigh on mythic emperors and emperesses, and the Hagia Sophia rising above the city skyline above the Bosphorus. Gotta love John Julius Norwich! He spins a good story that captured my imagination. I can't wait to visit Istanbul one day.

Norwich's work truly brings to life the exciting and fascinating story of an oft ignored empire. He made what could've been another stale history into a moving, inspiring, and poignant epic. A true must read for any fan of ancient and medieval history.