Byzantium: The Decline and Fall

三部曲全部读完。

总的来说，由于拜占庭帝国的历史长达1123年零28天，想要尽数囊括在这三本不算特别厚的书里，实在是过于仓促了。而单纯从叙事的角度来看，作者对于历史素材的遴选，似乎也颇可商榷。最后再加上拜占庭人在起名上创意奇缺，导致无数同名人物叠加出现，因此整个三部曲的可读性一般，几乎也是必然的结果了。

In my opinion the definitive series on byzantine history. The style is engaging for amateur and veteran historians alike. The author did his research well and it shows. The level of detail is pretty solid for a broad general history like this. If someone was asking for a general history or understand of the Byzantium era this is the gold standard to my eyes.

Today (24th of July, 2020) sees the return of Hagi Sofia in Istanbul to its use as a mosque. The present building was rebuilt by Justinian 1st (known as The Great) in the sixth century AD. The site served as the city's cathedral for over a thousand years before Constantinople (as it was then known) was captured by Sultan Mehmet The Conqueror. The Turkish sultan had the seat of Orthodox Christianity converted into a mosque, with the erection of minarets at each of its four corners. The interior walls, which were covered in mosaics depicting scenes from the bible and the devotions of Byzantine emperors, were plastered over, as Islam has taboos against the depiction of human and animal forms. In 1935, president Kemal Ataturk of the newly independent (and secular) Turkish state, had the building decommissioned as a mosque and handed over to the department of antiquities. What was left of the mosaics was re-exposed and the building re-opened as a museum to both its Christian and Moslem heritage. In this context, the set up of the interior reflected the building's use both as a mosque and Cathedral, so visitors were able to appreciate 17 centuries of religious devotion.

In November 1992, having newly arrived in the city, I tagged on to a group of tourists on a tour inside. I was struck by the sheer height and breadth of the building, and the fact I was wandering up & down staircases, in & out of side chambers, that had been constructed from huge slabs of stone by ancient Greeks. At the exit to the building, the guide stopped his listeners and put one hand on the wall at about shoulder height. He asked them to imagine the scene in 1453, when the old Byzantine capital was overrun by Turkish soldiers. He said, on the day the city fell, the conquerors were doing the traditional sacking of the city. Hagia Sophia was being used as a dumping place for the bodies of the slaughtered. It's unknown how many soldiers, civilians, women & children were killed. But the Sultan – “the Padishah” - came in to inspect the building. Tradition has it that he put his hand, which was covered in blood, on the wall, marking how high the corpses should be stacked before a halt would be called to the killing. It's an apocryphal tale which I haven't heard repeated again in twenty eight years of living in Turkey, but it has the ring of truth to it. In Julian of Norwich's third and final volume of “Byzantium”, subtitled “Decline and Fall”, the good lord tells us Mehmet called a halt to the slaughter after only one day, when according to Islamic practice, the normal length for sacking a city was three. But if you think that Mehmet - at just twenty-one years of age – was a merciful soul, please read this book.

I suppose the subtitle “Decline and Fall” is supposed to echo Gibbon's six volume history of the Roman Empire. At one point, the Romans even take centre stage in this account, as for more than half a century the Byzantine emperors were exiled from their own capital, and Constantinople was ruled by so-called Latins. But the whole decline is spread over four centuries: from the disastrous battle of Malazgirt (here called Manzikert) to the final capture of the imperial city by Mehmet the Conqueror. The rise and fall of the British Empire, if it's worth making comparisons, took less than half that time. If we measure the whole length of the Byzantine empire - from its foundation by Constantine the first, to its annihilation under Constantine Palaeologus - it's roughly seven times as long as it took India to gain independence from British rule.

As I've said in my reviews of previous volumes, the number of emperors here, several of whom barely qualify for two or three pages each, is daunting. Added to which is the difficulty of pronouncing some of their names. Comnenus, of whom there were no less than five, is a serious tongue-twister. Then there's Palaeologus – all nine of them (excluding non-emperors with the same name). Cantacuzenus, mercifully, makes only one appearance on the list (as John VI), but his career is spread over more than fifty pages.

Some do stand out. Alexius I Comnenus, who turned the Manzikert disaster around. Manzikert (1071) is rather like Hastings (1066) except that it marks - as Churchill might have said - the beginning of the end. Then there are the Anglo-Saxon warriors who escaped England after Hastings and who headed south to join the emperor's Varangian bodyguard. Alexius, who begins the process of paying off the empire's enemies, could be the corollary of William the Conqueror of England. But it's vain of me to try and draw comparisons between Byzantium and just about any other empire. Who or what could compare with the reign of John III Ducas Vatatzes, who spent thirty-three years ruling the empire in exile, but who died within a year of retaking the capital? At times the story reads more fantastical than some Star Wars saga. Somewhere along there are multiple emperors with names such as Manuel, Isaac, Theodore and Andronicus. How on earth students - or contestants on Mastermind – could consign half, or even a third, or these folk to memory boggles my mind.

The Fall itself should not go without some mention. I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone, though. Suffice to say, it does get somewhat emotional. There seem to be less of the blindings and defacings within the Byzantine camp, but there are some pretty gruesome accounts of impalement and beheadings as the net closes in. There's heroism and cowardliness, cruelty and compassion on both sides. The involvement of the Venetians and Genoese was an eye-opener for me, I knew they were around, but the extent the Empire was reliant on and subject to their colonisation was far greater than I could have imagined. The diaspora after the Fall is perhaps not so surprising, but definitely touching. The region has seen wave after wave of refugees going back five millennia and more.

I would feel a sense of loss coming to the end of this third and final volume. But... there's another I have yet to read. Norwich, I think realising he has covered too much ground to make cogent sense of it all, has written a single volume, condensed version. I have the book and sometime soon I shall dip again into the mysterious world of the Byzantines. They did, after all, keep Western civilisation going for centuries during what we call The Dark Ages. Even though the Greeks of medieval Athens considered them somewhat strange and foreign, they have inspired poets like Yeats. One day, I'm pretty sure Netflix will descend on this ready-made saga, which makes Game of Thrones look rather pedestrian and tame.

A fascinating, albeit depressing chronicle of the later years of the Byzantine Empire. Norwich gives us a picture, particularly after 1260 of an Empire surrounded by foes trying desperately to survive. We are given almost too much detail into the petty civil wars and diplomatic snafus that define the Paleologi dynasty. It is an interesting and very readable account. The history suffers from the problem of broad history's - focusing far too much on the people on top and leaving us to guess how life in the Empire for the non-aristocrat was like.

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.

The climax of this trilogy benefits from having more and better historical sources. Norwich is thus able to look more deeply into the emperors from 1081 to 1453. We learn of their personalities, policies and events in ways that have little resemblance to the kaleidoscope of the previous book. A few are great, more are admirable; some do nothing but cause trouble, and some are pathetic. The thing is, we can relate to them.

Son kitapta haçlı seferleri çok öne çıkıyor. Haçlı seferlerini çok iyi idare eden Komnenos hanedanından sonra, darbeyle taht sahibi Angeloslar imparatorluğun sonunu hazırlıyor. 4.Haçlı seferiyle(gerçekten haçlı seferi denilebilirse) Venedik Doj'u ve Fransızlar Bizans topraklarını bölüşüyor. Sürgün imparatorluklar, Bizansı diriltmeye çalışsa da kendilerine zarar veriyor. İznikten gelen Palaiologos hanedanı Konstantiniyye'yi alıp imparatorluğu yeniden kursa da, dağılmış ordu ve düzen karşısında Türk vasalı olmaktan ileri gidemiyor..

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!