So much fun, and so tragic. Despite the overwhelming Islamopobia (though this trilogy is pre-9/11), the whole trilogy is a wonderful, engaging, and thrilling example of epic, big history. Game of Thrones has nothing on Norwich.

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.

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

The final book in the Byzantium trilogy explores the long decline and destruction of the Byzantine Empire. Norwich beautifully takes the reader through the religious controversies, constant war, and political infighting that culminated in the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. My favorite quote in the book sums up why the empire crumbled:

Byzantium, devoured from within, threatened from without.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the crusades, medieval Europe, and of course Byzantine history.

n  (16 July, 2020)n

Done! For some reason, this last part was much better than the other two. Norwich, perforce, spends more time on events outside of Constantinople and the end product is clear and intelligible, if anything in the Balkans and the Middle East can ever be described as such.

Anyhoo, having the entire Byzantine Empire history and the ridiculous western Church/eastern Church debacle reduced to 1000 pages or so seemed like an impossible task but J.J. made it work.

This is the final volume of a fabulous series on Byzantium. I read them many years ago when they were first published, and I still remember how eagerly I awaited each volume. The names and number of characters are mind-boggling, but Norwich does such an outstanding job with their presentation that the reader just wants more.

See my comments about volume 1

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

With the initial two books of the trilogy behind and having read other volumes on the history of Byzantium, particularly its latter part, the ignominious end of the story was always in sight. It was perhaps this inevitability which caused me to zoom in on other elements which brought about the end of the Byzantine Empire than the territorial ambitions of the Ottoman Turks. Apart from the weakness of many of the emperors (this factor was mentioned in the context of the first two volumes of the trilogy) and the near constant domestic feuds within the Empire, two other factors sprang up.

The first was the unrelenting stance of the Roman Catholic Church. The power, both direct, military, and that of thought, commanded by the popes, if applied to the saving of the bulwark of Christianity, could have made significant difference in rallying the forces to the defence of the Empire. Instead, the parlous state of Byzantium was used for playing out the intra-Christian rivalry. Time after time, with a few notable exceptions, popes of Rome responded to the overtures from Constantinople in exactly the same way – insisting that acceptance of the supremacy of Rome would have to precede any military assistance. When that supremacy would be all but accepted, the envelope would be pushed further – into the dogma territory sacred to the Eastern rites – to a point where a popular outcry in Byzantium would bring any plans of the unification of churches crashing down, and with them – the emperors who tried to bring it about.

The second was the short-sightedness of Western Europe’s monarchs, many of whom saw the opportunity in Byzantium being weakened by the onslaught of Islam, rather than seeing the longer-term dangers inherent in the Muslim conquest. This short-sightedness would cost Europe dearly over the coming centuries. The absolute low point in this respect was the ignominious Fourth Crusade of 1204. Instead of (as originally intended) reconquering Muslim-held Jerusalem, at Venice’s behest it conquered Constantinople and installed a puppet Latin Emperor. Despite the Latin Empire lasting only half a century, the absence of a rightful unchallenged emperor caused the deterioration of the emperors’ standing, fragmentation of the Empire into several smaller quasi-Empires and the emergence of alternative statehoods, and thus irreparable damage to the Empire from which it would never recover. This situation would last until the fall of Constantinople, and a bit longer. Next to Venice, the top spot in terms of subverting the Byzantine Empire can safely go to the Normans of Sicily, whose imperious desires caused the Empire’s scarce resources to be diverted elsewhere than to the East where they were most needed.

Overall, a sad story and so reminiscent of many latter-day situations. Having finished the third volume shortly after the commencement of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I could not resist seeing the parallels in the current situation. Instead of seeing the longer-term danger stemming from the rebirth of Russia’s imperious desires, and addressing it at an early stage, much of the West instead engaged in nurturing the expansive bear by engaging in trade bargains, often to Ukraine’s detriment. It seems that, as cultured as we may see ourselves, we appear to be committing the same mistakes over, and over.

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.

Compelling series on the history of Byzantium (but also covering much of the Venice and Genoese republics, Sicily and the various Western and Balkan states), starting with Constantine’s establishment of the Eastern Empire and the end of the Western Empire and going through to the Ottoman sack of Constantinople.

The focus is very much and deliberately political (great men and battles) rather than social (we learn little about normal life) or economical (we know little of why Byzantium was so prosperous at its peak or of the reason for the wealth of Venice).

There is however detailed and in fact very clear description of many of the theological disputes and one of the author’s themes is that these were intimately bound up with Byzantine politics as well as its complex relations with the West).

The other theme is that the Byzantine Empire doesn’t deserve its relative obscurity in modern times and was the continuation of both Greek and Roman culture and civilisation for many years when the West was in the Dark Ages).

The series is well written, even if at times the many of hundreds of years of history and similar names Popes, Patriachs, Emperors and various Balkan princes and Muslim and Barbarian tribes can get complex (the book could do with more than just a list of Emperors at the back e.g. a summary of each or a more detailed timeline as well as with better maps).

Rather like watching a school bus crash, this volume covers the steady decline of the Byzantine Empire following the disastrous battle of Manzikert