A Short History of Byzantium

A Short History of Byzantium was a logical follow-up to the books I’ve been reading about ancient Rome. John Julius Norwich covers a lot ground, summarizing the 1,123 years from the time Constantine the Great made Constantinople into a Roman capital until the capture of the city by the Ottomans in 1453. It’s my favorite kind of narrative history, involving wars, palace intrigue, geopolitical power struggles, and religious schisms. Norwich has his biases, respecting Christianity more than paganism or Islam, and he has a soft spot for the Byzantine Empire. Despite its scope, the book is quite readable to someone with minimal knowledge of the Dark Ages; its maps and family trees of the imperial dynasties were quite helpful. It’s one of the better history books I’ve read.