The great popular classical historian (Greek and Roman Historians,
1995; Constantine the Great, 1994; etc.) here meditates briefly on
the century that saw the death agony of the Roman Empire and the
birth pangs of the "new Rome" of the East, a civilization that
would persist, against great odds, for almost a thousand years.
Since before the age of Constantine the Great (c. 272-337 A.D.),
the Roman Empire had been divided for administrative convenience
into eastern and western halves. Constantine unified the empire,
but his achievement was short-lived: After Theodosius I died, in
395 A.D., the two halves became permanently riven into eastern and
western empires. The eastern empire, based in Constantine's old
capital of Constantinople and held together by vigorous rulers, an
all-powerful bureaucracy, and a vital citizen-army, repelled
repeated barbarian invasions and gradually coalesced into the
Byzantine Empire. Meanwhile, as Grant shows, the old locus of Roman
imperium in the West quickly slid into desuetude: Alaric and his
Visigoths sacked Rome in 410 A.D. Ganseric and the Vandals repeated
this humiliation four decades later. By 476 A.D. petty
principalities. Grant deftly sketches the distinctive cultural
achievements of the early Byzantines in church architecture and in
the visual arts; in literature, Grant points out, the Byzantines
were not as accomplished as their western counterparts. In
conclusion, Grant laments the sparse attention given the important
eastern empire in historical scholarship and credits the Byzantines
with the preservation of Western culture during Europe's Dark Ages.
So brief as to seem superficial at points, Grant's study
nonetheless is impressively erudite and characteristically well
researched, and provides a fresh perspective on a century that was
truly the best and worst of times. (Kirkus Reviews)
Byzantium was dismissed by Gibbon, in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,and his Victorian successors as a decadent, dark, oriental culture, given up to intrigue, forbidden pleasure and refined cruelty. This great empire, founded by Constantine as the seat of power in the East began to flourish in the fifth century AD, after the fall of Rome, yet its culture and history have been neglected by scholars in comparison to the privileging of interest in the Western and Roman Empire. Michael Grant's latest book aims to compensate for that neglect and to provide an insight into the nature of the Byzantine Empire in the fifth century; the prevalence of Christianity, the enormity and strangeness of the landscape of Asia Minor; and the history of invasion prior to the genesis of the empire.
Michael Grant's narrative is lucid and colourful as always, lavishly illustrated with photographs and maps. He successfully provides an examination of a comparatively unexplored area and constructs the history of an empire which rivals the former richness and diversity of a now fallen Rome.
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