Added 4 February 2015.
Probably everyone who has been through school, certainly in Europe and North America, has heard of the Roman Empire and the adage that when Rome fell, the Dark Ages fell on Europeans who spent the next few centuries paddling around in ignorance, disease and petty wars, enlightened only by a few pinpricks of light from the monasteries (or not, according to your particular stance on religion). But as Lars Brownworth's short but punchy tome shows, this was not the whole story.
The name “Byzantium” is probably an unknown to most people, even those who have been on holiday to Turkey, while “Byzantine Empire” sounds more like a fantasy novel. But in fact after the western half (only) of the Roman Empire was overrun and undermined and the last western emperor deposed in 476, the Roman Empire continued to live on in the East, centred on Constantinople, and lasted until the final siege of that city in 1453, nearly one thousand years later. Although its inhabitants considered themselves Romans, they were for the most part Greek by race and language, and are collectively better known as the Byzantines.
Brownworth's story starts with the Emperor Diocletian, emperor in 284-305 and one of the last systematic persecutors of the Christian church. Diocletian's motivation for this persecution was in fact more than sheer spite, for he was looking for a way to strengthen unity among Romans after a period of chronic instability, and presenting himself as a divinity while suppressing any radical alternative was his chosen strategy. This was carried out in tandem with other reforms, such as create separate emperors, each with what was essentially a deputy emperor, for the west and east of the empire. None of these strategies was to prove fruitful in the long run, and by 312 the new rulers of the empire were at war with one another. Constantine, who emerged supreme by 325, had a few years earlier embraced Christianity. Now he was to influence world history in two ways: by proclaiming universal religious toleration for Christianity, and choosing the humble Asia Minor town of Byzantium to build a new capital for the Roman east, named after himself: Constantinople.
Brownworth's book subsequently gives the reader a lightning tour of the highlights of Byzantine history, including the different dynasties of the emperors, the enemies of Byzantine (an impressive array including Arabs, various barbarians, Slavs and Russians, Turks and Crusaders), the important campaigns of the Empire and occasionally how life was going for the ordinary citizen. Although not a detailed tome of the same depth as Ostrogorsky's Byzantine State, enough flavour is given to pique the reader's interest and give a general impression of the state of Byzantium. To those accustomed (lazily, perhaps) to thinking of the Empire as a sort of medieval superpower, Brownworth illustrates that this was far from the case, especially at certain dark periods of its existence: incompetent rulers, parvenus and corrupt courtiers could empty the treasury and waste entire fleets and armies with frightening speed, while there was no shortage of external enemies, sometimes on two or more fronts. On the other hand the Empire did inherit the military legacy of Rome and produced a series of outstanding military commanders such as Belisarius (treated with shameful ingratitude by his emperor), Heraclius, Basil “the Bulgar-basher” and Alexius Comnenus, to name a few. Byzantine diplomacy was also shrewd (or duplicitous, if one was at the wrong end of it) with psychological means and also financial and economic enticements used to divide, buy off and placate foes. Occasionally this backfired, as when in the later years trading concessions to the Venetians became overly generous in return for their help.
Brownworth was once a high-school history teacher and seems to have retained the knack of making history interesting by a narrative style and pithy anecdotes. Thus we learn early on of the desperate state of Rome's ruling circles by a footnote on Commodus's depraved cruelty (this may come as no surprise to fans of Gladiator), or later on how a Syrian emir escaped capture by scattering gold coins everywhere as he fled on horseback. This is not to say however that the history is dumbed-down: Brownworth simply has the gift of explaining potentially difficult subjects, such as the dispute over icons, in simple layman's terms. Nor is he flippant about the real historical tragedies: one chapter is entitled “Swords That Drip With Christian Blood”, the swords in question being those of the participants in the Fourth Crusade, one of the most shameful episodes in history, when Crusaders ostensibly sent to fight the Muslim infidel instead sacked Constantinople.
By the last three or four centuries the old military system was in decline and Byzantium had to rely increasingly on foreign mercenaries. The Fourth Crusade inflicted massive damage on Byzantium, causing it to split into two or three competing states while the “Latins” (western crusaders) set up small fiefdoms on formerly Byzantine territory. Although the brilliant and cunning Michael VIII Paleologus was able to reconquer Constantinople, the rot had set in, and Brownworth himself calls the last two centuries “rather discouraging reading”. By now the Ottoman Turks were in the ascendant, and most Byzantines hated the “Latins” enough that they preferred the idea of rule by Islam to unification with the Roman Catholic Church, the latter being the price the West wished to extort for any military help. Nevertheless there was in those last two centuries also a brilliant flowering of the arts and sciences in Byzantium, perhaps akin to Russia's Silver Age in the years before the October Revolution. However, the end almost inevitably came. Brownworth describes the final events in some detail: the brilliant but unstable Mehmet II, the destitute Hungarian Urban hiring his cannon-making skill out, the desperate siege of Constantinople and Constantine XI's final plunge into certain death, followed by the violent and final sacking of the city and the extinguishing of the Empire. In the final chapter, “Byzantine Embers”, Brownworth takes a brief look at the subsequent fates of both major and minor players, and the role that Byzantium had played in preserving the culture of antiquity for the West, and interestingly enough its influence on Russia, including the latter's suspicion of the West. He concludes by suggesting that Byzantium's fall into historical oblivion is undeserved, and that there are lessons to be learnt from an entity that gave stability for a millennium.
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