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Byzantium: The Early Centuries | 
 enlarge | Author: John Julius Norwich
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $49.95
Buy New: $28.50
You Save: $21.45 (43%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 60880
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 5.8 x 1.7
ISBN: 0394537785
Dewey Decimal Number: 949.5
EAN: 9780394537788
ASIN: 0394537785
Publication Date: March 18, 1989
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Condition: NEW and FLAWLESS March 1997 Ninth Printing Knopf/Borzoi HARDCOVER/DUSTJACKET. NOTE: I also have BYZANTIUM II and III listed separatey on Amazon. Careful packing using recycled cardboard - best protection for your order and greener for our environment. FAST shipping using complimentary USPS DELIVERY CONFIRMATION. When I print the postage for your order, I will notify you using Amazon's CONTACT BUYER feature. 081008
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Product Description
Volume 1 of the series. Includes 32 pages of illustrations, and 11 maps and tables.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 30 more reviews...
 Amazing for what it is June 6, 2008
The book does an amazing job detailing military ventures in the Byzantine Empire and gives a clear picture of the Imperial Families. However, Norwich really fails to give a clear idea of anyone in the Empire or in Constantinople besides royalty and some military commanders. The culture of Byzantium seems hidden behind descriptions of military ventures and Imperial missteps.
 Sweeping survey of Byzantine history April 14, 2008
Eminently readable for the general history buff, this is an excellent overview of the byzantine history of the Byzantine Empire. Highly recommended for those who know nothing about Byzantium as well as for those who think they know it all. Don't let the size of the series discourage you - all three volumes are very entertaining and engrossing.
My favorite book(s) on the subject.
BYZANTIUM: THE EARLY CENTURIES - JOHN JULIUS NORWICH January 30, 2008
This is the sort of book that brings history back to what it ought to be; a rattling good tale backed-up but not swamped by detail. There are many excellent books on Byzantine history but this is one of the few that unashamedly sets out to tell it primarily through its personalities. More Carlyle than Spengler. Character sketches that personalise some the great figures of the Roman Empire in the east as it continued on after the Fall of the West. A much needed book, the first of a trilogy, outlining what is undeniably a much neglected area of history. Despite its struggles, internal as well as external, if it had not existed, it's fair to say every aspect of our existence would be radically different today. Written in a conscious imitation of the great Gibbon, like him it's the little vignettes that bring the characters to life; Constantine the Great, Heraclius, the first Crusader, Basil the Bulgar-Slayer, Constantine Copronymus (`the S**t'), Justinian Rhinotmetus (the runny-nosed). I don't think it would hurt to repeat the quote from the back of the paperback edition..."The reader is conveyed in comfort, as it were in a very superior hovercraft, which glides over all the unevenness of the ground, to the regular melodious sound of the author's prose".
Buy it and tell everyone that Rome did not fall in 475 A.D.
This Book Is One Big Reason I Went To Istanbul (and Loved It) November 24, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If I'd never read a page of John Julius Norwich's work, I would have saved a lot of money. This isn't a complaint, merely a fact.
Granted, as a history buff who has caught the travel bug, I might have eventually wended my way to Istanbul. But Norwich's "Byzantium" trilogy--especially this first volume--made it clear that Istanbul/Constantinople, was a city with a fascinating, beguiling past, the capital of an empire lasting over a thousand years whose greatest achievements in art and architecture were still very much on display and rivalled their counterparts anywhere. Norwich certainly pushed me to prioritize Istanbul as a destination. It now reigns as my favorite city in the world, and I wonder how much I owe Norwich's work for raising my appreciation of the city's richness. Probably a bunch.
Of course, this wasn't written as a guidebook and won't serve you well as such, at least not by itself. But within a narrative history that manages to be witty whilst galloping at breakneck pace, "The Early Centuries" also provides enough background on people and events to give readers a sense of how the Byzantime Empire functioned at the highest level (often bloodily), and of the centrality of Orthodox Christianity to the culture.
The entire trilogy is open to the charge that it tends to be focused on emperors and courts rather than the "little people." This seems a bit like complaining that this isn't a different book with different goals. The poor author already has to cover more than one year per page. And if many emperors' reigns seem to fly by in an indistinguishable flurry, Norwich is a master of the quick character sketch, offering a telling charcter quirk or deed (or death) for even the least memorable emperors.
Arguably, Norwich's focus on courts and palaces is a boon to the potential tourist because it means a focus largely on Constantinople. This gives readers the "deep background" that provides a wonderful context for any trip to Istanbul. It may be one thing to see the city walls reading only the guidebook descriptions, and another to be aware of the many sieges they repulsed over a thousand years--until the world-changing night they were finally breached (this event not covered til volume 3 of course). It may be one thing to appreciate Aya Sofia as the miracle of architecture it is, and another to know of the riots that led to the burning of its predecessor church on the site (and subesquent massacre of some 30,000 souls in the nearby Hippodrome), thus clearing the way for the construction of what was arguably the grandest place of worship in the world for a thousand years.
This is interesting stuff. After all, this is the empire that was at the height of its riches whilst most of Europe sufferred through "The Dark Ages." Norwich handles this wealth of material adroitly. His prose is simply a pleasure to read. You'll seldom be more engaged by a history full of people and events you haven't heard of before. Unless you proceed to the following volumes of Norwich's trilogy, or give his comparably accomplished (and travel-inducing/enriching) "A History of Venice" a spin, but that's another story.
By the way, the book that those who criticize Norwich's "Emperor-centric" perspective want is Cyril Mango's "Byzantium: The Empire of the New Rome," apparently out of print but readibly available used:
Byzantium: The Empire of the New Rome
With it's emphasis on economic and population trends, Mango's short, incisive work isn't a narrative and presumes some knowledge of Byzantine history--just the sort of info that Norwich provides.
 A useful chronicle of political history, but better read abridged and supplemented by cultural readings November 9, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The English history and travel writer John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich has long had a thing for the East. With Reresby Sitwell he wrote an introduction to the world of Mount Athos and subsequently, over three large volumes, produced a large history of Byzantium for popular audiences. BYZANTIUM: The Early Centuries is the first volume, going from the rise of St Constantine the Great in the early fourth century to the end of the Empress Irene's era in 802. I had mixed reactions to it.
When it comes to political history, i.e. who reigned when and who fought who, Norwich's history is quite detailed. Many palace intrigues are spicily recounted, and various hypotheses for some of the more mysterious turns of fate are collected. However, beyond the political history there is no real coverage of Byzantium culture. As other reviews have already pointed out, the goings-on of the elite are usually quite distant from the day to day life of the masses. There's no discussion of the developments of the arts or the flux of the economy. Some discussion of Byzantine culture can be had from Joan Mervyn Hussey's The Byzantine World, but she tries to pack an entire millennium in just a few pages.
While Norwich enjoys the culture of Eastern Christianity, he clearly is not faithful to the Eastern Orthodox Church. Quite often he questions the actions of rulers that the Church has glorified as saints, suggests that the outcome of the Ecumenical Councils was random, and insinuates that certain relics are fakes. I should think that Orthodox Christians are a fairly large market for a popular history of Byzantium, but they regrettably still await a book that sticks to Church teaching.
Since three full volumes of just political history is quite tedious, I'd recommend reading Norwich's abridgement A Short History of Byzantium instead.
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