Rating: 
Summary: A love letter to a distant time and place
Review: A sumptuous historical bon-bon from an unreconstructed Orientalist, "A History of Byzantium" is armchair travel, history, and royal chicanery at its finest. A prevoius reader likens the book's breakneck pace to the Blitkrieg, but I'm not sure this--or the lack of an overview of "everyday life in Byzantine"--is a detriment to Norwich's smitten non-specialist's approach. Instead, we encounter a dizying number of palace intruigues, administrations, wars, battles, regicides and mutilations, all undertaken by deftly sketched charcters. Norwich has a veddy veddy British style--upper crust without being stuffy, grand yet humorous. Churchillian perhaps. He's great company, and a wonderful tourist guide. Reading Norwich is not unlike visiting with a long lost but friendly relative from the landed gentry. Based on the other books readers of this book have bought, he seems to be habit-forming.Certainly Norwich is susceptible to criticism: he's not an expert and is more rewardingly read for his narrative and style than his insight, but these are reproaches about the book that this isn't rather than than the book it is--a richly entertaining, fast-paced, overview of the trials and tribulations of the Byzantine emporers told by a tremendously engaging, enthusiastic companion.
Rating:
Summary: A love letter to a distant time and place
Review: A sumptuous historical bon-bon from an unreconstructed Orientalist, "A History of Byzantium" is armchair travel, history, and royal chicanery at its finest. A prevoius reader likens the book's breakneck pace to the Blitkrieg, but I'm not sure this--or the lack of an overview of "everyday life in Byzantine"--is a detriment to Norwich's smitten non-specialist's approach. Instead, we encounter a dizying number of palace intruigues, administrations, wars, battles, regicides and mutilations, all undertaken by deftly sketched charcters. Norwich has a veddy veddy British style--upper crust without being stuffy, grand yet humorous. Churchillian perhaps. He's great company, and a wonderful tourist guide. Reading Norwich is not unlike visiting with a long lost but friendly relative from the landed gentry. Based on the other books readers of this book have bought, he seems to be habit-forming. Certainly Norwich is susceptible to criticism: he's not an expert and is more rewardingly read for his narrative and style than his insight, but these are reproaches about the book that this isn't rather than than the book it is--a richly entertaining, fast-paced, overview of the trials and tribulations of the Byzantine emporers told by a tremendously engaging, enthusiastic companion.
Rating:
Summary: The First of the Trilogy
Review: After reading the short history of Byzantium by this author I wanted more detail. This is a very good summary of the early centuries of this important civilization. For those who want more detail, the author provides a good bibliography.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: Calling this book "Byzantium" is something of a mistake; "The Borders of Byzantium" would be a better title. Lord Norwich writes in the old-school style of generals and conquests and seems to sorely miss the British Empire. Relying mainly on dubious contemporary sources (which he himself likes to joke about in some of the book's better moments), he constructs an uneven tales of emperors, their wives, and generals and their tales of conquest and sexual proclivities. Ignoring the last century of archaelogy and scholarly work, he portrays a world of warfare in which manliness is measured by the size of one's claims to lands and the indegenous populations are little more than the to-be-conquered. Complexities are set aside for simple moral distinctions and cursory examinations of the veracity of the authors. There are many problems with his account of history. First, his focus on the military conquests places undue emphasis on the generals who fought the wars and were rarely ever in Byzantium proper. This, in turn, diminishes the importance of the individual emperors; the reader is unlikely to be able to identify why Justinian was one of the most important emperors based on Norwich's account because he almost completely neglects his work on domestic affairs. Second, Norwich never actually focuses on Byzantium. This is a terrible, terrible oversight. Instead he focuses on the loss and occasional recapture of lands formerly under the control of the Roman Empire (not surprising since Venice specifically and Italy generally are his favorite subjects about which to write). One might be tempted to wonder why the slavs and avars are able to encamp at Chosroes, not far from Constantinople itself while their ally, an infamous Persian general manages to ride straight to their camp in Byzantium to plan their coordinated attack. This shocking episode is glossed over without comment by Norwich! Again, the actual state of Byzantium gets short shrift; domestic issues are covered only when they are important to the future of Christianity in the European lands in which he is so obviously interested. Even for what it is, a military history, it's not very good. There are only a modicum of maps at the beginning of the book and these prove inadequate for the troop movements he describes. Aside from throwing a lot of men into battle, I still have very little idea as to why Byzantium won sometimes and lost others. If that's your focus, you might enjoy this book, but I would certainly supplement it with installments from the "Men-At-Arms" series or a better military history. That said, it's not all bad. Gibbon he's not, but it's relatively entertaining, if repetitive, reading if you're after the story and not the details. His asides and footnotes are light-hearted and amusing and anyone truly interested in Byzantium might profit by having this series around as a sort of cross-reference. Granted that, so far, this is the only book in the trilogy that I have read....
Rating:
Summary: Wish I'd read this before going to Istanbul
Review: Great book - very accessible and well researched. If this is a bit much, try the author's "Brief History of Byzantium" (I think that's the title).
Rating:
Summary: Wish I'd read this before going to Istanbul
Review: Great book - very accessible and well researched. If this is a bit much, try the author's "Brief History of Byzantium" (I think that's the title).
Rating: 
Summary: Not the kind of people you want to read about
Review: I am going to have to agree with classicists like Edward Gibbon, and WEH Lecky. Byzantium is not worthy of my time. Here is a direct quote from this book that will turn your stomachs inside out. Norwich is describing what happened to father Konstantine, the Roman: "Suddenly an abscess appeared in his privy parts, then a deep seated fistular ulcer, these could not be cured, and ate their way in to the very midst of his entrails. Hence there sprang an innumurable multitude of worms, and a deadly stench was given off... " Mr. Norwich kicks this around for quite a while but I am going to have to stop. You get the idea. I ordered the trilogy on the advice of the reviewers here who found Norwich's writing very entertaining. Guys, thank you very much!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: very entertaining
Review: I enjoyed this and recommend it as a fun introduction to the founding of Constantinople and the early days of the Eastern Roman Empire. Anyone already familiar with this period might wish to skip this book as it really is only an survey of the major political figures and provides little or no depth on many of the interesting cultural, intellectual and social developments in this then rapidly changing part of the world. Furthermore, I found it a bit tiresome that the leaders where depicted in simplistic, often lurid terms. The empresses were fantastically beautiful and the court intrigurers marvelously vicious too often to be true. Granted this comes from the primary sources; however, the modern view is that they generously distorted their histories in reflection of their political prejudices. By the way, for the benefit of the reviewer from Istanbul: your skepticism based on the "corn" supply is, I think, based on confusion over word definition. Norwich uses "corn" to refer to what North Americans today call "grain" I expect he would use the word "maize" to refer to the "corn" that originated in the western hemisphere. As said before, a nicely entertaining read.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Writing, An Unfortunate Lack of Depth of Content
Review: I found "Byzantium - The Early Centuries" a difficult book to review and waffled continually between 3 and 4 stars, but ultimately settled on the former in the hopes that it would attract more scrutiny from fellow Amazon customers. Do realize, however, that my complaints with Lord Norwich's book might not bother a different reader; as these other reviews show, this is certainly a 4-star book for many people. I suggest you read my review, and based on the points I raise, decide for yourself if this is the type of book you might enjoy. It first must be said that there is much to praise in the initial volume of this trilogy. Norwich writes in a very clear and entertaining style, never condescending or unnecessarily florid. His tone allows him to successfully create any number of emotions: excitement and anxiety during the siege of Constantinople by the Persians and the campaigns of Heraclius (p. 295-299); awe at the unmatched speed of the rise of Islam (p.302); disgust at the brutality of Emperors like Constantine VI who had one of his uncles blinded and cut out the tongues of the other four (p. 373). In addition to all this, Norwich is quite humorous when situation demands it. For example, while discussing the advent of "Greek Fire," Norwich quotes a contemporary author and provides this commentary: " 'The conflagration will spread and can be extinguished only by urine, vinegar or sand' - a property which, if true, would give a completely new dimension to the technique of fire-fighting" (p. 323). But Norwich's style does not save this book from what I consider two major problems with the content. (I say two problems, but in all fairness they are simply opposite sides of the same coin.) The book focuses too much on Emperors and their personal lives, and not enough on Byzantine society. Several Emperors (e.g. Constantine, Julian the Apostate, Justinian, and Heraclius) had long and very interesting reigns, and Norwich does a fine job of chronicling their exploits; but there are many more Emperors who ruled for a short period of time, did nothing of note, died or were murdered, and simply are not interesting to read about. All to often I found myself slogging through chapters that read like this: In year X, Emperor A had disloyal advisor B tortured and murdered; B's son C led the army in revolt, deposed and killed A and married his widow D; C spent two years engaged in sexual debauchery before dying of a painful venereal disease, leaving the Empire in the hands of A's 10 year old grandson E who was as interesting as a sack of potatoes. Most of these Emperors are quite dull, and based on Norwich's account did nothing of note and had no individual personalities. I found that I had forgotten most of them within 5 pages of their deaths. By focusing exclusively on Emperors, court intrigues, and imperial wars (the last of which I must admit I did find quite interesting), Norwich leaves out all social, economic, or cultural history. After finishing this book I have no idea what life might have been like for an average citizen of Constantinople. (As a comparison, see "A Distant Mirror" by Barbara Tuchman.) The only exception to this rule is the excellent coverage of religion, which I found interesting precisely because it sheds light on "daily life in the Byzantine Empire" (p. 187). As a whole, I found this book to be a mixed bag. Much of it was intriguing and all of it well written, and thus it's a shame there were certain omissions and dull spots. For those concerned primarily with Emperors, or who need to refer to a basic chronology, this is a fine choice. But I fear that the general reader might sometimes get bored, as I did. As always, if you're still curious, please read it and make your own judgment.
Rating:
Summary: The perfect introduction to Byzantium!
Review: If you love history, and exploring unknown territory, this book is a winner! This historical narrative, complete with excellent and detailed maps, useful family trees, an extensive bibliography, and even a "List of Byzantine monuments surviving in Istanbul" (!) makes one feel like one is awaking from a coma. John Julius Norwich states: "During my five years at one of England's oldest and finest public schools, Byzantium seems to have been the victim of a conspiracy of silence. I cannot remember its being mentioned, far less studied... " This book is the cure! ---- Norwich's narrative is witty, fascinating, and informative and makes clear the huge debt Western European civilization owes to Byzantium, which shielded Europe first from the Persians, and then from Islam. (Look at your maps!) The first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great founded The Eastern Roman Empire (aka Byzantium) in 330. The Eastern Empire fell -- 1,123 years later -- in 1453 (quite a big educational gap!) This first volume (Byzantium is a trilogy!) ends at the coronation of Charlemagne as Roman Emperor of the West in the year 800. Norwich demonstrates that the Roman Empire never fell; it divided. His story is that of the Eastern Empire, but he fully examines Byzantine relations with the Papacy, Byzantium's presence in Italy, and military and diplomatic actions involving the remnants of the Western Roman Empire ----- Lord Norwich's writing style could be likened to a thread of gold (narrative) strung with countless jewels (anecdotes). This book covers five centuries and 88 rulers - and it is full of fascinating vignettes. It recapitulates the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Empire. It details wave after wave of barbarian invasion: the Vandals, the Huns, the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, the Avars, the Bulgars, the Lombards, the Slavs, and others. It walks us through military campaigns, battles, sieges, and massacres. It tells chilling stories of court intrigue. It shows humans at their best and most bestial. It recounts the long struggle with the Persian Empire (which seems as current as the 20th century's battle with "the evil empire."). And it documents the rise of a new desert religion which swept out of Arabia and swallowed the Byzantine eastern provinces just after the Persian threat had been finally ended, i.e. Islam. --- Norwich is witty and fun to read (be prepared for subtlety and easily missed "zingers"). A word of warning - Christians without a sense of humor and a thick hide may not like Norwich's approach to issues of theology and church history. Today many may find the theological contests he scrutinizes seem absurd and esoteric. His depictions of religious figures are frequently NOT flattering. But believers and non-believers alike with a thirst for truth will find this work to be a refreshing drink! It is a book to be savored, and like any classic, to be read again and again.
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