Rating: 
Summary: Byzantium Rocks!
Review: JJ Norwich makes the history of Byzantium come alive. Read this volume with "I, Belisarius" too.Alan
Rating:
Summary: Too entertaining to be history?
Review: John Julius Norwich creates a landscape of blood-soaked battlefields dominated by glorious conquering armies, and glittering marble cities filled with golden churches and restless plebeians who are as passionate about theology as they are about Chariot races. His book is filled with interesting characters: mighty emperors and generals, scheming wives and lovers, and devilishly shrewd nobles and bishops, to name a few. Norwich's story is hard to put down, and he is one of the few writers talented enough to make his historical figures leap into life and remind us that they were real people. Is this an epic movie? A blockbuster novel? No, its history, Byzantine history, to be precise. It's not like any history you have read before. Don't look for endless lists of footnotes, dry re-hashing and reinterpretation of primary source evidence, or some Earth-shattering revelation of the latest archaeological findings. This is not a "scholar's" history, so lower that nose about 45 degrees! And yet, Norwich gives us absolutely no reason to doubt him. His conclusions are reasonable and sound, and he makes occasional references to respected scholars such as Ostrogorsky or Bury to support his work. Norwich's history is the kind of history that inspired Machiavelli to produce a great work of political philosophy: reasonable, yet passionate and human, and above all: READABLE! So turn off the TV, put your kids to bed and kiss your wife goodnight, pour yourself a generous cognac, and ensconce yourself in the comfortable chair by the fire -- while Viscount Norwich enthralls you into the wee hours of the morning with his masterpiece which is too good to be history!
Rating:
Summary: Too entertaining to be history?
Review: John Julius Norwich creates a landscape of blood-soaked battlefields dominated by glorious conquering armies, and glittering marble cities filled with golden churches and restless plebeians who are as passionate about theology as they are about Chariot races. His book is filled with interesting characters: mighty emperors and generals, scheming wives and lovers, and devilishly shrewd nobles and bishops, to name a few. Norwich's story is hard to put down, and he is one of the few writers talented enough to make his historical figures leap into life and remind us that they were real people. Is this an epic movie? A blockbuster novel? No, its history, Byzantine history, to be precise. It's not like any history you have read before. Don't look for endless lists of footnotes, dry re-hashing and reinterpretation of primary source evidence, or some Earth-shattering revelation of the latest archaeological findings. This is not a "scholar's" history, so lower that nose about 45 degrees! And yet, Norwich gives us absolutely no reason to doubt him. His conclusions are reasonable and sound, and he makes occasional references to respected scholars such as Ostrogorsky or Bury to support his work. Norwich's history is the kind of history that inspired Machiavelli to produce a great work of political philosophy: reasonable, yet passionate and human, and above all: READABLE! So turn off the TV, put your kids to bed and kiss your wife goodnight, pour yourself a generous cognac, and ensconce yourself in the comfortable chair by the fire -- while Viscount Norwich enthralls you into the wee hours of the morning with his masterpiece which is too good to be history!
Rating: 
Summary: Like dates with your history? Then you'll love this book.
Review: Like dates with your history? Then you'll love John Julius Norwich's "Byzantium: The Early Centuries." This first volume of Norwich's three-volume set barrels through the Byzantine Empire's first five centuries like the Nazis through Poland, leaving in its wake a stupefying chronology of emperors and the dates they reigned. This book so determinedly elevates data above context and analysis that the top corner of every other page displays the year to which that page's text relates. Given the breakneck pacing of the book, that little page corner is indispensable. How else to keep track of where you are? Judging by "Byzantium: The Early Centuries," the eastern Roman Empire was a place populated almost exclusively by plotting, third-rate emperors, striving clerics and wily court eunuchs. There don't seem to have been any actual citizens living in Byzantium, no ordinary peole whom these emperors, clerics and eunuchs vied to control. Nor any sharply drawn enemies to give these characters def
Rating:
Summary: Byzantium tongue in cheek?
Review: Mr. Norwich is of the school of Historians that are more interested in the stories of History rather than serving detailed studies of what really did go on in those times. Of course this has a clear objective: make today's short attention span reader care a little bit about ancient times by serving them a novel like book. On this basis he must be judged for this trilogy on the Byzantine Empire. And he succeeds quite well, in particular in the first book of the saga where semi mythical emperors and empresses come to live. The main fault is that perhaps Mr. Norwich is a little bit too casual, and, as many a British school historian, a little bit too much interested in some prurient aspects of the story. Yet the narrative flows, our interest is maintained and we come to care for these people who although almost totally alien to our way of thinking still show us that human nature is human nature. I am not sure if this type of narration is to everybody's taste since Mr. Norwich is keen in showing the folly of his characters, regardless of their faith, role in national myths etc... I suppose that if you are a man of deep faith, or a Greek nationalist you might not like some of the zingers that pepper the text of these books. It would be a pity to reject the work on such points. What is at stake here is to bring back to us the story of a millennial Empire that for better or for worse we owe so much to.
Rating:
Summary: Definitive
Review: Norwich's three volume history is the definitive narrative history of the Byzantine Empire from Diocletian to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. This first volume begins with the original division of the Roman Empire by Diocletiona and ends with the crowning of Charlemagne as the Roman Emperor. Norwich shows us the first five centuries of Byzantine history as a continuation of the Roman Empire. We see the Justinian administrative reforms and his reconquest of Italy and Africa; Heraclius's successful (short term, as he points out) war against the Sassanid Persians; the influence of early Islam and the loss of the wealthiest Imperial territories to the Arabs; and, finally, the way that Byzantium was viewed from western Europe. Along the way he comments on the "what-if's" of history through the lens of perfect hindsight. We learn that despite Justinian's "greatness" his megalomania began the long decline of the Empire; that Heraclius's amazing victory over the Sassanids resulted in long-term failure to defend Egypt and Syria from the Arabs; and that the very wealth and ostentation that made Constaninople glorious created many jealous enemies. If you are looking for a good history through which you can learn the major outline of events in early Byzantine history your search is over. If you are looking for elegant historical prose and a thoughtful historical narrative, your search is over, too. Norwich's work cannot be too highly regarded.
Rating:
Summary: Definitive
Review: Norwich's three volume history is the definitive narrative history of the Byzantine Empire from Diocletian to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. This first volume begins with the original division of the Roman Empire by Diocletiona and ends with the crowning of Charlemagne as the Roman Emperor. Norwich shows us the first five centuries of Byzantine history as a continuation of the Roman Empire. We see the Justinian administrative reforms and his reconquest of Italy and Africa; Heraclius's successful (short term, as he points out) war against the Sassanid Persians; the influence of early Islam and the loss of the wealthiest Imperial territories to the Arabs; and, finally, the way that Byzantium was viewed from western Europe. Along the way he comments on the "what-if's" of history through the lens of perfect hindsight. We learn that despite Justinian's "greatness" his megalomania began the long decline of the Empire; that Heraclius's amazing victory over the Sassanids resulted in long-term failure to defend Egypt and Syria from the Arabs; and that the very wealth and ostentation that made Constaninople glorious created many jealous enemies. If you are looking for a good history through which you can learn the major outline of events in early Byzantine history your search is over. If you are looking for elegant historical prose and a thoughtful historical narrative, your search is over, too. Norwich's work cannot be too highly regarded.
Rating: 
Summary: OF THE 3 VOL. SET, THE BEST
Review: The author is not a professional historian. He does not know how to read the sources critically and is unable to select and reject the secondary literature, but he has a beautiful style, and if you're not too concerned with historical accuracy, it is a pleasing introduction to a fascinating subject. DOWN WITH GIBBON!
Rating:
Summary: Great read, but...
Review: The book is a great read and the author a talented writer. However, I would have felt a little more secure if he had teamed up with a real historian on the project. This may be one of the only series I read on the topic and do not want to have to question his facts, but do. Though I am not able to verify or deny a lot of his assertions it is little things that put me on alert, like saying that the Byzantine's relied on Egypt for their corn supplies. My reading of history and sources tell me that corn was introduced to Europe from the Americans after Columbus.
Rating:
Summary: enjoyable and informative
Review: the christianization of the Roman empire led to the
Greek-orthodox byzantine empire. Very good intro to the topic
for layman. Historians have few to learn from it.
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