Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful take on an overlooked subject
Review: Unlike some dissenters, I thought this book was fantastic! I even thought this book was so good I've purchased some other books by Norwich. He writes with a passion for his subject that is quite evident when reading it, and his enthusiasm is infectious. A Short History of Byzantium is one of those rare history books that I enjoyed so much that I did not want for it to end, and I actually missed reading it for a while.The flaws are few, and don't really take anything away from enjoying it. For one, cramming 1000 years in 600 pages means that Norwich cannot dwell too long on any one subject. So really great leaders get an extra paragraph on how good they were, while bad ones are speeded through. Actually trying to remember the really good emperors a month later is difficult, since there was SO many of them, but I'll probably re-read it later. All in all, this is one of the best history books I've ever read, and I would recommend it to anyone remotely interested in the subject.
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Summary: Byzantine Greeks were very Barbaric
Review: After reading the three volume series, I can't help but think the Byzantines were outrageously barbaric people. European ideals don't include fratricides (killing all your siblings when one becomes the king), or throwing thousands of captive people to the wild beasts for entertainment. They found the bloody slaughter highly amusing. The author complains there is not much interest in Byzantium's history. After reading his books, it is not hard to understand why.
Rating: 
Summary: A rollicking good time
Review: It may sound odd, but this book is great fun. The salacious history of the Byzantine Empire combines with Norwich's somewhat understated British public school narrative style to make for a book that manages to be bawdy while never losing the veneer of historical respectability. While I have some questions about the level of scholarship in the book, I found it agreeable to throw these concerns to the wind and just enjoy it as a steamy account which is probably a reasonable facsimile of historical fact. For example, while I question how it is possible for one to die of "homosexual excess," I'll overlook that just because it's so darn saucy. Who wants to see yet another member of the Imperial family die of dropsy, anyway? BOR-ING! The book moves at a blistering pace. You can forget about putting it down in the middle of a chapter -- you'll lose track of all the Constantines, Constanses and Eudocias and you'll end up re-reading the whole thing just to understand who is plotting with a barbarian tribe to overthrow whom. Further, if you're anything like me, you won't remember a damn thing when you're finished. Who is supposed to have died of homosexual excess? I can't remember for the life of me, and I haven't even finished the book yet. But if forgetting all the details immediately upon completion completely devalued the learning process, none of us would have gone to college.
Rating:
Summary: Historical & Entertaining
Review: Raither than the usual dry details of who conquered and how many died by what methods, this volume reads as easily as any Historical novel, with detailed accounts of the Emperors as real people with political and family intrigues. This jewel-like city's Classical World knowledge bridged the gape of European darkness to creat the Rennaissance.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Introduction to Byzantium
Review: This book is an excellent introduction to the Byzantine Empire, in all its glory and all its instability. This book moves through the 1100 year history of the Empire at a breakneck speed, pausing to discuss countless imperial murders and usurpers, wars against Russians, Bulgars, Saracens, Seljuk Turks, and even Frankish Crusaders. The multitude of characters in this book give one a more personal look at the time, and some of the more interesting characters are Basil II, Robert of Guiscard, Patriarchs Ignatius and Photas, and even the ascetic christian who lived over a decade atop a towering column in the middle of the city, coming down only once to scare the life out of an iconoclast emperor. I recommend this book to anyone wanting a quick introduction to Byzantium, and like the author says, for a fuller representation of the history of the glorious empire, turn to the trilogy he has also written that is much more detailed and in depth with the subject material.
Rating:
Summary: Byzantium Unveiled
Review: I found Lord Norwich's short history of the Byzantine Empire so entertaining, so informative and so readable that my first read-through was not enough. Immediately, I was caught up in a second, more thorough reading. Still hungry for more, I ordered the first of the larger, three-volume work (of which this one is a condensation), and I can hardly wait until it gets here. He's that good a writer. Not that I don't have a few bones to pick. Surely a historian who's able to write of these (to us) obscure people with such insight and empathy should know better than to repeat the silly slanders of Attila and the whole Hun nation we so often find in histories of this period? And I get more than a little impatient with him when he writes that the regimes of the various Empresses floundered because they lacked "a firm male hand." Norwich can come off on occasion as more than a bit of chauvinist. But these are nitpicks. We are used to thinking of the Byzantines (if we think of them at all) as those stern visages that glare back at us from their gloomy icons and chipped mosaics. Norwich breathes life into these two-dimensional images and reveals the humans behind them for the endlessly fascinating, enormously clever, and quicksilver people they must have been -- every bit as deserving of our historical attention as any of their better-studied contemporaries. Yet, he never glosses over their failings -- the duplicity, the endless scheming, the quickness to turn on each other, and yes -- the ferocious brutality as well, but made more palatable than it might have been by Norwich's deft touch, economic pen and wry humor. And the Byzantines themselves? Do they emerge from these pages as heroes or villains? Some of both, certainly. But the same could be said (and may well be said) about us by the historians of the future. We can only hope they'll be as skilled at narration and as understanding of human nature as John Julius Norwich.
Rating:
Summary: A Romantic View of a Glorius Forgotten Empire
Review: Lord Norwich has done a fantastic job with this book. Though it may not be the most indepth, it does give the reader a wonderful introduction to what the often forgotten empire of Byzantium. The reader is introduced to a cast of characters unriveled in any historical work, men like Justinian and Constantine the Great. This book is unforgettable from the moment you begin reading. Lord Norwich removes much of the unfair criticisim laid on the Later Roman Empire, by its chief detractor Edward Gibbon. He exposes the emperors for what most of them were decent upright people trying to stay alive in a rough world. His moving epilogue to the fall of Constantinople is also one of the best I have ever had the pleasure of reading. For anyone interested in the true history of the Roman empire this book is a must read.
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Summary: Easy reading compared to John Fine...
Review: I read Dr. John Fine's two-volume "History of the Balkans" and then became engrossed with Colleen McCollough's fictional works on the Roman Republic/Empire. Recognizing my interests, my friend Russell the reference librarian recommended J.J. Norwich. The Roman Empire lasted a good deal longer than most people think. It continued another 1,000 years after the Emperor relocated from Rome to Constantinople. The western part of Europe was "at odds" with this Eastern entity for a number of centuries. (Christian theological differences are old). These ancient "attitudes" have been reflected in the various stances nations have taken recently toward Serbia (Orthodox Christian). This book is a distillation of the long, prosperous, and at times harrowing history of the Orthodox Christians of the Roman Empire. These people did not call themselves "Byzantines" or "Byzantium" but rather thought of themselves as Romans, albeit very Greek Romans (spoke and wrote in Greek). The Roman Empire did not end until the 1400's when the (Turks-Ottomans-Muslims) captured Constantinople. To their credit, the Muslim invaders did not destroy all the books and historical documents left behind --why we know something today of the entire history of the Roman Empire. Norwich writes extremely well, and although this history is not easy to follow, if you're interested in the topic, this is a good place to begin.
Rating: 
Summary: A Short History of Byzantine Emperors
Review: Norwich's history of Byzantium is an impressive listing of all the emperors of Constantinople and the tidal empire, and the constant military campaigns they waged. The reader is struck by the 1100 year long story, where the same cycle repeats itself, only the names change (and with 11 Constantines, and a few Justinians, Alexi's, and Basil's, the names don't change all that much). Alternately attacking the Bulgarians, bickering with the Pope, and defending against the Persians, the world facing Constantine I was not so different than the problems facing Constantine X. What is never addressed, however, is the world around these emperors. What of the art, the philosphy, the science of these times? Twice in the history specific works of art are mentioned, in the Hagia Sophia and the St Saviour in Chora church. However, what remains of Byzantium is a remarkable record of souring architecture (the Hagia Sophia, in fact, was the world's grandest building for about a thousand years, from the 6th century when it was constructed to the 16th, when St. Peter's in Rome was domed). Instead, the reader wonders why there seemed to be no progress, no change, no enlightenment. Why is it that so powerful an empire produced so little innovation over so long a period? The empire fell, apparently, relying on the same technology used to fight the Persians a millenium before. One is left with a dichotomy -- the immense power of a great empire and the weakness of it's innovation. The palace intrigue that we now term Byzantine seems to have sapped the energy of this culture -- every change of power met with a fresh round of adolescents blinded, every power struggle bringing the complete slaughter of untold villages.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing Short about this History
Review: The full scope of Byzantine history is now available in a single appealing text. Learn what can really happen to a State when the temporal / religious authorities defy the odds and remain in power far too long and at a great cost. The few examples of cultural, military and intellectual revival throughout Byzantine history are revealed to be more the exception then the rule. Though those bright spots and the ignominious and sometimes comedic/tragic antics of the other "characters" of Byzantium make it all the more worthwhile a history to encounter.
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