Byzantium and Europe

Speros Vryonis, Jr.

 

Byzantium and Europe

 

Speros Vryonis, Jr.

 

Thames and Hudson, London 1967

 

 

© THAMES AND HUDSON 1967

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY JARROLD AND SONS LTD NORWICH

 

CONTENTS

 

THE EMPERORS OF BYZANTIUM 8

 

I. TRANSITION FROM ANTIQUITY AND THE EMERGENCE OF BYZANTIUM

Chaos of the third century 11

Reforms of Diocletian and Constantine 16

The barbarian threat 30

Crisis of the fourth and fifth centuries 35

Justinian the Great 42

 

II. ESTABLISHMENT OF A HOMOGENEOUS BYZANTINE SOCIETY

Heraclians and Isaurians 57

Retrenchment 57

The threat of Islam 62

The new Western empire 66

Disorder in the Balkans 68

Administrative change 71

Iconoclasm 72

Cultural changes 78

Macedonians 83

The Byzantine reconquista 83

Economic life 92

The rôle of the Church 99

The Macedonian contribution to Byzantine culture 110

 

III. DECLINE

Internal problems 121

Victory of the military 123

Social and economic changes 126

The external threat 130

The crisis of 1071 132

Revival under Alexius I Comnenus 134

Alexius’ successors 141

Flowering of the arts 145

The fall of Constantinople 150

 

IV. PROSTRATION AND COLLAPSE

The splintering of Hellenism 153

The Latin administration 159

Interplay of the Greek and Latin cultures 162

Reconquest of Constantinople 164

A temporary victory 167

The rise of the Turks 171

The literature of decline 178

The end of Byzantium 187

 

EPILOGUE 193

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 197

 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 201

MAPS 206

INDEX 209

 


 

 

Library of European Civilization

 

Byzantium and Europe

 

SPEROS VRYONIS JR.

 

For a thousand years after the collapse of the western Roman empire, Byzantium preserved the heritage of classical antiquity and stood as the bastion of Christendom against Persians, barbarian tribes and the rising forces of Islam. Professor Vryonis gives a lucid account of this changing social organism and relates it to the awakening of civilization in Christian Europe. The enduring vitality of the empire had various causes: the strategical and commercial advantages of its virtually impregnable capital, Constantinople; the wealth of the east; the reservoir of manpower in Anatolia. Riven by internal religious controversies, threatened from without by envious and hostile neighbours, Byzantium seemed endlessly resilient. Again and again, as the author shows, great leaders appeared, readapted the imperial structure to current needs, and rescued Byzantium from what appeared to be irreparable disaster. The factors which brought about its final collapse were inherent in the shifting world-picture. The greatest and longest-lasting achievements of the Byzantines, however, were cultural and artistic. The illustrations in this book testify to the extraordinary creative energy concentrated in the empire and to the widespread influence Byzantium had on the rest of Europe.

 

with 21 colour plates, 3 maps and 108 black-and-white plates

 

T & H

 

Details of other titles in the series appear the back flap

 


 

Library of European Civilization

 

General Editor: Geoffrey Barraclough

 

This new series cuts across the traditional divisions—into nations and periods—under which European history has been studied in the past and focuses attention on a number of important movements and influences which need to be considered afresh.

 

The General Editor, Professor of History at the University of California, La Jolla, heads a team of outstanding specialists whose originality of treatment will make their volumes required reading for serious students. The general reader will appreciate particularly the emphasis laid on social and cultural themes, lavishly illustrated from a wide range of sources.

 

The first titles are:

 

THE RISE OF CHRISTIAN EUROPE

Hugh Trevor-Roper

 

REFORMATION AND SOCIETY in Sixteenth-Century Europe

A. G. Dickens

 

THE EVOLUTION OF RUSSIA

Otto Hoetzsch

 

FROM SARAJEVO TO POTSDAM

A. J. P. Taylor

 

BYZANTIUM AND EUROPE

Speros Vryonis Jr.

 

THE ANCIEN REGIME

C. B. A. Behrens

 

ROMANTICISM AND REVOLT Europe 1815-48

J. L. Talmon

 

THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

Margaret Aston

 

 

Thames and Hudson

30 Bloomsbury Street London WC1

 

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