Byzantium: The Empire of the New Rome [Paperback]

Cyril Mango (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 334 pages
• Publisher: Orion Books, Ltd (2005)
• ISBN-10: 1898800448
• ISBN-13: 978-1898800446
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #761,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and informative survey, January 16, 2009

By 

Chris D. (Ocean Grove, NJ) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Byzantium: The Empire of the New Rome (Paperback)

Cyril Mango's "Byzantium: The Empire of the New Rome" is a very readable survey of various aspects of Byzantine life, culture and civilization. This is not a chronological history, but is instead divided into three major topics ("Aspects of Byzantine Life", "The Conceptual World of Byzantium" and "The Legacy"), each of which is divided into more specific subjects.

The first section begins with a brief tour of the Byzantine Empire of Justinian's day, focussing on the peoples languages spoken in each region. Professor Mango even suggests some contemporary sources that such a traveller might use as a tour guide. The following chapter on the Byzantine economy provides, among other things, a look at typical incomes and the purchasing power of the gold solidus (for example, 1 solidus could get you a good second-hand cloak).

I found the second section on the conceptual world of the Byzanines to be the most interesting. It covers the invisible world of good and evil spirits, as well as the average Byzantine's concept of the physical world and its inhabitants. Additional sections discuss the Byzantine concept of time, past history, and the future. In all of these areas, religion seems to be the dominant force - natural science, geography and the like merely serve as minor adjuncts to Biblical explanations of the world. Fascinating examples of the efforts of theologians to reconcile the physical world with Biblical concepts are generously used.

The final section on the Byzantine legacy has just two sections: "Literature" and "Art and Architecture" (this last seemingly a particular interest of Professor Mango, as he has written a book about it).

I am not sure how useful this book would be to a reader who is unfamiliar with a general outline of Byzantine history. If, however, one has read one of the standard chronological histories (Treadgold, Ostrogorsky, Vasiliev or Norwich), this fills in gaps that are inevitably left by works which focus on historical events and movements. I highly recommend this book to anyone who, having a decent general knowlege of Byzantine history, would like to take their interest the next level.

"Byzantium" does an excellent job of shedding light on numerous facets of Byzantine civilization, and does a better job than many other general surveys of giving the reader a feel of what it was really like to be a Byzantine - how they thought, what they believed, and how they viewed the world.

Another interesting, non-chronological book that details various Byzantine "professions" from beggar and peasant to emperor and saint is "The Byzantines", a collection of essays edited by Guglielmo Cavallo (one of which is written by Professor Mango).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dated, but still useful, July 19, 2010

By 

Kirialax (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Byzantium: The Empire of the New Rome (Paperback)

I have been debating between giving this book either two or three stars. On one hand, it has its merits. On the other, it has not aged very well. Ultimately, I am going to give it three, so as not to utterly condemn it. However, this should be a warning that this book is rather dated, and must be used carefully.

Cyril Mango has not set out to tell yet another chronological tale of the Byzantine Empire. Rather, he strives to study the intellectual history of Byzantium. He does this quite well, however, the problem lies within his context. His general grasp of the continuity and flow of Byzantine history does seem to extend much beyond the old Norwichian model, which is badly out of date. It is more surprising that a book published in 1980 has such a problem, as Mango should have had much better material available to him.

However, once we can get outside of Norwich's historiography, the book does quite a good job. He starts out by detailing the various peoples who made up the Empire, and their views. He places this within the context of the end of late antiquity, and while he subscribes to the decline of cities theory more than he should, his points are valid enough. Monasticism, education and troublemakers all get a chapter, and Mango provides a good introductory sketch of all of these topics. The second major section details the thought-world of Byzantium, and discusses topics such as how they viewed the physical world, the relationship between good and evil, animals, how the Byzantines viewed the past and the future, and finally, what the ideal life was. This chunk makes up the bulk of the book, and while the historiographical context is out of date, the information on intellectual trends and what the Byzantines thought of themselves is refreshing and fascinating. The final section deals with literature, and asks the question regarding what the Byzantines wrote, why, and what they valued. Mango also provides an interesting sketch that shows just how large the corpus of Byzantine literature is, but how little of it is historical. The final section is on art and architecture, and is far too short for a professor who knows so much about it. Nonetheless, it is a decent summary, and the large number of plates are quite good.

This is a good book, but it gets three stars for being trapped in a bad historiographical context. If you're looking for a book on the thought-world of Byzantium, this is probably the place to go. However, make sure to read up on modern Byzantine history, first.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reading, February 16, 2008

By 

Fernando Villegas (Santiago de Chile) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Byzantium: The Empire of the New Rome (Paperback)

In a brief book like this Mango has succeeded in giving an overall view of such a complex entity as the Byzantine empire. And, as it is traditional in the best British historians, the book does not lack, here and there, of a pinch of humor.Very commendable.