Customer Reviews

Byzantium: The Empire of the New Rome

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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).

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.

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.

This is yet another book on Byzantium with which I've been unimpressed, to say the least. Mango's work suffers from many problems, not the least of which are dry didactic style, his over-reliance on sources that amount essentially to the Byzantine version of tabloids, and what seems to be his own deep-seated hatred of the very subject matter he's supposed to an expert in! The only redeeming features of the book were the last two chapters, on Byzantine literature, art, and architecture. Even Mango's didactic style and only partially concealed jabs at the Byzantines couldn't ruin these, as he does a wonderful job of summarizing nearly a thousand years and as many miles worth of Byzantine culture. If you see this book in your local bookstore, get yourself a coffee and read these last two chapters. Then put the book back and leave.

Mango's The Empire of the New Rome is a masterly descriptive piece on the Byzantine Empire. If you are looking for a political history, however, this is not it (The Oxford History of Byzantium, also by Mango, should provide that). This book paints a social, economic, and cultural portrait of Byzantium. It is accordingly divided into thematic, not chronological sections. Thus Mango devotes chapters to the empire's languages and peoples, its economy, its cities, religious toleration and intolerance, education, etc.. His book also has a whole section labelled The Conceptual World of Byzantium exploring the Byzantines' beliefs as to geography, history, morality, and the coming end of the world; this is actually a fascinating section, which makes an attempt few political historians bother about, namely to enter his or her protagonists' mental framework. The book concludes with a section on Byzantine art, literature, and architecture.

The Empire of the New Rome is both highly knowledgeable and clearly written. Though written as an academic work, it is definitely accessible to the general reader. And though its approach is not narrative, it includes fascinating narrative insights: the late sixth century / seventh century crisis, for example, started with an epidemic, closely followed by disastrous barbarian invasions in the Balkans, then the Persian and Arab wars. Mango's section on the Byzantine Empire's disappearing cities makes that strikingly clear and indeed poignant. If one criticism may be targeted at the book, it is perhaps that Byzantium changed too much over 1,000+ years to be treated thematically. Students of the Middle and Late Byzantine periods will find less information in it than readers interested in the Early period (fourth-seventh century). Nevertheless, this is worthwhile companion to any Byzantine political history.