Customer Reviews

Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jonathan Harris provides a service to the general reader interested in the history, culture, and mystique of the Byzantine Empire and the Queen of Cities. His premise is that scholars often have difficulty in truly understanding Byzantium because its rulers and contemporary historians portrayed the City & Empire through a mystical lens. This is as true from the time of Constantine the Great at the founding of Constantinople in the fourth century as it was at the death of the last emperor, Constantine XI, in 1453 (and even after), following the final sack by Mehmet the Conquerer. As Harris notes, due to this portrayal, most historians tend to neglect the myths and legends surrounding the City and focus more on concrete matters.

This book, therefore, seeks to rectify this neglect. It "is a book about power and about how those who have wielded it most successfully and enduringly have hidden its realities beneath a veil of grandeur and myth." The myth and spiritual aura of Constantinople was avidly promoted by its rulers and was a legendary beacon throughout the lands of Europe, Russia, and the Middle East. "It is this intriguing interaction between the spiritual and the political, the mythical and the actual that forms the main preoccupation of this book." The author is not attempting to debunk the myths surrounding Constantinople, but rather to explain many of their origins and their reality in context, particularly focusing upon the year 1200 AD (i.e. just before the Fourth Crusade altered the city forever).

There are six central myths which Harris seeks to address: (1) that Constantinople was founded by a saintly emperor, intended as the center of the Christian world; (2) the belief that the city maintained the special protection of God and the Virgin Mary and would remain unconquered until the end of the world; 3. the contention that Byzantine emperors were divinely appointed; 4. that the city was holy and apostolic (via St Andrew) on par with Jerusalem and Rome, its churches filled with countless holy relics; 5. reflecting its divine favor, the wealth of the city surpassed that of any other city in the world; 6. the emperor -- divinely appointed -- ruled as God's vice-gerant over all Christendom.

At 289 pages (205 of text) and divided into ten chapters, Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium is highly readable while being manageable and not overwhelming. Greatly appreciated is the handy final chapter, which looks at Byzantine Constantinople (Istanbul) today and provides an interesting reflection on the present status of many of the monuments discussed earlier in the text. Again, I highly recommend this book.

Johnathan Harris' "Constantinople Capital of Byzantium" is an excellent introduction to Byzantine history taken from the perspective of the history of the city of Constantinople as it would have been in the year 1200. Through most of the book, Harris focuses on how Byzantines living in late twelfth century Constantinople would have seen their own history, looking back and how this Byzantine vision compares to a modern historical understanding.

The book is divided into ten thematic chapters. The narrative retells the history of the city from its foundation to the modern day. Chapter themes include 'The City of Wonders', 'Founding Fathers' focusing especially on the contributions on the emperors Constantine I and Justinian I, 'Defence', 'Palaces and Power', 'Churches and Monasteries', 'Two Thirds of the Wealth of this World' and 'Democracy' or popular Constantinopolitan life. The last three chapters serve a long epilogue, discussing the Fourth Crusade and crusader rule of the city, late Byzantine history and the Ottoman conquest in 1453, and finally a delightful survey of the traces of Byzantine Constantinople that can be found in contemporary Istanbul.

This book is a enjoyable read and would be of interest both to people well familiar with Byzantine history and as well as those wanting an a readable introduction to this very rich topic. I gave this book four stars as Harris often adds cynical comments which detract from the narrative and focuses too much on the stories of scandal and intrigue that are part of Byzantine history. Nevertheless, a well-researched book and a good read.

Unlike numerous books and videos on Rome, very little is available to the general public on Constantinople (the city of Byzantium), the "New Rome". Jonathan Harris attempts to describe the city as it grew and changed through its 1000 year history. This is not only a description of buildings and fortifications, though there is of course plenty of that, but also attempts to provide a some idea of how the city functioned and how it felt to live in the city. At only around 200 pages, it gives a very nice overview, but I could have wished for a book three or four times as long. Those who are interested in the city might also look at the website [...], which seeks to recreate the city as it appeared around the year 1200.

The author is highly qualified to write this book, and it shows. I just wish it was longer. If you want to know about life in Constantinople then you will learn that in this book. Very engaging and interesting read. The only drawback is that he deals with subjects, not progressive time, so he keeps going back and forward in time and talking about various people with similar names and the same people again, so it can get confusing. But overall I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about Constantinople during the time it was at the height of its power.

The author has an original narrative approach that makes for a very lively, concise work. The history of the city is not presented in linear fashion but rather thematically, with the year 1200 as an anchor. A short epilogue brings the reader back to the 21st century and points out the buildings and monuments that survive from that glorious era.

The book's only shortcomings are the illustrations: the few maps are mere sketches and the black and white photographs do not add very much to the text.

In that sense, a welcome complement is «Constantinople» by Stéphane Yérasimos that includes beautiful and numerous colour photographs.

Overall, however, this book will prove enlightening and enjoyable to anyone interested in that great city's history before Turkish invasion in 1453.

While I prefer a more linear telling of history, this is an excellent survey for both newcomers to Byzantine history and those with more of a background. I finished it after reading Judith Herrin's "Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire" and found it much superior to Herrin's work. Herrin's book seemed to bounce around somewhat, while Harris used the year 1200 as an anchor. That enabled him to have a place he could use to compare and contrast to earlier and later periods in the history of the city and empire.

As mentioned, it is a short 205 pages. But the work does not suffer for its brevity. Capped off with an excellent epilogue, it gives you a real sense of the Queen City of the middle ages. Highly recommended to anyone interested in Byzantine history or the middle ages.

The one thing that this book adds is an extended inquiry into the images that helped to sustain power and authority in the Byzantine Empire. Not only were there riches, architectural grandeur, impregnable fortification, and ritual splendor to demonstrate the legitimacy of the autocrats, but religious iconography and legacies like Jesus' sandal and saints' bones. The book examines this better than I have seen available elsewhere, at least in such readable form. However, the rest of the book is a re-hash of stories that would be known already to any serious student of history, e.g. the sack of Constantinople in the 4th Crusade or its final fall to Mehmed the Conqueror in 1453. And this re-telling, while well written, lacks detail and even the vitality that are found in other sources like the essential JJ Norwich.

The focal point of the book is 1200 CE, the moment when the Empire was weak but still had all of its glitter to display to impress visitors but also its residents. At the time, the Arabs had occupied its eastern territories for 500 years and Turkic tribes were encroaching on its Asia minor base, while Slavic and Germanic tribes were cutting it off from EUrope in the west. The author also competently covers the foundation of the city by Constantine and its bankruptingly ambitious embellishment by Justinian. The author does explore the political realities - the violent seizures of power, the unruly mobs, the unimaginably abusive autocracies - that contradicted the images of legitimacy, but again, this is better covered elsewhere.

After 1200, there is an awful period of decline. Not only did the sack of the city in 1204 essentially ruin it for all future generations, but the remaining architectural treasures (fixed objects that could not be carted away by the Christian crusader sackers) were stripped like raw mining materials to finance the ambitions of decadent emperors. As the empire shrunk to a mere city state, it was finally conquered by the Ottoman Turks and was re-made as a Muslim city. This is all recounted in thumbnail style and not the place to go for anything more than the basics.

A lot of the book felt like filler to me and simply did not ignite my imagination. In the end, the book reads kind of like a scholarly travel book and it is as such that I would recommend it. Indeed, the epilogue describes the remnants of Byzantine civilization in current-day Istanbul, and I thought it was the best chapter in the entire book. The principal theme - images to sustain power - is also interesting and would interest specialists.

Harris has again produced a fascinating and easy to read volume on Byzantine history. The book is laid out in a more scholarly format, but it is a very easy and enjoyable read. Those unfamiliar with Byzantine history should have no problem just picking this book up and reading it. One section that really stands out is Harris' work on the defences of the city. I was expecting the usual statistics about the size of the walls, etc., but he takes a totally different angle and it works very well. As for faults, the book itself is far too short. The maps are pretty standard, although for a book on Constantinople, I had expected a much better map of the city.

For those looking for something extra involving Constantinople in the year 1200, look up 'Byzantium 1200' on Google. This book is an exceptional popular history, and well worth the read.

When I bought this book, I thought it is a book about the history of Constantinople. It is not. It's much more. He reports in a very nice and well written way how was created the myth of Constantinople. It does parallel between history and legend. I loved it.

Excellent book which is written from a perspective few authors on Constantinople approach. I was in Istanbul last year and wish I had had this book before going. Not just a guide to buildings and ruins, this book gets you into the mind of the Byzantines to understand what there civilization was really about.