A History of the Byzantine State and Society

Front Cover
Stanford University Press, 1997 - History - 1019 pages
This is the first comprehensive and up-to-date history of Byzantium to appear in almost sixty years, and the first ever to cover both the Byzantine state and Byzantine society. It begins in A.D. 285, when the emperor Diocletian separated what became Byzantium from the western Roman Empire, and ends in 1461, when the last Byzantine outposts fell to the Ottoman Turks.

Spanning twelve centuries and three continents, the Byzantine Empire linked the ancient and modern worlds, shaping and transmitting Greek, Roman, and Christian traditions including the Greek classics, Roman law, and Christian theology that remain vigorous today, not only in Eastern Europe and the Middle East but throughout Western civilization. Though in its politics Byzantium often resembled a third-world dictatorship, it has never yet been matched in maintaining a single state for so long, over a wide area inhabited by heterogeneous peoples.

Drawing on a wealth of original sources and modern works, the author treats political and social developments as a single vivid story, told partly in detailed narrative and partly in essays that clarify long-term changes. He avoids stereotypes and rejects such old and new historical orthodoxies as the persistent weakness of the Byzantine economy and the pervasive importance of holy men in Late Antiquity.

Without neglecting underlying social, cultural, and economic trends, the author shows the often crucial impact of nearly a hundred Byzantine emperors and empresses. What the emperor or empress did, or did not do, could rapidly confront ordinary Byzantines with economic ruin, new religious doctrines, or conquest by a foreign power. Much attention is paid to the complex life of the court and bureaucracy that has given us the adjective "byzantine." The major personalities include such famous names as Constantine, Justinian, Theodora, and Heraclius, along with lesser-known figures like Constans II, Irene, Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer, and Michael VIII Palaeologus.

Byzantine civilization emerges as durable, creative, and realistic, overcoming repeated setbacks to remain prosperous almost to the end. With 221 illustrations and 18 maps that complement the text, A History of the Byzantine State and Society should long remain the standard history of Byzantium not just for students and scholars but for all readers.
 

Contents

Introduction
3
The Refoundation of the Empire 284337
13
The State Under Strain 337395
52
The Danger of Barbarization 395457
78
The Formation of Byzantine Society 284457
103
S The Eastern Recovery 457518
149
The Reconquests and the Plague 518565
174
The Danger of Overextension 565610
218
18
583
19
612
20
638
21
650
A Restless Society 10251204
667
The Successor States 12041261
709
The Restored Empire 12611328
735
The Breakdown 13281391
760

A Divided Society 457610
242
Two Fights for Survival 610668
287
ΙΟ The War of Attrition 668717
323
The Passing of the Crisis 717780
346
The Shrinking of Society 610780
371
Internal Reforms 780842
417
External Gains 842912
446
IS The Gains Secured 912963
471
PART V
571
The End of Byzantine Independence 13911461
784
The Separation of Society from State 12041461
804
Conclusion
847
Lists of Rulers
857
Abbreviations
873
Bibliographical Survey
893
Endnotes
921
Index
971

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Page 875 - JB Bury, A History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian (395-565), 2 Bde, London 1923.
Page 880 - The Chronological Accuracy of the 'Logothete' for the Years AD 867-913," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 19 (1965), 91-112, and W.

About the author (1997)

Warren Treadgold is Professor of History at Florida International University. He is the author of, most recently, Byzantium and Its Army, 284-1081 (Stanford, 1995).

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