Showing Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire by Judith Herrin

Paperback. Pub Date: April. 2008 Pages: 440 Publisher: Penguin For a thousand YEARS aN extraordinary empire made Possible Europe's transition to the modern World: Byzantium An audacious and Resilient but now little Known Society. The WITH paganism it Combined Orthodox Christianity . classical Greek learning with Roman power. to produce a great and creative civilization which for centuries held in check the armies of Islam. Judith Herrin's concise and compelling book replaces the standard chronological approach of most histories of Byzantium.Instead. each short chapter is focused on a theme. such as a building (the great church of Hagia Sophia). a clash over religion (iconoclasm). sex and power (the role of eunuchs). an outstanding Byzantine individual (the historian Anna Komnene). a symbol of civilization (the fork). and a battle for territory (the crusades). In this way. sh...