Constantinople: A Thousand Years of Byzantine History

Description

Illustrated by Denis Manton. Originally just a small Greek colony, Constantinople was built on a magnificent strategic sit on the wetern bank of the Bosphorus, that narrow sea-channel which separates Europe from Asia. Under Constantine, and especially under his Roman successors, it became the capitol of the eastern Roman Empire and at times of all Christian Europe. For more than ten centuries it was the impregnable bastion against which the eastern hordes of Islam battered in vain. It developed the rich civilization which we call Byzantine and which astonished western visitors by its magnificence. It was sacked by the Crusaders when on their way to Palestine in 1204. It fell to the Turks in 1453 and has since been a Moslem city, renamed Istanbul though with a Christian minority. The Patriarch of the Greek Church lived there. Introduction 9 Rome Before Byzantium 10 Julius Caesar and His Successors 13 The Dawn of Christianity 18 Constantinople is Founded 20 The Collapse of the West 22 The Survival of the East 26 Strife Within the Church 28 The Golden Age of Justinian 31 Justinian Goes to War 33 Justinian Builds St. Sophia 37 Byzantine Art 39 Silk Manufacture 41 Disorder in the Empire 43 Heraclius and the Persians 45 The Rise of Islam 47 The Arabs Attack 49 Life in Byzantium 52 Christianity 52 Everyday Life 53 Trade 56 Ninth Century Byzantium 58 The Great Days 61 The Decline Begins 65 The First Crusade 68 The Empire in the Twelfth Century 71 The West Takes Constantinople 73 Thirteenth Century Byzantium 76 Genghiz Khan 78 The Ottoman Turks 78 The Last Century of Byzantium 80 The Fall of Constantinople 82 What Byzantium Meant to Europe 88 Chart of Emperors 91 Index 93