Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Byzantine Matters

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Why the marginalized story of Byzantium has much to teach us about Western history

For many of us, Byzantium remains byzantine--obscure, marginal, difficult. Despite the efforts of some recent historians, prejudices still deform popular and scholarly understanding of the Byzantine civilization, often reducing it to a poor relation of Rome and the rest of the classical world. In this book, renowned historian Averil Cameron presents an original and personal view of the challenges and questions facing historians of Byzantium today.

The book explores five major themes, all subjects of controversy. Absence asks why Byzantium is routinely passed over, ignored, or relegated to a sphere of its own. Empire reinserts Byzantium into modern debates about empire, and discusses the nature of its system and its remarkable longevity. Hellenism confronts the question of the Greekness of Byzantium, and of the place of Byzantium in modern Greek consciousness. The Realms of Gold asks what lessons can be drawn from Byzantine visual art, and The Very Model of Orthodoxy challenges existing views of Byzantine Christianity.

Throughout, the book addresses misconceptions about Byzantium, suggests why it is so important to integrate the civilization into wider histories, and lays out why Byzantium should be central to ongoing debates about the relationships between West and East, Christianity and Islam, Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, and the ancient and medieval periods. The result is a forthright and compelling call to reconsider the place of Byzantium in Western history and imagination.

Pages: 184

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Release: April 06, 2014

ISBN: 0691157634

ISBN 13: 9780691157634

Byzantine Matters

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Why the marginalized story of Byzantium has much to teach us about Western history

For many of us, Byzantium remains byzantine--obscure, marginal, difficult. Despite the efforts of some recent historians, prejudices still deform popular and scholarly understanding of the Byzantine civilization, often reducing it to a poor relation of Rome and the rest of the classical world. In this book, renowned historian Averil Cameron presents an original and personal view of the challenges and questions facing historians of Byzantium today.

The book explores five major themes, all subjects of controversy. Absence asks why Byzantium is routinely passed over, ignored, or relegated to a sphere of its own. Empire reinserts Byzantium into modern debates about empire, and discusses the nature of its system and its remarkable longevity. Hellenism confronts the question of the Greekness of Byzantium, and of the place of Byzantium in modern Greek consciousness. The Realms of Gold asks what lessons can be drawn from Byzantine visual art, and The Very Model of Orthodoxy challenges existing views of Byzantine Christianity.

Throughout, the book addresses misconceptions about Byzantium, suggests why it is so important to integrate the civilization into wider histories, and lays out why Byzantium should be central to ongoing debates about the relationships between West and East, Christianity and Islam, Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, and the ancient and medieval periods. The result is a forthright and compelling call to reconsider the place of Byzantium in Western history and imagination.

Pages: 184

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Release: April 06, 2014

ISBN: 0691157634

ISBN 13: 9780691157634

More books from Averil Cameron

The Later Roman Empire

3.8/5 ( ratings)

The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity AD 395-600

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Life of Constantine

3.6/5 ( ratings)

The Byzantines

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Procopius and the Sixth Century

3.9/5 ( ratings)

The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol 13: The Late Empire 337-425

Byzantine Christianity: A Very Brief History

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire: The Development of Christian Discourse

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Images of Women in Antiquity

The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol 14: Late Antiquity Empire & Successors AD 425-600

4.2/5 ( ratings)

In Laudem Iustini Augusti Minoris

Arguing it Out: Discussion in Twelfth-Century Byzantium (The Natalie Zemon Davis Annual Lecture Series Book 8)

Dialogues and Debates from Late Antiquity to Late Byzantium

Life of Constantine. Clarendon Ancient History Series.

Changing Cultures in Early Byzantium

The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East: States, Resources and Armies (Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam)

Late Antiquity on the Eve of Islam

Keble Past and Present

Dialoguing in Late Antiquity

Doctrine & Debate in the East Christian World 300-1500 (Worlds of Eastern Christianity)

Rate this book!

Write a review?