From Rome to Byzantium

by Michael Grant

Byzantium was dismissed by Gibbon, in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and his Victorian successors as a decadent, dark, oriental culture, given up to intrigue, forbidden pleasure and refined cruelty. This great empire, founded by Constantine as the seat of power in the East began to flourish in the fifth century AD, after the fall of Rome, yet its culture and history have been neglected by scholars in comparison to the privileging of interest in the Western and Roman Empire. Michael Grant's latest book aims to compensate for that neglect and to provide an insight into the nature of the Byzantine Empire in the fifth century; the prevalence of Christianity, the enormity and strangeness of the landscape of Asia Minor; and the history of invasion prior to the genesis of the empire.
Michael Grant's narrative is lucid and colourful as always, lavishly illustrated with photographs and maps. He successfully provides an examination of a comparatively unexplored area and constructs the history of an empire which rivals the former richness and diversity of a now fallen Rome.

Genres: History, Archaeology

218 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Michael Grant was an English classisist, numismatist, and author of numerous popular books on ancient history. His 1956 translation of Tacitus’s Annals of Imperial Rome remains a standard of the work. He once described himself as "one of the very few freelances in the field of ancient history: a rare phenomenon". As a popularizer, his hallmarks were his prolific output and his unwillingness to oversimplify or talk down to his readership.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Ryan Tenty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d been looking for a book like this for a long time. A short but deep dive into a relatively niche historical interest of mine: the early formative years of the Byzantine Empire. I didn’t know going in that this book would focus almost exclusively on the fifth century, which did feel a little arbitrary to me timeline wise. However, Grant does do a good job of putting this time period in the context of earlier “Roman” centuries, while also introducing some later historical events in the Epilogue that the fifth century inevitably shaped (Justinian, etc.).

As other reviews have said, the author certainly uses way too many long quotes/citations from other scholars, as well as tends to repeat a lot of things over and over again (how many times can you reiterate that the Western Roman Empire fell while the Eastern half survived?). Nevertheless, I still found the writing accessible and informative, which for a history book on a subject with not much written material on even today, what more could I have wanted?

[Stu Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fascinating, short but historically deep (this isn't pop history) look at the fifth century and the reasons why the Western Roman Empire fall (in 476) and the Eastern Roman Empire centered in Constantinople was able to survive within 40 years of Columbus sailing to America. It looks at many aspects of both cultures, from military to politics to religion to art. It's deep....the chapter on Byzantine church architecture is exhaustive. But, as somebody going through a huge Roman phase, it's a worthy read

[John Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Grant is one of the best and most accessible writers of classical history, and the history of the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire is relatively unknown to most westerners, including me. As a result, I had high hopes for this book. I was somewhat disappointed, however, when I read it. The book consists largely of lengthy citations to and quotations from the work of other scholars rather than Grant's own analysis. This structure gives the book the feel of an undergraduate research paper - albeit a well-researched one - rather than the work of an independent scholar. On the whole, the book is not bad, but there must be better books on this subject out there.