The Emperors of Byzantium

by Kevin Lygo, Bettany Hughes (Introduction), Robert Peston (Foreword)

A vivid narrative history of one of the founding civilizations of the modern world, the Byzantine empire, evocatively told through the lives of its ninety-two emperors. The Byzantine empire was one of the most successful states of the Middle Ages, ruling over a huge terrain straddling Europe and western Asia for eleven hundred years from the fourth to fifteenth centuries. This chronicle by Byzantine expert Kevin Lygo brings this majestic yet turbulent period to life through the lives of its the supreme military commander, the head of state, and God’s representative on Earth, no less. These rulers, who included famous figures such as Constantine the Great and Justinian I, a scattering of women, as well as ruthless usurpers, left their mark upon the modern world with the establishment of the Eastern Orthodox Christian faith, the creation of a visual template for Christian art, and the magnificent artistic achievements of Hagia Sophia and Mount Athos. Each illustrated biographical entry contributes to the story of how Byzantium shaped art, culture, religious beliefs, and justice systems, as well as the role this extraordinary empire played in halting repeated invasions, allowing the idea of “Europe” to flourish. Through this compelling history, Lygo paints vivid portraits of the entire Byzantine cast, with tales of petty revenge, religious devotion, sexual intrigue, and artistic brilliance. From soaring intellectuals to illiterate peasants, eunuchs, and despots, this is a humanizing portrayal of the individuals whose rule profoundly impacted the lives of millions. 180 color illustrations

Genres: History, Nonfiction, European History, Ancient History, Biography, Medieval

336 pages, Hardcover

Published June 7, 2022

Reviews

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gallop through the 92 Emperors and Empresses of Byzantium. Some are better served than others, and there was a bit of a feel of haste about it. To be fair to do all this in 300 pages is an ask.

What saved the book for me was the photos and maps which were glorious, and the cover is not bad either.

[Marcussharcus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall it’s an accomplishment just to get from beginning to end of over a millennium of history, but man was this uneven. Some figures got the focus they deserved, some were absolutely skimmed over (especially in the second half). This book was rife with typos too, which I thought was odd. In parts this was excellent and well researched and in others I literally had to go to Wikipedia for clarification, which is damning even for pop history.

[O. U. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Byzantine Empire, or the Eastern Roman Empire for all the White Collar folks, feels like a historical vacuum. Growing up in the American school system, I don't think the Byzantines were mentioned once in any of my historical classes, even in the ones that took a focus on European history. Classes I took on the medieval era in college focused more on the Fall of Rome and the emergence of Charlemagne, Vikings, and the Holy Roman Empire.

What of the continuation of the Romans in what was Constantinople, alive and well in the Eastern Mediterranean? Maybe a singular page on Justinian. Hailing from the Balkans myself, you'd think I'd be used to that part of the world being condensed to a line, or a page in history books. The Byzantines went on for another 1000+ years in various states through the Fall of Rome to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, though to call them an "Empire" for the last few hundred years would be an insult to their various peaks under Emperors such as Justinian I, Basil II, Alexios I Komnenos, Heraklios, etc.

The Empire, in and after its' time, would leave its' mark on history through mosaics, Eastern Orthodoxy, rights for women, the emergence of the Renaissance, and even popularized the use of the fork amongst many other things.

That whole intro spiel is there to pique your interest in the topic, and this book is a pretty good place to start if you want to read into it more. If you like losing yourself in the depths of Wikipedia like I do, you'll find the format and content of this book to be generally favorable.

In essence, it's a run through of every single Byzantine Emperor from beginning to end in a quick, almost "Pop History" sort of fashion. It'll give you the run down of each one, some of their major accomplishments or failures, their ambitions or lack thereof. To be honest, I'd rather this book was maybe split into two thicker volumes and took a more in-depth look at each one, but hey, it's a good intro, and if you want to expand your knowledge on it, the opportunities are out there.

One final thing to praise is the production aspect. The hardcover has some heft to it, the art/lettering within and on the covers/spine are excellent. You can tell that the book was well produced for sure.

4/5. Get your eyes on this book before Basil II comes to town.

LAST THREE REVIEWS:
The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson (4.5/5)
Part 2 Battle Tendency - Hirohiko Araki (3/5)
The Warden - Daniel M. Ford (2/5)

[ik.ben.henri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wie heeft Fire and Blood nodig als dit even goed is en de echte geschiedenis bevat van het Byzantijnse Rijk.

Vertaling bevat soms wel rare fouten. Zinnen die niet kloppen en titels van hoofdstukken, meestal de naam van de keizer die aan de beurt is, zijn soms ook fout. BV keizer justinus 1 werd opgevolgd door justinianus 1. Hij is genoemd naar justinus 1. Erg verwarrende namen. Beide hoofdstukken de naam justinianus 1. Zo zijn er nog momenten dat er iemand zich gemist heeft. De schrijver zelf lijkt me sterk. De vertaler? Opmaak?

De uitgave is erg goed met goede papierkeuze, typografie en mooie kleurfotos.

[Harm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keizers van Constantinopel is een bom van licht en wetenschap die het duistere en onbekende Byzantijnse Rijk verheldert aan onze gebrekkige kennis in West-Europa over het middeleeuwse Oosten. Het geeft een compleet overzicht van keizerlijke dynastieën en keizers en beschrijft de ontwikkeling van het Oost-Romeinse Rijk / Byzantijnse Rijk op alle belangrijke terreinen. Zo bleken capabele keizers en legeraanvoerders uiteraard van groot belang te zijn, maar was het orthodoxe christendom ook een grote speler. Niet onbelangrijk: het boek staat vol met geweldige illustraties die helpen het beeld over het Byzantijnse Rijk nog duidelijker te maken. Onder andere topografische kaarten zijn zeer handig en keizerlijke en orthodox-christelijke afbeeldingen voegen extra gevoel en inzicht toe aan de tekst.

[Josh Swinscoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting read on a period of history I'm not as well versed in. It covers the entire history of Byzantium, from Constantine I to Constantine XI. Giving descriptions of all 92 emperors that ruled during this time. To do this in just under 300 pages is a feat in itself. Some figures get more and some get less, but it's expected in something like this.

It's structured very well, and is easy to read, and you won't want to put it down at all. Though you will need to keep doubling back so you truly do understand who's who. As the review saying it makes game of thrones look like a scrap in the playground is a hundred percent correct. You will get lost on who's being spoken about, their reigns, their families, servants, rivals. Plenty of names and it does overwhelm, but that's the fault of the history not the book.

Overall, this is a brilliant read, and you won't want to put it down. I 100% recommend this as an introductory or just overview read of the byzantine empire.

[Ricco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Voordat ik overga op de review van dit boek, wil ik eerst zeggen dat er in de Nederlandse vertaling erg veel taalfouten zaten, familliebanden staan er soms verkeerd in (in het ene hoofdstuk is iemand de broer van de keizer, het andere hoofdstuk is die de neef), woorden worden soms gewoon niet vertaald (zo staat in het boek 'omens' ipv voortekenen) en zo kan ik nog even doorgaan.

De inhoud van het boek is erg goed, van elke Byzantijnse keizer word verteld wat die heeft gedaan voor het keizerrijk, en deze keizers worden met meerdere prachtige illustraties kracht bij gezet. Het leest vlot weg, en Kevin Lygo heeft verstand van zaken. Het enige minpuntje is dat hij soms vaag blijft over bepaalde data, zo worden niet altijd jaartallen gegeven bij veldslagen.

Kortom, een erg mooie introductie in de wereld van het Byzantijnse keizerrijk, maar de Nederlandse editie had even nog een keer nagelezen mogen worden.

[Rares Antonio · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to Byzantine history and the history of its many monarchs, gives key dates, some maps and others.

However, it is very limited in scope, has been simplified a lot and much is left out and is definitely felt, as it creates the atmosphere of a hastily put-together book report and extremely extremely confusing at parts, I’m sure I didn’t understand 40% of what was going on as everyone has the same name as their parents, grandparents, sons and brothers and then every mother and grandmother is also involved with everything, culminating with most of them just going to live in a monastery.

Yh, so ok book, nice paper quality and pictures as well, just very hasty, spelling mistakes are present, and confusing.

[Koeneman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book gives you a small biography about every Byzantine (Eastern Roman) emperor from Constantine to Constantine XI 1100 years later. A lot would, in the end, die by their own family.

You get broad information and a lot of times just too little. Some emperors deserve so much more interesting and detailed information. But in the end it was the choose of the writer to do it this way.

[Nic Cokis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had so much potential but really let itself down. Historical style was like a 12 year old boy would write history. Way too much "oh this emperor was the greatest". That's not very interesting. Don't get an art historian to write a history book I guess.

[Karina Samyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5
Een wat saaie opsomming van alle Byzantijnse keizers. Daardoor is het allemaal wat oppervlakkig. Toch een mooi overzicht en er dieper op in gaan door andere boeken te lezen, kan altijd. De mooie illustraties maken veel goed. En hoewel kunstzinnig, waren de Byzantijnen ook bijzonder wreed. Tegenstanders, ook naaste familieleden werden bij de vleet blind gemaakt. Toch een hele prestatie want dit rijk was werkelijk het duizendjarig rijk!

[Jef Verstraete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book. It is very brief for the time it it covering, but as a first introduction or if you want to know something abou lesser known emperors it is great !

[Peter Fox · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a Christmas present that I was really looking forward to. However, it is pretty disappointing.


On the plus side, the production values are splendid. It's a handsome book with great quality paper. It's also written in an engaging way and rattles along at a pace.


On the negative side, it is very lightweight in content. Owing to a fair sized font and generous spacing, plus plenty of art, each entry is very slight and you only learn the basics of each reign. You'd probably learn more from wikipedia in many cases. A lot better use could have been made of the amount of space in this book with a smaller font and closer spacing. With more flesh on the bones, this could have been a great book.


For anyone who knows anything about the history of Byzantium, you will be unlikely to learn something that you don't already know.

[Rain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an odd book. Despite being written by what I'm assuming is the head of ITV, it is reasonably well written and goes into a respectable amount of depth into each emperor of the eastern roman empire and helps explain *some* of the politics of their respective periods. But it could be at least double the length, some entries feel brief and don't go into enough detail (Justinian I and Basil II the bulgar slayer, Constantine IX [the east-west schism of catholicism is skimmed over almost entirely] especially). I also noticed Andronikos Komnenos is called 16 despite being 61. whoops.

I think overall its a good entry point into the history of the later roman empire, which is a sorely overlooked period of history despite being of immense importance and legacy.

[Ef · Rating 2 out of 5]

Positives - It is a beautiful object; lovely paper, great illiustrations, easy-to-read font and so on. The foreword to this book by Peston is hugely entertaining; it reads like a defence of Byzantium from a Europa Universalis player. I was (I must admit) expecting left-wing, economics-and-social-politics-obsessed revisionism from a bunch of British TV types, however that isn't the case at all. It's a handy 'gazeteer' type book for names / reign-dates / basic information (caveat being the below).

Negatives - the author takes historical sources completely at their word, and doesn't offer much-to-any critical response; for anyone familiar with Procopius, Theophanes, or Anna Komnena, you're going to get quotes from the Secret History and the Alexiad basically verbatim. This is especially noticeable in the passgages about Nikephoros I having 'all of the children crushed under millstones', or of Theodora being a sort of succubus prostitute-witch that cast a spell on Justinian.

There are a lot of basic errors of history and geography in the book, and again these jump out at anyone with a passing interest in the topic. The review @ https://thecritic.co.uk/pardonable-se... sums up these issues nicely.

[Harry · Rating 2 out of 5]

This text is a moderately competent survey of the Eastern Roman Empire and contains plenty of pretty illustrations but plenty of flaws as well: a critical attitude to the sources is almost completely absent (and is credulous even by the standards of 'popular' histories), the summaries of the emperors towards the end feel rushed and artificially contracted while the entertaining quotes at the beginning of each at times inexplicably disappear and there are some frustrating repetitions in side-by-side sections of the book; in a reference work this would be reasonable enough, but here it just comes across as jarring.

This is not to mention several fallacies (such as the description of the Huns as "Germanic), ostensible contradictions (for instance regarding whether Christianity was made the state religion under Constantine or Theodosius) and the general presentation of plausible but contestable historical evaluations as neutral fact. It's not dull, but a more scrupulous attitude to the source material and historiography would make this a more enriching work for both casual and more knowledgeable readers.

[NielsG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comprehensive survey of the Byzantine emperors. The accounts of some emperors were way too brief, others were the right length. However, in a work of this scope I guess it is impossible to go into too much detail on every front.
What I really did not like was the huge amount of typing and spelling errors and wrong titles (Justinian II instead of Justin II etc.), at least in the Dutch version. Either they did not use a proofreader at all or the person lied about doing his job.
My last disappointment may be minor, because it is the text that really matters, but the cover photo of the Dutch version is a really unsharp picture of a mosaic, while there are many beautiful and sharp pictures inside. It just comes off as unprofessional to choose such a bad photograph as the book's cover.

[✎ madalaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book with wonderful pictures of art and architecture! I think that perhaps a little more description of the world around these emperors would have been good, touching on the architecture a little more—and for this reason I’m doing 4/5 as it was a little tricky to envision the world these people were living in, nance making them feel a little like a character not a person. But the writing was sublime. I really enjoyed this book.

[Luis Cardenas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The idea that we have about the Byzantine empire, is always a slow decline until the final defeat and conquered by the Ottomans.

But this remarkable book is a journey through its entire history, through the eyes of its rulers, the good and the bad, the betrayal and the defense against Islam.

Since as the author puts it, Rome did not fall, it only moved to the East.

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book itself is excellent (binding, paper, illustrations). This was not the Byzantine history I was looking for. Many other reviewers pointed this out, but the book moves too quickly between emperors to really get a sense of how their lives are intertwined with the empire's.

[William Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable, if not comprehensive, journey through the reigns of the emperors of Eastern Rome or Byzantium from Constantine I to Constantine XI.

This book is certainly a useful introduction to a period of History often overlooked in scholarly circles.

[Eric Vanhove · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice intro to Byzantine history that could have benefited from a little more editing.

[Rene B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive, nice details (of which I never heard before) and a handy companion to all the emperors of Byzantium.

[Tony Gualtieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun book to read, but I wouldn't recommend it as a first history of Byzantium. It's more for revisiting familiar territory. The illustrations are excellent.

[Avid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview but very little detail.

[Anton Tymkiv · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good

Still wrongly using term “Russia, russian” when refering to Rus while mentioning Ukraine in foreword

Enjoyed the pacing of book

[Will Haslam · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable bird’s-eye view of Byzantine history through the endlessly intriguing lens of its colorful emperors.

[Elma Voogdt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Het boek Keizers van Constantinopel is een opsomming van de machthebbers van Constaninopel. En dat zijn er in de 1100 jaar dat zen aan de macht waren heel wat geweest. De keizers worden op chronologische wijze voorgesteld aan de lezer aan de hand van een levensoverzicht en illustraties. Het is allemaal zeer informatief en het oogt allemaal zeer compleet.

In 330 werd de stad, tot dan toe Byzantion genaamd, door keizer Constantijn de Grote hoofdstad van zijn rijk gemaakt. Gedurende het grootste deel van de middeleeuwen was Constantinopel de grootste en rijkste stad van Europa. Constantinopel is nu het huidige Instanboel. De stad was de hoofdstad van achtereenvolgens het Romeinse, het Oost-Romeinse of Byzantijnse, het Latijnse, opnieuw het Byzantijnse en vervolgens de hoofdstad van het Ottomaanse Rijk.

De auteur van het boek Kevin Lygo heeft een gedegen onderzoek naar de levensgeschiedenis van alle keizers. Hij beschrijft deze keizers op zo een manier dat het allemaal heel vlot leest, alsof je een roman aan het lezen bent. Dat maakt het boek toegankelijk voor iedereen die interesse in deze tijdsperiode heeft. Vaak zijn dit soort boeken moeilijk omschreven, dus dit is een verademing.

Het boek is van het begin af aan boeiend, leerzaam , nergens wordt het verhaal verslapt of afgeraffeld. Je komt namen in het boek tegen waarvan je soms denkt : hoe en wat, maar de auteur geeft keurig weer wat en waar het in de huidige tijd is of betekent. Dat maakt dat je geografische je een goed beeld kunt vormen.

Wat op valt was dat men in die tijd niet om een mensenleven gaf, mensen werden verminkt en gedood, zelfs eigen familie en kinderen. De wreedheden komen met groot regelmaat voorbij.

De afbeeldingen in het boek zijn prachtig om te zien, allemaal in kleur. Dat tezamen met een korte biografie van de keizers van Constantinopel maakt niet alleen aantrekkelijk maar ook compleet. Als je geïnteresseerd bent in de lange geschiedenis van Byzantium mag dit boek zeker niet ontbreken in je boekenkast.

[Joseph Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was good for a brief overview over each Emperor over the course of the Byzantine Empire. Whilst sometime I got lost in the sea of names, typically I could understand it by re-reading the chapter. I would say it is a good booking for launching off interest in various periods of Byzanitum with general infomation not going too indepth, while also remaining interesting to read.