John Julius Norwich
Byzantium. The Apogee
London 1991
Stron 415
Tekst: angielski
Książka używana: podklejona obwoluta, innych defektów brak. Stan niemal bardzo dobry.
John Julius Norwich's acclaimed Byzantium: The Early Centimes set the scene for those two momentous decisions by Constantine the Great which changed the history of the world: to establish a new capital - a second Rome - on the shores of the Bosphorus and to make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. It then followed the fortunes of Constantine and his successors untll that memorable Christmas Day of AD 800 when Pope Leo III laid the imperial crown on the head of Charlemagne, effectively calling into question for the first time the essential unity of Christendom.
This second volume of a projected trilogy covers the next three centuries and closes with a still more fateful event: the Empires catastrophic defeat by the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert, a defeat which lost it three-quarters of Asia Minor and began the slow but inexorable Turkish advance that was to end with the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II in 1453.
And yet, long before Manzikert, Byzantium was already fighting for its life: to the north, against the Bulgars and, occasionally, the Russians - here making their first significant appearance in European history; to the east and south, against the growing forces of Islam; finally, to the west, against the heirs of Charlemagne and the ambitions of Rome, a struggle that led to the final schism between the Eastern and the Western Churches. There were internal conflicts too - not least those caused by the brief ninth-century return of iconoclasm and the ever-increasing rivalry between the rieh military aristocracy of Anatolia and the sinister eunuchs of the capital.
Of the few outstanding Emperors, one — Basil 11, 'The Bulgar-Slayer' — was perhaps the greatest in Byzantine history. After his death, however, the Empire soon feil back into the hands of that familiär succession of ivory-tower scholars, elderly but lustful Empresses, adven-turers and intriguers, drunkards and voluptuaries, which makes that history such perennially fascinating reading. John Julius Norwich has an astonishing tale to teil; and his magnificent narrative does it füll justice.
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Maps xi
Family Trees xvii
Introduction xxi
i Krum [800—14] :
2. The Return of Iconoclasm [814—29] 21
3 Theophilus [829—42] 41
4. The Images Restored [842—56] 5 3
5 Of Patriarchs and Plots [8 5 7-66] 62
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Double Murder [866-7] 77
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Basil the Macedonian [867-86] 89
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Leo the Wise [886-912] 102
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The Rise of Romanus [912—20] 122 10. The Gentle Usurper [920—48] 139 ii The Scholar Emperor [945—63] 162 12. The White Death of the Saracens [963-9] 183 13 John Tzimisces [969—76] 211 14. The Young Basil [976—89] 231 15 The Bulgar-Slayer [989—1025] 247 16. The Decline Begins [1025—41] 267 17 The End of the Paphlagonians [1041—2] 291
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Constantine Monomachus and the Schism [1042—5 5] 304
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Prelude to Catastrophe [105 5—9] 325
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Manzikert [1059—81] 338
List of Emperors 363
List of Muslim Sultans 364
List of Patriarchs 3 66
ListofPopes 367
Bibliography 369
Index 377
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