A review of Jonathan Harris’ The Lost World of Byzantium is almost impossible to write. The book, by the way, is far from unreadable, despite its rather dry style. The problem is the breadth and breadth of his subject matter, a problem the author tackles with enthusiasm and competence. Often, the story presents the casual reader with a difficult problem to negotiate, being the straitjacket of preconception. And it is often a problem that we are not aware of, precisely because we are rarely aware of the assumptions that we bring to any experience. And that’s precisely why we need books like this one by Jonathan Harris, because it can cut through what we clearly don’t understand. We need to confront preconceived ideas, because the process is always enlightening. But the process is also often challenging. However, rest assured that this challenge is rewarding every time.

The challenge in the Lost World of Byzantium is met head on and from the start. We talk a lot about Rome, let alone Byzantium. We salute the achievements of the first and, in general, list the shortcomings of the second. We see Rome as noble, correct, and classical, while Byzantium is often corrupt, degenerate, mischievous, and a failure. And, as Jonathan Harris points out, we are constantly explaining why the Byzantine Empire ultimately failed. What we rarely acknowledge is that at its height it was an empire larger than Rome’s and, more important, actually outlasted its predecessor. And he was a Christian from the beginning.

It is this perception of Byzantium as eventual failure that Jonathan Harris dispels at first. It’s also critical that he do so, as we can appreciate the detail of the empire’s history in its own context, and not one imposed by our own preconceived ideas about a future he never saw. In many ways, the history of the Byzantine Empire was the history of Europe from the fourth to the fifteenth century. Ottoman westward expansion and their eventual conquest of the empire served as a wake-up call for concerted action to defend Christianity. At least one previous attempt had dissolved into anarchy when the Crusaders sacked the very place they had set out to defend. The fall of Byzantium, however, made any future sectional gains irrelevant, because if the building fell, there would be nothing left for anyone. And so the continent changed a little after Lepanto.

However, any reader of a history as long and complex as that of the Byzantine Empire must take into account the magnitude and scope of the author’s task. The Lost World of Byzantium may comprise around 150,000 words, but it’s trying to cover over a millennium of European history, not to mention swaths and eras of Middle Eastern, Central Asian, and North African history as well. We soon learn not to regard the Byzantine Empire as a purely or even primarily a European phenomenon, since regular conflicts are fought to the south and east, as well as north and west. What is clearer, however, is that an empire can wage war on its periphery and that war can result in the expansion or contraction of its territory. But if the empire wages war against itself in the center, then the threat to its security is existential. Jonathan Harris’s book recounts several occasions when Byzantium survived such complete and painful internal transformations.

An enduring insight from The Lost World of Byzantium relates to the general role of religion in these transfers of power, and in particular to theology’s ability to create empires, rulers, dynasties, and perhaps states. Byzantium was founded with the adoption of Christianity by Constantine. But this was only the beginning of the story as we perceive it. The early church was divided by schisms and heresies, particularly the Arian interpretation of the nature of Christ. From the perspective of our time, these theological differences might seem to mean disagreements about the exact number of angels on the head of a pin. But at that point, theological disagreements could lead to persecution, exile, and war. Long after the early church had solved some of its self-generated puzzles, new theological differences arose with similar consequences. It is a great achievement of Harris’s book that it manages to elevate what we might now consider arcane to the status of lively political debate. If the economic advantage conferred by the achievement and holding of power, as always, remained the goal, the political and ideological battleground where that status was secured was often theological and only when we appreciate that role do we understand the history of this empire. , and perhaps also the history of the first and much of the second millennium of the Christian era.

If there is one criticism of this monumental work, it is that the need to chronicle throne holders sometimes makes history a mere list of tenants, a procession of kings who simply seem to come and go. The Johns, the Michaels, and the Constantines keep coming, always counting, and sometimes it seems like just the numbers change, as each incumbent suffers his own conspiratorial fate, often remarkably similar to his predecessor. There are numerous child emperors, all with their own naked and ambitious protectors. And also history seems to play itself out when another incumbent marries to secure peace and alliance, or undertakes another listed military campaign against north, south, east or west, as always with partial success. The mess, it seems, tends to continue.

Overall, the book deserves some criticism for not including enough descriptions of the social and economic conditions within the empire. Such diversity, both ethnic and religious, needs more details to give an idea of ​​its complexity. There is little that conveys any feeling of what it was like to live even in Constantinople, let alone in the Byzantine Empire as a whole. But then, with a task of this size, any author must be selective. Jonathan Harris simply could not have included material of this kind without doubling the size of an already enormous book. And, given the author’s commitment and dedication to his subject matter, this absence should cause most readers to explore more of his output. This aspect has surely also been dealt with elsewhere.

What is included are descriptions of Greens and Blues, Pechenegs, Basil, various Phokases, and numerous Theodoras, along with Abbasids, Seljuks, Fatimids, and Constantine hordes. If even one of these hits a blind spot, then Jonathan Harris’s book will help provide the missing understanding. In any case, it is certainly complete. History is always much more than our preconceived ideas, and all good writing on the subject should remind us of this fact. The Lost World of Byzantium provides an excellent opportunity to learn a great deal about this neglected but pivotal era of history.