Table of Contents

Krum (800-14); the return of iconoclasm (814-29); Theophilus (829-42); the images restored (842-56); of patriarchs and plots (857-66); double murder (866-7); Basil the Macedonian (867-86); Leo the Wise (886-912); the rise of Romanus (912-20); the gentle usurper (920-48); the scholar emperor (945-63); the white death of the Saracens (963-9); John Tzimisces (969-76); the young Basil (976-89) the Bulgar-Slayer (989-1025); the decline begins (1025-41); the end of the Paphlagonians (1041-2); Constantine Monomachus and the schism (1042-55); prelude to catastrophe (1055-9); Manzikert (1059-81). List of emperors; list of Muslim sultans; list of patriarchs; list of popes.

About the Author

Born in 1929, John Julius Norwich served in the foreign office for twelve years before resigning in 1964 in order to write. His many publications include his two-book history published by Penguin in one volume entitled The Normans in Sicily; two travel books, Mount Athos (with Reresby Sitwell) and Sahara; The Architecture of Southern England; Glyndebourne; three anthologies of poetry and prose, Christmas Crackers, More Christmas Crackers and Still More Christmas Crackers; A History of Venice; and his three-volume history of the Byzantine empire of which this is the first, Byzantium- The Apogee is the second, and Byzantium- The Decline and Fall is the third. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Geographical Society and the Society of Antiquaries, a Companion of the Royal Victorian Order and a Commendatore of the Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.