The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium

Reading Anthony Kaldellis's The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium took quite some time. Unlike Norwich's series, this vast work is a single volume. Unlike Norwich's work, however, it was written by a specialist whose work work benefits from the more recent scholarship on the history of Byzantium, Europe and the Mediterranean. Kaldellis's style is also very accessible and at times, rather hilarious. The sense of humor, sarcasm, and occasional references to contemporary events or phrases definitely made it easier to finish the massive tome. Nonetheless, the last few hundred pages were painful reading. The sad decline of Byzantium from the pillaging of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade to the final fall of the capital in 1453 was one almost continual tale of territorial loss, destructive civil wars, dangerous alliances with Latins or Turks, and final reduction to impotence. 

While Byzantium undoubtedly made contributions to the world for its preservation of ancient texts, art and architecture, one of the true wonders of this state that lasted over 1000 years is its longevity. At multiple other times in its long history of over 1000 years, the Eastern Roman Empire suffered various setbacks, loss of territory, existential threats, and frequent rebellions, coups, and, to our modern eyes, pointless debates over Church doctrine. Yet, despite this, the empire endured and at various times, remained a major power in the Mediterranean. Indeed, even under the Komnenos, the Empire experienced a comeback of sorts that may have sown the seeds for its future destruction. Still, we sometimes wonder if the Empire was bound to experience a huge transformation or existential threat by the end of the "Middle Ages" due to the rise of peer polities and the growth of western Europe's power. 

But the Roman Empire's existence for so long shows us how a state with Roman institutions (which changed, sure, but still bearing a great degree of continuity with the ancient state) existed to the cusp of a new world. That remarkable endurance and strength of institutions does not appear to have ever seriously wavered until the changes in imperial rule ushered by the Komnenos and the later Palaiologos who ruled through their families, engaged in frequent conflicts over the throne within their extended family networks, and relied on paying their relations and officials with pronoia on land that was increasingly scarce as the "Byzantines" continued to lose territory. As so eloquently elucidated in Kaldellis's work, those without elite family connections to the ruling dynasty had fewer avenues to advance and the state lost land and the resources to support reconquest of former territories. The final 2 centuries of Byzantium are especially tragic, despite the cultural and literary accomplishments by some. 

Despite its length, anyone interested in Byzantium should read this. Kaldellis's perspective is intriguing, fresh, and deviates from past preoccupations or problematic frameworks. For instance, the greatness of Justinian is presented here in a more mixed manner, as the author points frequently to the problems of overextension and Justinian's brutality. The Crusades are presented unquestionably as colonial ventures, with the Latins doing to the Romans what they would go on to perfect in the Americas a few centuries later. The issue of iconoclasm is portrayed as something often exaggerated or overblown, at least based on the sources that have survived. And throughout it all, there's a deep sense of continuity for the 1000+ years of Byzantium's existence. The foundations of a state based on law, government responsibility its subjects, Christianity (not that the Church was always unified) and the role of the people (at least in Constantinople) in determining legitimacy were powerful factors that favored this type of longevity.