Byzantium: the Empire of New Rome by Cyril Mango

Byzantium: the Empire of New Rome by Cyril Mango is a social history of Byzantium published in the 1970s' recently reprinted. Actually it may be overstating it to call it a social history it's more like a history of the intelligentsia since there aren't really sources for the common people. There's basically no military or political history but inexplicably there is a list of the emperor's as an appendix. The book mostly talks about forms of literature particularly religious texts some of this is actually interesting they did their best to force Greek and Roman mythical events into the old testament. There's no discussion of the empire collapse.

If you're interested in the intelligentsia's world view this is for you.

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