Discovering Byzantium

 The Byzantine empire is as we all know nowhere near as well known as the Roman empire of Augustus and known even less in its own right and not simply the surviving half of the old Roman empire.

 With so little information about the empire in common circulation and so few avergae everyday people having the scantest of knowledge about it, the only real way to find out about it is to study Roman history and simply come across it when the story begins with Constantine.

 So I was wondering, when did you first become interested in Byzantium? How did you discover it? and what kept you coming back for more? also anybody who is not interested in Byzantium id be interesting in hearing why.

 For me, I discovered Byzantium by playing computer games, Medieval total war as players of the game will know includes the Byzantine empire as one of the playable factions. This was about 18 months ago I had never heard of Byzantium, my knowledge of Roman history although growing was still in its infancy. I had heard of a city called Constantinople, I had no idea of its location, its history, if it still existed etc. Just a word id picked up from somewhere. I became interested in this particular empire, because in the game in which the empire was present a very vivid picture was painted for me.

 What I saw here was an empire struggling to survive, on the verge of annihilation seemingly all the time, with a proud and long history, an empire that was a champion of learning and the arts when much of europe was more interested in pointless and bloody wars from which there was seldom a winner. An empire that didnt deserve its troubles.

 With characters that appeared invented, Justinian, Heraclius, Basil II, the Comnemi and the last Constantine, it read more like a fantastic fiction and not like it had happened. Justinian a man who first grabbed my attention and its thanks to him that I kept that interest in Byzantium. So many ups and downs, heroes and and tyrants, from the beginning to the devastatingly tragic end. Its a story that couldnt of been better written.

 Having been introduced to this empire in this most unexpected of places, I searched around the internet and found countless sites with endless info on Rome but so few on Byzantium, at this point I was totally unaware of Byzantiums reputation and the damage caused to it by Gibbon and the like. I then searched local book shops and found the same problem, stacks and stacks of books on Rome hundreds of books, but only 1 shelf for Byzantium a dozen different books at most. My interest waned at this lack of info.

 However the internet in the shape of Wikipedia rekindled my interest and after a renewed search, I found the absolute gem that is John Julius Norwichs trilogy on Byzantium which capitivated me from the moment I turned the first page. I also bought (although now regrettably) Gibbons Decline and fall, and also the very good Oxford history of Byzantium.

 After a year of learning from books and the internet what I can about this largely ignored or forgotten empire, my knowledge is growing but is still tiny, and there is a long long way to go before I can even consider myself anything resembling knowledgable on Byzantium. However this civilisation has interested me infinitly more than Rome ever could and so I continue to learn with a permanent vigour and determination to not only become as knowledgable as possible on it but to promote it and attempt in some way to bring it up to the level Rome has achieved, but in its own right and its own merits.

Naturally I studied many things about the Byzantine Empire in school. But I became really enquirer after I read a novel, Johannes Angelos by Mika Waltari. From that time I have bought many books about it. (by Ostrogorsky, Moravcsik, Brehier, Obolensky, Meyendorff, Runciman etc.)

 I'm most interested in the reigns of Justinian the great, Heraclius, Basil II and the Comnemi, so i dont have one period im focused on entirely, its much more stretched out.

 I dont have much interest in the Iconoclasts and post 1261, Justinian is the Emperor i'm most fond of  (despite my username) even though he sometime's comes across as though he doesnt deserve it.

 Yeah the word "Byzantium" has a curious ring to it, similar to Xanadu for me, feels distant and surrounded by magic somehow.

 Books can only take me so far though, I intend to visit Turkey in the near future and see things for myself, when I went to Rome a year ago everything made more sense and I got a feel for the city and the empire it once controlled.

 I need to see *Constantinople* for myself, much of whats left though seems to be in almost total ruin, with the major exceptions of interest of Hagia Sophia and the still standing city walls. The Hippodrome is practically gone, the palaces have little traces, the columns are largely destroyed or ruined, and much else has barely survived.

 Hopefully ill of visited Istanbul within the next year, but its going to have to blow me away to beat Rome, with so little left its going to be hard.

 It does seem Greeks generally are more interested in the time when it was the Greek city states fighting the Persians etc. The only time Greeks seem particularly interested in Byzantium is its fall, when an argument inevitably breaks out between greeks and turks.

 Its strange an Englishman, an Australian, a Filipino (sp?) an American and an Hungarian all replied to this thread as either passive fans of Byzantium or major students of it yet not one Greek. Infact apply that to almost all Byzantine related threads on this forum  very odd.

Greetings

Constantine you can't imagine how negative is the opinion that most of the greeks have about Byzantium. First in school we learn almost nothing about it. We learn that it was a theocratical state with almost no interest in any part of life there, hehe when i finish school i believed that Byzantines was just religius fanatics and nothing else.

 Constantine i read your post for a long time and the first time i belived that you was a professor in Byzantine studies.

 All the intellactual people here in greece are Gibbon funs.

Sorry for bad english .

Heraclius here in greece we favor our ascient history over anything (and that's our greatest fault). When in our schools we learn that the Byzantines destoyed the ascient culture and momuments. Do you know that in the newspapper with the most sales there was a comment says that the byzantines destroyed the ascient temples, burned ascient books (well even if the first books was created in byzantine times ) and throw heretics into fire?

 How can we be pride when we learn such thinks about that time?

 Take it upon yourself to learn other than what school teaches you, the Byzantines valued ancient Greek culture. Ignore idiots like Gibbon, read the work of people who know what the hell they are on about and arent biased. If nobody Greek studies Byzantium then the Greek perception will never change, its important that atleast some people know the true Byzantium.

 I mean the ancient Greeks were FAR from perfect, they spent much of their time fighting each other in pointless endless wars that showed no signs of ceasing. Im sick to death of Byzantium being ignored.