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A history of the wars between Byzantium and its numerous foes - the Goths, Arabs, Slavs, Crusaders and Ottoman Turks. By the middle of the sixth century the Byzantine emperor rules a mighty empire that straddled Europe, Asia and North Africa. Within 100 years, this powerful empire had been cut in half. Two centuries later the Byzantine empire was once again a power to be reckoned with, and soon recovered its position as the paramount East Mediterranean and Balkan power, whose fabulour wealth attracted Viking mercenaries and central Asian nomad warriors to its armies, whose very appearance

Towards a social history of Byzantium / John Haldon -- Men, women, Eunchs: gender, sex, and power / Liz James -- Family structure and the transmission of property / Angeliki E. Laiou -- The social function of the law / Bernard Stolte -- Social relations and the land: the Early Period / Peter Sarris -- Land and power in the Middle and Later Period / Peter Frankopan -- The producing population / Michel Kaplan -- Social elites, wealth, and power / John Haldon -- Court society and aristocracy / Paul Magdalino -- Church and society: iconoclasm and after / Michael Angold -- A monastic world / Alice-Mary Talbot.

"Byzantium survived for 800 years, yet its dominions and power fluctuated dramatically during that time. John Haldon tells the story from the days when the Empire was barely clinging on to survival, to the age when its fabulous wealth attracted Viking mercenaries and Asian nomad warriors to its armies, their very appearance on the field enough to bring enemies to terms. In 1453 the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XII, died fighting on the ramparts, bringing to a romantic end the glorious history of this legendary empire."--Bloomsbury Publishing

Au premier tiers du VIIe siècle, sous le règne d'Héraclius, un officier anonyme de l'armée de l'Empire romain d'Orient rédige des notes pour son contingent de cavalerie, s'inspirant du Strategicon de Maurice, et utilisant sans doute un manuel d'instruction. Le résultat est ce petit traité, dernier produit de la première phase de la polémograhie byzantine : une source fondamentale de la pratique militaire au septième siècle. Cet ouvrage est unique dans son genre, car il ne s'agit pas d'un manuel systématique, mais d'une véritable collection de notes de tactique. Le texte est proposé dans une nouvelle édition critique, traduite et commentée pour la première fois

At the beginning of the Medieval Climate Anomaly, in the ninth and tenth century, the medieval eastern Roman empire, more usually known as Byzantium, was recovering from its early medieval crisis and experiencing favourable climatic conditions for the agricultural and demographic growth. Although in the Balkans and Anatolia such favourable climate conditions were prevalent during the eleventh century, parts of the imperial territories were facing significant challenges as a result of external political/military pressure. The apogee of medieval Byzantine socio-economic development, around AD 1150, coincides with a period of adverse climatic conditions for its economy, so it becomes obvious that the winter dryness and high climate variability at this time did not hinder Byzantine society and economy from achieving that level of expansion. Soon after this peak, towards the end of the twelfth century, the populations of the Byzantine world were experiencing unusual climatic conditions with marked dryness and cooler phases. The weakened Byzantine socio-political system must have contributed to the events leading to the fall of Constantinople in AD 1204 and the sack of the city. The final collapse of the Byzantine political control over western Anatolia took place half century later, thus contemporaneous with the strong cooling effect after a tropical volcanic eruption in AD 1257. We suggest that, regardless of a range of other influential factors, climate change was also an important contributing factor to the socio-economic changes that took place in Byzantium during the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Crucially, therefore, while the relatively sophisticated and complex Byzantine society was certainly influenced by climatic conditions, and while it nevertheless displayed a significant degree of resilience, external pressures as well as tensions within the Byzantine society more broadly contributed to an increasing vulnerability in respect of climate impacts. Our interdisciplinary analysis is based on all available sources ...