The Byzantine Empire. All I knew about this was some of the beginning from a book on the fall of the Roman Empire that I read last year and the end from a book on the 4th Crusade that I read about three years ago. Now I know a shit load more but you know, fucked if I can recall much from this book. The trouble with reading a book about an empire that stretches over 1,000 years is that all the Constantine’s and Julian’s merge together. Now I am buggered if I can remember if Constantine IV was an ass or if that was Constantine VII.
I did learn about Belasarius, what a jumbo package of manslaughter he was! And now I know that the Roman empire didn’t actually fall until the 15th Century, go figure. Add to that the stuff about how St. Cyril taught the Russians to write, how byzantine came to mean sneaky and corrupt and how Greek Fire is not the same as Greek Fashion and I judge taking the time to read this book as not a complete waste of my life. Bueno!
