Description

The History of the Byzantine Empire offers a survey of the Eastern Roman polity from late antique reconstitution to middle Byzantine consolidation. Bury interleaves annalistic narrative with analyses of institutions—the bureaucracy, themes, fiscal practice, and the compact between emperor and church. He reads diplomacy and warfare (against Sasanian Persia, Arab caliphates, Bulgars, and Slavs) alongside doctrinal conflict and court ceremony, in lucid prose. Grounded in chronicles, legal codes, coins, and seals, the book repositions Byzantium beyond Gibbon's caricature. An Irish classicist of prodigious range, J. B. Bury (1861–1927) trained at Trinity College Dublin, later Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge and editor of Gibbon's Decline and Fall. A champion of history as a science, he joined philological exactitude to constitutional analysis, mining Greek and Latin sources with numismatic and sigillographic evidence. His determination to correct Western prejudice and to trace continuities from Rome to New Rome animates this study. Students of late antiquity and medieval Eurasia will find in Bury a rigorous guide and reliable scaffold of chronology and governance. Though some interpretations predate later archaeological and social-historical turns, the precision of argument and documentary control make this volume essential for anyone seeking a clear, authoritative pathway into Byzantium.

Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable—distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.