The challenge in the
Lost World of Byzantium is met head on and early on. We talk a lot of Rome, and
much less of Byzantium. We hail the achievements of the former, and generally
list the shortcomings of the latter. We see Rome as somehow noble, correct and
classical, whereas Byzantium is often corrupt, degenerate, knavish and
unsuccessful. And, as Jonathan Harris points out, we are constantly explaining
why the Byzantine Empire eventually failed. What we rarely acknowledge is that
at its height it was a more extensive empire than Rome’s and, importantly, it
actually lasted longer than its precursor. And it was Christian from the start.
It is this perception
of Byzantium as eventual failure that Jonathan Harris dispels at the start. It
is also essential that he does this, since then we can appreciate the detail of
the empire’s history in its own context, rather than in another imposed by our
own preconceptions about a future it never saw. In many ways, the history of
the Byzantine Empire was the history of Europe from the fourth to the fifteenth
century. The Ottoman expansion westwards and its eventual conquest of the empire
served to provide a wake-up call for concerted action to defend Christianity.
At least one previous attempt had dissolved into anarchy as the Crusaders
sacked the very place they had set out to defend. The fall of Byzantium,
however, rendered any future sectional gain irrelevant, for if the edifice
fell, there would be nothing for anyone. And thus the continent changed a
little after Lepanto.
Any reader of such a
long and complex history as that of the Byzantine Empire, however, must bear in
mind the size and scope of the author’s task. The Lost World of Byzantium may
comprise about 150,000 words, but it is trying to cover more than a millennium
of European history, not to mention swathes and eras of Middle Eastern, Central
Asian and North African history as well. We soon learn not to regard the
Byzantine Empire as a purely or even primarily European phenomenon, as regular
conflicts are fought to the south and east as well as to the north and west.
What becomes clearer, however, is that an empire may wage war at its periphery,
and that war may result in expansion or contraction of its territory. But if
the empire wages war against itself at the centre, then the threat to its
security is existential. Jonathan Harris’s book relates several occasions when Byzantium
survived such complete and wounding internecine transformations.
An enduring insight
from The Lost World of Byzantium relates to the general role of religion in
these transfers of power, and in particular the ability of theology to create
empires, rulers, dynasties and perhaps states. Byzantium was founded on
Constantine’s embracing of Christianity. But this was only the beginning of the
story as we perceive it. The early church was riven by schisms and heresies,
notably the Arian interpretation of the nature of Christ. From the perspective
of our own age, these theological differences might appear to have the
significance of disagreements on the exact count of angels on a pinhead. But at
the time, theological disagreements could lead to persecution, exile and war. A
long time after the early church had solved some of its self-generated
conundrums, new theological differences emerged with similar consequences. It
is a great achievement of Harris’s book that it manages to raise what we now
might regard as arcane to the status of living political debate. If economic
advantage granted by the achievement and tenure of power, as ever, remained the goal, the political and ideological battleground
where that status was secured was often theological and only when we appreciate
that role do we understand the history of this empire, and perhaps also the
history of the first and much of the second millennium of the Christian era.
If there is a
criticism of this monumental work, it is that the necessity of chronicling the
incumbents of the throne sometimes make the history a mere list of tenants, a
procession of kings who merely seem to come and go. The Johns, the Michaels and
the Constantines keep coming, forever counting, and it seems sometimes that
only the numbers change, as each incumbent suffers his own conspiratorial fate,
often remarkably similar to that of his predecessor. There are numerous child
emperors, all with their own nakedly ambitious protectors. And also history
seems to reproduce itself as yet another incumbent marries to secure peace and
alliance, or pursues yet another catalogued military campaign against north,
south, east or west, as ever only partially successful. The muddle, it seems,
tends to continue.
Overall, the book
deserves some criticism for not including enough description of the social and
economic conditions within the empire. Such diversity, both ethnic and
religious, needs more detail to provide a picture of its complexity. There is
little that conveys any feeling of what it was to live even in Constantinople,
itself, let alone the Byzantine Empire as a whole. But then, with a task of
this size, any author needs to be selective. Jonathan Harris simply could not
have included material of this type without doubling the size of an already
massive book. And, given the author’s commitment and dedication to his subject,
this absence ought to provoke most readers to explore more of his output. This
aspect surely has also been covered elsewhere.
What is included are
descriptions of greens and blues, Pechenegs, Basils, various Phokases and
numerous Theodoras, alongside Abbasids, Seljuks, Fatimids and hordes of
Constantines. If even one of these hits a blind spot, then Jonathan Harris’s
book will help provide the missing understanding. If anything, it is surely
comprehensive. History is always about much more than our preconceptions and
all good writing on the subject should remind us of this fact. The Lost World
of Byzantium provides a superb opportunity to learn much about this neglected,
but crucial era of history.
