Not sure where to put this. This book is a reprint of an 1889
work called A
History of the Later
Roman EmpireFrom
Arcadius to
Irene (395 A.D. to 800 A.D) in two volumes. I am really curious how this may have held up over time from anyone familiar with the
work. What caught my attention is it seems to recognize that the
Byzantine Empire is indeed the continuation of the
Roman Empire. We
had a discussion about this in another section of the board recently, that the name
Byzantine Empire is somewhat artificial.
The blurb for Volume 2 is as follows. The blurb for Volume 1 is similar. Looks interesting to say the least and a
part of
history I am woefully deficient in.
The classical historian J. B. Bury (1861–1927) was the author of a
history of
Greece which was a
standard textbook for over a century. He also wrote on later periods, and, in this two-volume
work of 1889, examines
Byzantine history from 395 to 800. Arguing for the underlying continuity of the
Roman empire from the time of
Augustus until 1453, Bury nevertheless begins
his account in the year in which, on the death of
Theodosius I, the empire was divided into eastern and western parts, and
Constantinople began to take on the metropolitan role formerly held by
Rome. Volume 2, after reviewing Justinian's legacy, takes the
history down from the accession of
Justin II to the death of
Irene in 803. Topics examined include civil strife, including the period of
iconoclasm, and the increasing problems of maintaining the imperial borders against incursions from both east and
west.
Virgil