Lost to the West : the forgotten Byzantine Empire that rescued Western civilization

Summary: The once common idea that the lights went out on classical and Western civilization when Rome fell in 476 C.E. has long since been debunked, but Brownsworth weighs in to illustrate that the Roman Empire's center of power simply shifted to Constantinople. In a narrative by turns spellbinding and prosaic, Brownsworth marches us through centuries of history, beginning long before the fall of Rome, and introduces the successive rulers of Byzantium, from Christian emperors to Muslim sultans, detailing a culture he describes as both familiar and exotic. He follows religious, political and cultural change up through the Islamic conquest of 1453. Christian refugees fled Byzantium into Europe, taking with them their longstanding love of ancient culture and introducing Western Europe to Plato, Demosthenes, Xenophon, Aeschylus and Homer, fanning the flames of the renaissance of Hellenistic culture that had already begun in various parts of Europe. -Publisher's Weekly

Record details

ISBN: 0307407969 (pbk.)
ISBN: 9780307407962 (pbk.)
Physical Description: xx, 329 p. : maps ; 21 cm.
print
Edition: 1st pbk. ed.
Publisher: New York : Three Rivers Press, 2009.

Content descriptions

General Note:	"Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Crown Publishers in 2009"--T.p. verso.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (p. [305]-307) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Diocletian's revolution -- Constantine and the Church ascendant -- The pagan counterstroke -- Barbarians and Christians -- A dreadful rumor from the West -- The fall of Rome -- The rise of Peter Sabbatius -- Nika! -- Of buildings and generals -- Yersinia pestis -- A Persian fire -- The house of war -- The image breakers -- The crumbling empire -- The turning tide -- The glorious House of Macedon -- The brilliant pretender -- Death and his nephew -- Basil the Bulgar slayer -- The march of folly -- The Comneni recovery -- Swords that drip with Christian blood -- The empire in exile -- The brilliant sunset -- The eternal emperor -- Epilogue: Byzantine embers.