PrefaceAbbreviationsList of MapsList of ImagesPart One: A New EmpireNew Rome and the New RomansThe scaffold of society and personality of governmentFrom Christian nation to Roman religionPart Two: Dynastic Insecurities and Religious PassionsThe first Christian emperors of the east (324-361)Competing religions of empire (337-364)Toward an independent east (364-395)The city and the desert: Cultures old and newPart Three: The Return of Civilian GovernmentThe ascendancy of the political class (395-441)Barbarian terrors and military mobilization (441-491)Political consolidation and religious polarization (491-518)Part Four: The Strain of Grand AmbitionsChalcedonian repression and the eastern axis (518-531)The Sleepless Emperor (527-540)War everywhere and plague (540-565)The price of overextension (565-602)Part Five: To the Brink of DespairThe great war with Persia (602-630)Commanders of the Faithful (632-644)A contest of wills (641-685)Part Six: Resilience and RecoveryLife and taxes among the ruinsAn empire of outposts (685-717)The lion and the dragon (717-775)Reform and consolidation (775-815)A new confidence (815-867)Part Seven: The Path towards EmpireA new David and Solomon (867-912)A game of crowns (912-950)The apogee of Roman arms (950-1025)A brief hegemony (1025-1048)Part Eight: A New ParadigmThe walls close in: Losing Italy and the east (1048-1081)Crisis management, the Komnenian way (1081-1118)Good John and the Sun King: A second apogee (1118-1180)Disintegration and betrayal (1180-1204)Part Nine: Exile and Return"A new France": Colonial occupationRomans west and Romans east (1204-1261)Union with Rome and Roman Disunity (1261-1282)Territorial retrenchment and cultural innovation (1282-1328)Part Ten: The Struggle for Dignity at The EndMilitary failure and mystical solace (1328-1354)The walls close in (1354-1402)The cusp of a new world (1402-1461)GlossaryState Revenues and Payments to Foreign Groups, Fifth-Seventh CenturiesBibliography
A major new history of the eastern Roman Empire, from Constantine to 1453.In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features, and a vital node in the first truly globalized world.The New Roman Empire is the first full, single-author history of the eastern Roman empire to appear in over a generation. Covering political and military history as well as all the major changes in religion, society, demography, and economy, Anthony Kaldellis's volume is divided into ten chronological sections which begin with the foundation of Constantinople in 324 AD and end with the fall of the empire to the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century. The book incorporates new findings, explains recent interpretive models, and presents well-known historical characters and events in a new light.
