Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood write by Anthony Kaldellis. This book was released on 2017-06-07. Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. In the second half of the tenth century, Byzantium embarked on a series of spectacular conquests: first in the southeast against the Arabs, then in Bulgaria, and finally in the Georgian and Armenian lands. By the early eleventh century, the empire was the most powerful state in the Mediterranean. It was also expanding economically, demographically, and, in time, intellectually as well. Yet this imperial project came to a crashing collapse fifty years later, when political disunity, fiscal mismanagement, and defeat at the hands of the Seljuks in the east and the Normans in the west brought an end to Byzantine hegemony. By 1081, not only was its dominance of southern Italy, the Balkans, Caucasus, and northern Mesopotamia over but Byzantium's very existence was threatened. How did this dramatic transformation happen? Based on a close examination of the relevant sources, this history-the first of its kind in over a century-offers a new reconstruction of the key events and crucial reigns as well as a different model for understanding imperial politics and wars, both civil and foreign. In addition to providing a badly needed narrative of this critical period of Byzantine history, Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood offers new interpretations of key topics relevant to the medieval era. The narrative unfolds in three parts: the first covers the years 955-1025, a period of imperial conquest and consolidation of authority under the great emperor Basil "the Bulgar-Slayer." The second (1025-1059) examines the dispersal of centralized authority in Constantinople as well as the emergence of new foreign enemies (Pechenegs, Seljuks, and Normans). The last section chronicles the spectacular collapse of the empire during the second half of the eleventh century, concluding with a look at the First Crusade and its consequences for Byzantine relations with the powers of Western Europe. This briskly paced and thoroughly investigated narrative vividly brings to life one of the most exciting and transformative eras of medieval history.
Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood
Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood write by Anthony Kaldellis. This book was released on 2017. Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. A long overdue and thrillingly paced narrative of one of the most dramatic periods in Medieval history, Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood provides an engaging chronicle of the various imperial upheavals, from the conquests of Basil to the collapse of Constantinople, concluding with the First Crusade.
Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold
Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold write by Mark Cocker. This book was released on 2001. Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Focusing on the conquest of Mexico, the British onslaught on the Tasmanian Aborigines, the uprooting of the Apaches, and the German campaign against the tribes of southwest Africa, Cocker illuminates the fundamental experiences that underlie colonial expansion around the globe.
Cities and Saints: Sufism and the Transformation of Urban Space in Medieval Anatolia
Cities and Saints: Sufism and the Transformation of Urban Space in Medieval Anatolia - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Cities and Saints: Sufism and the Transformation of Urban Space in Medieval Anatolia write by . This book was released on 2003. Cities and Saints: Sufism and the Transformation of Urban Space in Medieval Anatolia available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle.
The Byzantine Republic
The Byzantine Republic - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Byzantine Republic write by Anthony Kaldellis. This book was released on 2015-02-02. The Byzantine Republic available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Although Byzantium is known to history as the Eastern Roman Empire, scholars have long claimed that this Greek Christian theocracy bore little resemblance to Rome. Here, in a revolutionary model of Byzantine politics and society, Anthony Kaldellis reconnects Byzantium to its Roman roots, arguing that from the fifth to the twelfth centuries CE the Eastern Roman Empire was essentially a republic, with power exercised on behalf of the people and sometimes by them too. The Byzantine Republic recovers for the historical record a less autocratic, more populist Byzantium whose Greek-speaking citizens considered themselves as fully Roman as their Latin-speaking “ancestors.” Kaldellis shows that the idea of Byzantium as a rigid imperial theocracy is a misleading construct of Western historians since the Enlightenment. With court proclamations often draped in Christian rhetoric, the notion of divine kingship emerged as a way to disguise the inherent vulnerability of each regime. The legitimacy of the emperors was not predicated on an absolute right to the throne but on the popularity of individual emperors, whose grip on power was tenuous despite the stability of the imperial institution itself. Kaldellis examines the overlooked Byzantine concept of the polity, along with the complex relationship of emperors to the law and the ways they bolstered their popular acceptance and avoided challenges. The rebellions that periodically rocked the empire were not aberrations, he shows, but an essential part of the functioning of the republican monarchy.
