The New Roman Empire

Starred review from October 1, 2023

This is the first major history of the Eastern Roman Empire to appear in a generation. Kaldellis (classics, Univ. of Chicago: A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities) does excellent work detailing assumptions and resetting how readers understand Byzantium. There is, for example, a long history of interpreting the Byzantine Empire's past through Western instead of Eastern lenses. It starts with names. They called themselves "Romans," but Westerners referred to them as "Greeks." They called their land Romania, but that term doesn't appear in even today's reference materials. The Eastern Roman Empire lasted for 1,100 years, and for nearly a millennium it was a major player on the international scene. Andronikos III Palaiologos, the last emperor to attempt to recoup the empire's losses, died in 1341. Within a decade, his gains were gone, and the Roman state halved when a bubonic plague killed (it is believed) 30 to 60 percent of the population. Utilizing an impressive scope of recent research, Kaldellis refutes older views of the Roman state as despotic. Forty-two of 91 emperors may have come to power through violence, but the shared assumptions of subjects and rulers conferred on it lasting endurance. VERDICT Outstanding in every aspect.--David Keymer

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