Research Catalog

Title

The empire that would not die : the paradox of eastern Roman survival, 640-740 / John Haldon.

Author

Haldon, John F.

Publication

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2016.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xii, 418 pages : maps; 25 cm

Summary

"The eastern Roman Empire was the largest state in western Eurasia in the sixth century. Only a century later, it was a fraction of its former size. Surrounded by enemies, ravaged by warfare and disease, the empire seemed destined to collapse. Yet it did not die. In this holistic analysis, John Haldon elucidates the factors that allowed the eastern Roman Empire to survive against all odds into the eighth century. By 700 CE the empire had lost three-quarters of its territory to the Islamic caliphate. But the rugged geography of its remaining territories in Anatolia and the Aegean was strategically advantageous, preventing enemies from permanently occupying imperial towns and cities while leaving them vulnerable to Roman counterattacks. The more the empire shrank, the more it became centered around the capital of Constantinople, whose ability to withstand siege after siege proved decisive. Changes in climate also played a role, permitting shifts in agricultural production that benefitted the imperial economy. At the same time, the crisis confronting the empire forced the imperial court, the provincial ruling classes, and the church closer together. State and church together embodied a sacralized empire that held the emperor, not the patriarch, as Christendom’s symbolic head. Despite its territorial losses, the empire suffered no serious political rupture. What remained became the heartland of a medieval Christian Roman state, with a powerful political theology that predicted the emperor would eventually prevail against God’s enemies and establish Orthodox Christianity’s world dominion."--

Alternative Title

Paradox of eastern Roman survival, 640-740

Subject

• 527 - 1081
• War and society > Byzantine Empire
• Human ecology > Byzantine Empire
• Diplomatic relations
• Human ecology
• Politics and government
• War and society
• Byzantine Empire > History > 527-1081
• Byzantine Empire > Foreign relations > Islamic Empire
• Byzantine Empire > Politics and government > 527-1081
• Byzantine Empire
• Islamic Empire

Genre/Form

History

Note

• "Based on the Carl Newell Jackson Lectures"--Half title page.
• "The present volume represents a considerably expanded version of the four Carl Newell Jackson lectures ... deliver[ed by the author] at Harvard University in April 2014."--Page xi.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 363-409) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction: Goldilocks in Byzantium -- The challenge: a framework for collapse -- Beliefs, narratives, and the moral universe -- Identities, divisions, and solidarities -- Elites and interests -- Regional variation and resistance -- Some environmental factors -- Organisation, cohesion, and survival -- A conclusion.

ISBN

• 9780674088771
• 0674088778

LCCN

^^2015033363

OCLC

• 921310657
• SCSB-11628795

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library