The World of Byzantium

By: Kenneth W. Harl, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Kenneth W. Harl

Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Byzantium is too-often considered merely the "Eastern rump" of the old Roman Empire, a curious and even unsettling mix of the classical and medieval. Yet it was, according to Professor Harl, "without a doubt the greatest state in Christendom through much of the Middle Ages," and well worth our attention as a way to widen our perspective on everything from the decline of imperial Rome to the rise of the Renaissance.

In a series of 24 tellingly detailed lectures, you'll learn how the Greek-speaking empire of Byzantium, or East Rome, occupied a crucial place in both time and space that began with Constantine the Great and endured for more than a millennium - a crucible where peoples, cultures, and ideas met and melded to create a world at once Eastern and Western, Greek and Latin, classical and Christian. And you'll be dazzled by the achievements of Byzantium's emperors, patriarchs, priests, monks, artists, architects, scholars, soldiers, and officials

• Preserving and extending the literary, intellectual, and aesthetic legacy of Classical and Hellenistic Greece
• Carrying forward path-breaking Roman accomplishments in law, politics, engineering, architecture, urban design, and military affairs
• Deepening Christian thought while spreading the faith to Russia and the rest of what would become the Orthodox world
• Developing Christian monastic institutions
• Shielding a comparatively weak and politically fragmented western Europe from the full force of eastern nomadic and Islamic invasions
• Fusing classical, Christian, and eastern influences
• Helping to shape the course of the Humanist revival and the Renaissance

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2001 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2001 The Great Courses

Beginning to Fill Yet Another Gap in My Education

Professor Harl kicks off with an observation that my own experience bears out: history courses focus on Greece, then Rome, and then the Medieval West that rose from the fall of Rome—forgetting that only half of Rome had fallen. That other half (actually two-thirds, in terms of population and wealth), which would endure for another thousand years, is often bypassed.

I always knew it was there. But I also knew it was complex, remote, exotic and, well…Byzantine. Professor Harl untangles much of the political, dynastic, military, religious, and cultural complexities. Even at a mere 12 hours (why not the more usual 18?) there’s plenty here to grapple with, and I now have a reliable outline of the period and the culture, along with some solid benchmarks (the emperors Justinian and Basil II, for example) to guide future reading and listening. Along the way I also began to grasp the roots of the split between the Eastern and Western Church, Russia’s assumption of the Orthodox mantle, her historic sense of mission, and Dostoyevsky’s rabid anti-Catholicism.

There are moments when I wish I were in the lecture hall, able to ask for clarification (the course guide, however, is crystal clear). Other times I’d like to ask questions. For example, if Byzantium alone turned back the Muslim tide—a feat for which Harl asserts the West was “unprepared”—then what of the Frankish triumph at Poitiers in 732?

Covering early efforts to comprehend the true nature of Christ, Harl sees heresies as merely so many “confessional” options, any of which might have triumphed—and their suppression as the beginning of “medieval censorship”. (Never mind that only by being fully human and fully divine can Christ fully reconcile Creator and creature.) When the faithful process icons and relics, imploring divine assistance in moments of crisis, you can almost see the professor’s eyes roll.

On the other hand, Harl gives the first Constantine credit for a sincere conversion. He also refutes the now-standard idea, first stated by Machiavelli and echoed by Gibbon, that Christian mercy and love hobbled Roman strength and discipline. And he discounts the popular notion—one that I’ve passed on to my kids—that an erudite, advanced Muslim civilization preserved Plato and Aristotle for a shaggy, beer-and-broadsword-wielding West. According to Harl, an erudite, advanced Byzantine civilization preserved Greek philosophy for a shaggy, beer-and-broadsword-wielding West.

Now, with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the next logical step is to listen to Professor Harl’s series on that empire.

Outstanding

Superb historian and very easy to understand, I highly recommend listening to this lecture on the late empire

Great Prof / ends rather abruptly

In other reviews the only negative points I see is the style of Prof. Harl. I couldn't disagree more. The Great Courses promises university-level lectures, and boy, does Prof. Harl deliver. Getting 1000 years into 24 lectures takes some doing. Being able to entertain, share interesting anecdotes and make the occasional joke while doing so is next level.

If Prof. Harl's courses have taught me anything, it is that history is very interconnected, both geographically and in time. It would have been very interesting for me to have a final lecture going into the aftermath of the Byzantine empire, similar to how he opened with a very brief overview of the events leading up to the founding of Constantinople. However, I get that space is limited, and that I probably need to do a course on the Ottoman Empire for that.

Excellent overview

Maybe the key to his presentation is knowing what to leave out! It’s not called “Byzantine” for nothing, and yet these lectures built a clear framework of understanding. Just enough small details set within the big picture to give a flavor of the times and people. Really well done

Very nice

I wish this course had been slightly longer and more focused on later periods. I listened to it in conjunction with the Late Antiquity series and there was a lot of overlap. However it did fill in a substantial gap in my knowledge of medieval history and I enjoyed it very much. It also made me wish there was a more general course on Eastern Europe during the medieval period, covering the Bulgars and Serbs that were mostly peripheral to the series. Overall very nice.

another great one from kenneth harl

comprehensive look at the roman empire. it was well presented, well narrated, and of course filled with interesting information.

Well presented, too short.

I love Byzantine history and Dr Harl is among the best lecturers in the great courses. I was hoping for more than I ultimately got. The early and middle empire are very satisfyingly xoveres but the late empire gets glaringly little attention. This should have been a much longer and perhaps more comprehensive course. I would have liked also to see more attention to the economic growth and change in the empire. I wouldn't discourage someone from listening to this but be warned that it is shorter than it ought to be.

Nice Summary

Nice connect-the-dots summary of a 1,000 year period, that I never learned about in school.

Excellent narration.

I really loved this course. The narrator has a way of giving his information with ease and without boring you to death. It's nice being able to learn about a historical subject without wishing that you had something more interesting to do.

Good course!

Overall a great trip through the history of Byzantium. I would have liked more information on the military side, specifically the reconquering of the Western provinces and less information on all the religious bickering. But I guess the religious bickering is a huge legacy of Byzantium. Another home run for Dr. Harl, he's awesome