This text is published to accompany an exhibition devoted to the artistic and cultural riches of Byzantium. Essays trace the history and cultural development of more than 1000 years of Byzantine art, revealing the splendours of the imperial city of Constantinople. Numerous artefacts reveal the distinct style and character of Byzantine art.

Byzantinisches Reich.

This text is published to accompany an exhibition devoted to the artistic and cultural riches of Byzantium. The exhibition traces the history and cultural development of more than 1000 years of Byzantine art, revealing the splendors of the imperial city of Constantinople. Numerous artefacts reveal the distinct style and character of Byzantine art.

Robert Byron believed that the summit of ancient Greek civilization was not to be found in 5th century B.C.E. Athens, but in post-classical Byzantium, also called Constantinople by the Romans. Byzantine civilization was truly glorious, as we see by looking through Byron's fresh eyes. Byron was a brilliant writer and dashing figure whose life was cut short in WWII. The introduction is by Richard Luckett, Byron's biographer.

Illustrations and text combine to examine the lives, achievements, and struggles of the Byzantines; covering a period that begins with the establishment of the capital city of Constantinople in A.D. 330, and continuing through its fall to the Turks in 1453.

Long after Rome fell to the Germanic tribes, its culture lived on in Constantinople, the glittering capital of the Byzantine Empire. For more than 1000 yeras (AD 330-1453) Byzantium was one of the most advanced and complex civilisations the world had ever seen. As the Mediterranean outlet for the silk route, its trade networks stretched from Scandinavia to Sri Lanka; its artists created sombre icons and brilliant gold mosaics; its scholarship served as a vital cultural bridge between the Muslim East and the Catholic West; and it fostered the Orthodox Christianity that is the faith of millions today. This book shows the innovative art that inspired French kings and Arab emirs. It includes a gazetteer of historic Byzantine sites and monuments that travellers can visit today in greece, Italty, Turkey and the Middle East. A chronology of Byzantine history and a list of emperors complete this ideal resource for the student, traveller or generally curious reader.