The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium
Anthony Kaldellis treats Byzantium as what its people actually called it, the Roman empire, and traces its continuous existence from the reign of Constantine to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. He divides the long span into ten chronological sections, covering the late antique transition, the Arab and Slavic invasions, the iconoclast disputes, the Macedonian revival, the Komnenian restoration, the Latin occupation after 1204, and the slow decline of the Palaiologan period. Kaldellis pays close attention to administration, taxation, the army, and the relationship between emperor, church, and provinces, while also drawing on art, literature, and material culture. The book is the first full one-volume history of the empire written by a single author in a generation. It is built on Kaldellis's argument that Byzantium should be understood as a Roman polity, not a Greek successor state.
What you might want to know about The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A single-author history of the eastern Roman empire from the founding of Constantinople in 324 to its fall in 1453.
Yes. Cowen flagged it early in 2024 as a likely top pick of the year on Marginal Revolution and included it on his Best Non-Fiction of 2024 list, calling it obviously excellent.
No; the book is written as a complete history from the founding of Constantinople, though readers familiar with late Rome will follow some of the debates more easily.
The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium was written by Anthony Kaldellis, published in 2024 by Oxford University Press.
The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium is 1104 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium takes most readers 17 to 24 hours to finish.
The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
