Byzantium in Minutes
Good Fit
- Readers curious about Byzantine history who aren't ready for a full academic monograph
- Anyone who enjoys a short, daily-reading format (one or two entries a day)
- Travelers wanting to understand the historical layers of Istanbul
Not a Fit
- Readers looking for a fully chronological, continuous narrative — the book is deliberately fragmented, encyclopedia-style
- Anyone wanting to go deep on just one narrow topic, like Hagia Sophia's architecture alone
In the Introduction, Sivrioğlu presents Byzantium not just as a history of court intrigue and warfare, but as a rich sociocultural fabric — from the splendor of Hagia Sophia to the Hippodrome rivalry between the Blue and Green factions, from Procopius's secret histories to the storms of Iconoclasm — emphasizing a state that suffered its greatest catastrophe in the 1204 Crusader sack, and that, though it physically fell in 1453, left a legacy that ignited the Renaissance and inspired the Ottomans.
The first entry — "Eastern Rome or Byzantium?" — opens up an important historical paradox: the Byzantines always called themselves "Roman" (Romaioi) and their state the "Roman Empire." The term "Byzantium" only spread during the Renaissance, and is now a settled term too entrenched to reverse.
The "Why Byzantium?" entry introduces the name's "father" — the German historian Hieronymus Wolf, who published his Corpus Historiae Byzantinae in 1557. The author also notes that, according to some commentators, choosing this name served to diminish the significance of the Ottoman Turkish conquest of Constantinople.
"The Founding of the City of Byzantion" recounts the legend of its founder, Byzas — how oracles advised him to settle across from the "Land of the Blind," which he understood to mean the city of Chalcedon (modern Kadıköy).
Subsequent entries trace Byzantion's strategic importance at the crossroads of trade routes, the revocation of its free-city status by Emperor Severus in 196, its sack by the Goths in 258, and then Constantine's 324 decision to rebuild the site as "New Rome."
The "Suggestions for Byzantium's Starting Point" entry honestly presents the disagreement among historians — Constantine, Theodosius I, the 476 fall of the West, Justinian, and even Heraclius (610) have each been proposed by different scholars as the "true beginning" — and the book presents this debate without taking sides.
- Each entry is 1-2 pages long, readable independently — sequential reading isn't required
- Presents scholarly debates (e.g. the origin of the name "Byzantium") in plain, even-handed language
- Supported by maps and illustrations
- A very recent book, published in June 2026
A more academic, continuous-narrative account of Byzantine history
A more traditional, chronologically narrated history
After the introductory entries, the book proceeds chronologically — continuing through the Edict of Milan, the Council of Nicaea, the age of Justinian (Hagia Sophia, Theodora, the reconquests), and the Arab invasions.
Later entries cover the Iconoclasm controversy, the "renaissance" of the Macedonian dynasty, the Crusades, and finally the 1453 Fall of Constantinople, with closing sections devoted to Byzantium's legacy in the Renaissance and Russian Tsardom.
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