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The World of Byzantium

By: Kenneth W. Harl, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Kenneth W. Harl
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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

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New Rome

This is the second lecture series I've listened to by Kenneth. He's very informative and entertaining to listen to. My only complaint is the fall of Constantinople was a bit rushed and I would have like more detail on that but other than that anyone wanting to get a good rounded knowledge on this topic will enjoy this series .

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amazing depth on a fascinating subject

This course is excellent, with an engrossing mixture of historical analysis and narrative about the rise and fall of the eastern Roman empire.

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interesting topic, terrible presenter.

This guy is insufferable, his voice i bad, his pacing is bad, his opinions are bad. His courses focus was too much on military aspects. He drones in an irritating monotone. This is much poorer quality than other things from The Great courses, buy, something else, pretty much anything else.

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