12 Byzantine Rulers: The History of The Byzantine Empire

Lars Brownworth's new podcast called Norman Centuries is also available.

Lars Brownworth gives some reading suggestions on the Byzantine Empire.

With the death of Constantine XI, the Byzantine Empire drew to a close. But that was not the end of the story. From th... Read more

The 14th century was not a kind one for Byzantium. The Fourth Crusade had left it a hollow shell of itself, fatally cri... Read more

Isaac Angelus was never meant for the throne. He should have lived out his life in comfortable obscurity, but instead fo... Read more

When the 24 year old Alexius Comnenus came to the throne, the glories of the Empire seemed long gone. Its "invincible" a... Read more

By the time Basil II was crowned at age two, the Macedonian Dynasty had led the Byzantine Empire to seemingly endless mi... Read more

Basil I was hardly a promising candidate to usher in a new golden age to the Byzantine Empire. A poor, illiterate Armen... Read more

When the weak, ineffectual emperor Leo IV died in 780, he left the empire divided and in the hands of an orphan from Ath... Read more

In the years following Justinian's death, the empire was rocked from within and without. Barbarians pushed in on every b... Read more