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Empire of Gold: A History of Byzantine Empire by Thomas F. Madden

Empire of Gold: A History of Byzantine Empire

by Thomas F. Madden


Title Details

Publisher
 
Unabridged Edition
Running Time
8 Hrs.

Description

In this epic course, esteemed university professor Thomas F. Madden offers a fascinating history of the remarkable culture and state that developed out of the ancient Roman Empire, particularly its eastern portion, throughout the Middle Ages. The story begins at an ending, that of the Roman Empire, in the third century AD, and continues over the next one thousand years. With incisive commentary, Professor Madden leads a discussion covering Justinian's re-conquest of the West, the great city of Constantinople, and the aftermath and influence of this extraordinary empire. The term "Byzantine" was invented by modern historians to identify the final millennium of the Roman Empire. By the third century and into the fourth century AD, there were changes in the Roman Empire so profound that historians during the Enlightenment began to call the period Byzantine rather than Roman. Most historians would place the beginnings of the Byzantine Empire roughly around the reign of the emperor Diocletian, who instituted widespread reforms to halt civil wars and economic decline. One of the primary characteristics of the Byzantine Empire was the relegation of Rome to a place of honor only. Rome was not the capital of the Byzantine Empire. The capital, instead, was Constantinople. Therefore, power was based in the eastern Mediterranean. Next was the dominance of Greek culture and eastern perspectives, and a final characteristic was the integration of Christianity into the social and political fabric of the empire. Constantinople was not just a capital, it was the beating heart of the Byzantine Empire and was the greatest city in the Western world at this time. Constantinople sat at the crossroads of the world and controlled east-west land traffic. Eventually, the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks reverberated across the Christian world. Europeans now saw a world in which nothing stood between them as the last remnant of free Christendom and the ever-growing powers of Islam.

Lecture 1 The Emerging Empire of New Rome, 284–457

Lecture 2 Justinian and the Reconquest of the West, 457–565

Lecture 3 The City of Constantinople: A Guided Tour of the Greatest City in the Western World


Lecture 4 The Turn Eastward, 565–717

Lecture 5 Survival, 717–867

Lecture 6 A Golden Age: The Macedonian Dynasty, 867–1025

Lecture 7 Weakness and Wealth, 1025–1081

Lecture 8 The Turn to the West: The Comnenan Dynasty, 1081–1180

Lecture 9 Decline, Decay, and Destruction, 1180–1204

Lecture 10 Struggle for Byzantium's Corpse, 1204–1261

Lecture 11 The Empire Reborn, 1261–1328

Lecture 12 The Final Decline, 1328–1391

Lecture 13 The Fall of Rome, 1391–1453

Lecture 14 Aftermath and Legacy


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