Honorius

Congratulations, did you get into MacQ? if you did i hate you

Ahh DC you beat me to making this thread but for this christmas i've decided to splurge on myself and bought 3 books, all regarding the late Byzantine Empire The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society, 1204-1453 By Mark C Bartusis http://www.amazon.com/Late-Byzantine-Army-...6220&sr=8-1 I wasn't sure if i should by this book by Bartusis as my interest in Byzantium is moving away from military aspects to points more cultural and religious, but i decided to get it anyway The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453 By Donald M Nicol - http://www.amazon.com/Last-Centuries-Byzan...360&sr=1-16 I've been waiting to buy this book for a year or two now, and havent heard a bad thing about Nicol, so finally decided to buy it seeing as it concerns my favourite period and ruling family the Paleologi The Lost Capital of Byzantium: The History of Mistra and the Peloponnese - Steven Runciman http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Capital-Byzanti...6506&sr=8-1 This book i only recently discovered in a local bookstore and concerns the last flourishing of byzantine culture in the city of Mistra, written by Runciman we know that it can be both finely written and gripping, eventually hope to get a review of this book done for unrv

Probably each of the Angeli emperors - the level of corruption and the loss of bulgaria and Constantinople itself to the latins in 1204, would seal the fate of the empire, when it was retaken in 1261 - the empire would be only a shadow of its former self.

thanks everyone

looks good, especially with all those maps on the campaign, much talk about Narses in it?

um. supposedly it appeared in the sky before the battle and then again in a dream to Constantine, (so he claimed), i recently read that some people have suggested that a natural phenomena did take place that a number of stars lined up and produced the symbol

Constantine the great? anyway that event before the Battle of the Milvian bridge, there are differing accounts on if Constantine saw it in a dream or his soldiers also saw it before the battle. The former is far more believable, anyway the symbol that he saw was the greek name for Christ, P = CHI, X = RHO, the P intersects the X. Further more there was other writing that proclaimed that "in this sign you will conquer" anyway primary sources would be Lactantius and the early church historian Eusebius of Caesarea edit: the symbol is my avatar with the addition of the greek letters Alpha and omega signifying that christ is the beginning and the end

concerning Liutprand, if i remember correctly Rice explained that the bulgarian diplomats were given precedence of Liutprands party at certain banquets which resulted in outrage amongst the westerners

Rice doesnt give specifics on the emperors shes just saying how every emperor dealt with diplomacy and the strict courtly etiquette that had to be adhered to. i Figure though that she is focussing on like the court of the Macedonian, and Commenian emperors.

Well lately i've been busy reading through a book by Tamara Talbot Rice called 'Everyday life in Byzantium' although fairly old written in 1967, it provides alot of interesting info on court life aswell as the life of everday Romans. Anyway i came across a peculiar passage in the chapter that deals with the Emperor, his family and court. This is the emperor in reply to a diplomatic mission. "...in the case either of the king of Persia or of the caliph of islam referring to him as his brother, but in that of a European ruler calling him his son." it bought me to think of how the Emperor would address a diplomat from the Western empire (talking about the holy roman empire here), would he call him his son? or as a brother?

might be good to point out that the 'shoes' that the byzantine emperors wore were Purple Buskins that were calf length half boots, and not slippers, incase anyone interpreted shoes that way

Just finish Capponis book on Lepanto - altogether it was a fantastic read and one i would recommend to anyone interested in the 16th century, though i do have a few disapointments 1. Maps - the maps Capponi uses for the actual battle itself are so small and boring, In comparison Hugh Bicheno who also wrote about the battle uses maps which actually point out the position of individuals and galleys in the battle aswell as other maps of both seiges of Famagusta and Malta 2. the actual battle - Capponi dedicates very little bookspace to the actual battle of Lepanto to which he calls although perhaps rightly so but irritatingly Curzolaris (referring to the nearby islands that the battle was fought near) i just expected a bit more in this area those are really my only two complaints, it was nice to see Capponi expanding on the characters of the battle and actually telling us what happened to them in the end from the Marquis of Santa Cruz to the turkish vizier Sokullu mehmed and the lowly common soldiers anyway...ive just picked up a copy of Judith Herrin's 'The Formation of Christendom' which deals with the late empire to the crowning of Charlemagne in 800, so far so good only about 30 pages in.

Asclepiades i am yet to come across a contemporary account thats been translated from turkish into english, which is sad, Id like to read one from a turks perspective