• The Byzantine Empire 1025-1204 [top]
  Written by Michael Angold
  First published in 1985 in Great Britain by Addison Wesley Longman Limited
  2nd Edition published in 1997 in Great Britain by Longman in paperback, 374pp, ISBN 0582294681
  Front cover shows a Roundel of Emperor John II Comnenus, in the Byzantine Collection at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C.
  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
  Angold, Michael
  ..........The Byzantine Empire, 1025-1204: a political history / Michael Angold.-2nd ed.
  ..........p. cm
  Includes bibliographical references and index
  ISBN 0-582-29468-1
  1. Byzantine Empire-History-1025-1081. 2. Byzantine Empire-History-Common Dynasty, 1081-1185. 3. Civilization, Medieval-12th century. 4. Eleventh century. I. Title
  DF596.A54 1997
  949.5'02-dc21...............................................................................96-49085
  ...................................................................................................................CIP

About this book/synopsis: In 1025, the Byzantine Empire was unchallenged as the greatest power in the Mediterranean and Near East. As the century wore on, however, it came under increasing pressure from new and aggressive neighbours: the Turks captured Anatolia, the Petcheneks seized the Balkans, and the Normans of Italy were hammering at the gates of Greece. These encircling dangers were complicated and intensified by the emergence of a new phenomenon: the crusades. In 1204, the Empire's glittering capital, Constantinople, was captured and sacked by the Christian warriors of the Fourth Crusade. Although the city was restored to Byzantine rule in 1261, and the ever-shrinking Empire held out against Islam for a further 200 years, the political ascendancy of Byzantium was gone for good - and with its disappearance the centre of gravity of Christendom shifted irreversibly westward. The period leading up to the disaster of 1204 was thus a watershed not only for Byzantium itself but also for the whole medieval world. Michael Angold's celebrated account of it (established as a standard text on its first appearance in 1985) is therefore a key text for a far wider readership than Byzantine specialists alone. Here now, in answer to growing demand, is a fully updated Second Edition which has been redesigned and reset in a larger, more reader-friendly format

Professor Angold has enriched his text with the findings of a further ten years of study, not only incorporating it in the relevant contexts throughout, but also including extended historiographic reviews of this new work in the introductions to the two main sections in which the book is divided. Other new sections include a wholly new discussion of the primary souces for the period, and a more comprehensive treatment of Byzantium from Western perspectives

The book continues to remain largely a political history, but at every point, Michael Angold emphasises the intimate connection between the politics of the Byzantine Empire and its wider social, economic and cultural development. His book was the first study of the period in this depth and detail to appear in any language for decades, and it remains the obvious starting point for students and general readers alike

Contents:
List of Maps
List of Family Trees
Preface to the First; and Preface to the Second Editions
A Note on the Transliteration of the Greek

Introduction: The Sources

PART I: 1025-1118
1. Introduction: Recent Work (1025-1118)
2. Basil II and his Legacy
3. Byzantium's Place in the World, 1025-1071
-The Russian attack of 1043
-The Petcheneks
-The Seljuqs
-Mantziker 1071
-Byzantium and the West
4. Byzantium 1041-1071: the Search for a New Political Order
5. Economy and Society in Eleventh-century Byzantium
6. Intellectual Currents in Eleventh-century Byzantium
7. The Rise of the House of Comnenus
-The civil wars
-The fall of Anatolia
-Nikephoritzes
-Alexius Comnenus' coup
-The Norman threat
-The Petcheneks
-Alexius I Comnenus and Asia Minor
8. Alexius I Comnenus and the Restoration of the Empire
-John Italos
-Heresy
-Alexius and the church
-The defusion of internal opposition
-Administrative reforms
-Military organization
-Provincial administration
-Central administration
-Finances
-Conclusion
9. Alexius I Comnenus and the West

PART II. 1118-1204
10. Introduction: Recent Work (1118-1204)
11. John II Comnenus (1118-1143)
12. The Foreign Policy of Manuel I Comnenus
(1143-1180)
-The second crusade
-The Normans of Sicily
-Hungary, Serbia and Russia
-The German Empire and papacy
-Byzantium and the crusader states
-Byzantium and the Seljuqs
13. Manuel Comnenus and the Latins
-The Venetians at Constantinople
-Byzantium and the Latins
-The Latins and Manuel Comnenus
14. The Government of Manuel I Comnenus (1143-1180): Court, Church, and Politics
-The court aristocracy
-The aristocratic connection
-Andronicus Comnenus and the politics of the Comnenian Court
-The Styppeiotes affair
-The business of government
-Manuel Comnenus and the church
-Byzantine monasticism under Manuel Comnenus
-The Patriarchal Church
15. Capital and Provinces
-The Greek lands in the 12th Century
-The land and the peasantry
-The Anatolian provinces
Conclusion
16. Byzantium 1180-1203: the failure of the Comnenian System
-Isaac II Angelos (1185-1195)
-The foundation of the second Bulgarian Empire
-Local separatism under the Angeloi
-Court, capital, and politics - demoralization at the centre
17. The Fall of Constantinople and the Fourth Crusade

Appendix: Family Trees; Bibliography; Maps; Index

List of Maps:
1. The Byzantine Empire c.1025
2. Byzantine Asia Minor in the eleventh and twelfth centuries
3. The Empire under the Comneni
4. The Balkans in the 12th century
5. Byzantine Greece in the 11th & 12 centuries

List of Family Trees
1. The end of the House of Macedon
2. The House of Doukas
3. The House of Commons
4. The House of Angelos