Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood

In this lucid and well-researched history, Kaldellis, a classics scholar, examines the rapid expansion and subsequent contraction of Byzantium in the 10th and 11th centuries. This work serves impressively as both a general introduction to the political, economic, and military history of the period and a narratively engaging and clear interpretation of the causes and effects of the empire's rise and fall. The book nicely balances explication and commentary; Kaldellis includes details that bring his history to life-such as the facial hair patterns of a Byzantine enemy ... The work is thus both educational and enjoyable, almost a canonical model of how to write history for both lay and professional readers. This is a welcome introduction to Byzantine history, which is little known in the West relative to earlier Greek or Roman periods and deserves wider understanding and discussion.

Auteur
Anthony Kaldellis is Professor of Greek and Latin at The Ohio State University. Author of The Christian Parthenon: Classicism and Pilgrimage in Byzantine Athens (CUP 2009) and Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition (CUP, 2007), among numerous others.

Texte du rabat

A long overdue and thrillingly paced narrative of one of the most dramatic periods in Medieval history, Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood provides an engaging chronicle of the various imperial upheavals, from the conquests of Basil to the collapse of Constantinople, concluding with the First Crusade.

Résumé
In the second half of the tenth century, Byzantium embarked on a series of spectacular conquests: first in the southeast against the Arabs, then in Bulgaria, and finally in the Georgian and Armenian lands. By the early eleventh century, the empire was the most powerful state in the Mediterranean. It was also expanding economically, demographically, and, in time, intellectually as well. Yet this imperial project came to a crashing collapse fifty years later, when political disunity, fiscal mismanagement, and defeat at the hands of the Seljuks in the east and the Normans in the west brought an end to Byzantine hegemony. By 1081, not only was its dominance of southern Italy, the Balkans, Caucasus, and northern Mesopotamia over but Byzantium's very existence was threatened. How did this dramatic transformation happen? Based on a close examination of the relevant sources, this history -- the first of its kind in over a century -- offers a new reconstruction of the key events and crucial reigns as well as a different model for understanding imperial politics and wars, both civil and foreign. In addition to providing a badly needed narrative of this critical period of Byzantine history, Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood offers new interpretations of key topics relevant to the medieval era. The narrative unfolds in three parts: the first covers the years 955-1025, a period of imperial conquest and consolidation of authority under the great emperor Basil "the Bulgar-Slayer." The second (1025-1059) examines the dispersal of centralized authority in Constantinople as well as the emergence of new foreign enemies (Pechenegs, Seljuks, and Normans). The last section chronicles the spectacular collapse of the empire during the second half of the eleventh century, concluding with a look at the First Crusade and its consequences for Byzantine relations with the powers of Western Europe. This briskly paced and thoroughly investigated narrative vividly brings to life one of the most exciting and transformative eras of medieval history.

Contenu

• Table of Contents

• Preface

• Maps

• Genealogies

• Introduction: The Byzantine Empire in the Tenth Century

• Romanía

• Imperial governance

• The army and war

• Landed aristocracy

• Anatolian magnates

• Part I: CONQUEST AND CONSOLIDATION

• "Avengers of Rome": The First Phase of Conquest in the East (955-963)

• The cast of the conquest: The final years of Konstantinos VII (d. 959)

• Turning the tide in the southeast

• Southern Italy

• A smooth succession: Romanos II

• The conquest of Crete

• The conquest of Cilicia (phase I)

• The rise of Phokas

• "The White Death of the Saracens": Nikephoros II Phokas (963-969)

• The new regime

• Failure in Sicily

• The conquest of Cilicia (phase II) and Cyprus

• The annexation of Taron

• Declining popularity

• Tension with Bulgaria

• Tension in Italy with the German empire

• Military victory, political failure: the final years

• "A Mind Full of Cares, Brave in Danger": Ioannes I Tzimiskes (969-976)

• The new regime

• The defeat of the Rus' and Bulgaria

• Eastern incursions: toward a new balance of power

• An otherwise obscure reign

• "From Spectator to Contestant": Basil II (976-1025), Part I

• The new regime

• The first rebellion of Bardas Skleros

• The foreign policy of Lakapenos and Phokas, 979-985

• The fall of Lakapenos and the rebellion of Phokas and Skleros

• "Guarding the Children of New Rome": Basil II (976-1025), Part II

• From status quo to peace in the east, 990-1001

• The war against Bulgaria, 991-1003

• The emperor and the "aristocracy"

• "No One Ever Saw My Spear at Rest": Basil II (976-1025), Part III

• The missing decade and conquest of Bulgaria, 1004-1018

• Monitoring Aleppo, 1000-1025

• The war with Abkhazia-Kartli and the last rebellion, 1021-1022

• The apogee of Byzantine Italy

• The end of an era

• GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS: THE AGE OF CONQUEST

• PART II: NEW ENEMIES AND THE RETURN OF POLITICS

• "Intrigues of the Women's Quarters": From Macedonians to Paphlagonians

• Konstantinos VIII (1025-1028)

• Romanos III Argyros (1028-1034): The same insecurity

• The debacle at Aleppo and the capture of Edessa

• Diplomacy and dynastic instability

• Michael IV (1034-1041): Family rule

• Frontier integrity

• The conquest, and loss, of Sicily

• The Bulgarian revolt

• The dramatic fall of Michael V (1041-1042)

• "No Less Laws than Arms": Konstantinos IX Monomachos (1042-1055), Part I

• Enter the Normans

• 1043: Trial by fire

• Domestic initiatives (phase I)

• The annexation of Ani

• Enter the Pechenegs - the revolt of Tornikios

• "Squaring the Circle": Konstantinos IX Monomachos (1042-1055), Part II

• Enter the Seljuks - the Pecheneg wars

• Domestic initiatives (phase II)

• Italy on the brink and the Schism of 1054

• Coping with new challenges

• "With Sword Drawn": It All Comes to a Head, 1055-1059

• Theodora (1055-1056)

• Michael VI (1056-1057)

• Isaakios I Komnenos (1057-1059): Fiscal reforms and the fall of Keroularios

• Barbarians of the east and west

• GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS: THE RETURN OF MULTI-POLARITY

• PART III: COLLAPSE

• "The Agony of a Virulent Poison": The Road to Mantzikert, 1059-1071

• Konstantinos X Doukas (1059-1067): Domestic mispriorities

• Frayed frontiers: Seljuks and Oghuz

• The end of Byzantine Italy

• Eudokia and the succession: Romanos IV Diogenes (1068-1071)

• Chasing Turks

• Mantzikert

• Civil war

• "Squeezed by the Pangs of Death": The Empire on the Verge, 1071-1081

• Michael VII Doukas (1071-1078): The new regime

• The state of the provinces

• A Norman statelet in Asia Minor

• Breakdown

• Nikephoros III Botaneiates (1078-1081)

• GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS: IMPERIAL COLLAPSE

• EPILOGUE

• A Byzantine History of the First Crusade

• Crusading in broader …