Byzantine Civilization [RARE BOOKS]

BYZANTINE CIVILIZATION

by STEVEN RUNCIMAN

Byzantine culture and civilization was, until the late nineteenth century, regarded prejudicially as inferior to the Greek tradition and that of the Christian West, between which it was historically poised. It has taken historians like Steven Runciman to assess the cultural achievements of Byzantium in its own terms-to evoke its individuality and uniqueness. His Byzantine Civili- zation is now regarded as the major attempt of mod- ern scholarship to define for the general reader the scope and richness of Byzantine art, society, religion, politics, customs, and history. Author of the monu- mental History of the Crusades, Runciman achieves with the lucidity and grace characteristic of English historiography a complete picture of one of the most oriental and mysterious of western cultures.

"Mr. Runciman has written a delightful book. His Byzantines are alive and credible." The Observer

"Mr. Runciman's scholarship... has produced a pic- ture of deep and varied understanding. In the collection of social and institutional phenomena lies Mr. Runciman's true gift. And it is the fact of this gift's having at length found a field worthy of it that renders the present book superior to those which have preceded it." New Statesman and Nation