The Chronicle of Theophanes - Anni Mundi 609566305 (AD 602-813)

The most important illuminating source that survived from the two centuries termed "the dark ages of Byzantium" is the chronicle of the monk Theophanes (d. 817 or 818). In it Theophanes paints a vivid picture of the Empire's struggle in the seventh and eighth centuries both to withstand foreign invasions and to quell internal religious conflicts. Theophanes's carefully developed chronological scheme was mined extensively by later Byzantine and Western record keepers; his chronicle was used as a source of information as well as a stylistic model. It is the framework upon which all Byzantine chronology for this period must be based.

The Age of the Dromon - The Byzantine Navy ca. 500 - 1204

This volume examines the development and evolution of the war galley known as the Dromon, and its relative, the Chelandion, from first appearance in the sixth century until its supercession in the twelfth century by the Galea developed in the Latin West. Beginning as a small, fully-decked, monoreme galley, by the tenth century the Dromon had become a bireme, the pre-eminent war galley of the Mediterranean. The salient features of these ships were their two-banked oarage system, the spurs at their bows which replaced the ram of classical antiquity, their lateen sails, and their primary weapon: Greek Fire.

Byzantium in the Year 1000

A thousand years ago, the Byzantine Empire was reaching the height of its revival as a mediaeval state. The ten contributions to this volume by scholars from six European countries reassess key aspects of the empire's politics and culture in the long reign of the emperor Basil II.

Byzantine Art in the Making

The major theoretical contributions of Kitzinger's later career are embodied in his book Byzantine art in the making (1977), originally delivered as a series of lectures at the University of Cambridge, and in a volume of his collected essays, The art of Byzantium and the medieval West (1976). In both volumes Kitzinger maintained his life-long preoccupation with the analysis of style change in late antique and early medieval art, and his conviction that stylistic analysis could speak with an authority equal to that of iconography or textual history.

Basil II and the Governance of Empire (967 - 1025)

This is the first book-length study in English of the Byzantine emperor Basil II, the "Bulgar-slayer." Basil presided over a Byzantium which was the superpower of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East in the century before the Crusades. Catherine Holmes peels away the layers of later interpretations to reveal an empire that was governed by a potent mixture of subtle persuasion and brute force.