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.
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.
While scuba diving in Tanzania, Sam and Remi Fargo discover a relic belonging to a long-lost Confederate ship named the Shenandoah. An anomaly about the relic sets them off chasing a mystery, and a rumored second artifact-but, unknown to them, a much more powerful force is engaged in the same chase.
Water Technology in the Middle Ages - Cities, Monasteries and Waterworks after the Roman Empire
Focusing attention on gravity-fed water-flow systems in medieval cities and monasteries, Water Technology in the Middle Ages: Cities, Monasteries, and Waterworks after the Roman Empire challenges the view that hydraulic engineering died with the Romans and remained moribund until the Renaissance. Roberta Magnusson explores the systems' technologies -- how they worked, what uses the water served -- and also the social rifts that created struggles over access to this basic necessity.
Relations Between East and West in the Middle Ages
In the Roman Empire, relations between East and West meant connections between the eastern and western parts of a unified structure of empire. Romans sometimes complained about the corrupting influence on their city of Greeks and Orientals, but they employed Greek tutors to educate their sons. People did not think of the eastern and western parts of the empire as being separate entities whose relations with each other must be the object of careful study. Even at the moment of the empire's birth, there was a clear idea of where the Latin West ended and the Greek East began. This began to change with Constantine, when the Roman Empire was split in two, with Rome itself in decay.
