Fourteen Byzantine Rulers
by Michael Psellus
This book by Michael Psellus is just so fascinating that if you only read one book about Byzantium, by a Byzantine, this would be the one I’d choose. He’s a product of the 11th century when things were changing very drastically and, in a way, frighteningly. His reaction to these changes is very specific, but at the same time he expresses them in a very delightful fashion, which I find eminently readable.
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“I decided that it was very important to have a book by a Byzantine, because you get a much stronger sense of the culture and the atmosphere of Byzantium by reading what an individual who lived then wrote…This book by Michael Psellus is so fascinating that if you only read one book about Byzantium, by a Byzantine, that would be the one I’d choose…He’s a product of the 11th century when things were changing very drastically and rapidly and, in a way, frighteningly. His reaction to these changes is very specific, but at the same time he expresses them in a very delightful fashion, which I find eminently readable.” Read more...
Judith Herrin, Historian
