Saturday, February 28, 2015

Links on Byzantine History

Some links on the fascinating history of the Byzantine empire, the Eastern Roman empire which survived until 1453:
(1) Robin Pierson, The History of Byzantium

The History of Byzantium

(2) Lars Brownworth, 12 Byzantine Rulers, The History of The Byzantine Empire

(3) The Early Middle Ages, 284–1000 with Paul Freedman

(4) BBC In Our Time discussion of the Byzantine Empire

(5) Byzantium: Byzantine Studies on the Internet

(6) Talessman’s Atlas. World History Maps

(7) World History Atlas & Timelines since 3000 BC.

(8) Emersonkent.com Maps

(9) Karl Spruner and Theodor Menke, Hand-Atlas für die Geschichte des Mittelalters und die neueren Zeit (3rd edn.), 1880.

(10) Shepherd, William R. 1923. Shepherd’s Historical Atlas (3rd edn.).
In addition, some standard books on Byzantine history:
Rosser, John H. 2012. Historical Dictionary of Byzantium. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Md.

Kazhdan, Alexander P. 1991. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (3 vols.). Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.

Haldon, John F. 2010. The Palgrave Atlas of Byzantine History. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.

Norwich, John Julius. 1990. Byzantium. The Early Centuries (vol. 1). Penguin, London.

Norwich, John Julius. 1993. Byzantium: The Apogee (vol. 2). Penguin, London.

Norwich, John Julius. 1995. Byzantium: The Decline and Fall (vol. 3). Viking, London.

Treadgold, Warren. 1997. A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford University Press, Stanford, Calif.

Mango, Cyril. 2002. The Oxford History of Byzantium. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York.

Shepard, Jonathan. 2008. The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire. c. 500–1492. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Gregory, Timothy E. 2010. A History of Byzantium (2nd edn.). Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, UK and Malden, MA.

Ostrogorsky, George. 1969. History of the Byzantine State (3rd rev. edn.; trans. Joan Hussey). Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, N.J. 624 p. [Superceded by Treadgold 1997]

Brubaker, Leslie and John Haldon. 2011. Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era c. 680-850: A History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 918 p.

Treadgold, Warren. 1988. The Byzantine Revival, 780–842. Stanford University Press, Stanford, Calif. 455 p.

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Stephen Fry on God

Hilarious and absolutely right too. He could have added that there is no reason to believe any gods or supernatural beings of any type exist too! Not to mention ghosts, goblins, vampires, werewolves, etc., etc.