Work record

The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium

Anthony Kaldellis

2023 · Postwar Contemporary · History · English

Copyrightedlow medical relevanceFive-minute digest

Abstract

Written: 2023 (published December 2023; dated 2024 in many catalogues)
Setting: The eastern Roman Empire, c. 284–1453; Constantinople, Anatolia, the Balkans, Italy, Syria and Egypt
Author: Anthony Kaldellis
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: Narrative political history of Byzantium
Form: Single-volume chronological prose history with maps, plates, glossaries and notes
Recommended: Grades 11–12 (Long modern scholarly history.)

Background. For centuries Western writers treated the eastern empire as a decadent Greek afterthought to Rome. A Chicago scholar who has spent his career translating its historians wrote this comprehensive narrative for general readers. Because it is under copyright, the library supplies a guide rather than the text.

Argument. Its inhabitants were Romans, and their polity was the Roman state continued in a new capital. It endured because of working institutions and the loyalty of a population that saw the government as its own, while emperors who lost the confidence of people or army were deposed.

Scope. The story runs from the late third century, through the losses and recoveries of the seventh, eleventh and thirteenth centuries, to the Ottoman siege. Sicily and southern Italy, frontier peoples and church councils receive steady attention alongside the court and the capital.

Approach. Narrative leads, drawn closely from Greek, Latin and other sources, and the familiar label 'Byzantine' is set aside in favor of the names the subjects used themselves. Readers meet a state that was always changing yet always claimed the same Roman name.

Significance. Reviewers have called it a landmark synthesis that may change how the subject is named and taught, while some note thinner coverage of religious life and a visible set of authorial preferences.

Key figures

Constantine the Great: Founder of New Rome on the Bosporus
Justinian I: Lawgiver and reconqueror of the sixth century
Heraclius: Emperor who defeated Persia and then lost the Levant to the Arabs
Basil II: Macedonian ruler at the height of medieval expansion
Alexios I Komnenos: Restorer of the state after 1081
Constantine XI Palaiologos: Last emperor, killed at the fall of the city

Summary

The New Roman Empire is a one-volume narrative history of the eastern Roman Empire, the state modern writers call Byzantium, from the reforms of Diocletian in the late third century to the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Its author, Anthony Kaldellis, is a historian at the University of Chicago, and the book was published by Oxford University Press at the end of 2023 (many catalogues date it 2024) in more than a thousand pages with maps, color plates and glossaries. It is protected by copyright; the library offers this summary and a study guide, not the text. The book's starting point is a question of names. The people of this empire called themselves Romans and their state Romanía; 'Byzantine' is a label coined by later Western scholars. Kaldellis writes their history as the continuation of the Roman Empire, governed from New Rome on the Bosporus, and he presents it as a political society whose emperors depended on the consent of the people, the army and the senate, and could be removed when they lost it. The narrative is chronological. It begins with Diocletian's division and reorganization of the empire and Constantine's adoption of Christianity and founding of Constantinople. It treats the fifth century not as an age of decline but as one of recovery in the East while the western provinces were lost, then the age of Justinian, with its law code, reconquests in Italy and Africa, and Hagia Sophia, and the plague and wars that followed. The seventh-century crises, the long war with Persia and the Arab conquests that took Syria, Palestine and Egypt, leave a smaller state that survives in Anatolia and the Balkans, the period of the iconoclast controversy. Kaldellis then traces the expansion of the Macedonian dynasty in the ninth and tenth centuries, culminating under Basil II; the losses after Manzikert in 1071 and the Komnenian restoration under Alexios I and his successors; the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and the successor states; and the restored Palaiologan empire, shrinking under pressure from Serbs, Italians and Ottomans until Constantine XI died defending the city in 1453. Along the way Kaldellis argues that the state lasted so long because of competent administration, a professional army, a tax system that funded both, and a population that identified with the Roman polity. He also gives sustained attention to Sicily and southern Italy, to the empire's neighbors, and to ecclesiastical politics, including the Christological and hesychast disputes.

Virtues in this work

Fortitude: Kaldellis narrates how the empire survived the seventh-century Persian and Arab onslaughts and rebuilt itself in Anatolia.
Justice: The book credits the empire's endurance partly to a legal system, from Justinian's codification onward, that gave subjects reason to support the state.
Magnanimity: The narrative closes with Constantine XI choosing to die defending Constantinople in 1453 rather than abandon it.
Prudence: Kaldellis shows emperors such as Alexios I restoring a broken state through diplomacy and careful finance as much as through battle.

Plot or Argument

Introduction: Romans, not Byzantines
Kaldellis explains why he calls the empire's people Romans and its state Romanía, and sets out his view of the empire as a continuing Roman political community.
Diocletian, Constantine and New Rome
The reforms of the late third and early fourth centuries, the conversion of Constantine and the founding of Constantinople create the framework of the later state.
The fifth century: survival in the East
While the western provinces fall to Goths, Vandals and others, the eastern government stabilizes its finances and army, a period Kaldellis treats as recovery.
Justinian and the sixth century
Codification of Roman law, reconquest of Africa and Italy, Hagia Sophia, the plague of 541 and renewed wars with Persia.
The seventh-century crisis and the iconoclast era
Heraclius's war with Persia, the Arab conquests, and the reorganization of a smaller empire in Anatolia and the Balkans, with the controversy over icons.
Macedonian expansion
From the ninth to the early eleventh century the empire recovers territory in the East and the Balkans, culminating under Basil II.
Manzikert and the Komnenian restoration
After defeats by the Seljuks and Normans, Alexios I and his successors rebuild the state and deal with the Crusades.
1204 and the successor states
The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople; Roman states survive at Nicaea, Epiros and Trebizond, and Nicaea recovers the capital in 1261.
The Palaiologan empire and 1453
A reduced empire endures civil wars, religious controversy and Ottoman expansion until the fall of Constantinople and the death of Constantine XI.

Lessons

Names shape understanding
Kaldellis begins by asking what the people of this empire called themselves. They were Romans, and the term 'Byzantine' was applied to them much later. Calling a people by their own name changes how we read their history: not as a strange offshoot but as the continuation of Rome.
- Why does Kaldellis prefer 'Romans' and 'Romanía' to 'Byzantines' and 'Byzantium'?
- What might be gained or lost by keeping the familiar term 'Byzantine'?
- Can you think of other peoples or places whose names were given by outsiders?
Why a state endures
The eastern Roman state lasted more than a thousand years after Constantine. Kaldellis attributes its endurance to working institutions: a tax system, a salaried army, a trained administration, and a people who regarded the state as theirs. Students can test this account against the episodes of collapse and recovery in the book.
- Which institutions does Kaldellis credit with the empire's survival?
- How did the empire recover after the losses of the seventh century and after 1204?
- What makes citizens identify with a government as their own?
Emperors and the consent of the people
Many emperors were overthrown by popular uprisings, military revolts or palace coups. Kaldellis reads these as signs that imperial power rested on the support of the people of Constantinople and the army, not on divine right alone. The book invites reflection on authority, legitimacy and accountability.
- Give two examples from the book in which an emperor lost power because he lost public support.
- How did Byzantine Christians reconcile the belief that God appointed emperors with the practice of deposing them?
A Christian empire
The New Roman Empire was the setting of the ecumenical councils, the Nicene Creed, Hagia Sophia, the icons and the monastic tradition of Mount Athos. Kaldellis narrates its church politics, from Christological controversies to hesychasm, as part of public life, and readers can see how theology and government were intertwined.
- Why did emperors involve themselves in doctrinal disputes?
- Which features of Eastern Christianity described in the book continue in Orthodox churches today?

Context

Since the Enlightenment, when Gibbon and others portrayed Byzantium as a long decline, Western scholarship often treated the eastern empire as a separate, Greek and theocratic civilization. Twentieth-century historians such as George Ostrogorsky, Steven Runciman and Dimitri Obolensky gave it fuller treatment, and more recent work has stressed its Roman identity. Kaldellis's book draws together that shift in a single large narrative.

Composition

Kaldellis built the book on decades of work translating and analyzing Byzantine historians and on his earlier arguments about Roman identity and popular sovereignty in Byzantium. Written for general readers as well as specialists, it relies throughout on primary sources and omits the familiar term 'Byzantine' from its own narrative wherever possible. Oxford University Press published it in late 2023.

Reception

Reviewers praised its scope and clarity; Leonora Neville in Bryn Mawr Classical Review called it a watershed volume in the study of east Roman history, while noting that its treatment of religious belief and of iconoclasm was less satisfying and that it lacks a bibliography of primary sources. Some reviewers observed that Kaldellis's own preferences, for example for civilian government and defensive warfare, shape his judgments, and others welcomed its challenge to older Western stereotypes. Its use of 'Romans' for the empire's people has been widely discussed.

Power / Politics Leadership Identity Self Faith / Religion War Violence Justice Law Memory / Time

Comparisons

herrin-byzantium
Herrin's shorter thematic history introduces Byzantium through topics and portraits; Kaldellis offers a continuous political narrative and a stronger argument about Roman identity.
gibbon-decline-and-fall-selections
Gibbon's later volumes shaped the image of Byzantium as a long decline; Kaldellis writes explicitly against that tradition.
anna-komnene-alexiad
Anna Komnene's history of her father is a principal source for the Komnenian restoration that Kaldellis narrates.
psellos-chronographia
Psellos, whom Kaldellis has translated and studied, is the main witness for the eleventh-century emperors and the court politics the book describes.
runciman-the-fall-of-constantinople-1453
Runciman's classic narrative of the siege of 1453 tells at length the final episode with which Kaldellis closes.
procopius-secret-history
Procopius's hostile portrait of Justinian and Theodora is one of the sources Kaldellis weighs in his chapters on the sixth century.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

The argument about names in the introduction, and how it shapes the whole narrative.
Moments of near collapse (the seventh century, 1071, 1204) and how the state recovered.
The role of the people of Constantinople, the army and the senate in making and unmaking emperors.
Church councils and theological controversies as public events.
The empire's neighbors: Persians, Arabs, Bulgarians, Rus, Normans, Venetians, Turks.

Key terms and names

Romanía: The name the empire's people used for their state and homeland; Kaldellis also calls it 'Romanland'.
New Rome: Constantinople, founded by Constantine in 330 on the site of Byzantion as a second capital of the Roman Empire.
Byzantine: A term applied to the eastern Roman Empire by Western scholars from the sixteenth century; it was not used by the empire's people for themselves.
Themes: Military-administrative provinces of the middle Byzantine period, whose origins historians debate.
Iconoclasm: The eighth- and ninth-century controversy over the veneration of religious images, resolved in favor of icons in 787 and 843.
Hesychasm: A tradition of Orthodox monastic prayer defended by Gregory Palamas in the fourteenth century.
Fourth Crusade: The Western expedition that captured and sacked Constantinople in 1204.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension What span of time does the book cover, and what events mark its beginning and end?
Comprehension What were the main crises the empire faced in the seventh century, and how did it survive them?
Interpretation How does calling the empire's people 'Romans' change the way you read their history?
Interpretation Kaldellis argues that emperors depended on popular consent. Is this persuasive, given how emperors described their power as coming from God?
Interpretation Reviewers noted that the book's treatment of religion is less full than its political history. How does this affect the picture of the empire it gives?
Big Question What makes a people's identity continue across centuries of change in language, religion and territory?

Faith Connections

Romans 13:1–7 (Scripture)
Paul's teaching on governing authorities and taxes was read constantly in a Christian empire that collected taxes to pay its armies and officials.
Hebrews 13:14 (Scripture)
'For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.' Even the city that lasted over eleven centuries as New Rome fell in 1453.
John of Damascus, On the Divine Images (Church Fathers)
The great defense of icons written during the iconoclast controversy that Kaldellis narrates.
The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (325, 381) (Great Conversation)
Formulated at councils summoned by emperors of New Rome, the creed remains the shared confession of most Christian churches.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: The people of the eastern empire called themselves Romans and maintained Roman law, institutions and political culture; their state endured for over a thousand years because of effective administration, a funded army and broad popular identification with the polity; therefore 'Byzantium' should be understood as the continuing Roman Empire, a New Roman Empire, rather than as a separate or declining civilization.

Rhetorical device: redefinition (renaming the subject). By consistently calling the empire's people Romans and their state Romanía instead of Byzantines and Byzantium, Kaldellis makes his central argument through vocabulary on every page.

Debate: Resolved: Historians should stop calling the eastern Roman Empire 'Byzantium'.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Kaldellis argues that the eastern Roman state lasted because its people identified with it. Using two periods of crisis from the book, evaluate this argument.

Comparison with Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire: Compare how Kaldellis and Herrin introduce Byzantium to general readers. How do their structures (narrative versus thematic) and their emphases on religion and identity differ?

Medical Lens

The book is a political narrative, but it includes the great epidemics that struck the empire: the plague of Justinian from 541 and its recurrences, and the Black Death of 1347, which reached Constantinople early in its spread to Europe. It also touches on the empire's charitable foundations, which included hospitals with salaried physicians, and on emperors' illnesses and deaths as political events. Readers interested in Byzantine medicine will find more in specialized studies.

Plague Epidemic Physicians Doctors Public Health Sanitation

Chapters on Justinian and the sixth century
The arrival of plague in 541–542 and its demographic and political effects.
Plague Epidemic
Chapters on the Palaiologan period
The Black Death of 1347 at Constantinople amid civil war.
Plague Epidemic

Creative Prompts

Classroom
Create a series of maps of Romanía in 400, 565, 717, 1025, 1180, 1204 and 1400, and discuss what each change in the borders meant for the people who lived there.
Essay
Write a speech by a citizen of Constantinople addressing the crowd in the Hippodrome during a crisis, arguing whether the reigning emperor still deserves the people's support.
Classroom
Make a chart of emperors who were overthrown and how (uprising, army revolt, palace coup), and compare it with the emperors who died in office.
Dialogue
Imagine a conversation between a Latin crusader and a Roman of Constantinople in 1203, each explaining what he means by 'Roman'.