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In A.D. 330 Emperor Constantine inaugurated Constantinople as his capital on the site of the Greek city of Byzantium. The town reamined the capital of the East Empire until 1453 when it was captured by the Turks. This book is a history of the Byzantine Empire which was centered upon its capital city, Constantinople. This books concentrates on the tumultuous middle years of the Byzantiun and closes with a still more fateful event: the Empire's catastrophic defeat by the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert in 1071, a defeat that caused it to lose 3/4 of Asia Minor and began the slow but inexorable Turkish advance that eventually ended with the capture of Constantinople in 1453. But, Norwich shows that Byzantium was fighting for its life due to growing external forces from the north and south and internal clashes as well.
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