Three stars is just an average - if you’re interested at all in the history of this part of the world, this is a five-star book. If not, well, you should read something else.
Byzantium was an empire carved out of a rock and a hard place. Constantly bordered by rival states that basically wanted it gone, its history is tumultuous. Yet its impact on the region was huge and can be seen throughout the Mediterranean. Viewed as an Eastern state by Europe and as a European state by its Middle-Eastern neighbors, Byzantium maintained an uneasy balance between these two worlds that you can still see today in modern-day Turkey.
This book covers much of this history and has plenty of interesting details about the people of this empire. The book is VERY dry, however, and will probably test your endurance in a few places.
