Books
30 Best Novels About the Byzantine Empire
Bestselling authors first, then star rating.
Period
Byzantine Empire
330–1453 CE
The Byzantine Empire centred on Constantinople and preserved eastern Roman imperial government long after the fall of the western empire. It combined Roman law, Greek culture, Orthodox Christianity, court ceremony, military frontiers, and diplomacy with neighbours from the Balkans, steppe, Persia, the Islamic world, and the West. Its long history included recovery, crisis, crusader attack, and final conquest by the Ottomans.
The empire matters because it complicates any simple idea of the medieval world as only western European. Byzantine politics linked emperors, generals, monks, merchants, eunuchs, empresses, and foreign powers in a highly sophisticated state. Its survival shaped Christianity, trade, art, warfare, and the balance between Europe and Asia.
Cecelia Holland’s Byzantine fiction, Robert Graves’s Count Belisarius, and novels about Theodora, Justinian, crusaders, and Constantinople use the empire’s courtly and military drama. Byzantine settings suit books about palace intrigue, frontier generals, religious argument, spies, merchants, and the slow pressure of imperial decline.
Related people for Byzantine Empire
Abd-ar-Rahman III891–961 Antonina495–565 Bardas Phokas the Youngerc. 940–989 Bardas Sklerostenth century–991 Basil II958–1025 Belisarius505–565 Edward I of England1239–1307 Edward the Confessordied 1066 Frederick Barbarossa1122–1190 Galeazzo II Visconti1320–1378 Harald III of Norway1015–1066 Harold Godwinson1022–1066 Irene of Athens752–803 Justinian Ic. 483–565 Konstantinos VIII960–1028 Mehmed II1432–1481 Niketas Choniates1155–1217 Philip IV of France1268–1314 Procopiusc. 5th century–565 Richard I of England1157–1199 Theodorac. 500–548 Vladimir the Greatc. 958–1015 William the Conqueror1028–1087
Non Fiction
5 Non-Fiction Books About the Byzantine Empire
Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.
