Proud “City of God”

This is an account, historical and descriptive, of the fabulous Eastern Roman Empire, which survived the fall of Rome by a thousand years. The work of a French scholar, it is designed to make more generally known one of the most extraordinary civilizations the world has seen. The ideal of Byzantine culture has exerted a strong fascination upon many who have come to know it. Yeats especially was attracted by Byzantium, feeling that there, as never before or since, “religious, aesthetic, and practical life were one.”

The reason behind this was Byzantium’s representation of itself. The Byzantines believed that their state was actually the extension upon earth of Christ’s Kingdom. They kept an Emperor only for form; the real Emperor was Christ, for whom a throne, empty save for a copy of the Gospel, was always maintained beside that of the acting Emperor. “The Byzantine Empire was, in effect, nothing but the great scene of a spectacular drama, a mystery or a passion play, in which the consecrated dynast as the leading character played through the centuries the part of Christ.”

RW

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Richard M. Weaver

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This is an account, historical and descriptive, of the fabulous Eastern Roman Empire, which survived the fall of Rome by a thousand years. The work of a French scholar, it is designed to make more generally known one of the most extraordinary civilizations the world has seen. The ideal of Byzantine culture has exerted a strong fascination upon many who have come to know it. Yeats especially was attracted by Byzantium, feeling that there, as never before or since, “religious, aesthetic, and practical life were one.”

The reason behind this was Byzantium’s representation of itself. The Byzantines believed that their state was actually the extension upon earth of Christ’s Kingdom. They kept an Emperor only for form; the real Emperor was Christ, for whom a throne, empty save for a copy of the Gospel, was always maintained beside that of the acting Emperor. “The Byzantine Empire was, in effect, nothing but the great scene of a spectacular drama, a mystery or a passion play, in which the consecrated dynast as the leading character played through the centuries the part of Christ.”