New Rome

A TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR ''Conventional histories of the last days of the Roman Empire will no longer suffice after you read this book.'' Averil Cameron, author of Byzantine Matters''Fascinating ... illuminating ... Stephenson examines ordinary life, painting a vivid and intriguing picture.'' The Times''Brings the world of New Rome alive with exceptional learning and a magnificent openness to modern scientific methods that breathe life into conventional narratives of political and social history.'' The New York Review of Books Long before Rome fell to the Ostrogoths in AD 476, a new city had risen to take its place as the beating heart of a late antique empire, the glittering Constantinople: New Rome. In this magisterial work, Professor Paul Stephenson charts the centuries surrounding this epic shift of power. He traces the cultural, social and political forces that led to the empire being ruled from a city straddling Europe and Asia, placing all into a rich natural and environ