LITERARY ROAD TO BYZANTIUM

Feckless Piker (FP): Yo, Oddvark, what you been up to lately? Have you read any good books or seen any good movies?

Oddvark Contremundo (OC): Well, I just finished a novel titled "The Historian" that was pretty darned good.

FP: What was it about?

OC: It was about the search for Dracula's tomb. A historian and his wife search all over Istanbul, Bulgaria and Romania looking for the final burying place of Vlad Tepes, also known as Vlad the Impaler. Turns out Vlad isn't dead; he's undead.

FP: Sounds kind of scary!

OC: Parts of the book are definitely creepy. It incorporates most of the elements of the Dracula legend with large dosages of Eastern European history. I was already familiar with most of the Dracula legend, but much of the Eastern European history was new to me and fascinating. In fact, it was so fascinating that after finishing "The Historian", I started a non-fiction titled "A Short History of Byzantium".

FP: That sounds like pretty heavy stuff dude.

OC: It's not so bad. Byzantium was essentially the remnants of the Roman Empire. The Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the empire from Rome to Byzantium, which was later named Constantinople in his honor. After moving the capital to Constantinople, the imperial diadem changed hands many times after the death of Constantine. Additionally, the Byzantines were constantly defending the borders of the empire against Goths, Visigoths, Vandals, Bulgars, Persians and later Muslims. With the exception of Julian the Apostate, the Byzantine Empire was ruled by a long series of Christian emperors. The first openly Christian emperor of the Roman Empire was Constantine and his empire's religious orientation continued almost unabated until the time of the Ottoman Turks.

FP: Oddvark, this is incredible stuff.

OC: Oh, sometimes real history can be better than a soap opera. The various Byzantine Emperors were constantly busy trying to defend their thrones against usurpers, both real and imagined. Rivals for power and wealth poisoned, tortured, maimed, and killed their rivals for hundreds of years. There was almost a constant state of warfare both within the empire and on the borders of the empire against invading forces. One of the Byzantine emperors had a nose made of solid gold because he had previously been deposed by one of his in-laws and his natural nose was cut off. It was thought that such disfigurement would disqualify him from future leadership. His rivals thought wrong (this is why most of the time rivals killed the entire family of a deposed emperor); Justinian II returned to Constantinople with his golden proboscis and slaughtered his rivals.

FP: Wow, this is the sort of history I could get into.

OC: Oh yeah, there was no end to the murder and mayhem that took place during the time of the Byzantines. However, there was more to Byzantium than warfare and power struggles. Much great art was created due to the growing wealth and power of the church. There were also great philosophical and theological debates that took place during this period in history. Many great ecumenical councils took place to debate and decide upon many of the great mysteries of Christianity. For you see, there are many gaps in the Bible that mankind needed to address. Thus, many hours were spend trying to divine the nature and will of God and Christ. Ultimately, some of these debates resulted in the great schism that formed the basis for the separation of the Eastern Orthodox Church from the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, some of the first Christian Crusades into the Holy Lands originated during the Byzantine era. For hundreds of years, the Holy Land was just a small part of the Byzantine Empire. It practically encircled the Mediterranean Sea until the rise of Mohamed and his subsequent Caliphs.

FP: And you learned all this because you read a vampire story?

OC: One never knows where reading will take you. From my humble abode (storage unit) to the opulent palaces of the Emperor Justinian is just the turn of a page.

FP: Where will you go next?

OC: Spain I think. Lots of rich history there. Lots of art, architecture, religion, wars, intrigue, and much, much more. It is amazing what one can find between the covers of a book.

FP; No doubt, some of the most interesting aspects of life take place under and between the covers.