PENGUIN Count Belisarius

So my excuse is that I needed some light reading during my vacation, which was spent between two medieval forts on the Peloponnese.In school we'd all been taught about Justinian and Belisarius and my mom (though not my history teacher) had already told me that the great general had been recalled back to Constantinople before his business in Italy was finished because Justinian feared him.And there's stuff here that my mom never actually told me before, first and foremost that Justinian and Belisarius' wives used to run a, let us say, geisha house together before they contrived through marriage to run the Roman Empire.But I probably should have sought out an actual history book. In Greek.Instead, I spent my time translating everything in my head, as I was being re-introduced to Ioannis Kappadokis, the "Prasinoi" and the "Venetoi" of the "Stasi tou Nika" riots, Narses, sundry Huns and Goths, forgotten strands of Orthodox Christian heresy and bits of Italy like Rimini and Ravenna I'd once visited with my grandma.That said, I'm glad I read this. It kept me good company and it was easy to carry about during my travels and it reminded me, needless to say, of how lucky I am to live in the twenty first century!

This is a neglected classic almost as good as I Claudius. Not as well known because we have been much more exposed culturally to Roman history and the early Caesars. After reading this I got hold of Judith Herrin's Byzantium to gen up on this neglected but important aspect of history.

A very slow starter. Almost 200 pages before I got used to the stoney style. The story is well worth telling however.

Book as described, arrived as suggested

is ok