Available From UC Press

Byzantium, that dark sphere on the periphery of medieval Europe, is commonly regarded as the immutable residue of Rome's decline. In this highly original and provocative work, Alexander Kazhdan and Ann Wharton Epstein revise this traditional image by documenting the dynamic social changes that occurred during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

A. P. Kazhdan, the distinguished Russian Byzantinist, is Senior Research Associate at Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies. Ann Wharton Epstein, past President of the Byzantine Studies Conference, is Associate Professor of Art History at Duke University.