Everyone in medieval Europe knew the magic name of Constantinople. Micklegarth, or Big Town, they called it. Or Byzantium or New Rome (its official name) or Caesar City. Whatever the name, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire was renowned as a fabulous city with shining copper towers, merchants who dressed like princes, and palaces so vast and rich that the eye could not encompass them. But the Byzantines themselves called Constantinople "the city guarded by God."

In many ways they were right. For almost a thousand years after the fall of the Roman Empire, when almost every important city in the then-known world was sacked and looted by barbarians from the north or east, Constantinople defended and preserved the ideals of Christianity. Set on a triangular piece of land, like a hitchhiker's thumb pointed toward Asia Minor, it bridged the East and West. Originally Roman, Greek in its love of learning, and Oriental in its splendor, the city was a refuge for the men and ideas of ancient civilizations. And whether it was the capital of a mighty empire stretching from the Euphrates in Asia to Gibraltar or an isolated, beleaguered city, it was always a melting pot of races, a crossroads of the world.

Here, then, is the intriguing story of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, for hundreds of years the greatest Christian power in the world. Written by a well-known writer and scholar and illustrated with stylistic drawings by Richard M. Powers, it is a fascinating introduction to one of the least familiar but most vigorous and colorful cultures of the world.

From the dust jacket