Ghost Empire by Richard Fidler

*** Spoiler Alert ****

Members were mostly positive about Richard Fidler’s Ghost Empire describing it as an-easy –to- read absorbing history of Byzantium, although some of us commented “Why didn’t we know more about this?” Those of us who studied history at school can remember covering Ancient Greece, Roman Empire, Dark Ages and Renaissance, with some mention along the way of the Crusades, certainly without dwelling on the crime of the 4th crusade and the sacking of Constantinople.

The Ghost Empire is based on Fidler’s trip to Istanbul with his son, Joe, in 2014 in search of the ruins of Constantinople and discovering where the echoes (“ghosts”) of Byzantium can be still found today. While Fidler talks about the journey as a “coming of age” for both son and father, some of us felt that Joe was a bit “limp” and used in the book at a foil, enabling Richard to pontificate on another piece of Constantinople’s ruins and to expound on his knowledge of a particular event in its history. According to Fidler, however, both father and son share a love of history and Joe was able to critique the unpublished drafts of the book which his father read aloud to him.

Fidler’s book fills in the gory details (literally) of the amazing history of the emperors of the eastern Roman Empire and the survival and flourishing, after shaky beginnings, of Christiantity. He gave us enough fractricide, eye gouging, flayings, beheadings, nose slittings, and betrayals, to last us a while. The details that have survived of the blow-by-blows in famous battles are remarkable and we were impressed with the arsenal of weapons and defences used in Byzantium such as Constantinople’s famous fifth century triple rows of walled fortifications and the “Greek fire” projected from ships.

For some of us there were rather too many details and interest flagged towards the end. It was thought the book (at 492 pages in total) was too long and we no longer cared whether Maximum succeeded Maximus or if that was his cousin Maxima II.

However, there were some fascinating characters to read about including Anna Commena, believed to have been the first female historian; Empress Theodora who gave women rights under Emperor Justinian’s new laws; Honoria, sister of the emperor, Valentinian, who asked Attila the Hun to help her get out of an arranged marriage; Princess Theophano who is credited for introducing the fork (and bathing) into Europe; and Princess Zoe who spread the Orthodox religion and belief in empire to Russia when she married Ivan III after the fall of Constantinople. And that was just the women in the book!

Members thought the sections on modern day Istanbul and what can still be seen of Constantinople today provided a welcome break in the historical narrative and provided some interesting details about modern controversies such as Deep State which links the idea of Byzantine scheming with conspiracy theories about criminal elements in the modern administration. Those among members who have been to Istanbul remembered the emotion they felt in visiting the Hagia Sophia (now a museum), just as Fidler describes, and of stumbling across the remaining churches. Others of us have been inspired to add Istanbul to their bucket lists as a fascinating place to visit.

Other great “layman” histories/travel logs include:

Outposts of the British Empire by Simon Winchester – (now a bit out of date, but many other titles by this great author)
Colour: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay
Girt: the unauthorised history of Australia by David Hunt (warning: terrible puns)
A short history of everything by Bill Bryson
The Hare with Amber Eyes: A family’s century of art and loss by Edmund de Waal
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder
Blue Latitudes: boldly going where Captain Cook has gone before by Tony Horowitz.

You probably know many more titles to share with members!

Happy reading.