“A Short History of Byzantium” is aptly named. It is a whirlwind tour of a fascinating and not well-understood empire and time (at least by me). My main criticism is that it is too short. I wonder how great it would have been if the author had committed, say, a couple of hundred more pages to some of the critical periods and players in the Byzantine empire that are essentially glossed over. I may pick up the 3-volume tome he has authored, but a “middle-ground” alternative would be outstanding. As for the content, Norwich is a superb, engaging author, keeping the text flowing and interesting while cataloguing a bewilderingly long list of obscure players, titles, dates and places. The book could have easily become unreadable given the nature and volume of subject matter—and it does in fact bog down occasionally—but overall, is very readable and entertaining. Highly recommend it for anyone who wants a better sense of the world right after the peak of the Roman Empire.