The Byzantine Empire or the City of Constantine (Constantinople), the "New Rome" of the Eastern Empire, was destined to become from the early 4th century the capital of the Byzantine or medieval Greek Empire, which was intended to play a dominant role in the historical evolution of the peoples and nations of the southeastern Mediterranean basin for about eleven and a half centuries, until shortly after the mid-15th century another great power, the Ottoman Turks, arriving from the East, replaced the Byzantine Empire in this critical region.

Throughout its long duration, the Byzantine Empire managed to survive through countless external threats from the West, the North, and the East, as well as amidst many internal turmoil. Concurrently, it succeeded in creating a great self-sufficient culture and civilization, with amazing achievements in literature, science, and the arts.

The main characteristics of this unique civilization were not only the ancient Greek and Hellenistic heritage and the Greek Orthodox Christian tradition, but also the profound social, institutional, economic, and cultural changes and reforms, which led to the gradual transformation of the late Roman state into a clearly medieval Greek state.

The beginning of the Byzantine Empire marks the history of medieval Hellenism, while its final fall coincides with the dawn of modern Hellenism through the difficult centuries of Ottoman rule.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]