The greatness of Byzantium consisted in a "triple merger" - the Roman body, the Greek mind and the mystical oriental spirit (R. Byron). The Byzantines were a highly religious society in which there was virtually no illiteracy and in which many emperors were famous for scholarship; a society that preserved much of the legacy of Greek and Roman Antiquity in those dark ages when the light of teaching in the West nearly faded; and finally by the society that created such a phenomenon as Byzantine art. The famous British historian John Julius Norwich presents a detailed overview of the history of the Byzantine Empire from its first days until its tragic death. "The Byzantine Empire lasted 1123 years and 18 days - from the founding of Constantine the Great on Monday May 11, 330 and until the conquest of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II on Tuesday May 29, 1453. The first part of the book describes the history of the empire from its founding to the formation of its western rival, the Holy Roman Empire, including the coronation of Charlemagne in Rome on Christmas Day 800. The second part tells about the successes of Byzantium throughout the reign of the dazzling Macedonian dynasty until the climax of its power under the rule of Basil II the Bulgarians, but this part ends on a bad omen - the first of three great defeats in Byzantine history that the empire suffered from the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The third, and last, part describes how fateful this defeat turned out to be. The history of the last two centuries of the existence of Byzantium, which found itself in the shadows against the backdrop of the heyday of the Ottoman dynasty in Asia Minor, is filled with pessimism, and only the last chapter, with all its tragedy, raises the spirit again - how inevitably all stories about heroism should end." (John Julius Norwich)