Byzantium was one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever seen. A dynamic, cosmopolitan melting-pot of East and West, Christianity and paganism, its empire lasted for over 1000 years. Judith Herrin tells its extraordinary story afresh, exploring aspects familiar and unfamiliar, from the glorious church of Hagia Sophia to the secret of Greek Fire, from iconoclasm to eunuchs, from the historian Anna Komnene to the humble fork. In doing so she shows how Byzantium led Europe out of the dark ages and into the modern world.