Byzantium
A World Civilization

This book introduces the great civilization of Byzantium and shows the centrality of Byzantium's role in world history. It also celebrates the founding by Robert Woods bliss Mildred Bliss of one of the major institutions devoted to the study of that civilization, the Byzantine Center at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.Through seven interrelated chapters, which were originally given as lectures at two meetings held in Washington in 1990 and in 1991 to honor he fiftieth anniversary of Dumbarton Oaks, the contributors demonstrate the place of Byzantine civilization in world history, both Eastern and Western. At the same time, they show the place of Dumbarton Oaks in interpreting that civilization for what its founders called "an everchanging present."