Byzantium lasted a thousand years, ruled to the end by self-styled ‘emperors of theRomans’. It underwent kaleidoscopic territorial and structural changes, yet recovered repeatedly from disaster: even after the near-impregnable Constantinople fellin 1204, variant forms of the empire reconstituted themselves. The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire tells the story, tracing political and military events,religious controversies and economic change. It offers clear, authoritative chapterson the main events and periods, with more detailed chapters on outlying regionsand neighbouring societies and powers of Byzantium. With aids such as maps,a glossary, an alternative place-name table and references to English translationsof sources, it will be valuable as an introduction. However, it also offers stimulating new approaches and important findings, making it essential reading forpostgraduates and for specialists.jonathan shepard was for many years a Lecturer in History at the Universityof Cambridge, and was a Fellow of Selwyn College and of Peterhouse. He is the coeditor (with Simon Franklin) of Byzantine Diplomacy (1992), co-author (also withSimon Franklin) of The Emergence of Rus, 750–1200 (1996), author of Nespokoinis’sedi: b’lgaro-vizantiiska konfrontatsiia, obmen i s’zhitelstvo prez srednite vekoveUneasy Neighbours: Bulgaro-Byzantine Confrontation, Exchange and Co-existence in the Middle Ages and editor of The Expansion of Orthodox Europe:Byzantium, the Balkans and Russia (2007). Shepard is Doctor Honoris Causa ofSt Kliment Ohrid University in Sofia.