Ghost Empire: A Journey to the Legendary Constantinople

by Richard Fidler

Overview

"A brilliant reconstruction of the saga of power, glory, and invasion that is the one-thousand year story of Constantinople. A truly marvelous book." —Simon Winchester

Ghost Empire is a rare treasure—an utterly captivating blend of the historical and the contemporary, narrated by a master storyteller. The story is a revelation: a beautifully written ode to a lost civilization combined with a warmly observed father-son adventure far from home.

In 2014, Richard Fidler and his son Joe made a journey to Istanbul. Fired by Richard's passion for the rich history of the dazzling Byzantine Empire—centered around the legendary Constantinople—we are swept into some of the most extraordinary tales in history. The clash of civilizations, the fall of empires, the rise of Christianity, revenge, lust, murder. Turbulent stories from the past are brought vividly to life at the same time as a father navigates the unfolding changes in his relationship with his son.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681775777
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	09/05/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	520
Sales rank:	918,649
File size:	31 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Richard Fidler presents "Conversations with Richard Fidler," an in-depth and personal radio program broadcast across Australia on ABC Radio. He has interviewed prime ministers, astronauts, writers, and scientists, but the program often features remarkable people who are unknown to the wider world. The program is the most popular podcast in Australia, with over a million downloaded programs every month. In another life, Richard was a member of Australian comedy trio the Doug Anthony Allstars (DAAS), which played to audiences all over the world. This is his first book.

Table of Contents

Author's note xi

Timeline xvii

Introduction 1

1 Radiant City 11

2 Rome to Byzantium 25

3 The Deep State 76

4 Persian Nightmares 145

5 Children of Ishmael 180

6 Uncreated Light 232

7 The Starlit Golden Bough 283

8 The Fourth Crusade 326

9 End of Days 360

10 A Thing Not of This World 390

11 The Artifice of Eternity 431

Acknowledgements 454

Endnotes 455

Bibliography 461

Image credits 471

Index 472

Editorial Reviews

…entertains us with novelistic vignettes and cut-and-paste erudition…Fidler displays great charm in the telling of his tale, spicing it with delicious gossip.

The New York Times Book Review - Lawrence Osborne

07/03/2017
Australian radio personality Fidler recounts a trip to Turkey with his son in this surprisingly diverting tome that elucidates the rise and fall of Nova Roma. Specialists will find nothing groundbreaking, and scholarly meticulousness is not Fidler’s style, but he’s witty and has a knack for delivering unexpected anecdotes. In Fidler’s telling, the lives of the saints that so captivated the Eastern Church become action-packed tales of “gifted men and women who could fly through the sky, read minds, and hurl fireballs at demons.” Diplomatic history here is more modest but no less entertaining. For instance, the Byzantine princess Theophanu, on wedding Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Younger in 972, introduced new customs to Western nobles; many “saw the fork as a symbol of effete eastern decadence,” while for others Theophanu’s daily bath proved “controversial, a practice that made her appear pristine and ethereal, compared to the pungent westerners in Otto’s court.” The book follows the city from its founding as “a mirror of heaven” to its 1453 bombardment by “an artillery device so immensely huge and heavy that a team of sixty oxen and two hundred men were required to haul it.” Fidler colors the contours of ancient history while sharing personal reminiscences of his travels with his son. Maps & illus. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Fidler displays great charm in the telling of his tale, spicing it with delicious gossip.

The New York Times Book Review

Byzantium, Constantinople, and Istanbul—a three thousand year story of phantasms and delusions, of invasion, collapse, empire, decay, a tragic continuo of golden and grandiloquent hopelessness, an erotic magic-show poised at the sea-washed edges of Asia and Europe. All of this provides a canvas for Richard Fidler to reconstruct, quite brilliantly, a saga of power and glory that most of us vaguely remember, but few of us have had a chance fully to savor. Now, thanks to the stylish cleverness of an exceptionally curious and talented man, we can feast on what strange magic the city brought—and still brings today—to the world beyond. I am speechless with admiration.

Simon Winchester

Fidler’s story leaves its readers with a sense of faith in the renewing, illuminating, social powers of historical narrative. The tale of the Ghost Empire has bridged the gap between a father and son, enriching the contemporary world with the echoes of the past. Byzantium never really died. Its labyrinthine—its byzantine—intrigues cast their shadows over the city still.

Sydney Morning Herald

★ 07/01/2017
While traveling with his teenage son, debut author Fidler, the host of a popular radio program in Australia, felt inspired to write a history of Constantinople. Combining history and travelog, he details his visits to well-known sites such as the Hagia Sophia, the Hippodrome, and the Theodosian Walls, expounding on the role each location played in the city's history. He covers the key events of Constantinople from 330 CE, when it was founded as the new capital of the Roman Empire, to its fall in 1453, when it was captured by the Ottoman Turks and renamed Istanbul. During the journey, Fidler introduces fascinating characters such as Constantine the Great, Justinian, and Empress Irene of Athens. He underscores the many violent conflicts throughout Constantinople's existence, including those with the Persian Empire, the Crusaders, and the Turks. He also notes the city's important contributions to the modern world. Fidler's prose is lively and entertaining; he has a great affection for his subject and often describes it in a way that makes it seem magical. VERDICT Strongly recommended for anyone interested in traveling to Istanbul and in its history.—Dave Pugl, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zurich, IL

Library Journal

2017-06-15
A history/travel guide about the fabled eastern capital of the Romans.Between Constantinople's founding in 330 to its final siege by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, there were nearly 100 Roman emperors (and several empresses) and a flourishing Roman, Greek, and Christian culture that defied the so-called Dark Ages of Western Europe. In this entertaining survey, Fidler, the host of a popular radio program in Australia, recounts this history through the lens of a recent trip with his 14-year-old son to Istanbul. Alternating between scholarship and travelogue, taking the form of a gentle lecture for the curious, sometimes-skeptical son, the narrative presents a palatable, nondidactic history lesson, providing a sense of how the Turkish culture reigns in the present. While scholars refer to this early era of the city as Byzantium, its inhabitants considered themselves proudly Roman, inheritors of the great, sprawling civilization of Augustus, with Latin as their language until Greek became the lingua franca after the rule of Justinian. While Rome was being sacked by the Visigoths, the eastern capital of Constantinople—two-thirds of which is surrounded by water, thus enjoying an incomparable strategic advantage—was constructing the great Theodosian Walls around its one land direction, just before Attila the Hun could attack in 447. Indeed, the Muslims trained their conquering eyes on the city numerous times until the eventual conquest by Mehmed II. The author navigates fluidly from the city's founding by Constantine, the first Christian ruler, moving on to the significant rule of Justinian—who commissioned his famous Codex from Roman law, still pertinent in European civil law today—and his strong-willed wife, Theodora, and the construction of the Hagia Sophia. He also covers the schisms, plagues, Crusades, sieges, and the creation of the "deep state" that resonates today under Turkey's current authoritarian prime minister. Fidler provides a palpable sense of this glittering city built as "a mirror of heaven."

Kirkus Reviews