Vidas de los emperadores de Bizancio

The Lives of the Emperors of Byzantium constitute a fascinating psychological portrait of the Roman autokratores of 11th-century Constantinople. A work whose refined style and language have proven a challenge for editors and translators, it would have captivated Marcel Schwob or Stefan Zweig had they known of it. The author, Michael Psellos (philosopher, orator, and advisor to several of the sovereigns of his time), witnessed the apogee of an empire stretching from Italy to the Caucasus and from Syria to the Danube. But instead of focusing his narrative on the analysis of wars and civil conflicts, following the pattern of classical Greek historiography, he chose to turn his lens on the figures of the emperors who led Byzantium from its greatest splendor to its deepest crisis, describing their strengths and weaknesses with the precision of a keen observer. It is indeed the personality of the emperors that, according to Psellos, determines the fate of the Roman Empire. The reader will have to judge for themselves whether his approach was correct or not.