Lars Brownworth Lost To The West Summary

Byzantine was an empire lost to the void of time, its memory wiped from minds of all. Lars Brownworth, an established author, tried to do justice to the book and offer a voice to the ones drowned out by the pages of history. He told the stories of a great empire that served as a ground of rebirth for a crumbling Rome, rescuing it from a certain doom, in an attempt to expose one to the history of Byzantine vast enough to rival the lands of the empire during the reign of Justinian. The author pieces together the East and West, Byzantium and Rome, in an artful masterpiece as one would expect from someone who has as much distinguished work and experience as him. Mr. Brownworth was once a history teacher, and thus knows how to teach history in a way that captivates students or readers of any age. Before the publishing of Lost to the West, Lars Brownworth had also published a podcast called “12 Byzantine Rulers” which addressed the history of the little-known Byzantine. His hunger …show more content…
In the East, iconoclasm was taking root: the idea of holy icons becoming a substitute for God, and were becoming regarded as idols. Thus, there was a large movement to destroy them. This drove the Roman Catholic Church away, as they couldn’t believe the sight of their fellow believers destroying the symbols that meant so much to their faith (p. 140). In the West, Pope Leo III had also claimed the sole power of crowning the emperor and crowned a Frankish barbarian named Charles. This sparked rivalry in the East, who already had an empress, Irene. “Just as there was one God in heaven, there was only one Roman Empire and one emperor here on Earth.” (p. 153). The Byzantines still considered themselves to part of the Roman Empire, and there was only one emperor who would rule. This supports the claim of Byzantium being the successor to