Description

A participant in the Greek struggle for independence alongside Lord Byron, the philhellene George Finlay (1799-1875) lent his support to the newly liberated nation while diligently studying its past. The monographs he published in his lifetime covered the history of Greece since the Roman conquest, spanning two millennia. His two-volume History of the Greek Revolution (1861) is reissued separately in this series. Edited by the scholar Henry Fanshawe Tozer (1829-1916) and published in 1877, this seven-volume collection brought together Finlay's histories, incorporating significant revisions. Notably, Finlay gives due consideration to social and economic factors as well as high politics. Volume 2 covers the Byzantine empire from 716 to 1057. Finlay traces the stabilisation of the empire under the Isaurian dynasty in the face of Muslim conquests, and the consolidation of Byzantine administration under the later Basilian or Macedonian dynasty, closing with the reign of Michael VI.