What are you currently reading?

[Florestan]

Interesting. How do you rate that?

It's excellent. David M. Nicol was a pupil of Steven Runciman and it shows. He knows his primary sources inside out and is able to condense them in a very informative and well-written form, all the while carefully separating the wheat from the chaff. The result is a vivid portrait of the last Roman emperor and his entourage. Highly recommended.

[AnotherSpin]

Is there mention here of the curious development of subsequent events, whereby a predominantly Mongol-Tatar formation began to encroach on the role of the new Rome?