Byzantium is both a city and an empire. The curious fate of the once humble city of the Bosporus quickly created the legend. Byzantium-Constantinople, destined to become the seat of the first Christian empire, was considered from the start a work of divine inspiration […] and the founding of the city chosen by God was thought to symbolize the founding of the Christian empire. Christian historiography created the legend of the holy city of Constantinople as a response, one might say, to the pagan legend of the founding of Rome […] Thus, with Constantinople, a new world enters History… The book by Eleni Glykatzi-Ahrweiler, The Political Ideology of the Byzantine Empire, has unanimously received praise from international critics. "It should be an indispensable aid for every student of Greek history and every person concerned with modern Greek history and culture," wrote VIMA on 18/4/1976. And with the same conviction, we proudly offer it today to the Greek public.