Using clear and eminently readable prose, Charles Oman describes the rise and fall of a great empire. He begins with the founding of Byzantium by Greek colonists, traces its rise to power and eventual elevation to peer of Rome (and re-christening as Constantinope "the City of Constantine"), and explains the underpinnings of the gradual decline and eventual conquest of the city by the Ottomans. Oman was an early apologist for the Byzantines, and sought to refute the reputation of degeneracy and weakness that had been given to that civilization by prior historians.