CLASSICAL CORNER
Dec 03, 2020
4 minutes
FORTEANA FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD COMPILED BY BARRY BALDWIN
253: RUNCIMAN-IA
Ignore the sniffy academics. Longæval (1903-2000) Steven Runciman (from Rouncieman = dealer in packhorses) was the 20th-century’s supreme Byzantinist, above all for his famous trilogy on the Crusades, summed up by him Trump-style as BAD!
Now (2016), Minoo Dinshaw’s opulent (768 pages) Outlandish Knight: The Byzantine Life of Steven Runciman provides meticulous documentary detail and personal attestations that afford much grist to the FT mill.
An early anecdote has him and sister Margie playing at divorce (field-day for psychologists?) with their toy monkeys, later burying these, when decomposed, with full ritual.
A close boyhood friend was
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