I've had the pleasure of being instructed by one of Kaldellis' colleagues who worked with him on The History: Michael Atteilates. My screenname is, in fact, a reference to the Byzantine Empire. I've studied the field quite extensively, particularly in the subject of Byzantine naval history from the sixth to thirteenth centuries. One of my favourite books is The Age of Dromon; if you like the Byzantine studies, I highly recommend it as it gives you an excellent perspective on Mediterranean maritime history from the Byzantine end of things.

I thought that The Byzantine Republic was a very interesting revisit of some of the general discourse which has dominated Byzantine studies in the past twenty to thirty years. He does an excellent job of what is essentially tearing apart the political idea of a 'theocracy', and establishing some key points regarding the relationship between Byzantine thought and Roman tradition. He negates certain aspects of society - I felt that not enough treatment was given to the significance (or lack thereof) of the political power of admirals, particularly in a period which saw a great deal of naval battles take place in the Mediterranean - but he generally covers the most concerning corners of Byzantine political science. That may be my bias, of course, as my general argument is that the fortunes of the Byzantine Empire mostly ran parallel to the state of the navy during that period. Otherwise, his book is quite fascinating. His assessment of the Byzantine polity as functioning members of society keenly aware of Roman tradition makes a lot of sense and should be considered for future research into that area.