The book is a detailed summary of the history of Byzantine literature during its heyday. It also covers a little-studied topic - the literary relations of Byzantium with the countries of Western and Eastern Europe, in particular with Ancient Russia. For the first time in Byzantine literature, the literary heritage of Byzantium is considered in the inseparable unity of folk and so-called learned literatures. The main stages in the development of such genres as epics, novels, satire, historiography, rhetoric, poetry . are investigated. Characterized by the role of Byzantine cultural figures who contributed to the literary process that contributed to the emergence of the Western European Renaissance.