Academic literature on the topic 'Byzantine Empire – History'

The Byzantine Empire has existed longer than all the empires that were on Earth — more than 1000 years. She created the «Byzantine Commonwealth» of countries (D. D. Obolensky’s term), stretching from the South Baltic to the Mediterranean and from the Adriatic Sea to the Caucasus Mountains. The Commonwealth countries had religious and cultural unity, a close political culture and a similar tragic fate. All of them fell victim to foreign conquest, from the Mongols to the Ottomans, and with great difficulty, centuries later, regained their sovereignty. With the death of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, its historical role did not stop. Byzantium remained a relevant historical actor for a long time, as an ideal and as a symbol, as a heritage and as a hope for the revival of its former greatness. It is not for nothing that the ideas of «lasting Rome», «New Constantinople», etc., were so popular. According to the Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga, the time of «Byzantium after Byzantium» has come, which continues to this day. In the article, historians, specialists in the history of Byzantium, consider the following questions: 1) What is «Byzantium after Byzantium»? Is it an symbolic image, is it a historical memory of a bygone empire, is it a political, spiritual, cultural ideal? Or is it a fictitious concept, Byzantium died in 1453? 2) How long did «Byzantium after Byzantium» exist? What is the chronological depth of Byzantine influence in the Balkans, in Eastern Europe? 3) There is a point of view about the «unfavorable heritage» of Byzantium — all countries belonging to the «Byzantine Commonwealth» have a difficult historical fate. Is this a fatal coincidence, or the negative influence of the «Byzantine heritage»? 4) Did Byzantium have a successor (cultural, political, spiritual)? To what extent can they consider Russia, the Balkan states?

In April 1204, the army of the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople. For the leading princes, it was self-evident that they would install an imperator of their own in the Queen of Cities. Their choice fell on Baldwin IX/VI, count of Flanders/Hainault. In this contribution, we aim to analyse how Baldwin and his successors saw their emperorship, and how they and their empire were seen by others in Byzantium and the West. The current historiographical term, ‘Latin Empire of Constantinople’, reflects the prevailing view that an entirely new political construct had been set up replacing the former Byzantine Empire. However, contemporaries, both the emperors themselves as well as outsiders, consistently referred to the empire using both Latin and Greek terms that, prior to 1204, had been commonly employed to refer to the Byzantine Empire. Yet eastern and western conceptions of the nature of the empire before 1204 differed greatly: it was ‘Greek’ in Latin eyes, ‘Roman’ in Byzantine eyes. The Constantinopolitan imperial crown having been placed on his head, Baldwin became heir to these conflicting traditions. Moreover, rival imperial claims soon arose within the Byzantine space in neighbouring Byzantine successor states. In the face of these challenges, the Latin emperors strove to formulate a political ideology legitimising their claim to imperial rule. We will argue that in essence the successive Latin emperors adopted, up to a point, the key tenets of Byzantine imperial theory (Roman character, universalism, emperors as vicars of Christ and autocracy). Their western background and their different relationship with the West led to certain changes, but whether these should be seen as fundamentally un-Byzantine is not self-evident. Conversely, the presence of the now Latin rulers on the Constantinopolitan throne also led to changes in the western perception of the eastern empire.

This paper commemorates Margarita Adol’fovna Poljakovskaja (1933–2020), the head of the Ural school of Byzantine studies and the respected authority in the history and culture of late Byzantium. The author makes the reader acquainted with Professor Poljakovskaja’s academic biography, the topics of her researches, and the results of her studies in various aspects of the Byzantine history from the thirteenth to fifteenth century. The paper has revealed a few key topics studied by Professor Poljakovskaja: monastic properties in late Byzantine cities; Byzantine rhetoric and epistolography; social and political thought; intellectual life; social structures in the Byzantine society; palace ceremonies and court culture; and the Byzantines’ emotional world and daily life. It has been stated that although Professor Poljakovskaja used abundant and varied methodology produced by historical and philological researches, she preferred the anthropological approach. Her attention concentrated on a person and the person’s notion of the time and self. Reconstructions of intellectual and social life in the period of decline of the Byzantine empire loomed large in the historian’s studies, and the key topic of her researches was the problem of the “person, society, and power”.

It is shown that the history of medicine in the Byzantine Empire is characterized by almost complete stagnation of development throughout the entire thousand years of the empire, for which characteristic was the domination of religious and magical practices represented as astrology, magic, occultism, neoplatonism over scientific ones, extremely low levels of education and training of doctors. The article points out that one of the leading causes of stagnation of the development of medical science in the Byzantine Empire was the formation of the civil church, which was completely controlled, both in administrative and doctrinal terms, by imperial government, which led to the secularization of the church and its transformation in a great feudal lord; to introduction of pagan beliefs and provisions to the church; to formation and prosperity of superstitions and rituals characteristic of paganism. It is shown that the state subjugating church lost its necessary spiritual foundation (without which it is impossible to build a healthy and prosperous society) resulting in the formation of extremely backward socio-economic situation of Byzantium, with long persistence of slave relations, pervasive embezzlement, huge bureaucracy, corrupt executive system, sharp stratification of society, low level of science in general and medicine in particular.

The Macedonian dynasty (867-1056) opened a new stage in the history of Byzantium, which will lead the Byzantine Empire to its medieval peak. Thus, for 150 years the Byzantine Empire had a period in which it experienced important achievements on all levels. Between 867-1025 the Empire was led by some remarkable leaders, who distinguished themselves exceptionally. The representatives of this dynasty were the most brilliant leaders that Byzantium now had. They were people with an energetic and strong personalities, without mercy and scruples, with an authoritarian and strong will, trying to be feared rather than to win the sympathy and love of those they led. The grandeur of the Empire was the focus of their rule, proving that they were great military leaders, as they spent most of their reign among soldiers, in which they identified the source of the monarchy’s power.

The article focuses on the rapprochement between Byzantium and the Mongols from the 1250s which resulted in marriage alliances between Mongol Khans and Byzantine despoinas (princesses). The key issue is a clash of two different approaches. The Byzantine one was focused on the exclusive status of Byzantium as Christian Roman Empire, whose status was unrivalled and whose sovereigns seldom allowed marriages of Byzantine ladies to the foreign rulers, especially if the latter were heathen or Muslim. The Mongol view considered the Mongol state as the only one destined to dominate over other states. Here, the marriages between Mongol rulers and foreign brides have been suggested as one of vital elements of such domination. The compromise between two views seemed to have been made by the Byzantines: while the Byzantine church law refused to recognize interconfessional marriages, the Byzantines began to see these marriages as a Christian mission of sorts as the Greek brides and wives could have served as agents for spreading Greek Orthodox Christianity. Given the fact that some Khans had already converted to Islam prior to the marriage, these were also the first marriages between the Byzantine Imperial dynasty of the Palaiologoi and the Muslim rulers. It seems that special tolerance of the Mongols towards Christianity (even if they were Muslims) played a key role in the change of the principles of the Byzantine marriage policy: it henceforth became possible for the Emperor’s illegitimate daughter to marry a Muslim ruler. This policy affected the marriages of the later period of the fourteenth and fifteenth century between the imperial dynasties of the Palaiologoi and Grand Komnenoi, on the one hand, and the neighboring Turkish rulers, including the Ottomans, on the other.

This article examines the motives of the earliest Muslim attacks on the Byzantine Empire in the seventh and eighth centuries by examining the earliest Christian (Byzantine) and Muslim sources that describe these attacks. The article assesses the strengths of these accounts and culls from them the possible religious motivations behind the first Muslim attacks on the Byzantine Empire. One question particularly addressed is the goal of the Muslim attacks: to bring down the Byzantine Empire entirely, or merely to wrest from it Palestine and the surrounding territories that were of significance to the Muslim invaders. In either case, Whealey argues that the motives were religious in nature.

The Byzantine Empire, which existed for more than 1000 years, holds a special place in the history of civilization. It was the largest medieval Christian state on the crossroad of Europe and Asia. The Byzantine culture belongs to the medieval Christian culture, but it has specific peculiarities in comparison to the Western Christian culture.The phenomenon of Byzantium, as the successor of the Roman state tradition and as the source of Christian culture, is of particular importance in the development of Georgia's historical processes.Understanding the historical processes of the V-XV centuries in Georgia is quite difficult without knowing the history of Byzantium. We cannot analyze even the later period without knowing Byzantium, because this country has left an indelible mark on Georgia, especially on its culture. The purpose of the present article is to show what the position of the Byzantine history is in the national curriculum and school books.

Recently, seminal publications highlighted the Romanitas of the Byzantines. However, it is not without importance that from the 12th century onwards the ethnonym Hellene (Ἓλλην) became progressively more popular. A number of influential intellectuals and political actors preferred the term Hellene to identify themselves, instead of the formal Roman (Ρωμαῖος) and the common Greek (Γραικός). While I do not intend to challenge the prevalence of the Romanitas during the long Byzantine era, I suggest that we should reevaluate the emerging importance of Hellenitas in the shaping of collective and individual identities after the 12th century. From the 13th to the 16th century, Byzantine scholars attempted to recreate a collective identity based on cultural and historical continuity and otherness. In this paper, I will seek to explore the ways Byzantine scholars of the Late Byzantine and Post Byzantine era, who lived in the territories of the Byzantine Empire and/or in Italy, perceived national identity, and to show that the shift towards Hellenitas started in the Greek-speaking East.

Byzantine political philosophy developed under the influence of the Christian ethics and Hellenistic monarchism. Byzantine theology is well studied both in Russian and foreign science, while political philosophy is less known. The purpose of the present article is to study the attitude of the Byzantine political philosophy to charity. Methodology of the research: the study is based on historic and comparative approach, analysis of institutions, analysis of texts and speeches by thinkers and politicians, and shows origins and development of ideas on charity in Byzantium. As a result, it was revealed that the values and institutions formed in the first centuries of the existence of the Eastern Empire worked throughout the history of Byzantium and influenced European and Rus-sian practices of charity. The collected information about the history of political philosophy in Byzantium is of value in the study of charity and social policy.

Co-tutelle de thèse Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne / Université Libre de Bruxelles, sous la direction conjointe de Michel KAPLAN (Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne) et de Jean-Marie SANSTERRE (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

L’épiscopat constitue un fondement essentiel mais méconnu de l’Église mésobyzantine. Malgré la relative rareté des sources, il est possible d’en retracer l’histoire et les grandes évolutions :une part importante de l’hagiographie de l’iconoclasme et post-iconoclaste concerne en effet métropolites et évêques, témoignant du lien fort existant entre ceux-ci et le peuple des cités dont ils ont la charge, particulièrement quand ils sont considérés saints par la population. De nombreuses sources épistolaires, ecclésiastiques et sigillographiques, émanant des évêques eux-mêmes, permettent d’approcher les réalités du corps épiscopal et celles de la société provinciale qu’il représente auprès des autorités centrales. L’évêque apparaît également comme le relais des volontés impériale et patriarcale dans les provinces de l’Empire. Dans un contexte de compétition de pouvoir avec les autorités locales, l’évêque tente ainsi d’imposer le sien propre, dans ses aspects spatiaux, sociaux, religieux et symboliques.

L’approche collective et les approches individuelles de l’épiscopat doivent permettre de comprendre les réalités sociales d’un Empire de plus en plus centré sur sa capitale et dont sont progressivement détachées, du moins dans les sources, les périphéries. Une histoire décentrée de l’Empire byzantin passe dès lors par des études régionales mais aussi par des études consacrées à des groupes sociaux enracinés dans tout l’Empire, surtout lorsque, comme les évêques, ils revendiquent la spécificité de leur région et leur attachement à une société provinciale qui constitue le socle de l’Empire.

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The episcopate is an essential structure of the middle-Byzantine Church ;however, it remains little known. Although sources are limited, its history and evolution can still be reconstructed, as a large portion of the iconoclastic and post-iconoclastic hagiography deals with metropolitans and bishops. The sources reveal the strong connection between bishops and the inhabitants of the cities under their responsibility, especially when the population considers them as saints. Numerous epistolary, ecclesiastic and sigillographic documents issued by bishops themselves partially unveil the realities of the episcopal group and the provincial society that bishops represent to the central authorities. The bishop also serves as relay of both imperial and patriarchal wills to the provinces of the Empire. Competing with local authorities, the bishop thus tries to impose his own influence in its spatial, social, religious and symbolic dimensions.

Both collective and individual approaches of the episcopate make the social realities of the Empire more understandable, as it becomes more and more focused on its capital city while its peripheries gradually move away, which documentation seems to imply. Regional studies, but also studies focused on social groups established across the whole Empire, are the fundamentals of a decentred history of the Byzantine Empire. This is especially true since social groups such as bishops claim the specificity of their regions and their link to a provincial society that represents the cornerstone of the Empire.
Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis examines the portrayal of outsiders in Michael Psellos's Chronographia, Anna Komnene's Alexiad, and Niketas Choniates's Narrative - using sociological theories of deviancy. The twofold aim is to "treat texts seriously", localized in Jakobson's speech-event nexus of addresser, context, content, contact, code and addressee; and secondly to understand the texts as statements of the ideology of the dominant elite. Outsiders are defined (using the labelling orientation) as people successfully defined as deviants; deviant behaviour is whatever they do. The dominant elite creates cultural boundaries, and places individuals in outsider roles on the other side of those boundaries. Outsiders can be understood only in terms of who defines them as deviant; there is no material reality to deviancy. Stereotypes, which identify social categories of people by evaluative trait-characteristics, are necessary elements of human cognition; they become prejudice only when they are overgeneralized, based on too limited data, applied too widely and maintained in the face of contrary empirical evidence. The analysis of the three texts in depth allows the identification of those groups labelled as outsiders by these expositors of the dominant ideology. My conclusion is that these authors portray a picture of the Byzantine outsider, which is coherent between this limited sample group, allowing for individual variation. These authors used stereotypes to conceptualize and encode in the linguistic and lexicographical complexities of their texts the outsiders they identified in their societies. Their presentation uses stereotypes, but does not descend to prejudice.

This thesis is concerned with the editorial, printing and marketing history of four Byzantine historical narratives, published between 1556 and 1645, and soon collectively identified under the name Corpus Historiæ Byzantinæ (hereinafter, 'Byzantine Corpus'). The four Byzantine historians - Ioannes Zonaras, Niketas Choniates, Nikephoros Gregoras and Laonikos Chalkokondyles - enjoyed considerable popularity in early modern Europe, with a peak of interest in the second half of the sixteenth century. This thesis aims at highlighting how these four texts, despite being so popular in a number of early modern European countries (particularly in the German-speaking area, in Italy and in France), did not do so for the same reasons: in fact, depending on the country in which these books were printed, they were marketed, perceived and read in very different ways. This element is particularly relevant in light of the fact that the Byzantine Corpus represents the earliest predecessor of the Corpus Fontium Historiæ Byzantinæ, the modern resource for the study of Byzantine historical sources. Chapter 1 analyses the early formation of the Byzantine Corpus and, in particular, the figure of Hieronymus Wolf, first editor of the Byzantine Corpus, often considered the 'father' of Byzantine studies; his relation with his patrons, the Fuggers of Augsburg; finally, his relation with his publisher, the Basel printer Johannes Oporinus. It then provides contextualised bibliographical and paratextual descriptions of the editiones principes of the Byzantine Corpus, all printed in Basel. Chapters 2-5 reflect the same comparative approach, used to investigate how the later editions of the Byzantine Corpus were prepared and marketed in different European countries: each chapter provides a bibliographical and paratextual analysis of the subsequent German, Italian, French and Genevan editions respectively. The Conclusions draw together all the information collected in the previous chapters and investigate three pivotal aspects of the Byzantine Corpus: i) the formation of the Byzantine Corpus and the individual popularity of each of the four Byzantine historians based on the frequency and popularity of both individual and collective editions; ii) the distinctive reasons of their popularity, analysed through a comparison of the different approaches with which editors and publishers have presented these texts to their respective audiences in Germany, Italy and France; iii) the reasons for the rise and decline in popularity of the Byzantine Corpus in the early seventeenth century.

The purpose of this thesis is to further our understanding of the period between the death of Basil II in 1025 and the accession of Alexios I Komnenos in 1081. Modern scholarship has often portrayed these 56 years as an important, transformative period, viewing the empire as standing at the height of its power at its beginning, only to be brought to the brink of collapse by civil wars and foreign invasions following the battle of Manzikert in 1071. Based on three unique and underexploited sources of evidence, namely the letters of Michael Psellos, the judicial handbook commonly known as the Peira and the so-called Consilia et Narrationes of Kekaumenos, it argues that the Byzantine state to a large extent relied on private networks to carry out public administration throughout the empire. Public and private power were thus intimately intertwined and by conveying information, orders and requests, but also by reproducing and enforcing norms of acceptable political behaviour, these networks served to compensate to some extent for the institutional shortcomings of the premodern state. It also challenges the idea that the political dynamic of the eleventh century was centred around the power struggles of 'great families' or clans that effectively functioned as political parties, as well as the idea that the emperors and their officials were apathetic about governing the provinces beyond what was necessary to pacify and extract resources from them. Taken together, the evidence examined consequently appears to suggest that, by the standards of the pre-modern world, the Byzantine empire had a reasonably well-functioning state and a fairly coherent society during the period in question, suggesting that the focus of the scholarly debate on the eleventh-century Byzantine collapse should, to some extent, be shifted from internal to external factors.

This thesis examines Byzantine diplomacy and foreign policy in the round in the personal reign of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (945-959). This particular period has been singled out for investigation because Constantine had a keen personal interest in foreign affairs and two treatises from his reign, the De administrando imperio and the De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae, shed light upon the Byzantine view of the outside world and the workings of imperial bureaux charged with diplomatic affairs and the administration of military campaigns. After introducing the subject and the key sources, the thesis makes a clockwise circuit of all of the theatres in which Byzantine foreign policy was active. The first chapter looks at worldviews as documented in sources from Byzantium, Ottonian Saxony, and the Islamic Near East in order to determine how these key players saw their place in the world and systematised their relationships with each other. The second chapter discusses relations with the Islamic Near East and Transcaucasia and provides a survey of sources, historical reconstruction, and analysis of goals and processes. Chapter three examines relations with the Islamic caliphates of the central and western Mediterranean, and assigns them greater importance than generally acknowledged. Chapter four chronicles the nascent relations with Ottonian Saxony and Byzantium's re-engagement with the Transalpine Franks. Chapter five deals with the peoples of the Eurasian steppe and homes in on Byzantium's attempts to diffuse threats from this volatile world. Chapter six focuses on Italy as the region in which three strands of Byzantine foreign policy met and evaluates the empire's response to wholesale changes in power relations in the peninsula in the early years of Constantine's personal reign. The conclusion to the thesis interrogates whether Constantine's foreign policy kept the empire safe, enhanced its prestige, managed the military elites, and had an enduring legacy.

In 533, Justinian I ordered the conquest of the former Roman provinces of Africa, which had been lost to the Vandals a century earlier. The 'reconquest' has been regarded, by contemporaries and modern scholars alike, as one of the defining successes of the reign. However, despite the evident achievements of the campaign, Roman victory over the Vandals marked little more than the beginning of the Eastern Roman Empire's attempt to consolidate its position in Africa. The unanticipated threat posed by hostilities from the Berber tribes would continue until 548. Roman-Berber relations, unlike other aspects of Justinian's foreign relations, have received comparatively little attention, and this study aims to reassess the establishment of Roman authority in Africa and the Eastern Roman Empire's response to the Berber threat. In particular, it considers whether this response should be seen as a series of ad hoc reactions to immediate circumstances, or whether it is possible to identify a coherent Roman policy vis-à-vis the Berbers. The major conclusions of this study fall in two areas. First, it argues that Roman objectives in Africa were far more limited than has generally been supposed, with the empire's territorial ambitions not extending beyond key coastal positions which offered strategic and commercial advantages, and from which the empire could project its limited authority into the interior. Second, this study concludes that the Eastern Roman Empire's actions with respect to the Berber tribes lacked coherence. Attempts to implement a system of client rulers were unsuccessful, partly as a result of the competition between individual Berber leaders as they sought to establish independent polities within the frontiers of the former Roman Empire; and partly as a result of an increasing lack of resources, as well as the instability caused by constantly changing leadership within the African civil and military administrations, which prevented the development of coherent long term strategies for addressing the Berber threat.

This thesis investigates the relationship between Christianity and urban monumental space in the late antique Levant. Through the analysis of both textual and archaeological evidence it seeks to clarify both the motives and the stages of the process of Christian takeover of the urban space of Levantine cities from the 4th to the 7th century AD. In doing so Christians were in essence both projecting their growth as the predominant religion and, at the same time, creating an entirely new monumental landscape. The case studies are presented in three separate groups, selected on the basis of the principal strategy that was chosen in the process of Christianisation of urban space. The first section analyses the cases of Gerasa, Jerusalem, Heliopolis, and Petra to illustrate the first of these strategies: the main method for occupying the symbolic space of the city was the construction of a contrast between the surviving ruins of the earlier, Hellenic, temples and the new Christian churches. The second group of case studies includes Scythopolis, Caesarea Maritima, Gaza, and to a certain extent Heliopolis. This section deals with those cities where the main strategy was the physical demolition of all or at least the most pre-eminent Hellenic buildings and their direct replacement with a new, and often grand, church. The third group, and the last, consists of the cities of Bostra, Gadara, Apamea, where rather than having to engage with a major Hellenic monument the main competitor was the secular state whether local or imperial. This is found to have resulted in a search for integration into the landscape rather than active competition.

The subject for this dissertation is the study of Byzantine monetary affairs from the accesion of Leo III (717) up to the beginning of Alexius I's reign (1081). The work is divided into the following main chapters: I. Gold Coinage: Taking into account documentary and fragmentary numismatic evidence new chronologies and a few new attributions are attempted. A thorough survey of the recorded types and a detailed discussion of the relevant literature is included. References to iconography, monetary reforms and minting process are made. II.Silver Coinage: A similar study, including a separate section on metrology and valuation. III.Copper Coinage: The focus is concentrated in the coinages of Michael II, Theophilus and the anonymous folles of Class A. With the aid of detailed stylistic analyses, the study of dies and then the geographical distribution of the sylistic groups, the complex problem of provincial mints is discussed. The study is supplemented by four Appendices. Appendices I-III include a descriptive catalogue of 378 copper coins of Michael II and Theophilus upon which the stylistic analysis is based. Appendix IV contains catalogues of hoards and stray finds of Anonymous folles of Cl.A from Greece. Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania and Asia Minor. IV. Monetary Circulation. A detailed survey of the attested evidence from all the areas under Byzantine dominion is included. On the basis of hoards and stray-finds the trends of the circulation in Greece are described. This study is supplemented by Appendix V, where a corpus of 122 coin hoards is presented.

AbstractThe importance of Byzantium to the history of global slavery stems from its geographic and historical position. Byzantium boasts a history of more than a millennium, longer than any other Mediterranean empire. As an offspring of the Roman Empire, it inherited the Roman institution of slavery, which was in constant change in view of the changes that the medieval world underwent. The Byzantine Empire offers an ideal historical environment to examine questions about global slavery, questions that pertain to continuity and change, the destiny of ancient slavery in particular, and thanks to its geopolitical position, also to connectivity between different medieval enslaving societies.

Abstract For a modern observer in the Balkans, traces of the region’s prehistory and early history are readily found. Visitors can explore the tells (sites of ancient settlements where successive layers of homes created large artificial hills) of the Bulgarian plains, the Lion Gate at the fortress of Mycenae in Greece, or the magnificent remains of Diocletian’s palace in Split, Croatia. Other traces can be heard in the Greek, Albanian, and Romanian languages whose progenitors were all spoken on the Balkan Peninsula in classical times. Still others can be tasted, in the olives and wine grapes brought to the Balkans by prehistoric settlers more than four thousand years ago. Even some of the modern political problems of the Balkans can be linked directly to classical times—such as the ongoing dispute between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia as to which state has the right to claim the legacy of Alexander the Great.

The Roman world in the second century was remarkably homogeneous, and the ties that bound it together remarkably thick and apparently strong. But what happened when the western half went its own way, when imperial territories were limited to bits of Asia Minor and the Balkans, when the construction of new monumental buildings had slowed to a trickle or stopped entirely, when the epigraphic habit had died? How did political communication work in the Roman empire of the Middle Ages that we know as Byzantium? The answer requires conjuring up a picture of people on the move; of soldiers, priests, students, pilgrims, appellants, merchants, tax collectors, administrators, painters, and builders. And it requires thinking about the messages they received and passed on. Placing the Byzantine experience in comparative perspective to Song China, this chapter surveys the evidence of Byzantine political communication to investigate both the means of transmitting news and orders as well as the underlying networks of shared discourse and identity. It shows that the survival of the Byzantine state depended largely on its ability to create an imagined community as the nation-state of the Romans. The decline of Byzantium and the rise of Muslim identities in its former territories can thus be linked to a failure to maintain effective long-distance communication networks that projected a ‘Roman’ narrative across the entirety of the empire.

Abstract In the context of the other “empires” being discussed in this volume, the Byzantine example is something of an anomaly. First, it was for most of its existence— from the seventh to the fifteenth century C.E.—territorially rather small (restricted largely to the southern Balkans and Asia Minor); second, although historians from the seventeenth century have called it an empire, its “emperor” increasingly came to be described by the Greek word basileus, king. Third, it was an “empire” the history of which is largely one of contraction, with occasional efforts to recover lost territories followed by further contractions, so that imperialist exploitation of foreign conquests is the exception rather than the rule. Exploitation is thus meaningful only in terms of the ways in which the state and society of Byzantium functioned—who exploited whom and how, in economic and political terms—and with respect to the cultural impact of Byzantine civilization on the outside world. In this chapter I shall be concerned for the most part with the former.

THE SEVEN APOSTLES OF THE SLAVS AND THE FORMATION OF THE BULGARIAN “PROTO-NATIONAL” IDENTITY (Summary) Some historians assume that the emergence of national identities in Europe is a result of social changes occurring in the Early Modern era, while others claim that this process was set in motion already in the Later Middle Ages. Similar disputes on the beginnings of the modern Bulgarian nation are also present in historiographic works. The Slavo-Bulgarian History of Paisiy Hilendarski is usually presented as the first clear sign of the emerging Bulgarian nation. The aim of this article is to confirm a proto-national stage in the development of the Bulgarian medieval ethnic community, which was instrumental for the survival and continuation of the Bulgarians as a separate ethnie and, despite the interruptions in the independent existence of the Bulgarian state and church, led to the transformation of this ethnie into a modern nation. The development of the Bulgarian medieval state, founded in 681 (widely accept¬ed date), lacks continuity. It has been interrupted in 1018 by the Byzantine conquest, which provoked deep social, economic and cultural changes and was followed by ethnic changes too. However, former Bulgarian lands, especially the core area around the last capital of the First Bulgarian Empire, Ohrid, retained certain level of ecclesiastical and economic autonomy. In the diocese of the Ohrid Bishopric began to emerge a “proto-national” pantheon, centered around the figures of St Clement of Ohrid and St John of Rila, and promoted by Byzantine prelates like Theophylactus of Ohrid and George Skylitses. The Bulgarians were regarded as a separate ethnie (according to the theory of Anthony Smith) within the limits of the Byzantine Empire, identified by their traditions, culture, language, and by their own patrons and spiritual teachers, who formed their “proto-national” pantheon. This tendency was successfully continued after the restoration of the Bulgarian state in 1185 (again a widely accepted date). The Second Bulgarian Empire had a multieth¬nic composition, including not only Slavic-speaking Bulgarians, but also Pecheneg and Cuman migrants, Vlah population, etc. All these groups, engaged very often in the gov¬ernment of the re-established empire, were centered around the political and state ideol¬ogy of the Bulgarian ‘proto-nationalism”. In the newly formed “pantheon” of national saints were included as “Bulgarians” also people with non-Bulgarian or at least disputed ethnic origin. In their Vitae, written after the liberation from the Byzantines, the question about their ethnic origin was of growing importance. Special place was given to the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, (whose Bulgarian origin and direct links with Bulgaria are at least obscure) and five of their most prominent disciples. They were venerated as Bulgarian saints and became important part of the “proto-national” ideology of the Sec-ond Bulgarian Empire. This attitude has been transferred successfully into the national ideology of the modern Bulgarian nation. Later, in the 16th century, this group of saints was stylized as the Seven Apostles of the Slavs and acquired popularity even among the Greek-speaking clergy. Consequently, Cyril and Methodius, who were representatives of the universalistic Christian culture of the Second Rome entrusted with the task to enlighten the Slavonic peoples and to introduce them to the Holy Scriptures, together with their most prominent disciples, became emblematic figures, actively engaged in the formation of one of the Slavonic “proto-nations” during the Late Middle Ages.

It was not only Turkish history to be changed when Seljuk conquered Anatolia but also the destiny of Anatolia changed. Anatolia that was the center of east – west and north – south trade since Assyria trade colonies was lost its commercial importance during the conquer by Turks, long time ago. Before Seljuk, the region was a part of the Byzantine Empire and it lost its commercial activities. It was a long time for Seljuk to revitalise the Anatolian trade. The war in Myriokephalon reduced the problems of Turkish Seljuk and enabled the establishment of a strong state in Anatolia. Myriokephalon War deeply impacted Byzantine and the Seljuk Sultan Kılıç Arslan focused on to develop the economy of the county and made very important achievements. He was the first who tried to conquer Antalya that is a port city. Kılıç Arslan and succeeding Sultans of Seljuk State followed the same path. Izeddin Keykavus conquered Sinop. Alâeddin Keykubâd conquered Alanya, so Seljuk had its third port city. The volume of domestic and international trade of Seljuk made it very powerful economy of the region. In this study, the factors which made for Seljuk to conquer these port cities in the Black Sea and Mediterranean easy, and the contribution of maritime trade to Seljuk economy, with reference to the sources form the era.

The Cypriot Orthodox Church has been recognized as an independent and autocephalous church since 431, by the decision of the Third Ecumenical Council with the 8th canon. The current 76s. the archbishop bears the title: New Justiniana and all of Cyprus. The Holy Synod is the supreme body of the Church of Cyprus and acts according to the Church Constitution. According to Article 138 of the Church Constitution from 1914, it entered into force on the day of publication. Archbishop Macarius the Third proposed a new revision of the Constitution, but from 1955 to 1961 and 1974, this period was characterized by armed struggles for the liberation of Cyprus, so the final drafting of the new Constitution became a priority from 1980. The new Constitution entered into force in 2010, with the consent and presence of the island's political leadership. According to Article 110, Paragraph 1 of the Cyprus State Constitution, the organization and management of the internal affairs of the church and its property is carried out in accordance with the holy canons and the Constitution of the Church of Cyprus since 1914. Legislative authority is recognized to the Church of Cyprus in Article 111, Paragraph 1 of the State Constitution of Cyprus. The establishment of criminal procedure regulations of church law, which actually refer to the proportional application of state criminal procedure legislation, is evaluated as positive and more modern. For the first time in the history of the Constitution of the Church of Cyprus, issues of criminal church law are regulated. As for family law, for the first time since the Byzantine Empire, it is fully aligned with Article 111 of the Cyprus State Constitution. The Church has reserved its right to grant spiritual dissolution of marriage.

This project refers to the construction of a 3D map of Thessaloniki’s historical route. The Yedi Kule Conquest – Monument Road Race took place in the old city of Thessaloniki, which was built during the Byzantine and Ottoman period. The purpose of this project is the digital recording of the castles, the monuments, the old churches, the traditional buildings, and the squares which are prime examples of the architectural beauty of the place. The methodology of the project is based on the online software Google Earth Studio and Adobe Premiere Pro. These are the tools of digitization, rendering, and building process of the animation. With this methodology, the authors achieved the documentation of land use and the architectural landscape. The animation is a credible graphic index of the historical background of Thessaloniki. The Yedi Kule area constitutes of a cultural mosaic made from different historic periods. The buildings and the neighbourhoods give the sense of transition of the narrow roads, the old Christian churches, the house of the first Turkish governor, and the byzantine castle to the modern city. In Thessaloniki, three historic periods coexist the Ancient Greek/Roman, the Byzantine, and Ottoman Empire. The responsibility of the governmental politics and of every citizen of Thessaloniki is to promote and preserve the historic background of the city. The final product offers a good opportunity for the digital storage of Thessaloniki’s old city. The animation creates an interactive environment that portrays the current image of the transition from the old to a modern city.

Although Ankara gained international attention mainly after its declaration as Capital of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the city hosts many buildings and monuments from different historical eras. The remains of Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman Empires discovered in the center of the city, clearly bear witness to the rich and diverse heritage of the capital. However, this heritage appears as less documented, studied and even not properly conserved. The citadel of Ankara, which dominates the narrow streets of the old city has withstood its long history very well and today houses a small neighborhood made up of valuable Ottoman wooden buildings. The link to the Roman and Medieval periods is still tangible. The Roman theatre remains at the foot of the hill are still observable, while the stone columns and beams used in the construction of the walls in a later era. The aim of this paper is to document and present the different historical eras of the castle, focusing on the remains of the medieval era. Analyzing the key features of the castle and the previous intervention on it will support the identification of the potentials of the site. Finally, recommendations for future work of architectural preservation will be elaborated on the basis of national and international conservation guidelines.

Крайняя малочисленность связанных с христианством находок и их неравномерное распределение во времени создает значительные трудности при восстановлении истории Фанагорийской христианской общины. Восполнить лакуны до некоторой степени помогают имеющиеся сведения об истории христианства в других центрах Северо-Восточного Причерноморья, неотъемлемой частью которого являлась Фанагория. Несомненно, новая религия проникает в Фанагорию, как и в другие центры Боспорского царства, в последней четверти 3 в. из Малой Азии, откуда готы, возвращаясь из своих пиратских набегов, привозили пленных христиан. Именно к периоду после морских походов варваров относятся первые зафиксированные на Боспоре признаки христианства: различные вещи с христианскими символами, христианские участки на некрополе в Керчи. Незначительное количество раннехристианских памятников говорит о том, что в этот период распространение религии в регионе происходило, главным образом, благодаря деятельности миссионеров, и число приверженцев христианства было невелико. С включением Боспора в сферу влияния Византийской империи церковь и государство предпринимают совместные усилия по христианизации региона: скорее всего, именно в это время по обе стороны Керченского пролива строятся церкви, в Фанагории учреждается епископская кафедра и строится христианский храм, внутреннему убранству которого, скорее всего, принадлежали два мраморных резервуара для воды, сигмовидный стол и рельеф с изображением Орфея, найденные при раскопках на «Нижнем городе». Форма и материал, из которого изготовлен один из найденных резервуаров, позво ляет интерпретировать его как крещальную купель. Причем небольшая глубина найден ной емкости не означает, что в ней крестили только детей, поскольку в большинстве случаев крещение совершалось без полного погружения: стоявшего в купели крещаемого просто обливали водой. Однако уже с 4 в. при крещении начали использовать стоячую воду, а наполнять купель предписывалось вручную. Поэтому объяснить назначение двух отверстий в фанагорийском резервуаре в случае его использования в качестве купели трудно. Лучше объясняет наличие двух отверстий другой возможный вариант использования резервуара: в качестве реликвария, в котором хранились мощи, их частицы или какие-то другие реликвии. Через верхнее отверстие в реликварий на хранящиеся в нем мощи наливали масло, которое выливалось через отверстие в нижней части. Что касается чаши с ручками-выступами вдоль края, то подобные емкости, как правило, определяют либо как купели для крещения детей, либо, чаще, как чаши для освященной воды, которую в раннехристианское время использовали для ритуального омовения рук перед входом в храм. Известные автору точные аналогии фанагорийскому сосуду происходят исключительно с территории провинций Мезия Секунда и Фракия. Не исключено, что именно оттуда фанагорийская емкость была привезена войсками, присланными на Боспор Юстинианом для подавления восстания против ставленника Византии Грода. Мраморный сигмовидной стол с арочной каймой также мог входить в состав инвентаря христианского храма. В церковном обиходе использование таких столов было вторичным, взятым из светской жизни и идет от раннехристианской традиции совместных поминальных трапез, совершавшихся над могилами мучеников. Позже их использовали в храмах в качестве престолов и столов для приношений, а также в трапезных монастырей. Несмотря на то, что сигмовидные столы, в частности столы с арочной каймой, использовали как в светском, так и христианском обиходе, их находки вне контекста обычно связывают с христианскими храмами. Однако в подобных случаях нельзя исключать возможность их использования и в качестве обычного обеденного стола. Наконец, с христианством может быть связана мраморная плитка с изображением Орфея, образ которого перешел в христианскую иконографию из языческого искусства. Незначительные размеры и сильная потертость фанагорийского фрагмента, к сожалению, не позволяют уверенно определить религиозный статус изображения, который, как правило устанавливают по составу «слушателей» и контексту. Строго говоря, из перечисленных находок только одну, мраморную чашу с вырезанным крестом, можно отнести к предметам интерьера христианского храмового комплекса безусловно. Сигмовидный стол могли использовать и в христианском культе, и по его прямому назначению – в качестве обеденного стола. Образ Орфея одинаково использовался как язычниками, так и христианами. Разным целям мог служить и мраморный резервуар. Но среди аргументов за и против их использования в христианском культе, все же превалируют первые. Кроме того, обнаружение всех предметов на довольно небольшом участке «Нижнего города» позволяет надеяться на то, что в ходе будущих раскопок здесь будет открыт христианский храм, и таким образом подтвердится предложенная интерпретация найденных предметов. Храм, к которому, возможно, относились перечисленные находки, по-видимому, был разрушен в середине 6 в. Тогда же, скорее всего, прекратила существование и Фанагорийская епархия. Какие-либо сведения о фанагорийских христианах более позднего времени полностью отсутствуют, но, судя по информации о христианских общинах, имевшихся в других центрах региона, а также в городах Хазарского каганата, были они и в Фанагории, которая в этот период, скорее всего, входила в состав Зихийской епархии. У нас нет сви детельств о притеснениях христиан в городах Хазарского каганата. Наоборот, согласно сведениям, содержащимся в письменных источниках, жизнь христиан там протекала до вольно спокойно. О благосклонном отношении хазарской элиты к христианству говорят и браки с византийским императорским домом, в частности брак Юстиниана II и сестры кагана Феодоры, после заключения которого он «уехал в Фанагорию и жил там с Феодорой» (Theoph. Chron. 704–705; пер. И.С. Чичурова). 2 Что же касается археологических свидетельств, то число связанных с христианством находок 8–10 вв. чрезвычайно мало, и их невозможно связать непосредственно с христианским населением Фанагории. Extremely low amounts of finds related to Christianity and their uneven distribution over time presents difficulties in reconstructing the history of the Phanagorian Christian community. The information on the history of Christianity in other centres of the North-Eastern Black Sea, a region where Phanagoria played a crucial part, can help fill the blanks to a certain extent. Without any doubt, the new religion arrived to Phanagoria, as well as to the other centres of the Bosporan kingdom, in the last quarter of the third century AD from Asia Minor, when the Goths brought Christians as captives from their pirate raids. The first recorded signs of Christianity in the Bosporos belong to the period after the sea campaigns of the “barbarians”. These include personal possessions with Christian symbols and Christian burial plots in the necropolis in Kerch. A small number of early Christian monuments points to the fact that during this period the spread of Christianity in the region heavily relied on the activities of missionaries, while the number of christians was still small. Later, after the inclusion of the Bosporos in the sphere of influence of the Byzantine Empire, the church and the state were making joint efforts to Christianize the region: most likely, it was at this time that Christian churches were built on both sides of the Kerch Strait, an episcopal chair was established in Phanagoria and a Christian church was built, decorated with two marble water tanks, a sigmoid table and a relief depicting Orpheus. All this was found during the excavations in the “Lower City” trench. 2 Чичуров 1980, 62. Христианство в Фанагории. Археологические свидетельства 71 The shape and material from which one of the found tanks is made allows for its interpreta tion as a baptistery. The small depth of the found container does not necessarily mean that only children were baptised in it, since in most cases baptism was performed without complete immersion. The baptised stood in the font and water was poured over him. However, from the fourth century AD stagnant water was used for baptism, and the font had to be filled manually. It is, therefore, difficult to explain the purpose of the two holes in the Phanagorean reservoir if it was used as a font. Their presence is better explained by another possible use of the tank – as a reliquary. Oil was poured into the reliquary through the upper opening to cover the relics stored in it, and then came out through the opening in the lower part. Regarding the bowls with protruding handles along the edge, such vessels are considered to serve either as fonts for child baptism, or, more often, as bowls for consecrated water, which, during the early Christian times, were used to wash hands before entering the temple. Their exact analogies, known to the author, come exclusively from the provinces of Moesia Secunda and Thrace. It is possible that it was from there that the Phanagorian container was brought by the troops, which were sent to the Bosporos by Justinian to suppress the uprising against the Byzantine ruler named Grod. A marble sigmoid table with an arched border could also be part of the inventory of a Christian church. In church life, the use of such tables was secondary. It comes from secular life, from the early Christian tradition of communal meals served on the graves of martyrs. Later they were used in temples and monasteries as thrones and tables for offerings. Despite the fact that sigmoid tables, particularly those with an arched border, were used both in secular and Christian everyday life, they are usually associated with Christian churches when found out of context. However, one cannot exclude the possibility of them being used as a regular dining table. Finally, a marble tile with the image of Orpheus, which came to the Christian iconography from pagan art, can also be associated with Christianity. Unfortunately, due to its insignificant size and severe damage, this fragment does not allow us to determine the religious status of the image with any degree of certainty. Usually such assumptions can be made based on the amount of depicted listeners and the find’s context. Strictly speaking, only one of the listed finds, a marble bowl with a carved cross, can be attributed to the items from the interior of the Christian temple. The sigmoid table could be used both in the Christian cult and for its original purpose, as a dining table. The image of Orpheus was used by both pagans and Christians. A marble tank could possibly also serve different purposes. However, between the arguments “for” and “against” its use in a Christian context, the former prevail. In addition, the discovery of all the objects together in a rather small area of the “Lower City” excavation site allows us to hope that, during future excavations, a Christian church will be discovered here, confirming our interpretations. The temple to which the finds may have belonged was apparently destroyed in the middle of the sixth century AD. At the same time, most likely, the Phanagorian diocese also ceased to exist. There is no information on Phanagorian Christians during later periods, but, judging by the information about the Christian communities that existed in other centres of the region, as well as in the cities of the Khazar Khaganate, Christians were present in Phanagoria, which, during this period was likely a part of the Zikhia diocese. So far, we have no evidence of the oppression of Christians in the cities of the Khazar Khaganate. On the contrary, according to the information from written sources, the life of Christians there was a rather calm one. The favourable attitude of the Khazar elite towards Christianity is also evidenced by marriages with the Byzantine imperial family. Of particular interest is the marriage of Justinian II and the sister of the Khagan, Theodora, after which he “left for Phanagoria and lived there with Theodora”. As for archaeological evidence, the number of finds associated with Christianity from the 8th to 10th centuries AD is extremely low, and it is impossible to connect them directly with the Christian population of Phanagoria.