Ancient History & Classics

"The Russian Primary Chronicle under 945 refers to the murder of Kievan Prince Igor by his tributary Drevljans and the revenge performed by his widow, Princess Olga. First, she ordered that the embassy from the Drevljans who arrived in Kiev be buried alive; then her servants set fire to the bathhouse where the Drevljan ‘best men’ washed themselves, so that they were burnt alive; and finally, the princess went to the place where her husband was buried and, during a funeral banquet, ordered the massacre of thousands of Drevljans. Each of the acts is interpreted as a ritual connected with the death of the Kievan prince. The three rituals form three stages of
the princely funeral ceremony, which was determined by the idea of tripartite structure of the universe. The mythological picture seems to be spread among the Rus´ and the Slavs of the ten-century Kiev. The story of Princess Olga ended with the expedition of her army to the Drevljan country in the next year, 946. After the long-time besiege of the Drevljan capital, Iskorosten, the city was burned with the help of incendiary pigeons and sparrows. Investigating the origins of the story of incendiary birds among the medieval mythological and literary narratives, the author supposes that it depicts a purifying ritual in the story of Princess Olga. The four disclosed rituals were converted into the historical episodes during the transition of them from oral tradition to the written narrative of the Primary Chronicle. In the origin of the historical narrative one can find the traces of Indo-European mythology and Scandinavian cultural influence."

The story of the Chazars who had claimed a tribute from a Slavic tribe, the Poljanians, and received a sword in response, is usually considered in scholarship to be testimony that the Chazar empire was extended to the region of Kiev. A similar offering of a sword in Heimskringla and Nóregs konunga tal demonstrates that the story does not relate to a tribute paid to the Chazars, but rather the opposite, that the Poljanians suggested that the Chazars acknowledge their overlordship. Even if the narrative had Scandinavian origins, it was well assimilated by Russian compilers. Our interpretation shows that the story of the “Chazar tribute” belongs not to real, historical time or space, but rather to “annalistic space” under the influence of various narrative traditions. The theme of the sword became a kind of cliché, which is reiterated in several episodes when thePrimary Chronicle tells of political subordination in the pre-Christian epoch. The development of the written tradition under Prince Jaroslav the Wise and his descendants led to a change in the original meaning of the archaic ritual, considered now in the light of literary rationalism. The tale was most likely invented and included in the chronicle by an early compiler in the middle or the second half of the eleventh century. Around the year 1110, the original motif of offering a sword was elaborated into a claim of tribute.

Primary Chronicle, sub anno 945) Aleksandr V. Koptev Th e article deals with the story of the revenge of Kievan Princess Olga to the Drevlyans who murdered her husband, Prince Igor, in 945. Th ree stages of the revenge are interpreted as a princely funeral ritual, determined by the mythological picture of the tripartite structure of the universe. Th e Russian Primary Chronicle (Th e Tale of Bygone Years, ca. 1110), under the year 945, relates the story of the murder of Kievan prince Igor by tribesmen of the tributary Drevlyans:

Alexandr Koptev "Colonus Iuris Alieni" als spätantikes Surrogat der klassischen Persona Iuris Alieni Nach den Arbeiten von J.-M. Carrié sind in der letzten Zeit mehrere Versuche zu einer Revision der Frage nach der Entstehung des spätrömischen Kolonats unternommen worden. 1 Eine der "einfachsten" Lösungen des Kolonat-Problems schlägt M. Mircovi™ vor, die von der gesamten ländlichen Bevölkerung eine Gruppe absondert, die sie als coloni iuris alieni bezeichnet. Mircovi™ nimmt an, dass die Quellen, die von abhängigen Kolonen zeugen, nur diese Kategorie der Kolonen betreffen. 2 Mircovi™' Konzeption im Ganzen war schon von A. Kränzlein in Betracht gezogen worden, 3 und ich möchte nur noch auf den Ausdruck colonus iuris alieni hinweisen, der in ihrer Auffassung eine wichtige Stellung einnimmt und dessen Bedeutung selbst nach ihren Arbeiten noch nicht ganz klar geworden ist. Insofern dieser colonus iuris alieni dem Anschein nach den persona iuris alieni in der klassischen Rechtstradition ähnlich ist, nehme ich an, dass wir in diesem Fall einen Versuch der folgerichtigen Entwicklung des klassischen Personensystems in den spätantiken Verhältnissen haben.

The Colonate in the Theodosian Code and its Interpretations in the Breviary of Alaric, in: Droit, religion et société dans le Code Théodosien, Troisièmes Journées d’Etude sur le Code Théodosien, Neuchâtel, 15-17 février 2007, sous la direction de Jean-Jacques Aubert et Philippe Blanchard, Geneve 2009, p. 261-285.