Byzantine historiography

Taft R. F. The Great Entrance. A History of the Transfer of Gifts and other Preanaphoral Rites of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. [A History of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, vol. II]. Roma, 1975. (Orientalia Christiana Analecta; 200).

Those who work with topics related to Modern Greek identity usually start discussing these issues by quoting the famous Georgios Gemistos Pletho (c.1360-1454): we, over whom you rule and hold sway, are Hellenes by genos (γένος), as is witnessed by our language and ancestral education. Although Woodhouse thought of Pletho as the last of the Hellenes, others prefer to denounce him the last of the Byzantines and the first and foremost Modern Greek. During the 14th and 15th centuries, a number of influential intellectuals in the Eastern Roman Empire preferred the term Hellene (Ἓλλην) to identify themselves, instead of the formal Roman (Ρωμαῖος) and the common Greek (Γραικός). According to the prevalent view of modern scholarship, the shift should not be interpreted only as a statement of proto-national identity, but also as the outcome of growing archaism. As Vryonis pointed out, the historian Critoboulos used to call the Balkan nations with their archaic names: Byzantines became “Hellenes,” Albanians became “Illyrians,” etc. Chalkokondyles followed in the same path. Furthermore, in order to lament the decline of their Empire, byzantine intellectuals tended to compare their sad present to the glory of ancient Greece. Besides archaism, proto-nationalism and Hellenism, I suggest that a careful reading of the sources would lead us to reappraise the ways 15th century intellectuals perceived identity. Whilst I do not accept Vakalopoulos’ views on diachronic Hellenic identity, I support that, in the 15th century, Byzantine scholars attempted to create an identity based on cultural and historical continuity and otherness. Moreover, Laiou’s definition of Greek identity as a resultant of language, history, tradition and interests does not cover the case of 15th century Byzantine philosophers, since the latter strived to enrich and enlarge Greek identity with additional elements. It is worth noting that those philosophers who fled to Italy deliberately chose to describe themselves as
Greeks (Greci/Γραικοί) or Hellenes (Ἓλληνες) and not as Romans (Ρωμιοί/Ρωμαῖοι), according to the Byzantine official terminology. During the 15th century a major shift occurred in the Byzantine intelligentsia and its prominent members revisited matters of identity. In this paper, I attempt to scrutinize the ways Byzantine philosophers of the 15th century,
who lived in the territories of the Byzantine Empire and in Italy, perceived identity and otherness. In my research, I include not only Greek, but also Latin sources, since their works is written in both languages.

This article offers a survey of scholarship on the historian Procopius of Caesarea in the last eleven years (2003-2014). It reviews his origins and upbringing in Caesarea in Palestine before moving on to consider his portrayal of the reign of Justinian (527-565); it argues that his accounts of Justinian’s rule remain central to modern assessments of the period. But because his works have survived in their entirety and because Justinian’s reign has attracted so much attention, there is a danger that both historian and ruler may distort our picture of the sixth-century empire: neither Procopius nor Justinian may have been as exceptional as is often thought. And while the sixth century did witness a general rise in intolerance of heretics and pagans, it may be that Justinian was reacting to a general tendency in society rather than leading the charge. The article concludes by discussing Procopius’ three works and recent publications devoted to them, noting that scholarship has sometimes suffered as a consequence of an unawareness of research being carried out simultaneously by other scholars.

"Words and Phrases, Unchanged for Centuries.

Containing a rich glossary and in excess of 300 words and phrases, the texts demonstrate the strength of the Macedonian language through preservation.

Following is a comparison of sentences between the texts and the Macedonian
dialect of Bitola as spoken today.

16th cent., Kostur dialect
21st cent., Bitola dialect

Gospodine, brate, da si zdrav, da si prost, ostavi ni da spime, ela da jame, i da pieme, dol da pojdime, da rabotime.
Gospodine, brate, da si zdrav, da si prost, ostai ne da spiame, ela da jaime, i da piame, dolu da pojdime, da rabotime.

Imate hljap-o da kupime, imate vino da kupime, ot koja strana da pojdime vo
Bogasko.
Imate lep da kupime, imate vino da kupime, od koja strana da pojdime vo
Bogatsko.

As can be clearly noticed, most of the vocabulary and grammar is identical.
All of the elements that would later be required to rejuvinate the Macedonian people as they were shaking off centuries of subjugation, were present during this period. The language of the people had solidified, a tradition of heraldry and symbolism had developed which incorporated the emblem of a rapant lion and historical figures from Macedonia's past, and the churches continued preserve the local customs and serve as cultural centres for the population. The significance of all these elements together cannot be overstated, the language of medieval Macedonia is the same as the language of the Macedonians today. Unfortunately, only a small portion of the larger amount of Macedonian literature from the Middle Ages has survived, much of it being looted and destroyed by Greek-speaking officials, clerics and teachers. Nevertheless, Macedonian as a language reached its current form centuries before the creation of the Balkan states in the 19th and 20th centuries. "

This article examines Plutarch's reception in George Pisides' poetry. The first section argues in favour of Pisides' familiarity with Plutarch's writings, mainly in view of verbatim quotations and other thematic connections or allusions. The second section explores Pisides' more creative use of Plutarch by discussing his direct addresses to the Chearonean philosopher and comparing them with Pisides' similar apostrophes to Homer and Demosthenes in The Persian Expedition and the Heraclias. By seeking to 'rewrite' the heroic past, Pisides presents himself as a skilled emulator of his ancient predecessors, thereby enhancing his self-fashioning as the imperial spokesman par excellence.

The attached is the abstract, handout and bibliography for my presentation at the Classical Association conference, 10-13 April 2015, Bristol University
Panel: Homer II (Wills Memorial Building) 1 p.m., Sunday 12th April
Title: “Procopius' sense of land and seascapes in Homer's Odyssey and his symbolism of Athena?”

Mультимедийная лекция, посвященная 1000-летию памяти Владимира Святого – Крестителя Руси († 1015),  в Международном мультимедийном пресс-центре МИА «Россия сегодня» (Президентский зал) 4 Марта 2015 г. (17:00) в рамках нового мультимедийного проекта «Sputnik. Чтения»: http://1000vladimir.ru/2015/03/15/v-moskve-proshla-multimedijnaya-lekciya-istorika-professora-o-g-ulyanova-kreshhenie-vladimira-svyatogo-i-nachalo-rusi/

In the Proem to De administrando imperio addressed to his son and co-emperor Romanus II, emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus lists five topics to write about in that work, on the basis of which we can see that he scheduled the work which will consist of five sections.

This paper examines how John Kantakouzenos' leading political opponents were later presented in his memoirs, and how he assigned blame for the ruinous civil war of 1341-47. The ideas first presented here were later developed in a considerably more nuanced and systematic manner in my Ph.D. thesis.

Byzantine princess Anna Komnene is known for two things: plotting to murder her brother to usurp the throne, and writing the Alexiad, an epic history of her father Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118) that is a key historical source for the era of the First Crusade. Anna Komnene: the Life and Work of a Medieval Historian investigates the relationship between Anna's self-presentation in the Alexiad and the story of her bloodthirsty ambition. It begins by asking why women did not write history in Anna's society, what cultural rules Anna broke by doing so, and how Anna tried to respond to those challenges in her writing. Many of the idiosyncrasies and surprises of Anna's Alexiad are driven by her efforts to be perceived as both a good historian and a good woman. These new interpretations of Anna's authorial persona then spark a thorough re-thinking of the standard story which defines Anna's life by the failure of her supposed political ambitions. The second half of this work reviews the medieval sources with fresh eyes and re-establishes Anna's primary identity as an author and intellectual rather than as a failed conspirator.

Though the modern study of Byzantine civilisation and history dates back to the late 19th century, the establishment of a definitive introductory textbook in the English language would be a slow process that would not culminate until the 1950’s. Due in part to the enormous chronological termini of Byzantine History, and major primary sources in at least five different languages, the number of introductory works is much smaller than in other historical disciplines. As a result, Byzantine history textbooks are still very closely welded to two initial templates established in 1892 and 1925. This article will briefly examine the initial templates laid down by the early authors of Byzantine textbooks. Following the examination of these templates, we will move chronologically through some of the main publications of the long 20th century, concluding in the present day, gauging the impact of these works through scholarly reaction and publication information.

The present paper offers a detailed overview of how Hungarian historiography attempted to establish the source or sources lying in the background of the story preserved in the fi rst half of Chapter 38 of the famous treatise, the De administrando imperio commissioned by the tenth-century Byzantine Emperor, Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos.

Abstract
This article examines the longstanding rivalry of Rome and Parthia, which began as an unintended consequence of Crassus’ decisive defeat at Carrhae in 53 BCE. It synthesizes the accounts and opinions of numerous Graeco-Roman writers from the Augustan Age to late antiquity in order to help illustrate the new and interconnected post-Carrhae world and its legacy. The rivalry of the Romans and Parthians became a primary focus of their foreign policies and drastically expanded their perceptions of the world in which they interacted. Even after the fall of the Parthians to the rebellious Sassanid Persians in the 220s CE, the Romans continued to find their three-century-long rivalry with the Parthians of interest and relevant to the changing world of late antiquity.

DOBRUDJA IN OTTOMAN TIMES:
THE KAZA OF HÂRȘOVA (16TH C)
Abstract
The Ottoman chancery documents, such as defters, orders, regulations, are a key source for studying Dobrudja under Ottoman rule, revealing its administrative, military and economic structures. This paper draws on toponymical, topographical and administrative information taken from eight Ottoman registers, all dating from the sixteenth century. The toponymy and the rural habitat are interpreted from a long-time perspective, assessing the continuity between the Ottoman and the pre-Ottoman structures. The Dobrudja case is also placed in the larger image of the dynamics of the Ottoman rural landscape. This article identifies both military and non-military Ottoman institutions in Dobrudja, such a vozar, derbendci, ellici, gümrükçi, müsellem, akıncı. Consequently, it proposes a comparative analysis between the Ottoman power structures and the previous, imperial, Byzantine ones. A chronological and cartographic inventory of the human settlements in Ottoman Dobrudja argues for a reconsideration of their synchronic and diachronic evolution.

Julian the Apostate in Johannes Antiochenus.
Uncorrected draft of a paper forthcoming in A. Marcone (ed.), L'imperatore Giuliano.  Realtà storica e rappresentazione. Firenze: Le Monnier, 2015. This paper anticipates a few conclusions of the book "Antieroe dai molti volti: Giuliano l'Apostata nel Medioevo bizantino", published in 2014.

Edited by John Burke, with Ursula Betka, Penelope Buckley, Kathleen Hay, Roger Scott & Andrew Stephenson. Contributions by Joan Barclay Lloyd (La Trobe University), Ursula Betka (University of Melbourne), Penelope Buckley (University of Melbourne), John Burke (University of Melbourne), Michael Champion (University of Melbourne), Brian Croke (Sydney), Debbie Del Frate (La Trobe University), Balša Djurić (University of Belgrade), Andrew Gillett (Macquarie University), Timothy E. Gregory (Ohio State University), Felicity Harley (University of Melbourne), Peter A.L. Hill (University of South Australia), Julia Kelly (La Trobe University), Eamon H.R. Kelly (St Cross College, Oxford), Bill Leadbetter (Edith Cowan University), Tamara Lewit (Trinity College, University of Melbourne), Margaret Manion (University of Melbourne), Matthew Martin (National Gallery of Victoria), Elizabeth McCartney (University of Melbourne), Robert Mihajlovski (La Trobe University), Margaret Mullett (The Queen’s University Belfast), Geoffrey Nathan (University of New South Wales), Bronwen Neil (Australian Catholic University), Nick Nicholas (University of Melbourne), Ingela Nilsson (Uppsala University), Eric Osborn (University of Melbourne), Vicky Panayotopoulou-Doulavera (University of New South Wales), Bob Priestley (University of Melbourne), Dean Sakel (Boğaziçi University), Roger Scott (University of Melbourne), Nancy P. Ševčenko (South Woodstock), Theoni Sklavos (University of Melbourne), Nira Stone (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Emma Strugnell (University of Melbourne), Andrei Timotin (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris), Annamma Varghese (University of Melbourne), Nigel Westbrook (University of Western Australia), John Wortley (University of Manitoba), Jialing Xu (Northeast Normal University, Chanchun), Chen Zhi-Qiang (Nankai University), Hartmut Ziche (University of the Antilles and Guyana)

A biography of this eminent female scholar emphasizing her scholarship. Her life, after her early years on Constantinople, was spent between Paris and the United States.  A pioneer in Armenian studies especially Armenian art, she was author of a dozen books and hundreds of notes and monographs.

The Patria is a fascinating four-book collection of short historical notes, stories, and legends about the buildings and monuments of Constantinople, compiled in the late tenth century by an anonymous author who made ample use of older sources. It also describes the foundation and early (pre-Byzantine) history of the city, and includes the Narrative on the Construction of Hagia Sophia, a semi-legendary account of Emperor Justinian I’s patronage of this extraordinary church (built between 532 and 537). The Patria constitutes a unique record of popular traditions about the city, especially its pagan statues, held by its medieval inhabitants. At the same time it is the only Medieval Greek text to present a panorama of the city as it existed in the middle Byzantine period. Despite its problems of historical reliability, the Patria is still one of our main guides for the urban history of medieval Constantinople. This translation makes the entire text of the Patria accessible in English for the first time.

Among Greek histories of the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the work of Laonikos (ca. 1430–ca. 1465) has by far the broadest scope. Born to a leading family of Athens under Florentine rule, he was educated in the classics at Mistra by the Neoplatonist philosopher Plethon. In the 1450s, Laonikos set out to imitate Herodotos in writing the history of his times, a version in which the armies of Asia would prevail over the Greeks in Europe. The backbone of the Histories, a text written in difficult Thucydidean Greek, is the expansion of the Ottoman Empire from the early 1300s to 1464, but Laonikos’s digressions give sweeping accounts of world geography and ethnography from Britain to Mongolia, with an emphasis on Spain, Italy, and Arabia. Following the methodology of Herodotos and rejecting theological polemic, Laonikos is the first Greek writer to treat Islam as a legitimate cultural and religious system. He followed Plethon in viewing the Byzantines as Greeks rather than Romans, and so stands at the origins of Neo-Hellenic identity.

This translation makes the entire text of The Histories available in English for the first time.

In which ways has Medieval and Byzantine History been embedded in the Greek national narrative in the first life steps of the Greek state during the 19th century? In which ways was it related to the emerging nationalisms in the Balkans, the relationships with the West and the countries of the Southeastern Europe during the Balkan Wars, the First and the Second World War and especially during the Cold War until today? In which ways does Byzantium correlate with the notion of Greekness and which place does it possess in the Neo-hellenic identity and culture? And also, which role does it play in history teaching and what kind of reactions does any endeavor of revision or reformation provoke? To answer the above questions I relied on and analyzed comparatively the following categories of sources: (a) Greek national and European historiography, (b) school history curricula and textbooks, (c) public history sources, (d) the new History Curriculum for the primary and secondary school classes, and (e) the principles and guidelines of international organizations, such as the Council of Europe. In the first three sections of this paper I provide an overview of the conformation and integration of Byzantine period in the Greek national historiography in association with the dominant European philosophical and historical perspectives during the era of modernity, the evolving national politics, the foreign affairs, the prevailing ideological schemas and the role of history education to shaping the common identity of the neo-hellenic society throughout the 19th and 20th century. The fourth section briefly deals with the current situation in history teaching in the Greek schools. The fifth section critically presents the innovative elements and features of the new History Curriculum, which, in some degree, aspires to be considered a change of paradigm in teaching Medieval History in school education. Finally, I summarize and come to some conclusions.

This paper looks at the place of the sixth-century Byzantine general Narses (c. 480–573) in the history of Byzantine gender. Certainly, it has always been important for ancient and modern historians to emphasise Narses’ eunuchism. Indeed, for many modern scholars, Narses’ identity as a castrate has been more important for study than his military deeds and political achievements that proved ephemeral. For some, the presence of a eunuch in such an essential military role indicates a turning away from codes of generalship based on traditional martial courage and manliness. This paper questions such a view, suggesting that Byzantium had a much more flexible notion of eunuchs’ gender status than some recent scholarship allows. Indeed, it suggests that Narses fits into a continuing hegemony of traditional masculine values based on the supremacy of Byzantine men’s martial virtues.

This study aims to explore the concern of Bishop Iosif Gheorghian to make available to his contemporaries some important contributions in the field of theological literature. Reconstructing the context in which these translations were made, we can see clearer his dedication but, above all, his intellectual amplitude, and his determination to help his contemporaries clarify some essential aspects specific to their time.

"The Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, as we read it, is already the literary place of a cultural encounter
over centuries between an old Germanic heroic story and the Christian culture of the writer, a novel
of our days which re-uses the story is the continuation of a tradition already inscribed in the old
poem. But in the poem another main cultural encounter takes place. If a culture can, or can try to,
define itself and narrate its own survival through its hero, a hero needs an antagonist to define itself:
Beowulf’s antagonist is the well-known monster called Grendel. The article focuses on the
encounter with the otherness represented by Grendel in the original Beowulf and on how it changes
in its rewriting 'Eater of the Dead' by Michael Crichton (1997): from the threat morally and ethically
posed of the medieval poem to the contemporary anthropological threat revealing our fear for
previous stages of evolution. Crichton’s novel combines Beowulf’s story with Ibn Fadlan’s account
of his journey among the Bulghars, which gives the novel a geographical and multi-cultural
approach that was absent in the Anglo-Saxon poem. An epic poem is always a literary space where
cultural encounters take place, but these encounters have to change their features to be felt as
relevant in another time and in another culture."

The modelling and visualisation of networks is based on the material in: M. Mullett, Theophylact of Ochrid. Reading the Letters of a Byzantine Archbishop. Birmingham 1997.

The first graph is a visualisation of the connections between letters in localities between which these letters were exchanged (" 2mode network").

The second graph is a visualisation of the weighted network of localities on the basis of Theophylact´s correspondence; two localities are connected if letters of Theophylact were exchanged between them. Links are scaled according to the number of letters within Theophylact´s collection documenting exchanges between them.

The third graph visualises these connections between localities on a map. Links are again scaled according to the number of letters within Theophylact´s collection documenting exchanges between them. The size of nodes is scaled according to their number of connections within the network ("degree").

The fourth graph is a "zoom" into these geographical visualisation of the network for the Western Balkans; links are again scaled according to the number of letters within Theophylact´s collection documenting exchanges between them.

For the localisation of sites within the historical region of Macedonia cf. also the upcoming volumes on Macedonia (Southern Part) by Peter Soustal and on Macedonia (Northern Part) by Mihailo Popovic within the series "Tabula Imperii Byzantini" (http://www.oeaw.ac.at/imafo/die-abteilungen/byzanzforschung/communities-landscapes/historische-geographie/)

For any further questions, please contact [email protected].

Collection 488, named “The codices of Albania” in the Albanian Central State Archive (CSA), took its modern form aboutthe end of the 1970s when the entire collection of the archivewas organized and indexed. It contains all the Byzantine and post-Byzantine manuscripts that were brought from the shelves of monastic, diocesan, or private libraries to the CSA. Today, Collection488 contains 119 units. Of course, originally there were many moremanuscripts from the Byzantine period and later that were copied orended up within the modern boundaries of Albania than have beensaved today. The vitality and the cultural richness of the OrthodoxChristian communities during the past centuries are clearly seen inthe various monuments of the Paleo-Christian, Byzantine, and post-Byzantine periods including: architectural monuments enriched withartistic hagiography, masterpieces of metalworking, micro-sculpture,embroidery, woodcarving, and manuscripts – examples of which canbe found within Albania. Important spiritual and cultural centers suchas Berat, Durrës, Vlora, Korça, Gjirokastër, etc., which retain an important role even today, gathered together remarkable collections ofcodices. But what happened to all those other manuscripts?

Two lavish, illustrated histories confronted and contested the Byzantine model of empire. The Madrid Skylitzes was created at the court of Roger II of Sicily in the mid-twelfth century. The Vatican Manasses was produced for Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria in the mid-fourteenth century. Through close analysis of how each chronicle was methodically manipulated, this study argues that Byzantine history was selectively re-imagined to suit the interests of outsiders. The Madrid Skylitzes foregrounds regicides, rebellions, and palace intrigue in order to subvert the divinely ordained image of order that Byzantine rulers preferred to project. The Vatican Manasses presents Byzantium as a platform for the accession of Ivan Alexander to the throne of the Third Rome, the last and final world-empire. Imagining the Byzantine Past demonstrates how distinct visions of empire generated diverging versions of Byzantium's past in the aftermath of the Crusades.