Authority in Byzantine Provincial Society, 950-1100 - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Authority in Byzantine Provincial Society, 950-1100 write by Leonora Neville. This book was released on 2004-08-19. Authority in Byzantine Provincial Society, 950-1100 available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The imperial government over the central provinces of the Byzantine Empire was sovereign and, at the same time, apathetic, dealing effectively with a narrow set of objectives, chiefly collecting revenue and maintaining imperial sovereignty. Outside of these spheres, action needed to be solicited from imperial officials, leaving vast opportunities for local people to act independently without legal stricture or fear of imperial involvement. In the absence of imperial intervention provincial households competed with each other for control over community decisions. The emperors exercised just enough strength at the right times to prevent the leaders of important households in the core provinces from becoming rulers themselves. Membership in a successful household, wealth, capacity for effective violence and access to the imperial court were key factors that allowed one to act with authority. This book examines in detail the mechanisms provincial households used to acquire and dispute authority.
Guide to Byzantine Historical Writing
Guide to Byzantine Historical Writing - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Guide to Byzantine Historical Writing write by Leonora Neville. This book was released on 2018-05-17. Guide to Byzantine Historical Writing available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Makes the study of medieval Greek historical writing accessible by providing fundamental orientation and information.
Approaches to the Byzantine Family
Approaches to the Byzantine Family - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Approaches to the Byzantine Family write by Leslie Brubaker. This book was released on 2016-04-08. Approaches to the Byzantine Family available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The study of the family is one of the major lacunas in Byzantine Studies. Angeliki Laiou remarked in 1989 that ’the study of the Byzantine family is still in its infancy’, and this assertion remains true today. The present volume addresses this lacuna. It comprises 19 chapters written by international experts in the field which take a variety of approaches to the study of the Byzantine family, and embrace a chronological span from the later Roman to the late Byzantine empire. The context is established by chapters focusing on the Roman roots of the Byzantine family, the Christianisation of the family, and the nature of the family in contemporaneous cultures (the late antique west and the Islamic east). Key methodological approaches to the Byzantine family are highlighted and discussed, in particular prosopographical and life course approaches. The contribution of hagiography to the understanding of the Byzantine family is analysed by several authors; other chapters on the family and children in art and on the archaeology of the Middle Byzantine house explore the material evidence that can shed light on the Byzantine family. Overall, the diversity of families that existed in Byzantium (blood, fictive, metaphorical) is emphasised, and chapters consider the specific cases of ascetic, monastic, aristocratic and peasant families, as well as the imperial family, which is illuminated by the comparative case of a Caliphal family. The volume is topped and tailed by a Preface and an Afterword by the editors, which address the state of the field and consider the way ahead. Thus the volume is vital in putting the subject of the Byzantine Family in sharp focus and setting the research agenda for the future.
Power and Representation in Byzantium
Power and Representation in Byzantium - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Power and Representation in Byzantium write by Neil Churchill. This book was released on 2024-01-23. Power and Representation in Byzantium available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Throughout the history of Byzantium 65 emperors were dethroned and only 39 reigns ended peacefully. How might a usurper get away with murdering his predecessor? And how could a bloody act of regicide lead to one of the most glorious of all eras in Byzantium? These were questions that puzzled Michael Psellos as he looked back at Basil I’s assassination of Michael III and the origin of the Macedonian dynasty. Might the imperial art of Basil, his sons and grandson help to explain how the dynasty overcame its violent beginnings and secured the loyalty of its subjects? It has long been recognised that the early Macedonian emperors were active propagandists but royal art has usually been viewed thematically over the span of centuries. Official iconography has been understood to project imperial power in ways which were impersonal and unchanging. This book instead adopts a chronological approach and considers how Basil justified his seizure of power, and how his successors went on to articulate their own ideas about authority. It concludes that imperial art did at times reflect the personality of the emperor and the political demands of the moment, such as the need for an heir, the nature of court politics or the choice of successor. This innovative account of the forging of the Macedonian dynasty will appeal to those interested in how early medieval kings and emperors used art to create their own image, to differentiate themselves from rivals and to extend the boundaries of their personal power.
The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography
The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography write by Stephanos Efthymiadis. This book was released on 2020-02-25. The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. For an entire millennium, Byzantine hagiography, inspired by the veneration of many saints, exhibited literary dynamism and a capacity to vary its basic forms. The subgenres into which it branched out after its remarkable start in the fourth century underwent alternating phases of development and decline that were intertwined with changes in the political, social and literary spheres. The selection of saintly heroes, an interest in depicting social landscapes, and the modulation of linguistic and stylistic registers captured the voice of homo byzantinus down to the end of the empire in the fifteenth century. The seventeen chapters in this companion form the sequel to those in volume I which dealt with the periods and regions of Byzantine hagiography, and complete the first comprehensive survey ever produced in this field. The book is the work of an international group of experts in the field and is addressed to both a broader public and the scholarly community of Byzantinists, medievalists, historians of religion and theorists of narrative. It highlights the literary dimension and the research potential of a representative number of texts, not only those appreciated by the Byzantines themselves but those which modern readers rank high due to their literary quality or historical relevance.
