Nostalgia for Byzantium precedes its fall in 1453.
‘The Raw and The Cooked’: ways of cooking and serving food in Byzantium
July 27, 2014 By
Departing from ancient tradition, which associated the eating of uncooked food (ōmon) only with barbarians, raw food was widely consumed, above all in monastic communities, but also on an everyday basis in Byzantium.
White Croatia and the arrival of the Croats: an interpretation of Constantine Porphyrogenitus on the oldest Dalmatian history
July 23, 2014 By
The article examines Constantine Porphyrogenitus’ (913–59) witness on the arrival of the Croats in Dalmatia during the seventh century. The emperor’s narrative proposes a migration from a land called White Croatia, located somewhere in central Europe, and a battle with the Avars in order to secure their new territory.
The Byzantine Silver Bowls in the Sutton Hoo Ship Burial and Tree-Worship in Anglo-Saxon England
July 22, 2014 By
The ten Byzantine silver bowls included amongst the grave goods interred in the chamber of the Mound 1 ship burial at Sutton Hoo remain one of the most puzzling features of this site…
The After Lives of Byzantine Art
June 30, 2014 By
In this lecture I will look at the ways in which Byzantine art was used at both ends of the Byzantine world. I will consider how we define art as ‘Byzantine’ and the ways in which the afterlives of these artworks have been manipulated, rewritten and reinterpreted in various settings.
Two King of Kings? Procopius’ Presentation of Justinian and Kosrow I
June 25, 2014 By
This paper investigates Procopius’ description of two of the most influential men of his era: the Persian emperor Kosrow I (ruled 531-579), and the Byzantine emperor Justinian (ruled 527-565).
Sword and Shield of God: Byzantine Strategy and Tactics Under Heraclius During the Last Persian War and First Arab War
June 7, 2014 By
Only Heraclius could have wielded these forces effectively against his foes to achieve victory; with any other Byzantine commander these revolutionary tactics would have been monumentally difficult if not unworkable.
Holy rulers and the integration of the medieval Serbian space
June 6, 2014 By
This paper proposes a new line of analysis of the rich body of medieval Serbian royal hagiography.
Linear frontiers in the 9th century: Bulgaria and Wessex
May 24, 2014 By
I intend to answer some of those questions through a comparison between two famous, yet relatively neglected examples of imposition of ‘linear frontiers’ onto the landscape of early medieval Europe, both dated to the 9th century.
Andronikos I Komnenos: A Greek Tragedy
May 13, 2014 By
The life and death of Andronikos I Komnenos provide us with a window into the aesthetic, moral, intellectual, religious, economic and emotional world of Byzantine society in the 12th century.
‘Just War’ and ‘Holy War’ in the Middle Ages
April 28, 2014 By
The current paper examines the issue of medieval war ethics from the perspective of the Byzantine case-study.
A Game of Power: Courtly influence on the decision-making of Emperor Theodosius II (r. 408-450)
April 27, 2014 By
The aim of this thesis is to uncover the workings and levels of courtly influence on Theodosius II’s (r. 408-450) decision-making, but also, through analysis of the material by using modern theories, to gain a deeper understanding of the courtly structures, power, and dynamics at play at his court in Constantinople.
Byzantine monastery discovered the Negev Desert
April 14, 2014 By
An impressive Byzantine monastery dating to the late sixth-century has been discovered in the northern part of the Negev Desert in Israel.
The soldier’s life: martial virtues and hegemonic masculinity in the early Byzantine Empire
April 13, 2014 By
This dissertation argues that martial virtues and images of the soldier’s life represented an essential aspect of early Byzantine masculine ideology. It contends that in many of the visual and literary sources from the fourth to the seventh centuries CE, conceptualisations of the soldier’s life and the ideal manly life were often the same.
Greek in Marriage, Latin in Giving: The Greek Community of Fourteenth-century Palermo and the Deceptive Will of Bonannus de Geronimo
April 12, 2014 By
This article discusses the pitfalls that can occur in the study of ethnicity in the me- dieval period in the context of the potential existence of two separate Greek minori- ties—one indigenous and one immigrant—in fourteenth-century Latin-dominated Palermo, Italy.
Food and prejudice: a western ambassador in Byzantium
April 9, 2014 By
On the 4th of June, 968, Liutprand of Cremona made landfall at Constaninople as ambassador for the German emperor Otto I.
Spiritual ‘encyclopedias’ in eleventh-century Byzantium?
March 31, 2014 By
The theoretical debate concerning what constitutes an ‘encyclopedia’ in the Byzantine context appears to be not only underdeveloped, but also carried out in a vacuum with respect to the Latin medieval counterpart (and vice-versa).
The Red Sea and the Port of Clysma. A Possible Gate of Justinian’s Plague
March 10, 2014 By
The aim of this study is to present the sea and land commercial routes of the Byzantine Egypt and their role in the dissemination of the plague bacteria Yersinia pestis from the Red Sea to Mediterranean ports. The Mediterranean port of Pelusium was considered as the starting point of the first plague pandemic…
Varangian: Norse Influences Within the Elite Guard of Byzantium
March 2, 2014 By
Constantinople maintained hundreds of years of dutiful employment of what has been often referred to by scholars as a mercenary force. The elite of which was charged with the primary duty of defending the seat of the Byzantine Emperor and defense of the realm at the emperor’s order.
The Military Use of the Icon of the Theotokos and its Moral Logic in the Historians of the Ninth-Twelfth Centuries
February 15, 2014 By
Starting at least by the late tenth century, Byzantine emperors took icons of the Mother of God with them on campaign. This article examines the appearance of such icons in the narratives of historical texts.
‘Waiting Only for a Pretext’: A New Chronology for the Sixth-Century Byzantine Invasion of Spain
February 13, 2014 By
This article argues that the common modern version of the invasion, in which Byzantine forces arrived in 552, fought on the side of the usurper Athanagild until 555, and then fought against Athanagild for a brief period before concluding a treaty with him, is flawed and, relying on a more precise reading of the sources, proposes a new chronology and narrative, in which Byzantine forces did not arrive until 554.
Bright Beginnings: Jewish Christian Relations in the Holy Land, AD 400-700
February 11, 2014 By
This paper shows that Christian and Jewish relations in the Holy Land between the fourth and seventh centuries, according to the archaeological evidence, were characterized by peaceful co-existence.
Warfare and propaganda: the portrayal of Andronikos II Palaiologos (1282 – 1328) as an incompetent military leader in the Histories of John VI Kantakouzenos (1347-1354)
February 9, 2014 By
The Histories of Kantakouzenos is the main source for the civil war between Andronikos II and Andronikos III which was fought intermittently from 1321 until 1328.
The Man of Sorrows and the King of Glory in Italy, c. 1250 – c. 1350
February 9, 2014 By
The Man of Sorrows – an iconographic type of Jesus Christ following his Crucifixion – has received extensive analytical treatment in the art-historical literature.
Maurice, Son of Theodoric: Welsh Kings and the Mediterranean World AD 550-650
February 8, 2014 By
Among the many petty rulers of early medieval Wales was a king whose name can be rendered Maurice, son of Theodoric.
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