DOCSLIB.ORG

The Byzantines and the „Others“. Between Transculturality and Discrimination

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Byzantines and the „Others“. Between Transculturality and Discrimination E K A T E R I N I M I T S I O U (AT H E N – W IEN ) * The Byzantines and the „others“. Between transculturality and discrimination Modern scholarship was always enormously interested in the relations of Byzantium to other states and peoples. In the last years, though, the focus moved to the attitudes and the perception of the “other”1 in re- lation to the Byzantine identity.2 In this process it became clear that the “others” were not only the for- eigners, but also elements of the Byzantine society such as social and religious “marginal groups”.3 Furthermore, concepts of confrontation, acculturation or “cultural hydraulics”4 have given their place to questions of the complexity of inter-or transcultural exchanges. For the Middle Ages, M. Borgolte and B. Schneidmüller have recently described this very accurately: “Today we understand these cultures (that is the cultures of the Middle Ages) not as immutable entities but we understand much more clearly the oscillating processes of infiltration, exchange, adaptation, copy, influence, rejection, symbiosis as well as ————— * Original title of the paper: „Die Byzantiner und die „Anderen“. Zwischen Transkulturalität und Diskriminierung“. This paper is a scientific result of the Post-doc project “Female Monasticism in the Late Byzantine Period (1204–1453)” [(SH6-2535) MON- FEM] which is implemented within the framework of the Action “Supporting Postdoctoral Researchers” of the Operational Pro- gram “Education and Lifelong Learning" (Action’s Beneficiary: General Secretariat for Research and Technology), and is co- financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Greek State Abbreviations : EHB= The Economic History of Byzantium. From the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century, hrsg. von A. E. Laiou, I-III, Wash- ington D. C. 2002. The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium=The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World, ed. by A. LAIOU–R. PARVIZ MOTTAHEDEH. Washington D.C. 2001 Urbs Capta=Urbs Capta. The Fourth Crusade and its Consequences. La IVe croisade et ses conséquences, ed. by A. LAIOU (Ré- alités Byzantines 10). Paris 2005. 1 D. C. SMYTHE, Byzantine Perceptions of the Outsider in the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries: a method (Dissertation), University of St Andrews 1992; D. SMYTHE, Strangers to themselves: the Byzantine outsider: papers from the thirty-second Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, March 1998 (Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies). Aldershot 2000. 2 On byzantine identity s. J. KODER, Anmerkungen zu γραικόω. Βyzantina 21 (2000) 119–202; J. KODER, Griechische Identitäten im Mittelalter. Aspekte einer Entwicklung, in: Byzantium. State and society. Memory of Nikos Oikonomides, ed. by A. ABRAMEA– A. LAIOU–E. CHRYSOS. Athens 2003, 297–319; A. KALDELLIS, Hellenism in Byzantium: the Transformations of Greek identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition. Cambridge 2009; W. HÖRANDNER, Hē eikona tu allou. Latinoi, Frangoi kai barbaroi apo tēn skopia tēs aulikēs poiēsēs tōn Komnēnōn. Dodone—Philologia 23 (1994) 115–131; H. HUNGER, Graeculus perfidus. Ιταλός ιταμός. Il senso dell’ alterità nei rapporti breco-romani ed italo-bizantini. Rome 1987; E. KISLINGER, Von Drachen und anderem wilden Getier. Fremdenfeindlichkeit in Byzanz ?, in: Laetae segetes iterum, ed. by I. RADOVÁ. Brno 2008, 389–404; E. KOUNTOURA-GALAKI – N. KOUTRAKOU, Locals vs “foreigners”: criteria for the formation of local identities in Late Byzantium. An approach to Modern Graecitas through Late Byzantine writers, in: Identities in the Greek World (from 1204 to the present day), 4th European Congress of Modern Greek Studies, Granada, 9–12 September 2010, Proceedings), ed. by Κ. Α. DIMADIS, vol 5. Athens 2011, 107–125. 3 Oi perithōriakoi sto Byzantio. Praktika hemeridas, 9 Maiou 1992, ed. by C. A. MALTEZU. Athens 1993. 4 The concept of “cultural hydraulics” was used by P. BROWN, Eastern and Western Christendom in Late Antiquity: a parting of the ways, in: The orthodox churches and the West, ed. D. BAKER (Studies in Church History 13). Edinburgh 1976, 1–24, esp. 5: “The east tends to be treated as a distinct and enclosed reservoir of superior culture, from which the occasional stream is released, to pour down hill-by some obscure law of cultural hydraulics-to water the lower reaches of the West.”; K. N. CIGGAAR, Western Travellers to Constantinople. The West and Byzantium, 962–1204: Cultural and Political Relations (The Medieval Mediterrean 10). Leiden – New York – Cologne 1996, 8. 2 osmosis as historical basic patterns. Without denying differences, we distinguish no longer in paratactic tidying manner between medieval Romans, Germans or Slavs, not between the unmediated world of the Jews, Christians, Muslims, or pagans. We distinguish no longer between civilized and barbarian in the sens of previous acculturation modells“.5 This opinion offers useful ideas for interaction models between Byzantines and “strangers”, as well as about their depiction in the Byzantine sources. For my approach, a particularly useful concept is that of transculturality, which was coined by Fernando Ortiz in his book “Cuban Counterpoint. Tobacco and Sugar” (1940) and foremost by Wolfgang Welsch,6 and found especially in recent years wide spread. Welsch spoke about the “external networking” of cultures, which replaces older homogenizing separatist concepts of cultures, as those formed by Hegel. „Transculturality“ means for him the blurring or lifting of barriers when different cultures meet. On a macro- and micro-level the dichotomies self – foreign or in- ternal – external do not exist anymore, since all cultures and individuals are transcultural formations. Such a cross-cultural mindset is represented by the famous mystic of the thirteenth century Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi-e in a poem: „What is to be done, O Moslems? For I do not recognize myself/ I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem.../ My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Trace- less.” 7 From the perspective of the theory applied here, there are transcultural personalities, “individuals who find ways to transcend their native cultures, in order to explore, examine and infiltrate a new, seem- ingly alien culture”. They undergo a process of learning new cultural behaviours.8 If we look for such cross-cultural individuals in a Byzantine context, then we could mention Manuel Maurozomes, who after 1205 fled to his son-in-law, the Sultan of Iconium Kay-Khusraw I. Niketas Choniates argued that “he was connected with us (=the Byzantines) by birth, however by his attitude he was foreigner. Furthermore he was and showed himself to be an unrestrained enemy of his own fatherland”.9 The concept of transculturality will enable us in the following to present some aspects of the rela- tions between the Byzantines and the “others”–in this case the Westerners– in the Late Byzantine period (1204–1453).10 It is a period marked by greater openness, but also attempts of clear delineations and sig- ————— 5 M. BORGOLTE – B. SCHNEIDMÜLLER, Vorwort in: M. BORGOLTE – B. SCHNEIDMÜLLER – A. SEITZ (eds.), Hybride Kulturen im mittelalterlichen Europa (Europa im Mittelalter 16). Berlin 2010, 7–8, here 7. 6 W. WELSCH, Transkulturalität-Lebensformen nach der Auflösung der Kulturen. Information Philosophie 20/2 (1992) 5–20; cf. an extended version of this article in: Dialog der Kulturen. Die multikulturelle Gesellschaft und die Medien, ed. by K. LUGER – R. RENGER – F. CASMIR – M. MARTISCHNIG. Vienna 1994; W. WELSCH, Transkulturalität – Die veränderte Verfassung heutiger Kulturen. Ein Diskurs mit Johann Gottfried Herder. VIA REGIA – Blätter für internationale kulturelle Kommunikation 20 (1994) (s. the text on the internetpage: http://www.viaregia.org/bibliothek/pdf/heft20/welsch_transkulti.pdf); W. WELSCH, Vernunft. Die zeitgenössische Vernunftkritik und das Konzept der transversalen Vernunft. Frankfurt am Main 1996; W. WELSCH, Transkulturalität. Zur veränderten Verfassung heutiger Kulturen, in: Hybridkultur: Medien, Netze, Künsten, ed. by I. SCHNEIDER – Chr. W. THOMSON. Cologne 1997, 67–90; W. WELSCH, Transculturality: The Puzzling Form of Cultures Today, in: Spaces of Culture. City-Nation-World, ed. by M. FEATHERSTONE – S. LASH. London – Thousand Oakes – New Delhi 1999, 194-213; W. WELSCH, Auf dem Weg zu transkulturellen Gesellschaften. Paragrana 10/ 2 (2001) 254–284; W. WELSCH, Netzdesign der Kulturen. Zeitschrift für Kulturaustausch 1 (2002) (s. also: http://www.ifa.de/index.php?id=welsch); A. HEPP – M. LÖFFELHOLZ, Grundlagentexte zur transkulturellen Kommunikation. Vienna 2002. On the concept of transculturality by Welsch s. B. KALSCHEUER, Transkulturalität. Einleitung, in: Differenzen anders denken. Bausteine zu einer Kulturtheorie der Transdifferenz, ed. by L. ALLOLIO-NÄCKE – B. KALSCHEUER – A. MANZESCHKE. Frankfurt – New York 2005, 289–292. 7 Selected poems from the Dīvāni Shamsi Tabrīz, ed. and transl. by R. A. NICHOLSON. Cambridge 1898; reprint, Richmond 1994, 125–126, here 125; A. SCHIMMEL, The Triumphal Sun. A Study of the Works of Jalāloddin Rumi (Persian studies series 8). London 1978 (= reprint Albany, NY 1993) 389. 8 W. BERG – A. N. ÉIGEARTAIGH, Exploring Transculturalism. A Biographical Approach. Wiesbaden 2010, 10–12; D. TREICHEL, Transkulturelle Kompetenz, in: D. TREICHEL – Cl.-H. MAYER, Lehrbuch Kultur: Lehr- und Lernmaterialien zur Vermittlung kultureller Kompetenzen. Münster – New York – Munich – Berlin 2011, 278–284, here 280. 9 Nicetae Choniatae Orationes et Epistulae, ed. by J.-L.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Michael Panaretos in Context
    DOI 10.1515/bz-2019-0007 BZ 2019; 112(3): 899–934 Scott Kennedy Michael Panaretos in context A historiographical study of the chronicle On the emperors of Trebizond Abstract: It has often been said it would be impossible to write the history of the empire of Trebizond (1204–1461) without the terse and often frustratingly la- conic chronicle of the Grand Komnenoi by the protonotarios of Alexios III (1349–1390), Michael Panaretos. While recent scholarship has infinitely en- hanced our knowledge of the world in which Panaretos lived, it has been approx- imately seventy years since a scholar dedicated a historiographical study to the text. This study examines the world that Panaretos wanted posterity to see, ex- amining how his post as imperial secretary and his use of sources shaped his representation of reality, whether that reality was Trebizond’s experience of for- eigners, the reign of Alexios III, or a narrative that showed the superiority of Tre- bizond on the international stage. Finally by scrutinizing Panaretos in this way, this paper also illuminates how modern historians of Trebizond have been led astray by the chronicler, unaware of Panaretos selected material for inclusion for the narratives of his chronicle. Adresse: Dr. Scott Kennedy, Bilkent University, Main Camous, G Building, 24/g, 06800 Bilkent–Ankara, Turkey; [email protected] Established just before the fall of Constantinople in 1204, the empire of Trebi- zond (1204–1461) emerged as a successor state to the Byzantine empire, ulti- mately outlasting its other Byzantine rivals until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1461.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Was It Important for the Byzantines to Read Latin? the Views of Demetrios Kydones (1324-1398)
    Why was it important for the Byzantines to read Latin? The views of Demetrios Kydones (1324-1398). Abstract Fourteenth-century Byzantium witnessed civil wars between cliques of the ruling elite, constant financial crisis and dramatic territorial reduction. As a result of two catastrophic civil wars that were fought in 1321-1328 and 1341-1347, the Byzantine empire evolved into a small state which was struggling to survive and defend itself against large numbers of hostile neighbours, some of whom had or gradually acquired the resources to develop military forces far superior to those of Byzantium. In the 1350s and1360s the Ottoman Turks began the conquest of European territories that belonged to the Byzantine empire and threatened the very existence of the Byzantine state. Seeing that it was impossible to face the Ottomans militarily many Byzantines began to support the idea of a Crusade against the Ottomans and the reconciliation between the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches. One of the most staunchest supporters of this policy was the prolific author and politician Demetrios Kydones. This article will discuss how Kydones promoted the policy of reconciliation and alliance with Western European powers against the Ottomans. The fourteenth century was for the Byzantine empire a period of civil wars, dramatic territorial reduction and continuous political, economic and military crisis. The expansion of the Ottomans in European territories in the 1360s and the 1370s reduced Byzantium to Constantinople and its suburbs, a few cities in the Black Sea and Thrace and a few Aegean islands. Thessalonica, the second largest city of the empire was isolated and in tenuous contact with Constantinople, while the rulers of Byzantine Morea in the Peloponnese were forced to follow their own independent foreign and military policy.1 It is under this rather pessimistic political context that Demetrios Kydones pursued his career in politics and literature.
    [Show full text]
  • Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, Volume 15
    Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, Volume 15, Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, Volume 15, , Barthold Georg Niebuhr, Nicetas Choniates, GeÅrgios AkropolitÄ“s, Agathias, IÅannÄ“s AnagnÅstÄ“s, Anastasius (bibliothecarius), Anastasius (the Librarian), Joannes Cameniata, Joannes Cananus, Laonikos ChalkokondylÄ“s, IÅannÄ“s Kinnamos, Joannes Zonaras, George Codinus, Anna Comnena, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (Emperor of the East), Flavius Cresconius Corippus, Dexippus (the Platonist.), Doukas, Ephraim (ho chronographos), Eunapius, GeÅrgios PhrantzÄ“s, George (the Pisidian.), GeÅrgios (Synkellos), Nicephorus Gregoras, Hierocles (Grammarian.), Joannes Cantacuzenus (Emperor of the East), Johannes Laurentius Lydus, Michael Glykas, John Malalas, Joannes Scylitzes, Leo (the Deacon), Leo (Grammaticus.), Malchus (Philadelphensis.), Constantine Manasses, Menander (Protector), Flavius Merobaudes, MichaÄ“l AttaleiatÄ“s, Saint Nicephorus (Patriarch of Constantinople.), George Pachymeres, Paulus Silentiarius, Petrus Patricus, Procopius, Theophylactus Simocatta, Symeon (Metaphrastes), Theophanes (the Confessor), Zosimus, 1831, impensis E. Weberi, 1831 download file here: http://projecttn.org/.aXsylwd.pdf Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, History, ISBN:1115482092, 2009, Barthold Georg Niebuhr, This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections, 600 pages Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, 600 pages, History, ISBN:1115482084, 2009, This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections, Barthold Georg Niebuhr Of Tours, IV, 5 p. 489; Paul the Deacon (Historia Longobardorum, IV Agathias, p. 107;Theophanes Chronographia (Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae), year 5048, âœmaximo vero puerorum, mortalitas Title That earlier plague Journal Demography Volume 5, Issue 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Gregory II of Cyprus and an Unpublished Report to the Synod Papadakis, Aristeides Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Summer 1975; 16, 2; Proquest Pg
    Gregory II of Cyprus and an Unpublished Report to the Synod Papadakis, Aristeides Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Summer 1975; 16, 2; ProQuest pg. 227 Gregory II of Cyprus and an Unpublished Report to the Synod Aristeides Papadakis HE PATRIARCHATE of Gregory II of Cyprus (1283-1289) forms T some six years of stormy church history. Yet even so, the restoration of Orthodoxy and the formal liquidation of the Union of Lyons under Gregory make his patriarchate an important divide both historically and theologically in the history of the Byzan­ tine Church. Gregory, the one hundred and sixteenth patriarch of Constantinople, was in fact the moving force of the dogmatic decisions embodied in the Tomus of the Council of Blachernae, 1285, that repudiated the unionist theology of John Beccus and the <peace' of Lyons.1 And although unionism could never again be ignored in Byzantine intellectual history, the Council did a great deal to heal the Church's ills2 and mend the division within Byzantium that, according to Pachymeres, had become as profound as that which only yesterday had divided Greeks and Latins.3 As is well known, despite the external crisis, political and material exhaustion and instability, the second half of the XIII century wit­ nessed one of the most impressive intellectual outbursts known to Byzantium-the so-called second Byzantine renaissance. Gregory of Cyprus was in the forefront of this revival of antiquity, as were so many other churchmen of the imperial court. His industry, skill and elegance were not unnoticed. Gregoras observes that "he brought to 1 The editio princeps of the Tomus, based on Paris.gr.
    [Show full text]
  • How to Write History: Thucydides and Herodotus in the Ancient Rhetorical Tradition
    How to write history: Thucydides and Herodotus in the ancient rhetorical tradition A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Scott Kennedy, B.A., B.S. Graduate Program in Greek and Latin The Ohio State University 2018 Dissertation Committee: Anthony Kaldellis, Adviser Benjamin Acosta-Hughes Will Batstone Copyright by Scott Kennedy 2018 Abstract Modern students of Thucydides and Herodotus may find it odd to think of them as rhetoricians. Yet in the ancient world, both historians (and especially Thucydides) played an important role in rhetorical schools. They were among the favorite authors of ancient teachers of rhetoric and served as foundational pillars of the ancient curriculum, providing themes for school exercises and even for such seminal texts as Hermogenes' theoretical treatises on rhetoric. Modern scholars might never read technical rhetorical texts such as Hermogenes. They almost certainly would never turn to Hermogenes and his kind to help them understand Thucydides or Herodotus. But for our ancient intellectual predecessors, such an approach would have been unconscionable, as ancient rhetoric was the theoretical lens with which they understood and appreciated historical writings. In this dissertation, I explore the confluence of rhetoric and historiography in the ancient world through an examination of how Herodotus and Thucydides were used in ancient schools and then by later historians. Chapter 1 and 2 outline how these historians were embedded and encoded within the rhetorical curriculum. In Chapter 1, I examine how Herodotus and Thucydides entered the rhetorical curriculum and how rhetors incorporated them into the rhetorical curriculum through an examination of the surviving progymnasmata, scholia, and pedagogical myths.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Religious Culture Journal Für Religionskultur
    __________________________________ Journal of Religious Culture Journal für Religionskultur Ed. by / Hrsg. von Edmund Weber Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main in Association with / in Zusammenarbeit mit Matthias Benad, Mustafa Cimsit, Natalia Diefenbach, Martin Mittwede, Vladislav Serikov, Ajit S. Sikand, Ida Bagus Putu Suamba & Roger Töpelmann in Cooperation with the Institute for Religious Peace Research / in Kooperation mit dem Institut für Wissenschaftliche Irenik Assistent Editor/ Redaktionsassistentin Susan Stephanie Tsomakaeva ISSN 1434-5935 - © E.Weber – E-mail [email protected]; http//publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/solrsearch/index/search/searchtype/series/id/1613; __________________________________ No. 262 (2020) Christian Muslim and Byzantine-Muslim religious polemic, interreligious debate, apologetics A Bibliographical Collectiom By Maria Vaiou 1 Selected documents Byzantine Against Muḥammad (ca.. 10th or 11th c.), ed./Lat. tr. PG 104, cols 1447–58. CMR 2, 577–9. Agallianos, Theodore (d. bef. 1474)=ed. Ch. G. Patrinelis, Ho Theodoros Agallianos kai hoi anekdotoi logoi autou [=Ὁ Θεόδωρος Ἀγαλλιανὸς ταυτιζόμενος πρὸς τὸν Θεοφάνην Μηδείας καὶ οἱ ἀνέκδοτοι λόγοι του. Μία νέα ἱστορικὴ πηγὴ περὶ τοῦ πατριαρχείου Κων/λεως κατὰ τοὺς πρώτους μετὰ τὴν ἃλωσιν χρόνους] (Athens, 1966). [apologetic logoi of 1463, status of patriarchs in the decade after the conquest of the capital] ODB, 1, 33–4; C.J.G Turner, ‘Notes on the works of Theodore Agallianos contained in Codex Bodleianus Canonicus Graecus 49”, in BZe 61 (1968), 27-35. Amiroutzes, George, Dialogue –Lat. tr. J. Werner (Nuremberg, 1514); ed./Span. tr. Jorge Ameruzes de Trebisonda, El dialogo de la fe con el sultan de los Turcos, editión crítica, traducción y estudio Oscar de la Cruz Palma (Madrid, 2000) [Nueva Roma, 9]; A.
    [Show full text]
  • Les Études Géométriques Et Astronomiques À Thessalonique D’Après Le Témoignage Des Manuscrits : De Jean Pédiasimos À Démétrios Kydônès
    LES ÉTUDES GÉOMÉTRIQUES ET ASTRONOMIQUES À THESSALONIQUE D’APRÈS LE TÉMOIGNAGE DES MANUSCRITS : DE JEAN PÉDIASIMOS À DÉMÉTRIOS KYDÔNÈS Malgré les études pionnières sur l’histoire des textes mathématiques et astronomiques grecs anciens que Johan Ludvig Heiberg et Paul Tannery ont menées il y a plus d’un siècle, et malgré les contributions plus récentes sur l’astronomie byzantine apportées par l’école philologique de Louvain, fon- dée par Adolphe Rome et continuée par Joseph Mogenet et Anne Tihon, nos connaissances des sciences exactes byzantines autres que l’astronomie sont encore assez fragmentaires. Esquisser, une pièce après l’autre, un tableau d’ensemble des sciences à Byzance est sans doute une tâche difficile, mais l’étude que nous présentons dans ces pages peut suggérer comment éclairer et reconstituer une parcelle des études scientifiques byzantines en utilisant non seulement les traités ou les scholies édités mais aussi les écrits non scientifiques de leurs auteurs et les témoignages paléographiques dans les manuscrits qui ont survécu jusqu’à nos jours. Pendant la période paléologue, une éducation scientifique était la norme plus que l’exception pour les intellectuels les plus en vue de l’empire. Ce principe éducationnel ou culturel a pu voir le jour dès le moment fondateur de l’enseignement paléologue en 1261 sous l’égide de Georges Akropolitès, comme le suggère l’Autobiographie du patriarche Grégoire de Chypre1 ; son application a pu aussi se trouver facilitée par les goûts personnels de l’em- pereur Andronic II, quoique la culture du IXe siècle était elle aussi marquée par l’appui des empereurs à l’enseignement scientifique2.
    [Show full text]
  • Portable Library of Liberty DVD Which Contains Over 1,000 Books and Quotes About Liberty and Power, and Is Available Free of Charge Upon Request
    The Online Library of Liberty A Project Of Liberty Fund, Inc. Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 9 [1776] The Online Library Of Liberty This E-Book (PDF format) is published by Liberty Fund, Inc., a private, non-profit, educational foundation established in 1960 to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. 2010 was the 50th anniversary year of the founding of Liberty Fund. It is part of the Online Library of Liberty web site http://oll.libertyfund.org, which was established in 2004 in order to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. To find out more about the author or title, to use the site's powerful search engine, to see other titles in other formats (HTML, facsimile PDF), or to make use of the hundreds of essays, educational aids, and study guides, please visit the OLL web site. This title is also part of the Portable Library of Liberty DVD which contains over 1,000 books and quotes about liberty and power, and is available free of charge upon request. The cuneiform inscription that appears in the logo and serves as a design element in all Liberty Fund books and web sites is the earliest-known written appearance of the word “freedom” (amagi), or “liberty.” It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 B.C. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash, in present day Iraq. To find out more about Liberty Fund, Inc., or the Online Library of Liberty Project, please contact the Director at [email protected].
    [Show full text]
  • SOURCES on the ALANS a Critical Compilation
    SOURCES ON THE ALANS A Critical Compilation BY AGUSTIALEMANY ''68* " BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON • KOLN 2000 CONTENTS Foreword, by Riidiger Schmitt xiii Preface xvii 1. Introduction 1 1.1. The Ethnic Name *al[l]an- 1.2. The Ethnic Name *as- 1.3. Early Alanic Tribes 1.4. Old Ossetic Tribes 2. Latin Sources 11 Latin Literary Sources (lst-4th c.) 11 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Avienus 2.3. [Hegesippus] 2.4. Lucan2.5. Martial 2.6. Pliny 2.7. Pompeius Trogus 2.8. Scriptores Historiae Augustae 2.9. Seneca 2.10. Suetonius 2.11. Tabula Peutingeriana 2.12. Tacitus 2.13. Valerius Flaccus Latin Literary Sources (4th-5th c.) 30 2.14. Introduction 2.15. Additamenta Africana 2.16. Ambrose 2.17. Ammianus Marcellinus 2.18. [Aurelius Victor-} 2.19. Ausonius 2.20. Claudius Marius Victor 2.21. Claudian 2.22. Constantius of Lyons 2.23. Consularia Constantinopolitana 2.24. Dracontius 2.25. Fasti Vindobo- nenses Priores 2.26. Honorius 2.27. Hydatius 2.28. Jerome 2.29. Liber Genealogus 2.30. Martianus Capella 2.31. Notitia Dignitatum 2.32. Orosius 2.33. Pacatus 2.34. Paulinus 2.35. Paulinus of Nola 2.36. Pauli- nus of Pella 2.37. Possidius 2.38. Prosper 2.39. Salvianus 2.40. Sido- nius Apollinaris 2.41. Vegetius 2.42. Victor of Vita Latin Epigraphical Sources 75 2.43. Varia Epigraphica Onomasticon 76 2.44. Ababa 2.45. Addac 2.46. Beorgor 2.47. Eochar 2.48. Eunones 2.49. Rasparaganus 2.50. Saphrax 3. Greek Sources 79 3.1. The Alans'and the Hellenized Roman East Greek Literary Sources 79 3.2.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mongols' Approach to Anatolia and the Last Campaign of Emperor John III Vatatzes
    The Mongols’ Approach to Anatolia and the Last Campaign of Emperor John III Vatatzes Koji Murata EORGIOS AKROPOLITES (ca. 1217/20–1282) in his History describes in detail the diplomacy of the emperor Gof an exiled Byzantine government, John III Vatatzes (r. 1221–1254). The narrative gives the impression that the emperor’s reign was full of campaigns to the West—the Bul- garians, Epiros, and Constantinople under the Latins. Recent studies indicate that the empire had close relationships with the East, in particular with the Rum Seljuk.1 In a broader perspec- tive, the emperor’s strategy, during the latter half of his reign, may be situated in the context of the Mongols, as discussed in depth by John S. Langdon.2 The purpose of the present article is to reexamine the generally accepted date of an imperial expedition described by Akropolites, and to place the expedition in the broader context that surrounded the ‘Nicaean’ empire. The expedition was led 1 D. A. Korobeinikov, Byzantium and the Turks in the Thirteenth Century (Oxford 2014); the articles in A. Peacock and S. N. Yıldız (eds.), The Seljuks of Anatolia: Court and Society in the Medieval Middle East (London/New York 2013), esp. D. Korobeinikov, “ ‘The King of the East and the West’: The Seljuk Dynastic Concept and Titles in the Muslim and Christian Sources,” 68–90, and R. Shukurov, “Harem Christianity: The Byzantine Identity of Seljuk Princes,” 115–150. An extensive bibliography is provided by D. Thomas and A. Mallett (eds.), Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History IV (1200–1350) (Leiden/Boston 2012).
    [Show full text]
  • Empresses' Mediations in the Feuds Between the Palaiologoi (14Th-15™ Centuries)
    Originalveröffentlichung in: Czaja, Roman; Mühle, Eduard; Radzimiński, Andrzej (Hg.), Konfliktbewältigung und Friedensstiftung im Mittelalter. Przezwyciężanie konfliktów i ustanawianie pokoju w średniowieczu, Toruń 2012, S. 211-222 MALGORZATA DABROWSKA (Lodz) EMPRESSES' MEDIATIONS IN THE FEUDS BETWEEN THE PALAIOLOGOI TH (14 -15™ CENTURIES) have selected the example of three Empresses and their role at the court to il­ lustrate the perspective of a Byzantinist analyzing the resolution of conflicts I in the Eastern Empire. I will focus on three eminent female peacemakers: Eirene Asenina Kantakouzena, Helena Kantakouzena Palaiologina and Helena Dragas Palaiologina. The first Empress was of Bulgarian origin, the second came from Byzantium and the third was Serbian. All of them were Orthodox. Their belonging to the "Byzantine Commonwealth"' united by the same religion and culture was of great importance. They knew how to conduct themselves in the world of diplomacy familiar to them from an early age. In comparison with the Imperial spouses who arrived in Constantinople from the West, they were in a better position to assess the political situation and carry out their plans either by force or by trick. The main aim was efficiency. Before telling their stories, I would like to recreate a picture of the Empire after the Fourth Crusade. What happened afterwards is very important in explaining the role of the three ladies in the mixed Byzantine­Latin world on the Bosporus. For many historians, the Fourth Crusade in 1204 represented the end of the 1 Byzantine Empire. The traditional world of the proud medieval Romans was over. The Latins established their rule and they changed Constantinople into a capital of their own ­ a Latin Empire.
    [Show full text]
  • Masterarbeit / Master´S Thesis
    MASTERARBEIT / MASTER´S THESIS Titel der Masterarbeit / Title of the Master´s Thesis „Marriage Strategies in the Early Palaiologan Period“ verfasst von / submitted by Konstantina Gerakini angestrebter akademischer Grad / in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (MA) Wien, 2018 / Vienna 2018 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt / A 066 869 degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt / Masterstudium Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik degree programme as it appears on the student record sheet: Betreut von / Supervisor: Univ.- Prof. Dr. Claudia Rapp TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 3 INTRODUCTION The historical frame 4 Late Byzantine aristocracy: definition and state of research 6 Methodological approach 7 The Structure of the Thesis 8 The Sources 9 I. THE ARISTOCRACY IN THE EARLY PALAIOLOGAN PERIOD I.1. The Byzantine aristocracy: definition and terminology 13 Ranks and offices in the early Palaiologan period 18 The self-consciousness of the aristocracy 21 I.2.The Palaiologan high aristocracy 23 II. MARRIAGE STRATEGIES OF THE ARISTOCRACY IN THE EARLY PALAIOLOGAN PERIOD II.1. Marriage strategies of the aristocracy from the tenth to thirteenth century 41 Marriage strategies of the military aristocracy of the tenth century 41 Marriage strategies of the aristocratic families of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Komnenoi and the Doukai 44 Marriage strategies of the Angeloi and the Laskarids 49 II.2. Marriage strategies until 1259. The rise of the Palaiologoi 51 Marriage strategies of the Laskarids and other families of the aristocracy 57 1 II.3. Marriage strategies in the reign of Michael VIII Palaiologos (1259-1282) 62 II.4.
    [Show full text]