The Oxford University Byzantine Society

Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies 66 St. Giles’ Oxford United Kingdom OX1 3LU

Committee 2018-19

President - Katerina Vavaliou (Wadham College, Oxford) Secretary - Callan Meynell (Trinity College, Oxford) Treasurer - Daniel Gallaher (Oriel College, Oxford)

[email protected] https://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com/ Contents

A Message from the OUBS President 1-2 Katerina Vavaliou

Narrative in Antiquity 3-8 Chloé Agar (St. Cross College)

Procopius and Slighting Fortifications in the Gothic War: Fano and Pesaro 9-14 Jonathan Thomas Wild (Brasenose College)

An Interview with Dr. Marek Jankowiak 15-19 Peter Guevara (Wolfson College)

A Nephew and a Crusade - Anna Komnene’s “target” in the Alexiad 20-26 Louis Nicholson-Pallett (The Queen’s College)

A Speech by Demetrius Cydones 27-32 John-Francis Martin (Corpus Christi College)

Information about SPBS 33

The texts and images printed herein are © by the Authors and may not be reproduced without permission.

Cover image: Christ mosaic from the Church of the Paregoretissa in Arta. © Liz James, Mosaics in the Medieval World: From Late Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century, 1 s t e d . (Cambridge University Press, 2017), https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511997693, fig.159. A Message from the OUBS President Katerina Vavaliou

The Oxford University Byzantine pleasure of welcoming 48 speakers from Society (OUBS) is now a well-established over 20 different countries. The conference institution at the heart of the Late Antique will be held on 22​nd-​ 23​rd February in the and Byzantine Studies (LABS) History Faculty on ‘C​ ontested Heritage: communities at Oxford, welcoming new Adaptation, Restoration and Innovation in students into the discipline and keeping the Late Antique and Byzantine World’. everyone up to date with events from week Drawing upon my own background in to week. restoration and architecture, I have sought In recent years, the community has to select a theme which can complement blossomed and reflects an increasingly the study of material culture, art, and broad array of academic interests and archaeology. Yet such a topic lends itself backgrounds. I owe a great debt to tireless to other forms of historical investigation: work of previous committees and appropriation and reuse occur across presidents. In the space a few short years, media and are essential elements in the they have moulded the society into the construction of Byzantine texts and dynamic entity that exists today. I can only historical narratives. hope that the OUBS will continue to In bringing together researchers from expand in size and ambition, and that different backgrounds, the conference when my time as president ends, I will aims to facilitate interdisciplinary leave it in the same healthy state as when I exchange in a relaxed and supportive found it. environment. The occasion also presents A testament to this ambition is the OUBS’ us with a wonderful opportunity to International Graduate Conference. Now in showcase the quality of postgraduate its 21​st year, the event has continued to research and to meet our counterparts grow in scale and this year we have the from across the globe.

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 1 The international outlook of the OUBS is kept members of the LABS community reflected in other aspects of its work. The informed of academic opportunities and society organises an annual overseas enabled them to make the most of their research trip and scholars of all levels time at Oxford. participate in it. Its itinerary is tailored to To this end, the OUBS has continued to run the participants’ academic interests and events which seek to build dialogue provides a unique opportunity to visit between postgraduates, faculty members monuments and sites where even the and emeriti. In keeping with the theme of most long-suffering friends and relations ‘innovation’ from this year’s conference, fear to tread. our foremost legacy is likely to be the In the recent past, OUBS trips have taken inauguration of a society jaunt to the pub us to Armenia, Bulgaria and Iran. This after the Wednesday evening LABS year’s trip will take us to central Greece seminars. and the Peloponnese, where we will visit For the rest of 2019, forthcoming sites like Hosios Loukas, Mystras and collaborations with Graduate Archaeology Monemvasia and have the opportunity to Oxford and the Oxford Medieval Society access areas normally closed to the promise to foster links with our sister general public. disciplines in the university. Further afield,

we will also be organising a colloquium Oxford is an idiosyncratic and somewhat with our counterparts in Paris, the peculiar place, and we have endeavoured Association des étudiants du monde to make the process of orientation more byzantin. straightforward for incoming students. Overall, I hope that the OUBS will continue Building on the successful roll-out of a to develop into a close-knit community, mentoring system for new graduates over uniting young researchers through shared the past few years, the OUBS has also interests and lasting friendships in Oxford published a ‘Welcome Pack’ to explain the and across the world. structure of academic life at the university. The society’s two mailing lists, and recent forays into social media, have hopefully

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 2 Narrative in Antiquity Chloé Agar (St. Cross College)

T​he analysis of Narratology and its place in scholarship The theory applied to the analysis hagiography has taken a of narrative features in texts is called more literary turn in ‘narratology’. It is not exclusively applied recent years (Gray 2017: to ancient texts, but the shared features 103). The approaches between ancient and modern material now being applied to the means that its use is a valid approach to structure and take (Bal 2017: 3-4). Narratology characterisation within such texts has identifies the aspects out of which broadened interpretation beyond the narratives are constructed, forming a acknowledgement of the didactic semi-quantitative approach to literary purposes of these texts (Papavarnavas analysis which can be useful when 2016: 66). Analysis is now showing the studying patterns in large data sets, be specific ways in which the didactic they whole texts or episodes within purpose of hagiography could be them. achieved. This article will argue the utility Narratology has been applied to of viewing hagiography – and, by hagiography for a few years, with proven extension, other ancient texts – from a success in its application within Greek literary perspective in order to and Latin scholarship. The latest understand the particular features which example within Greek scholarship is the their writers chose to use and the study of the representation of prisons in possible reasons for those choices. Greek martyr cycles by Christodoulos

Papavarnavas (University of Vienna) in

his PhD thesis (2018: 278). He used

narratological analysis on over two

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 3 hundred texts in order to identify the how the didactic function of these texts conventions in the representation of could be achieved. Taking Christodoulos prisons in Greek martyr cycles and these Papavarnavas’ use of particular episodes episodes’ role in the narrative. within hagiography, narrative features However, despite its proven utility that can provide insights include, but are and success when applied to ancient not limited to, the following list: texts, narratological approaches have limited application to Coptic texts. What ● Placement within the narrative – limited application to Coptic hagiography The placement of an episode that exists, being to the lesser-studied relative to the other episodes dialect of Bohairic and a lesser-known which constitute the narrative as a set of case studies, has proven that a whole can indicate whether it is narratological approach is equally useful intended as a break or a climax, to Coptic as it is to Greek and Latin either inviting the audience to rest material (Zakrzewska 2011: 499, 501). and contemplate or inspiring a This application shows that there is a stronger emotional response. The growing narratological discourse within content of the episode can also Coptic scholarship, and that further indicate how its placement should application will continue to develop both be interpreted, as they often serve the methods used and the new insights as respite from the main narrative that they bring (Behlmer 2012: 306). while continuing the plot or providing character development. Narratology as a method ● Narrative space – The physical A wide range of narrative features space on a manuscript occupied can be analysed using a narratological by an episode can indicate its approach, and each one can indicate relative importance and, if it is something different about the author’s intended as a break, how long that intention or the effect on the audience interruption of the main narrative and refine our understanding of precisely is and therefore how lasting an

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 4 effect it may have on the audience particular episode that may have once the next episode been considered by the writer. The commences. first is the effect that the episode ● Audience – Christodoulos will have on the extra-textual Papavarnavas identifies two audience when contextualised by audiences (2016: 67). The first is preceding events, such as a break intra-textual, being the audience or a climax. The second is the as a secondary character in the significance of that placement to narrative. The second is the narrative itself, such as extra-textual, being the audience introducing the saint’s martyr that is being exposed to the status or their actual martyrdom. narrative. He argues that the ● Setting – The setting of an emotional responses of the episode can indicate how a writer intra-textual audience could be wanted it to be perceived within crafted by the writer to influence the context of the narrative and its that of the extra-textual audience, didactic function. An episode and that such secondary taking place in the same setting characters are as much a role as the preceding one or in a model for the didactic purpose of setting that would be familiar to the narrative as the primary one(s) an audience at least as an idea, i.e. the saint or martyr such as a shrine or prison, lends a (Papavarnavas 2016: 80). sense of realism, as does an ● Context within the narrative – The appropriate time of day for the preceding events and overall plot events taking place. This would of the main narrative can serve to enhance the relevance to the explain the significance and audience more than a reason for an episode’s phenomenon that it is unlikely that placement. There are two main any of them witnessed, such as a reasons for the placement of a healing miracle or a vision, and

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 5 thereby make the didactic whom they can learn. This relates message that the writer wished to to the idea of the intra-textual convey more pertinent, audience as the most relatable particularly in the case of the characters to the extra-textual audience being illiterate laymen audience, and places the saint or having the narrative conveyed to martyr as the example to which to them orally. aspire and the characters who ● Sensory description – Sensory torment them as the example to description is related to the revile (e.g. Elliott 1987: 1). setting in that it is the description that establishes the locale and Further comment on character time of events. Sensory There has been an emphasis on description can include any of the characterisation in recent scholarship on five senses and may be one of hagiography (e.g. De Temmerman 2010: two things. It may be of sensory 27). It is certainly an aspect of narrative phenomena with which an that is emphasised within narratological audience were culturally or theory, as methods of characterisation physically familiar, or it may be of and characters’ speech are considered in unfamiliar phenomena that would overlap with other narrative features (Bal inspire a sense of wonder. A 2017: 44). sense of wonder would be However, the study of character appropriate in a text such as an within the application of narratology to encomium, which had the main hagiography has been limited to the saint function of celebrating its or martyr, and in some cases has drawn associated saint. understandable but anachronistic ● Characters – The characters in a analogies that can help modern narrative are the actors in the plot, audiences to understand how they would and thereby the figures to whom have been perceived, but not how this the audience can relate and from was achieved, such as the relation of

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 6 saints performing miracles to context, as opposed to from the superheroes (e.g. Elliott 1987: 1-2). This perspective of those studying it today. paper therefore proposes that the narratives features that contribute to this This paper has indicated the utility characterisation should be studied of viewing hagiography from a literary further. It also proposes that a way of perspective by highlighting the narrative understanding the idealised characters in features outlined by narratology and the relation to secondary ones, which are purposes for which writers may have more likely to have been relatable to a used them. This emphasises the use of contemporary audience, would be to these texts as historical sources, but compare their representation within with the analysis of the literary methods particular episodes using the narrative used within them rather than more features. This would highlight patterns directly through their content. It has also and provide new insights into whether highlighted the importance of there is variation according to holiness, characterisation within narrative as a key social status, or gender. Such insights way by which the extra-textual audience would develop the current understanding can experience a text’s didactic function. of hagiography within its intended

Selected Bibliography

Bal, M. 2017, ​Narratology: Introduction to the theory of narrative. Fourth​ edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Behlmer, H. 2012, ‘Report on Coptic Literature (2008-2012)’ in P. Buzi, A. Camplani, and F. Contardi (eds.), Coptic​ society, literature and religion from Late Antiquity to modern times: Proceedings of the tenth International Congress of Coptic Studies, Rome, September 17th–22nd, 2012 and plenary reports of the Ninth International Congress of Coptic Studies, Cairo, September 15th–19th, 2008 (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 247​; 2 vols). Leuven; Paris; Bristol CT: Peeters. De Temmerman, K. 2010, ‘Ancient Rhetoric as a Hermeneutical Tool for the Analysis of Characterization in Narrative Literature’. ​Rhetorica​ 28(1), 23–51. Elliott, A. G. 1987, ​Roads to Paradise: Reading the Lives of the Early Saints​. Hanover: University Press of New England. Gray, C. 2017, ‘“Holy and pleasing to God”: A narratological approach to hagiography in Jerome’s Lives​​ of Paul and Malchus’. Ancient​ Narrative​ 14, 103-28.

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 7 Papavarnavas, C. 2016, ‘The role of the audience in pre-Metaphrastic passions’ in Analecta Bollandiana ​134(1), 66-82. ______2018, ​Gefängnis als Schwellenraum in der byzantinischen Hagiographie: Eine literarische Untersuchung der Märtyrerakten in früh- und mittelbyzantinischer Zeit​. PhD. Universität Wien. Zakrzewska, E. D. 2011, ‘Masterplots and martyrs: Narrative techniques in Bohairic hagiography’ in F. Hagen, J. Johnston, W. Monkhouse, K. Piquette, J. Tait, and M. Worthington (eds), Narratives​ of Egypt and the ancient Near East: Literary and linguistic approaches​. Leuven: Peeters.

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 8 Procopius and Slighting Fortifications in the Gothic War: Fano and Pesaro Jonathan Thomas Wild (Brasenose College)

A prominent feature of been accepted, a blanket motivation has still been applied to all of the cities Ostrogothic strategy in the Gothic War whose fortifications were slighted by the which has received no detailed analysis Gothic leadership. However, this is is the strategy of slighting the walls of unsatisfactory. I will take Fano and various cities and towns by the Pesaro as case studies to demonstrate Ostrogothic leadership. Perhaps the the fact that Gothic motivations were reason for this is the unreliability of more complex than Procopius would Procopius when looking at Gothic aims, have us believe. Fano and Pesaro were which is well established. Averil Cameron fortified cities on the Adriatic coast, has noted that to look to Procopius for between Rimini and Ancona. According an analysis of Gothic aims is a ‘mistake’. to Procopius, the walls of both cities Philip Rance adopted a similar view, were dismantled to half of their original though not so pessimistic, simply height by the Ostrogothic king Wittigis advising that the modern reader treat the (AD 536-540). motives which Procopius assigned to the Goths with circumspection and Procopius claimed that Wittigis’ acknowledge that he was assigning motivation for slighting the walls of Fano intention from consequence. and Pesaro and burning many of the buildings within them was to prevent According to Procopius, Totila their use as bases from which the enemy slighted city walls to avoid the could cause trouble for the Goths. complications of siege warfare and force However, removing the cities to prevent a pitched battle. This has often been their use as strategic bases cannot have accepted at face value. When it has not

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 9 been Wittigis’ sole motivation. Wittigis after Wittigis’ abandonment of the siege decided to retain possession of other of Rome in 538, when he marched north cities close to Fano and Pesaro, to besiege Rimini after it was captured including Osimo, Ancona, and Rimini. by John. However, this seems unlikely. Therefore, an examination of the The fact that Procopius makes no strategic situation faced by Wittigis is mention of the two cities during the essential to determine why Fano and Byzantine conquest of the region Pesaro’s walls were partially razed and suggests that the dismantling had those of other nearby cities were not. already taken place. Furthermore, it would have been difficult of Wittigis to However, before analysing the dismantle the walls of Fano and Pesaro strategic context, it is crucial to establish while the Byzantines were in control of when Wittigis partially dismantled the the nearby cities of Rimini and Ancona. walls of Fano and Pesaro. Procopius only The forces he sent to dismantle their informs us that the cities’ walls had been walls would have been threatened by slighted when the walls of Pesaro were dangerous sallies. It is far more likely repaired by Belisarius in 545. Perhaps that their walls were slighted in c. 536, the reason for this was that Procopius before Wittigis’ march to Rome. At this did not feel it necessary to mention the time, Wittigis would have had the razing of Fano and Pesaro when it freedom and to dismantle the walls of happened because it had no bearing the two cities. upon his narrative. Alternatively, Procopius may not have been aware of Manpower was clearly a strategic this fact until long after the event. concern for Wittigis. To muster a large However, this seems unlikely given that enough army, he was forced to recall the Procopius was present in Italy with Goths under Marcias stationed in Gaul Belisarius until at least 540. and cede the territory to the Franks. Therefore, Wittigis had to be selective Procopius claimed that it with which places he decided to allocate happened at the beginning of the war. It manpower to defend. He preferred not to is possible that it may have occurred

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 10 garrison all the sizable cities by the Therefore, Wittigis decided to keep Adriatic coast. Accordingly, he decided Osimo principally because it was a large to prevent the loss of Fano and Pesaro defensible city that was relatively close and keep the nearby cities of Osimo, to Ravenna. By choosing to hold Osimo, Ancona, and Rimini. Wittigis’ choice was Wittigis also had to hold Ancona which simple. Rimini’s proximity to Ravenna was effectively Osimo’s port. If he had made it essential as a line of defence. decided to raze the fortress at Ancona For the Byzantines to march on Ravenna, and leave it undefended, a Byzantine they first had to capture Rimini. Rimini, army could approach from the sea and being closer to Ravenna than Fano or thereby besiege Osimo from that Pesaro, was better placed to serve as a direction with impunity. base from which the garrison could Alongside Wittigis’ strategic harass an army besieging Ravenna. motivations, there may also have been a Therefore, Wittigis saw fit to garrison the desire to prevent regional control by city. removing two key urban and With Osimo, its topography made administrative centres. It has been it extremely defensible. As Procopius suggested that the aim of Totila in described, the city was situated upon a dismantling the walls of cities was to hill which made it virtually inaccessible to remove key urban centres, the would be besiegers. Due to the strength occupation of which would grant the of its position, even a small garrison was Byzantines control of certain regions. able to deter John from besieging it. However, this does not necessarily apply Similarly, when Belisarius approached to those cities razed by Wittigis, including Osimo, he observed that the city could Fano and Pesaro. not be accessed from level ground. Nevertheless, both Fano and Whilst Fano and Pesaro were defensible Pesaro were urban and administrative cities with impressive fortifications, their centres. Under the Roman Empire, positions on low lying ground made Pesaro had been a place of trade and them less defensible than Osimo. had a ​Collegium Fabrorum Navalium​.

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 11 However, Fano had even greater urban Ancona by 536. Therefore, while both and administrative significance under the cities clearly had some regional Roman Empire. The continued significance, they cannot be regarded as importance of Fano is attested to having had the same regional throughout the Roman period. significance as other cities whose walls Furthermore, by 536 the significance of were razed by the Gothic leadership, like cities like Fano and Pesaro may have Milan. Thus, Wittigis’ principal aim was grown as many cities in the modern probably not to remove regional centres. region of Marche had been abandoned If that were the case, then he would by the sixth century, thereby reducing the surely have slighted the walls of other number of important urban settlements. nearby cities that were equally, if not However, they were certainly not the more regionally significant. principle urban centres on the Adriatic To further examine Wittigis’ coast. As Dall’Aglio noted, Procopius motivations for slighting the walls of referred to Fano and Pesaro as “small Fano and Pesaro, the extent of the towns” (​polismata​). Whereas Ancona and damage done to the walls must be Rimini were defined as “city” (​poleis​). considered. According to Procopius, This suggests that Fano and Pesaro Wittigis had: ‘torn down their [Fano and were part of an administrative hierarchy Pesaro’s] walls to about half their height’. in which they were considered of lower 1 rank than cities like Rimini and Ancona. The archaeological evidence seems to Moreover, the nearby city of Osimo was support Procopius’ statement that the described by Procopius as a metropolis walls were dismantled to “half” (“​ἥμισυ ”) and the first city of Picenum. Whilst the of their original height. The remains of relative insignificance of Fano and the Roman walls of Fano provide Pesaro may be partly due to the damage possible evidence of Wittigis’ caused by Wittigis, there is no reason to destruction. This can be seen in the suppose that Fano and Pesaro were more regionally significant that Rimini or 1 ​Procopius, H​ istory of the Wars​, trans. H. B. Dewing, Vol. IV (Cambridge MA, 1924), VII, p. 245.

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 12 upper part of the wall at the Porta della desire to avoid the betrayal of the cities Mandria, which seems to have been at the hands of the distrustful dismantled. inhabitants. This was certainly considered a legitimate reason to raze a Furthermore, there is also city’s walls. At least by Procopius. In the archaeological evidence for Belisarius’ fifth century, as Procopius described, makeshift restoration of Pesaro’s walls. Gaiseric tore down the walls of all the At least ten areas along the curtain wall cities in Libya, excluding Carthage, partly seem to have been repaired using reused so that the Libyans would not have material belonging to the Imperial age. strong bases from which they could The fact that Wittigis only partially launch a rebellion. dismantled the walls of Fano and Pesaro suggests that it was a temporary Moreover, the potential disloyalty of the measure. Wittigis presumably intended inhabitants of cities was clearly a to rebuild the two cities after he had won concern for Wittigis. According to the war. Belisarius demonstrated that the Procopius, before departing from Rome, walls of Pesaro could be hastily repaired Wittigis delivered an exhortation to the and defended when he rapidly repaired city’s population, in which he urged them them and managed to hold the city to remain loyal to the Gothic cause. against Totila in 545. Wittigis was clearly Wittigis’ concern likely stemmed from seeking a speedy conclusion to the war, the fact that the population of southern as the letter written on his behalf to Italy, (excluding Naples) had surrendered Justinian suggests. Wittigis sought to willingly to Belisarius not long before this temporarily prevent the capture of the exhortation. Therefore, part of Wittigis’ two cities in his absence as he was concern may have been that if he had planning to march south to confront garrisoned Fano and Pesaro, the Belisarius. inhabitants may have betrayed the garrison. Lastly, another part of Wittigis’ motivation for damaging the walls of However, Wittigis did not have reason Fano and Pesaro may have been his to be particularly suspicious of the

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 13 inhabitants of Fano and Pesaro. These Through this brief glimpse into Gothic cities had not been previously betrayed military strategy in the Gothic War, it is by the inhabitants, unlike Milan, the only clear that razing a city’s walls in late other city razed on Wittigis’ orders. Thus, antiquity was not a strategically singular Wittigis would have had no reason to be affair. Furthermore, the motivations more suspicious of the inhabitants of behind razing city walls were rarely as Fano and Pesaro than other nearby cities simple as writers like Procopius would like Rimini and Osimo. Yet, he chose to have us believe. Only through a case by garrison them. Therefore, a fear of the case analysis do the many moving parts inhabitants betraying the cities of Fano become clear. Slighting fortifications, not and Pesaro to the enemy was clearly not unlike many other aspects of late antique Wittigis’ principal motivation for slighting warfare, was a strategically complex their walls. Clearly, Wittigis’ motivations undertaking. Therefore, greater attention for slighting the walls of Fano and should be paid to the role of slighting Pesaro were not quite as Procopius fortifications in military strategy in late would have us believe. antiquity.

Selected Bibliography Agnati, U., Per​ la storia romana della provincia di Pesaro e Urbino​ (Roma, 1999). Blundo, M. L., ‘Da Sentium a Sassoferrato. Vita e morte di un’area sacra’ (PhD. thesis, Universita Roma Tre, 2014). Burns, T., ​A History of the Ostrogoths​ (Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1991). Dall’Aglio, P. L., ‘Pesaro tra tardoantico e primo medioevo’ in P. L. Dall’Aglio, I. D. Cocco (eds), ​Pesaro Romana: Archeologia e Urbanistica​ (Bologna, 2004), pp. 67-80. Halsall, G., ​Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450-900​ (Abingdon, 2003).

Procopius, History​ of the Wars​, trans. H. B. Dewing, Vol. IV (Cambridge MA, 1924).

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 14 An Interview with Marek Jankowiak Associate Professor of History, Corpus Christi College Interviewer: Peter Guevara (Wolfson College)

Where did you grow up? I grew up in Gdansk, a very beautiful medieval city on the Baltic, which triggered my interest in the history of the Baltics and but also a very politically active city at that time in the 80s and 90s and this played a role in shaping in my ideas and my awareness of history happening before my eyes.

Was history your favourite subject growing up? This year for our series of interviews with I guess it was my second favourite leading historians in Late Antique and subject, just after mathematics. Byzantine studies, the ​Byzantinist ​sat down with the newest member of the What was your favourite thing about LABS Faculty here at Oxford, Dr. Marek mathematics? Jankowiak. He is known for research on That is a difficult question. I did quite a slavery in the Medieval world, but slightly lot of mathematics. I did two years of less well-known is his path to taking up university in applied mathematics. I think history and his approaches to the the reason that really made me give up subject. on mathematics was the study of

topology, which is a very abstract part of

multi-dimensional geometry. That was

amazingly abstract. I found it too difficult

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 15 but I’m still fascinated by that sort of between all sorts of things that we thinking. have—this I find quite useful. To give an example, well, it matters how many Do you believe that thinking is working for things we have. For instance, if we have you or helping you with your current 800 churches in Cappadocia, this can be work? a starting point for reasoning on how It certainly is. It clearly makes me many households we had in Cappadocia interested in all sorts of quantitative in the 10​th and 11​th centuries when those approaches, which still work pretty well churches apparently were mostly for some parts of medieval history so it constructed (or cut in the rock). So I’m is not a total coincidence that I am not sure if models will answer our working on coins: counting them and, of questions. We, again, do not have course, applying quantitative approaches enough data to build models but just to that. But of course, as remembering the quantitative side of our mathematicians say, mathematics is a material, I think, is very useful. way of thinking, really. It helps to structure thoughts and to think in a more You did your doctorate. What came next? logical, structured and precise way. Next came McKinsey, which is one of those global consulting firms (or I should Do you think it would be useful to try and say global strategic consulting firms), create mathematical models to mimic basically a continuation of my interests developments in the medieval world? that I developed when I was studying Models are always misleading in various economics - so I was interested in senses. They have limitations and we finance, banking, and international trade just do not have the data to create because I was majoring in those reliable models. But just thinking in subjects. It so happened that I applied quantitative terms, of counting things for many different jobs. I was and being aware of how many things we consistently unsuccessful, in a sense. have, what are the numerical relations They offered me a job after a long search

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 16 for a job in finance and I was very happy So you started before your PhD defence to join them for a couple of years. and continued on then for a little bit. I had my doubts when I started to write When you were working with McKinsey, my PhD thesis and my doubts increased did you see yourself working there for a with time. So after two or three years of long time? my PhD I decided to try something else It’s not a job to do for a long time. It’s and I suspended my PhD for that time. I extremely intensive work. One is under returned to Paris and I finished it. quite a lot of pressure with very competitive people. So I thought of it as It seems like within one year you a very useful experience and a very produced almost the entirety of your attractive job for my CV. I still didn’t really thesis. know what to do after that, whether to I wrote it very fast. This is true. I thought stay in academia or whether I wanted to about it a lot. I was well prepared but the have a career in finance, banking or writing up was quite fast. I’m not sure if I consulting. In that sense, I thought it was can write as fast these days but I an extremely useful job but I never enjoyed writing in French a lot. That was thought that I would stay for very long. I a pleasant experience. stayed for four years, which was longer than I thought. Your studies and your work have taken

you all around Europe. Is there someone From 2009 to 2013? out there whom you would take with you Well, it’s more complicated. In fact, from on a road trip or some kind of travel 2005 to 2008 and 2009 to 2010 because around the world? I started doing it before I finished my I don’t know about around the world but thesis. Oxford is a place where you meet very

interesting people and I’ve been traveling

with a number of people from Oxford,

including Mark Whittow earlier. I’m

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 17 currently planning travels with other tried local versions of horse meat. When friends from Oxford. So there are actually I was slightly teasing Mark and Helen a lot of people I would be happy to travel whether they would eat horse, given the with, among all sorts of Oxford friends. British taboo against eating horse, but they very bravely did. So yes, that was a If you had to choose one though? very enjoyable trip, that combined Well, Mark was really the ideal travel sightseeing and all sorts of pleasant companion. I didn’t get to travel too experiences. much with Mark but I went on two trips with Mark and Helen, and once with our Have these trips informed any of the work doctoral student. These were extremely that you’re currently doing so far? enjoyable experiences. Certainly—yes. It is crucial to see the things that we are writing about. It is Where did you go on your excursions? absolutely crucial to see the landscapes, We went to Moravia, Southern Poland certainly crucial to see the sights, to talk and Western Ukraine to look at Slavic to the local archaeologists, to go to the hill-forts. We then went to Tatarstan, to local museums. In the case of Volga Volga Bulgaria, which was a brief trip of Bulgaria—Tatarstan—it was significant in several days but apart from sightseeing the 10​th​, 11​th and 12​th centuries. The we tried quite a lot of local cuisine, problem is that virtually nothing has been including kumis, the famous nomadic written, so there’s virtually nothing in any fermented slightly alcoholic drink Western language and not much in produced of fermented mare’s milk, Russian, whereas we realise that there’s which fully deserves its reputation in the a lot of really interesting archaeology western travellers going to the Mongol that suggests unexpected things like the court, who were shocked by the taste of transformation of the economic basis of kumis. Indeed, it has an extremely strong Volga Bulgaria, at some point, to a more taste. It probably takes some time to commercially-oriented and more start to enjoy it. We tried this drink, we agriculturally-oriented polity. So these are

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 18 the sort of things that you can only As I understand, you were at Birmingham discover when you actually go there and as well. That was from which years? see the sites. That was in fact last year, so 2017-18.

How do you see your work affecting the So one year at Birmingham. If you could wider scholarship of Byzantium over the describe your experience at Birmingham next couple of years? in one word, how would you describe it? What I am planning to do over the next I’m not sure, perhaps ‘motivating.’ That couple of years is to bring to publication was a good experience, partly because I the research that I have been doing in the was on a research contract so I did last few years. On the one hand, to teach. In fact, I taught quite a lot but I publish what we have produced in the had some time for research, so I guess ‘Dirhams for Slaves’ Project. We are very that was close to the ideal balance close to publishing three edited volumes. between teaching and research. That We are planning to publish a catalogue was quite a rewarding experience and it of Dirham imitations, which I think is an is useful to see I guess to see a normal extremely interesting source and I am British university different from Oxbridge. writing my monograph on the slave trade—this is one of the priorities. The Where do you see yourself in five years? second priority is to publish my research I would happily see myself still here. I on the 7​th century, especially on the think it is such an intense job that I would Monothelete Controversies, the be happy if I managed to do it properly in translation of the Acts of the Sixth the coming years. It is certainly a Ecumenical Council with Richard Price demanding job; the bar has been set and my dissertation. So I don’t know how extremely high by James and Mark. So I this will affect the wider world of would be happy if in those next years I Byzantinists but there isn’t much on manage to get close to the bar that either of those topics so I hope people they’ve set for the incumbent in this will find it interesting. position.

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 19 A Nephew and a Crusade - Anna Komnene’s “target” in the A​ lexiad Louis Nicholson-Pallett (The Queen’s College)

T​he ​Alexiad retains a and repeatedly asserted their wish to seize the empire. However, Paul special place amongst Magdalino has argued that both the Byzantine literature. Aside praising of Alexios and the sinister from Procopius’ ​Secret depiction of the crusaders was part of an History​, Anna Komnene’s overarching criticism of John II and narrative on her father’s Manuel I, Anna’s brother and nephew. reign is one of the few that has been discussed One cannot deny that parts of the ​Alexiad extensively in secondary work. The certainly support Magdalino’s view. Anna reason for this is fairly obvious – as a states that the noble deeds of her father key source on the passage of the First ‘came to nothing through the stupidity of Crusade, it has drawn the attention of those who inherited his throne.’ It is both Byzantinists and Crusader evident that Anna did not like her brother Historians to understand and assess – she seems to have attempted to take Anna’s aims. the throne from John after Alexios’ death. However, this is of course not On the surface, her aims appear enough to suggest that Anna attempted obvious: to compose, in the words of to target John and Manuel above the Penelope Buckley, a myth around the crusaders, since the latter are reign of her father, Alexios I. But there is consistently criticised throughout the a debate as to whether Anna was Alexiad​. Instead, Magdalino insists that attempting to target and criticise certain Anna’s depiction of her father’s figures as well. The most pronounced character, actions, and intentions are target was the Latin Crusaders, whom Anna compared to a ‘plague of locusts’

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 20 purposefully depicted as opposites to of work. They fall into the ‘myth’ of those of Manuel. Alexios Buckley refers to.

Indeed, this argument has some Thus, this is not sufficient to support weight. Magdalino points out that, in the Magdalino’s argument. However, what Alexiad​, Alexios was a pious individual about the other views on the aims of the and defender of Orthodoxy, whereas Alexiad​? R.D. Thomas, John France, and Manual was a ‘young profligate who P. Stephenson have all presented slightly slept around, spent lavishly [and] dabbled different views. Yet these views all agree in astrology’. Alexios was brave yet that denouncing the crusaders was, cautious, following a careful strategy – aside from creating a myth around Manuel, on the other hand, was Alexios, the key aim of the Alexiad​​ . impetuous, always wishing to seek glory ‘Anna presents her father for himself. Those adjectives praising standing firm against, and dominating all Alexios, Magdalino insists, are carefully barbarians’ R.D. Thomas tells us, arguing chosen to mirror contemporary that, whilst this includes the Turks, assessments of Manuel’s character. Cumans, and Bogomil heretics, it But this is not necessarily the case. inevitably must also include the Deciphering what an author means is Normans, Celts, and Franks. Thomas one of the most prolific problems in indicates that the Roman ‘way of life’ is historiography, and this argument is what is at stake in the ​Alexiad​. The particularly vulnerable as it makes Alexios of the ​Alexiad never trusted the assumptions on what Anna means. Was Latins and made sure to outmanoeuvre Anna attempting to create a reflection of them at every turn. There is no better Manuel’s character by depicting Alexios depiction of this than the siege of Nicaea, in a certain way? Or was she simply in which Alexios used the pressure of the following the panegyric style of her enormous crusader force to push the work? Piety, bravery, and caution are Seljuk rulers of the city into negotiation standard praises to be given in this style and surrender. At the same time tricking the crusaders into believing that the

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 21 Byzantine detachment led by Manuel course could not – but the marriage of Boutoumites had captured the city the Emperor to a Latin princess must themselves, thus sparing Nicaea of a have disturbed Anna greatly. Jonathan vicious sack. Harris uses the infamous phrase – originally spoken by Margaret Thatcher One cannot deny that Alexios’ distrust of in reference to the union leaders – ‘the the crusaders was fair. They had already Enemy Within’ to describe the Latins caused violence on their way to within the court of Manuel. One cannot Constantinople, burning ‘a castle of help thinking that this is exactly how heretics’ in Palagonia – an event Anna saw the relationship between mentioned by both the ​Gesta Francorum Manuel and the Latins. et Aliorum Hierosolimitanorum and the Alexiad​. And, of course, the bloody sack Understanding the depiction of the Latins that Jerusalem was to suffer later, the in the Alexiad as a subtle yet profound violence of which even shocked the criticism of Manuel’s relations with them author of the ​Gesta Francorum​. So, we certainly supports Magdalino’s view. Not can probably assume that Anna’s least of all because of the sheer amount depiction of Alexios in this regard is fairly of time Anna dedicates not only to accurate. Alexios’ dealings with the crusaders, but the disorderly and often violent Yet, whilst one cannot deny the descriptions of the Latins. For importance of Alexios’ distrust of the Magdalino’s argument to stand, we must Latins in the ​Alexiad​, Magdalino is able to assess Alexios’ involvement in the First turn this to his advantage. Manuel did Crusade. The historiography on this is not simply view the Latins as tools for wide and varied, so for the sake of expansion, as Alexios and John did, but simplicity I have narrowed it down to two actively liked them. Magdalino argues extremes. that the negative portrayals of the Latins were indirect criticisms of the wife of The first was proposed by Sir Manuel, Bertha of Sulzback. Again, Anna Steven Runciman. It may not come as a does not reference her directly – she of surprise that Runciman almost echoes

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 22 the exact sentiments Anna herself certainly could not have done the same asserts in the ​Alexiad – that Alexios was with Peter the Hermit. At the same time, ‘informed that instead of the individual he was not a completely unrealistic knights or small companies he figure to blame for the crusade. Peter expected… whole Frankish armies were had roused a large group to travel east, on the move’. Although even Runciman known as the ‘People’s Crusade’, clearly could not accept Anna’s argument due to his success as a preacher. He without conceding some points, was also the first to arrive, and the first although he certain echoes the idea of crusader ‘army’ to meet the Byzantines. dread and shock that Alexios experiences when first informed of the Determining to what extent Anna movement of the First Crusade in the is attempting to deceive us here helps us Alexiad​. understand to what degree she is targeting the crusaders and, through this, Anna actually attributed the leader and Manuel. This invites the argument on the catalyst of the First Crusade to Peter the other extreme, proposed by Peter Hermit. Anna states that, returning from Frankopan. Frankopan suggests that the Holy Land after suffering at the Alexios had a far more active hand in the hands of the Turks, Peter claimed that call for a crusade. This moves away from God had ‘commanded him to proclaim to the more tradition assertion that Alexios all the counts of France that all simply expected a few well-trained should…strive to liberate Jerusalem from mercenaries, like those he received from the Agarenes’. Attributing the crusade to Robert I of Flanders a decade earlier, to Peter is a stroke of genius. It clears something which seems to agree more Alexios of any charge of involvement in with Western sources. For example, the First Crusade and allows Anna to Ekkehard of Aura notes that, demonise the crusaders without incriminating her father. Alexios ​could have conducted diplomacy with the Papacy in inciting the crusade – he

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 23 Even the aforementioned account – if she covered the truth here, emperor of Constantinople, did she do it elsewhere? Alexios, sent not a few letters to Pope Urban [II] concerning On the other hand, two key these barbarian problems arise within Frankopan’s depredations, which had argument. He asserts that the Byzantine already flooded the greater Empire, particularly Alexios, was in an part of his realm. In these awfully precarious position by the letters he lamented not mid-1090s, so turned to the west to having sufficient forces to seek aid in a final act of desperation. defend the eastern Churches Yet, by 1095 Alexios’ position was far and implored the pope, if it more stable than it had been in the early were possible, to call upon 1080s. Victory over the Normans and the West… the collapse of Seljuk power in the East (the same collapse of power, Indeed, Frankopan suggests that incidentally, that led to the success of Alexios was attempting to do more than the First Crusade), secured the perfect simply request large military support for conditions for Byzantine expansion. the east. This is not suggested in the Frankopan also argues that the rumours passages by Ekkehard of Aura and that were circulated about the treatment Gilbert of Mons, yet a similar tactic was of Christians by the Muslim rulers of the tried by the Byzantines in 1062, when Holy Land were so consistent because three envoys from the emperor ‘so much of the information was Constantine X requested assistance emanating from the emperor’. Indeed, from the Papacy against the Normans the rumours were very similar, but there as well as for an expedition to may be a simpler explanation. Rumours Jerusalem. Hence, this level of of churches being destroyed, and involvement by Alexios seriously Christians being persecuted are fairly undermines the reliability of Anna’s common tactics when inciting a

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 24 movement and did not necessarily have right direction, and implicates to be created by one figure. Any Magdalino’s argument. But there is attempt to unite a group against a another explanation. Every writer, whilst common enemy will paint that enemy in influenced by their own life experiences, a prejudiced light, suggesting that they are also influenced by the context of the are barbaric and violent. To take some time of their writings. The parts of random events from history, in the Psellos’ ​Chronographia written in the aftermath of the capture of 1070s are often considered of a Constantinople in 1453, the cardinal different nature to those written a Bassilios Bessarion wrote that decade earlier. The same approach Constantinople was ‘captured, must be done when referring to the despoiled, ravaged and completely Alexiad​. Anna was writing during the sacked by the most inhuman barbarians 1140s and critically during the Second and the most savage enemies of the Crusade. This is the view held by P. Christian faith, by the fiercest of wild Stephenson, who asserts that the beasts.’ When the Irish rose up in Alexiad is an excellent source for the rebellion in 1641, pamphlets depicting Second Crusade, especially sentiments the rebels carrying spikes with the of the Byzantine aristocracy at the time. young impaled upon them were widely In this way, Anna’s painting of the circulated. And a countless number of crusaders as barbaric and violent is not propaganda posters from the First and an attempt to criticise Manuel but to Second World wars depict the opposing remind the Byzantines that the side as destroyers of culture and crusaders are not the ally of the empire humanity (the most obvious being the but the enemy. Indeed, Anna’s opening ‘Destroy this mad brute – enlist’ poster remarks point to her attempt to stop the from the First World War). ‘stream of Time’ plunging the deeds of men into darkness. Presumably this So, although Frankopan’s argument includes both the good and the goes too far, it certainly heads in the destructive.

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 25 Moreover, Anna explicitly paints the between Alexios and Manuel. So, crusaders as oath-breakers. This is the instead of a criticism of Manuel as line of argument John France takes. In being different from his grandfather, it is the ​Alexiad​, Bohemond takes Antioch a warning and a reminder to the purely to ‘glorify himself’, and not for the Byzantines that these oaths do not sake of Christendom or even the Latins work. In the ​Alexiad​, Alexios – out of no themselves. In doing so, Bohemond and fault of his own – underestimated the the other leaders of the crusaders broke treachery of the crusaders, and his the oaths they swore to Alexios – the efforts to make the Latins swear oaths same oaths Manuel demanded of the came to naught. leaders of the Second Crusade. Anna takes this further by including the entire Hence, we are left with these Treaty of Devol (the one between different views on Anna Komnene’s Bohemond and Alexios after the Alexiad​. As flawed as her writings are, former’s defeat, which handed over one cannot imagine studying the reign Antioch to the latter). The inclusion of of Alexios without them. But to this is quite unorthodox and is very understand the reign of her father, or clearly highlighting the treachery of Byzantium’s relations with the Tancred and the crusaders. One might crusaders, or indeed the passage of the suggest that this is a criticism of First Crusade itself, one must assess Manuel’s close relations with the Latins, the Anna’s agenda in the ​Alexiad​. Few but of course, Alexios had also works remain so explicit in their biases, demanded oaths be taken by the and yet so mysterious in their aims. crusaders. This is a key similarity

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 26 A Speech by Demetrius Cydones John Francis Martin (Corpus Christi College)

L​oukas Notaras’ the assembled Senate. The motion: Should we accept Western military aid famous line ‘it would and the return of the key fortress of be better to see the Gallipoli (which an Italian crusading turban reign in the force, under Amdeo VI of Savoy, had just City’s midst than the recaptured from Ottomans), or should Latin mitre’ epitomises we, rather, turn them away and make an attitude well known Peace with the Turks? to all students of Cydones’ speech reveals that there Byzantium, one which was a significant faction in continues to elicit 2 Constantinople, including members of lively debate. A the Senatorial class, which was strongly fascinating and unique insight into the opposed to Western involvement in matter of Byzantine anti-Latinism and Byzantine affairs, and which manifested Turkish relations is found in a speech 3 significant pro-Turkish tendencies. Part made by Demetrius Cydones in 1366 to of the great value of this primary source is that, not only does it address a matter 2 Doukas, 37.10. Certainly the significance of the ​ which the majority of Byzantine writers line can be nuanced by asking questions such as: Was Notaras referring to western spiritual rule are slow to acknowledge, but it also rather than temporal? Does the Greek word καλύπτραν​ ​really refer to a bishops mitre, or to contains the foresight of almost a some other symbol of authority? Or did Notaras even say it – he who fought bravely against the century, before Byzantine society had Turks in 1453? 3 Cydones was a one of the first Byzantines ever been irreparably rent asunder in the wake ​ to master Latin, developed a great love of of the Council of Florence, and a western Scholasticism, especially Aquinas (whom he translated extensively into Greek), and meaningful act of defiance, before eventually, in the wake of the Hesychast controversy, converted to Catholicism. He was also, it would seem, John V’s most senior emperor was away from the capital, that he minister, and it was in this capacity, while the made this remarkable speech.

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 27 Turkish conquest was inevitable. It thus can’t imagine whom with their offers us an invaluable lens through empty prattle. Rather, regarding which to observe the situation on the time wasted as long as we sit ground, and helps illuminate some of the deliberating, we ought to welcome societal attitudes, free of the rhetorical them [the Latins] like men long extremes elicited by the crisis of the last away from home – from their days, that may have contributed to parents or their children or those Byzantium’s ultimate collapse. closest to them – and acknowledging our thanks to The peroration of Cydones’ ​Oratio Pro Providence for their enthusiasm, subsidio Latinorum (in Migne, ​PG ​154, 1004-8): openly attribute to Her their

present arrival; not, on account of To even consider such a some small things which might proposition [i.e., to reject befall us or might not, do damage Amadeo’s offer of Gallipoli, and to our freedom. To say nothing of refuse to welcome him into what is now expected by Constantinople] is ridiculous. A everyone, even by those who are 4 reasonable person, a citizen of a burdened by these things... city such as ours, would naturally For consider the condition to think anybody who says such which we have now been brought: things to be insane. Indeed if what is there to hope for if we someone were our enemy, rather, send these men away? We, for he would urge us to follow this whom the bounds of empire were sort of advice. We, on the other once coterminous with those of hand, holding to proper reasoning, the Christian world, now sit must not stand still, nor can we thinking it good fortune if any of allow the naysayers to persist in us should be permitted to be spouting rampant nonsense, as enslaved [i.e., rather than killed]. they look to gain the favour of I

4 Line unclear.

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 28 we worship – Christ himself – And the city most blessed of all seems able to prevent. beneath heaven, to which every people once swarmed on account Famine holds all in its grip. And no of its grace and delight and land remains for us to cultivate, surpassing splendour, has now nor can merchants make their become a prison for its journeys without fear of pirates. inhabitants. On all sides her gates Wherefore to workmen their toil are closed. None approach her seems useless, since they have ports without peril. And those who not the materials to ply their trade; do put in, bringing with them in the case of soldiers, fear dread rumours from without, restrains the attack; and masters, experience far worse within. For, deserted by their slaves, receive in for us within the walls there is their place that same lot. The groaning, poverty, penury and whole aspect of the city is seen by tears; but for those looking out all to have changed, as though in from the watchtowers there are mourning; and everyone, smitten barbarian hordes, the ravaging of with this synod of evils, has the land, ditches full of the emigrated. Indeed, what perturbs corpses of our dead, and cruel even the intelligent, is that even fire, consuming homes, churches, from among the governing the finest public buildings, and, in classes many have become so a word, everything. And there are servile in their logic as to say that blasphemies against God, and there is some good to be had in (who could not shudder at it) slavery at the hands of those scorn of the Cross, and mockery barbarians and in subjecting the of the faith, and holy icons carried Romans to yet heavier burdens. about without honour, and terrible Thus they even go over to them threats, which not even he whom [the Turks] openly, spending

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 29 specified lengths of time with from doing everything to gratify them, and receiving sheep, and them; which is nothing less than cattle, and horses, and money as betraying the city and openly their bounty for betraying us. And proclaiming them the masters of carousing with them they crow all. And so it is that now even our destruction and drink to the those who desire to bring about house of one so-and-so, or to the the fall of the City by treaty, are beauty of his wife, or to their fearful lest they be beaten to it by children, longing to be seen by those wretches in handing us everyone to be venerated in their over. presence. Having said and done such things they then return, Thus affairs have been brought to intimating to the citizens that if an impasse, and thus to live in they do not keep quiet they shall freedom seems, in the time that accuse them before their remains, the one thing near “masters” [the Turks]; not impossible – because you shrinking from calling those consider it a waste of time to destructive demons by such a attempt to remedy our daily name. And they [the poor citizens] losses, and think, moreover, that in turn shudder, and pray for the passing the day at ease is what old age of those whom they most befits men, calling all of should rightly despise, beseeching those who urge the right thing them [the traitors] to have a fools, and looking to bestow the thought for them in their revels. greatest honours upon those who Indeed these hirelings have share in our contest for pleasures. assumed such an outspokenness that they do not even shrink from In addition to that, you welcome making shameful public orations those who are clearly our on their [the Turks’] behalf and enemies, deceived into trusting

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 30 them, whereas those who have assembled an army for us and For now seeing us cowering, they professed themselves our allies too naturally draw back [i.e., our [Amadeo and his troops] you former subjects], and endure their suspect, searching for pretexts on slavery, seeing their masters which to annul our pacts of shrinking from the task. But if they friendship. should see us looking the matter boldly in the face, they too would However, if, condemning the contribute their resources. For if former, we should make use of the barbarians are beset from the those now given to us by God, outside, their [Christian] subjects and, shaking off those who will not long keep quiet. oppose us and banishing those tellers of tales for old women, you For indeed, if one is to place any should chose to fight the final trust in rumours and the word on fight for our common salvation, I the street, there was a certain think, and let this be said before prophecy that aid would come to God, that all shall be well for us, us and our city from the sea and not merely at home, but also very from the Alps, and all would see far afield. Not only shall we save them crushing the hubris of the for our homeland that which barbarians, and forcing them, compensates for everything: finally, to serve those whom they freedom; but we shall also rule had formerly ruled. And so it is over more than before. All those that the barbarians have always who were once under us will harboured this very fear in their return to us, and will submit to our hearts, so that whenever they laws, whilst we, regaining our gather to deliberate the following courage, shall beset the consensus always prevails, that barbarians on all sides. they ought not to be excessively

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 31 heavy-handed when dealing with which even our enemies pay heed us, but ought rather to destroy us when deliberating, and let us not bit by bit, careful not to drive us to allow the exhortations of those in despair, lest we, driven to favour of the barbarians to carry desperation, should flee to those the day. For it would be absurd, who are now present of their own when they [the Turks] fear these accord, and they [the Turks] very things, and pray for these should have to march out and men [the Latins] to stay at home, fight a hard battle. for us to then reject them when they have arrived, and thus Let us therefore welcome this choose to cooperate with the prophecy as a good omen, one to desires of our enemies.

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 32

The Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies

The Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies (SPBS) promotes the study of the history and culture, language and literature of the Byzantine Empire and its neighbours.

The Society organises: • an annual Symposium • special events and lectures • study days for postgraduates

Members’ benefits: • Bulletin of British Byzantine Studies (BBBS) • Autumn Newsletter • discounts on the Symposium registration fee • student bursaries

For more information and details of how to join, see the Society’s website: www.byzantium.ac.uk or contact: The Membership Secretary Aikaterini Vavaliou Wadham College Oxford OX1 3PN

E-mail: [email protected]

T​ he Byzantinist |​ 33