Salvatore Cosentino | Università di Bologna (original) (raw)
Papers by Salvatore Cosentino
A. Christophilopoulou (ed.), Islands and Communities. Perspective on Insularity, Connectivity, and Belonging, 2024
This chapter addresses the parallel history of two large Mediterranean islands-Cyprus and Crete-w... more This chapter addresses the parallel history of two large Mediterranean islands-Cyprus and Crete-which experienced during Late Antiquity a series of social and cultural transformations that affected their regional identities. As far as Cyprus is concerned, the spotlight is focused on the 3rd and, more particularly, the 4th century AD, showing how Cyprus's position in the Graeco-Roman oikoumene resets in this period. An attempt will be made to show how Cyprus moved from the margins to the mainstream (and back again) and consequently how Cypriot identities were rebranded in the period from the end of the Ptolemaic period until the beginning of the so-called treaty centuries. During this time, Cyprus grew into a highly connected province that was able to import and export goods by sea, based largely on its own skills and manpower, at an unprecedented level. Imperviousness to war, local opulence, and expanding commerce but limited access to the imperial power, also characterised Cyprus throughout this period. The strenuous elimination of the island's pagan past and the concomitant spread of Christianity were the most important developments in Cypriot identity since the end of the ancient Cypriot kingdoms. The issue of Cretan regional identity is mainly addressed through evidence concerning its capital city, Gortyn. Still in the 4th century Crete was connected to Rome and Capua through patrimonial interests enjoyed in the island by high ranking Roman senators. Christianisation was another major transformation that affected Cretan society, a process opposed by part of the local ruling class. From the second half of the 5th century the church of Gortyn grew in importance, a growth reflected in an impressive season of ecclesiastical building in Gortyn itself and in other Cretan centres. The archbishoprics of Gortyn remained under the jurisdiction of the see of Thessalonica, whose primate was papal vicar in eastern Illyricum. Like Cyprus, throughout the period in question the economy of Crete grew within a highly developed network of maritime links with the whole Mediterranean, reaching important levels of wealth. Although not entirely overlapping-and indeed sometimes different-the socioeconomic and cultural
Justinian's Legacy. The Last War of Roman Italy, ed. by H. Dey, F. Oppedisano, 2023
Nea Rhome. Rivista di ricerche bizantinistiche, 2023
Legal Pluralism and Social Change in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 2024
Occidente / Oriente. Rivista internazionale di studi tardoantichi, 2023
Millennium , 2023
The expression oikoi stratiōtikoi, used in Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus as opposed to oikoi po... more The expression oikoi stratiōtikoi, used in Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus as opposed to oikoi politikoi, designates all those families who were bound to military service. They, in the tenth century, were listed in various enlistment registers that were periodically updated, among which one was kept in Constantinople. There is solid evidence to argue that such an administrative practice originated in the eighth century, coinciding with a significant transformation in the enrolment of soldiers and their maintenance. A conscription procedure was devised in the age of the Isaurians, which, although it is not known whether it was on a voluntary or compulsory basis, entailed the entry in the military records (in Constantinople and the provinces) of every person in charge (oikodespotēs) of the family that had assumed the military burden. This implied in later periods a strong uncertainty in the relationship between service and its performance because registration rested on an ambiguous vocabulary. The ambiguity, in fact, was rooted in the polysemy of the concept of oikos, family unit, home and patrimony at the same time. While such a notion allowed the recruitment in thematic armies to function flexibly through the wide network of the family's cognate and agnatic structure, precisely because the oikos was also a set of economic interests, it exposed the landed patrimony of military families to splitting and erosion. This ambiguity ended with Constantine VII's famous law of 949, which regulated the property regime of the stratiōtikoi oikoi, a regime that, as the same provision explicitly states in several points, already existed previously throughout the empire. The law provided a precise economic quantification of the assets needed for each 'military family' to perform the service. Historiography has generally interpreted Constantine VII's measure as an act breaking with the previous tradition, since military service appears in it much more markedly connoted as a patrimonial burden, rather than as a personal one. However, this 'oppositional' interpretation does not seem adequate for understanding the concept of oikos stratiōtikos, which from the outset must have implied a profound interrelationship between the personality of the service and its patrimonial basis, since the one did not exist without the other. An early version of this text was presented as an introductory lecture at the XIX Jornadas de Bizancio, held in Madrid between the 24th and 27th of January 2022. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Prof. Juan Signes Codoñer and Prof. Margareta Vallejo, as well as the other colleagues on the organising committee, for inviting me to the conference of the Sociedad Española de Bizantinística.
Occidente / Oriente. Rivista internazionale di studi tardoantichi, 2022
Medieval Prosopography 24, 2003
Studies in Byzantine Epigraphy, 1, ed. by A. Rhoby and I. Toth, 2022
Il tempo dei Vandali e dei Bizantini. La Sardegna dal V al X secolo, a cura di S. Cisci, R. Martorelli, G. Serreli, 2022
La Sicilia e il Mediterraneo dal Tardoantico al Medioevo, 2022
Dumbarton Oaks Papers 76, 2022
The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles rela... more The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles relating to Byzantine civilization-society and culture from roughly the fourth through the fifteenth century in the Roman Empire and in successor and neighboring states. Articles are written normally in English. Preference is given to articles of substantial lengthat least 10,000 words, notes inclusive-but shorter pieces will be considered, particularly if they relate to objects in the Dumbarton Oaks collections. Articles should be prepared according to the submission guide, style guide, and list of abbreviations, which are available, along with more information about the journal and the submission process, at www.doaks.org /research/publications/series/dumbarton-oaks-papers. Current and previous issues may be ordered at www.hup .harvard.edu/. Standing orders may be placed by contacting customer service at 800-405-1619 or customer.care@triliteral.org. Previous volumes of Dumbarton Oaks Papers are available in digital form through JSTOR.
A Companion to Byzantine Italy, 2021
A Companion to Byzantine Italy, 2021
A Companion to Byzantine Italy , 2021
Mujeres imperiales, mujeres reales, ed. by M. C. Chiriatti, R. Villegas Marin, 2021
LRCW6. Land and Sea: Pottery Routes (Agrigento, 24-28 maggio 2017), 2021
Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes, 2014
Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 2021
The present contribution aims at reviewingt he available data on the Triclinium of the Nineteen c... more The present contribution aims at reviewingt he available data on the Triclinium of the Nineteen couches.I ti sd ivided into threep arts: the first is intended to overview the information that Byzantine authors have handed down to us about this great banquet hall; the second aims at proposingreconstructive hypotheses about its dimensionsand architecture, as well as to investigate the material aspectsr elated to the organisation of the banquet in late antiquity;t he third part deals with the ceremonial functions that were performedinit. Contrary to what is usuallya ssumed, the Triclinium was probablyn ot ah ugeh all with nine apses on each side, but ar ectangular hall with af inal apse and akkoubita arranged along the perimeter walls. In terms of ritual, the Triclinium must have continued to be in use throughout the earlyMiddle Ages, with aparticular revival in the 10th century.
Ravenna and the Traditions of Late Antique and Early Byzantine Craftsmanship, 2020
This article discusses the structural elements of Ravenna's society in Late Antiquity, through fi... more This article discusses the structural elements of Ravenna's society in Late Antiquity, through five key factors, namely: (1) environment and demography; (2) the long-lasting consequences of the establishment in the city of the imperial court; (3) its episcopate; (4) the transformations resulting from the Byzantine conquest of the city in 540; (5) the features, in Ravenna, of an economic organization that we could qualified as a late antique one. In the model of economic operation offered by Ravenna in Late Antiquity, the state played a key role. The city needed to turn to external sources of supply (Istria,
A. Christophilopoulou (ed.), Islands and Communities. Perspective on Insularity, Connectivity, and Belonging, 2024
This chapter addresses the parallel history of two large Mediterranean islands-Cyprus and Crete-w... more This chapter addresses the parallel history of two large Mediterranean islands-Cyprus and Crete-which experienced during Late Antiquity a series of social and cultural transformations that affected their regional identities. As far as Cyprus is concerned, the spotlight is focused on the 3rd and, more particularly, the 4th century AD, showing how Cyprus's position in the Graeco-Roman oikoumene resets in this period. An attempt will be made to show how Cyprus moved from the margins to the mainstream (and back again) and consequently how Cypriot identities were rebranded in the period from the end of the Ptolemaic period until the beginning of the so-called treaty centuries. During this time, Cyprus grew into a highly connected province that was able to import and export goods by sea, based largely on its own skills and manpower, at an unprecedented level. Imperviousness to war, local opulence, and expanding commerce but limited access to the imperial power, also characterised Cyprus throughout this period. The strenuous elimination of the island's pagan past and the concomitant spread of Christianity were the most important developments in Cypriot identity since the end of the ancient Cypriot kingdoms. The issue of Cretan regional identity is mainly addressed through evidence concerning its capital city, Gortyn. Still in the 4th century Crete was connected to Rome and Capua through patrimonial interests enjoyed in the island by high ranking Roman senators. Christianisation was another major transformation that affected Cretan society, a process opposed by part of the local ruling class. From the second half of the 5th century the church of Gortyn grew in importance, a growth reflected in an impressive season of ecclesiastical building in Gortyn itself and in other Cretan centres. The archbishoprics of Gortyn remained under the jurisdiction of the see of Thessalonica, whose primate was papal vicar in eastern Illyricum. Like Cyprus, throughout the period in question the economy of Crete grew within a highly developed network of maritime links with the whole Mediterranean, reaching important levels of wealth. Although not entirely overlapping-and indeed sometimes different-the socioeconomic and cultural
Justinian's Legacy. The Last War of Roman Italy, ed. by H. Dey, F. Oppedisano, 2023
Nea Rhome. Rivista di ricerche bizantinistiche, 2023
Legal Pluralism and Social Change in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 2024
Occidente / Oriente. Rivista internazionale di studi tardoantichi, 2023
Millennium , 2023
The expression oikoi stratiōtikoi, used in Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus as opposed to oikoi po... more The expression oikoi stratiōtikoi, used in Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus as opposed to oikoi politikoi, designates all those families who were bound to military service. They, in the tenth century, were listed in various enlistment registers that were periodically updated, among which one was kept in Constantinople. There is solid evidence to argue that such an administrative practice originated in the eighth century, coinciding with a significant transformation in the enrolment of soldiers and their maintenance. A conscription procedure was devised in the age of the Isaurians, which, although it is not known whether it was on a voluntary or compulsory basis, entailed the entry in the military records (in Constantinople and the provinces) of every person in charge (oikodespotēs) of the family that had assumed the military burden. This implied in later periods a strong uncertainty in the relationship between service and its performance because registration rested on an ambiguous vocabulary. The ambiguity, in fact, was rooted in the polysemy of the concept of oikos, family unit, home and patrimony at the same time. While such a notion allowed the recruitment in thematic armies to function flexibly through the wide network of the family's cognate and agnatic structure, precisely because the oikos was also a set of economic interests, it exposed the landed patrimony of military families to splitting and erosion. This ambiguity ended with Constantine VII's famous law of 949, which regulated the property regime of the stratiōtikoi oikoi, a regime that, as the same provision explicitly states in several points, already existed previously throughout the empire. The law provided a precise economic quantification of the assets needed for each 'military family' to perform the service. Historiography has generally interpreted Constantine VII's measure as an act breaking with the previous tradition, since military service appears in it much more markedly connoted as a patrimonial burden, rather than as a personal one. However, this 'oppositional' interpretation does not seem adequate for understanding the concept of oikos stratiōtikos, which from the outset must have implied a profound interrelationship between the personality of the service and its patrimonial basis, since the one did not exist without the other. An early version of this text was presented as an introductory lecture at the XIX Jornadas de Bizancio, held in Madrid between the 24th and 27th of January 2022. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Prof. Juan Signes Codoñer and Prof. Margareta Vallejo, as well as the other colleagues on the organising committee, for inviting me to the conference of the Sociedad Española de Bizantinística.
Occidente / Oriente. Rivista internazionale di studi tardoantichi, 2022
Medieval Prosopography 24, 2003
Studies in Byzantine Epigraphy, 1, ed. by A. Rhoby and I. Toth, 2022
Il tempo dei Vandali e dei Bizantini. La Sardegna dal V al X secolo, a cura di S. Cisci, R. Martorelli, G. Serreli, 2022
La Sicilia e il Mediterraneo dal Tardoantico al Medioevo, 2022
Dumbarton Oaks Papers 76, 2022
The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles rela... more The annual journal Dumbarton Oaks Papers was founded in 1941 for the publication of articles relating to Byzantine civilization-society and culture from roughly the fourth through the fifteenth century in the Roman Empire and in successor and neighboring states. Articles are written normally in English. Preference is given to articles of substantial lengthat least 10,000 words, notes inclusive-but shorter pieces will be considered, particularly if they relate to objects in the Dumbarton Oaks collections. Articles should be prepared according to the submission guide, style guide, and list of abbreviations, which are available, along with more information about the journal and the submission process, at www.doaks.org /research/publications/series/dumbarton-oaks-papers. Current and previous issues may be ordered at www.hup .harvard.edu/. Standing orders may be placed by contacting customer service at 800-405-1619 or customer.care@triliteral.org. Previous volumes of Dumbarton Oaks Papers are available in digital form through JSTOR.
A Companion to Byzantine Italy, 2021
A Companion to Byzantine Italy, 2021
A Companion to Byzantine Italy , 2021
Mujeres imperiales, mujeres reales, ed. by M. C. Chiriatti, R. Villegas Marin, 2021
LRCW6. Land and Sea: Pottery Routes (Agrigento, 24-28 maggio 2017), 2021
Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes, 2014
Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 2021
The present contribution aims at reviewingt he available data on the Triclinium of the Nineteen c... more The present contribution aims at reviewingt he available data on the Triclinium of the Nineteen couches.I ti sd ivided into threep arts: the first is intended to overview the information that Byzantine authors have handed down to us about this great banquet hall; the second aims at proposingreconstructive hypotheses about its dimensionsand architecture, as well as to investigate the material aspectsr elated to the organisation of the banquet in late antiquity;t he third part deals with the ceremonial functions that were performedinit. Contrary to what is usuallya ssumed, the Triclinium was probablyn ot ah ugeh all with nine apses on each side, but ar ectangular hall with af inal apse and akkoubita arranged along the perimeter walls. In terms of ritual, the Triclinium must have continued to be in use throughout the earlyMiddle Ages, with aparticular revival in the 10th century.
Ravenna and the Traditions of Late Antique and Early Byzantine Craftsmanship, 2020
This article discusses the structural elements of Ravenna's society in Late Antiquity, through fi... more This article discusses the structural elements of Ravenna's society in Late Antiquity, through five key factors, namely: (1) environment and demography; (2) the long-lasting consequences of the establishment in the city of the imperial court; (3) its episcopate; (4) the transformations resulting from the Byzantine conquest of the city in 540; (5) the features, in Ravenna, of an economic organization that we could qualified as a late antique one. In the model of economic operation offered by Ravenna in Late Antiquity, the state played a key role. The city needed to turn to external sources of supply (Istria,
by Association des Amis du Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance ACHCByz, Marek Jankowiak, Warren Treadgold, Constantin Zuckerman, Andrzej Kompa, Jesse W. Torgerson, Filippo Ronconi, Irina Tamarkina, Geoffrey Greatrex, Bernard POUDERON, Anna Kotłowska, Łukasz Różycki, Salvatore Cosentino, Muriel Debié, Andy Hilkens, and Lee Mordechai
TM XIX, 2015
This book presents the proceedings of the conference “The Chronicle of Theophanes: sources, compo... more This book presents the proceedings of the conference “The Chronicle of Theophanes: sources, composition, transmission,” organized by the editors in Paris in September 2012. The first section of the volume is devoted to the question of the authorship of the Chronicle, raised by C. Mango almost forty years ago. The second section is devoted to issues of transmission, both direct (manuscript tradition) and indirect (readership, translations). The third section concerns Theophanes’ sources for early Byzantine history. A separate section hosts papers by some of the major actors in the current debate on Theophanes’ Eastern source. The last section of the book deals with the later part of the Chronicle and with its sources. ISBN 978-2-916716-58-9
Byz. Congress, Belgrade, Round Table
This collection of essays on the Byzantine culture of war in the period between the 4th and the 1... more This collection of essays on the Byzantine culture of war in the period between the 4th and the 12th centuries offers a new critical approach to the study of warfare as a fundamental aspect of East Roman society and culture in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The book’s main goal is to provide a critical overview of current research as well as new insights into the role of military organization as a distinct form of social power in one of history’s more long-lived empires. The various chapters consider the political, ideological, practical, institutional and organizational aspects of Byzantine warfare and place it at the centre of the study of social and cultural history.
Contributors are Salvatore Cosentino, Michael Grünbart, Savvas Kyriakidis, Tilemachos Lounghis, Christos Makrypoulias, Stamatina McGrath, Philip Rance, Paul Stephenson, Yannis Stouraitis, Denis Sullivan, and Georgios Theotokis.
This book offers a collection of essays on Byzantine Italy, the area from which we have inherited... more This book offers a collection of essays on Byzantine Italy, the area from which we have inherited the richest and best-preserved historical evidence among all of the regions of the former Eastern Roman Empire up to the 11th century. The collection aims to provide readers with a critical overview of current research as well as new insights concerning political, institutional, economic, social, cultural and environmental aspects of the Italian regions under Byzantine rule. The methodological approach of the volume combines history with archaeology and art history, while remaining focused on the general framework of the early medieval Mediterranean. The result is a fresh and up-to-date synthesis that can be useful both for specialists and students.
This new international journal of studies on Late Antiquity is part of a rich and complex histori... more This new international journal of studies on Late Antiquity is part of a rich and complex historiographic panorama distinguished by constant debate and the presence of other periodicals. Covering a chronological period ranging from the middle of the 2nd century AD throughout the 7th century, in this new journal we offer the extensive exploration of texts, documents, cultural contexts and the discussion of problems, which can help define the nature of Late Antiquity in an increasingly clear and rigorous way. The scientific and methodological premise of the new journal is the need to study Late Antiquity by expanding research to the Near and Middle East. Keeping in mind various themes related to cultural and religious history, forms of dialogue or clashes between cultures, and the problems of economic and social history, this new journal provides a place for confrontation and debate among scholars of different backgrounds - historians of Antiquity and Late Antiquity, medievalists, orientalists - aware of the profound connection between East and West during Late Antiquity, and the role of the Mediterranean as a stage for interaction between different cultures.
Mujeres imperiales, mujeres reales reúne diversas contribuciones que estudian, desde una perspect... more Mujeres imperiales, mujeres reales reúne diversas contribuciones que estudian, desde una perspectiva pluridisciplinar (con enfoques que van de lo literario a lo antropológico, pasando por lo histórico-arqueológico), la evolución del poder femenino y su expresión pública desde la tardoantigüedad hasta el período bizantino tardío.
Los trabajos aquí reunidos consideran tanto la evidencia literaria como la material (pintura y escultura, numismática, epigrafía monumental). Por su carácter interdisciplinar, esta obra permite observar desde diversos ángulos las estrategias que facultaron a estas mujeres para ejercer el poder. Con su liderazgo en las cortes imperiales y reales, las mujeres que transitan por estas páginas consiguieron trascender el papel de meras madres de emperadores y reyes para convertirse en auténticas protagonistas de la política contemporánea.
Millennium Studies, 85, 2020
by Federico Marazzi, Salvatore Cosentino, Gabriele Castiglia, Enrico Cirelli, Debora Ferreri, Daniele Sacco, Giuseppe Romagnoli, Pasquale Favia, Marco Leo Imperiale, Marco Stefano Scaravilli, Lucia Arcifa, Gianfranco De Rossi, Gervasio Illiano, Sabrina Grassi, and Francesca Martorano
A FOUR DAYS ENCOUNTER ON THE ORGANIZATION OF MILITARY DEFENCE OF THE ITALIAN POSSESIONS OF THE EA... more A FOUR DAYS ENCOUNTER ON THE ORGANIZATION OF MILITARY DEFENCE OF THE ITALIAN POSSESIONS OF THE EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE.
THE CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD ONLINE ON GOOGLE MEET PLATFORM
IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED, PLEASE WRITE TO difesamilitare.bizantina@gmail.com
IN ORDER TO SIGN UP AND GET THE PRIVILEGES WHICH WILL ALLOW YOU TO TAK PART IN THE CONFERNCE SEANCES