Social Group Profiles in Byzantium: Some Considerations on Byzantine Perceptions Αbout Social Class Distinctions, Byzantina Symmeikta 26, 2016, 309-372 (original) (raw)

A three year research, of which this paper, submitted to Byzantina Symmeikta for publication, rather marks the beginning of a longer period in which the subject “social profiles” will be the focus of my interests. The basic assumption here is that, in the absence of legal consolidation of “social class” in Byzantium, “social position” proper is influenced by profiles that are formed and used either by the state, that in the long run enhances its political power and social control over separate social groups, or by individuals and groups themselves in order to raise their social assertions and to project themselves to society in their effort to consolidate their own social position. The absence of legal consolidation of “position” in Byzantium created tensions that are easily recognizable in the sources, but in addition it also created space for the “lower” social strata to claim their rights in the context of a state that appears surprisingly “modern”. To reach this conclusion some theoretical aspects are examined first, including social distinctions found in the legislation that were used by Patlagean in her groundbreaking work on poverty. Hoping that the clarification of distinctions concerning the infames, the humiliores, the poor and related groups, such as the “unknown”, will be useful for a systematic approach of the subject “social class” in Byzantium, this paper investigates also the powerful, the dynasts, it strives to define the byzantine perceptions of nobility and examines the role of wealth for the definition of the position of these groups.

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