The Supreme Power of the Armor & the Veneration of the Emperor’s Body In 12th-c. Byzantium (original) (raw)
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A Companion to the Byzantine Culture of War, ca. 300-1204, edited by Yannis Stouraitis (Brill 2018)
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.
Lazarus Rising: Nikephoros Phokas and the Tenth Century Byzantine Military Renaissance
What follows is a discussion of the internal reasons for the “Byzantine Military Renaissance”, a period of rapid expansion from the middle of the tenth century AD to the end of the first quarter of the eleventh. This paper examines how the Byzantine Empire accomplished this drastic change in fortunes, shifting from a defensive position to one of conquest. This paper examines the sources of Byzantine strength, as well as internal motives for undertaking wars of conquest and concludes that the Byzantine Empire expanded during this period primarily as a result of internal factors. This paper culminates with a discussion of the Battle of Manzikert, and examines whether this fateful battle represented a failure of leadership or a failure of the Byzantine military system. It is the purpose of this paper to demonstrate that the rapid expansion of the Byzantine Empire during the latter half of the tenth century and first half of the eleventh was a direct result of a series of institutional reforms undertaken in the first half of the tenth century; we shall further demonstrate that the collapse of these institutions was the direct result of mismanagement during the middle of the eleventh century.
Acting virtuously: Ceremonial displays of imperial virtue in Byzantium
2019
Recent work by various scholars on the political make-up of the Byzantine Empire has highlighted the fragility of the emperor’s position and his dependence on popular support to keep his office. This thesis looks at the use of ceremony by Byzantine emperors to advertise their qualifications to rule according to medieval Roman sensibilities. The crux of this thesis is the tenth-century Byzantine text known as the De cerimoniis, or The Book of Ceremonies, an imperial handbook detailing the procedures regarding numerous imperial processions, feasts, and other ceremonies compiled on the order of Emperor Konstantinos VII Porphyrogennetos (r.~ 913-959). With this text and supplementary historical narratives, this thesis examines how history, space, and symbolism came together to associate Byzantine emperors with the ancient virtues of rulership as defined by Menander Rhetor (c. second/third century A.D.) – justice, temperance, bravery, and wisdom – essential for any legitimate Basileus.
This book brings to light one of the least known, yet most turbulent periods in the history of the Armenian military and its complex relationship with the Byzantine Empire. In its first part, Armen Ayvazyan embarks on a military-historical analysis of the Armenian uprising against Emperor Justinian’s government in 538-539. While revealing and evaluating various tactical elements and stratagems employed by the Armenian forces, he carefully considers earlier and later evidence regarding their military operations, including both conventional warfare and high risk missions such as targeted killings of enemy commanders-in-chief and assassination plots against the heads of colonial administrations. And in the second part, Ayvazyan examines the Byzantine attitudes towards the Armenians and their armed forces, revealing, inter alia, that the underlying source for continuity of the anti-Armenian images with the analogous Roman tradition of prejudice was essentially geopolitical. "The Armenian Military in the Byzantine Empire: Conflict and Alliance under Justinian and Maurice" can be read page per page at: https://www.calameo.com/read/000260618b56f011005a3
A Companion to the Byzantine Culture of War, ca. 300-1204, 2018
This study of the status and peace-time functions of Byzantine soldiers (300-1200) examines diverse interactions between military personnel and civilian society. Acknowledging various categories and shifting contemporary definitions of “soldier”, a survey of socio-cultural backgrounds, modes of recruitment, terms of service and institutional environments distinguishes differences in rates and methods of remuneration, fiscal-legal privileges, socio-economic standing and professional identities. The vexed question of military landholdings becomes of pivotal significance for locating soldiers in agrarian society. Official spheres of military-civilian relations include policing and internal security, enforcement of religious policies, interventions in imperial politics and regional economic impact. Broader consideration of military sociology explores how the presence and behaviour of soldiers, on and off duty, affected the socio-economic patterns, cultural complexion and power relationships of urban and rural communities, and reflected soldiers’ varying levels of integration into civilian society, through origin, kinship, property and culture, mirroring longer-term changes in the composition of Byzantine armies.