DEVELOPMENTS IN THE BALKANS UNDER JUSTINIAN I: EVIDENCE FROM THE DE AEDIFICIIS AND FORTIFICATIONS ON THE ISTER (original) (raw)
Related papers
The International scientific symposium “Days of Justinian I” is an annual interdisciplinary scholarly forum aimed at the presentation of the latest research followed by discussions on various aspects of Byzantine and Medieval Studies, that include the treatment and interpretation of cultural, historical and spiritual heritage in contemporary Europe. The Symposium is dedicated to Emperor Justinian I with the aim to address a broad range of issues related to Byzantium and the European Middle Ages, comprising the exploration of the cultural and historical legacy as an integrative component of the diversities and commonalities of Unified Europe. This year the International Symposium “Days of Justinian I” chose a special thematic strand “Byzantium and the Slavs: Medieval and Modern Perceptions and Receptions”, with the aim of discussing various aspects of the Slavic world and its legacy, from the Medieval and Modern perspective. The Symposium will address many issues concerning the Origins, Ethnicity, Identity, the State Formation of the Slavs and the relationships with Byzantium and Western Europe. The reception of the Slavic legacy in post-medieval Europe will also be explored and compared with the divergent visions of the Byzantine heritage, with the aim of defining their place within the frame of the European civilizational concept.
The International scientific symposium "Days of Justinian I" is an annual interdisciplinary scholarly forum aimed at the presentation of the latest research followed by discussions on various aspects of Byzantine and Medieval Studies before 1500; this includes the treatment and interpretation of cultural, historical and spiritual heritage in contemporary modern Europe. The Symposium is dedicated to Emperor Justinian I with the aim to bring together scholars from around the world to address a broad range of issues related to Byzantium and the European Middle Ages, comprising the exploration of the cultural and historical legacy as an integrative component of the diversities and commonalities of Europe and wider. This year special thematic strand Heritage marks the 10th jubilee edition of the ISBMS “Days of Justinian I”, symbolizing the main idea in exploring the multitude historical and cultural legacies of the Byzantine and Medieval Western worlds. Topics discussed will range from the reception of the Classical traditions and Roman heritage in the Eastern Roman Empire and Medieval West, to the changing attitudes and later claims towards its legacy. Various fundamental issues will be investigated in defining how the material remains and immaterial traditions were perceived, cultivated, reconfigured and appropriated in the changing contexts from the medieval to the modern period, comprising the enduring and profound cultural and historical legacy. This will encompass the ways in which exchanges and interactions between Byzantium, Latin Western Europe and Islamic Orient have influenced the transmission of the heritage. The symposium will address varieties of notions and perspectives on the political, ideological, religious, cultural traditions that produced the multiple legacies of the Eastern Roman Empire and Medieval Western Europe.
This article explores an important chapter in the visual memory and historical legacy of a key imperial monument of Constantinople, the bronze equestrian statue of the emperor Justinian. The sixth-century sculpture survived pillages of the Fourth Crusade to become a centerpiece of Constantinople's identity. 1 Celebrated in the tenth century as one of the wonders of Constantinople, it was re-imagined in western romances and Crusader narratives. The horseman's Justinianic identity was restored during the Palaiologan period, when the monument became a centerpiece of imperial renovation efforts. Though it was destroyed by the Ottomans after the capture of Constantinople in 1453, its international renown outlived the physical monument. This study investigates how and why the bronze equestrian monument of Justinian was remembered in late-medieval Slavic images of Constantinople by focusing particularly on an illustrated history that was produced for Tsar Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria (Vat. Slav. 2) in the mid-fourteenth century. The city of Constantinople had been a key intellectual, ideological, spiritual, and visual space of power for the Orthodox Slavs for centuries by the time that the Vatican Manasses manuscript was illustrated for Ivan Alexander ca. 1345. Although we are familiar with the many references to Constantinople in an array of sources including the Slavic pilgrimage narratives and the Russian Primary Chronicle, its visualizations have not been closely analyzed. This study investigates how the equestrian monument was re-imagined in the Vatican Manasses manuscript, which exhibits heightened interest in the equestrian monument as a symbol of Constantinople. 2 Because Constantinople was the signifier of Byzantine imperial and spiritual supremacy, it is not surprising that visual transcription and occasional transposition of Constantinopolitan "places of power" was deployed by some foreign rulers in the construction of their theater of legitimacy (Venice, Paris, Kiev, just to name a few). 3 1 These themes are explored in a monograph which I am completing, The Forgotten Colossus: Memories of Justinian's Bronze Horseman in Constantinople and Beyond. It is devoted to the biography of the equestrian monument, its changing identifications and its perceptions by various pre-modern audiences. 2 On the Vatican Manasses visual narrative, see E. Boeck, Imagining the Byzantine Past: The Perception of History in the Manuscripts of Skylitzes and Manasses (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2015). The manuscript was recently fully published in a color facsimile edition, Synopsis chroniki:
Palaeobalkan-Westanatolian Community – Explanation and Territorial Scope
ÉTUDES BALKANIQUES LV/3, À l’occasion du XIIe Congrès d’études du Sud-Est européen, Bucarest 2019; n hommage à la mémoire de Vassilka Tăpkova-Zaïmova, Professeure d’histoire byzantine et balkanique, 2019
In this text the term Palaeobalkan-Westanatolian community is proposed to replace the other terms used: Thracian-Phrygian ethno-cultural community, the Pelasgo-Thracian circumaegean community, Mycenaean Thrace, Circumpontic macro-zone and others. Adopting the existence of the Palaeobalkan-Westanatolian community makes it possible to avoid long introductions explaining why parallels between the Balkans and Western Anatolia are made. The scholars can compare political models, functions of the kings, religious doctrines, and interpretations of archaeological complexes, especially cult objects. Besides, information from the Greek literary tradition could be referred to surrounding, non-literary societies with a great deal of confidence. Using the spiral retrospection method, information about later historical periods could also be referred to earlier periods. Keywords: Ancient Anatolia, Phrygia, Lydia, Ancient Thrace, Palaeobalcan Cultures