Maria Leontsini, Kelly Mavrommati, Alexander Liarmacopoulos, Preventing Risks and Responding to Natural Disasters in Byzantine Cities. The Textual Evidence, in: Mo.Na: Monuments in Nature: A Creative Co-Existence, International Conference, ed. S. Tanou, Thessaloniki 2022, 60-73. (original) (raw)
Related papers
“Natural Disasters in Medieval Greek Apocalypses.” Scrinium 17 (2021): 158–171
Natural calamities form a standard theme in Byzantine apocalypses. This paper discusses their function and meaning by surveying more than a dozen medieval Greek apocalyptic narratives from the sixth to the fifteenth century. It is shown that natural disasters were understood as ambiguous epiphenomena, whose ultimate meaning revolved around human agency and intentionality. Furthermore, it is argued that Byzantine apocalypses offered an intellectual strategy for coping with natural calamities by placing them into an eschatological context. This eschatologization restored epistemological control of the - seemingly uncontrollable - phenomena. Finally, it is suggested that the understanding of natural disasters as anthropogenic events is not only characteristic of medieval Greek apocalypticism but also of modern-day environmental alarmism. The paper closes with a preliminary comparison of these two hermeneutic paradigms.
The aim of this book is to illustrate that the actions of patronage and euergetism which helped the victims of catastrophes, were not an unusual occurrence in the Graeco-Roman world. Furthermore, it could be argued that the rationale behind this aid had little to do with altruism, a concept that is more commonly related to modern day human rights or the implementation of 'humanitarian aid' campaigns in response to catastrophes.
For millennia catastrophes, whether those caused by nature, or by human violence, have impacted on historical societies. In the Graeco-Roman world, as nowadays, the immediate consequences of such disasters only anticipated subsequent measures applied by the public authorities, or whoever was in charge thereafter. This volume originated in a workshop funded by a Spanish research grant. Two theoretical chapters deal with the actual meaning of catastrophes for the ancients, as well as how distorted our view of the remote past may be when applying modern terminology such as ‘humanitarian crises’ to events in the ancient world. The following chapters seek to explore such topics as collateral damage in war, earthquake recovery, breakdown of interstate relations, deportation, and postwar policies implemented on defeated societies.
Studies in Late Antiquity, 2024
This introduction frames a collection of four papers, originally presented at the 13th Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity conference, that examine late antique episcopal responses to disaster, typically military defeats caused by the barbarians. To contextualize what follows, this essay begins by introducing various ways disaster researchers define disaster, as well as the related concepts of hazard and vulnerability. The paper also examines several terminological and methodological challenges associated with the application of modern disaster studies to the ancient world. Importantly, disasters cannot be separated from their social context. Indeed, thinking of disasters as social phenomena encourages historians to look beyond the disaster events themselves, to consider why and how those in power reacted (or failed to react) and what the experience was like for the individuals who lived through them. Finally, this essay serves as an argument against the simplistic association of the period of Late Antiquity with disaster.
The Infrastructure of a Great City: Earth, Walls and Water in Late Antique Constantinople
Late Antique Archaeology, 2008
By the later 5th c. A.D., Constantinople was the greatest urban centre in the Mediterranean world. This paper considers three associated elements of the infrastructure of the city, each of which applied aspects of ancient technology: a first theme will consider the urban terraces which have only been studied in detail for the area of the Great Palace, but which represent a massive investment in the transformation of the built topography of the city; a second theme will examine the new Theodosian fortifications and suggest that these reflect a new level of innovation more often associated with the religious and civic architecture of the city; the third theme will briefly review recent research on the water supply and will identify major areas of continuity and innovation into the Middle Byzantine period.