New Book!

Averil Cameron, Byzantine Matters, Princeton University Press 2014

Introduction

For many of us, Byzantium remains "byzantine"--obscure, marginal, difficult. Despite the efforts of some recent historians, prejudices still deform popular and scholarly understanding of the Byzantine civilization, often reducing it to a poor relation of Rome and the rest of the classical world. In this book, renowned historian Averil Cameron presents an original and personal view of the challenges and questions facing historians of Byzantium today.

The book explores five major themes, all subjects of controversy. "Absence" asks why Byzantium is routinely passed over, ignored, or relegated to a sphere of its own. "Empire" reinserts Byzantium into modern debates about empire, and discusses the nature of its system and its remarkable longevity. "Hellenism" confronts the question of the "Greekness" of Byzantium, and of the place of Byzantium in modern Greek consciousness. "The Realms of Gold" asks what lessons can be drawn from Byzantine visual art, and "The Very Model of Orthodoxy" challenges existing views of Byzantine Christianity.

Throughout, the book addresses misconceptions about Byzantium, suggests why it is so important to integrate the civilization into wider histories, and lays out why Byzantium should be central to ongoing debates about the relationships between West and East, Christianity and Islam, Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, and the ancient and medieval periods. The result is a forthright and compelling call to reconsider the place of Byzantium in Western history and imagination.

New Book!

Dionysios Stathakopoulos, A Short History of the Byzantine Empire, London/New York 2014

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The Byzantine Empire was one of the most impressive imperial adventures in history. It ruled much of Europe and Asia Minor for a remarkable eleven hundred years. From Constantine's establishment of Byzantium (renamed Constantinople) as his capital in 324 CE, until the fall of the city to the Ottomans in the fifteenth century, the Byzantines became a powerhouse of literature, art, theology, medicine, law and learning. Dionysios Stathakopoulos here tells a compelling story of military conquest, alliance and reversal, including the terrifying secret weapon of 'Greek fire'. His new short history is above all a narrative of individuals: of powerful rulers like Justinian I, who recovered Italy from the Vandals and oversaw construction of Hagia Sofia (completed in 537); of his notorious queen Theodora, a courtesan who rose improbably to the highest office of imperial first lady; of the charismatic but cuckolded general Belisarius; and of the religious leaders Arius and Athanasius, whose conflicting ideas about Christ and doctrine shook the Empire to its core.

International Conference!

The International Institute for Social History will organize the Tenth European Social Science History conference in Vienna, 23-26 April 2014.

University of Vienna

Early Medieval Migrations I & II 

Thursday 24 April 2014, 11-16:00 

Early Medieval Migrations I: 

Migrations in the Abbasid Caliphate - Iran - East Slavic Lands

Hörsaal 41 first floor

11.00 - 13.00

Chair: Johannes Koder

George Hatke: Aksumites in South Arabia: An Ethiopian Diaspora in Late Antique Yemen

Dirk Hoerder: Migration – Travel – Commerce – Cultural Transfer: The Complex Connections Byzantium-Kiev-Novgorod-Varangian Land, 6th-14th Century

Lucian Reinfandt: Regime Change and Elite Migration in the Islamic Caliphate (642-969 AD)

Early Medieval Migrations II: 
Migrations in Byzantium and Armenia
Hörsaal 41 first floor

14.00 - 16.00

Chair: Claudia Rapp
Alexander Beihammer: Turkish Migration Processes and Patterns of Cross-Cultural Permeation in Medieval Anatolia (Eleventh – Thirteenth Century)

Johannes Koder: Remarks on the Slavic Immigration and landnahme in the Byzantine Balkans

Johannes Preiser-Kapeller: Aristocrats, Mercenaries, Clergymen and Refugees: Deliberate and Forced Mobility of Armenians in the Early Medieval Mediterranean and Near East (6th to 11th century)

Ioannis Stouraitis: Migrating within Medieval Empire: Towards a Typology of Movement of People and Groups in Post-Seventh Century Byzantium

Conference!

The Mediterranean City & Its Rulers

A Comparison of Byzantium, Islam, & Western Christendom in the High Middle Ages

26-27 April, 2014
Aaron Burr Hall, Room 216
Institute for International and Regional Studies
Princeton

The High Middle Ages were a period of profound transformation for the Christian cities of the central and western Mediterranean. However, it has generally been thought that the urban centers of the Islamic and Byzantine worlds to the south and east did not share in the same economic, political, and cultural developments. Most interregional studies carried out so far have promoted this understanding of the period by considering the "classic example" of the cities of northern Italy solely in the context of the situation on the other side of the Alps. Otherwise, attention has tended to be focused on specific polities within each of the three Mediterranean macro-regions, to the neglect of the picture across macro-regions. There has been no in-depth comparison of how cities were ruled in the various lands encircling the Great Sea, despite the existence of a strong common Roman heritage, as well as evidence for extensive interaction through long-distance trade, pilgrimage, diplomacy, and warfare. This conference will begin to undertake such an analysis, highlighting similarities and differences in governmental institutions, civic identity, and revolutionary activity throughout the Mediterranean. The event is intended as a pilot establishing a network of scholars. The next meeting will be held at the University of Edinburgh in 2015 and is being organized by Dr. Gianluca Raccagni, Chancellor's Fellow in History.

International Colloquium!

Confronting the Christian 'Other' 

East-West Relations in the Middle Ages

International Colloquium, University of Vienna, March 14, 2014

The separation of the Latin Church of the West and the Churches of the Christian East cannot be traced back to a single event, but was the result of a variety of historical events and mutual perceptions as well as political strategies. Relations between the East and the West were shaped not only by (official) Church politics but included a wide range of cultural encounter. It is this multi-faceted picture that needs to be examined in a more profound way to better understand the attempts of “union” from the early Middle Ages up to the threshold of the modern period. The Colloquium intends to collect current research and to identify new research agendas in the wider field of (theological) relations between East and West. A certain focus will be on the modes or styles of theological argumentation as well as on parameters that supported (or hindered) ecclesial dialogue between the rivalling parties. Last but not least, the colloquium hopes to provide a forum for junior scholars which may initiate an ongoing fruitful exchange.

Click here for the abstracts

Book Tip!

A. M. Sivertsev, Judaism and Imperial Ideology in Late Antiquity. Cambridge/New York 2011

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This book explores the influence of Roman imperialism on the development of messianic themes in Judaism in the fifth through the eight centuries CE. It pays special attention to the ways in which Roman imperial ideology and imperial eschatology influenced Jewish representations of the Messiah and messianic age. Topics addressed in the book include: representations of the Messianic kingdom of Israel as a successor to the Roman Empire, the theme of imperial renewal in Jewish eschatology and its Roman parallels, representations of the emperor in late antique literature and art and their influence on the representations of the Messiah, the mother of the Messiah in late antique and Byzantine cultural contexts, and the figure of the last Roman Emperor in Christian and Jewish tradition.