Eastern Approaches to Byzantium by Antony s> Eastmond (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 535 The collection fromwhich the materialof thisbooklethas been drawnmay be seen by arrangementwith the chief librarian,FrAlexander Nadson at 37, Holden Rd, London NI2 8HS; telephone 020 8445 5358. Forthose unable to visit, and for all interestedin the studyof EastEuropeanbooksJuras Latryk's simply but attractivelyproduced booklet provides a concise and fascinating insightinto a little known but rich corner of the field. It may be orderedfrom the above address(theprice includespostage and packing).It is a bargainthat no Slavoniclibrarianwillwant to miss. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies ARNOLD MCMILLIN University College London Eastmond, Antony (ed.). EasternApproaches to Byzantium.Papers from the Thirty-third Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Warwick,Coventry,March I999. Societyforthe Promotionof Byzantine Studies Publications, 9. Ashgate/Variorum, Aldershot, Burlington,VT, Singaporeand Sydney, 200I. XXi + 297 pp. Notes. Figures.Plates.Index. ?45-00? APPROACHES to Byzantiumin both the geographicaland mentalsensesarethe focus of this thought-provokingcollection of papers. Understandably, given Anthony Eastmond's own expertise in Georgian art, the emphasis is on the Caucasian neighbours of Byzantium, but consideration is also given to Byzantium's frontiers with Muslim powers further to the south and to the fluctuations in these physical and culturalfrontiersover the period from the tenth to the thirteenthcenturies.The contributorsclearlyfollowed their brief both to inform and to stimulatedebate and, refreshingly,the majorityof the work comes from 'easterners'making reference to Byzantium, rather than Byzantinists looking eastwards, although Jonathan Shepard contributes a characteristicallyperceptivere-appraisalof Byzantineimperialpolicy towards the eastern frontier in the early tenth century and Catherine Holmes and Jean-Claude Cheynet, making particularlytelling use of sigillographicevidence , assess both how Byzantines administered their newly-conquered territoriesin the east and how they attempted to define and defend them in militaryterms. A group of papers on historiographyintroduces non-Greek sources (and, thankfully, the increasing number of English translations!) to a wider readership. After a rather bitty reconsideration by Speros Vryonis, Jr. of research since the publication of his major work on TheDeclineof Medieval Hellenism inAsiaMinor,comes Carole Hillenbrand'sadmirablyclear surveyof historywritingabout the Seljuks,focusingon two events of particularinterest to Byzantinists the Battle of Mantzikert in I07 I and the Fall of Constantinople in I 204 and noting how both these events provided propagandic material for Persianand Arabic writersto use in celebration of the achievements of the leaders of the Turkic nomadic incomers for whom, none the less, they retained a certaindistain.Forthem, Byzantiumwas a state destined to be defeated by the force of Islamic arms. Even for Christian Armenian and Georgian historians, surveyed in two masterly chapters by Robert W. Thomson and Stephen H. Rapp, Jr., Byzantium and its claims to 536 SEER, 8o, 3, 2002 universal rulership were not to be unquestioningly accepted. Thomson demonstrateshow Armenian historiansparticularlydrew on the images and parallelsof the Bible in order to present themselves (contraByzantium)as the new Israelites. Orthodox Georgian historians,whilst developing a model of kingship which accepted the Byzantine basileusas the archetype for the powerful ruler, also made reference to more Near Eastern concepts of rulershipparticularlyin theiruse of sunimagery. Selection of iconography and the messagesthat it broughtis also evident in the visual record. But whilst the Greek inhabitants of thirteenth-century Cappadocia, firmly under Turkish rule, could, as Catherine Jolivet-Levy demonstrates, decorate their churches with frescoes indicating both contact with the Byzantine world and concern for contemporarytheological debates and, in north-western Georgia, the church decorations of eleventh-century Svanet'i,as BrigittaSchradeshows, could drawheavilyon the iconographyof Byzantine warrior saints, the motives of the artists and patrons concerned were markedlydifferent.In Cappadocia, Byzantineidentitywas preservedby reference to Byzantine artistic and theological concerns; the warrior-based Svan society, on the other hand, selected images which had great resonance at a time of Georgian, not Byzantine, militaryexpansion. Similarchoices are evident elsewhere. The decoration of the recently-discovered rock-cut churches of the Georgian Gareja desertpresented by Zaza Skhirtladzeshow affinitieswith both Byzantinedecorativemotifsand those of SyriacChristianity ; in contrast, the well-known exterior sculpture and the lesser-known interior fresco decoration of the Church of the Holy Cross at Aghtamar, depicting the tenth-century Armenian King Gagik Artsrouni and re-interpreted by LynnJones, evoke Islamicprincelyimageryratherthan that of any Christian ruler. Helen C. Evans's discussion of Cilician Armenian royal portrait manuscripts of the thirteenth century provides further...