Byzantine Research Articles

Filmlerle Tarih Yazmak: İstanbul’un Fethi Örneği

Popular historical films strive to capture the audience who create emotional bonds with the past by providing the audience the historical experience they imagined. On the other hand, the worldviews and likes of audiences are not constant and may undergo changes in parallel with historical developments. Popular historical films shot in anticipation of the box office bear the imprint of the expectations of the majority of the target audience. The aim of this article is to explore the transformation of historical representations of films and the reasons for the change by analyzing three Turkish-made historical films describing the handover of the city of Constantinople from the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Empire: The Conquest of Istanbul (Aydın Arakon, 1951), Conquest 1453 (Fatih Aksoy, 2003), and Love Under Siege (Ersin Pertan, 1997). In this article, proceeding from the idea that a historical film is a form of audiovisual historiography, it will be argued that the historical representations of films are mainly related to the target audience that transform in line with the social and political changes, and the production process.

Over the Frontier. Remote Sensing Analysis of the Roman Eastern Borderland in Mesopotamia through Declassified Satellite and Aerial Imagery

This paper discusses the spatial configuration of the Roman easternmost borderland in Mesopotamia through several case studies and, particularly, with the aid of declassified aerial and satellite imagery. Satellite pictures from the 1960s and 1970s have proved to be of incredible value for the archaeological research in the Near East, contributing to a solid advancement in the understanding of large-scale phenomena on long-term periods. This is particularly true for the so-called late periods of Mesopotamian history which – traditionally – suffer from an inexplicable lack of terrain data. Although the research has consistently improved in the las decade or so, the support of remote-sensing techniques has open new and fruitful research trajectories on the matter. I will employ legacy aerial data, CORONA and HEXAGON declassified satellite imagery and U2 aerial data to assess some case studies in the region and to provide new insights on such a contested space, now roughly comprised between northeastern Syria and northwestern Iraq.

The Image of Jews According to the Canonical Tradition of the Orthodox Church

In this study, the author attempts to analyze the canons of the Orthodox Church, which are still normative for all Orthodox Autocephalous Churches, in order to identify the image of Jews and the restrictions or prohibitions imposed by these canonical texts. The paper is structured in three parts that analyze the canonical provisions regarding Jewish religious influences, Judaizing practices, Jewish–Christian religious syncretism, and social interaction with Jews based on religious influences. The main purpose of the present paper is to identify whether the Canonical Tradition of the Orthodox Church contains a form of anti-Semitism or exclusion of Jews on the basis of these texts. A well-articulated contextual interpretation of the canons is necessary to understand the relationships between Christians and Jews in the Byzantine period. To this end, the canons of the Orthodox Church will be interpreted in the social, historical, doctrinal, and canonical context of their promulgation in the life of the Orthodox Church.

Aiming for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic: the what, how, who, where, and when.

Aiming for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic: the what, how, who, where, and when.

Corinthian capitals from the Hellespontus

The Hellespont area, owing to its key geographical location, played a dominant role in production, consumption, as well as trade contacts between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean during the Byzantine period. Despite the importance of this region, archaeological data from it is rather limited, hindering research on the history of the Hellespont in the Byzantine period. Archaeological surveys have been conducted in the valleys of the Hellespont catchment area in order to determine the location of Byzantine villages and to understand regional settlement patterns. An important group of objects identified as a result of this fieldwork were architectural members. The finds included numerous column capitals and fragments of liturgical furnishings. The present study examines Corinthian capitals, which constitute the most frequently occurring type of column capital, numbering 30 documented examples. All specimens were made from white or gray-veined white Prokonnesian marble. The general aims of research on this material are, firstly, to understand the nature of the now-lost buildings they came from, and, secondly, to contribute information on the location of settlements in the region. The specimens under consideration were identified during field surveys in Çanakkale, as well as during a query in the Çanakkale Archaeology Museum.

Отображение античных реалий в регионе Чёрного моря на средневековых картах

Antique names, images and ideas about the world take an important place on medieval maps although the situation was changing with the beginning of another epoch and during it. And this can’t always be explained only by nescience, but also by homage to the ancient heritage (including geography) which was one of the foundations of medieval culture. The authors of medieval maps were seeking for archaization and the image of the world on them was historical in general. Several layers of time are presented on maps as on other pictures of this epoch. In most cases it is about different moments of one event or of one person’s life for the last, while the scenes from different epochs of the world history are presented on the first. From this point of view the Black Sea and adjacent lands were not an exception. Besides, this region was actively colonized in the Antiquity. Moreover, the Black Sea was some kind of a frontier: its western and southern shores were ruled by the Eastern Roman Empire, eastern countries were on the other side, while its northern shores were considered as periphery of the world inhabited by barbarian nomads and monsters. The representation of the Black Sea depended on the type of a map a lot: some of them don’t have even the mention of its name while its outline constantly appears on others. More detailed maps contain more data about the structure of the Black Sea basin, the islands located within it, the rivers flowing into it and the surrounding lands. A more pragmatic approach towards the space of the Black Sea and the Black Sea Region is represented on nautical portolan charts created in the late Middle Ages when Italian merchants were trading in this area in an active way.

Ὦ μωρῆς παιδίον: schedae ineditae ex ms. Vat. Pal. Gr. 92 (Pars altera)

This second part concludes the publication of previously unpublished texts, a project initiated in the preceding issue of this journal, featuring 30 new schedographical texts. Once again, the objective is to provide new valuable material for the comprehensive study of Byzantine culture and the teaching and learning practice of Ancient Greek during the East Roman Empire. Schedography, a distinct form of educational text practiced in the Byzantine Empire from the 10th century until its end and even beyond (continuing in use until the 19th century), reached its peak in the 13th century. This unique kind of pedagogical texts has gained scholarly attention in contemporary academia. However, despite this interest, it remains a complex field of study due to its unique characteristics. These texts, specifically crafted to be read aloud in educational settings, pose challenges for modern readers as they markedly deviate from contemporary silent reading practices. Furthermore, their lack of clear original context, coupled with their educational intent rather than aesthetic value, complicates the process of interpretation and understanding. Schedography stands as a literary and educational enigma that continues to be a focal point of research in the 21st century. Critically edited collections, such as the one presented in this study (published in two parts), are indispensable for further rigorous scholarly analysis.

Ancient and Byzantine Coins from the N. K. Minko’s Collection (State Historical Museum of the Southern Urals). Part II. Bosporus, Late Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire

Ancient and Byzantine Coins from the N. K. Minko’s Collection (State Historical Museum of the Southern Urals). Part II. Bosporus, Late Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire

The Memphite Region and the Eastern Mediterranean in the 1st Millennium A.D.: More on Provincial Trade of the Roman and Byzantine Empires

Archaeological research in Memphis and its environs (including the necropoleis of Giza, Saqqara, Abu-Roash) has revealed a significant number of ceramic imports from the Eastern Mediterranean dated to the 3rd–7th centuries A.D.: Palestinian LRA 4 amphorae, Cypriot and Cilician LRA 1 amphorae and their prototypes, “Cypriot sigillata” tableware. The main object of “ceramic” trade between Roman and then Byzantine provinces was wine, olive oil, and sporadically – tableware. Having become a part of the Pax Romana, Egypt was “the granary of Rome”, a market for goods of the metropolis and other provinces, a transit point for the imperial trade with Axum, Arabia and India. Archaeological finds of amphorae in Egypt demonstrate that wines from the metropolis and western Roman provinces were not widely distributed in the Nile Valley, concentrating in Alexandria and key points of trade routes. “Crisis of the 3rd century A.D.” contributed to the disappearance of Italian, Gallic, Aegean wines from the Egyptian market, their place was again taken by Cilician, Cypriot and Syro-Palestinian wines. The collapse of the empire in 395 A.D. consolidated this situation: Levantine wines were everywhere in Egypt, not only in the capital, but also in provincial settlements. In the 5th century A.D. the export of wines from Cyprus and Cilicia in LRA 1 amphoraе experienced a real boom, but the negative events in Cilicia in the 6th century A.D. reduced its scope, and the Arab conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt in the 7th century A.D. became fatal for the wine trade.

Ὦ μωρῆς παιδίον: schedae ineditae ex ms. Vat. Pal. Gr. 92 (Pars prior)

The Byzantine Empire had a long tradition of educational practices, including schedography. It became popular in the 10th century and continued to be cultivated until the 19th century, with a peak in the 13th century. In the late 19th century, scholars began to take an interest in the relevant texts. In the mid-20th century, there were attempts to study these texts as a curious kind of paraliterary production. Currently, in the 21st century, there have been editions of different schedographical collections. Schedographical texts are a very specific kind of written documents and do not fit well with the usual editorial practices. They were written to be read aloud, intended to teach, not to entertain, and generally, they do not have the aesthetic value of a literary text. Finally, these texts appear in collections of very different origins. In many cases we do not know their original context, which makes them difficult to be interpreted. In this article, 23 schedographical texts from manuscript Vat. Pal. Gr. 92 are published. This manuscript consists of 239 ff. and it was copied in the last decades of the 13th century in southern Italy. The manuscript contains more than 425 schedae. In contrast to other paratexts used in schools, the manuscript includes glosses with forms of popular Greek, such as, e. g., the use of σπίτι for “house”. A complete edition of the manuscript will certainly reveal more expressions similar to this one. 29 remaining unpublished texts will be published in the second part. The humorous phrase that heads this article, ὦ μωρῆς παιδίον, is the schedographical resolution of the phrase ὀμμ’ ὀρεῖς (glossed as ἐγείρεις) παιδίον, included in one of the schedae published here for the first time.

Christian Galilee in the Byzantine Period

Christian Galilee in the Byzantine Period

Symbolizing Reverence and Imperial Identity: The Elephant on the epi ton barbaron Seal

Abstract: Recent scholarship on Byzantine seals has broadened our understanding of both the practical and symbolic functions of these objects, as it primarily concerns their material, iconographic, and epigraphic content. This article focuses on one of only two known Byzantine seals featuring an image of an elephant. This eleventh-century seal belonged to an individual bearing the title “ἐπὶ τῶν βαρβάρων” ( epi ton barbaron ). Receiving little scholarly attention, this object is generally discussed in the context of other seals of the Byzantine period. I offer a new reading of this object and its image, arguing that the elephant on this seal served two primary functions: it represented its owner’s claim to imperial identity, and it also symbolized its owner’s reverence for the emperor. Through close iconographic and social art historical analysis, I examine the elephant’s use during the Roman and Byzantine periods in three distinct categories: as a motif, as material, and as a living animal. I draw upon primary texts, seals, and ivory objects of the Byzantine period to emphasize the elephant’s imperial associations. I also analyze this seal’s image in conjunction with the administrative titles present in this object’s inscription— epi ton barbaron , in particular. This article expands the ways in which both the iconographic and epigraphic content of Byzantine seals can be used to interpret the symbolic identities their owner’s often project.

ALMA Digital Atlas of the Ancient Jewish World: An Introductory Essay

The “spatial turn” in the humanities has led to increased exploration of spatial perspectives. This shift inspired the ALMA Digital Atlas of the Ancient Jewish World project, which aims to develop a comprehensive digital-analytical atlas. It is intended to serve as a tool for geographical and comparative research on ancient Jewish geography, spanning the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods. The atlas builds on two elemental entity types: place, which pertains to regions or settlements, and source, which addresses pertinent historical texts, archaeological finds, or both, allowing for the robust comparison of geographical information from various sources. This project seeks not only to address existing historical and geographical questions but also to raise new ones, offering fresh insights into geographical perception in antiquity.

Greek and Roman Marine Resource Exploitation in the Northern Black Sea: The Origin and Dynamics of the Bosporan Fish Trade

As early as the fifth century BC salted fish were exported from the Black Sea to the cities of the Mediterranean. From the beginning of our era, Pontic fish-salters also produced garum, a sauce made from fermented fish. At some sites, production of salted fish and sauce continued well into the Byzantine period. The evidence for Pontic fish processing is somewhat contradictory. On the one hand, literary texts such as the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus (c. AD 200) attest to the importance of Black Sea salt-fish in the Mediterranean market, while finds of large-scale salting installations at several sites in the Crimea testify to the large volumes of fish that were processed into garum or salt-fish. On the other hand, finds of amphorae for the finished product are rare. Finds of Black Sea amphorae reported from sites along the Mediterranean by no means match the massive numbers of fish amphorae from the Iberian Peninsula which have been found on Roman sites. Taking imports rather than exports as its starting point, this paper proposes a new model for the development and organization of fish exports from the Black Sea. The export trade was not primarily driven by the Aegean demand for processed fish, but by the demand for prestige goods among the Pontic elite. Exports generated the cash income required for the elite’s consumption of imported prestige commodities such as oil and wine. As the supply of another export commodity – slaves – declined under the pax Romana, the volume of fish exports was increased. It is also proposed that fish products were not as a rule exported by the producers themselves. Rather, they were acquired in bulk at the production site by travelling wholesalers, who packed them in empty amphorae brought from the Mediterranean; hence traces of the Black Sea fish trade are almost invisible in the archaeological record.

Монархические мифотеологемы современного фундаменталистского дискурса: герменевтическая специфика

Monarchist sentiments today are very common among representatives of Orthodox subcultures of a fundamentalist pattern. The dogmatization of monarchical concepts, which began in the Byzantine period in the history of Orthodoxy, is today perceived as part of the established religious tradition. Religious monarchism, represented in Russian society, does not have internal unity. It is possible to single out classical monarchism, which proves that monarchy is the best and most charitable form of organizing society, and eschatological, which believes that the coming Russian Orthodox tsar will have a special role in the upcoming eschatological and apocalyptic processes. Within the framework of eschatological monarchism, there is an active formation of mythologems and mythological narratives. The author's analysis of sources made it possible to identify five main thematic blocks: about the time of the coming of the king and the necessary conditions, about the personality and origin of the coming king, about the circumstances of the king's coming to power, about the nature of the king's reign, about the eschatological role of the king. The eschatological monarchical myth, constructed by modern contenders for the throne, is syncretic in nature and is generally aimed at substantiating the claims of the latter. The methods of inclusive hermeneutics are used as tools, allowing to interpret authoritative texts in accordance with apologetic purposes or to fabricate the latter.

PIGMENTS IDENTIFICATION: COMPARATIVE EXAMINATION OF MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES IN THE HERMITAGE ASCENSION IN PYTHION OF OLYMPUS, GREECE

Pythion is a settlement of the municipality of Olympus in the regional unit of Larissa. It is located on the southwest side of Mount Olympus, in an amphitheatre position at an altitude of about 725 meters. The word Pythion probably comes from the god Pythian Apollon of Greek mythology. Its oldest name was Selos. The village remains important during the Byzantine period, a fact that is proven by the PostByzantine Hermitages that survive there. These were practised by monks who later manned the monasteries of the area. The best-preserved hermitages are located on the hillside, where the hermitage of the Ascension at the foot and the Holy Cross is a little higher. The hermitage of the Ascension extends into a spacious cave and includes five irregular spaces. The first two rooms are almost outdoors and served as vestibules of the nave. The access to the temple is made through an arched gate. The chapel consists of a chamber whose side walls have two arched openings that communicate with the interior of the cave. The only murals that have survived are of the archangels Michael and Gabriel which are found in the interior of the gate that leads to the temple and dates back to the 14th century (Gialouri et al., 2014). The present research study focuses on the analysis of 14th-century mural pigments using spectroscopic non-destructive techniques pXRF and portable Raman.

Anthony Kaldellis. “Translations into Greek in the Byzantine Period”

Anthony Kaldellis. “Translations into Greek in the Byzantine Period”

Die Ostertabelle des Dionysius Exiguus in griechischer Anwendung. Ein 532 Jahre-Zyklus süditalienischer Provenienz

In 525, Dionysius Exiguus created an Easter table which Beda Venerabilis completed for a full cycle of 532 years, the period when the same lunar and solar day reappear. Dionysius based his calculation on an Alexandrian model. Starting with the Alexandrian monk Annianos at the turn of the 5th century, the Byzantines already created Easter tables of 532 years, but these tables are not preserved, and still existing Byzantine Easter tables had generally calculated only for the present or future 19 moon cycle years. However, two manuscripts witness that the Latin Easter tables, based on Dionysius Exiguus, were adopted by Greeks in a Latin-Greek mixed culture, supposedly in southern Italy. This Dionysian Easter table, which starts from 877 CE, is presented here in a critical edition together with the accompanying texts on calculating the moon, sun and indiction and two letters informing about the reason behind this table and its introduction. The equation with the Byzantine world year provides a sound basis to check how the birth and crucifixion of Jesus Christ were dated.

Discours. Livres XXXIV, XXXV & XXXVI by Libanios, and: Libanius: Ten Mythological and Historical Declamations by Libanius

Reviewed by: Discours. Livres XXXIV, XXXV & XXXVI by Libanios, and: Libanius: Ten Mythological and Historical Declamations by Libanius Fabrizio Petorella (bio) Libanios, Discours. Livres XXXIV, XXXV & XXXVI, texte établi et traduit par Catherine Bry, Collection des universités de France Série grecque—Collection Budé 550. Paris, FR: Les Belles Lettres, 2020. 278 pp. EAN: 978-2-251-00637-6. Libanius, Libanius: Ten Mythological and Historical Declamations, ed., intro., trans. and notes, Robert J. Penella. Cambridge, GB: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 420 pp. ISBN: 978-1-108-48137-3. Our knowledge of Late Antique rhetorical school practice has been recently enriched by several studies focused on Libanius' works: in the last decades, the Antiochean rhetor has been the subject of key monographs and academic articles on upper-class education in the Later Empire and [End Page 104] many of his writings have been edited and translated into modern languages.1 The two volumes discussed here are part of this upsurge of interest in Libanius's teaching activity. Furthermore, they are meant to lay the foundations for future studies aimed at contributing to the debate on Late Antique paideia. Antiochean school life is at the core of the orations edited and translated by Catherine Bry. Her volume, which is the result of her doctoral research at the École Pratique des Hautes Études of Paris, opens with a brief introduction clarifying why the three Libanian speeches she takes up deserve to be analyzed together: composed in the second half of the 380s, they all stem from problems related to Libanius's role as a teacher. Thus, Orations 34, 35, and 36 provide a vivid testimony about the teaching of Greek rhetoric in the Eastern Empire and the issues that even a renowned sophist might face. These initial remarks are followed by an extremely accurate section devoted to philological aspects. Even though Bry acknowledges the importance of the last edition of the three speeches (published by Richard Foerster in 1906), she considers that work too distant from modern philological conventions.2 As a result of a rigorous re-examination of the whole manuscript tradition, she integrates the descriptions of the sources given by Foerster, Jean Martin, and Pierre-Louis Malosse with her personal observations, thus offering a detailed presentation of all witnesses and a stemma codicum for each of the three orations.3 In this well-ordered preliminary phase, Bry demonstrates a scrupulously honest approach, enabling the reader to access and—if (s)he wishes—to question her philological work. After a list of abbreviations and a bibliography (significantly divided into a section specifically devoted to the edition of the three speeches and a general bibliography), comes the core of the volume. Every oration is preceded by a brief and clear introduction, where the reader finds information on the date and circumstances in which Libanius originally delivered his speech and on the audience he intended to address, as well as a rhetorical analysis of the following text and a list of its previous editions and translations. [End Page 105] In contrast to Foerster, Bry opts for positive apparatuses and avoids mentioning orthographical variants, unless they have some morphological (and, consequently, semantic) value. This approach (which does not prevent her from quoting the conjectures of previous editors when necessary) has the merit of making her edition a very practical tool for the study of the three orations and their textual history. The translation heads in the same direction. It is clear and original and allows the reader to easily grasp the main aspects of Libanius' oratorical performances, accurately transposed into a modern language. In these respects, the volume shows clearly how scholarly accuracy and readability can be combined, thus producing an edition that can be appreciated on several levels. To complete this picture, Bry's commentary is agile, but exhaustive. Her explanatory notes reveal once more a strong interest in the context in which the orations were originally performed and in their rhetorical features. Libanius' words are analyzed in relation to Late Antique rhetorical theories and to their application at school (see, for example, the entry concerning the role of memorization in the learning process at pp. 43–44, n. 55). Particular attention is...

СКРИБОН КОМЕНТІОЛ ЯК ПОСОЛ ДО АВАРІВ У 583 р.

A feature of the career development of the military nobility of the Eastern Roman Empire in the last third of the sixth century was participation in diplomatic missions. Acting as envoys of the Justinian emperors, Roman generals and soldiers represented the interests of Constantinople before the barbarian rulers. The peculiar turnover of personnel was facilitated by the peculiarities of Roman diplomacy aimed at political neutralisation of neighbours, as well as the personal desire of autocrats to test their protégés in the foreign policy arena. This was compounded by the lack of experienced diplomats and generals in the Roman Empire. As a result, a number of soldiers and generals of the Empire who enjoyed the personal trust of emperors often acted as envoys in negotiations with the rulers of barbarian political units. The scribon Comentiolus, who was involved in the Roman embassy sent in 583 to the Avar Khagan Bayan I (562–602), was no exception to this context. Having been the personal bodyguard of Emperor Maurice (582–602) at the beginning of his reign, Comentiolus later held the positions of dux of Mesia, military master of the East, and stratigos of Thrace. Comentiolus career growth was mainly due to his talent as a commander. Nevertheless, at the beginning of his service to Maurice, scribo was sent by Mauritius as an ambassador to the headquarters of the Avar Khan to end the war with Constantinople that began in 582. Despite the formal heading of the mission to Anchialus by Senator Elpidius, scribo actually defended the interests of the Empire. Bayan’s provocations during the negotiations with the Romans provoked Commentius to make a patriotic speech in which he accused the Avars of disrespecting Constantinople. Ultimately, Comentiolus’ actions as ambassador were the direct cause of the failure of the diplomatic mission and the continuation of the war.