17–18 February 2012 · PDF fileSeeing Through The ‘ByzanTine Mirage’ Was conceived and organised by Alexis Gorby, Foteini Spingou, Douglas Whalin, and Edward Zychowicz-Coghill

Seeing Through The‘ByzanTine Mirage’

The 2012 InTernaTIonalGraduaTe ConferenCe

17–18 February 2012The hisTory FaculTy

universiTy oF oxFord

Seeing Through The ‘ByzanTine Mirage’

Was conceived and organised by Alexis Gorby, Foteini Spingou, Douglas Whalin, and Edward Zychowicz-Coghill

The 2012 inTernaTional graduaTe conference Was made possible Through The generous supporT of:

The oxFord cenTre For ByzanTine researchwww.ocbr.ox.ac.uk

The oxFord cenTre For laTe anTiquiTywww.ocla.oc.ac.uk

The oxFord cenTre For Medieval hisTorywww.history.ox.ac.uk/medieval

The socieTy For The ProMoTion oF ByzanTine sTudieswww.byzantium.ac.uk

The suB-FaculTy oF ByzanTine and Modern Greekgrad.mml.ox.ac.uk/greek

Peter FrankopanElizabeth Jeffreys

Matthew KempshallMarc Lauxtermann

Georgi Parpulov

Prerona PrasadJesse Simon

Ida TothBryan Ward-Perkins

Mark Whittow

Front cover image: Detail from Theodora and her Court, Apse Mosaic, San Vitale, Ravenna, by Alexis GorbyBooklet design and layout by Nouvellevague of North Oxford

The organising commiTTee Wishes To exTend Their graTiTude To The folloWing people, WiThouT Whom This conference

Would noT have been possible:

The organising commiTTee Would like To Thank all The volunTeers for Their help and supporT:

Davor AslanovskiMatern Boeselager

Elizabeth BuchananMorgan Di RodiCaterina Franchi

Sean LeatherburyMax Lau

Daniel NearyTherese SungaKirsty Stewart

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the Oxford Byzantine Society’s 2012 International Graduate Conference. This year again saw an increase in the number of applicants and participants, the highest we have ever had, clearly demonstrating the strength of interest in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at the postgraduate level. Over 50 speakers from around the globe have gathered to share the insights they have gained from their research. The meeting of this group of international peers, the future researchers and teachers of Byzantine Studies, we believe will benefit all involved.

For the first time, the OBS conference will run for two days with two parallel sessions each day (and a third on the second afternoon). The papers represent the broad spectrum of interests and time periods of students of Byzantium, and we have done our best to arrange the programme to reflect these. Late Antique papers will be presented in the Lecture Theatre, while the later Byzantine papers will be given in the Rees Davies Room.

We hope that this two-day conference will become a platform of sharing ideas across national and disciplinary boundaries. It is an excellent opportunity to meet other students with similar interests, and exchange views on cutting-edge debates. It creates an oppor-tunity for networking, collaboration, sharing of opinions, and for building new academic friendships – bonds of the utmost importance in a period of a worldwide crisis for the humanities.

We are extremely happy to be able to provide an inclusive, informed, and constructive environment for these exchanges, which we hope will give birth to groundbreaking ideas, advance our field, and become a special memory for all of us.

Enjoy!

Alexis GorbyFoteini Spingou

Douglas WhalinEdward Zychowicz-Coghill

The obs 2012 conference commiTTee

a MeSSage FroM The CoMMiTTee

4 realITy and IllusIon

SeSSion one10.15 leCTure TheaTre

Women in early Byzantine churchesBernard J. Mulholland Queen’s universiTy, belfasT

Widows to nuns: Theorising Women’s Patronage in the late antique churchIrene SanPietrocolumbia universiTy, neW york

nicetas Magistros: Behind the illusion of a holy Woman, the reality of an exile?Lucile HermayuniversiTy of sorbonne-paris iv

SeSSion Two10:15 rees davIes rooM

Maintaining the orthodox Mirage: combating intellectual heresy in eleventh-century ByzantiumLiz MincinuniversiTy of sT. andreWs

The apocalyptic Mirror: do Prophecies influence historiography?Andras KraftcenTral european universiTy, budapesT

Tolling the Bells before 1204: innovation versus TraditionAlex Rodriguez Suarezking’s college, london

SeSSion Three12.00 leCTure TheaTre

The Prophetic Past: Biblical Models in the Works of John of ephesusSimon Ford exeTer college, oxford

arius, ὁ μελῳδός: Painting a devastating PictureArkady Avdokhinrussian sTaTe universiTy for The humaniTies, moscoW

The reality of illusion: dreams and illusions in the Miracles of St. ArtemiosAlice HargreavesWolfson college, oxford

SeSSion Four12.00 rees davIes rooM

‘Will i be known as the Philosopher? The Warrior? The Tyrant...?’ The image of John ii komnenos in constantinopleMax Lauoriel college, oxford

Pictorial decoration of Middle-Byzantine refectories: illusion at the service of ‘Feeding the soul’Iro DermitzakiuniversiTy of aThens

‘you can learn a lot of Things from the Flowers’ – Gardens in some Byzantine romancesKirsty StewartThe Queen’s college, oxford

The 2012 InTernaTIonal GraduaTe ConferenCe 5

SeSSion Five14.30 leCTure TheaTre

rome and the end of Tyranny: imperial Propaganda in the ancient capital, 312-389Adrastos OmissisT. John’s college, oxford

Was there an ideology?: The imperial image and Politics in the age of constantineMariana BodnarukcenTral european universiTy, budapesT

valens and his Gothic War of 367-9 Emil AvdalianuniversiTy college, oxford

SeSSion Six14.30 rees davIes rooM

Text as iconography: reinterpreting the limburg StaurothekeBrad Hostetlerflorida sTaTe universiTy

re-reading the imagined and Physical space of the Byzantine church: a closer examination of Tokali kiliseMegan Garedakissan francisco sTaTe universiTy/columbia universiTy, neW york

Byzantine donor Portraits like Mirror images? selected donor representations from Byzantine churches in GreeceTheodora Konstantellou and Prodromos PapanikolaouuniversiTy of aThens

SeSSion Seven16.15 leCTure TheaTre

ammianus Marcellinus Writing about sieges: Was there a literary Formula?William Wyethlady margareT hall, oxford

hard and soft Power on the eastern Frontier: a new roman Fortlet Between dara and nisibis, Mesopotamia, Turkey: Prokopios’ Mindouos?Christopher Lillington-Martinkellogg college, oxford

roman-Berber relations in the 530sMiranda WilliamsWolfson college, oxford

SeSSion eighT16.15 rees davIes rooM

The holy Mentor: reading Barlaam’s Portrait in the Fourteenth-century Manuscript (Parisinus Graecus 1128)Iphigeneia DebruyneuniversiTé de provence / universiTé de fribourg

opening a new Page in the Book of late Byzantine Paideia: Maximos neamonites through his lettersMihail MitreacenTral european universiTy, budapesT

Monstrum Pulchrum: alexander’s iconography from antiquity to the Middle-agesCaterina FranchiexeTer college, oxford


SeSSion nine10.00 leCTure TheaTre

constantine Porphyrogennetos as a Person and a PoliticianDmytro GordiyenkonaTional academy of sciences, kiev

imparting the Faith/embracing the Faith: Baptism as a diplomatic device in the Personal reign of constantine viiPrerona Prasadkeble college, oxford

Byzantium and the West: Byzantine imperial ideology and the ruin of empireFrank McGoughohio sTaTe universiTy

SeSSion Ten10.00 rees davIes rooM

The Byzantine empresses: Founders and donors of Monasteries and conventsBelyakova TaisiyamoscoW sTaTe universiTy /russian academy of science

Forming the athonite self-image: narrative Traditions on Mount athos in the late Byzantine and ottoman PeriodsNikolaos LivanosuniversiTy of Thessaly

reality and allusion: seeing Through the Byzantine commentator on homer, eustathius of ThessalonicaGeorgia KolovouuniversiTy of sorbonne-paris iv

SeSSion eleven11.45 leCTure TheaTre

The role of Fictions in roman law Guido Leonardo Croxattofreie universiTäT, berlin / universidad de buenos aires

Who were the eunomians and Why did imperial edicts affecting Their ability to inherit vacillate so Much between 389 and 428? Elizabeth BuchananchrisT church, oxford

Wolves, Women, and Wanderers: Monastic Misinformation in Fifth-sixth-century PalestineDaniel Nearycorpus chrisTi college, oxford

SeSSion Twelve11.45 rees davIes rooM

Women and Political Power in Byzantium as seen Through coin depictionsKaterina PeppauniversiTy of aThens

The Palaeologan empress: reality and illusions in the life of royal Women Before the FallNafsika VassilopoulouuniversiTy of aThens

Despoina Chatun, Palaiologina et aliae: Women in Trebizond in the chronicle of Michael PanaretosAnnika Asp-TalwaruniversiTy of birmingham

SeSSion ThirTeen14.15 leCTure TheaTre

spaces of visionArmin Bergmeiermunich universiTy

Memory, agency, and the last Judgement in ByzantiumNiamh BhallacourTauld insTiTuTe of arT, london

What constitutes interpretational anachronism?Davor Aslanovskikellogg college, oxford


SeSSion FourTeen14.15 ColIn MaTThew rooM

depiction of liturgical Practices and objects in the scene of the communion of the apostlesNikitas PassarisuniversiTy of aThens

local reality and imperial illusion at the Periphery of the empire: The case of the exarch of ravennaVedran BiletacenTral european universiTy, budapesT

illusory deaths? The continuing reality of the demonic Threat in the cosmology of eusebius of caesareaHazel Johannsenking’s college, london

SeSSion FiFTeen14.15 rees davIes rooM

religion on the arab-Byzantine Frontier in the eighth and ninth centuries ceRobert Brown cardiff universiTy

Prisoners of War in the Byzantine empire (sixth-eleventh centuries): reality and illusionMarilia Lykakiécole praTiQue des hauTes éTudes/universiTy of aThens

The draft of a Treaty between Michael viii Palaeologos and the venetian republic (1265)Ievgen A. Khvalkoveuropean universiTy insTiTuTe, florence

SeSSion SixTeen16.00 leCTure TheaTre

Monumental competition in the late antique levant: With Whom Was the early church competing?Morgan Di RodisT. cross college, oxford

The Blessed souvenirs of early christian Pilgrimage Lucy O’ConnoruniversiTy of manchesTer

Modernism’s Byzantine art and the return to orderJennifer JohnsonsT. John’s college, oxford

SeSSion SevenTeen16.00 rees davIes rooM

kinship in the Byzantine and slavic Balkans (c. 1355 – 1395): Problems and PerspectivesJake RansohoffuniversiTy of chicago

imperial illusions: some aspects of Byzantine diplomacy with the Muslim World (end of Fourteenth-Fifteenth century)Anna CaliauniversiTy of san marino

The republic of the hellenes and the return of the king: remarks on the Political imagination of the Fifteenth-century Peloponnesian authorsSergey FadeevsT. cross college, oxford


Women in early byzantine ChurChesBernard J. Mulholland Queen’s universiTy, [email protected]

While referring to the segregation of women in Early Byzantine churches, Robert Taft remarks that ‘in so doing, I simply presume what should require no demonstration: that in Byzantine Christianity as elsewhere, women were system-atically ranked after men’. Robin Cormack further observes that in ‘the church, men and women stood segregated in different parts of the building’. These views appear to be widely shared among many Byzantinists, although the textual evidence cited often seems to place undue emphasis upon Procopius of Caesarea’s description of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. But is there any archae-ological evidence in Early Byzantine churches that men and women were segregated?

This paper examines archaeological evidence in the form of biologically sexed burials, histori-cal and anthropologically sexed burials, and from inscriptions found in a sample of forty-seven Early Byzantine church sites. These sites are mainly from the Levant, but some from Italy and Croatia are included.

It is not statistically or scientifically sound to assume that the default position is that men occupy space in churches unless proven otherwise, and so the burden of proof must be applied equally to both sexes. Some texts are also scrutinised for evidence relating to segregation of the sexes, and reference is made to some other research conducted into the role of women in the Early Christian Church.

Bernard J. Mulholland is a PhD candi-date at the School of History & Anthropology at Queen’s University. He has an MA in Byzantine Archaeology & Text, an MA in Archaeology, and a BA in Environmental Sciences.

WidoWs to nuns: theorising Women’s Patronage in the late antique ChurChIrene SanPietrocolumbia universiTy, neW [email protected]

The Late Antique church represented itself as a site of social mobility, where paupers could become bishops and holy fools monks had they only piety enough. This myth persists in the historiography of the popular church, which sees increased visibility for women and the promotion of non-traditional elites.

My paper maps the myth of ecclesiastical populism against the reality and inertia of gender roles. Despite its self-representation as a spiritual meritocracy, the development of female patronage within the church in fact coincides with the closure of other opportunities, including the deacon-ate and lay ministries. The gradual closure of the episcopate and public ministries to women reified gender roles on a Pauline model, narrowing the opportunities for public participation to a donor role. Any claim of social mobility or the popular appeal of the church should take into account gender differentials, lest it reiterate the institution’s ideal of itself. The development of ‘women’s roles’ pitted the church household against the family, a conflict inscribed in the inheritance legislation of

leCTure TheaTre10.15 Friday, 17 FeBruary 2012

chair: Marlena Whiting, lincoln college


the Theodosian Code, ecclesiastical canons, and early pastoral manuals.

Irene SanPieTro is a PhD candidate in Classical Studies at Columbia University, focus-ing on the economic and social history of the Late Roman Empire. She is currently working on her dissertation titled ‘Fasting – Prayer – Alms: Christian Virtue Theory and the Transition from Apostolic to Institutional Church’.

niCetas magistros: behind the illusion oF a holy Woman, the reality oF an exile?Lucile HermayuniversiTy of sorbonne-paris [email protected]

In its first version, the Life of Theoktiste of Lesbos is signed by Niketas Magistros. Thanks to the details the narrator gives about his own story, we can assume that the author was part of the imperial entourage and involved in political life. The chroniclers mention one Niketas Magistros, particularly because he was the father of Sophia, wife of Christophoros, who was the son of Romanos Lecapenos. Following a plot against the emperor, probably because Niketas wanted to put Christophoros at the head of the empire,

he was tonsured and exiled in the 920s. He then wrote numerous letters, some to Constantine VII himself, begging his readers to intercede with the emperor on his behalf.

Why did this rather important statesman write the life of a holy woman? I shall suggest another possible dating of the context of the writ-ing - the end of the 940s. Firstly, in this Life the political context is explicit. The author takes the Macedonian dynasty’s side, and emphasizes his loyalty to Leo VI, to his kinsmen, and to the emperor’s political commitment. Secondly, I will ask whether the description of the hermit Symeon could be a way for him to describe the difficulty of his own situation as an exile, referring to his letters, in which the theme is omnipresent.

What I would like to ask is whether Niketas’ writing can be ultimately considered an attempt to be freed from exile. Having tried all possible political action, might he have resorted to religious inspiration?

Lucile Hermay is a PhD student in Byzantine History at Paris-Sorbonne. Her thesis is on monks and politics between 843 and 1204, with research interests including hagiography, the history of monasticism, and the political history of the ninth to thirteen centuries.


maintaining the orthodox mirage: Combating intelleCtual heresy in eleventh-Century byzantiumLiz MincinuniversiTy of sT. [email protected]

Heresy is by its very nature part of the realm of the imagined. No matter the realities of dogmatic or doctrinal deviations in any given period, the extent to which each supposed ‘heretic’ is condemned for harbouring heterodox beliefs is always directly dependent upon the contemporary perception of a supposed ‘orthodoxy’. As such, the study of heresy within Byzantium brings us to the study of one the most fundamental Byzantine mirages: the unified Orthodox world, combating ‘errors’ as though they were fierce contagions.

My paper will look to examine the creation and promulgation of this mirage in the later elev-enth century, focusing particularly on the so-called ‘intellectual’ heretics (notably Michael Psellos’ stu-dent, John Italos). These figures enable the scholar a unique view into the juxtaposition of real and imagined in the realm of heretical accusations as their condemnations were based more on educa-tional methodology and political circumstance than strict doctrinal differences. By conducting a literary critical study of near contemporary source material, including Anna Komnene’s Alexiad, it will be possible to compare the linguistic repre-sentations and metaphors used in the discussion of ‘intellectual’ heretics with other sects (such as the Bogomils). In doing so, conclusions can be drawn related to the interpretive framework built

by Byzantine authors in which they sought to place their opponents. Thus, through such a study, comment can be made on the significance, uses and maintenance of the Orthodox mirage in the Middle Byzantine period.

Liz Mincin is in the first year of her PhD at the University of St. Andrews, focusing on Byzantine Heresy in the tenth to twelfth centu-ries. Her project aims to examine literary motifs in a variety of sources as a means through which contemporary authors created and manipulated an interpretive framework of perceiving ‘others’.

the aPoCalyPtiC mirror: do ProPheCies inFluenCe historiograPhy?Andras KraftcenTral european universiTy, [email protected]

In general, Byzantine apocalyptic writings propose to write the history of the future culminating in the parousia, through means of employing his-torical narrative, typological reasoning, integration of normative topoi, and genuine speculation. Furthermore, apocalyptic compositions portray a high degree of adhering to genre-specific require-ments, such as evoking a dualistic worldview, which is expressed in symbolic and stereotyped language. Thus, Byzantine apocalypses are to be considered literary productions that closely follow generic norms.

At the same time, apocalypses themselves function as normative texts in the sense that they describe or rather prescribe expectations pertain-ing to the imminent future. That is, one finds

reeS davieS rooM10:15 Friday, 17 FeBruary 2012

chair: Caterina Franchi, exeTer college


rather detailed, although cryptic, accounts of the personal characteristics and behavior of eschato-logical figures, as well as of the timing and quality of the events to come. Accordingly, motives that are concerned, e.g., with the Last Roman Emperor topos, such as poor descent or physiognomic descriptions, condition the image of potential eschatological rulers such as Basil I. Moreover, there are instances when prophecies substantialise by affecting public policy making, as in the case of Isaac II.

In my paper I investigate instances in which historical accounts and prophetic descriptions converge to the degree that makes the modern reader wonder whether one deals with a vaticinium ex eventu or rather a historia ex vaticinio. Thus, I formulate the issue of how competent contempo-rary historiography is in discerning where genuine history ends and where prophecy begins.

Andras KrafT is a first-year PhD candidate at the Central European University, Budapest. His research investigates Byzantine eschatol-ogy. Currently his focus is on the comparison of Christian and Muslim apocalyptic traditions in the seventh through ninth centuries.

tolling the bells beFore 1204: innovation versus traditionAlex Rodriguez Suarezking’s college, [email protected]

The use of bells in order to summon the faithful to church in Byzantium is a topic that has not

garnered much scholarly attention. The subject has been studied by specialists working on bells while Byzantine scholars have mainly focused on bell towers and their origin, rather than the objects that hang in them. Nevertheless, the subject is dominated by the question: Did the Byzantines use bells before 1204?

This paper provides a fresh look at the issue, putting together many of the sources regarding bells and their use before the establishment of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. These references show that indeed the Byzantines had used bells in a few cases, though they do not seem to have played a major role in Byzantine society. Therefore, their use was not widespread and it is possible to assume that they were an innovation, which the written sources date to the twelfth century. The question arises: Where did this novelty come from? And more importantly, did it create any kind of reaction within Byzantium? A text by the canonist Theodore Balsamon gives us significant information about how bells were seen by a figure from the religious hierarchy during the second half of the twelfth century. His view sheds light on the Orthodox Church’s stance towards innovation and the possible origins for tolling the bells.

Alex Rodriguez Suarez’s research interests span the Middle Byzantine period with particular emphasis on the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The topic of his PhD is the Western presence and its effects on Byzantine society and culture during the reigns of Alexios I and John II Komnenos. He is particularly interested in subjects related to art, material culture, and iconography.


the ProPhetiC Past: bibliCal models in the Works oF John oF ePhesusSimon Ford exeTer college, [email protected]

The conscious use of biblical models and motifs in order to construct religiously significant narratives, although reasonably common among post-clas-sical, Christian authors, has, to date, attracted only a limited amount of critical attention from those studying Late Antique historiography. It nevertheless constitutes a serious consideration for interrogation of contemporary source material. This is particularly true in approaching the work of anti-Chalcedonian historian and hagiographer John of Ephesus. Throughout his corpus of pre-served writings, he frequently models both his role as an author and the lives and events which he chronicles on a series of biblically predicated models, drawn in large part from the books of the Old Testament.

This paper hopes to enrich the discussion of John’s historiographic methods and reliability, by examining his use of biblical models within both the Ecclesiastical History and the Lives of the Eastern Saints. Focusing specifically upon his use of the lives of biblical prophets as narrative exemplars, it will attempt to offer a degree of insight into both his aims and his self-perception as an author, ulti-mately seeking to peer through the biblical mirage in which he veiled his vision of Byzantium.

Simon Ford is a DPhil candidate in the History Faculty at Oxford. Among many and varied topics, his work has shown an interest in

issues of ecclesiastical history and canon law of the Late Antique Church in the East.

arius, ὁ μελῳδός: Painting a devastating PiCtureArkady Avdokhinrussian sTaTe universiTy for The humaniTies, [email protected]

It has been increasingly assumed that Early Christian heresy was another way of building up orthodoxy. For the conceptualisation of heresy and heretics was to be operative in moulding a self-conscious Nicaean-type of theology. Early Byzantine historiography of the Arian controversy aimed to shape a potent image of a prototypical heresiarch. One of the most vivid points in pictur-ing Arius in Early Christian historiography is his notorious predilection for the most ‘unholy’ kind of hymn writing and performance practices.

Firstly, Athanasius, Socrates, and Sozomen have him come up with the infamous Thalia, which not so long ago was metrically identified as sotadean verses. These ᾄσματα ναυτικά (Philost. Hist. Eccl. 2.2) have extant papyrical metrical parallels in sailors’ songs, so the case of the early Church historians seems to be solidified in this respect. Another aspect of Arius’ use of hymnody was his extremely flamboyant performance of hymns while preaching (Euseb. Hist.Eccl. 7.3.10). The theatre-like exclamations, acclamations, and jumping were clearly supposed to assure the reader of the profound heresy found therein.

Additionally, Arian (and anti-Arian) hym-nody has a distinct public strand: it was a weapon


chair: Edward Zychowicz-Coghill, WorcesTer college


for religious city factions challenging their rivals (Sozomen Hist.Eccl. 8.8). All these points are both constructive elements of anti-Arian textual rhetoric and glimpses into Late Antique religious clashes in πόλεις. This blurring shape of reality vs. textual entity is characteristically pre-Byzantine.

Arkady Avdokhin is a graduate student in Classics at the Institute for Oriental Cultures and Antiquity at the Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow.

the reality oF illusion: dreams and illusions in the Miracles of st. arteMiosAlice HargreavesWolfson college, [email protected]

The Miracles of St. Artemios are a series of some 45 miracle accounts written in the seventh cen-tury discussing the miracles that occurred at the Church of John the Baptist in Constantinople, where the saints’ relics were housed. The appeal of the miracles comes from the unusual specialisa-tion of the cults’ healing. Artemios heals hernias and other testicular problems. He appears in both dreams and visions and it is these appearances of Artemios that this paper will focus on.

Firstly how does Artemios appear? And why does he appear to people in that particular guise? For many miracles the saint seems to appear as someone familiar or comforting but sometimes he is far more sinister. He appears both in dreams and in a more ‘real’ vision that others witness. What seems most interesting is how these dreams actu-ally affect the ‘patients’ in reality. There are varying amounts of immediate cure. When the saint acts surgically, far grimmer consequences seem to follow. However, when the saint does not appear directly to the patient he guides the treatment of the patient.

This paper will therefore ask if there are any ways we can group these together. Is there a cer-tain relevance to when the saint appears for all to see, on ships full of sailors for example? And how far can we take this belief in what occurs in illusion as having a direct impact on a patient’s reality in a seventh-century Constantinopolitan context?

Alice Hargreaves is currently studying towards an MSt in Late Antique and Byzantine studies. She came to Oxford from King’s College London where she took a BA in Classical Archaeology, having spent half her time in the Modern Greek and Byzantine department.


‘Will i be knoWn as the PhilosoPher? the Warrior? the tyrant...?’ the image oF John ii komnenos in ConstantinoPleMax Lauoriel college, [email protected]

John II Komnenos has often been characterised as a soldier-emperor who spent his reign campaigning against the enemies of Byzantium – and for most historians’ accounts a mere list of cities captured and battles fought is John’s contribution to Byzantine history between the more engaging narratives pro-vided by John’s father Alexios I or his son Manuel I. Yet it appears that John was concerned that his legacy be more than a litany of blood and iron – he wished to balance his image as a conqueror with that of a man who was pious, a dedicated philanthropist, and a devoted husband. These images of John are all to be found within the foundation charter and sur-viving buildings of one of the greatest monuments of Byzantium to come down to the present day – that of the imperial monastery of the Pantokrator in the empire’s capital, Constantinople. Through these images, we can begin to glean a shape of what were John’s domestic policies during his reign, and thus attempt to finally comprehend John’s legacy holisti-cally, and not just through a list of campaigns.

Over the course of this paper I will thus focus on what may be the key question to unlock this document – ‘Why?’ Why did John build such a complex, or indeed how much of it can we ascribe to John’s direct influence? Basing my analysis on the foundation charter, known as its typikon, the

surviving architecture, and what can be gleaned from textual and other material sources, I will seek to answer this question.

Max Lau recently completed his MSt in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies with the History Faculty at Oxford, and he is now a first-year DPhil candidate at Oxford.

PiCtorial deCoration oF middle-byzantine reFeCtories: illusion at the serviCe oF ‘Feeding the soul’Iro DermitzakiuniversiTy of [email protected]

This paper is an attempt to comprehend and interpret the function of illusion through works of art in non-holy spaces designed to serve the need of nutrition in monastic buildings. Through the study of the exceptionally well-preserved decoration of the refectory of the Monastery of St. John ‘Theologos’ at Patmos, I will attempt to approach the issue of the decoration of refectories and to analyse the depicted scenes. For example, how through the use of specific themes does the imagery of one of the most basic biological needs become ‘translated’ into a spiritual state? The real-ity of the need of nutrition is confronted with the illusion of its conversion to a spiritual activity – the transformation of nourishment of the body to nourishment of the soul. This issue is approached through the comparative study of all the surviving Middle-Byzantine refectory decorations.

My approach is based on the choice of scenes depicted and their interpretation. It will also

reeS davieS rooM12.00 Friday, 17 FeBruary 2012

chair: Matern Boeselager, Wolfson college


provide differentiation of the meaning conveyed by the same scenes in the church, and on the illusive use of the imagery for the achievement of very specific goals. Useful tools in this attempt are also the surviving monastic typica, which pro-vide information about the daily ritual of dining in a monastery, as well as the origins and goals of Christian common meals.

Iro DermiTzaki is an archaeologist, with a degree from the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens. She is currently writing a thesis about monks who are artists. Her interests are in Middle Byzantine art and all its parameters, artistic as well as social.

‘you Can learn a lot oF things From the FloWers’ – gardens in some byzantine romanCesKirsty StewartThe Queen’s college, [email protected]

The garden has been a source of pleasure for many cultures throughout history, not least for the Byzantines. Byzantine gardens are not as famous as those of Pompeii or Persia, but they appear in a variety of sources, including chronicles, let-ters, hagiography, ekphraseis, and romances. The

transient nature of gardens means we have limited evidence of their existence in Byzantium other than the literary and artistic evidence.

Recent research has increased our understand-ing of what a Byzantine garden may have looked like and what it meant to its viewers. A garden is never just a collection of flowers, just as nothing in Byzantium was incapable of being imbued with a deeper meaning. Gardens within the fourteenth-century romances may shed some light on the later culture of Byzantium, indicating what asso-ciations Byzantines made with gardens, as well as more practical and visual aspects. By focusing on the romances Velthandros and Chrysandza, Kallimachos and Chrysorroi, and Livistros and Rodamni and comparing them to more factual sources, this paper will ask what features were common to the Byzantine garden, and look at the garden’s acknowledged role in literature as a mirror of Byzantine ideas on nature and beauty.

KirsTy STeWarT holds a MA Hons in Medieval History from the University of St Andrews and an MSt in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies from Oxford. She is now study-ing for a DPhil at Oxford, looking at nature in literature and parallels between its portrayal and use in Western, Byzantine, and Persian/Arabic literature.


rome and the end oF tyranny: imPerial ProPaganda in the anCient CaPital, 312-389Adrastos OmissisT. John’s college, [email protected]

My paper focuses on the centrality of Rome to the celebration and publication of victory in civil war during the fourth century. It looks at the ways in which Rome and the new Christian reli-gion were worked into imperial polemic against usurpers, and imperial panegyric towards the emperors who defeated them, in the period from 312 (Constantine’s defeat of Maxentius and adven-tus in Rome the following day), through to the year 357 (in which Constantius’ state visit to Rome was combined with his vicennalia and the celebra-tions for his victory over the usurper Magnentius), and finally to 389 (Theodosius’ defeat of Magnus Maximus and his official visit to the city). It observes the creation of extensive narratives of illu-sion within and about the city, where a beleaguered and oppressed Rome became a central justification for the undertaking of a civil war.

Given that Rome is said to have lost any ‘real’ significance by the fourth century, its repeated use by emperors as a centre in which to express their victory in civil war marks it out as striking. The paper will look at panegyric, monumental construction, and patronage of Christianity, and show that Rome provided a recognised common space in which, following the trauma of civil war, emperors might reaffirm their allegiance to ancient ideals of Roman virtue and thus lend authority and antiquitas to what was, in actual fact, a violent

readjustment of power. Rome gave a sense of the old to the creation of three ‘new world orders’.

AdrasTos Omissi graduated from Oxford with a BA in Modern History and an MSt in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies. He is cur-rently working on his DPhil titled ‘Usurpation and Panegyric in the Later Roman Empire, 289-398’.

Was there an ideology?: the imPerial image and PolitiCs in the age oF ConstantineMariana BodnarukcenTral european universiTy, [email protected]

Constantinian images, constantly compared to the self-representation of the Tetrarchy, are the start-ing point for exploring the issue of how imperial ideology worked through visual media. I will show the conflict in Constantinian imperial imagery as confusion between the factual and the ideal inherent in imaginary representations and formu-lations, which is one of the constitutive principles of imperial imaginary and art. I will look at how the images were involved in the Imperial ideology of a unified empire.

In this paper I deal with surviving sculptural portraits of Constantine and examine the topoi taken from the Hellenistic repertoire of images. The topos of the establishment of a stable and pros-perous worldly dominion, on the basis of which Eusebius juxtaposes Constantine and Augustus in his political theology justifying the empire as a prelude to Christ’s rule, will be explored in the visual sources and conceptualized in correspond-ing terms.


chair: Jesse Simon, universiTy college


Mariana Bodnaruk is an MA student in Late Antiquity at the Medieval Studies Department, Central European University. Her research interest is currently the reign of Constantine and his imperial self-representation. She focuses on art history within the broader field of cultural studies.

valens and his gothiC War oF 367-9 Emil AvdalianuniversiTy college, [email protected]

This paper will focus on the events leading to the war of 367-9, on the conflict itself, and its after-math. This stage of Romano-Gothic relations is particularly interesting, since it largely influenced future events unfolding around 376 and after. Romano-Gothic relations during the fourth cen-tury were quite stable: in each encounter Roman arms were superior, while defeated Goths had to

provide the empire with a certain number of sol-diers. Throughout the century, events followed this basic line until Valens’ war. This conflict brought something new to political stability on the Danube: Romans cut off trade networks with Goths (except for two locations), and stopped paying gifts to the barbarians. What triggered the showdown, and how did the Goths evade defeat?

I will argue that the treaty of 369 was something new in Romano-Gothic relations. Furthermore, I will clarify what circumstances caused such radical decisions and what influence they had on subse-quent relationships. I will approach the problem through considering economics, diplomacy, and religion, and I will show that Valens’ campaign had many repercussions for the region at large.

Emil Avdalian graduated with a BA from the Tbilisi State University, Georgia. He is cur-rently an MSt candidate in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at Oxford, focusing on mili-tary and diplomatic strategies of the Late Roman Empire and Early Byzantium.


text as iConograPhy: reinterPreting the limburg staurothekeBrad Hostetlerflorida sTaTe [email protected]

Scholarship on Middle Byzantine reliquaries with dedicatory inscriptions has traditionally focused on one of two aspects: the identification and classification of the reliquaries’ iconography or the documentary information conveyed by the patrons’ inscriptions. I suggest that such segrega-tion of image and text limits our understanding of these works of art. Word, image, and relic are chosen, arranged, and composed together, on one object, uniting the patrons with their reliquary. My methodology recontextualizes Middle Byzantine reliquaries by reassessing the meaning and function of the words inscribed upon them. I analyse the placement of the text and demonstrate the ways in which specific words function as iconography.

In this paper, I focus on one case study – the tenth-century Limburg Staurotheke, a reliquary of the True Cross now in the cathedral treasury in Limburg an der Lahn, Germany. The staurotheke has been the object of numerous studies, focusing on the identity of the patron and the meaning of his dedicatory inscription. One overlooked fea-ture is the placement of the patron’s name and title, Basileios the Proedros. While on one level these words are part of the dedication, I suggest that the precise placement of Basileios’ name and title – along the left edge of the theke – offers additional layers of interpretation. I demonstrate that the position of these words in relationship

to Limburg’s visual program activates a process of entreaty, intercession, and salvation for the patron.

Brad HosTeTler is a third-year PhD stu-dent in Art History at Florida State University. His area of specialisation is Byzantine art prior to 1204. He is currently working on his disserta-tion titled ‘Text as Iconography: Middle Byzantine Reliquaries with Dedicatory Inscriptions’.

re-reading the imagined and PhysiCal sPaCe oF the byzantine ChurCh: a Closer examination oF tokali kiliseMegan Garedakissan francisco sTaTe universiTy/columbia universiTy, neW [email protected]

Located in Turkey’s Göreme Valley, Tokali Kilise’s rock-hewn monument – a confluence of three churches varying in age and ornamentation – contains religious imagery reflecting regional autonomy before imperial regulations on ortho-doxy were applied to representations of the divine. A largely untouched tenth-century example of Byzantine religion, this church details the evolution of the imagery of Christ through various cycles, including atypical tenth-century representations of the crucifixion. Each layer of the monument displays etchings of prayers, names of loved ones, and physical remnants (such as candle burns, paint wear, and apotropaic etchings) detailing Byzantine interaction with the divine. Such artifacts are largely overlooked in popular scholarship, spe-cifically in regards to their relationship with the evolving religious figures in painted programs.


chair: Foteini Spingou, keble college


This paper – a product of in situ research and infrared photography of frescoes in over twenty-five Cappadocian cave churches – explores the various ways in which Byzantines interacted with divine images. It also criticizes current tendencies in pop-ular scholarship to base Cappadocian religiosity solely on the visual appearance and iconography of religious paintings. This paper delves deeper into the physical and imagined space of the Byzantine church, into the role of voice, the written word, and effigy in association to imperial and regional artistic expressions of the divine. In doing so, unpublished inscriptions, latent artwork, and evidence of beliefs widely condemned by Constantinople are exposed, revealing anomalous beliefs and a changing face of Byzantine orthodoxy.

Megan Garedakis is a MA candidate com-pleting her degree in Late Antique and Byzantine History at San Francisco State University. Her research focuses on Byzantine religion and Early Christian manuscripts, specifically marginalia and the relationship between the religious iconography of manuscript illuminations and Cappadocian cave church frescoes.

byzantine donor Portraits like mirror images? seleCted donor rePresentations From byzantine ChurChes in greeCeTheodora Konstantellou and Prodromos PapanikolaouuniversiTy of [email protected]

Donor portraiture enjoyed great popularity throughout the Byzantine world. Portraits survive in almost every kind of artistic media, from monu-mental painting to manuscripts, to icons, and to

minor objects. They function as a mirror reflecting a person’s political, religious, economic, or social status. The donors depicted in Byzantine churches of Greece have been the subject of various studies, which so far have focused mainly on issues of ico-nography, location inside the church, or the patrons’ rank in relation to the quality of the monument.

This paper will explore the visual evidence of selected donor images and examine questions regarding the conceptual world of the Byzantines, their religious and social attitudes, and their thoughts about self-conception. Through an elaborate analy-sis of the portraits and their constituent parts, light will be shed on the trends, patterns, and character-istics of the ways these donors wished to be viewed and remembered. In most cases, the construction of a donor’s representation appears to interact constantly with an external model that serves as the main regulator. Portraiture, on the other hand, seems to reflect the image of an ideal person, which fits in acceptable roles. This characteristic makes the interpretation of portraits a challenge. Issues of identity, therefore, tend to be situated in a frontier zone, between reality and ideological frameworks; it is ‘imagined’ rather than real or regulated, since, after all, it is something unknown that belongs to a symbolic cultural sphere.

Theodora KonsTanTellou is a second-year PhD candidate in Byzantine Archaeology at the University of Athens, writing a thesis titled ‘Defining Factors in the Creation of Wall Paintings in the Periphery of Byzantine World: the Case of the Island of Naxos, Greece’.

Prodromos Papanikolaou is a first-year PhD candidate in the department of Byzantine Art and Archaeology at the University of Athens, working on a thesis titled ‘Two Byzantine Painting Workshops at Göreme Valley, Cappadocia’.


ammianus marCellinus Writing about sieges: Was there a literary Formula?William Wyethlady margareT hall, [email protected]

Ammianus Marcellinus wrote a great deal about sieges in his Res Gestae. Sometimes these are short pragmatic accounts, which place the strategic result of the battle above anything else. Sometimes they are profoundly detailed and convey the real emo-tion and terror of siege warfare. This paper will look at the more literary aspect of these descrip-tions, with the hope of drawing out a formula for describing sieges by de-constructing the works to which Ammianus would have had access.

William WyeTh completed his undergradu-ate degree at Queen’s University Belfast, writing a thesis on the role of non-military persons in the defence of cities in Roman Mesopotamia during the reigns of Anastasius and Justinian. He is inter-ested in looking at the pressures of sieges on the communities within the walls of Late Antique cities in the East, as a way of drawing out larger conclusions about society at this time.

hard and soFt PoWer on the eastern Frontier: a neW roman Fortlet betWeen dara and nisibis, mesoPotamia, turkey: ProkoPios’ mindouos?Christopher Lillington-Martinkellogg college, [email protected]

This paper is concerned with historical per-spectives on recently discovered archaeological remains in southeast Turkey. The area was part of the Roman-Persian frontier region in the sixth century. I will consider a link with archaeological remains located near two ancient quarries and argue for the identification of one site as perhaps a sixth-century Roman fortlet (watch-tower). I will reflect on the surface archaeology at two nearby settlements, which may have been associated with the quarries and/or the fortlet. Historical evidence will be presented which suggests the fortlet may be identified as Mindouos, recorded by Prokopios. Surviving topographical evidence, available from Google Earth and field visit photography will be displayed with coordinates. The sites were visited in October 2007 with an interpreter and a guide and recorded by field walking the area as part of a historical investigation (a follow-up field visit was conducted in May 2011).

ChrisTopher LillingTon-MarTin is an MSt candidate in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at Oxford working on Prokopios and sixth-century Roman frontiers in Mesopotamia and Spain.

roman-berber relations in the 530sMiranda WilliamsWolfson college, [email protected]

The reconquest of the former Roman provinces of Africa in 533-4 has been regarded, by con-temporaries and modern scholars alike, as one of the defining successes of the reign of Emperor


chair: Adrastos Omissi, sT. John’s college


Justinian I (527-565). However, despite the suc-cesses of the African campaign, Roman victory over the Vandals marked little more than the beginning of the Roman Empire’s attempt to consolidate its position in North Africa, as it sought to counter the ongoing threat posed by the Berber tribes.

And yet, Roman-Berber relations, unlike other aspects of Justinian’s foreign relations, have received little attention, and attempts to under-stand Roman policy vis-à-vis the Berbers have been dominated by the view that the Roman impe-rial government, and its commanders, acted out of complete ignorance concerning the conditions of sixth-century North Africa, and thus completely failed to recognize the Berbers as a threat.

This paper will offer a reassessment of this view, based on Procopius’ account of the Berber embassies which approached the Roman

commander, Belisarius, at Carthage, in late 533, and the negotiations which occurred. It will argue that the terms of the negotiations, particularly when considered in parallel to the Roman military position in Africa at the time and what little is known of Berber internal politics, suggest that the two parties interacted on a far more equal footing than has generally been assumed, and the develop-ment of a deliberate Roman policy vis-à-vis the Berbers, in the early 530s, should not be entirely dismissed.

Miranda Williams is a second-year DPhil student at Oxford, working on the reconquest of North Africa and Roman-Berber relations during the reign of Justinian I. She is generally interested in foreign relations and the idea of ‘foreign policy’ during the Justinianic period, and wrote her MPhil thesis titled ‘Roman-Persian Relations 532-545 CE’.


the holy mentor: reading barlaam’s Portrait in the Fourteenth-Century manusCriPt (Parisinus Graecus 1128)Iphigeneia DebruyneuniversiTé de provence / universiTé de [email protected]

The story of Barlaam and Joasaph is well known as a christianized version of the life of Buddha. Research has shown that the Greek text is con-sidered either as a profane novel, a monastic novel, a hagiography, or a Speculum Principis. A contex-tualized study of the illustrated manuscripts of Barlaam and Joasaph could contribute to under-standing such a question of literary genre through the evidence on each manuscript’s function and purpose. To this end, I am currently studying the codex Parisinus Graecus 1128 for my PhD. Dated to the fourteenth century, this latest known illumi-nated Byzantine example of Barlaam and Joasaph provides an extensive program in iconography.

This paper will focus on folio 1v depicting a monk. The full-page, full-length portrait is labeled by an inscription Οσιος Βαρλάαμ and consequently considered as a depiction of one of the two pro-tagonists. Taking into account: (1) the various and complex relationships between text and full-length portrait in Byzantine manuscripts where a portrait usually states the authorship or the com-missioner, (2) the steadfast tradition in Byzantine iconography to associate the two protagonists of the story (i.e. Barlaam and Joasaph), and (3) the epithet Πατὴρ ἡμῶν on folio 1v, it seems that the

interpretation of the portrait (fol.1v) needs to be refined. Rather than a simple depiction of Joasaph’s mentor, this image may refer to the commissioner and/or reflect the monastic environment in which the Paris manuscript was made and used.

Iphigenia Debruyne is preparing a PhD in collaboration with the Université de Provence, France and the Université de Fribourg, Switzerland. Her thesis is centered on the illus-trated Barlaam and Joasaph manuscript conserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France: ms. Parisinus Graecus 1128. Her academic interests are mainly centered on the migration and recep-tion of texts and images, the visual interpretation in manuscripts, interactions and intercultural exchanges, and Byzantine monastic culture.

oPening a neW Page in the book oF late byzantine Paideia: maximos neamonites through his lettersMihail MitreacenTral european universiTy, [email protected]

The epistolary format is omnipresent in Late Byzantine discourse and the source of an impres-sive amount of information and ideas. Moreover, the letter – as is well known, an image and eikōn of the soul – offers glimpses into an author’s rhetorically conceived character (ēthos or Latin persona), heart and mind. Intended to be entered into public, especially élite discourse, letters were composed in the learned and somewhat artificial sociolect of Atticizing Greek, a language divorced from the ‘lackluster speech of everyday life’.


chair: Max Lau, oriel college


The present paper will endeavor to trace the literary persona of Maximos Neamonites – a little-known pepaideumenos seemingly active in the first decades of the fourteenth-century Palaiologan era – from his hitherto unpublished fourteen letters extant in the fourteenth-century codex Vaticanus Chisianus R. IV. 12 (gr. 12), ff. 166-172. The epistu-lae do not take us into the ‘garden of the Muses’, but they rather depict their author as a schoolmaster of grammar and, perhaps, rhetoric, true to generic conventions (and the realities of life), eking out a meager income on the basis of his teaching activi-ties, and occasionally lifting his pen to interfere on behalf of others. Moreover, he is seen as pursuing his intellectual interests by taking part in the book transmission economy of the age. In addition to considerable detail concerning his activity as a schoolmaster, the letters also speak of his poor health condition and the wretchedness of his exis-tence that is drawing near its twilight.

Mihail MiTrea received a BA in Classical Languages and Literature from the Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca (Romania), a BA in Orthodox Theology from 1 Decembrie 1918 University, Alba Iulia (Romania), and a MA in Comparative History with the specialization in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies from the Central European University, Budapest. He is currently enrolled at the Department of Medieval Studies at Central European University, reading for a PhD in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies.

MonstruM PulchruM: alexander’s iConograPhy From antiquity to the middle-agesCaterina FranchiexeTer college, [email protected]

‘He cries from the eye as black as death; he cries from the eye as blue as the sky’. With these words, the twentieth century Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli describes Alexander at the end of the world, facing himself with the emptiness of what he has now, reality and not dreams. Starting from his physical appearance, the figure of Alexander has always travelled through the centuries and countries, changing, influencing ideas and imag-ery, and shaping a legend.

This paper will focus on the physical appear-ance of what has always been a monstrum, an extraordinary and particular figure. I will start from the description made by historians, follow-ing the development in the Alexander Romance and in the Byzantine sources, marking the simi-larities made by the Christian environment with either the Last Emperor or the Antichrist him-self. Followed by the different ways he is depicted in Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine art, includ-ing manuscripts miniatures, not only occidental but also oriental in character.

Starting from the description of a man, even as extraordinary as Alexander was, ending with the depiction of the prototype of a king, a saint, or an Antichrist, this paper will show how different countries, during different centuries, have taken an historical figure, Alexander III of Macedonia, and made him their own Alexander, mirror of their culture.

CaTerina Franchi is a third-year DPhil student in Medieval & Modern Languages at Oxford. She has studied in Bologna, Italy, and in Paris, and has always worked on the text known as the Alexander Romance and on the reception of Alexander the Great’s figure in the Medieval tradition. She is currently working on a critical edi-tion of manuscripts of the λ version of Alexander Romance.


Constantine PorPhyrogennetos as a Person and a PolitiCianDmytro GordiyenkonaTional academy of sciences, [email protected]

A whole epoch in the history of Byzantium is con-nected with the name of Emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetos. It was during the reign of Constantine VII that Byzantine culture reached its highest development. Despite this the negative opinion about him as a ruler has been formed in the discipline. Having come through a ‘good school’ of subordination, he was poorly prepared for the practical political activity. During his whole life Constantine had to prove his legitimacy, for both his surroundings and himself. As such, Constantine Porphyrogenetos is one of the most contradictory figures in the Byzantine history.

However, his strongly formed character influ-enced his private life more than his state activities. Constantine managed to survive different intrigues and was very cautious in his relations with others, yet despite this, he relied on the best representa-tives of the elite. Immediately after overthrowing the power of Romanos Lekapenos the new emperor showed his character and instantly changed the army and civil administration, acting as a realistic and balanced person. In domestic policy Constantine continued the policy of Romanos I, even though he disliked him, and practiced fair justice and fought the tyranny of the dynates. Constantine VII was consistent, flexible, and balanced in both domes-tic and foreign policy. The emperor continued and developed the foreign political connections of his predecessor, and invited to the state service

the talented commanders Ioannes Tzimiskes and Nikephoros Phokas. To sum up, the thesis about inconsistency and unsuitability of Constantine VII as a politician can be questioned.

DmyTro Gordiyenko is a post-graduate student at the M.S. Hrushevsky Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies of the National Academy of Sciences in Ukraine.

imParting the Faith/embraCing the Faith: baPtism as a diPlomatiC deviCe in the Personal reign oF Constantine viiPrerona Prasadkeble college, [email protected]

The personal reign of Constantine VII (945-959) can be singled out in the Middle Byzantine period for being the first reign from which we have any instances of the baptism of northern potentates in Constantinople. The first is the baptism of two Hungarian leaders and the second is that of Olga, archontissa of the Kievan Rus. These are the first baptisms of Slavic or northern rulers mentioned since that of the Bulgarian Boris-Michael in the mid-860s, which, in any case, was conducted in Bulgaria by clergymen sent from Constantinople.

We learn of the baptisms not from Theophanes Continuatus’ imperially sanctioned section on the reign of Constantine VII, but from Ioannes Skylitzes’ Synopsis Historion, over a century later. The baptisms certainly seem to have coincided with a heightened interest in northern affairs, as is on display in the extensive attention paid to them

leCTure TheaTre10.00 SaTurday, 18 FeBruary 2012

chair: Elizabeth Buchanan, chrisT church


in Constantine VII’s De Administrando Imperio. What is clear is that, unlike emperors before him, Constantine took the opportunity to initiate wide-ranging peacetime diplomatic contact, which enabled face to face dealings with powerful leaders of the north in Constantinople, and not through imperial go-betweens.

What symbolic and political gains were antici-pated from baptism in Constantinople and were they fully exploited by the imperial authority? Did baptism into Greek rite Christianity, with the emperor as sponsor, afford a new role for the newly baptised in the Byzantine hierarchy of nations? The aim of this paper will, therefore, be to exam-ine the role of these baptisms in the reformulated Byzantine foreign policy for regions to the north of the Black Sea.

Prerona Prasad is a fourth-year DPhil can-didate, and is working on diplomacy and foreign policy in the personal reign Constantine VII.

byzantium and the West: byzantine imPerial ideology and the ruin oF emPireFrank McGoughohio sTaTe [email protected]

This is a paper analyzing the Byzantine imperial ideology – that is, the notion of universal empire – and the conflicts that it created. The Byzantines believed their empire was ordained by God, emu-lating the celestial order, and with the Byzantine

Emperor acting as the sole representative of God on earth. The realities of their situation were often quite different; the Byzantine refusal to admit these realities – their tenacity in clinging to the illusion of the special place of the ‘Roman’ Empire in the cosmos – brought about significant devastation in two different periods, specifically during Late Antiquity and during the Crusades. This ideology brought them into conflict with the West during these periods; it brought the empire to its knees in the early seventh century through Justinian’s over-extension of the empire, and allowed the Crusaders to destroy the Byzantine state during the Fourth Crusade, the culmination of the movement started by Alexios Komnenos in an attempt to strengthen his empire.

Although these two periods initially seem quite different, the important link between the two is the refusal of the Byzantines to see the world as it actually was, instead of how they believed that it should be. This analysis is made using a variety of literary sources including Prokopios, Anna Komnene, and Niketas Khoniates, among others. These sources illustrate the delusions of the Byzantines, and how their futile quest for the universality of their rule ultimately caused them to bring about their own destruction.

Frank McGough received a BA in History from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2011, before starting work as a graduate student at Ohio State University. His areas of interest primar-ily concern interactions between the Byzantine Empire and Late Antique and Medieval Europe.


the byzantine emPresses: Founders and donors oF monasteries and ConventsBelyakova TaisiyamoscoW sTaTe universiTy / russian academy of science [email protected]

The problem of religious foundations in the Middle Ages is an important part of Medieval and Byzantine studies. The Byzantine institution of kthetorship had its own peculiarities. The legal basis of the kthetorship went back to Roman legal tradition which had strongly delimited the public or private character of the foundations. Byzantine empresses often played a very important role in the social and political history of the empire, but still the biggest part of their activity belonged to the religious sphere. It should be noticed that the anal-ysis of the empresses` charters and other sources about their founding of or donating to the mon-asteries and churches seems to be very important for understanding the legal status of women in Byzantine society, their economic and social rights and opportunities, as well as their influence on the development of monastic culture and religious life as a whole.

First of all the attention is paid to the diplo-matics, the empresses’ charters, which reflect the actual and legal status of the rulers’ wives or moth-ers, the degree of their influence and the differences in motivation for the pious donations. The research of the women’s kthetorship gives also an opportunity to analyze the social policy of Byzantine rulers and its gender-specific character. Finally, a model of an ideal (saintly) empress that inherently goes back to

the example of Saint-Empress Helene, mother of Emperor Constantine, will be analyzed.

Belyakova Taisiya studied history at the Moscow State University (Lomonosov), where she graduated in 2011. She is now a PhD student at the Institute of Global History (Russian Academy of Science).

Forming the athonite selF-image: narrative traditions on mount athos in the late byzantine and ottoman PeriodsNikolaos LivanosuniversiTy of [email protected]

Our knowledge of the beginnings of monasticism on Mount Athos is scant. We have a better picture only about the founding of the Great Lavra in the year 963 by Athanasios the Athonite, a legendary figure who drastically changed the course of events on Athos, opening the way for the foundation of other similar monastic institutions. However, for the majority of monasteries founded before or shortly after Athanasios’ Lavra, we rarely have enough archival or other evidence to trace back the events related to their foundation, while primitive Athonite eremitism remains almost totally obscure.

This generalized vagueness surrounding the early stages of monasticism on Mount Athos allowed its monks, throughout the past thou-sand years, to gradually give form to a composite historiographical tool for shaping a self-image that would serve religious and political needs, survival efforts, and historical inquisitiveness. By

reeS davieS rooM10.00 SaTurday, 18 FeBruary 2012

chair: Douglas Whalin, sT. cross college


a multitude of narratives and hagiographical topoi relating legendary foundations, miraculous icons, or alleged visits by emperors, the Athonite self-image reflects the gradual transformation of the Athos peninsula into sacred space, and thus what we have come to call the Holy Mount.

My paper will aim to present the components that helped shape the Athonite self-image from the tenth to the seventeenth centuries, and to high-light both the major narrative sources integrated into Athonite traditions, as well as the fundamen-tal needs these traditions came to serve during the late Byzantine and Ottoman periods.

Nikolaos Livanos is a PhD candidate at the University of Thessaly. He is writing his thesis on the development of the patriographic traditions of Mount Athos. His research interests focus on Byzantine and post-Byzantine Orthodox monasticism, the history of Mount Athos, as well as sources reflecting the development of collective memory and the formation of sacred space in post-iconoclasm Byzantium.

reality and allusion: seeing through the byzantine Commentator on homer, eustathius oF thessaloniCaGeorgia KolovouuniversiTy of sorbonne-paris [email protected]

Eustathius of Thessalonika, the most important scholar of the twelfth century, wrote a commen-tary on the Iliad at the request of his pupils at the Patriarchal School of Constantinople. He selected and compiled different extracts from the commen-taries on Homer, such as ancient scholia, citations, notes, and extracts of other authors, in order to explain the Homeric text in the twelfth century.

The selection and the compilation of all of these different extracts compose an autonomous, contin-uous, and independent commentary on the Iliad. In other words, he wrote a compilation of and techni-cal commentary on Homer in order to adapt the poetic text to his Byzantine era. However, he was not limited to the composition of a technical com-mentary, but he integrated in a brief or sometimes elliptical way, his personal and original remarks in order to approach the psychology of the Homeric heroes and to transmit psychological, philosophi-cal, or ethical messages to his students.

The object of this paper is to present how Eustathius makes allusions to the real sentiments of the Homeric heroes. Particularly, my intention is to demonstrate some of his psychological observations and explanations on the behavior, the reflections, the sentiments, and the reactions of the Homeric heroes in the sixth rhapsody on the Iliad. In it, Eustathios justly observes the dramatic interplay of emotions between Hector, Andromache, Hecuba, and Astyanax. Eustathios explains and observes how the poet mingles the emotions in this rhapsody, even if Homer does not make the slightest mention of these emotions in his poetic verses. By presenting, translating, and analyzing some extracts, I would like to demonstrate that the text of Eusthathius transcends the grammar and the syntax of the Homeric verses and also indicates another aspect of this technical commentary on Homer.

Georgia Kolovou has studied Greek and French Philology at the University of Athens. After completing her MA in the History of the Philosophy, at Sorbonne-Paris, she is currently writing a PhD thesis under the title ‘La concep-tion d’Homère chez Eustathe de Thessaloniqu.: traduction et analyse du Commentaire d’Eustathe de Thessalonique au chant VI de l’Iliade’.


the role oF FiCtions in roman laW Guido Leonardo Croxattofreie universiTäT, berlin / universidad de buenos [email protected]

Law has always been situated between reality and illusion. Perhaps Roman reality and illusion are more clearly and strongly intertwined in the topics of the law and its proper origins than in any other discipline. Not for nothing nowadays do we speak of – though not spoken so before – the fictions of law. Roman law is a perfect example of this intertwining between reality and illusion (which is not necessarily the same as practice and theory, although it can be) where normative fiction – the legal institution – covers while promoting social practices. These are both aspects of the law. The law uses the illusion to cover up reality while ordering the world; it generates a parallel order full of normative fictions.

The relationship between law and the laws of nature is permeated by the intersection of reality and illusion; lawyers have always wanted to conceive a system as safe and incontrovertible. This is the delu-sive face of the law presented as natural, as if man’s laws were the laws of nature. This is a problem affecting the whole law: the fiction of the rules, the normative illusion. The first step was taken by Roman law. For the first codes and compilations which brought back the tradition in writing, looking for safety. That is how law was born: it is at this intersection between reality and illusion where the norm appears. The aim of this paper is to analyze this process, investigating the theory and practice of Roman law.

Guido Leonardo CroxaTTo is a trained lawyer (undergraduate degree, Buenos Aires University) and historian (MA). He is a PhD can-didate in Law Philosophy at the Freie Universität, Berlin funded by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. He is a professor of law philosophy and law history at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Who Were the eunomians and Why did imPerial ediCts aFFeCting their ability to inherit vaCillate so muCh betWeen 389 and 428? Elizabeth BuchananchrisT church, [email protected]

Eunomians were followers of Eunomius of Cyzicus, a bishop and theologian. They were pro-hibited by imperial pronouncement from making a testament or receiving an inheritance in 389. This was revoked in 394, reinstated in 395, revoked in 399, reinstated in 410, affirmed in 414, and again in 428. These restrictions on inheritance were origi-nally applied under classical Roman law to those who were declared to be intestabilis, that is unable to make a testament, a frequent effect of being declared infamis, or losing one’s legal and social standing as a result of a serious offense. In 381, Roman law began to apply these types of restric-tions to apostates, Christians who became pagans. Also that year, the restrictions were applied to Manicheans, who were restricted from transmit-ting property by inheritance, gift or testament, and from receiving it. Eunomians were added to the list in 389; Phrygians and Priscillianists were added


chair: Simon Ford, exeTer college


in 407; then Donatists in 414; and Valentinians, Montanists, Marcianists, Borborians, Messalists, Euchites or Enthusiats, Audians, Hydroparastatae, Tascodrogitae, Photinians, Paulians, and Marcellians in 428. Only the Eunomians were subject to such vacillation with regard to their restrictions. My paper will address the available evidence concerning the reasons for the vacilla-tions and what made the Eunomians so different.

ElizabeTh Buchanan is an MPhil candidate in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at Oxford. Her thesis looks at correlations between changes in Roman law affecting testaments and succession from 350 to 650, via Egyptian papyri. Her back-ground includes many years as a practicing lawyer in both government and private practice.

Wolves, Women, and Wanderers: monastiC misinFormation in FiFth-sixth-Century PalestineDaniel Nearycorpus chrisTi college, [email protected]

This paper aims to look at how Palestine’s compet-ing communities of Christian ascetics deliberately misrepresented the religious developments of their period for largely economic reasons. It will draw upon both local hagiographies (Melania the Younger, Cyril of Scythopolis, John Rufus, and Theodore of Petra), and the archaeological

literature of the region’s Byzantine monasteries. The years surrounding Chalcedon saw the forma-tion of rival versions of recent Palestinian Church history, and indeed rival Churches, whose parti-sans have distorted our view of events. Our sources demonstrate the existence of a group of monastic writers more interested in defaming the competi-tion than giving a faithful account of their times.

The deliberate obscuring of the history of the Miaphysite controversy in Palestine, how-ever, should not give cause for alarm. In causing it, the region’s monks illuminate a basic principle governing their community’s history in the longer term. Material need in an overcrowded and under-resourced ascetic environment provoked the use of hagiographical writing as a weapon in the war for patronage, and with it economic survival. In this competitive context, where financial failure was all too common, chroniclers were not above making accusations of heresy against neighbouring com-munities if it helped their case.

The scope of this distortion and its implica-tions should more broadly question the traditional central role allotted to Christological controversy in the religious history of Late Antiquity: here it appears as a subsidiary concern, one of many weapons in a greater, economic, conflict.

Daniel Neary received a BA in History from New College, Oxford, and is currently an MSt student in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at Oxford.


Women and PolitiCal PoWer in byzantium as seen through Coin dePiCtionsKaterina PeppauniversiTy of [email protected]

During the Early and Middle Byzantine peri-ods the political power of the empire, in special circumstances, was handed to women of higher social rank. The fact that some empresses were depicted on Byzantine coins signifies the impor-tant role that they played in society. In the Early Byzantine period empresses were depicted mainly on commemorative coins and conveyed a sense of stability to the people of the empire. In the Middle Byzantine period empresses had a great impact as co-rulers with their under-aged sons when they couldn’t rule on their own. In most cases this led women not only to acquire imperial power but also to make choices that could seal the fate of Byzantine Empire. At the end of the Middle Byzantine period elite women from families of social prominence were assets for their husbands’ social status.

Empresses’ political ambitions were eloquently depicted on coins which were commonly used to convey the official imperial ideology. In some examples it is obvious on their coins’ effigies that their main goal was to emphasize the emergence of their imperial power. Additionally, these depic-tions facilitate the study of the gradual change of the position of women in Byzantine society. Finally, the study of coin depictions combined with the historical sources of the above mentioned era could reconstruct the political views of empresses

and the public perception regarding the exercise of imperial power by women.

KaTerina Peppa is a second-year MA stu-dent at the University of Athens. Her interests concern the study of Byzantine social structure and society in general through artifacts and objects of everyday life. She works on projects in the area of Byzantine material culture.

the Palaeologan emPress: reality and illusions in the liFe oF royal Women beFore the FallNafsika VassilopoulouuniversiTy of [email protected]

The Byzantine historian Ducas in his Byzantine-Turkish History describes in horror the disgrace of ‘young virgins that the sun never touched and their fathers had barely seen’ when the Ottomans entered Constantinople. But were women in Byzantine society so confined and secluded? Modern research has pointed out that this was far from the truth and the necessary proof derives from the lives and conduct of imperial women. Literate, patrons of art, founders and supporters of convents, and very much engaged in political and religious affairs, women such as Helene Kantakouzene, Theodora Raoulaina, and Irene Choumnaina were cases in point.

Yet, the majority of the imperial brides were foreigners, women brought to Constantinople through diplomatic arrangements, born and raised in a completely different environment, culture, and lifestyle. Although they tried to adopt the fortitude


chair: Kirsty Stewart, The Queen’s college


and independence of their Greek-born counter-parts and showed extreme persistence, they failed. Women like Yolande de Montferrat and Anne of Savoy were consumed in their self-conflict between eastern practices and western attitudes, while Helene Dragas was one of the exceptions that prove the rule.

Why was it so difficult for these women to be incorporated into Byzantine society? Was it their fault or is the hostility of the imperial court to be blamed? Byzantine and modern sources suggest that the ethnicity of the bride-to-be was dictated by politics and foreign policy, as well as the rea-sons of the observed difference between native and Latin origin empresses.

Nafsika Vassilopoulou is a PhD can-didate in Byzantine history at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

desPoina chatun, PalaioloGina et aliae: Women in trebizond in the ChroniCle oF miChael PanaretosAnnika Asp-TalwaruniversiTy of [email protected]

Founded in 1204, the Empire of Trebizond is usually remembered as one of the Byzantine successor states that emerged after the Fourth Crusade and the foundation of the Latin Empire in Constantinople. Although it is usually studied

as a separate chapter in Byzantine history due to its geographical remoteness from Constantinople, it formed an integral part of the Late Byzantine world. The first Komnenian Emperor of Trebizond was a grandson of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos and the Trapezuntine Komnenian dynasty was the longest ruling one in Byzantine history. Links between Trebizond and Constantinople were maintained and the Trapezuntine Komnenian and the Palaiologan dynasties were related through marital alliances.

This paper will approach the history of Trebizond from a perspective of gender reading, discussing Trapezuntine women. For the purposes of this paper, I will mainly focus on the chronicle written by Michael Panaretos, which is the main written source for the Empire of Trebizond. Despite its laconic style, the chronicle reveals women involved in various events: in the foun-dation of the Empire, as usurpers of its throne, participating in its civil war, and being married to Türkmen rulers. Who were these women and what do their stories tell about gender during the Late Byzantine period?

In this paper I will discuss the illusion of a history without women, which too often is shaped by our sources, and what can be inferred about the reality when reading them between the lines.

Annika Asp recently completed an MSt in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies with the History Faculty at Oxford. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Birmingham.


sPaCes oF visionArmin Bergmeiermunich [email protected]

An anonymous Late Antique source tells us about how divine visions were to be perceived, namely in the same way as the prophets had viewed God. Experiencing visions always and everywhere was a deeply rooted longing that Late Antique Christians indulged in. They could experience visions first-hand in their own daily activities, mediated by miraculous narrations such as the widely read saints’ lives, as well as in self-con-structed spaces of experience, which could be entered physically in order to gain a glimpse of the immaterial divinity. These were the churches and chapels richly clad in marble and mosaic: through the images on their walls the immaterial became tangible and very real.

Sacred buildings such as churches and chapels served many purposes demanded by the commu-nity that used them. They served the memory of the dead, created a common identity, expounded a stabilising belief system, and even disseminated knowledge. In spite of its immediacy, one capac-ity is easily overlooked: Late Antique spaces of images enabled the experience of holy visions as a prerequisite for all the other purposes they served. A close scrutiny of the still extant spaces mainly in Italy, Istria, and Thessaloniki will show how their images were arranged in order to suggest to the viewers that at the moment of viewing they were on the point of experiencing a divine vision, paralleling the prophets of the Old Testament and John’s vision in the Book of Revelation.

Armin Bergmeier is a PhD student at Munich University. He is interested in Late Antique sacred spaces and is writing a dissertation titled ‘Visuality and Display: Strategies of Late Antique Sacred Spaces’.

memory, agenCy, and the last Judgement in byzantiumNiamh BhallacourTauld insTiTuTe of arT, [email protected]

The Middle Byzantine Last Judgement is a potent example of the weight which the seemingly insub-stantial held in Byzantium. The image was a concrete and formative force in the communities in which it functioned concerning itself with both eternal and temporal concerns. Byzantine images were not passively reflective of their environment but were ascribed agency, and the Last Judgement was understood by contemporaries as having tan-gible effects, such as bringing about conversion. Motifs within the image which held no definitive meaning for the viewer, such as the letters of a for-eign or illegible script, could assume a potent and mystical value which would protect the viewer from evil, sickness and damnation. The inscriptions and imagery included at times aimed to influence the outcome of the future event in seeking to inscribe the patron into this collective ‘memory’ and to pro-cure his or her tangible commemoration.

The Last Judgement testifies to the role of memory in forming the present reality of Byzantine communities. Through the formation of the ‘memory’ of the Last Judgement, which the faithful were encouraged to ‘remember’ at all


chair: Sean Leatherbury, corpus chrisTi college


times, hierarchies of power were established while individual and community identities were con-structed. Naturalising these socially constructed hierarchies through their inclusion in a collective memory in this way helped in making an illusory state of affairs real. This paper will focus on the Last Judgement as a formative force in the iden-tities of Byzantine communities and individuals and the concrete salvific agency ascribed to it on their part.

Niamh Bhalla is a PhD student at the Courtauld Institute of Art.

What Constitutes interPretational anaChronism?Davor Aslanovskikellogg college, [email protected]

This paper will discuss the issue of whether opinions of iconophile theologians can have any relevance for a historically convincing interpreta-tion of works of art produced well before their

time. The commonsensical answer, offered by scholars such as P. C. Finney and H. Belting, seems to be that, as the doctrine of images was devel-oped ‘after the fact’, and not with the intention of guiding the production of actual icons, it mainly consists of imposing retrojections, later categories of thought that are foreign to the original evidence as we have it.

I will attempt to demonstrate that, for all its verisimilitude, such a ‘commonsensical’ stance is, in fact, at least problematic. Examining both the Byzantine understanding of time, and the modern academic understanding of how (and when) artistic meaning is produced, I will try and offer a revalua-tion of the notions of historicity and objectivity as they apply to the interpretation of Christian art. In line with the general topic of the conference, I will explore the issue of the real and the illusory authors of Christian religious imagery.

Davor Aslanovski is reading for an MPhil in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at Oxford and is interested in anthropomorphic conceptions and representations of the transcendental in the Abrahamic religions.


dePiCtion oF liturgiCal PraCtiCes and obJeCts in the sCene oF the Communion oF the aPostlesNikitas PassarisuniversiTy of [email protected]

The scene of the Communion of the Apostles is the liturgical representation of the Last Supper. The older representations of the theme date to the sixth century and come from illuminated manuscripts and silver liturgical objects. In these examples, we notice that temporary liturgical prac-tices are depicted as they are known from literary sources. In the silver patens of Riha and Stuma, the representation of the theme is almost identi-cal. Christ is depicted twice, wearing a mantle and a chitonion. He offers wine and bread to the Apostles, who approach the communion as the Fathers of the Church advise. On the altar and in the exergue, liturgical vessels are depicted and resemble contemporary liturgical objects found in many Early Christian treasures.

The representation of liturgical practices is also attested in a third silver paten from the late sixth century, now in an American private collec-tion. However, in comparison with the other two patens, it is quite different. The liturgical objects are presented quite differently. Moreover, Christ is depicted only once and with a different facial type. This type appears very early, as it is attested in the Rossano and Rabbula manuscripts of the second half of the sixth century. The later examples are characterized as less liturgical, for the liturgical details are omitted. With the examination of this

theme in Byzantine art, we see that it continues to appear in all periods.

NikiTas Passaris is a PhD student at the University of Athens. His thesis examines the Communion of the Apostles in Byzantine art.

loCal reality and imPerial illusion at the PeriPhery oF the emPire: the Case oF the exarCh oF ravennaVedran BiletacenTral european universiTy, [email protected]

This paper will discuss problems surrounding the identification and extent of Byzantine rule in sixth- to eighth-century Italy. It will focus on the role of the Exarch of Ravenna – the high-ranking military commander who represented imperial authority in the province following the Lombard invasion in 568 CE and their takeover of most of northern Italy.

Being sent from the East and appointed directly by the emperor, the exarch had consider-able powers, both civil and military. However, as imperial power decreased, the exarch’s position weakened. In foreign policy, the lack of resources restricted the exarch’s maneuvers from the very beginning, forcing him to renounce an aggressive policy against the Lombards in favor of the defen-sive strategy advocated by the imperial court. Once his duty as a military commander was replaced by administrative responsibilities, his eastern origin became a source of weakness and his position became increasingly isolated.

The paper will trace the evolution of the exarch from colonial viceroy to local leader. The

Colin MaTThew rooM14.15 SaTurday, 18 FeBruary 2012

chair: Morgan Di Rodi, sT. cross college


commanders’ origins and the status which they occupied in imperial hierarchy will be presented. Two main points will be addressed: the nature of the connections maintained between the exarch and imperial court and the role that the exarch occupied in the local militarized society. Particular focus will be given on the method of the display of power in the province, either by show of force by using diplomacy, or through the arrangement of elaborate ceremonies.

Vedran BileTa is a PhD candidate at the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University. His thesis deals with the rise of military elites in the fourth and fifth century. His research interests include the social and military history of the Late Antique West, with a particular focus on Late Roman and Byzantine Italy.

illusory deaths? the Continuing reality oF the demoniC threat in the Cosmology oF eusebius oF CaesareaHazel Johannsenking’s college [email protected]

Eusebius of Caesarea – historian, apologist, biogra-pher – is not primarily known for his demonology, despite many references to demonic activity in his works. Yet by exploring Eusebius’ presentation of the

demonic throughout his works, I argue that we can come to a better appreciation of his apologetic tech-nique, shedding light on other areas of his thought.

In his Praeparatio and Demonstratio Evangelica (PE and DE), Eusebius writes of the deaths of wicked demons since the time of Jesus, seeming to imply a total destruction of demonic power. Yet in other works we find references to demons spreading ‘heresy’ within the Church, and inciting persecu-tions, suggesting that Eusebius believed demons to have continued exercising considerable power.

To understand this apparent contradiction we need to consider Eusebius’ statements about the deaths of demons in the PE and DE in their apologetic context. Eusebius was using them to demonstrate the superiority of Christianity over traditional religions. Consequently, in writing of the deaths of demons, Eusebius was telling only part of the story, creating an illusion of greater security from demonic influence than he believed to be the case in reality. That Eusebius was willing to down-play the reality of the demonic threat in order to serve his apologetic ends raises the question of how far some of his other works, such as the problematic Vita Constantini, are also literary illusions, rather than accurate representations of reality.

Hazel Johannsen is currently in the second year of a PhD on the political thought of Eusebius of Caesarea, working in the Classics Department at King’s College London.


religion on the arab-byzantine Frontier in the eighth and ninth Centuries CeRobert Brown cardiff [email protected]

The eighth and ninth centuries saw the establish-ment and endurance of a territorial frontier between the Arab Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire, stretching from southern Asia Minor to Armenia. Both states maintained a strong military presence within the border regions and would often settle ethnic groups from elsewhere in their domains along the frontier to act as a source of recruits and as a buffer against enemy incursions. The martial focus and wide ethnic variation led to the development of communities which were often notably distinct in their social structure and ideological beliefs.

On the Byzantine side of the frontier, the Christian faith held by the military garrisons, civil-ian settlements, and small monastic communities, many subject to frequent Arab raids, would have been buffeted by the iconoclasm crises. Meanwhile, within the borderlands of the Caliphate we see the remarkable situation where Muslim warriors and Islamic scholars gathered to pursue ‘Holy War’ were settled alongside a numerous and fractured Christian population. Furthermore the isolated nature of many frontier communities, coupled with the mountainous topography of the region, meant it was not uncommon for the followers of unorthodox ideologies, often denounced as heretical, to establish a secure footing, prompting military action on the part of caliphs and emperors to suppress them.

The paper aims to provide a clearer under-standing of how the realities of frontier existence, the settlement of peoples, and the close proximity of two highly religious states might have shaped communities along the borderlands, as well as both official and localised attitudes to different faiths.

RoberT BroWn is currently in the second year of his PhD at Cardiff University, focusing on the Arab-Byzantine frontier during the mid-eighth to mid-tenth centuries.

Prisoners oF War in the byzantine emPire (sixth-eleventh Centuries): reality and illusionMarilia Lykakiécole praTiQue des hauTes éTudes/universiTé d’aThè[email protected]

The state of captivity is a traditional situation which leads either to slavery or to freedom. During the sixth to eleventh centuries prisoners under captivity could have various occupational roles. In addition, they could be bearers of a different ideology, culture, and knowledge. A series of ques-tions arise about their release in terms of ransom, prisoner exchange, and their social and civil status. Imperial theory did not always correspond with the social reality concerning this issue.

Therefore, this research deals with military and diplomatic questions, with the spheres of culture and military intelligence, and finally reveals how Byzantium perceived itself and the ‘others’. Based on a multidimensional approach and on the critical analysis of primary sources and their comparison,


chair: Prerona Prasad, keble college


my main aim is to describe the position of both State and Church vis-à-vis this particular issue and its evolution. The starting point of my research is a period when the attitude towards prisoners of war as inherited from the Roman world began to change due to the influence of Christianity, and continues to a point when exchanges of prisoners with the Arabs were consolidated, and the wars with the Bulgarians.

The present paper demonstrates the changing face of orthodoxy and its impact on the treatment of the diverse problems concerning prisoners of war. Studying this particular era can shed light on this topic in order to infer whether Byzantine attitudes differed towards Christian and non-Christian captives.

Marilia Lykaki is a third-year PhD can-didate in Byzantine History at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris and the University of Athens. Her theses is titled ‘Les prisonniers de guerre dans l’Empire byzantine (VIe-XIe s.) : l’Etat, l’Eglise, la diplomatie et la dimension sociale’.

the draFt oF a treaty betWeen miChael viii Palaeologos and the venetian rePubliC (1265)Ievgen A. Khvalkoveuropean universiTy insTiTuTe, [email protected]

After the re-establishment of the Byzantine Empire there were several attempts to establish diplomatic relations with the Republic of Venice. In 1261

Venice lost its most remote outpost of the colonial empire, a real shock for the doge and the ruling elite. However, thinking in realistic terms, Venetians preferred securing guarantees of peaceful exis-tence within the Byzantine Empire to attempts of re-conquest. Additionally, Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologos was soon disappointed by his former allies, namely the Genoese. Being informed about the Latins’ plot in Constantinople with the partici-pation of the Genoese, the emperor exiled the later to the metropolis. This pushed him towards nor-malization of relations with the Venetians.

The negotiations began in late 1264 and faced many obstacles. Even though the conditions pro-posed by Michael VIII were more than generous, the Republic of Saint Mark declined the first draft of the treaty, worked out by the emperor and the Venetian envoys, Giacomo Dolphin and Giacomo Contarini. However, the treaty (or rather the draft of the treaty) signed by Michael VIII and the Venetian ambassadors is very interesting in its composition and legal form. Though bearing most of the features of traditional Byzantine diplomatic documents, which implied that the emperor granted the privi-leges to those inferior to him, this document does not reproduce all of them, being somewhat closer to the more equal treaties of the Late Middle Ages. This is the feature I will address in this paper.

Ievgen A. Khvalkov is a PhD student at the History and Civilization Department, European University Institute, Florence. He is dealing with the Venetian and Genoese trading stations in the Black Sea region during the fourteenth and fif-teenth centuries.


monumental ComPetition in the late antique levant: With Whom Was the early ChurCh ComPeting?Morgan Di RodisT. cross college, [email protected]

The Late Antique Levant was not only one of the economically richest regions of the empire, but also possibly the area where Christianity was at its most vibrant and monumentally flourish-ing. From the construction of the Anastasis by Constantine onwards, there were a vast number of churches, large and small, that were being built in the region.

My paper will focus on those from Jerusalem, Gerasa, Gaza, Pella, and Bostra to try to delin-eate how this new physical expression interacted with the classical context of the Levantine cities. I will outline how continuity in the cityscape and the disruptive break in religious attitudes forced early Christians to come to terms with the pos-sibilities that were open to them and how they reacted to different circumstances. In doing this I will draw from both archaeological and textual sources in the hope of giving a perspective on both the physical and symbolic implications of these changes, and what they may have meant to those who undertook them.

Morgan Di Rodi is a DPhil candidate in History at Oxford.

the blessed souvenirs oF early Christian Pilgrimage Lucy O’ConnoruniversiTy of manchesTerLucy.O’[email protected]

Pilgrimage to the holy land of Palestine began in earnest with the legalisation of Christianity at the beginning of the fourth century. It was during the reign of Constantine I that various biblical sites were unearthed and enshrined within lavishly deco-rated sanctuaries and basilicas. The discovery of the main loca sancta significantly changed religious prac-tices, as pilgrimage became an integral part of the Christian faith from this period onwards. Pilgrims travelled vast distances from throughout the empire to experience the sacred sites for themselves: they went to see, touch, and walk on hallowed ground. Pilgrimage souvenirs or eulogia were in abundant supply within the holy places. They often contained, or were constructed out of, blessed earth, oil, or water that had been sanctified by contact with someone or something holy. They were cherished by the faithful and served as physical reminders of their pilgrimage once they returned home.

This paper ultimately seeks to question the intrinsic holiness of Byzantine pilgrimage eulogia. Why were they deemed so precious and sacred to the early pilgrims? Was it the physical matter they were constructed from, the holy contents held within, or simply the images imprinted upon their surfaces? The paper will begin with an overview of Christian pilgrimage to the holy land, includ-ing the pilgrims, the journeys undertaken and the sites visited once they reached their destina-tion. The various guises that the souvenirs took


chair: Alexis Gorby, sT. John’s college


will also be discussed, from natural to man-made objects. Surviving pilgrimage accounts will also be invaluable when attempting to discover the ways in which the eulogia were perceived and used by the pilgrims themselves, particularly within the domestic setting. Through delving into the Byzantine fascination with the collection of such objects, this paper hopes to ascertain whether the souvenirs had a specific role particularly within the death and afterlife of a Christian pilgrim.

Lucy O’Connor is a third-year PhD student in Art History at the University of Manchester. She is interested in the development of Byzantine pilgrimage to the Holy Land, with a particular interest in souvenirs from the sacred sites.

modernism’s byzantine art and the return to orderJennifer JohnsonsT. John’s college, [email protected]

In 1908, Roger Fry wrote that ‘Impressionism has existed before, in the Roman art of the Empire, and it too was followed, as I believe inevitably, by a movement similar to that observable in the Neo-Impressionists – we may call it for conve-nience Byzantinism’. Of Cezanne and Gauguin, Fry says that they ‘are not really Impressionists at all. They are proto-Byzantines rather than neo-

Impressionists. They have already attained to the contour, and assert its value with keen emphasis’.

This paper will ask why modernists consider-ing painting after Impressionism in terms of new formal qualities and new ways of meaning, turned to comparisons with Byzantine art. I will consider the nature of modernism’s idea of the Byzantine (its own ‘mirage’), especially that created by British modernists in the early twentieth century, such as T.E. Hulme and Herbert Read. I will then ask how notions of this ‘modernist Byzantine’ were evoked to account for or to enable a discussion of certain emer-gent formal qualities in modern art – especially in regard to Cezanne. At this point, I will look outside of British modernism to discuss how this account appeared more widely in modernist theory, par-ticularly in the circle around the Hungarian thinker, Gyorgy Lukács. In 1910 Lukács wrote that ‘After the intoxication of Impressionism... it will be the mis-sion of France to re-create the old form out of the new means of expression available to us’, sounding remarkably like Fry’s comment that ‘Byzantinism was the necessary outcome of Impressionism, a nec-essary and inevitable reaction from it’.

Jennifer Johnson is a second-year DPhil student in the History of Art at Oxford, working on the concept of materiality in early twentieth-century painting. Her thesis considers the problem of matter and paint and looks for ways of reading paint, which account for materiality in modernism.


kinshiP in the byzantine and slaviC balkans (c. 1355 – 1395): Problems and PersPeCtivesJake RansohoffuniversiTy of [email protected]

Modern scholarship has often characterized the period of Balkan history between Stefan Dusan’s death (1355) and the initial rise of Ottoman hegemony (1371-1395) as one of chaos and collapse, with larger states dissolving into regional principalities controlled by newly emergent local-elites. However, Byzantinists and Balkanists alike have made little effort to move beyond this broad interpretation, and better articulate the ways in which power, legiti-macy, and group identity actually functioned during this period. In view of such deficiencies, the present study attempts to look past issues of institutional breakdown, and instead focus on kinship in order to make sense of the diverse political landscape of the fourteenth-century Balkans.

A close study of kinship in this period reveals that, although nascent local-elites appear to have torn asunder the region’s political cohesiveness, such elites were nearly all bound together in a close-knit kinship network. Far from being an epoch of monolithic instability, the Balkans on the eve of Ottoman conquest emerge as a highly circumscribed dynastic world, united by common kinship and notions of legitimacy. Through these provisional findings, I argue that the representa-tion of a ‘calamitous fourteenth-century’ in the Balkans is an oversimplification, produced by

modern tendencies to conflate political order with centralizing state institutions. By drawing attention to kinship as a strategy for structur-ing the discourse of legitimacy and shaping a shared political culture, this study highlights the limitations of traditional attitudes towards the fourteenth-century, and works towards a more inclusive approach to this critical but poorly-understood juncture in Balkan and Late Byzantine history.

Jake Ransohoff is a student at the University of Chicago, in the Medieval Studies department.

imPerial illusions: some asPeCts oF byzantine diPlomaCy With the muslim World (end oF Fourteenth-FiFteenth Century)Anna CaliauniversiTy of san [email protected]

In the last century of its life, the Byzantine Empire in decline saw a progressive fragmentation of power and a major shrinking of its territories. However, in diplomatic communications with foreign powers imperial claims were made by the basileus until the very end of the empire. This ‘imperial illusion’ was conveyed through the conventional and highly-stereotyped means of diplomatic language. In the present paper, I will focus on the protocols of imperial diplomatic letters sent to Muslim rulers between the end of the fourteenth and the fifteenth century, namely the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt and the Ottoman emirate.


chair: Eleni Karafotia, Wolfson college


On the other hand, the paper will explore the ways in which Muslim diplomacy addressed the more and more weakened Byzantine author-ity. We will see how the decline of the empire is often – but not always – mirrored by the sensi-ble changes occurring in titles given by Mamluk sultans and Turkish beyler to the emperor. I will also discuss how the Ottomans in their frequent contacts with the Byzantines started adopting some features of Byzantine diplomacy, such as the use of Greek titles along with the Turkish ones and the employment of Greek scribes and ambassadors, since Greek was the main diplomatic language used in the Eastern Mediterranean, and was so until the early six-teenth century.

I will argue that, in spite of the inevitable decline of the empire, imperial illusions were still intact until the fall of Constantinople and were put forward also through diplomacy.

Anna Calia’s research interests include the history of Byzantine and Medieval Turkish Anatolia, as well as diplomacy between Byzantium, the Muslim world, and Western powers before and after the fall of Constantinople. She is currently working on Venetian-Ottoman relationships and the Ottoman sultans’ Greek documents from the Venice State Archive (late fifteenth-early sixteenth century).

the rePubliC oF the hellenes and the return oF the king: remarks on the PolitiCal imagination oF the FiFteenth-Century PeloPonnesian authorsSergey FadeevsT. cross college, [email protected]

The Peloponnese of the fifteenth century was truly a melting pot of ideas and influences. Its turbulent history, together with new social developments, resulted in the most daring and unusual political projects and utopian ideas represented in the writ-ings of Georgius Gemistos (Pletho) and Laonicus Chalcocondyles, among others. Outlandish as they are, these theories are based on a real historical paradigm and philosophical foundation. In this paper I would like to present systematically the key points of this very curious form of historical and political thinking and survey its real-life causes and further reverberations.

Sergey Fadeev is a first-year DPhil student at Oxford. He received his MA in Nizhny Novgorod State University (Russia) and was a visiting student at St. John’s College, Oxford. He specializes in four-teenth- and fifteenth-century Byzantine intellectual history, political thinking, and historiography.


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Friday

9:00 Registration and Coffee

10:00 Opening Remarks

10:15 Sessions 1 and 2

11:45 Coffee


13:30 Lunch


16:00 Coffee


17:45 Wine Reception

SaTurday

9:00 Registration and Coffee


11:30 Coffee


13:15 Lunch

14:15 Sessions 13, 14 and 15

13:45 Coffee


17:30 Closing Remarks

17:45 Wine Reception

Documents

17–18 February 2012 · PDF fileSeeing Through The ‘ByzanTine Mirage’ Was conceived and organised by Alexis Gorby, Foteini Spingou, Douglas Whalin, and Edward Zychowicz-Coghill