Download or read book The Reign of Leo VI 886 912 written by Shaun Tougher and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1997 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a fresh examination of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI (886-912) and his reign. A consideration of personal and political relationships and internal and external affairs forms the basis of a reassessment of his achievements and kingship.

Download or read book The Chronicle of the Logothete written by and published by . This book was released on 2020-10-29 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Chronicle of the Logothete covers the period from the Creation of the World to the burial of emperor Romanos I Lekapenos in the summer of 948 AD. If we deduce a medieval text's importance and success from the number of extant manuscripts, this work must score highly. While some medieval chronicles have come down to us in only one manuscript, about thirty manuscripts transmit the Chronicle of the Logothete in its main form, and there are also manuscripts containing different kinds of elaborated versions of the text. Also, the chronicle was translated into Old Slavonic at least twice. In spite of the work's popularity, the chronicler himself remains obscure. It has been suggested that this could be Symeon Metaphrastes, an illustrious Byzantine literate who collected and edited, or wrote, Saints' Lives. However, fairly certain is only that the final compilation of the text was made in the second half of the tenth century, and there seems to be a pro-Lekapenian bias and an antipathy towards the Macedonian dynasty. This volume is based on the translator's 2006 edition of the text and constitutes the first translation ever into English.

Download or read book The Chronicle of Theophanes written by Theophanes (the Confessor) and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 1982-09 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most important illuminating source that survived from the two centuries termed "the dark ages of Byzantium" is the chronicle of the monk Theophanes (d. 817 or 818). In it Theophanes paints a vivid picture of the Empire's struggle in the seventh and eighth centuries both to withstand foreign invasions and to quell internal religious conflicts. Theophanes's carefully developed chronological scheme was mined extensively by later Byzantine and Western record keepers; his chronicle was used as a source of information as well as a stylistic model. It is the framework upon which all Byzantine chronology for this period must be based. Important topics covered by the Chronicle include: The Empire's struggle to repel explosive Arab expansionism and the Bulgar invasion. The iconoclastic controversy, which caused civil war within Byzantium and led to schism between the churches of Constantinople and Rome. The development of the Byzantine thematic system, the administrative and social structure that would bring the Empire to the height of its power and prosperity. Almost all the sources used by Theophanes have perished, leaving his chronicle as the most important historical literature from this period. Turledove's translation makes available in English this crucial primary text for the study of medieval Byzantine civilization.

Download or read book History and Literature of Byzantium in the 9th 10th Centuries written by Athanasios Markopoulos and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-08-11 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The studies reprinted here deal with the Byzantine empire between the 9th and 11th centuries, with a focus on the period of the Macedonian dynasty, and include four translated into English for this volume. They reflect both historical and prosopographical concerns, but Professor Markopoulos's principle interest is in the analysis of literary works and texts. This he combines with the examination of the ideological context of the period, as shaped in the reigns of Basil I and Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, and the investigation of gender issues and other approaches. The close analysis of the texts shows how, after the close of Iconoclasm, new styles of writing and new attitudes towards the writing of history emerged, for instance in the use of mythological themes, which exemplify the changing intellectual concerns of the time.

Download or read book The Oxford History of Historical Writing written by Sarah Foot and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-10-25 with total page 671 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How was history written in Europe and Asia between 400-1400? How was the past understood in religious, social and political terms? And in what ways does the diversity of historical writing in this period mask underlying commonalities in narrating the past? The volume, which assembles 28 contributions from leading historians, tackles these and other questions. Part I provides comprehensive overviews of the development of historical writing in societies that range from the Korean Peninsula to north-west Europe, which together highlight regional and cultural distinctiveness. Part II complements the first part by taking a thematic and comparative approach; it includes essays on genre, warfare, and religion (amongst others) which address common concerns of historians working in this liminal period before the globalizing forces of the early modern world.

Download or read book The Oxford History of Historical Writing written by Daniel R. Woolf and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2011 with total page 671 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of essays from leading historians which explores the ways in which history was written in Europe and Asia between 400 and 1400.

Download or read book Military History of Late Rome 602 641 written by Ilkka Syvänne and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2022-12-29 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Military History of Late Rome 565-602 provides a fresh analysis of the Roman Empire from the reign of Phocas (602-10) until the death of Heraclius (610-41). This was an era of unprecedented upheavals which is usually considered to have resulted in the end of antiquity. The usurpations of Phocas and Heraclius led to the collapse of the Roman defenses; The Persians conquered Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt; The Avars and Slavs ravaged the Balkans; The Lombards held the upper hand in Italy; the Visigoths conquered Spain; But then happened one of the most remarkable reversals of fortune in the history of mankind. Heraclius began his holy war against the fire-worshippers. He launched a very effective counterattack against the Persians as a result of which the Romans not only defeated the Persians but actually even extended their domains at their expense, and not only this, because by 633 Heraclius was already restoring the Roman fortunes in the Balkans. This volume revises many of the previously held views of how this took place and what actually happened. The Roman armies seemed invincible and then happened yet another great reversal of fortune – the Muslims began their jihad to conquer the world. The author provides a fresh analysis of all of these upheavals; explains in detail why these reversals of fortune happened; what enabled the Romans to defeat the Persians; and why the Romans lost when they fought against the Muslims and, conversely, why the Muslims were so successful. This was an era of epic campaigns and battles all of which are explained in unprecedented detail. The epic campaigns needed equally talented commanders who include, for example, Heraclius, Chosroes II Parwez, Shahrbaraz, Shahin, Abu Bakr, Umar, Abu Ubaydah, and Khalid b. al-Walid, the Sword of Allah.

Download or read book John Skylitzes A Synopsis of Byzantine History 811 1057 written by John Skylitzes and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-10-07 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was first published in 2010. John Skylitzes' extraordinary Middle Byzantine chronicle covers the reigns of the Byzantine emperors from the death of Nicephorus I in 811 to the deposition of Michael VI in 1057, and provides the only surviving continuous narrative of the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. A high official living in the late eleventh century, Skylitzes used a number of existing Greek histories (some of them no longer extant) to create a digest of the previous three centuries. It is without question the major historical source for the period and is cited constantly in modern scholarship. This edition features introductions by Jean-Claude Cheynet and Bernard Flusin, along with extensive notes. It will be an essential and exciting addition to the libraries of all historians of the Byzantine age.

Download or read book Chronicles Consuls and Coins Historiography and History in the Later Roman Empire written by R.W. Burgess and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-05-31 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The papers collected in this volume focus on the sources for reconstructing the history of the third to fifth centuries AD. The first section, 'Historiography', looks at a small group of chronicles and breviaria whose texts are fundamental for our reconstruction of the history of the third and fourth centuries, some well known, others much less so: Eusebius of Caesarea, Jerome, the lost Kaisergeschichte, and Eutropius. In this section the goal in each case is a specific attempt to come to a better understanding of the structure, composition, date, or author of these historical texts. The second section, 'History', presents a group of historical studies, ranging in time from the death of Constantine in 337 to the vicennalia of Anastasius in 511. In these papers the keys to the conclusions offered arise from a better understanding of the literary sources - particularly chronicles and consularia -, an understanding of the evolution of historical accounts over time, or the employment of sources that are either new or unusual in these particular contexts: consular fasti, coins, papyri, and itineraries.

Download or read book The Age of Liutprand written by Christopher Heath and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-11-14 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Age of Liutprand provides a thematic analysis of Lombard Italy in the pivotal early part of the 8th century. It surveys the crucial role and rule of Liutprand [712-44], the powerful and effective Lombard king. By restoring this successful exemplar of Lombard kingship to the centre of events and developments in the Italian peninsula, this book pulls together all the pertinent evidence for a 'new' kingship in Lombard Italy that used a sophisticated set of strategies to enhance, deepen and expand its effectiveness. In presenting an evaluation of Italy on the cusp of dramatic change, this book explains how not only the kingship of Liutprand, but also his legal reforms and his relationships with the Church and neighbouring peoples all contributed to a model of kingship successfully and subsequently deployed by Charlemagne and his successors later in the 8th century.

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Human Animal Relations in the Byzantine World written by Przemysław Marciniak and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-12-03 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Animals have recently become recognized as significant agents of history as part of the ‘animal turn’ in historical studies. Animals in Byzantium were human companions, a source of entertainment and food – it is small wonder that they made their way into literature and the visual arts. Moreover, humans defined themselves and their activities by referring to non-human animals, either by anthropomorphizing animals (as in the case of the Cat-Mice War) or by animalizing humans and their (un)wanted behaviours. The Routledge Handbook of Human-Animal Relations in the Byzantine World offers an in-depth survey of the relationships between humans and non-human animals in the Byzantine Empire. The contributions included in the volume address both material (zooarchaeology, animals as food, visual representations of animals) and immaterial (semiotics, philosophy) aspects of human-animal coexistence in chapters written by leading experts in their field. This book will appeal to students and scholars alike researching Byzantine social and cultural history, as well as those interested in the history of animals. This book marks an important step in the development of animal studies in Byzantium, filling a gap in the wider research on the history of human-animal relations in the Middle Ages.

Download or read book Authority in Byzantium written by Pamela Armstrong and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Authority is an important concept in Byzantine culture whose myriad modes of implementation helped maintain the existence of the Byzantine state across so many centuries, binding together people from different ethnic groups, in different spheres of life and activities. Even though its significance to understanding the Byzantine world is so central, it is nonetheless imperfectly understood. The present volume brings together an international cast of scholars to explore this concept. The contributions are divided into nine sections focusing on different aspects of authority: the imperial authority of the state, how it was transmitted from the top down, from Constantinople to provincial towns, how it dealt with marginal legal issues or good medical practice; authority in the market place, whether directly concerning over-the-counter issues such as coinage, weights and measures, or the wider concerns of the activities of foreign traders; authority in the church, such as the extent to which ecclesiastical authority was inherent, or how constructs of religious authority ordered family life; the authority of knowledge revealed through imperial patronage or divine wisdom; the authority of text, though its conformity with ancient traditions, through the Holy scriptures and through the authenticity of history; exhibiting authority through images of the emperor or the Divine. The final section draws on personal experience of three great ’authorities’ within Byzantine Studies: Ostrogorsky, Beck and Browning.

Download or read book Byzantium and the Crusades written by Jonathan Harris and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-11-03 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jonathan Harris's classic text chronologically surveys Byzantine history in the time of the Crusades. The book reveals the attitudes of the Byzantine ruling elites towards the Crusades and their ultimate inability to adapt to the challenges this presented. Using evidence amassed in a wealth of primary sources, Harris successfully makes the point that Byzantine interactions with Western Europe, the Crusades and the crusader states is best understood in the nature of the Byzantine Empire and the ideology which underpinned it, rather than in any generalised hostility between the peoples. Incorporating recent scholarship, this 3rd edition has 25 further images, as well as additional maps and genealogical tables. This new edition also comes with two significant additions to the text: * Appendix I sees the inclusion of seven critical Latin primary sources taken from across three centuries. Translated by the author, these sources are then discussed in detail, providing multiple first-hand perspectives on the subject in the process * Appendix II provides assessments of various representations of the subject in key fiction and non-fiction works, thereby enriching your appreciation of the way that Byzantine interaction with the Crusades has been constructed at different times, from various standpoints and in other languages This book remains the keystone to understanding the East-West relationship during the Crusades and what this meant for the Byzantine Empire.

Download or read book Iulius Africanus Chronographiae written by Iulius Africanus and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Iulius Africanus has rightly been called the "Father of Christian Chronography". His world chronicle is one of the few works of Christian literature pioneering a new genre. Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages mainly articulated their reflection on history in the form of the world chronicle. The work has not been preserved in its entirety; the extant fragments have to be laboriously pieced together from the works of later authors. To date, there has not been a critical edition of this material, and the edition in use today dates back nearly 200 years (J.M. Routh 1814). This new edition in the GCS series closes an old gap in the programme of this series - and at the same time marks a new beginning, because this is the first edition ever in this series to be published with an English translation. The edition establishes a completely new foundation for our knowledge of Early Christian historical thinking, and in addition provides an important component in our understanding of an important epoch, the "Imperial Crisis" of the 3rd century, in which the new world of Late Antiquity began to develop out of the Hellenic-Roman heritage.

Download or read book The Emperor s House written by Michael Featherstone and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2015-08-31 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolving from a patrician domus, the emperor's residence on the Palatine became the centre of the state administration. Elaborate ceremonial regulated access to the imperial family, creating a system of privilege which strengthened the centralised power. Constantine followed the same model in his new capital, under a Christian veneer. The divine attributes of the imperial office were refashioned, with the emperor as God's representative. The palace was an imitation of heaven. Following the loss of the empire in the West and the Near East, the Palace in Constantinople was preserved – subject to the transition from Late Antique to Mediaeval conditions – until the Fourth Crusade, attracting the attention of Visgothic, Lombard, Merovingian, Carolingian, Norman and Muslim rulers. Renaissance princes later drew inspiration for their residences directly from ancient ruins and Roman literature, but there was also contact with the Late Byzantine court. Finally, in the age of Absolutism the palace became again an instrument of power in vast centralised states, with renewed interest in Roman and Byzantine ceremonial. Spanning the broadest chronological and geographical limits of the Roman imperial tradition, from the Principate to the Ottoman empire, the papers in the volume treat various aspects of palace architecture, art and ceremonial.

Download or read book A History of the Byzantine State and Society written by Warren T. Treadgold and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1997-10 with total page 1050 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Det Byzantinske riges historie fra 284 til 1461

Download or read book The Rise and Fall of Nikephoros II Phokas written by Denis Sullivan and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-11-01 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Rise and Fall of Nikephoros II Phokas, Denis Sullivan presents five Byzantine Greek texts that document the remarkable career of Nikephoros II Phokas, emperor from 963 until his death in 969. The first three texts are historical chronicles covering the period 944-963, which sees Nikephoras’ rise from military general. The fourth is a “historical epic” poem on the successful Byzantine expedition against Arab Crete in 960-961, for which Nikephoros was the field commander. The last text is a liturgical office that declares the slain emperor a martyr and a saint. These texts, translated into English for the first time, provide information on the Phokades that is not found elsewhere in the Greek sources, and the chronicles appear to reflect now lost pro-Phokan family sources.