Download or read book Byzantine War Ideology Between Roman Imperial Concept and Christian Religion written by Johannes Koder and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Holy war and just war are unfortunately not only keywords for recondite excursions into the past, but equally for problems of the present. This applies as well for the attempts of rulers to justify war through state or ruling ideology but also on religious grounds, whether from conviction or in order to cloak economic and political interests. The present volume summarizes the results of a conference held in Vienna, which the editors, Johannes Koder and Ioannis Stouraitis, hosted in May of 2011. The symposium was held in the context of a research project with the topic "Holy War? A study on Byzantine perceptions and concepts of war and peace in the period from the late 11th to the early 13th century." This project was housed at the Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Vienna. The arc of the presentation topics spanned chronologically from seventh to the fifteenth century and thematically from the Christian and Islamic legitimation of war ("crusade", "holy war") to late antique and medieval imperial ideology to the motivations which were offered or imposed upon soldiers and civilian populations in order to make them amenable to the sorrow, sacrifices and privations which are the accompaniments of war: the promises of worldly rewards were complemented by the expectation of recompense in the afterlife. The results--many are new, some surprising--at one level reference the medieval period and its late antique intellectual foundations and are yet, in their critical evaluation of the ideological basis of war, of astonishing contemporary relevance."--Publisher's website.

Download or read book Leo VI and the Transformation of Byzantine Christian Identity written by Meredith L. D. Riedel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-23 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Byzantine emperor Leo VI (886–912), was not a general or even a soldier, like his predecessors, but a scholar, and it was the religious education he gained under the tutelage of the patriarch Photios that was to distinguish him as an unusual ruler. This book analyses Leo's literary output, focusing on his deployment of ideological principles and religious obligations to distinguish the characteristics of the Christian oikoumene from the Islamic caliphate, primarily in his military manual known as the Taktika. It also examines in depth his 113 legislative Novels, with particular attention to their theological prolegomena, showing how the emperor's religious sensibilities find expression in his reshaping of the legal code to bring it into closer accord with Byzantine canon law. Meredith L. D. Riedel argues that the impact of his religious faith transformed Byzantine cultural identity and influenced his successors, establishing the Macedonian dynasty as a 'golden age' in Byzantium.

Download or read book Byzantine War Ideology Between Roman Imperial Concept and Christian Religion written by Johannes Koder and published by Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heiliger Krieg und gerechter Krieg sind leider nicht nur Schlusselworte fur obsolete Irrwege in der Vergangenheit, sondern ebenso auch fur Probleme der Gegenwart. Dies gilt auch fur die Versuche der Machthaber, den Krieg staats- bzw. herrscherideologisch, aber auch religios zu rechtfertigen, sei es aus Uberzeugung oder, um wirtschaftliche und machtpolitische Interessen zu verdecken. Der vorliegende Band fasst die Ergebnisse einer Arbeitstagung zusammen, zu der die Herausgeber Johannes Koder und Ioannis Stouraitis im Mai 2011 nach Wien einluden. Das Symposium stand im Kontext eines Forschungsprojektes uber das Thema Holy War? A study on Byzantine perceptions and concepts of war and peace in the period from the late 11th to the early 13th century, das am Institut fur Byzantinistik und Neograzistik der Universitat Wien beheimatet ist. Der Bogen der Beitragsthemen spannt sich zeitlich vom 7. bis zum 15. Jahrhundert und thematisch von der christlichen und islamischen Kriegsrechtfertigung (Kreuzzug, Heiliger Krieg) uber die spatantike und mittelalterliche Kaiserideologie bis zu den Motivationen, die den Soldaten und den zivilen Bevolkerungen angeboten bzw. oktroyiert wurden, um sie fur das mit Krieg verbundene Leid, die Opfer und die Entbehrungen gefugig zu machen: Die Versprechungen diesseitigen Gewinnes stehen dabei der Verheissung von Belohnungen im Jenseits gegenuber. Die Ergebnisse - viele sind neu, manche uberraschend - beziehen sich vordergrundig auf das Mittelalter und seine spatantiken geistigen Grundlagen und sind in ihrer kritischen Hinterfragung der ideologischen Grundlagen des Krieges doch von erstaunlicher Aktualitat.Holy war and just war are unfortunately not only keywords for recondite excursions into the past, but equally for problems of the present. This applies as well for the attempts of rulers to justify war through state or ruling ideology but also on religious grounds, whether from conviction or in order to cloak economic and political interests. The present volume summarizes the results of a conference held in Vienna, which the editors, Johannes Koder and Ioannis Stouraitis, hosted in May of 2011. The symposium was held in the context of a research project with the topic Holy War? A study on Byzantine perceptions and concepts of war and peace in the period from the late 11th to the early 13th century. This project was housed at the Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Vienna. The arc of the presentation topics spanned chronologically from seventh to the fifteenth century and thematically from the Christian and Islamic legitimation of war (crusade, holy war) to late antique and medieval imperial ideology to the motivations which were offered or imposed upon soldiers and civilian populations in order to make them amenable to the sorrow, sacrifices and privations which are the accompaniments of war: the promises of worldly rewards were complemented by the expectation of recompense in the afterlife. The results-many are new, some surprising-at one level reference the medieval period and its late antique intellectual foundations and are yet, in their critical evaluation of the ideological basis of war, of astonishing contemporary relevance. Gedruckt mit Unterstutzung des Fonds zur Forderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF).

Download or read book A Companion to the Byzantine Culture of War ca 300 1204 written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays on the Byzantine culture of war in the period between the 4th and the 12th centuries offers a new critical approach to the study of warfare as a fundamental aspect of East Roman society and culture in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The book’s main goal is to provide a critical overview of current research as well as new insights into the role of military organization as a distinct form of social power in one of history’s more long-lived empires. The various chapters consider the political, ideological, practical, institutional and organizational aspects of Byzantine warfare and place it at the centre of the study of social and cultural history. Contributors are Salvatore Cosentino, Michael Grünbart, Savvas Kyriakidis, Tilemachos Lounghis, Christos Makrypoulias, Stamatina McGrath, Philip Rance, Paul Stephenson, Yannis Stouraitis, Denis Sullivan, and Georgios Theotokis. See inside the book.

Download or read book Violence and Politics written by Antonios Ampoutis and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2018-12-21 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, a new generation of researchers explore and demonstrate the interaction between politics and violence in the context of Greek and European history. In terms of focus, the articles here extend over a time span stretching from the Greek classical period to the twentieth century. The ancient Greek polis, medieval and early modern Europe, Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire, nineteenth-century Britain and the Greek society of the 1940s are some of the historical periods in which the relationship between violence and politics is examined. At the same time, the authors tackle important themes concerning this relationship, such as legitimate and illegitimate violence, violence from above and from below, resistance and revolt, authority and subordination, and gendered and political violence.

Download or read book The Emperor in the Byzantine World written by Shaun Tougher and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-15 with total page 646 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The subject of the emperor in the Byzantine world may seem likely to be a well-studied topic but there is no book devoted to the emperor in general covering the span of the Byzantine empire. Of course there are studies on individual emperors, dynasties and aspects of the imperial office/role, but there remains no equivalent to Fergus Millar’s The Emperor in the Roman World (from which the proposed volume takes inspiration for its title and scope). The oddity of a lack of a general study of the Byzantine emperor is compounded by the fact that a series of books devoted to Byzantine empresses was published in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Thus it is appropriate to turn the spotlight on the emperor. Themes covered by the contributions include: questions of dynasty and imperial families; the imperial court and the emperor’s men; imperial duties and the emperor as ruler; imperial literature (the emperor as subject and author); and the material emperor, including imperial images and spaces. The volume fills a need in the field and the market, and also brings new and cutting-edge approaches to the study of the Byzantine emperor. Although the volume cannot hope to be a comprehensive treatment of the emperor in the Byzantine world it aims to cover a broad chronological and thematic span and to play a vital part in setting the agenda for future work. The subject of the Byzantine emperor has also an obvious relevance for historians working on rulership in other cultures and periods.

Download or read book A Tenth Century Byzantine Military Manual The Sylloge Tacticorum written by Georgios Chatzelis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-14 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sylloge Tacticorum is a mid-Byzantine example of the literary genre of military manuals or Taktika which stretches back to antiquity. It was one of a number produced during the tenth century CE, a period when the Byzantine empire enjoyed a large measure of success in its wars against its traditional enemy, the Arabs. Compiled to record and preserve military strategies, know-how, and tactics, the manual discusses a wide variety of matters: battle formations, raids, sieges, ambushes, surprise attacks, the treatment of prisoners of war and defectors, distribution of booty, punishment of military offences, how to mount effective espionage, and how to send and receive envoys. There is even advice on the personal qualities required by generals, on how to neutralize enemy horses, and on how to protect the troops against poisoned food. The work culminates in an account of the stratagems employed by great Greek and Roman military commanders of the past. While, like so much of Byzantine literature, the Sylloge often simply reproduces material found in earlier texts, it also preserves a great deal of information about the military tactics being developed by the Byzantine army during the tenth century. It is the first Byzantine source to record the reappearance of a specialized heavy cavalry (the kataphraktoi) and of a specialized infantry (the menavlatoi) used to repel the attacks of the opposing heavy cavalry. There is also a great deal of information on new infantry and cavalry formations and on the new tactics that required them. This is the first complete translation of the Sylloge into English. It is accompanied by a glossary of the specialised Greek military vocabulary used in the work and by footnotes which explain obscure references and identify the author’s classical and Byzantine sources. An introduction places the work in its historical and literary context and considers some of the questions that have remained unanswered over the centuries, such as its authorship and the date of its composition.

Download or read book The Excerpta Constantiniana and the Byzantine Appropriation of the Past written by András Németh and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-11 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Excerpta project instigated by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII turned the enormously rich experience offered by Greek historiography into a body of excerpts distributed across fifty-three distinct thematic collections. In this, the first sustained analysis, András Németh moves from viewing the Excerpta only as a collection of textual fragments to focusing on its dependence from and impact on the surrounding Byzantine culture in the tenth century. He introduces the concept of appropriation and also uses it to study some other key texts created under the Excerpta's influence (De thematibus, De administrando imperio and De ceremoniis). Unlike world chronicles, the Excerpta ignored the chronological dimension of history and fostered the biographical turn in Byzantine historiography. By exploring theoretical questions such as classification and retrieval of historical information and the relationship between knowledge and political power, this book provides powerful new ways for exploring the Excerpta in Byzantine studies and beyond.

Download or read book The Concept of the Elect Nation in Byzantium written by Shay Eshel and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Concept of the Elect Nation in Byzantium, Shay Eshel shows how the Old Testament model of the ancient Israelites was a prominent factor in the evolution of Roman-Byzantine national awareness between the 7th and 13th centuries. The Byzantines' interpretation of the 7th century epic events as manifestations of God's wrath enabled them to incorporate the events into a paradigm which they now embraced: the Old Testament paradigm of the Israelite Elect Nation's complex relationship with God, a cyclic relation of sin, wrath, punishment, repentance and salvation. The Elect Nation concept enabled the Byzantines to express the shift in their collective identity toward a shrunken, yet more clearly defined, national awareness.

Download or read book Byzantium and the Crusades written by Jonathan Harris and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-09-25 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition of Byzantium and the Crusades provides a fully-revised and updated version of Jonathan Harris's landmark text in the field of Byzantine and crusader history. The book offers a chronological exploration of Byzantium and the outlook of its rulers during the time of the Crusades. It argues that one of the main keys to Byzantine interaction with Western Europe, the Crusades and the crusader states can be found in the nature of the Byzantine Empire and the ideology which underpinned it, rather than in any generalised hostility between the peoples. Taking recent scholarship into account, this new edition includes an updated notes section and bibliography, as well as significant additions to the text: - New material on the role of religious differences after 1100 - A detailed discussion of economic, social and religious changes that took place in 12th-century Byzantine relations with the west - In-depth coverage of Byzantium and the Crusades during the 13th century - New maps, illustrations, genealogical tables and a timeline of key dates Byzantium and the Crusades is an important contribution to the historiography by a major scholar in the field that should be read by anyone interested in Byzantine and crusader history.

Download or read book A Military History of the Mediterranean Sea written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-05-07 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mediterranean has always attracted the imagination of modern historians as the epicentre of great political entities, such as the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Ottomans, Venetians, and Spanish. However, it seems that the sea itself was always on the margins of historical inquiry – at least, until the publication of the famous two-volume work by F. Braudel in 1949. This collection of essays aims to offer a vertical history of war in the Mediterranean Sea, from the early Middle Ages to the early modernity, putting the emphasis on the changing face of several different aspects and contexts of war over time. Contributors are Stephen Bennett, Stathis Birtachas, Cornel Bontea, Wayne H. Bowen, Lilia Campana, Raffaele D’Amato, Elina Gugliuzzo, Nikolaos Kanellopoulos, Savvas Kyriakides, Tilemachos Lounghis, Alan V. Murray, Chrysovalantis Papadamou, Jacopo Pessina, Philip Rance, Georgios Theotokis, Iason Tzouriadis, Ian Wilson, and Aysel Yildiz.

Download or read book Warriors Martyrs and Dervishes written by Buket Kitapçı Bayrı and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-11-11 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Warriors, Martyrs, and Dervishes: Moving Frontiers, Shifting Identities in the Land of Rome (13th-15th Centuries) focuses on the perceptions of geopolitical and cultural change, which was triggered by the arrival of Turkish Muslim groups into the territories of the Byzantine Empire at the end of the eleventh century, through intersecting stories transmitted in Turkish Muslim warrior epics and dervish vitas, and late Byzantine martyria. It examines the Byzantines’ encounters with the newcomers in a shared story-world, here called “land of Rome,” as well as its perception, changing geopolitical and cultural frontiers, and in relation to these changes, the shifts in identity of the people inhabiting this space. The study highlights the complex relationship between the character of specific places and the cultural identities of the people who inhabited them. See inside the book

Download or read book The Good Christian Ruler in the First Millennium written by Philip Michael Forness and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2021-07-19 with total page 634 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The late antique and early medieval Mediterranean was characterized by wide-ranging cultural and linguistic diversity. Yet, under the influence of Christianity, communities in the Mediterranean world were bound together by common concepts of good rulership, which were also shaped by Greco-Roman, Persian, Caucasian, and other traditions. This collection of essays examines ideas of good Christian rulership and the debates surrounding them in diverse cultures and linguistic communities. It grants special attention to communities on the periphery, such as the Caucasus and Nubia, and some essays examine non-Christian concepts of good rulership to offer a comparative perspective. As a whole, the studies in this volume reveal not only the entanglement and affinity of communities around the Mediterranean but also areas of conflict among Christians and between Christians and other cultural traditions. By gathering various specialized studies on the overarching question of good rulership, this volume highlights the possibilities of placing research on classical antiquity and early medieval Europe into conversation with the study of eastern Christianity.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the Confessor written by Pauline Allen and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maximus the Confessor (c.580-662) has become one of the most discussed figures in contemporary patristic studies. This is partly due to the relatively recent discovery and critical edition of his works in various genres, including On the Ascetic Life, Four Centuries on Charity, Two Centuries on Theology and the Incarnation, On the 'Our Father', two separate Books of Difficulties, addressed to John and to Thomas, Questions and Doubts, Questions to Thalassius, Mystagogy and the Short Theological and Polemical Works. The impact of these works reached far beyond the Greek East, with his involvement in the western resistance to imperial heresy, notably at the Lateran Synod in 649. Together with Pope Martin I (649-53 CE), Maximus the Confessor and his circle were the most vocal opponents of Constantinople's introduction of the doctrine of monothelitism. This dispute over the number of wills in Christ became a contest between the imperial government and church of Constantinople on the one hand, and the bishop of Rome in concert with eastern monks such as Maximus, John Moschus, and Sophronius, on the other, over the right to define orthodoxy. An understanding of the difficult relations between church and state in this troubled period at the close of Late Antiquity is necessary for a full appreciation of Maximus' contribution to this controversy. The editors of this volume aim to provide the political and historical background to Maximus' activities, as well as a summary of his achievements in the spheres of theology and philosophy, especially neo-Platonism and Aristotelianism.

Download or read book Justinian II written by Peter Crawford and published by Pen and Sword History. This book was released on 2021-10-13 with total page 617 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An exceptional, well written, exhaustively researched, and detailed biography” of the controversial Roman emperor—from the author of Constantius II (Midwest Book Review). Justinian II became Roman emperor at a time when the Empire was beset by external enemies. His forces gained success against the Arabs and Bulgars but his religious and social policies fueled internal opposition which resulted in him being deposed and mutilated (his nose was cut off) in 695. After a decade in exile, during which he strangled two would-be assassins with his bare hands, he regained power through a coup d’etat with the backing of the erstwhile Bulgar enemy (an alliance sealed by the marriage of his daughter, Anastasia). His second reign was seemingly harsher and again beset by both external and internal threats and dissension over doctrinal matters. An energetic and active ruler, his reign saw developments in various areas, including numismatics, administration, finance and architecture, but he was deposed a second time in 711 and beheaded. Drawing on all the available evidence and the most recent research, Peter Crawford makes a long-overdue re-assessment of Justinian’s colorful but troubled career and asks if he fully deserves his poor reputation.

Download or read book The Empire That Would Not Die written by John Haldon and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-05 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The eastern Roman Empire was the largest state in western Eurasia in the sixth century. Only a century later, it was a fraction of its former size. Surrounded by enemies, ravaged by warfare and disease, the empire seemed destined to collapse. Yet it did not die. In this holistic analysis, John Haldon elucidates the factors that allowed the eastern Roman Empire to survive against all odds into the eighth century. By 700 CE the empire had lost three-quarters of its territory to the Islamic caliphate. But the rugged geography of its remaining territories in Anatolia and the Aegean was strategically advantageous, preventing enemies from permanently occupying imperial towns and cities while leaving them vulnerable to Roman counterattacks. The more the empire shrank, the more it became centered around the capital of Constantinople, whose ability to withstand siege after siege proved decisive. Changes in climate also played a role, permitting shifts in agricultural production that benefitted the imperial economy. At the same time, the crisis confronting the empire forced the imperial court, the provincial ruling classes, and the church closer together. State and church together embodied a sacralized empire that held the emperor, not the patriarch, as Christendom’s symbolic head. Despite its territorial losses, the empire suffered no serious political rupture. What remained became the heartland of a medieval Christian Roman state, with a powerful political theology that predicted the emperor would eventually prevail against God’s enemies and establish Orthodox Christianity’s world dominion.

Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Medieval Military Strategy written by John D. Hosler and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-12-13 with total page 666 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook provides the first comprehensive and global analysis of medieval military strategy, covering the period from the sixth to the seventeenth century. Challenging the widely held notion in modern strategic studies that medieval strategy was non-existent, the Handbook brings together leading scholars to explore a range of literatures, campaigns, laws, and contexts that highlight medieval warfare’s multifaceted contours. The scope of the work is ambitious, with over 30 chapters dedicated to analyzing strategy across six continents. From Charlemagne to Henry V and Scandinavia to Florence; southbound to Morocco then across the Sahara to Kongo; past the Adriatic to Byzantium and Georgia and the Crusades and Egypt; further still into Indian and Chinese dynasties and Japan; and finally, to Central and South America—this Handbook provides ready access to military strategy across the medieval world stage. In the process, it fills a significant gap in the history of strategy and serves to connect the ancient world with the modern, demonstrating that—whatever the period—military leaders have consistently plied warfare in the pursuit of greater ends. This Handbook will be of much interest to researchers and students of military strategy, medieval military history, and strategic studies in general.