Download or read book O City of Byzantium written by Nicetas Choniates and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 1984 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most important accounts of the Middle Ages, the history of Niketas Choniates describes the Byzantine Empire from 1118 to 1207. Niketas provides an eyewitness account of the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade.
Download or read book Writing About Byzantium written by Theresa Urbainczyk and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-08-14 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Niketas Choniates was in Constantinople when it was burnt and looted by the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade and he wrote a history which has always been the mainstay for anyone wishing to learn about the Comnene dynasty and the Byzantine Empire of the twelfth century. Yet it is a very difficult and puzzling text and, given its significance for the period, is understudied. The author says at the start that he wrote his work hoping that even workers and women would be able to profit from it, yet he wrote those words, and the rest of the history, in a highly convoluted, literary and at times opaque style and language. This examination is an introduction to the history of Niketas, and to the author's views of why this period saw such catastrophe for the Byzantines. It looks at Niketas' thoughts about history-writing, the emperors, and the Comnene dynasty in particular, about the presence of God in man's affairs, and the historian's attitudes to the women of the imperial family.
Download or read book Niketas Choniates written by Alicia Simpson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-26 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Simpson uncovers the complex manuscript tradition and transmission of Niketas Choniates' History, an important historical Byzantine text. Investigating issues related to historical narrative and imperial biography, the volume explores the historian's sources and the literary models and historical concepts which guided him.
Download or read book Niketas Choniates written by Alicia Simpson and published by La Pomme d'or. This book was released on 2009 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Greek Laughter and Tears written by Margaret Alexiou and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-05 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the range and complexity of human emotions and their transmission across cultural traditionsWhat makes us laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time? How do these two primal, seemingly discrete and non-verbal modes of expression intersect in everyday life and ritual, and what range of emotions do they evoke? How may they be voiced, shaped and coloured in literature and liturgy, art and music?Bringing together scholars from diverse periods and disciplines of Hellenic and Byzantine studies, this volume explores the shifting shapes and functions of laughter and tears. With a focus on the tragic, the comic and the tragicomic dimensions of laughter and tears in art, literature and performance, as well as on their emotional, socio-cultural and religious significance, it breaks new ground in the study of ancient and Byzantine affectivity.Key featuresIncludes an international cast of 25 distinguished contributors Prominence is given to performative arts and to interactions with other cultures Transitions from Late Antiquity to Byzantium, and from Byzantium to the Renaissance, form focal points from which contributors look backwards, forwards and sidewaysHighlights the variety, audacity and quality of the finest Byzantine works and the extent to which they anticipated the renaissance
Download or read book Constantinople written by Jonathan Harris and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-02-09 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jonathan Harris' new edition of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, Constantinople, provides an updated and extended introduction to the history of Byzantium and its capital city. Accessible and engaging, the book breaks new ground by exploring Constantinople's mystical dimensions and examining the relationship between the spiritual and political in the city. This second edition includes a range of new material, such as: * Historiographical updates reflecting recently published work in the field * Detailed coverage of archaeological developments relating to Byzantine Constantinople * Extra chapters on the 14th century and social 'outsiders' in the city * More on the city as a centre of learning; the development of Galata/Pera; charitable hospitals; religious processions and festivals; the lives of ordinary people; and the Crusades * Source translation textboxes, new maps and images, a timeline and a list of emperors It is an important volume for anyone wanting to know more about the history of the Byzantine Empire.
Download or read book Byzantine Readings of Ancient Historians written by Anthony Kaldellis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-03-05 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The survival of ancient Greek historiography is largely due to its preservation by Byzantine copyists and scholars. This process entailed selection, adaptation, and commentary, which shaped the corpus of Greek historiography in its transmission. By investigating those choices, Kaldellis enables a better understanding of the reception and survival of Greek historical writing. Byzantine Readings of Ancient Historians includes translations of texts written by Byzantines on specific ancient historians. Each translated text is accompanied by an introduction and notes to highlight the specific context and purpose of its composition. In order to present a rounded picture of the reception of Greek historiography in Byzantium, a wide range of genres have been considered, such as poems and epigrams, essays, personalized scholia, and commentaries. Byzantine Readings of Ancient Historians is therefore an important resource for scholars and students of ancient history.
Download or read book Satire in the Middle Byzantine Period written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-12-15 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores various forms, functions and meanings of satirical texts written in the Middle Byzantine period.
Download or read book Latins in Roman Byzantine Histories written by Samuel Pablo Müller and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-12-13 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Samuel P. Müller offers here the first book-length study of the image of Latins in Byzantine historiography of the long twelfth century, arguing that this image is more complex and ambivalent than often claimed.
Download or read book Emperor John II Komnenos written by Maximilian C. G. Lau and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-02-02 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John II Komnenos was born into an empire on the brink of destruction, with his father Alexios barely preserving the empire in the face of civil wars and invasions. A hostage to crusaders as a child, married to a Hungarian princess as a teenager to win his father an alliance, and leading his own campaigns when his father died, it was left to John to try and rebuild the empire all but lost in the eleventh century. This book, the first English language study on John and his era, re-evaluates an emperor traditionally overlooked in favour of his father, hero of the Alexiad written by John's sister Anna, and of his son Manuel, acclaimed for reigning at the height of Komnenian power. John's reign is one of contradictions, as his capital of New Rome/Constantinople was to fall to the armies of the Fourth Crusade just over sixty years after he died, and yet his descendants led vibrant successor states based in the lands that John reconquered. His reign lacks a dominant textual source, and so this history is related as much through personal letters, court literature, archaeology, and foreign accounts as through traditional historical narratives. This study includes extensive study of the landscapes, castles, and cities John built and campaigned through, and provides a guide to the world in which John lived. It covers the empire's neighbours and rivals, the turning points of ecclesiastical history, the shaping of the crusader movement, and the workings of Byzantine government and administration.
Download or read book Guide to Byzantine Historical Writing written by Leonora Neville and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-17 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handy reference guide makes it easier to access and understand histories written in Greek between 600 and 1480 CE. Covering classicizing histories that continued ancient Greek traditions of historiography, sweeping, fast-paced 'chronicle' type histories, and dozens of idiosyncratic historical texts, it distills the results of complex, multi-lingual, specialist scholarship into clear explanations of the basic information needed to approach each medieval Greek history. It provides a sound basis for further research on each text by describing what we know about the time of composition, content covered by the history, authorship, extant manuscripts, previous editions and translations, and basic bibliography. Even-handed explanations of scholarly debates give readers the information they need to assess controversies independently. A comprehensive introduction orients students and non-specialists to the traditions and methods of Byzantine historical writing. It will prove an invaluable timesaver for Byzantinists and an essential entry point for classicists, western medievalists, and students.
Download or read book A Companion to Byzantium written by Liz James and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-01-29 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using new methodological and theoretical approaches, A Companionto Byzantium presents an overview of the Byzantine world fromits inception in 330 A.D. to its fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Provides an accessible overview of eleven centuries ofByzantine society Introduces the most recent scholarship that is transforming thefield of Byzantine studies Emphasizes Byzantium's social and cultural history, as well asits material culture Explores traditional topics and themes through freshperspectives
Download or read book Dictionary of Theologians written by Jonathan Hill and published by James Clarke & Company. This book was released on 2010-03-25 with total page 591 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exhaustive guide to every significant Christian theologian who lived from the first century to 1308, the year in which John Duns Scotus died. The dictionary encompasses the Catholic, Orthodox, Nestorian and Monophysite traditions, including information not previously available in English. Thoroughly indexed, the dictionary incorporates common variants of names and concepts which will help and direct the reader. The main criterion for inclusion has been contribution to the development of Christian theology. Sub-criteria by which that is measured include, above all, originality and influence on later figures. With over 290 entries, the dictionary provides a handy summary of theologiansi lives and writings together with recent scholarship,as well as an up-to-date, definitive bibliography listing primary texts, translations and secondary literature in the major western European languages. Useful for all levels of academia; no other text matches the depth of the dictionaryis bibliographies. The unprecedented thoroughness of Hill's compilation provides an essential resource for studies at all levels on such a large and varied range of Church thinkers.
Download or read book Writing About Byzantium written by Theresa Urbainczyk and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-30 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Niketas Choniates was in Constantinople when it was burnt and looted by the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade and he wrote a history which has always been the mainstay for anyone wishing to learn about the Comnene dynasty and the Byzantine Empire of the twelfth century. Yet it is a very difficult and puzzling text and, given its significance for the period, is understudied. The author says at the start that he wrote his work hoping that even workers and women would be able to profit from it, yet he wrote those words, and the rest of the history, in a highly convoluted, literary and at times opaque style and language. This examination is an introduction to the history of Niketas, and to the author’s views of why this period saw such catastrophe for the Byzantines. It looks at Niketas’ thoughts about history-writing, the emperors, and the Comnene dynasty in particular, about the presence of God in man’s affairs, and the historian’s attitudes to the women of the imperial family.
Download or read book A Companion to Byzantium and the West 900 1204 written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-12-06 with total page 591 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the complex history of contact and exchange between Byzantium and the Latin West over a formative period of more than three hundred years, with a focus on the political, ecclesiastical and cultural spheres.
Download or read book The Development of the Komnenian Army written by John W. Birkenmeier and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2002 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work provides an introduction to Byzantine military history during the first three Crusades. It examines the ethnic composition, financial support structure, and strategic implementation of the Byzantine army during the turbulent eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Download or read book Deeds of John and Manuel Comnenus written by Joannes Cinnamus and published by . This book was released on 1976-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveying the expanding conflict in Europe during one of his famous fireside chats in 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt ominously warned that "we know of other methods, new methods of attack. The Trojan horse. The fifth column that betrays a nation unprepared for treachery. Spies, saboteurs, and traitors are the actors in this new strategy." Having identified a new type of war--a shadow war--being perpetrated by Hitler's Germany, FDR decided to fight fire with fire, authorizing the formation of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to organize and oversee covert operations. Based on an extensive analysis of OSS records, including the vast trove of records released by the CIA in the 1980s and '90s, as well as a new set of interviews with OSS veterans conducted by the author and a team of American scholars from 1995 to 1997, The Shadow War Against Hitler is the full story of America's far-flung secret intelligence apparatus during World War II. In addition to its responsibilities generating, processing, and interpreting intelligence information, the OSS orchestrated all manner of dark operations, including extending feelers to anti-Hitler elements, infiltrating spies and sabotage agents behind enemy lines, and implementing propaganda programs. Planned and directed from Washington, the anti-Hitler campaign was largely conducted in Europe, especially through the OSS's foreign outposts in Bern and London. A fascinating cast of characters made the OSS run: William J. Donovan, one of the most decorated individuals in the American military who became the driving force behind the OSS's genesis; Allen Dulles, the future CIA chief who ran the Bern office, which he called "the big window onto the fascist world"; a veritable pantheon of Ivy League academics who were recruited to work for the intelligence services; and, not least, Roosevelt himself. A major contribution of the book is the story of how FDR employed Hitler's former propaganda chief, Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstengl, as a private spy. More than a record of dramatic incidents and daring personalities, this book adds significantly to our understanding of how the United States fought World War II. It demonstrates that the extent, and limitations, of secret intelligence information shaped not only the conduct of the war but also the face of the world that emerged from the shadows.
