A Companion to Byzantium

From the time Constantine the Great moved the imperial capital from Rome to Constantinople in 330 A.D., until its fall to the Ottoman Turks eleven centuries later, Byzantium flourished as the most powerful empire in the world. The Eastern Roman Empire not only exerted profound influences on neighboring civilizations, but helped preserve the works and thoughts of the ancient Greeks and produced transcendent works of religious art. Recent scholarship has transformed the field of Byzantine studies and propelled it to the forefront of academia. Building on these recent developments, A Companion to Byzantium presents a comprehensive overview of the field. In 27 original essays, leading scholars from around the globe explore fascinating new approaches, areas of research, and methodologies on such topics as memory, the emotions, childhood, and beauty. A Companion to Byzantium sheds new light on the complexities of Byzantium and points to its legacy in contemporary art and culture.

List of Figures ix List of Maps xiii Notes on Contributors xv Acknowledgments xix Some Relevant Dates xxi List of Byzantine Rulers xxv List of Abbreviations xxix 1. Byzantium: a Very, Very Short Introduction 1 Liz James 2. Writing Histories of Byzantium: the Historiography of Byzantine History 9 F. K. Haarer Part I Being Byzantine 23 3. Economics, Trade, and “Feudalism” 25 Peter Sarris 4. Byzantium nConstantinople 43 Paul Magdalino 5. Provinces and Capital 55 Catherine Holmes 6. Insiders and Outsiders 67 Dion C. Smythe 7. Young People in Byzantium 81 Cecily Hennessy 8. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 93 Myrto Hatzaki 9. The Memory Culture of Byzantium 108 Amy Papalexandrou 10. Emotions in Byzantium 123 Martin Hinterberger 11. Having Fun in Byzantium 135 Shaun Tougher Part II God and the World 147 12. Byzantine Views of God and the Universe 149 Mary Cunningham 13. Giving Gifts to God: Aspects of Patronage in Byzantine Art 161 Vassiliki Dimitropoulou 14. Orthodoxy and Northern Peoples: Goods, Gods and Guidelines 171 Jonathan Shepard 15. Christology and Heresy 187 Andrew Louth 16. Beyond Byzantium: the Non–Chalcedonian Churches 199 Niall Finneran Part III Reading Byzantine Texts 225 17. No Drama, No Poetry, No Fiction, No Readership, No Literature 227 Margaret Mullett 18. Rhetorical Questions 239 Mary Whitby 19. Text and Context in Byzantine Historiography 251 Roger Scott 20. Byzantine Narrative: the Form of Storytelling in Byzantium 263 Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis and Ingela Nilsson 21. Byzantine Book Culture 275 Judith Waring Part IV Some Questions in Material Culture 289 22. Archaeology 291 James Crow 23. Makers and Users 301 Anthony Cutler 24. The Limits of Byzantine Art 313 Antony Eastmond 25. Icons and Iconomachy 323 Leslie Brubaker 26. The Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Renaissance 338 John Hanson 27. Late and Post–Byzantine Art under Venetian Rule: Frescoes versus Icons, and Crete in the Middle 351 Angeliki Lymberopoulou Bibliography—Primary Sources 371 Bibliography 384 Index 443

Liz James is Professor of Art History at the University of Sussex. Her books include Light and Colour in Byzantine Art (1996) and Empresses and Power in Early Byzantium (2001).

"If someday A Companion to a Companion to Byzantium is assembled, perhaps at last the histories, cultures, and experiences of Greeks and non–Greeks within the commonwealth, on both sides of the imperial border, will be combined into an integrated vision of this diverse yet interconnected world. Diversity and all the cooperation and tension which accompanied it are, after all, essential and inescapable dimensions of what it meant to be "Byzantine." (Bmcreview, 5 March 2011) "The bibliography is impressive.  The list of primary sources, with editions, is particularly useful.  The secondary sources include items published as recently as 2010.  Summing up: Highly recommended.  All research collections." ( CHOICE , January 2011)"The collection ends with a 71–page bibliography. I note that this and other front and end matter (including a full list of contents, and a handy list of Byzantine rulers and key dates) is available currently as ′free content′ at ′Wiley Online Library′. A subscription to this service appears to provide access to all chapters as PDF files, which would be of great benefit to those wishing to use the collection in teaching." ( International History Review, January 2011) "Written by an impressive group of scholars, the 27 chapters of this companion offer their musings on the state of research in the fields considered, divided into sections on "being Byzantine," God and the world, texts, and material culture. The purpose of the chapters is not to describe the subject, but to describe its study and the current understanding and questions being brought by scholars. The result is a fascinating introduction to the topics and questions of interest in a broad field that will be of interest to the specialized reader as well as the student. Individual chapter topics include the relationship of the provinces to Constantinople, young people, the non–Chalcedonian churches, rhetoric, book culture, archaeology, and the Macedonian renaissance." ( Book News Inc , November 2010)