ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS
The Byzantine Studies Conference is an annual forum for the presentation and discussion of papers embodying current research on all aspects of Byzantine history and culture. The Abstracts of Papers is printed from camera-ready copy supplied by the speakers. Copies are presented to each registered participant, and they are available for purchase by libraries and other interested persons. A five-year subscription covering the years 1980-1984 (Nos. 6- 10) can be ordered for $20. Individual copies of Nos. 6 ff (1980 ff) can be ordered for $5 a copy. Prices quoted include postage. Orders should be prepaid (checks payable to Byzantine Studies Conference) and sent to:
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CONTENTS
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*Note: papers listed with an asterisk in the Index of Speakers were read also at the Sixteenth International Congress of Byzantine Studies in Vienna.
ABSTRACTS organized for printing Byzantine Studies Conference
by Annemarie Weyl Carr.
Abstracts of papers--Byzantine Studies Conference, 1st-
1975-
Madison, Wis. [etc.] Byzantine Studies Conference.
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Key title: Abstracts of papers--Byzantine Studies Conference.
ISSN 0147-3387
1. Byzantine Empire-Congresses.
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Library of Congress 77
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WOMEN AND MONASTICISM
Presiding: Annemarie Weyl Carr
"HUMBLE LEADERSHIP": A CONFLICT OF VALUES IN EARLY FEMALE MONASTICISM
Elizabeth A. Clark (Mary Washington University)
Christianity from its inception was torn between two conflicting desires: to exalt humility as the prime virtue of the Christian life and to convince the pagan world that the rich and the powerful might find the new religion worthy of adherence. Although opportunities for Christians to exercise authority were admittedly limited in the first centuries, the fourth century opened new avenues for the wielding of power. And if the ambiguity present in simultaneously manifesting meekness and exerting authority appears problematic for Christian men of the era (Ambrose provides a nice case in point), it is even more so for women: women labored under the burden not only of Christianity's universal call for humility, but also of its special strictures regarding female subjection, based on such Biblical passages as I Timothy 2:11-15. When, in addition, the women who exercised authority in monasteries were ascetic converts from society's most eminent and wealthy families, the problem of reconciling authority and humility was further exacerbated.
The admittedly limited evidence from the fourth to early sixth centuries is of a twofold nature: (1) the monastic rules expressly for women written by Augustine and Caesarius of Arles, and (2) the Vitae and letters pertaining to particular founders of women's monasteries, such as Paula, Melania the Elder, Olympias, and Melania the Younger. The former documents enjoin the nuns to humility as an answer to conflicts that arose from the mixing of classes within the monastery, a mixing unprecedented in secular life. Obedience to the mother superior is seen as a prime expression of that humility. Her right to exercise authority remains unquestioned, although if she can disguise it as a rule of love, so much the better.
The Vitae and letters concerning individual women also stress humility as their subjects' cardinal virtue. These documents, however, startle the contemporary reader by their near total in attention to the women's organization of monasteries. For example, John Chrysostom never once in his seventeen extant letters to Olympias mentions her in her role as the founder and superior of one of Constantinople's first monasteries for women. Likewise Paula, Melania the Elder, and Melania the Younger: their male biographers so emphasize their humility as to obscure almost totally their administrative abilities. Doubtless one reason for this stress was to dramatize the disparity between the women's earlier lives of luxury and their present abject condition. Yet the emphasis on humility, when coupled with the neglect of women as leaders, could well serve the convenient function of mitigating the discrepancy between Christianity's theoretical consignment of women to silence and submissiveness with the actual competence displayed by the females who organized and oversaw the earliest monasteries for women about which evidence remains.
WOMEN'S MONASTERIES IN THE MIDDLE BYZANTINE PERIOD
Dorothy deF. Abrahamse (California State University, Long Beach)
Despite a growing body of research on female ascetic institutions in western medieval society and the current interest in many aspects of Byzantine monasticism, little specific study has yet been devoted to monastic ideals and institutions for women in the Byzantine Empire. As part of an integrated panel on Byzantine female asceticism, this paper has two purposes. It presents a general background on some of the sources, problems, and prospects for further investigation of women's monasteries in the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries. A single question--the roles of abbesses and masculine overseers within and without their convents during this period--is considered in greater detail.
The sources for women's monastic ideals and practices for this period are diverse and often difficult to assess. A body of writings addressed to the theoretical concerns of female asceticism (canon law and its commentaries, letters and other advice literature and the detailed typikon of Irene Dukas for the monastery of the Theotokos tēs kecharitōmenēs in the early twelfth century) describes a rigidly enclosed community dominated by the principle of absolute separation of sexes among ascetics and the need to protect nuns from the world. Evidence for actual foundations indicates that the middle Byzantine period was one of new prominence for women ascetics, and that their convents often served purposes at variance with the ideals of enclosure. Janin's register of Constantinopolitan monasteries, for example, shows a relatively high ratio of known female foundations for most of this period, and hagiographical sources demonstrate the mobility of women ascetics and the growth of public veneration at the tombs of women saints. A fundamental concern of this paper is the problem inherent in evaluating the relationship between theory and actuality in feminine foundations.
Although the evidence for the size, composition and longevity of convents is much too sparse for general evaluation, it is possible to make some investigation of who endowed convents and why they did so. Four patterns of patronage are evident in this period. Imperial foundations, frequently with empresses as patrons, are especially prominent as burial places, repositories for the relatives of deposed emperors and as homes for imperial daughters and widows. Aristocratic foundations, serving some of the same dynastic needs, appear as family foundations in a variety of sources, but wealthy citizens also appear to have invested in women's monasteries for less immediate reasons. Convents were also established by masculine ascetic leaders for their female relatives (Euthymios the Younger, Peter of Atroa). Finally, hagiographical sources suggest that women's ascetic institutions might develop in response to the charisma of a woman ascetic. An examination of nuns known from seals and landholding documents helps to characterize the popularity of these foundations.
In theory, Byzantine abbesses exercised spiritual authority within their communities, while sacramental needs and external administration were carried out by masculine overseers. In patristic and early Byzantine sources, however, woman ascetics were strongly tied to masculine spiritual directors who played a dominant role in their individual lives and in the functioning of their communities. Middle Byzantine hagiographical sources present a different viewpoint. Although masculine figures are generally present, their roles appear to be less dominant, and abbesses, even when not the heroines of the biography, are portrayed as figures of major authority within the community. A final section of this paper will evaluate these portraits and compare them with earlier texts in an attempt to determine whether they represent any real change in the governance of convents. Against these portraits theoretical writings, the regulations of the typikon of Irene Dukas, and what can be determined of the backgrounds and offices of abbesses and masculine officials will be analyzed to see whether the period saw developments in the way Byzantine writers viewed this relationship, and what varieties of authority may have existed in actuality.
NUNNERIES AND THEIR FOUNDRESSES
Angeliki Laiou (Harvard University and Dumbarton Oaks)
The surviving typika for nunneries of the Comnenian and Palaeologan periods are a precious source for the mentality and the concerns of the women who issued them--members of the court aristocracy. These women had certain common characteristics: a profound pride in their aristocracy and their progeny is a trait which they shared with males of the same class. Evident in the typika is a great family solidarity and loyalty; that affected also the role of the convents which were meant to function, to some extent, as retreats for the female members of the foundress' family. In the particular case of Irene Doukaina, family loyalty was sex-specific, for she entrusted the ephoreia of her convent to her female relatives, to the exclusion of males.
The provisions regarding the administration and economic life of the convents are very revealing. They show a great concern on the part of the foundress for the proper (and conservative) administration of the property. This concern is expressed, among other things, in the detailed fashion in which the duties of the economic/ financial officers of the convent are described. It is clear that the foundresses were women who were used to administering large estates, and versed in the art of bookkeeping . It is also clear that, until the middle of the 14th century, the aristocratic nuns of these convents were expected to know how to read, write and keep accounts.
While the above remarks apply to all the nunneries whose typika survive, there are also some differences which reflect primarily the differences between the twelfth and the early fourteenth centuries. In the twelfth century, there is an insistence on the part of the foundress that contact with the male world be kept at a minimum. In the fourteenth century, this attitude has changed, and a more open relationship with the rest of society is maintained: characterised by the fact that in one convent the oikonomos was to be a nun, and not a man, as was usually the case, whereas in another convent a school for boys and girls survived until the middle of the century. The life of Irene Choumnaina Palaiologina, in the nunnery she restored, serves as an example. She remained close to her family, was very much involved in political affairs, and retained her ties with outsiders, even seeking the company of learned men. It is argued here that in this period urban monasteries in general functioned less as retreats and rather as the last places of habitation of an increasing number of people; which would explain the rather close connection with the rest of society. This phenomenon is characteristic not only of the aristocratic nunneries, but also of smaller and poorer ones.
The aristocratic foundresses of Byzantine nunneries donated to these institutions fairly considerable property, and tried to preserve it against external threats, sometimes by going to court. But they also commonly retained personal property, even after becoming nuns, and administered it themselves. A phenomenon which contradicts canonical legislation, and even the provisions of their own typika, it becomes important when one is trying to examine both the personalities of these women and the realities of Byzantine monasticism.
NUNS AND NUNNERIES OF PALAEOLOGAN CONSTANTINOPLE
Alice-Mary Talbot (Hiram College)
Although in the late Byzantine period both men and women turned to monastic establishments for spiritual and physical refuge, there are indications that monks greatly outnumbered nuns, and that monasteries were more numerous than convents, and better endowed.
Still there were several large and prosperous convents in Palaeologan Constantinople, inhabited by 50-100 nuns, and possessing substantial estates. A brief description will be given of some of the leading nunneries, such as the convents of Christ Philanthropos of Lips, of Ss. Cosmas and Damian, of Lady Martha and of the Virgin of Sure Hope. Typika survive fur three of these convents; the others are known from narrative sources.
The paper will examine in some detail the reasons why women entered convents, their age, marital status, and family background. For some, monastic life was a true vocation embraced in youth; the great majority of Palaeologan nuns, however, were widows who found convents a place of spiritual comfort in their bereavement, a sanctuary where they would be cared for in their declining years; others were women who sought to escape unhappy marriages, or received the tonsure in thanksgiving for a miraculous cure, or in repentance for such sins as sorcery.
Palaeologan nuns played varied roles in their monastic communities, and in the larger context of urban society. The primary occupations of nuns were prayer, attending services, study of the scriptures, attending to administration and housework, handwork, such as embroidery and charitable services. There are also occasional, tantalizing allusions to nuns who copied manuscripts themselves or commissioned the production of manuscripts and church furnishings, or architectural restoration. At least one nun composed canons; others became involved in the theological controversies of the day.
As might be expected, the ideal of cloistered, celibate and communal life which is set forth in the typika. of late Byzantium was not always reflected in reality. Synodal documents reveal scandalous lapses from monastic discipline, and the repeated pleas for asceticism and obedience found in the writings of patriarchs and spiritual confessors lead one to believe that the provisions of typika were frequently disregarded.
On the whole, however, the convents seem to have been capably administered by foundresses, abbesses and conventual officials; for the women of a declining Empire, they provided a safe and peaceful haven, security in old age, and hope of spiritual salvation.
IRENE-EULOGIA CHOUMNAINA PALAIOLOGINA, ABBESS OF THE CONVENT OF PHILANTHRŌPOS SŌTĒR
Angela Constantinides Hero (Queen's College, CUNY)
Daughter of the imperial chancellor Nikephoros Choumnos and daughter-in-law of the emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos, Irene founded the convent of Philanthrōpos Sōtēr shortly after the sudden death of her young husband, the Despot John, in 1307. Her decision to give away her vast fortune and to become a nun at the age of sixteen was due both to the emotional trauma of her bereavement and to the spiritual guidance of the metropolitan Theoleptos of Philadelphia, who remained her director until his death (ca. 1322).
Although none of her letters to that well-known prelate survived, her correspondence with a scholarly hesychast, who became her adviser during her later years and whose identity remains conjectural, has been preserved in part and constitutes not only an important source for the study of spiritual guidance in Byzantium, but also a document of exceptional psychological interest and a unique example of spontaneous correspondence, characterized by an unabashed expression of feeling rarely found in Byzantine epistolography.
The late Fr. Laurent was the first to draw attention to and comment on these letters. I have just completed a critical edition of the letters and the purpose of my paper is to reexamine some of Laurent's conclusions and to add some complementary touches to the picture he painted of the Princess and her director in the light of the evidence in their correspondence as well as in the writings of the principal participants in the Hesychast controversy in which Irene-Eulogia was actively involved. The paper will also comment on the unpublished letters of Theoleptos to the young abbess which show the dominant role that her first spiritual adviser played in her life.
ARCHAEOLOGY
Presiding: James R. Wiseman
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY AND THE STUDY OF BYZANTINE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY
Timothy E. Gregory (Ohio State University)
This paper will present a rationale for the use of intensive, systematic archaeological survey in the study of Byzantine historical geography. It will, in addition, provide examples of the usefulness of this technique from two ongoing surveys in southern Greece.
Byzantine historical geography has so far focused largely on the upper end of the settlement hierarchy, in the identification and location of cities, churches, monasteries, and larger administrative units (e.g. the TIB). Examination of the lower end of the hierarchy--villages, farmsteads, villas--has been possible almost only for the late Byzantine period, and only for very limited areas, where adequate documentary evidence is available (Ahrweiler 1965, Laiou- Thomadakis 1977). Furthermore, much previous analysis has been relatively simplistic; the purpose of research has frequently been only to identify a site and not to say anything about its size or importance. The reason for such an approach is quite obvious: in the absence of better documentary records, the traditional written sources simply will not permit detailed investigation of settlement history.
Archaeological evidence, however, can help to fill the gaps left by the written sources and this has been done most effectively for the western Middle Ages (Rosser 1979, Reece 1980). This is not to suggest that archaeological excavations hold the key to an understanding of Byzantine geography: far from it since excavations are costly and must necessarily focus on small areas and fairly detailed specific issues. Instead, the archaeological surface survey seems to be an appropriate tool to use in the investigation of the patterns of settlement that characterized the Byzantine period.
Archaeological surveys, of course, have been undertaken for years, but they have not always been both intensive and systematic. Investigators frequently conducted a hunt for sites or for evidence of a specific nature without enough thought for the larger methodological questions. An intensive survey, in contrast, is accomplished by examining thoroughly all of the landscape in given areas, which should allow generalizations to the level of the region as a whole. This necessarily involves the application of a proper sampling technique. The degree of intensity of the survey will be determined both by practical and theoretical considerations, such as the level of funding and the minimum size of the settlements which the survey proposes to discover. The survey must also be rigorously systematic in that the procedures for the site discovery and examination must be repeatable and everywhere the same, thus allowing for the comparison of results from all areas of the region surveyed, and hopefully beyond.
Thus, archaeological survey is not merely a "treasure hunt" for the discovery of lost cities or unknown churches, which can then be excavated. It is a series of techniques to gather information which will be valuable in its own right. Thus, archaeological survey should be able to contribute to the chronological study of individual sites and to the overall settlement map of a given region, frequently indicating the settlement size as well as location and presumed importance in the communication network. Analysis of much of the material from archaeological survey can be done through the use of appropriate spatial statistics.
Two recent archaeological surveys demonstrate how such programs can contribute to the study of Byzantine historical geography. The first of these is the Ohio Boeotia Expedition, which began a detailed examination of the Boeotian landscape in 1979, working closely with teams from the Universities of Cambridge and Bradford in England. The Ohio expedition focused its attention on southwest Boeotia, in the city territory of Thisbe. In the early seasons the project has investigated the boundaries of the urban area of Thisbe and it has discovered several concentrations of early, middle and late Byzantine habitation, including the remains of several churches. The second project is a preliminary survey of the Corinthia, carried out under the authority of the Greek Center for Byzantine Studies and with the support of the European Science Foundation.
THE BYZANTINE HARBOR AT MAREA NEAR ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT
Karl M. Petruso (Boston University)
On the southern shore of Lake Maryut, 45 km. southwest of Alexandria, Egypt, lie the remains of a large ancient city. The modern Arabic name of the lake preserves the ancient Greek name of the province, Mareotis, which is likely cognate with ancient Egyptian m-r-t, Îportâ. The site was identified in the 19th century by Mahmoud Bey el Falaki as Marea, capital of the nome of Mareotis during classical antiquity. Marea was renowned for its wine, which was distributed widely about the Mediterranean.
Since 1979 faculty and students of Boston University, at the invitation of Prof. Fawzi el Fakharani of the University of Alexandria, have participated in the excavation of the site. Our efforts have focused on the architectural remains fronting onto the lake, particularly on the westernmost of three large ports. The finger of Lake Maryut on which Marea was sited is today nearly completely desiccated. Thus the harbor facilities, including two jetties ca. 120 m. in length, are fully exposed and extremely well preserved. The most interesting structure yet explored in the West Port is a building whose plan, orientation and elevation suggest that it was a boatyard or graving dock. Pottery within the building indicates that it was in use from ca. the 5th to the 7th centuries. No close contemporary parallels for this building are known; thus it has the potential to tell us much about Byzantine shipbuilding technology. Remains of similar structures can be seen on both sides of this building. Directly behind this complex are large flat rectangular areas which might have been horrea.
Casual reconnaissance a few kilometers farther to the west has revealed another cluster of port facilities, previously unreported, which are even more substantial than those of the harbor currently under investigation.
During the 1981 excavation season, work will continue in the West Port, and we shall begin systematic survey of the outlying areas of the site. We are particularly interested in determining the chronological relationship between the two harbor areas, and between the lake level and the harbors at the time of their use. Documentation of oscillations in lake level might provide clues concerning settlement pattern and the eventual abandonment of the site.
A JUSTINIAN FORTIFICATION NEAR THERMOPYLAE
W. J. Cherf (Loyola University of Chicago)
Recent investigations have established that Dhema, an archaeological site located ca. 13 linear km. west of Thermopylae and just southwest of the modern village of Kato Dhio Vouna, is the location for the sixth century site of Myropoles(2). This conclusion is based upon the best available scientific data-topographical, architectural and archaeological--and upon literary evidence.
Dhema is situated astride the strategic northern entrance of the only easily negotiable, year-round, upland pass connecting the Malian basin with Central Greece(3). This narrow constriction(ca. 200 m. wide x 500 m. long)is formed by the western end of the Trachinian Cliffs and the steep Petseta area slopes of Mount Oeta's southeastern Tsouka promontory.
The architectural remains at Dhema reveal a nearly intact, frontier fortification complex, complete with long walls, signal-towers, and military compound. The chronology for these remains is derived from: their rubble and mortar construction; an experimental lime-mortar C- 14 dating method(4); and the late Roman/ early Byzantine pottery excavated from within the military compound.
Myropoles, an obscure toponym described by Procopius (Aed.IV.ii.17-22)(5), fortified by means of a cross-wall a strategically important mountain pass or cleisura. The author further tells us that this cleisura was the entrance into Central Greece. Finally, Procopius' reliability and the literary analysis of this passage led to the belief that Procopius' topographical and architectural descriptions can be followed and observed(6).
The convergence of the above scientific data and literary evidence indicate, that the above mountain pass is identical with the cleisura described by Procopius in Aed.IV.ii.17; that the Dhema fortifications represent a sixth century frontier phrourion; and finally, that the topographical and architectural details found at Dhema are identical with those described by Procopius. The inescapable conclusion is that Dhema is to be equated with the sixth century site of Myropoles.
(1)As a member of the Loyola University of Chicago Phokis-Doris Expedition in Central Greece under the direction of Prof. E.W. Kase, I had both the opportunity to study, discuss, and investigate the site of Dhema at length(summers of 1976-78, 1980-81), and the pleasure to participate in the expedition's multi-disciplinary activities. (2)Procopius, De Aedificiis IV.ii.17-22. P. MacKay, AJA 67(1963), 250 and E.W. Kase, personal communication. Contra: W. Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, 1, 28, n. I and J. Koder and F. Hild, Hellas und Thessalia, 223, 274. (3)E.W. Kase and G.J. Szemler, "Herodotus 8.31-35. Xerxes' March through Phokis," Klio (forthcoming). (4)R.L.Folk and S. Valastro, JFA 3(1976), 203-8. (5)B. Rubin, RE 23(l)(1957), 28, 14-24. (6)MacKay, 241.
BYZANTINE FRONTIER TOWNS IN THE BASALT COUNTRY OF NORTHERN JORDAN
Geoffrey King (University of Riyad)
In 1980, a survey of Byzantine and early Islamic sites in the Jabal Hawrān in northern Jordan was carried out, concentrating on religious architecture. This field-study continues in 1981. During the 1980 season, the Byzantine sites extending eastwards into the desert from Mafraq were studied: Samā, Umm al-Surab, Umm al-JimāL, Umm al-Quttain, Dair al-Kahf, Dair al-Kinn and Qasr Burquc. The main study of the region as a whole remains that of the Princeton Expeditions of the early 20th century,1 although recently studies have been made of Umm al- Jimāl2 and Qasr Burquc.3
The present survey indicates that the history of the monastery- churches at Samā and Umm al-Surab is more complicated than so far realized. St. George at Samā has two periods of construction during the Byzantine period with major Islamic alterations which the Princeton Expedition misinterpreted; Sts. Sergius and Bacchus at Umm al-Surab is a far more extensive monastery-church than suggested hitherto, and it also has major Islamic additions. In the case of the villages further east, especially Umm al-Quttain, a number of churches were identified, confirming that it was a major Christian site before Islam; however, none of the churches identified were those described by the Princeton Expedition. Several other sites in the vicinity were examined, apparently for the first time, and again a number of churches were noted. In addition to this sustained Christian Arab presence in the area under the Byzantine government, there was a subsequent early Islamic settlement: in a later period, the Ayyūbids and Mamlūks may have re- occupied some sites.
Until the Islamic conquest in the 7th century AD, the Hawrān villages marked the southernmost east-west line of settled Christian communities in contact with the Arab tribes in the desert and with the Byzantine government centres towards the Mediterranean coast. These villages are situated at the end of the route from Wādī Sirhān and Dūmat al-Jandal, as wel as the Hijāz, areas of Arabia particularly exposed to Christianity before Islam.
1 H.C. Butler, et al., Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904-1905 and 1909 (Leyden, 1909-1921). 2 B. de Vries, "Research at Umm el-Jimāl, Jordan, 1972-1977," Biblical Archaeologis , vol. 42, no. 1 (Winter, 1979), pp. 49-55. Dr. de Vries proposes to undertake further excavations at Umm al-Jimāl in Summer, 1981. 3 H. Gaube, "An Examination of the Ruins of Qasr Burquc," Annual of the Department of Antiquities (of Jordan) 19 (1974): 93-100.
THE BYZANTINE HARBOR OF CAESAREA MARITIMA: A PRELIMINARY REPORT
Robert Hohlfelder (University of Colorado, Boulder)
Although some scholars have maintained that Caesarea Maritima (Israel) declined in importance during the early Byzantine era,1 recent archaeological data suggest quite the opposite. The current excavations at this important Mediterranean site are uncovering the remains of a major early Byzantine metropolis that may in fact have reached its floruit in the sixth century. It would appear that extensive rebuilding and expansion began in the late fifth century, perhaps during the reign of Anastasius I, and continued at least through the reign of Justinian.2
While extant literary sources and the land excavations conducted to date provide no evidence about the location or nature of the harbor that served Byzantine Caesarea, it can be safely assumed that a major port did exist to accommodate the city's revived maritime commerce.3 During the summer of 1981, the Caesarea Ancient Harbour Excavation Project (CAHEP), operating under the aegis of the Center for Maritime Studies of the University of Haifa and funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, undertook underwater explorations of the submerged ruins of Caesarea's three harbors/anchorages in an effort to locate and define the Byzantine facilities.
The preliminary investigations of the last summer suggest that the main harbor of Roman Caesarea, the magnificent and 'modern' complex built by Herod the Great and described in detail by Josephus (JA, XV, 334-338), was rehabilitated sometime in the early Byzantine era, probably during the early years of the reign of Anastasius I.4 Although it is not yet clear how extensive the rebuilding program was or how much of the Roman port was restored to service at this time, it seems probable that at least portions of the outer harbor of Herod's complex continued in use until and perhaps beyond the city's capture by the Arabs in 639/640. In addition, it seems likely that two possible anchorages discovered in the bay south of the Roman port, where an important Byzantine commercial and governmental district fronted the sea, could have been available for use during periods of favorable weather. To the north of the city center, adjacent to the synagogue excavated by Professor M. Avi-Yonah, the proposed Hellenistic harbor of Strato's Tower seems to have been abandoned by the Byzantine period. A fortification wall was constructed here on top on an earlier quay, which by the late fifth century was largely submerged owing to a c. 1.0 m. rise in sea level since Caesarea's foundation 500 years earlier.
1 Lee I. Levine, Caesarea Under Roman Rule (Leiden, 1975) 135-139. 2 Robert C. Wiemken and Kenneth G. Holum, "The Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima: Eighth Season, June 24-July 27, 1979," forthcoming in BASOR; see also Appendix B to this article, "Coin Finds: A Conspectus," by Robert L. Hohlfelder. 3 Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus in Imp. Anastasium, XIX, speaks in general of the restoration project but does not indicate which harbor or anchorage received the emperor's prudent attention. 4 Avner Raban and Robert L. Hohlfelder, "The Ancient Harbors of Caesarea Maritima," Archaeology 34 (1981) 56-60.
THE BYZANTINE MOSAIC PAVEMENTS FROM CAESAREA MARITIMA--450 TO 650
Marie Spiro (University of Maryland, College Park)
Over seventy geometric and figural mosaic pavements were excavated between 1972 and 1980 by the Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima. in Israel. They come primarily from the public and official sectors of the city, to date the main focus of the excavations, and reflect the influence of their architectural contexts.
By far, the majority of the pavements contain large-scale geometric designs of intersecting and adjacent octogons and oblique and straight grids. They are articulated by simple fillets or narrow bands and are inscribed with small, stepped geometric or floral motifs. The color scheme for the designs and filling motifs is limited to black, red and red/ochre and a local "pseudo-white" limestone (with gradations from beige to yellow) is used for the ground. This "pseudo-white" limestone is also used for the monochrome floors which sometimes are inscribed with Greek inscriptions. The tesserae from these pavements are irregular in size and shape and the foundations are poorly mixed.
These rather crude mosaics are located along the cardines and decumani and in a bathing establishment. They reflect their utilitarian function in the size, color and material of their designs. Elsewhere, at a distance from the main avenues, the geometric pavements are more complex and polychromatic, the filling motifs are larger and more varied and the tesserae smaller and more regular. Still, in comparison with the style and technique of the figural mosaics, they also are less than impressive.
Although few figural pavements have been uncovered to date, it is clear that at least one workshop had master craftsmen. Recent excavations in an area containing an Archives building, an official Audience Hall and a building with inscriptions honoring past Governors of the Province brought to light a room with large fragments of an impressive polychrome mosaic. In its original state, the composition comprised a figural panel in each corner of the room, separated by complex meander swastikas, and a fifth panel, possibly more, in the center. The corners contained the Four Seasons (only winged, female busts of Spring and Winter survive) and the central panel, largely destroyed, probably continued the cosmographic theme of nature since part of a Greek inscription is preserved, KARPO. The Seasons are very well executed with small limestone, marble and glass tesserae (to 3mm). Spring, however, is more naturalistic and classical while Winter is more abstract and byzantine. Indeed, the latter more closely resembles other figural representations in Palestine from the same period, 450-550, a chronology established by ceramic finds from the sealed strata beneath the pavement. For Spring there is no analogy from this period in Palestine or, for that matter, in other areas of the Greek East. She represents a remarkable example of the revival or survival of the classical style in official art of the Holy Land.
BYZANTINE LITERATURE
Presiding: Ihor Ševčenko
JULIAN AS MENIPPEAN SATIRIST
Joel C. Relihan (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Julian's Caesares is, despite recent misgivings (cf. B. Baldwin, Klio 60 (1978) 449ff), a Menippean satire. An analysis of Julian's traditional and original exploitations of Menippean motifs shows clearly the comic context in which Julian's predecessors and the Olympian gods are presented. This analysis refutes the modern criticism which sees in the Caesares a work of serious tone that serves as propaganda for Julian's religious views and depicts him as the heir of the intellectual and military excellences of the Greek and Roman worlds.
In the introduction, 306A-307A, the narrator says that he will tell, at second hand, a comic story to fulfill the requirements of the Saturnalia. The fantastic source of his tale (the god Hermes) and the separation of the narrator from the truth of the story which he tells (he does not know whether Hermes is telling the truth or not) are both characteristic of Menippean satire (cf. the introductions to Seneca's Apoc., Capella, and Fulgentius' Mythologies). The tone is definitely established as tongue-in-cheek.
The anecdotal history of the Roman emperors which follows in 308D-316A is related to the abbreviated Roman histories current in the fourth century. The presentation however is comic and abusive. The only genre which allows a comic display of encyclopedic knowledge is Menippean satire. Varro makes this device crucial to Latin Menippean satire, and it is prominent in the late classical Menippean satirists Capella, Fulgentius, and even Boethius. Julian's models for the Caesares are largely Roman.
Roman history is therefore given a comic form. Furthermore Silenus, playing the role of mocker (cf. Menippus in Lucian's Icaro. and Momus in Jup.Trag.), makes jokes at the obvious expense of both emperors and gods. Other Menippean structures confirm the comic intent of the narrator's tale. The kataskopos, or view from heaven of human folly (cf. Lucian Icaro.11ff and, in parodied form, Seneca Apoc.12 and Varro's Endymiones), is here used in a new way, when the gods in heaven review the follies of the emperors in the sublunar sphere. The gods are figures of fun not only because of Silenus' abuse, but also because of their presence at a symposium (cf. Capella, and the symposia in Petronius and various of Varro's Menippeans). The Caesares therefore comically presents unworthy applicants for godhead and unworthy gods to try their merits; this is the humor of both Seneca's Apoc. and part of Lucian's Jup.Trag.
The conclusion of the Caesares is typically Menippean in that it puts an ambiguous end to a seemingly serious debate. The winner of the imperial contest for deification is not announced at 335C. All contestants are given the same prize, and are allowed into the heavenly company on the same terms, although at the outset only one was to be admitted as a companion for Romulus (316A). Julian's bitterness at the injustice of this is seen in Zeus' pardon of the evil Constantine at 336B; this is parallel to the equally bitter end of the Apoc., where Claudius is relieved of his evil torment. In both authors, the Roman imperial custom of apotheosis is tacitly condemned.
The Caesares is not a consistent anti-Christian polemic. Nor is it a NeoPlatonic myth, for the gods here are not lofty allegorizations but traditional and flawed Olympians. Julian abuses the traditional gods and the emperors who believed in them, while asserting his unique devotion to Mithras and his right to access to heaven without delay (336C). What we see ultimately in the Caesares is Julian's well-known pride, for he disassociates himself from his predecessors both in nobility of earthly purpose and in depth of religious feeling.
THE MAKING OF A MANDARIN OF LATE ANTIQUITY: CONSTANTII ORATIO AND THEMISTIUS' "ELITE MOBILITY"
Lawrence J. Daly (Bowling Green State University)
In 355 Themistius was adlected by Constantius II into the senate of Constantinople. That emperor's dmgoria announcing as well as explaining the philosopher's appointment was read to the senate on 1 September 355 and now survives in the Themistian corpus (Themistii Orationes, ed. G. Downey & A.F. Norman [Teubner, 1974] 111, 121-128). Adlection into the senate of Constantinople initiated the distinguished political career of that scholar-official whose service would span three decades and encompass terms as proconsul, ambassador, court tutor, polemicist, and urban prefect during the reigns of Constantius, Valens, and Theodosius.
The thesis of this paper is that the Constantii oratio--a document A. Alfoldi rightly termed "a formal confession of faith in the higher culture" (A Conflict of Ideas in the Late Roman Empire [1952] 28)--can be interpreted from a sociological frame-of-reference to explicate and elucidate, in terms of contemporaneous evidence, Keith Hopkins' structural analysis of social mobility in late antiquity ("Elite Mobility in the Roman Empire," Past and Present 32 [1965] 12-26; "Social Mobility in the Later Roman Empire. The Evidence of Ausonius," CQ 11 [1961] 239-249). Employing the Hopkins model, analysis of Constantius' message to the senate spelling out his reasons for Themistius' adlection reveals the three processes that "involved mobility in the assimilation of provincials into the Roman honour system": 1) "emperors could and did employ non-aristocrats in positions of power"; 2) "the development of differ- entiated institutions ... which limited aristocratic power"; and 3) "emperors were interested in the uniform or maximum exploitation of the empire" P&P 32, p. 20). Verification of the thesis will involve not only elaboration of the three processes as articulated in the Constantii oratio but also its correlation with Themistius' early biography, itself a typology of mobility. The conclusion expects to demonstrate the value as well as the validity of Hopkins' model in configuring and explaining the patron-client relationship (in terms of its form and dynamics) of the boorish prince and the ambitious professor.
Such an analytical framework also promises dividends in researching other aspects of Themistius' career and orations. For the interpretation of his behavior as a mandarin carries with it a reassessment of key features of his biography--for example, his insistence on the collaboration between philosophy and politics, his views concerning the senate and the monarchy, his ambivalence toward Julian, his plea for toleration, and his advocacy of a policy of accommodation with the barbarians, not to mention his promotion of Constantinople which cost him the friendship of Libanius.
THE LETTERS OF THEOPHYLAKTOS SIMOKATTA, A "SCRIPTOR NON INIUCUNDUS"
Ann Moffatt (Australian National University, Canberra)
None of Theophylaktos Simokatta's works can be dated precisely though the dialogue and prooemium prefacing the History of the reign of Maurice imply that the History was written under Heraklios, and that this was because the reign of Maurice's immediate successor, Phokas, had not provided a climate suitable for free expression. Charles Garton, translating the little debate On Predestined Terms of Life, sensibly remarked that at whatever age Theophylaktos actually wrote it "the temper is that of a young man recently through the rhetorical schools". The same is true of the Problems of Natural History, in introducing which Theophylaktos adopts the stance of addressing his teachers, acknowledging that he was just then learning to tread the halls of the literary Žlite. The 85 classicizing letters of Theophylaktos at first sight read as charming but harmless literary exercises on pastoral, amatory and moralizing themes. When were they written and for what purpose?
Some topics or phrases appear in two or more of Theophylaktos' works and are signals of important motifs. Both letter I and the dialogue of the History refer to rhetoric, philosophy and history as having been for a long time as good as dead. In each case Theophylaktos uses almost identical words to suggest that Philosophy is now free to explore and has come to dwell in per- son amongst mankind. While there is no doubt that a political reference was intended in the introduction to the History, could this also have been the case with the first letter? Or was Theophylaktos in the History simply using one of his earlier rhetorical flourishes in a new, political context? In the dialogue History remarks to Philosophy that their saviour has established a platform and free speech. Likewise in letter 1 the trilling cicada who represents the literary revival has his platform. Together the statements of letter I seem too strong to be innocent, and letter 1 at least is not an early work.
The dialogue and prooemium stand unconnected with the rest of the History. Similarly only The first letter reads as a pointed allusion to the new order under Heraklios. Nevertheless, Because of this, events in Theophylaktos' lifetime might be alluded to in some of the other letters. E.g. in letter 4 a tyrant is advised to set limits to his anger. In letter 27 a farmer is urged to emigrate from Attica to Etna. They have been unable to contend with both famine and the enemy. An Athenian setting is used for the Problems of Natural History and Theophylaktos sees himself writing in the Attic tradition, but this does not preclude contemporary relevance in reference to Attica. Letters 5 and 71 also speak of farmers driven off the land by the enemy.
However, the bulk of these tightly constructed letters succeed because once the scene is described or topos elaborated a twist is given to it which takes the letter out of the class of a harmless literary exercise. There is a barb to these pieces which suggests something more than Boissonade's description of Theophylaktos as a "scriptor non iniucundus, nec ut in mala aetate malus".
THE YEARS 591-602 IN THEOPHYLACT'S ECUMENICAL HISTORY
Timothy Duket (Boston College)
The seventh century historian Theophylact is often considered unreliable in his chronology of events, especially for the years 591-602. This decade in Theophylact's Ecumenical History is of crucial importance to scholars of early Byzantine history, however, and is accessible almost exclusively through Theophylact. As a result, each scholar, as he or she attempts to develop an exact chronology, comes to some opinion about Theophylact. Blaming discrepancies in Theophylact's history on the "literary construction" of the work, N.H. Baynes believed, for example, that Theophylact often became bored with his straightforward narrative and added out-of-place digressions. For Baynes, Bury, Goubert, Hauptmann, Labuda and Lemerle the fault was to be found in Theophylact.1 This paper, on the contrary, assumes the reliability of Theophylact's history for study of 591-602.
There is time to discuss in detail only three parts of my revised chronology for these years, but three that may have the widest interest. Because, however, my arguments are part of a recalculation of this period as a whole, I am providing a chronological chart which lists all events mentioned by Theophylact, fits them in appropriate years and indicates how they have been dated by other scholars. The three topics in this paper are (1) the probable source of Theophylact's information for this period and the chronological implications of such a source, that is, the testimony of two fellow officers of the centurion Phocas interviewed by Theophylact after 622, (2) dating an embassy from the Frank Theodoric to the Roman Maurice in 596, and (3) a relationship between the Avaro-Slavic siege of Thessalonika, known to have ended on Sunday, September 22 in 586 or 597 and mentioned only in the Miraculi Demetrii, and the Avar siege of Drizipera in 597.
Resolution of these and the related chronological problems has a certain significance, My revised chronology provides a place in Theophylact's narrative for the siege of Thessalonika. Its absence from Theophylact hitherto served to weaken one's confidence both in the comprehensiveness of Theophylact's history and in the historicity of the Miraculi Demetrii. Secondly, this chronology retains Theophylact's sequence of events in its entirety. Finally, one can offer a more definite interpretation of the impressive reign of emperor Maurice. He enjoyed fifteen years of success, including a lasting and favorable peace with the Persians and a 586-597 modus vivendi with the Avars as well. These 15 years to 596/97 ended when the 5-year-old Emperor became deathly ill. Only as Maurice withdrew from personal control of imperial affairs did the Avars renew attacks on the Romans, first in 597 and again in 601. As late as 601 invaluable Theophylact gives us a glimpse of the character of the Maurice era in the terms of a treaty, diomologeitai de Rhōmaiois kai Abarois ho Istros mesitēs, kata de Sklaubēnōn exousia ton potomon dianēxasthai: two warring powers, Avar and Roman, grudgingly cooperating to deal with a rising tide of Slav migrants; Avars, Romans, Franks, Lombards and Persians in one political environment. This ends with Maurice's murder.
1 N.H. Baynes, "The Literary Construction of the History of Theophylact Simocatta" in Xenia, Hommage Internationale ˆ l'UniversitŽ de Grce (Athens, 1912); J.B. Bury, "The Chronology of Theophylact Simokatta", EHR 3(1888), 310-315; P. Goubert, Byzance avant lâIslam, II, 1 (Paris, 1956), 90; L. Hauptmann, "Les rapports des Byzantins avec les Slaves et les Avares pendant la seconde moitiŽ du sixime sicle", Byzantion 4(1927-28), 137-170; G. Labuda, "Chronologie des guerres de Byzance contre les Avares et les Slavs ˆ la fin du sixime sicle", Byzantinoslavica 2 (1950), 167-173; P. Lemerle, "Invasions et migrations dans les Balkans depuis la fin de lâŽpoque romaine jusquâau huitime sicle", Revue Historique of 1954, 291, 292nl.
A CORPUS OF ANONYMOUS BYZANTINE POEMS
Barry Baldwin (University of Calgary)
One of the many debts owed by Byzantinists to Professor Robert Browning is his editio princeps of the group of anonymous poems contained in Cod. Oxon. Baracci 50, a manuscript now commonly regarded as from the tenth century. Since this publication (Byzantion 33 (1963), 289-315--reprinted in B's Variorum Studies on Byzantine History, Literature, and Education), no further work on the poems seems to have been done, a claim confirmed (per litt.) by Professor Browning himself, who has encouraged me to the present study.
The corpus consists of 29 poems, all iambic, ranging in length from 4 lines to 51. Religion is their common theme, with most being epigrams on icons of Christ, the Virgin, and various saints. By no stretch of the imagination could they be called great poems. However, they should be of comparative interest to the students of the religious epigrams of (say) Theodore the Studite or John Mauropous, not to mention the first book of the Palatine Anthology. And, as Browning himself observes, these poems are not without literary and linguistic interest.
Browning inclines to see the corpus as the work of a single poet writing around 900. He bases this view on the similarity in language and metre between the poems and on the sometimes strident iconodule content which, he suggests, best fits the period after the orthodox restoration of 842. A reasonable conclusion, to say the least, and I have no theories on other matters which would benefit from its overturning. However, if only for the sake of discussion and refutation, a contrary view might be aired. There is nothing inherently improbable about the notion of a collection of anonymous poems from different sources and periods; the Palatine Anthology and all that goes into it provides the obvious point of comparison. Homogeneity of language and style need not be conclusive: second-rate epigrams on common themes cannot usually be told apart without a scorecard. Moreover, the paper will point to a few details which might imply at least more than one author. For his dating, Browning adduces a few passages which seem strongly iconoclastic in tone. But there had been strong language on both sides of this subject since at least the 4th century (cf. for easy reference the documents collected in Iconoclasm (ed. Bryer-Herrin).
Subject to the exigencies of time, the proposed paper examines the content and language of the poems (with copies of B's text made available to the audience). In two respects, some improvement over B's commentary may be possible. First, considerations of external factors such as changes in iconography (cf. the two valuable papers by Henry Maguire in DOP 28 and 31) may assist in the general dating of at least some of the poems.
Second, the language of the poems can be shown to be a good deal less unusual than Browning claims. A fair number of the alleged hapax legomena or neologisms can in fact be seen elsewhere, sometimes in patristic texts, sometimes in the efforts of other Byzantine iambographers, with strikingly similar content.
The corpus of epigrams, then, falls very naturally into the general traditions of Byzantine writing about icons, and for this reason they merit the attention of students of the iconoclastic controversy as well as Byzantine poetry.
WHAT THE MEN OF KIEV SAW AT TSARGRAD IN 911
John Wortley (University of Manitoba)
The Russian Primary Chronicle has not generally been highly regarded as a reliable source for Byzantine history, especially in its earlier pages, mainly because so little of what it has to say can be controlled elsewhere. Having noted a certain curious coincidence which seemed to suggest at least a degree of factual basis to an early episode in the Chronicle, the visit of the Kievan delegation to Tsargrad in 911 (see Analecta Bollandiana 89 [1971] 149-154), the present writer has now proceeded to examine some other details recorded in connection with that event. When their business was concluded, the emperor (Leo VI) had the R™s shown "the Golden Palace and the riches contained therein", which included: "the relics of our Lord's Passion and the crown, the nails, the purple robe, as well as the bones of the saints. . . ." As something can be known of the ways in which the imperial relic-collection was built up--at the Lighthouse Church--from its foundation by [?] Constantine V to its despoliation in 1204, it should be possible to deduce from which relics are mentioned and also (though less confidently) from those that are not, at what time any given description of the collection originated.
The matter of putting the Russian Primary Chronicle to this test is complicated by the fact that it presents both the first surviving description of the collection and the last for almost two centuries. Prima facie the mention of the nails seems to indicate an observation made later than the year 1106, but it may be possible that this was a mistaken reference to the [point of the] Holy Lance. If this explanation carries any weight, then there are sufficient data and inter-relating factors to suggest that the passage in question was based ultimately on eye-witness experience, and that this experience is more likely to have occurred during the period 870-944 than at any other time, that being the period in which the relics mentioned in the Chronicle are most likely to have been already assembled, and to have constituted the chief attractions in the imperial relic collection. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate one way in which a detailed study of how relics were acquired by and disposed at Constantinople (in which the writer is heavily engaged) can serve the practical interests of Byzantinists and other students of the mediaeval world.
LATE BYZANTINE QUESTIONS
Presiding: Michael Jacoff
THEODORE HAGIOPETRITES AND THESSALONIKI
Robert S. Nelson (University of Chicago)
The late Byzantine scribe, Theodore Hagiopetrites, was active in the years between 1277/8 and 1307/8, and today there survive seventeen of his signed manuscripts of which sixteen are dated. The present writer is studying these from the varied perspectives of palaeography, codicology, textual criticism, and art history in an effort to define the characteristics of Hagiopetrites' oeuvre and to elucidate the stages in his career. In the process, it has been possible to attribute four other manuscripts to him and to identify three texts written by closely related scribes. The criteria for these attributions can be developed in detail for any of the four codices, but one in Gšttingen, UniversitŠtsbibl.
Theol. gr. 28 from 1289/90, is of particular interest. Its script, canon tables, Gospel prefaces, quire signatures, headpieces, and major initials conform closely to Hagiopetrites' work from this period. Furthermore, the Gšttingen manuscript contains an owner entry which aids in localizing Hagiopetrites' work. At the back, a hand different from the scribe's has erased the parts of the colophon which probably once designated the original copyist, and has added the name Antonios Malakis, a known collector of Greek manuscripts in the second half of the thirteenth century and, according to one colophon, the archbishop of Veroia in 1287. The manuscript is linked, therefore, to the general region around Thessaloniki.
Several documented manuscripts of Hagiopetrites also have indications of a similar nature. A. Turyn has shown that Brit. Lib. Burney 21 was copied for the Philokales monastery in Thessaloniki, and in correspondence with this author, Professor Turyn has noted that Kosinitza ms. 35 contains a hagiographic text about the Latamos monastery in Thessaloniki. A note in Vatopedi cod. 962, written in 1283/4, establishes that by 1308/9 the book belonged to a member of the Sarantinos family, prominent landowners in Macedonia in the fourteenth century. Furthermore, eleven of the seventeen documented manuscripts of Hagiopetrites are, or once were, in libraries of Northern Greece. Of the six remaining books, five are first documented only in Western European collections and cannot be traced back to the territory of the Byzantine Empire. The last manuscript, Mt. Sinai gr. 277, is presently in the Eastern Mediterranean, but there is no reason to suppose that it was made anywhere near the Sinai desert. Finally, illuminations in two manuscripts, Mt. Athos, Pantocrator 47 and Williamstown, Mass., Williams College, cod. De Ricci 1, have specific connections with Palaeologan art of Macedonia, suggesting that Hagiopetrites collaborated with miniaturists from the same area. Evidence of a varied nature argues, therefore, for localizing the scribe's activity in the region of Thessaloniki.
THE ATTRIBUTION OF A FOURTH LECTIONARY MANUSCRIPT TO THE ATELIER OF THE PALAIOLOGINA, VAT. GR. 352
Kathleen Maxwell (University of Chicago)
Hugo Buchthal and Hans Belting recently published an outstanding group of manuscripts of the late thirteenth century which are related by their ornament or script.1 The manuscripts have been divided into two groups on the basis of the style of their script: one consisting of seven Gospelbooks, a New Testament and three Lectionaries and another comprising a Praxapostolos and three Psalters. The purpose of this paper is to note the existence of another Lectionary in the Vatican Library (Vat. gr. 352) which may be attributed to the first group. As is true of the three Lectionaries cited by Buchthal and Belting, the text of Vat. gr. 352's Menologium indicates that the manuscript was intended for use in Constantinople and it, likewise, contains solely ornamental illumination consisting of headpieces and initials. Appropriate parallels for its headpieces (folios 1, 44, 69, 99 and 179) can be cited in Buchthal and Belting's publication, but two may be singled out for special attention. The large, two- column rectangular headpiece marking the beginning of the readings from the Gospel of John (fol. 1) parallels that on fol. 1 of the Sinai Lectionary 228.2 While the gold band at the beginning of the readings from the Gospel of Mark (fol. 99) is a variation of the 'pseudo-Kufic' type which occurs only rarely in other products of the atelier. The closest parallel is again found in the Sinai Lectionary in an unpublished example on fol. 261. The three remaining headpieces maintain an excellent standard of quality, but are smaller in scale, being only one column in width.
Vat. gr. 352's text is profusely ornamented with illuminated initials which may be classified according to one of four types. The most popular style is the splendid gold and colored epsilon and tau initials which find numerous parallels in manuscripts of both groups. On occasion, the distribution of the various types of initials throughout the text clearly indicates codicological correlatives in that one quire may limit itself to one type of initial. A special relationship between Vat. gr. 352 and the Sinai Lectionary is confirmed by their mutual use of unusual initial types to introduce the same textual passage on two occasions.
Vat. gr. 352's importance is enhanced by the presence on fol. 244 of a nonscribal colophon of the year 1375 which indicates that at this date the manuscript belonged to the Church of the Theotokos of the Brontochion in Mistra. Mistra was the capital of the Byzantine dependency of the Greek Peloponnesus alternately known as the Morea. The information contained in the colophon contains nothing which detracts from Profs. Buchthal and Belting's proposed patron for the atelier, Theodora Palaiologina Raoulaina.
Finally, the script of Vat. gr. 352 is in every way comparable to the most representative examples of the first group. In short, the ornament and script of Vat. gr. 352 can be successfully compared to the most illustrative member~ of the group defined by Profs. Buchthal and Belting. Neither its script nor its ornament has anything in common with the non-inclusive aspects of some members of the first group and its place as the fourth Lectionary manuscript of the atelier is thereby confirmed.
1Patronage in Thirteenth-Century Constantinople: An Atelier of Late Byzantine Book Illumination and Calligraphy, (Dumbarton Oaks Studies, XVI) Washington, D.C., 1978; cf. also the review by G. Vikan, Art Bulletin LXIII (1981): 325ff. An expanded version of this paper will be published in Dumbarton Oaks Papers XXXVII (1983). 2 Ibid., pl. 32a.
THE BROTHERS PHOKA AND PALAEOLOGAN PAINTING IN CRETE
Thalia Gouma-Peterson (College of Wooster)
Late-fourteenth and fifteenth-century Palaeologan painting has not received the careful attention it deserves, doubtless because it is to a large degree a retrospective art that lacks the optimism, confidence, and vitality which had produced early-Palaeologan art of C. 1270-1320. Even the two most significant painted ensembles of this period, the frescoes of the Peribleptos (c. 1370-1390) and the Pantanassa (c. 1428) at Mistras, both of excellent quality, have not as yet received monographic treatment.
Though retrospective, eclectic, and conservative, the art of this period is, in fact, especially interesting because its development leads from the over-charged and mobile mannerism of the Pantanassa frescoes to the severe, calm, and restrained style of Theophanes the Cretan, one of the central figures of the post-Byzantine Cretan School. His frescoes at the monastery of St. Nicholas Anapavsas at Meteora (1527) exemplify the Cretan School at its best.
It has become clear in recent research that this style was in process of formation during the last decades of the Empire and that it is not a post-Byzantine phenomenon. In this development from late-Byzantine to post-Byzantine art the island of Crete, with its wealth of fourteenth and fifteenth-century churches and the documented activity of its numerous resident painters, played a central role.
For some of these painters we are fortunate to have both pictorial and archival documentation. The Ritzos family, of at least three generations of icon painters active c. 1451-1571, is the most famous example. Less known but equally important are the Phoka brothers, whose dated paintings in three small churches of eastern Crete span a period from 1436 to 1454, and whose presence in Candia is also attested by legal documents. This paper will examine the frescoes created by the Phoka brothers and their contribution to the development of late Palaeologan style. The quality of the paintings and the nature of their style, makes them significant examples of the art of the Empire during its last decades.
The documented evidence provided by the work of the Phoka brothers confirms the formation of the so-called Cretan style by the mid-fifteenth century and shows that within that style different artists created personal variants which do not conform to a linear chronological sequence. It is fortunate that the two brothers were careful to record both the authorship and the date of their paintings in lengthy dedicatory inscriptions and that these are unusually well preserved, for otherwise this group of painted decorations would, on stylistic grounds, probably have been dated in the sixteenth century.
A LATE BYZANTINE DEFENSE OF THE LATIN CHURCH FATHERS
Frances Kianka (Reston, Virginia)
The last century of Byzantine history was a period marked by destructive civil wars, social unrest, urban violence, and irreversible defeats at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. It was also a time of intellectual ferment from within and new currents of thought from without. The best known and perhaps most significant of these was the theological method and synthesis of Thomas Aquinas, introduced to Byzantium in the 1350's by the translations of Demetrius Cydones and his brother Prochorus. The Byzantine reaction to Thomism, its total acceptance by Cydones and his followers, its rejection by notable theologians such as Nilus Cabasilas, and its later guarded acceptance by George Scholarius, has already been explored, at least to some extent.
Less well known, however, is the introduction by the same Demetrius Cydones and his "Latin circle" of a number of Latin patriotic and scholastic texts into the world of Byzantine theological polemics. The Byzantine reaction to these works, Greek translations of Augustine, Pseudo-Augustine, and Anselm of Canterbury, remains almost entirely unexamined. What, in fact, was the Byzantine response to the works of Augustine and Anselm which taught the filioque or to Anselm's treatise justifying the Latin use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist? In the decades ]preceding the Council of Florence, what was the Byzantine reaction to the demand made by Cydones and his followers that the Latin Fathers be accepted on an equal footing with the great names of Byzantine theology, such as Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus?
A short polemical treatise of the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century offers a partial answer to these questions. This work, first mentioned by the late Dominican scholar R. J. Loenertz, who gave it the title On the Authority of the Latin Church Fathers, remains unedited. The text is preserved in a single manuscript, Vaticanus graecus 1879, written in the careful hand of Cydones's younger disciple Manuel Calecas. Since Loenertzâs brief notice of it in the course of editing the correspondence of Calecas, no one has yet examined its contents or determined whether the work should be counted among the polemical works of Demetrius Cydones, as Loenertz suggested.
Yet the treatise does merit consideration. Even a cursory reading of the text indicates that the author was clearly pro-Latin, and its preservation in a manuscript belonging to Calecas points to a member of Cydones's group as its author. Putting aside for the moment the question of whether this pro-Latin author was Cydones, Calecas, or some other member of their circle, this paper will deal with the contents of the treatise itself. A brief summary will be given of the author's arguments for the use of Latin patristic writings in theological discussions and his heated replies to objections of his opponents. This new information will then be considered in the light of late Byzantine anti-Latin polemics and the pro-unionist position of Cydones's Latin circle.
VERONA, SALZBURG AND VENICE: ARTISTIC LINKS IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
Luba Eleen (University of Toronto)
Continuing study of the two Verona New Testaments in the Vatican Library has led to the suggestion that there existed in that city in the thirteenth century a large workshop using factory-like methods. It was composed of individuals of diverse origins who had access to models drawn from similarly diverse sources. Consideration of the iconography reveals that among the models available to this group of illuminators were exempla from Salzburg, from the Veneto, and from Byzantium. It is also evident that the stylistic sources encompass this variety as well.
In order to distinguish between the style used by individual artists and their iconographic models it is necessary to review what I have discovered about the methods of production used by the Verona workshop. In the assembly-line process there, was, apparently, a principal draughtsman responsible for all of the underdrawings in each of the manuscripts. We can get an idea of the style of these drawings from a third New Testament manuscript for which the intended overpaintings were never carried out; underdrawings can also be discerned in the painted manuscripts where the green pigment has rubbed off.
These drawings are in a style common in North Italy and unlike that of Salzburg or Byzantium. Forms are defined by a silhouette outline with little indication of the drapery patterns of the finished product. The elaborate drapery evident in many of the scenes is, therefore, the contribution of the colourists, several of whom worked on each of the manuscripts. Some of the finishers used a "Romanesque" system of primary colour combined with a type of drapery arranged in simple shapes, with little colour modulation. Both of these characteristics are reminiscent of Salzburg, although the colour range is different. There is a contrasting style/colour complex used by another group of colourists, a rather eccentric interpretation of articulated Byzantine drapery and "impressionistic" Byzantine colour, in which highlight and shadow are represented by contrasting hues, rather than by--or in addition to--light and dark tones.
Having defined the contribution made by artists trained in disparate traditions, we are now in a position to penetrate beyond their individual contributions, in an attempt to lay bare their models, which they tended to copy passively. It becomes possible to identify their sources, which fall into three categories: a central core of material which had been circulating in Italy for several centuries and, in addition, more recent importations from both Byzantium and Salzburg, all co-existing rather clumsily in one hastily assembled admixture. Similar elements are to be found in contemporary works of Veneto art. The uneasy eclecticism of the Verona workshop gives insight, therefore, into the elements that made up the more harmonious synthesis of Veneto miniature painting in the mid-century.
PYRGOS--STL'P--DONJON. A WESTERN FORTIFICATION CONCEPT ON MOUNT ATHOS, AND ITS SOURCES
Slobodan Ćurčić (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
Late Byzantine monastic fortifications are distinguished by the presence of single dominant towers --pyrgoi (sing. pyrgos in Greek; stl'p in Old Church Slavonic). Their affinities with western medieval fortification towers--donjons--have been noted, while the Crusades have been considered the means by which this western fortification concept reached the Byzantine world. The entire matter is far from being fully understood and deserves considerable further study.
The fortification towers of Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos represent a coherent group and offer some valuable insights regarding the chronology and sources of a specific tower type. This type is distinguished by pronounced pilasters, or spur walls which articulate all four tower facades and rise nearly the full height of the building. At the top, these are joined to each other by large arches which, in turn, support a gallery on the top floor. No less than five towers of this type survive within the system of Hilandar defenses. Two--the Tower of Sv. Sava and the Tower of Sv. Djordje (St. George)--belong to the fortification walls of the monastery itself. The Tower of Sv. Vasilije (St. Basil) belongs to a small fortified outpost which once protected the harbor of Hilandar. Two additional towers--"Pirg kralja Milutina" (the Tower of King Milutin), and "Arbanaûki pirg" (the Albanian Tower)--constituted detached fortified stations whose function was to control strategic points on the approach paths to the monastery. The Tower of St. Sava (specifically, its lowest portion), is the oldest of the five towers, dating probably from ca. 1200. The tower was extensively restored, most likely at the time of King Milutin's reconstruction of the monastery. The tower of St. George may be from the middle of the thirteenth century. The remaining three towers are generally attributed to King Milutin. The five towers display design similarities which prompted some scholars to refer to the type as the "typical Athonite tower." The fact of the matter is that a very limited number of Athonite towers share these design characteristics.
Searching for prototypes, we find that very few such towers are to be found elsewhere in the Balkans. Foundations of one were excavated in front of the main entrance into Banjska Monastery, and may be attributed safely to King Milutin. The finest of all examples is located in Rila Monastery, Bulgaria. It was built in 1335, by one Hrelja, a high-ranking official of the Serbian king Stefan Duûan. The relative geographic and chronological coherence of all of these towers suggests that they may have been the work of the same workshop or, at the very least, that they belong to the same building tradition which was imported into this area. The basic concept of these towers, as well as their formal articulation, is foreign to Byzantine fortification architecture in general. Instead, their source appears to have been fortification architecture of twelfth and thirteenth-century France. A group of French donjons of this period displays the same basic planning characteristics, similar dimensions, and the same subtle variations in the articulation of facades as the Hilandar group of towers (cf. donjons at Chervix, Saugues, Chevreuse, La Roche-Posay, Abbeville, Eschizadour, and Saint-Genies).
Links with France are better understood if one is reminded that King Milutin's mother Jelena (Helen) was a French royal princess. As the Dowager Queen, Jelena ruled over the coastal region of the Serbian state. From there she maintained friendly relations with Italian towns on the other side of the Adriatic sea (most notably with Bari), and with the Papacy. On Topaona island in the Skadar Lake, within Jelena's domain, are located impressive remains of a tower, referred to in literature as belonging to the "Athonite tower type." In this important example, I believe, we have the actual link between the French donjons and the towers of Hilandar. Taking all of the above information into account, we may conclude that the large monastic towers of Mount Athos, built toward the end of the thirteenth and during the first decades of the fourteenth century, were French donjons transplanted into the monastic milieu of the Holy Mountain under the patronage of King Milutin.
BYZANTINE MUSIC
Presiding: Dimitri Conomos
WOMEN COMPOSERS OF MEDIEVAL BYZANTINE CHANT
Diane Touliatos-Banker (University of Missouri, St. Louis)
It is only in recent studies of Byzantine music that composers of medieval Byzantine chant have been examined. Not unlike composers of Western medieval music, such as Leonin, Perotin, and Machaut, little is known about most Byzantine musicians. Nevertheless, renowned Byzantine musicians and composers from both the East and the West were predominantly men.
In my investigation of medieval Byzantine chant, I have found references to two women composers. One of these composers is limited in importance because of her one reference and is identified as the daughter of the celebrated composer Ioannes Kladas. Because of her one musical composition, little can be determined about her style of composing. The other composer, Kassia, is outstanding in importance as a composer, poetess, and legendary historical figure. She is perhaps best known in Byzantine history as one of the participants of the brideshow of Emperor Theophilos.
There is some doubt concerning the authenticity of some of Kassia's melodies. Forty-nine liturgical compositions are attributed to Kassia, but only twenty-three are considered to be genuinely hers. These compositions were written after she had entered the monastic life during the reign of Theophilos (829-42) and his son Michael (842-67). Most of these compositions were settings to her own sacred poems; however, Kassia is also known for having composed music to the poetry and prose of Byzantios, Georgios, Kyprianos, and Marcos Monachos.
Because of the length and complexity of Kassia's liturgical compositions, it is impractical to discuss in detail the forty-nine hymns in the present study. Consequently, analyses will concentrate on three selected hymns from the list of genuine compositions in the hope of determining characteristics of her style.
THE SLAVIC KANON FOR ST. DEMETRIUS AND ITS MUSIC
Miloû Velimirovicâ (University of Virginia)
One of the earliest examples of Slavic poetry after the conversion to Christianity is the Kanon for the feast of St. Demetrius. Its authorship has been ascribed to Methodius (Jakobson) and Cyril (Vasica). Its music has so far not yet been studied. An examination of recently acquired microfilm-reproduction of the basic body of the Kanon offers some intriguing suggestions. Since each Ode of the Kanon is preceded by the text of the Heirmos which had served as a model (textual and therefore also musical) for the Slavic text, there is at least a clue for a possible reconstruction of intended melodies to be chanted with the new Slavic text. An attempt at localizing each Heirmos, that served as model for its respective Ode, presently in progress, should provide us with the Byzantine melodies as chanted in the 12-13th centuries. A comparative study of the texts and their verses with a thorough syllable-count could provide a pattern to which the Slavic texts might be accommodated. If the length of verses and if the comparative study of the musical notation demonstrate a reasonable degree of similarities, there is a good possibility that these texts may be fitted to Byzantine melodies and thus tested for their adaptation to singing, perhaps for the first time since they had been written down in their original notation.
PSALTI IN THE MADRID SKYLITZES MANUSCRIPT
Neil K. Moran (Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies)
No less than 574 miniatures accompany the narration of the late eleventh century historian John Skylitzes in Codex Madrid, Nat. Lib., Vitr. 26-2. Thanks to the discovery of other documents written by the principal and secondary scribe a dating close to 1150 has of late gained general acceptance.
By far the most instructive Skylitzes miniature from the musicological point of view appears an folio 23. Before a domed structure the emperor Leo V directs by means of the cheironomy a group of three singers. This miniature illustrates a paragraph describing the musical ambitions of Leo. The motive of the emperor's love of music recurs in the account of his death. On Christmas Eve of 820 conspirators donned clerical robes and entered the palace chapel together with the singers. Leo entered the church with the morning hymn for he wished to sing the Christmas canon. At that point in the service when he sang the seventh ode the conspirators sprang out of a dark corner and cut off his head. The illustrated history recaptures on, f. 22 another moment in the life of Leo V. The miniature shows the patriarch celebrating the Mass while the master of the palace singers conspires with Leo in the interests of the iconoclastic movement. Given the sinister nature of this proto-psaltes it is possible that he appears earlier on f. 12v in a miniature depicting the proclamation of Leo to emperor.
The last of the iconoclastic emperors Theophilus (829-842) prided himself on being considered a hymn writer. On one occasion after conducting the choir of St. Sophia he distributed to the clergy 100 pounds of gold. A mutilated miniature on f. 57 depicts the consecration of John VII in 832 as patriarch. At the right of the scene four figures represent in all probability the chanters at the service.
Theophilus was followed on the throne by his impious son Michael III. The Skylitzes ms depicts one occasion when Gryllos "the pig" was sent by Michael with sane musicians dressed in clerical robes to taunt the patriarch Ignatius (f. 78v).
In the year 902 Leo VI was attacked by a conspirator in the church of St. Mocius. Behind the ambo a groups of six chanters observe with astonishment the assault. At the beginning of his reign in 886 Leo the Wise ordered that the body of Michael III be transported to Constantinople. The group on the left of the scene probably represents the singers (f. 106v).
It is indeed regrettable that our historical sources for the ninth century should be so blatantly biased because the period is certainly one of the most fascinating in the history of Byzantine music. The remnants of ninth century chronicles in the Skylitzes history and their visual realizations by twelfth century miniaturists proffer us at least a glimpse into the musical activities of this "noch-nicht-zureichen-erhelligte" era.
INTERNAL LIFE OF THE EMPIRE
Presiding: Aleksander Kazhdan
UPWARD MOBILITY AMONG NOTARII UNDER CONSTANTIUS II
Mary Michaels Mudd (Rutgers University)
In the reign of Constantius II (337-361), the palatine civil servants known as notarii had three functions. They served as the secretaries who recorded the minutes of the consistory (the emperor's council of state), as envoys who carried the resolutions of the emperor and consistory to the appropriate recipients, and as investigators of potential cases of treason or of other situations thought to threaten the personal security or the majesty of the emperor or the harmonious execution of his policies. Especially remarkable is the political advancement that was available to notarii serving under Constantius. Former notarii were honored with such posts as magister officiorum, quaestor sacri palatii, comes sacrarum largitionum, provincial governor, praetorian prefect, consul, patrician, and count.
Notarii were not the only secretaries in the palatine civil service. The four scrinia which, under the directorships of the magister officiorum and the quaestor sacri palatii, edited and issued the emperor's edicts and correspondence, organized his appointments and judicial hearings, and arranged his travels, all employed sec- retaries known as palatini. The two financial ministries (the res privata and the sacrae largitiones) also made use of palatini. Nor were the notarii the only func- tionaries who served as envoys and investigators: the corps of agentes in rebus performed similar investigations, while both agentes in rebus and palatini acted as envoys. Neither of the latter two groups of palace bureaucrats appears, however, to have shared the upward political mobility of the notarii. Constantius' own legis- lation implies that palatini were expected to remain in service for twenty years and then to retire on pension. The most for which an agens in rebus might hope, prior to retirement after twenty years in his schola, was a one-year appointment as chief of staff (princeps officii) of a praetorian or urban prefect.
In assessing the reasons for the elevation of notarii to high office, one will recall that the responsibilities of these bureaucrats included the secretarial services of the palatini, the investigative functions of the agentes in rebus, and the emissarial duties of both. Notarii, therefore, must have been more highly qualified personnel than their fellow palatine civil servants, simply because more was demanded of them. As consistory secretaries, moreover, notarii were provided both with a first-hand knowledge of the workings of the government at its highest level, and with the emperor's precise intentions in the formulation of his policies. Their intimate involvement with affairs of state---not only as consistory secretaries but also as investigators---must have required of notarii an unquestioning loyalty that no doubt endeared them to the suspicious Constantius. Ability, knowledge of and experience in government, and trustworthiness clearly made the notarii excellent candidates for positions of great responsibility. Their immediate contact with the emperor also enabled him to assess personally the suitability of individual notarii for high office.
In 359, Constantius ordered the corps of agentes in rebus purged of men of base (indignus) extraction. No birth status, however, appears to have been demanded of notarii, some of whom were of very modest backgrounds. Their upward mobility, therefore, demonstrates that under Constantius II, service as a notarius provided a man with the opportunity to make his political and social fortune on the basis of his competence alone.
THE ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS OF THE EMPIRE (785-912)
Warren T. Treadgold (Stanford University)
The administrative divisions of the Middle Byzantine Empire corresponded to its military divisions. As is well known, a "theme," properly a unit of soldiers, was also the district in which those soldiers were normally stationed and a province for purposes of civil administration. Each theme had a capital where its strategus normally resided (e.g., Ancyra for the Bucellarians). The larger themes were subdivided into turmae, again units of soldiers that corresponded to territorial divisions; the chiefs of turmae were the turmarchs, one of whom seems normally to have resided at the theme's capital while the other or others had headquarters of their own, attested by surviving seals (e.g., Claudiopolis for the other turmarch of the Bucellarians). Probably the turmarchs, as deputies of the strategi, had some administrative duties as well as military ones.
For military divisions smaller than turmae, the evidence varies at different dates. The Life of St. Philaretus, referring to a mustering of soldiers in the Armeniac Theme probably datable to 785, mentions chiliarchs, hecatontarchs, and pentecontarchs, apparently commanders of 1,000, 100, and 50 men respectively. Ibn Khurdādhbih and Qudāmah, quoting al-Jarmī whose information is datable to 839-843, mention drungaries who commanded 1,000 men, counts who commanded 200 men, and "centarchs" who commanded 40 men. Finally, a passage in the Tactica of Leo VI (XVIII 149) apparently dating from 899-912 describes drungaries or chiliarchs commanding 1,000 men, counts commanding 200 men, hecatontarchs or centarchs commanding 100 men, and pentecontarchs commanding 50 men. The Tactica call the unit of 1,000 commanded by a drungary a drungus and the unit of 200 commanded by a count a bandum. At least from the reign of Leo VI, the bandum is attested as a territorial division. A drungus was evidently a territorial unit as early as 785, when the cavalryman of the Life of Philaretus had to report to his local chiliarch.
The three different descriptions just cited seem to show three stages in the organization of the Byzantine army, so that the bandum of 200 men was created between 785 and 839/43. The most likely time for its creation is late 839, when Theophilus sent 2,000 Khurramite soldiers to each of 15 themes, where they could only have been provided with military lands by shifting the boundaries between drungi all over the Empire--a shift that would have provided an opportunity to introduce the new territorial division of the bandum. A more detailed picture of these territorial divisions appears in a passage in the De Administrando Imperio (ch. 50) that describes the transfer of certain turmae and banda from one theme to another under Leo VI. From this passage it is clear that each bandum had a name, evidently that of the town or village where its c:ount resided (e.g., the garrison of Aspona in the Bucellarians).
The impression that is given, therefore, is of an Empire organized along military lines, but also organized around many cities, towns, and villages. The introduction of the bandum as a territorial unit, perhaps in 839, may well mark an advance in the number and security of Byzantine towns and villages, which could then provide permanent seats for as many as 500 counts all over the Empire.
THE CRISIS OF PRIVATE BYZANTINE RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS IN THE TENTH CENTURY
John Philip Thomas (Georgetown University and Dumbarton Oaks)
The prestige of the title of ktistes or "founder" insured that private benefactors preferred to found a religious foundation of their own rather than assist an old one with much-needed repairs and capital improvements. By the mid-tenth century, thousands of ageing foundations had fallen into serious financial trouble or physical decay. The problem of providing for these institutions was not new, but in 964 Emperor Nicephorus Phocas issued a law which went to the root of the difficulty and attempted to reverse the traditional patterns of private philanthropy. He intended to channel pious benefactions in new, more socially useful directions.
The basis for the endowment of private foundations established by the Council of Constantinople in 861 encouraged the development of de facto autonomous institutions with extensive properties but deficient in capital assets. These foundations were no longer bound, as previously, to the fortunes of the founders' private estates. Moreover, this council decreed that bishops couldno longer spend diocesan funds to restore ruined private foundations.
Although it was a bold measure, Nicephorus Phocas' law failed because he neglected to provide a financial incentive for the restoration of old foundations. Basil II, a notable friend of private benefactors, repealed the law in 988. He also rendered an important legal decision that made it impossible for the ecclesiastical authorities to take over private foundations without regard for the rights of the property owners.
It took some time for the development of a legal mechanism that would respect the conflicting claims of preserving private property rights and of arranging for badly needed restorations. The vehicle decided upon was the charistike, a public program sponsored by the emperor and his patriarch Nicholas Chrysoberges for the private management of religious institutions under concession. The concessionaires were permitted to reap the financial rewards of profitable administrations, and this incentive narrowed the perceived difference between the benefits of restoring an old foundation and erecting a new one. Patriarch Sisinnius II later raised canonical objections to the program and halted patriarchal participation. Yet he was unable to prevent the emperor or the rest of the ecclesiastical hierarchy from granting out foundations under the program.
By the time of Basil II's famous novel of 996, Peri ton dynaton it became apparent that the charistike had opened a loophole in the imperial agrarian legislation which forbade transfers of land from the peasants to the magnates. The bishops thought they had to intervene to preserve the ecclesiastical character of unsponsored village churches. Since the bishops could not spend diocesan funds to support these foundations, their only recourse was to grant them out to wealthy benefactors under the charistike just as if they were diocesan monasteries. This Basil II could not allow, but his law was carefully drafted to permit the continued employment of the charistike in situations where the transactions would not disturb further the existing imbalance of land tenure in favor of wealthy property owners. Thus Basil II's regulation of land ownership and private religious foundations in the same novel was more than fortuitous.
COMNENIAN QUESTIONS: SOME MILITARY PROBLEMS
Charles M. Brand (Bryn Mawr College)
Students of the Comnenian era tend to overlook questions involving military technology, on grounds that Chalandon has said everything necessary. But military success was fundamental for the survival of the empire. This paper will focus on the question of whether the Byzantine Empire in the twelfth century was keeping pace in military technology and technique; for reasons of space, recruitment and leadership cannot be considered.
The heavy-armed lance-wielding cavalryman, as Kaegi has shown, was inefficient against Turkish bowmen; the early Comneni revived the bow as a cavalry weapon, with some success against Turks, Petchenegs, and Cumans. Seemingly to oppose Westerners, Manuel rearmed the cavalry in Latin style. His success was at best mixed. Early in the century, Alexius seem to have developed a new technique which permitted marching and fighting simultaneously, which way have been copied by the Westerners in Palestine To a certain extent, Turkish raiding was hindered by a network of fortresses covering much of Byzantine territory. on their own raiding expeditions, the Byzantines experienced great successes against the Serbs and Hungarians. Vlach and Bulgarian ravagers, however, could not be repelled.
In siege warfare, the Byzantines seem markedly less successful both in attack and defense than their Western neighbors. Few Byzantine for- tresses could hold out against lengthy assault, the Acrocorinth, 1205- 121U, was exceptional. And in capturing fortresses, stratagem (at Sozopolis, ca. 1120, or Strumnitza, 1202) proved more effective than direct assault (Shaizar in 1138, Neokaisareia in 1139, or Prosakon in 1197). In addition to ancient types of siege equipment, a manually powered stone-thrower was making its way, and the mechanically powered trebuchet was not far behind. Whether either of these reached Byzantiun before 1204 is uncertain.
The Byzantine navy of the twelfth century seems to have followed patterns set by Italian shipping. The galley was partially replaced by sailing vessels. In naval engagements with Norman and Venetian fleets, the Byzantines did not fare well; even pirate fleets could successfully challenge the Byzantines. Greek fire seems to have been used less, as defenses against it improved. The Byzantines were more often successful in combined land-and-sea operations, whether on the Danube or at Corfu in1149.
But in the sieges of 1203 and 1204, it was exactly in this department that Byzantine military technology failed. The Byzantines seem to have been able to defend their massive land-walls aqainst attacks of Frankish chivalry, but the Venetian development of boarding bridges mounted on the masts of ships enabled marines to get over the top of the sea-wall. Here, as elsewhere, the Venetians proved the best pupils of the Byzantines.
THE PUZZLING PROBLEM OF THE COMNENI
Aleksander Kazhdan (Dumbarton Oaks)
1. It is a commonly held opinion that from the eleventh century onward Byzantium was steadily decaying, and its political history seems to confirm this concept. Although Paul Lemerle, quite recently, ventured to "rehabilitate" the eleventh century, he still regards the Comnenian period as the time of disintegration and decline.
2. The concept of the "Comnenian decline" originated with the Russian nineteenth- century school of Byzantine studies that considered that it was the Byzantine orthodox monarchy, supported by and in its turn supporting the allegedly Slavic community, which was accountable for all political successes from Leo III through Basil II. According to this concept, it was the dynasty of the Comneni--yielding to "spoiling" western influence, giving up the imperial support of the village community, and accepting the feudal system--that inevitably led to disintegration and downfall.
3. It is, however, astounding that this "Comnenian decline" coincided with a cultural upsurge in both the visual arts and literature, that the period after the Macedonian dynasty was one of such incredible creative activity that it could be called--with slight reservations--the Byzantine Pre- renaissance.
4. Art and literature constitute the most visible vestiges of Byzantium under the Comneni. Economic life is more humble and modest and also less apparent. However, recent investigations, based especially on the broad stream of new archaeological and numismatic data, compel us to reconsider our judgment on the Comnenian economy. Two points should be stressed: The eleventh and twelfth centuries were a period of lively economic activity in all those spheres of production for which we have evidence: ceramics, textiles, buildings, glass. It was also a period of diffusion of Byzantine goods and coins throughout the western countries. It was also a period of shift in economic and cultural activities from the capital to provincial centers; this is particularly evident in the history of Byzantine earthenware. Provincial silk production competed successfully with that of Constantinople, and in commerce provincial towns rivaled with the capital. It is reasonable to assume that Balkan towns were economically more active than those of Asia Minor.
5. These observations allow us to question whether it was the feudal or semi-feudal elements of Comnenian society that were responsible for its political decay by the end of the twelfth century. I surmise, on the contrary, that it was the weakness of the Byzantine semifeudal system and the rout of the Comnenian forces during the reign of Andronicus I and later on, under the dynasty of the Angeli, as well as the return to pre-Comnenian social policy at the close of the century that were the true causes of the catastrophe of 1204.
ART HISTORY: GENERAL SESSION
Presiding: Henry Maguire
THE AŁTcAMAR GENESIS FRESCOES
Thomas F. Mathews (Institute of Fine Arts, N.Y.U.)
Recent photographs of the Genesis frescoes in the drum of the church of Ałtcamar reveal more of the tenth century iconography than Der Nersessian was able to decipher (S. Der Nersessian, Aghtcamar, Church of the Holy Cross [Cambridge, Ma., 1965]). One can read at the start of the sequence a) the Lord forming Adam with his hands, b) Adam in Paradise and c) the Lord drawing Eve from Adam's side while an angel attends; after a gap of perhaps three missing scenes the sequence resumes with x) the Lord cursing Adam, Eve and the Serpent, y) an angel expelling Adam and Eve from the garden and z) a Cherubim guarding Paradise with a sword.
In trying to deal with the iconography of these six scenes as a set in the context of other sets of Genesis iconography, one is immediately plunged into a plethora of diverse traditions of representing the Creation and Fall. The story is illustrated in Greek illuminated manuscripts -- in the Cotton Genesis, in the Vienna Genesis, in the Paris Gregory and in the Octateuch mss. -- each time in a somewhat different iconography. In the West further variations occur whether one looks at the Early Christian frescoes of S. Paolo in Rome, the Carolingian Bibles of Tours, or the mosaics of Sicily. The currently popular method of dealing with this diversity of traditions is a method developed by Weitzmann and referred to as "picture criticism." In parallel to "text criticism" the method of "picture criticism" aims at reconstructing the lost originals from which later sets of iconography derived. The end product of such "picture criticism," however, is extremely hypothetical. Because the transmission of texts by scribal copying is a quasi-mechanical process in which the scribe is required to refrain from making decisions, it becomes possible to reverse the process of accidental corruptions of text by applying simple rules of probability of error under such headings as homeoteleuton, ioticism, etc. The transmission of sets of images, on the other hand, is a conscious process involving free and purposeful re-thinking and re- interpreting of the tradition, There can be no secure rules by which such a process can be reversed to regain the lost originals, The most one can attain is a kind of generalized set of images in which the differences of individual sets have been artificially reconciled.
It is the differences, however, which are most important iconographically. What is most revealing about the Genesis frescoes of Ałtcamar is the extent to which the iconography departs from or adds to the story as told in the text of Genesis, for it is precisely here that we detect the evidence of what might be called a "cultural filter." The original story is being filtered through the vision of intermediary interpreters; it is being re-worked to reflect a special bias; it is being made to accommodate other traditions besides the tradition of the unadorned text of Sacred Scripture.
The challenge of the Ałtcamar frescoes, then, is to understand the peculiarly Armenian reading of the text of Genesis that underlies the iconography. Weitzmann might classify these departures from the text under the term "conscious deviations;" but this term in itself presupposes the existence of an archetype which had as its scope a simple, naive scene-by-scene illustration of the content of the text. It must be insisted upon that this is an unproven assumption. The opposite is every bit as likely, namely that from the outset the Christian artist read the text only through the filter of Christian exegeses of the text. At any rate, this seems to be the way the artist is working in the Genesis frescoes of Ałtcamar.
THE ARMENIAN PALETTE OF THE TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES
Diane E. Cabelli (Brookhaven National Laboratory)
The work reported here aims at establishing the pigments used by Armenian manu- script artists in the tenth and eleventh centuries; illuminated manuscripts from this period being among the oldest still extant. The modern techniques of-small particle analysis, particularly those of polarized light microscopy and x-ray powder diffraction methods, were chosen as they allow reliable identification of samples on the basis of particles that are virtually invisible to the naked eye.
The tenth and eleventh centuries represent a crucial formative period in Armenian manuscript illumination, yet it is a period of momentous political upheaval. Several different styles coexist, some with obvious ties to Byzantine art, others with links to Syria, and others that still cannot be placed. The development of the famous Cilician School of manuscript illumination has its roots in this material.
The manuscripts chosen for this study were:
These manuscripts encompass a broad stylistic range over a rather limited span of time, ca, 100 years. The most famous of these works, the King Gagik Gospel, was a royally commissioned manuscript and is thus likely to be representative of the full palette in the mid- eleventh century. The pigments found in all seven of these manuscripts, however, indicate that there was a great diversity in the palette found in different workshops at this time. Specifically, pigments such as ultramarine, whose use was widespread during later periods in Armenian manuscript illumination, are apparently still rare and quite prized in the tenth and eleventh centuries. In addition, there is an indication that manuscripts from the Melitine Group may have had a consistently different palette from those of Greater Armenia.
This study was carried out at the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University in collaboration with Professor Thomas Mathews (IFA, NYU). Funding was provided by grants from the NYU Challenge Fund, the National Museum Act. and the American Friends of the Israel Museum.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN PROVINCIAL ART FROM CYPRUS
Christine Kondoleon (Harvard University)
The relationship between the Greek East and Latin West is a familiar topic in Roman and Medieval art historical studies. However, many discussions are influenced by the prevailing view of the intrinsic differences between the two. Irving Lavin's major study of the Antioch hunting mosaics challenged the view of polarized centers in the Roman world. His conclusions, however, allowed only for a limited period of exchange, characterized as a "progressive diffusion of a Western point of view." The realization of this exchange took the form of hunt carpet floors inspired by earlier North African innovations and absorbed by fifth century Antioch. It is Lavin's contention that this exchange determined a radical break with Classical tradition and ushered in a Medieval style in the East.
Recent finds of mosaic pavements, largely from private residences in the Mediterranean allow us to broaden Lavin's theory considerably. They suggest an eastward path of western provincial achievements at least by the Antonine period, and in certain cases earlier. There is no doubt that in the Severan period, for instance, artists from the East were involved in projects in Lepcis Magna. But it is also now certain that Western workshops and pattern books traveled to the East. Recent reports of the discoveries by the Italian Archaeological Expedition to Iasos confirm the wholesale importation of Italian black-and-white mosaic designs and techniques to Asia Minor. It is becoming clear that a dynamic exchange of artistic developments between provinces, through trade and official patronage, was actively supported at an early stage.
Significant light is shed on these cross-currents by the discovery of the so-called House of Dionysos in Paphos, Cyprus. This large peristyle residence with its twelve paved rooms, situated near the harbor and the main public buildings of the capital city, obviously belonged to a member of the local aristocracy or to a Roman official. The house is dated archaeologically to the late Antonine period, although stylistically this date is problematic. However, whether the villa dates to the Late Antonine or Severan period is not the issue to be discussed here. The fact remains that several of the mosaics represent exceptionally early appearances of certain compositions in the East. This is demonstrated by three floors in particular: the vintage "carpet" of the triclinium; the three hunt panels of the peristyle; and the "multiple- decor" design in the south section. All of these compositions have close parallels in North Africa and Gaul, and do not appear in second or third century Antioch, the center to which the Cypriot mosaics are most closely linked by their style and technique.
While it is clear that these compositions fit most comfortably in the western mosaic repertoire, the process of transmission and execution is less certain. Some aspects of this process can be detected in the vintage panel which reveals the originality of the Cypriot workshop and its obvious dependence on some model. However, the composition does not betray either the direct use of a copy book or an imported artist, but rather a familiarity with a Western innovation, the vine carpet floor. Innovations such as the "carpet" floors were picked up later in the fourth and fifth centuries by Eastern workshops and became part of the koine of Early Medieval art. However, the early date of the Paphos floor suggests that such compositions were at least introduced by the late second century. The vintage and hunt floors were part of a widely circulated repertoire that was favored because of its association with the patronage of the governmental and mercantile elite. Thus, by aligning the tastes of these wealthy patrons, these compositions entered into mainstream developments in the East.
THE DATE OF THE FRESCO CALENDAR UNDER SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE AND THE RELATION OF ITS POLITICAL DATES TO THOSE IN THE MANUSCRIPT CALENDAR OF 354
Inabelle Levin (American University)
The third-century fresco calendar discovered in Rome under S. Maria Maggiore contains rare references to imperial festivals celebrated during the last half of the year which have not survived in the only other extant third-century calendar, the Feriale Duranum Art historical analysis of the Labors of the Months panels accompanying these calendar texts has indicated that the entire cycle was painted in the second quarter of the third century A.D. rather than in the fourth century as their excavator, F. Magi, proposes
Reexamination of the political festivals in this fragmentary calendar substantiates its pro- fourth-century date. The most important evidence which challenges Magi's Constantinian attribution is the absence of this emperor's earliest major festivals from the calendar's texts. They make no mention of the Evictio Tyranni established in commemoration of Constantine's defeat of Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312 or of his Adventus Divi on October 29, 312 and related ludi votivi of October 30-31, all of which appear in the Calendar of 354. The absence of the Constantinian Ludi Alamannici from our fresco calendar further corroborates this evidence. Therefore we must also reassess the attribution of several festivals which occur in this fresco calendar as well as in the Calendar of 354.
One of the most critical pieces of evidence for establishing the date of our calendar is the anniversary of a triumph over the Sarmatians celebrated on December 1. The same festival appears in the Calendar of 354. Until now, scholars have agreed with Mommsen's attribution of this festival to Constantine. They have usually considered it the anniversary of his victory over the Sarmatians in 332 rather than of his earlier victory in 322. Reexamination of the calendar under S. Maria Maggiore in light of Roman history enables us to identify this festival with Marcus Aurelius's and Commodus's triumph over the Sarmatians in 176 A.D. The continued celebration of their festival in our calendar reflects the Severan emperors' political fiction of their Antonine ancestry.
The Antonine origin of the December 1st victory over the Sarmatians need not preclude its customary attribution to Constantine. Based on evidence concerning fourth-century attitudes towards the Antonines, the history of Roman-Sarmatian relations and the recurrent practice of establishing now imperial festivals on older politically significant anniversaries, we may conclude that Constantine deliberately chose to celebrate his own triumphs over the Sarmatians on this historic day.
Two ludi circenses recorded on July 29-30 in the calendar under S. Maria Maggiore continue to celebrate the Ludi Victoriae Caesaris of Julius Caesar. They are not victories over the Sarmatians and Marcomanni on July 27 and 30 recorded in the Calendar of 354, as Magi has hitherto proposed based on an incorrect reading of the text. These and other festivals appearing in our fresco calendar demonstrate the continued celebration of particular first and second-century political festivals in the first half of the third century.
CHAMPLEVE RELIEFS FROM CYPRUS: A LITTLE-KNOWN TECHNIQUE OF ARCHITECTURAL SCULPTURE
Susan A. Boyd (Dumbarton Oaks)
Recent excavations of the early Christian episcopal basilica at Kourion, Cyprus have yielded a large number of fragmentary marble revetments executed in the socalled champlev6 technique. Although fragments of early Byzantine champlevŽ revetments have been found all over the Mediterranean basin (e.g. in Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Greece, Cyprus, and Italy) the paucity of the finds, and the fact that none has been found in situ, have resulted in the technique generally being overlooked as a major sculptural or decorative genre. In fact, the only well-known monumental ensemble in which entire friezes of champlevŽ sculpture survive in place is in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, dating from the early Ommayad period.
Until the discoveries at Kourion, the only site where the volume of finds indicated that a large portion of the architectural decoration was executed in the champlevŽ technique was at the so-called Martyrium at Seleucia, near Antioch. When the Antioch finds are considered together with the large quantity of champlevŽ, discovered at Kourion and several other sites in Cyprus, the evidence suggests that this must have been a much more prevalent type of architectural decoration in the Mediterranean provinces during the fifth and sixth centuries than has hitherto been thought. Certainly the widespread finds in Cyprus indicate that on the island it was a thriving method of decoration.
The champlevŽ technique involves carving away the background of a thin marble slab (D. 1. 5 ö 4 cm. ), leaving the design in flat relief. Details are then simply incised into the surface of the stone. The two-dimensional quality of this low relief is further enhanced by filling the roughly chiseled background with colored mastic-black, red, and occasionally dark green being the principal colors. The result is a highly decorative relief in which plasticity is replaced by a two-dimensional coloristic effect. This aesthetic approach is remarkably similar to that of the deeply undercut carvings in Hagia Sophia, where shadow plays the role of the dark ground, as well as to that of the foliate opus sectile on the gallery level, where dark red and green marbles serve as a foil to the white of the dolomite inlays. With their bright polychromy, champlevŽ reliefs may have been intended as a less expensive and more easily produced version of elaborate opus sectile revetments, for the cost of importing precious colored marbles made them a rarity in early Christian churches in Syria, Palestine, and Cyprus.
The date of the Kourion champlevŽ is unfortunately not established by any archeological evidence, but it is clear that it was not part of the original decoration of the basilica, the construction of which is now dated to about A.D. 400. Preliminary study of the sculptures on the basis of style and ornamental details tends to indicate a date in the second half of the fifth century, although the first quarter of the sixth century cannot be excluded.
Although none of the champlevŽ revetments were found in situ, and most are in numerous small fragments, enough of them have been pieced together to allow us to identify the principal architectural elements which they revetted. They were used not only as decorative friezes and as large individual panels of wall revetments but also as door frames, tympana, arches, keystones, pilasters, and pilaster capitals. In contrast to the Antioch reliefs, where the decorations were primarily figural and specifically Christian in character, the limited decorative repertoire of the Cypriot sculptures is exclusively ornamental, consisting primarily of animal, vegetal, and geometric motifs. Moreover, except for a few reliefs on which wreaths enclosing crosses are depicted, there is little overt Christian subject matter.
One particular group of revetments will be discussed in this paper. They are a series of long, narrow rectangular panels of varying sizes that may be distinguished from other rectangular panels by their distinctive ornamentation. The latter consists of a symmetrical, wave-crested palmette framed by a lozenge, with acanthus rinceaux filling the corners of the panel. The discussion will focus on the decoration of these panels, on their function, and on their likely placement within the basilica.
BYZANTIUM AND THE BARBARIANS
Presiding: Barry Strauss
THE ESSENTIAL BARBARIAN? COMMENTS ON THE DE-ROMANIZATION OF GAUL
Edith Mary Wightman (McMaster University)
Much attention has been paid to the Romanization of Gaul and somewhat less, of late years, to an equally important and controversial subject, the stages and date of its eventual de-Romanization. Historians, not surprisingly given the wide range of possible view-points, have never reached unanimity on the manner in which Gaul, or its several parts, can be said to have ceased functioning as a part of the Roman Empire. Though the conquest of the north by Clovis provides a convenient cut-off date for many, arguments can be made in favour of a date as early as 406/7, on the grounds that the invasions of that time were never reversed. Alternatively we may follow Pirenne in dismissing obvious military and political changes as superficial and rely on wide-ranging economic arguments to identify a much later period, the 8th century, as the one of profound change. Venantius Fortunatus certainly allowed for the continuation of Romania alongside barbaries in the 6th century, though basing the distinction on language. If an administrative view-point is preferred, a case can be made for a 'plain man's view', that Gaul ceased to be Roman when its taxes went to barbarian kings rather than the imperial coffers, and fresh light on this process has been shed by a recent study. On almost any view except Pirenne's, the barbarians play an important role, though one which can be variously interpreted÷thus Camille Jullian could virtually ignore Visigoths and Burgundians and regard the Franks as the only outsiders deserving attention.
Recently, arguments for a radically different approach have been offered for both Gaul and Britain. Examination of the archaeological evidence, including settlement patterns, has suggested that Romanization, while a very real socioeconomic phenomenon, was never so thorough as to be irreversible: in fact from the 3rd century onwards the basic structures of society, about which we know so little from literary sources, saw a strengthening of indigenous base at the expense of Roman overlay. Moreover the early 5th century nay have seen less disruption than the 3rd, if we look at the countryside rather than the dramatic incidents recorded for some towns. This reversal of direction in the 3rd century was Gaul's particular response to the economic changes of the period which, while general in character, provoked differing regional reactions. A recent study has sought to provide a link between the empire-wide scene and the regional by an examination of Rome's taxation system and its effects: thus the insights generated by archaeological evidence fit well with an attempt to provide an overall working model of the Roman economy. The increased regionalism of the Later Empire entailed, for the northern provinces, the re-emergence of traditional social patterns, modified but not transformed by the intervening centuries. Increasing evidence will eventually allow for further nuances between the various areas of Gaul.
If the foregoing views are accepted, then there is a sense in which the barbarians entered a Gaul that was already substantially de-Romanized despite the continuance of administrative structures and strong cultural links among the upper classes. Whether we see this process as the emergence of the true nature of Gaul (with Camille Jullian, mutatis mutandis), as an example of decolonialization or as part of the collapse of the Roman Empire will depend on our focus. Certainly a good case can be made for insisting on viewing the beginning and end of Romanization as linked rather than separate processes.
GREEK CULTURE IN FIFTH-CENTURY GAUL
Hagith Sivan (Columbia University)
Fifth century Gaul presents a complex and varied picture of Greek culture in the West on the eve of the transformation of the Roman Empire into Germanic monarchies. There, a long and successful process of romanization did not entirely erase either Greek traditions dating back to the foundation of Greek colonies in the 6th century BC, or Celtic, pre-conquest elements which survived to enjoy a late revival with the disintegration of the Empire. The Germans settled on Gallic soil in the course of the 5th century added as yet another component to the existing cultural complexity. Of those, the Visigoths had been living in close proximity to the Greek world for over a century. The germs of Hellenism which they carried over with them from the East were incorporated in the art created in their Gallic realm.
Among literary circles in Gaul, comprising secular and ecclesiastical men of letters, familiarity with Greek was in steady decline hardly punctuated by what P. Courcelle terms an 'Hellenic renaissance' in the 470's. Frequent allusions in contemporary writings to Greek literature, philosophy and mythology betray a superficial rather than thorough knowledge. Sidonius Apollinaris, the outstanding figure of Gallic erudition at the time, had to air his Greek with the aid of a Latin abstract. His clerical friend, Claudianus Mamertus, whose neo-Platonic bent was fully expressed in his essay Îde statu animae,â used his Greek sources in translation mostly, and laments the state of classical education in Gaul then.
If literary evidence points to a diminishing acquaintance with the Greek Classics among the higher classes of Gallic society, Greek was still spoken all over Gaul as local, Greek inscriptions demonstrate. Centers of commercial and cultural life, the Greek colonies in Gaul ranged from the coastal cities of Marseille and Narbonne to Trier in the north. Their members, called, 'Syrians' in the sources, held in their hands most of the Mediterranian commerce until the Muslim conquest. Hoards of Byzantine coins discovered in Gaul attest to thriving trade as do Gallic ceramics found in Athens.
Those Greek traders and their Gallic communities were not the only retainers and importers of Hellenism into Gaul of the fifth century. An incessant flow of pilgrims from the West to the holy places in the East maintained unbroken lines of communication between Gaul and Byzantium. They brought back with them souvenirs, exercising thus a direct and indirect influence over art and cult in Gaul. Veneration of Eastern saints; Greek monks settling in Gallic monasteries; Gallic bishops trained in the Orient ö all contributed to a lively exchange of ideas and material culture.
EMPEROR WORSHIP IN VANDAL AFRICA
Frank M. Clover (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
At the turn of the sixth century there flourished at Ammaedara (Ha•dra) in southern Proconsular Africa a family of imperial cult officials, the Astii. Two members, Astius Vindicianus and Astius Mustelus, were flamines perpetui. The stone-cutter who engraved the epitaph of the latter assure all visitors to his burial site that he had also been a Christian. The full relevance of these texts to the history of Vandal Africa and indeed to the religious history of the late Roman Empire became apparent after the discovery of another funerary monument at Ammaedara listing Astius Dinamius as sacerdotalis of the province of (Proconsular) Africa.
In 1974 AndrŽ Chastagnol and No‘l Duval published in the MŽlanges d'histoire ancienne offerts ˆ William Seston a most impressive attempt to set this evidence in context. They argued that after the age of Constantine and Theodosius the imperial cult became secularized, and suggested that the provincial council over which Astius Dinamius once presided honored the Vandal king. Their reading of the evidence has met with acceptance, for instance, in the new Paris dissertation of Claude Lepelley (Les citŽs de l'Afrique romaine au Bas-Empire [2 vols.; Paris, 1979-81]).
Despite the assent which the interpretation of Chastagnol and Duval has thus far received, I believe that certain considerations make it untenable. The current explanation supposes that the Vandal kingdom was independent of the Roman Empire. While some evidence suggests that the Vandal monarchs advertised themselves as sovereign powers in Africa -- all Vandal kings who ruled from Carthage bore the title of rex, and they all employed dating by regnal years -- other testimony shows that to the Romans they were mere clients, temporary managers of some of the African provinces. The fundamental treaty which governed their relations with the Romans came soon after they seized Carthage, in A.D. 442. According to Prosper Tiro and Procopius of Caesarea, the Vandals agreed to divide certain tracts of Africa with the Romans, and in return for the privilege of occupying Roman provincial lands they paid annual tribute and surrendered a member of the Hasdingi, the Vandals' royal clan, as a hostage. Client rulers of the past had merited such terms. The fact that the Vandals accepted them makes possible another reading of the cult activities of the Astii. Recently J.-P. Rey-Coquais published in the Annales archŽologiques arabes syriennes, XXIII (1973), 39-84, a series of first- and second-century inscriptions showing a royal client family of Apamea whose members had assiduously tended the imperial cult. One of them had been the first priest of the cult at the time of Caesar Augustus. Now Syria of the early Principate and Vandal Africa are miles and centuries apart from one another. Nevertheless the inscriptions from Apamea provoke a question: Were the Vandals rendering homage to the emperors in a manner similar to the Syrian client family of old?
Further evidence shows that a fully affirmative answer to the question posed here is wide of the mark, but that a qualified affirmative is feasible. Certain parts of the Theodosian Code testify to the survival of emperor worship after the fourth century. On 5 May 425, for instance, Theodosius II and the young Valentinian, then Caesar, issued an edict discouraging the worship of their statues "in excess of human dignity." The ecclesiastical historian Philostorgius relates that orthodox Christians of Constantinople worshipped the statue of Constantine Helios. Christians, then, accorded the emperors honors similar to those which had been a part of the meetings of the provincial councils of old. There is no evidence, however, that Vandals participated in such meetings as priests. They allowed the provincial aristocracy of Africa a measure of its old prerogatives. Proconsuls, for example, still presided at Carthage, and some edicts of the Vandal kings reveal their recognition of the old division of local gentry into inlustres, spectabiles, etc. The evidence considered here suggests that the Vandal monarchs, kings in Africa but clients abroad, permitted such aristocrats as the Astii of Ammaedara to continue their traditional devotion to the emperors.
If it gains acceptance, the present interpretation of the priesthoods of the Astii has certain implications for the religious.history of the late Roman Empire, and for the study of the Vandal sojourn in Africa. The epitaphs of Ammaedara betray a strong survival of traditional religion after its proscription by emperors such as Theodosius the Great. Furthermore, despite the insistence of Catholic witnesses of Vandal persecutions, the Vandals tempered their rule by qharing power with the Roman provincial aristocracy.
CARTHAGE: ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE LATIN ANTHOLOGY
Patricia Coyne (Bishop's University)
In the late empire Carthage was acknowledged as one of the greatest cities of the West, surpassed only by Rome in wealth, population and in learning and devotion to the arts. Unfortunately no panegyric of the city, describing it according to the topics prescribed by the rhetorical handbooks, exists and in the poetry of the fourth and fifth centuries references to Carthage are few and brief. Such references are confined to descriptions of her ancient wealth and fame as in the Ordo Urbium Nobilium of Ausonius or to recollections of Hannibal and her Punic past in the poetry of Claudian and Sidonius Apollinaris.
It was not until Carthage became part of the Vandal Kingdom of North Africa and was lost to the empirethat African poets proclaimed the glories of their city. Under Thrasamund (496-523) and his successor Hilderic (523-530) both the city of Carthage and learning and poetry seem to have enjoyed a renaissance. Three poets of the Latin Anthology describe the beauty and prosperity of Carthage under the Vandals. Felix devotes several epigrams to the baths constructed by Thrasamund (Riese, A. Anthologia Latina. Fasiculus I, Leipzig, 1894. 210-214). Luxorius describes an audience chamber built by Hilderic and a fountain for the Circus horses as well as the gardens and estates of wealthy nobles (Riese, 203, 320, 332, 304). In a poem in praise of Thrasamund Florentinus celebrates the glittering prosperous Carthage of his reign.
There is, however, a certain discrepancy between the poets' picture of Carthage and the one which is emerging from recent archeological evidence. Although the results from the current UNESCO excavations at Carthage are still far from complete, the evidence seems to indicate that, while as earlier writers suggest the fourth century was a time of great prosperity for Carthage, the conquest of the city by the Vandals disrupted life to a considerable extent. Although private homes and commercial buildings seem to have been relatively unaffected, public buildings seem to have suffered neglect and decay.1 Churches naturally felt the effects of the religious persecution instituted by the Vandal kings but the harbours, city wall and even the streets also show evidence of lack of care and maintenance.
If the archeological evidence is accepted, how is the conflict between this evidence and the literary sources to be explained? The poets may have been confined by literary tradition or simply prepared to produce any exaggeration to please their Vandal rulers. Dracontius, after all, had been imprisoned when his verses offended Gunthamund. The poets may also have hoped that their praise would encourage further public benefits from the kings. Finally, it is possible that the literary rival and its picture of Carthago Felix was deliberately fostered by the Vandal kings to glorify their rule in Africa and to impress friends and enemies both in Carthage itself and at the courts of Italy and Constantinople. Literary propaganda had a long history in the Roman world and Vandals had shown that they could be apt imitators of Roman institutions.
1 Humphrey, J.H. "Vandal and Byzantine Carthage: Some New Archeological Evidence." New Light on Ancient Carthage. J.G. Pedley, ed. Ann Arbor, 1980, p.85-127.
POETS AND PATRONS OF THE VANDAL COURT
Susan T. Stevens (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
The Codex Salmasianus (Parisinus 10318) has at its core a collection of African poems, written and compiled during Vandal hegemony at the end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth century A.D. (This study will not consider the poems of Porphyrius, Mavortius, Hosidius Geta, Virgil, Ovid, Seneca, Petronius, Florus, Propertius, Martial, Reposianus, Vespa and the anonymous longer poems of uncertain date.) The African poems are primarily occasional epigrams, many of which were probably written on commission. Characteristic of the collection are panegyrics, epithalamia, epitaphia, ecphraseis, verse inscriptions for objects or monuments, dedications or tituli, laudes of pet animals, postulationes muneris and riddles, all strongly reminiscent in style and character of the courtly poems of Ausonius, the poets of the Epigrammata Bobiensa, Claudian, Sidonius and Venantius Fortunatus. Many of the poems suggest a court setting also, such as In salutatorium regis (poem 203), De conviviis barbaris (poem 285a) and invectives against corrupt ministers (poems 341, 342). Both the internal evidence of the poems and a comparison of them to contemporary works of the same genre suggest that the Codex is the product of court poets associated with the Vandal kings at Carthage and Anclae. Who were the poets? Who were their patrons? What was the relationship of the poets to their patrons and to each other? In answering these questions, it will be possible to obtain an overview of literary activity at the Vandal court and hence to suggest a date and circumstances for the compilation of the poems.
The poet Cato dates securely to the last quarter of the fifth century, since his poem 387 praises king Huneric (477-484). To Thrasamund's reign ( 496-523) belong Florentinus (poem 376) and Felix (poem 210). Petrus probably also belonged to Thrasamundâs court, because his poem 380 was an inscription for a basilica, which according to Procopius was built by Thrasamund. The court of Hilderic (523-530) included Luxorius (poem 203) and his friends Coronatus. (poem 223) and Faustus ( poem 287). A letter surviving outside the Codex attests to Coronatus' friendship with Luxorius, and though no poems in the collection are attributed to Faustus In the superscriptions, he is probably the author of at least poem 120. Calbulus, the poet of poems 378 and 379, may also be contemporary with Hilderic. The date of Symphosius (poem 286) is disputed, but the riddles fit well into the context of the Vandal court. Octavianus (poem 20), again, is difficult to date, but since the superscription contains both his age and his fathers name, the poet was apparently known to the compiler of the collection. The date and origin of the remaining poets, Lindinus, Pentadius, Regianus, Ponnanus, Bonosus, Vincentius and Tuccianus are still a mystery, because their work is so poorly represented in the Codex. Nevertheless, the subject and style of these epigrams is compatible with the African poems of the collection. From their names, the poets were Roman, and most if not all of them were teachers of grammar and rhetoric, a fact which accounts both for their importance at court, and the prominence of school themes in their poetry.
First among their patrons were the Vandal kings, as the encomia of Huneric, Thrasamund and Hilderic indicate, but other members of the Vandal court also encouraged the efforts of the Roman poets. The subject of poems 345 and 369 is Oageis, the prince of the royal house. Another Vandal noble, Fridamal, had a pleasure garden, of which Luxorius sang praises in poem 304. Luxorius' epithalamium (poem 18) celebrates the marriage of the Vandal Fridus, perhaps to a Roman woman. Furthermore, non- Vandals like Filocalus (poem 120) and Eugetus (poem 322) also commissioned or inspired laudatory epigrams. By far the clearest evidence of patronage in the collection, however, is the postulatio muneris (poem 254) of Plavius Felix, in which the poet demands a sponsorship for ordination from his patron Victorinianus, in exchange for the services of his Muse. The curious prose preface (poem 19) also warrants attention, since it is apparently a dedication of a collection of poetry to a patron.
SALVIAN, SIN AND CERAMICS
Lucinda L. Neuru (Calgary Institute for the Humanities)
Salvian of Marseille, in his De Gubernatione Dei 7.15f. turns part of his polemic against the city of Carthage and recounts her long use of a variety of sins and vices. Salvian's primary complaint against the city was the sexual depravity of her populace, although he does complain about the high incidence of drunkenness and, to a lesser extent, gluttony.
It is with reference to the latter two sins, drunkenness and gluttony, but especially with drunkenness, that some archaeological evidence which has recently been found by the Canadian team excavating the Northern sector of the Theodosian Wall at Carthage is particularly interesting and relevant.
The archaeological evidence is contained in a massive deposit of pottery which has a neat terminus post quem of 425 A.D., the date of the construction of the Theodosian Wall. The location of the deposit, a dead-end street formed by the new wall, was a perfect spot for the dumping of garbage of various sorts for, it would appear, nearly a century. From very early in this deposit area, there appeared a huge quantity of reconstructable amphorae, including, in the period just before the Vandal conquest in 439, an unusually high percentage of an amphora type commonly known as Gaza, denoting its geographic origin. This amphora begins appearing in the beginning of the fifth century, and continues to be present for roughly a century and a quarter.
The Gaza amphora carried a type of wine from that same region which was long noted for its quality and strength by Cassiodorus (Var. 12,12), Sidonius Apollinaris (Carm.17, 15-16), Gregory of Tours (Hist. Franks. 7,29), and Corippus (In Laud. Iust. 3, 87-89 and 98-99). The high percentage of wine amphora tends to support Salvian's picture of the Carthaginians as people living in a continual drunken stupor. In this same deposit a large quantity of oyster shells was found, of a sort favored by gourmets. The depiction of the Carthaginians passing their time, until the Vandal invaders took over their city, with eating, drinking, and fornicating may, in part, be true. There was, however, no archaeological evidence which explicitly pointed to this latter sin.
This particular deposit is located in that outlying sector of the Roman city which also held the theatre and odeon. There is not, to date, any other deposit of this particular period which has either so many known wine amphorae or such a quantity of oyster shells. And, the Gaza amphaora did continue to be imported by the Vandals, as it is present in contexts dating into the sixth century, albeit in smaller amounts.
Salvian's polemic on Carthage may, therefore, be not so exaggerated as to be totally untrue (which is often the judgment passed on this sort of compulsive literary complaint). However, it would appear that the debauchery may have been confined to a particular part of the city, where late-night entertainments, and people indulging in them, would naturally be found. And, the Vandal conquerors, depicted by Salvian as virtuous, austere and upright, if barbarian, do not seem to have been completely so, if the continued presence of Gaza amphora sherds, and therefore the consumption of the contents, is an indication.
MIDDLE BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE
Presiding: James Morganstern
MULTIPLICATION OF THE CHAPELS IN EARLY GEORGIAN AND ARMENIAN CHURCHES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE MIDDLE BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE
Natalia Teteriatnikov (Institute of Fine Arts, N.Y.U.)
The increasing development of subsidiary chapels in Middle Byzantine architecture has attracted the attention of art historians. Babič discussed evidence concerning the martyria and funerary function of subsidiary-chapels. Mathews, on the other hand, emphasized the role of private liturgy for the development of the private chapels. The formal patterns of subsidiary chapels in the Middle Byzantine architecture was outlined by Ćurčić. In dealing with the side or gallery chapels scholars confront the problem of the scarcity of monuments in the 7th and 8th centuries. The purpose of this paper is to examine two-storey chapel arrangements in early Georgian and Armenian churches, which show a consistent development from the planning of Syria, Palestine and Egypt. The survival of examples in the architecture of the Caucasus fill a gap between Early Christian and Middle Byzantine church planning.
Two middle Byzantine churches demonstrate the earliest Byzantine version of the roof chapels: the church at Dereağzi (9th century) in Asia Minor and the church of Theotokos of Lips monastery (907) in Constantinople. Both have similar quatrefoil chapels above the pastophoria. Their access is different and depended on the planning of the church. In cross-domed church at Dereağzi chapels occupied eastern ends of the galleries, whereas in cross-in-square Lips church they are completely isolated and show need of additional walk-ways. The private character and liturgical function of the Lips chapels was illustrated by Mathews. But the position of this chapels was taken by scholars as a unique phenomenon. The existence of the same family of the two-storey chapels in early architecture of the Caucasus, Syria, Palestine and Egypt has been overlooked by Byzantinists.
Two-storey planning of the subsidiary chapels was customary in early churches of Georgia and Armenia. Their planning was dependent on the tripartite design of the eastern end of the church, and it is consistent with the similar chapel arrangement found in the early churches in Syria, Palestine and Egypt, the areas famous for the origin of tripartite sanctuary design. The tripartite arrangement of the eastern end of the church is found in many churches in the architecture of the Caucasus, in which chapels flank the central apse. These chapels had one or in some cases two-storey arrangement.
One type of the two-storey chapels belongs to the gallery churches and thus they have the same articulation in the eastern end as seen in the church at Dereağzi. The two-domed basilica Kvela-Zminda at Gurdjani in Georgia (8th century) shows two-storey chapels flanking the sanctuary. The north chapel on the ground floor was used as a prothesis and connected with the main apse through the passage in its wall; its counterpart on the south is left completely isolated. Corresponding in plan are two little chapels placed above on the galleries. Galleries in this church were built as independent units and had access to the outside through some sort of stairs placed on the south facade of the church (now destroyed). Deep apses shaped their eastern ends and the one in the north preserved an altar, made of rather smaller brick than the original altar in the main apse. Archaeology suggests that it was built or replaced the original one some time later. This indicates that chapels at some time were used for liturgical purpose. This sort of chapel arrangement shows similar planning to the 5th and 6th century churches in the Christian East, where the galleries were found, such as Syrian church Deir Siman, Turmanin, the church near the baptistery at Qal'at Si'man, Palestinian church Shivta and Deir el Abiad in Egypt.
Another category of two-storey chapels is associated with the churches in which galleries were eliminated. These chapels have an arrangement similar to the chapels in the Lips church. The absence of the galleries in these churches revealed the problem of the complex access to the chapels on the upper level. In the basilica of St.David at Akura in Georgia (855) two lower eastern chapels are alike in planning and access to the church Kvela-Zminda, but its second-storey chapels face toward the open naves and thus show the need for additional stairs. The north roof chapel had an opening to the north aisle and could be reached through the wooden stairs which originally ran on the outer wall of the lower chapel. On the other hand, the roof chapel on the south communicates only with the chapel below through the peculiar stairs within the niche in its western wall. The church Deir el Abiad in Egypt (6th century?) demonstrates similar communication between the lower and upper chapels. While this church has galleries, the stairs providing an access between the two-storey chapels in the north-east corner of the building implies that these chapels were reserved for the clergy. This tendency toward isolation of the upper-storey chapels indicates their particular private use. Appreciation of the independent arrangement of the two-storey chapels can be seen in a number of Armenian and Georgian churches such as: the cupola church Ptgni (early 7th century) in Armenia, in Georgian churches: Oshki (958-966), Svety-Zchoveli (1029), the Bagrad Cathedral in Kutaisi (1003) and cathedral at Alaverdy (11th century).
As Mathews pointed out, the private liturgy was practiced already in Early Christian time, stimulated by the growth of monasticism. Georgian and Armenian hagiographical and historical literature show the role of the local bishops and church hierarchy, their strong monastic orientation as well as close ties with monasteries in Syria, Asia Minor and Palestine whence the idea of the individual chapels could have come.
Present evidence for the development of the two-storey chapels in the area of Caucasus, then, seems consistent with their use in Early Christian and Middle Byzantine church buildings. Thus the surviving churches of the 7th and 8th centuries with two-storey arrangement of subsidiary chapels in the architecture of the Caucasus demonstrate the continuous tradition practiced in Syria, Palestine and Egypt. In the 6th and 7th centuries, when the tripartite design of the eastern end of the church became common in Armenia and Georgia, Constantinopolitan architecture showed a completely different planning system. We do not know whether the tradition of the two-storey chapels developed within Constantinopolitan architecture itself or whether Constantinople borrowed some ideas from the Christian East. The area of Caucasus must be recognized for the continuous practice of the two-storey chapel design from Early Christian up to the Middle Byzantine architecture. This points to the question of the significance of the architecture of the Caucasus for Middle Byzantine church planning.
THE ROUND CHURCH OF SYMEON RECONSIDERED
Ellen C. Schwartz (Eastern Michigan University)
Of all the unusual remains from the First Bulgarian Kingdom (681-1018), none is more puzzling than the Round Church of Symeon, built between 893 and 907. Since its discovery in 1927 and the monograph published in 1932,1 scholars have suggested various sources for this unique, eclectic structure. This paper will propose a new additional source, late antique baptistry architecture, for Symeon's famous building.
The Round Church is a rotunda enlivened by eight small niches which are separated by pilasters. In front of each pilaster stands a column. A ninth niche to the east, enlarged and preceded by a choir, serves as an apse; the subsequently added narthex and atrium extend the church to the west.
Several sources for the Round Church have been suggested. Late Roman centrally planned structures with niches have been put forward, due to the small size of the Round Church and its plan. Some scholars see these similarities as evidence of influence from western Europe, others as a holdover or a revivial of Bulgaria's own Roman past.
Armenian structures have been adduced for comparison, as centralized plans showing core spaces with symmetrically disposed radiating niches have been popular there from the seventh to the twelfth century. The churches of Zoravor at Egvart (7th century) and St. Gregory of Abouhamrentz in Ani (10th century) show this type of plan. Authors also cite the Armenian technique of building in cut stone as similar. While certain similarities in plan exist, the careful cutting and fitting of stones seen in Armenian buildings, along with thin, non-structural colonnettes used as exterior decoration are nowhere evident in Bulgarian architecture. The stones at Preslav are roughly cut, and the use of brick for curved elements and vaulting is rather to be connected to the Byzantine tradition. And the rich, lively profile of polygonal niches and obliquely cut pilasters is different from the slim, elegant forms seen in the Caucasus.
Another suggested influence on the planning of the Round Church is the contemporary architecture of central Europe. Inspired by Charlemagne's chapel at Aachen, a number of centrally planned palace chapels were erected in the ninth and tenth centuries in Yugoslavia, Hungary, Poland, Italy, and Germany. This group has led to Tompos' theory connecting the round plan to the palace chapel.2 If Symeon's church had originally been built as a palace chapel, as some have suggested, this theory could help to explain its design.
An additional source for Symeon's church may be discovered through a consideration of the political and religious conditions in Bulgaria in the late ninth century. The Round Church was built in Preslav soon after this city had become the kingdom's capital. The capital was moved there to escape the pagan associations of the old capital at Pliska, in an effort to consolidate the kingdom as a Christian state. The Round Church, built outside Symeon's palace, was certainly meant as a church for the public, its rich decoration obviously meant to impress a population newly converted and still partly pagan.
The necessity of converting the remaining pagans may have suggested the use of baptistry architecture as an inspiration for the Round Church. The small size and central plan with radiating niches are found frequently in baptistry architecture in Italy and southern France from the fourth to the sixth century. In addition, the presence of columns in close association with pilasters--a rare form in church architecture--is seen frequently in baptistries. Examples at Como, Brescia, Novara, Milan and FrŽjus may be cited as comparisons. The connection to baptism is strengthened by an early inscription in the Round Church, mentioning its dedication to St. John, and the presence of a font in the narthex which proved that baptisms were carried out there. Thus it seems that baptistery architecture may have served as part of the inspiration for Symeon's Round Church, in his efforts to strengthen the Christian faith and the Bulgarian kingdom in the years around 900 A.D.
1 Krăstju Mijatev, KrăglataTsărkva v Preslav (Sofia, 1932).
2 E. Cs. Tompos, "Contribution to the Confrontation of Architectures in the Caucasus Region, in the Carpathian Bassin (sic) and in Dalmatia," II Mezhdunarodnyi simpozium po gruzinskomu iskusstvu (Tolisi,1977).
THE BYZANTINE CHURCH AT ENEZ: PROBLEMS IN TWELFTH-CENTURY ARCHITECTURE
Robert Ousterhout (University of Oregon)
The Byzantine church known as Fatih Camii at Enez (ancient Aenos, at the mouth of the Maritsa River) has been briefly noted by Eyice and Mango but has otherwise received little attention. Now in ruins, the building collapsed in the 1960s and has been abandoned ever since. The church is undated and its original dedication is unknown, but its size alone (21 x 33.8 m, discounting apses) indicates the importance this foundation was accorded. This paper will attempt to demonstrate that the church is twelfth-century in date, related to contemporary developments in Constantinople, and an important monument for our understanding of architecture in the century prior to the Latin Conquest.
Although the surfaces of the building are weather-worn and much repaired, the original recessed brick construction is still evident in many places and was used in all parts of the building. This technique is characteristic of architecture of the eleventh and twelfth centuries in Constantinople and related centers. Other details, such as decorative patterns in brick (meander and herringbone), tripartite lunette windows, external responds which correspond to the structural divisions of the interior, and broad, polygonal apses, also suggest a twelfth-century date.
The plan of the church is unusual: the cruciform plan is extended to the west, forming a domed basilica with a transept, recalling architecture of the sixth to ninth centuries. The blocky, formal massing also resembles early examples (e.g. H. Irene in Constantinople, Basilica B at Philippi, Dere Ağz”). While no church of identical plan survives from the twelfth century, that period witnessed a revival of earlier planning types. Both the Greek cross plan and the atrophied Greek cross plan reappeared in the architectural mainstream (e.g. GŸl Camii, Kalenderhane Camii and Kariye Camii, Constantinople). The church at Enez may be best understood as an example of this revival. All of these churches, including Enez, have broad bemas, cruciform plans, large domes (over 7 m in diameter), broad lunettes to the north and south, opened by large, tripartite windows. The interiors are spacious, light-filled and unified, and the exteriors appear blocky and massive, like the sixth- to ninth-century predecessors. The numerous common features should confirm the twelfth-century date of the church at Enex.
The element of the church which has attracted the most attention is the portico facade of the exonarthex, most often compared with the architecture of the Palaeologan period (e.g. Kilise Camii in Constantinople, H. Apostoloi in Thessaloniki). As the exonarthex is not bonded to the rest of the church, the similarity led Eyice to suggest a Palaeologan date for the exonaxthex-- that is, later than the main body of the church. However, although the exonarthex is not bonded, the construction technique is identical to the rest of the church, and certain details, such as recessed, stilted arches set between an independent system of wall pilasters, and the use of a great variety of marble spolia, appear in both. The two units must have been constructed at the sane time. The main portion of the building was vaulted, but no trace of a permanent cover for the exonarthex could be found, and instead it must have been topped by a wooden roof. The absence of vaulting may explain the lack of bonding: the light construction of the exonarthex would have settled differently than the more massive main body of the church, and the two units would have required different foundations.
While the exonarthex at Enez is usually grouped with the portico facades of the fourteenth century, several important factors distinguish it from the later examples: it was not vaulted, and it was not integrated into the main body of the church. It was neither formally nor presumably functionally a part of the church proper, but simply a porch attached to the front of the building. As such, it may be viewed as a transitional form of the exonarthex-- developing from porches and porticoes constructed of ephemeral materials to the integrated spatial unit, characteristic of the Palaeologan period. The source for the portico faade should then be sought in forms of similar function in earlier Byzantine architecture, that is, porches and porticoes of early Byzantine churches (e.g. S. Apollinare in Classe, Basilica B at Philippi), rather than Romanesque influence or Venetian palazzi, as Mango has suggested. In this case, the exonarthex at Enez-- and the development of this characteristic Palaeologan feature-- may have also been the result of the revival of architectural forms in the twelfth century.
MIDDLE BYZANTINE ART
Presiding: Jeffrey C. Anderson
THE PALA D'ORO AND THE CULT OF SAINT MARK IN VENICE
Margaret Frazer (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The Pala d'Oro in St. Mark's basilica in Venice was commissioned, according to a fourteenth-century inscription added to it and the chronicle of Andrea Dandolo, from Constantinople by Doge Ordelaffo Falier in 1105. The beauty of its workmanship, the breadth and complexity of its iconographic program, and its refurbishment and enlargement over several centuries have provoked praise and puzzlement for many decades. The so- called lower Pala, which is the subject of this paper, has drawn scholarly interest primarily to the problems of the assignment of its constituent enamels to separate but unknown works of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, due to their awkward arrangement and lack of stylistic unity. I will attempt to show that the enamels of the lower Pala were purposely made for the altar of the basilica in 1105 in honor of St. Mark, and that they present a unified program.
The subject of the enamels of the Pala--Christ enthroned encircled by an inscription and adored by archangels, prophets holding scrolls, four evangelists, apostles, the Hetoimasia adored by Seraphim and angels, the Virgin, local saints, scenes from the lives of Christ and St. Mark, and portraits of patrons--depend upon a scheme of Byzantine mural decoration that developed in the late eleventh century and survives in varying degrees of completeness at Megara in Greece and in the churches of the Martorana and the Cappella Palatina in Palermo. The figures, vastly reduced from their initial architectural scale, were arranged on the antependium of the main altar of St. Mark's with a central dominant Christ flanked by tiers of saints in approximation of Western antependia. As was the practice also for Western altar decoration, the cycle of St. Mark's altar included scenes from the life of the patron saint, whose relics had been placed in the crypt beneath the altar in October 1094. Whereas all the other images on the Pala were portrayed in a Byzantine manner, the St. Mark's panels were based on Western models. Many events take place under distinctively turreted city gates, and St. Mark is invested as Bishop with a crozier. Drawings of these scenes must have been sent to Constantinople to the artists along with the transcriptions of the numerous Latin inscriptions on the Pala.
Venice's honoring of its patron saint in a grand new church with a lavish altar frontal from Byzantium finds a direct antecedent at Monte Cassino, as Hans Hahnloser has shown. Abbot Desiderius sent a monk to Constantinople with thirty-six pounds of gold to pay for a jewelled and enamelled antependium for St. Benedict's church altar. According to Leo of Ostia, it was decorated with scenes from the New Testament and miracles of St. Benedict, the latter surely based on Western models since no cycle of this saint existed in Byzantium. The cycles of the scenes of St. Mark and St. Benedict probably themselves depended on the type of illustrated manuscripts called "libelli," which were made to commemorate saints in the basilicas where they were buried Several surviving Romanesque manuscripts like the Vitae of St. Amand in Bourges and St. Radegonde in Poitiers seem to have been made for a similar purpose.
The Pala d'Oro of Ordelaffo Falier still poses problems, not the least of which is the portrait of the Doge himself, but I hope that I have shown that the enamels on the lower Pala form a coherent, if eccentric, program based on an ambitious and influential Byzantine architectural scheme adapted to decorate the main altar of the basilica of St. Mark at Venice.
A NEW DELUXE BYZANTINE MANUSCRIPT SURFACES IN HAIFA
Tamar Avner (University of Haifa)
The wishful dream of every art historian to experience the thrill of an unexpected discovery of a rare treasure from the past and to delight in its publication was occasioned most recently when I was requested to authenticate two illuminated parchment leaves purchased in an auction during World War II in Bucharest by a private owner who some years ago emigrated to Israel and settled down in Haifa.
The two unnumbered leaves are a bifolium removed from a quire originally belonging to a most handsome Byzantine codex which was at some time rescued from a fire, as the slightly singed upper edges of the parchment indicate. Otherwise in pristine condition, the quarto pages contain four large framed miniatures with gold background occupying the lower two thirds of the page and illustrating the text in the upper third. Wide margins, a handsome script and high artistic quality as well as the frequency of the miniatures attest to the lost parent manuscript as an extravagantly decorated book with numerous pictures. From the text, the paleography, the subject matter of the scenes and the style, it is deduced that the codex was a deluxe edition of the Scala Paradisi by John Climax belonging to the Comnenian period. However, the text does not belong to any of the chapters of this tractate proper, but it is a penitential hymn said to have been composed in the eighth century on the basis of one of the chapters of the Heavenly Ladder. Closely related to the latter, this hymn came to be placed at the beginning. In the Middle Byzantine period, it was provided with a separate category of illustrations complying with the pattern of miniatures which adorn Climax series.
Apart from excellent artistic merit, the bifolium proves to be of interest to the history and development of Climax illustration and of Byzantine illumination as a whole. The earliest surviving Climax manuscript with illustrations of this hymn is of the thirteenth century, whereas the Haifa bifolium belongs stylistically in the first quarter of the twelfth century. In page layout as well as in iconography, it is a very close relative of the earliest and chief Climax copy containing this remarkable hymn, namely Vatican, gr. 1754. Through this familial connection and other codicological details, the original quire and its place in the parent codex can be reconstructed and the existence of two frontispieces at the beginning of the codex surmised.
Contributing substantially to the evidence on sumptuous productions which characterizes the first part of the twelfth century, the Haifa bifolium is valuable in that it shifts the date of production of Climax manuscripts with a fully illustrated penitential hymn by about a century earlier than Vatican, gr. 1754. It also explains the peculiar system of the illustration in the latter copy as a later development of the format demonstrated by the Haifa bifolium.
THREE MORE ILLUSTRATED EDITIONS OF THE METAPHRASTIAN MENOLOGIUM
Nancy P. Ševčenko (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Out of the 44 surviving manuscripts of the Metaphrastian Menologium, it has proved possible to isolate 6 separate "editions", all of the 1lth century. Three of these (Editions A - C) were described in my report to the Byzantine Studies Conference of 1977; since then I have been able to isolate another three, each with its particular form of illustration. Every volume of Edition D, for example (Athos, Lavra Δ 46, Vat. gr. 817, and Meteora, Metamorphosis 552, Volumes I, VII and X respectively) has a frontispiece containing the full page portrait of the first saint celebrated in the volume, but no further illustration. In the four surviving volumes of Edition E (Oxford, New College 149, Thessalonica, Vlatadon 3, Florence, Laur., Plut. XI: 11 and Jerusalem, Greek Patriarchate, Stavrou 6. Volumes II, III, V and VI respectively) there is again a portrait of the first saint only, here inserted into the illuminated pylon at the beginning of the first text; the remaining texts lack any accompanying miniatures. In Edition F (Genoa, Bibl. Franzoniani, Miss. Urb. 36 and Alexandria, Greek Patriarchate 35, Volumes IV and X) the decoration is more elaborate, for there is a little unframed miniature before every text.
On what basis have these 18 manuscripts been assigned to 6 specific editions? The following eight criteria I have found to be the most useful. Contents: How closely do the texts in a manuscript adhere to the standard choice of texts in the 10-volume Metaphrastian Menologium? Manuscripts with many added texts do not as a rule belong with manuscripts with strictly Metaphrastian contents. Rulings: These are usually the same for all volumes of one edition. Number of lines per page: This may vary within the edition or even the volume, but never by more than one or two lines. Quire numbering: The location of the signatures is the same in every manuscript of an edition. Script: Relevant here is the form used for a) The days of the month; b) Titles; c) Major initials; d) Minor initials; e) Captions. The chosen form÷uncials or semi-uncials, illuminated initials or plain, figured or not, etc.÷is maintained throughout all volumes of an edition. Pinax formula: There are about nine variants in this period, but the same formula is used in each volume of an edition. Other relevant entries: Notes written into a manuscript at a later date shed light on its subsequent history and owners, and occasionally confirm an old association between two manuscripts. Illumination: The most general characteristics should be examined: what sort of miniatures there are, where they are placed with reference to the text, whether or not they are framed, and so forth.
Even if more than one artist is involved in the illustration of an edition, as is sometimes the case, these elements of format remain consistent throughout the ten volumes, and may turn out to be a surer guide than either style or palaeography alone when we turn to the next challenge, that of assigning our editions to specific scriptoria.
KERULARIOS AND SILVESTER
Ioli Kalavrezou-Maxeiner (University of California, Los Angeles)
Saint Silvester, though not frequently represented in Byzantine art, appears in a number of eleventh-century art objects, often as part of an uncommon iconography--such as the Physiologus from Smyrna, the Dumbarton Oaks cross (see Jenkins, DOP 21v 235-49) or the Vatican Psalter gr. 752. In this paper I will discuss t-hese images and the eleventh-century politics that gave rise to them. I will focus on Vatican, gr. 752, a profusely illustrated Psalter which has a variety of images that refer to the contemporary conflict between the emperor Isaac I and the patriarch Michael Kerularios. The images of Silvester in this manuscript anchor its relation to Kerularios and establish it as a historical document; in particular, these images help us to discuss more fully how Kerularios used the "donations of Constantine" to press patriarchal against imperial claims.
Vatican 752 is a Psalter which stands completely outside even the most diluted interpretations of the two major Psalter "recensions". It is one of the few Byzantine artworks where the evidence allows one to understand the nature of the individual scenes created for the subject matter. If it weren't for our knowledge of the historical sources, this manuscript and its illustrations would appear only as a curious interpretation of the Psalter.
THE SMYRNA PHYSIOLOGUS AND ITS ELEVENTH-CENTURY MODEL
Kathleen Corrigan (University of California, Los Angeles)
The only known Byzantine example of an illustrated Physiologus was preserved in Smyrna (Evangelical School B.8) until it was destroyed by fire in 1921. Fortunately, Josef Strzygowski had already described all and illustrated many of the images in his 1899 publication, Der Bilderkreis des Griechischen Physiologus.
The Smyrna Physiologus contains 48 chapters, each devoted to a specific animal or plant and consisting of two sections: a description of the plant or animal's nature and habits and the legends concerning it, followed by a moral or typological interpretation. In most cases both sections of the chapter are illustrated with an image placed below the appropriate portion of the text. The images illustrating the first part of each chapter are, as one might expect, rather straightforward. However, many of the moral and typological images are unique; and their iconography, as well as their relationship to the text, is difficult to decipher.
Strzygowski dated the Smyrna Physiologus itself to the 11th century, but argued that it was a copy of a mid-9th century original produced in the Studios monastery in Constantinople. The attribution of the original to the Studios monastery is based on the interrelationship which Strzygowski discovered between the Physiologus and the marginal psalters. He noted one image which the artists of the 9th century marginal psalters borrowed from an illustrated Physiologus and another which the Physiologus artist obviously took from a marginal psalter. Coupled with the general similarity in method of illustration between the Physiologus and the marginal psalters -- i.e., the text is interpreted both literally and typologically, drawing on the Old and New Testaments and the writings of the church fathers, and introducing historical and moral subjects -- Strzygowski considered these connections ample justification for the conclusion that the archetypes of both the Physiologus and the marginal psalters were being put together at the same time and in the same place. Since Strzygowski accepted Kondakov and Tikkanen's attribution of the marginal psalters to the Studios monastery, the common setting for the production of these manuscripts could only be the Studios monastery in the period just after the end of Iconoclasm.
Strzygowski's 11th century date for the Smyrna manuscript itself has generally been accepted, as well as his hypothesis about the 9th century archetype. Recently, however, Prof. Otto Demus (Jahrbuch der …sterreichischen Byzantinistik, 1976) has argued convincingly, on the basis of style and iconography, that the Smyrna Physiologus is in fact a good Palaeologan copy of an 11th century model. Based on comparison with other 11th century manuscripts known or proposed to be of Studios origin (e.g., the Theodore Psalter, London Addl. 19352, the Paris gr. 74 Gospel book, and the Jerusalem Taphou 14 Homilies of Gregory Nazianzenus), Demus argued that the immediate model must have been a Studios manuscript of the 11th century. However, Demus still accepts Strzygowski's contention that the manuscript goes back to a still earlier model.
While I accept Demus' thesis that the Smyrna manuscript itself is a Palaeologan copy of a Studios manuscript of the 11th century, my study of the manuscript has led me to conclude that the Physiologus cycle in its present form cannot be traced back prior to the 11th century. The first part of this paper will show that, contrary to Strzygowski's opinion, only the story illustrations go back to a yet earlier model (in fact to the pre- Iconoclastic period). The interpretive images, on the other hand, I believe were conceived in the 11th century. Thus it is within the context of 11th century Studios manuscript production, and ultimately of the political events of the 11th century in which the monastery was involved that one must try to understand the meaning of the unique and enigmatic interpretive images in the Smyrna manuscript. The second part of this paper will focus on this problem.
GENESIS SCENES IN PARIS. GR. 510
Leslie Brubaker (Wheaton College)
The Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus in Paris, Bibliothque Nationale gr. 510, dated 873, is the earliest deluxe Byzantine codex preserved from post-Iconoclastic Constantinople. The iconographic wealth of Paris. gr. 510 has become a commonplace of art historians, but few have considered the narrative cycles incorporated in the Homilies' illustrations as more than a convenient repository of motifs available in ninth-century Byzantium. New Testament images have fared better than Old Testament scenes: Weitzmann's study on the Threnos and Martin's examination of the Crucifixion both pinpoint the significance of Paris. gr. 510 in the broader context of Byzantine iconography. But scenes from the Old Testament have been largely neglected, though they constitute nearly half of the Biblically-in- spired images in the Paris Gregory. The largest body of Old Testament illustration in Paris. gr. 510 derives from the book of Genesis, and is particularly interesting because of the relatively great amount of comparative material preserved.
Five miniatures in the Paris Homilies include scenes from Genesis, and two of them show extensive cycles. On folio 52v, eight scenes from the history of Adam and Eve are arranged in the first two registers while thirteen episodes from the Joseph story fill folio 69v. In his work on Joseph iconography, Vikan has isolated the latter miniature from other Joseph cycles and believes that the Paris illustration, along with an ivory casket now at Sens, exemplifies a new (fourth) pictorial recension. The Adam and Eve sequence on folio 52v has never been investigated, and it is on this cycle that I will concentrate.
Folio 52 is an inserted half-leaf, but since scenes in the miniature's third register are closely related to the text of the following homily (De pace, 1), it is certainly in the correct place. The history of Adam and Eve is not alluded to in the homily text at all, and Der Nersessian, in her pioneering study of the relationship between text and image in Paris. gr. 510, suggested no compelling exegetical connection between De pace and the history of man's Fall. Examination of the text of Paris. gr. 510, however, reveals two passages marked by diples. One refers to Moses Receiving the Laws, a scene found in the third register of folio 52v, the other is a quote from Paul's Epistle to Romans (5:20). Exegesis on this passage--among which numbers a lengthy catena attributed to Photios, long believed to be the guiding hand behind the program of the Paris Gregory--both explains the relationship between De pace and the Adam and Eve sequence and suggests that the miniature functions as an elaborate and complex commentary on the homily.
Since the Adam and Eve sequence on folio 52v could not have been inspired directly by the text of De pace, it must have been copied from another source, but the iconography parallels none of the three established pictorial cycles of Genesis (Vienna Genesis, Cotton Genesis recension, Octateuch recension). The closest comparisons with the Gregory sequence, which includes two non-Biblical episodes and a host of apocryphal details, come from an amorphous group of works that refuses easy classification. Members of this group (e.g. the Kokkinobaphos manuscripts, the dome paintings at Aght'amar, the Manasses Chronicle) show a surprising degree of similarity and may constitute a hitherto undefined tradition of Creation iconography. Like the Joseph cycle in Paris. gr. 510, the Adam and Eve sequence suggests that the three established Genesis recensions did not monopolize Byzantine art in the ninth century.
RELIGION AND SOCIETY
Presiding: Walter Emil Kaegi
EPIPHANIUS OF CONSTANTIA AND THE DEFENSE OF THE CYPRIOT ORTHODOXY AND ECCLESIASTICAL INDEPENDENCE
Craig Hanson (Furman University)
Epiphanius of Constantia (ca. 315-403) is an outstanding representative of fourth- century orthodox dogmatism and monastic piety. A native of Palestine, he was educated as a young man in the monasteries of Egypt and while there became a zealous supporter of orthodox Christianity and the growing ascetic movement. Upon his return to Palestine about 335, Epiphanius founded a monastery near Eleutheropolis in Judaea. In 367 he was elected bishop of Constantia (Salamis), the metropolitan see of Cyprus, by the bishops of the island and served in this capacity until his death in 403.
During his tenure as bishop of Constantia, Epiphanius vigorously sought to defend the ecclesiastical independence of the Cypriot church and to vindicate Nicene orthodoxy in the face of local heretical threats. Although the success and importance of Epiphanius' efforts in this regard are well attested by such authorities as Jerome, Palladius, Socrates and Sozomen, modern scholars thus far have not investigated these activities in sufficient detail.
Previous to Epiphanius' elevation to the office of metropolitan in 367, the Cypriot church had fostered a tradition of ecclesiastical independence and autocephalicity in spite of political and geographical pressures to the contrary. When the administrative diocese of Oriens, with its capital at Antioch, was divided into Oriens and Aegyptus about 367, the likelihood of Antiochene influence (and interference) appeared greater than ever. However, the appointment of Epiphanius, with his close ties to orthodox monastic circles in Egypt and to Athanasius of Alexandria, assured the continued independence of the Cypriot church. Indeed, the measure of Epiphanius' success here can be seen in Cyprus' situation not long after his death. Despite support given to Antioch's claims over Cyprus by Pope Innocent I (402-17), the Council of Ephesus in 431 formally acknowledged the independence of the Cypriot bishops.
Under Epiphanius' influence and active administration, the Christian community on Cyprus flourished. Numerous monasteries were founded (often with sizable monetary endowments) and churches built, including the recently excavated basilica at Constantia. Although the Cypriot church seems to have been under orthodox Nicene control in the person of Epiphanius and his associates, there are indications that the island was troubled by religious dissension in the form of heresy. Epiphanius himself describes the Cyprus of his own time as a stronghold of the Marcionites (Haer. 42.1.2), a point corroborated by John Chrysostom. Polybius, the alleged companion of Epiphanius and author of the Vita S. Epiphanii, is possibly to be believed when he tells of Epiphanius' heated disputation with the Valentinian heretics of Constantia and their bishop, Aetius. In addition, it is likely that there existed in Cyprus various groups of Origenists, whom Epiphanius considered to be the most insidious of all heretics. Against such heretical groups in Cyprus, Epiphanius utilized written polemic and political coercion with striking success, as is attested in the contemporary sources.
CHORICIUS OF GAZA AND HIS DESCRIPTIONS OF FESTIVALS AT GAZA
Fotios K. Litsas (University of Illinois, Chicago Circle)
The orator Choricius of Gaza, along with his description of two churches at Gaza of the Justinianic era, he describes the festivals which were held at Gaza on the occasion of the dedication of the church of Saint Stephanus and Saint Sergius, also the celebration of emperor Justinian's Brumalia.
Though Gaza contributed to the preservation and transmission of classical culture, its cultural development is not very well known especially during the early Byzantine period. It is known that the city had a long tradition of festivals and other cultural activities. The conversion of its population to Christianity in the early fifth century had a definite impact on its cultural activities. It is not clear, however, how this development occurred and what kind of cultural patterns were established afterwards; to what extent the pagan traditions were changed and how far their continuity was preserved. The contribution of new elements by Christianity on the other hand, is another important aspect of the subject.
In his orations Choricius offers a variety of information about the festivals and other cultural activities at Gaza during the first half of the sixth century. This paper will examine Choricius' information about these festivals under the light of other existing material, especially the Vita of bishop Porphyry by Marc the Deacon. A careful examination and study of this information allows a further view of the cultural developments at Gaza in the fifth and sixth centuries; it shows the gradual transition from Paganism to Christianity, and illustrates details of the cultural activities and life at Gaza. Using the internal evidence, an attempt is also made to specify the calendar of the various activities which Choricius describes, especially the date of the festival of Saint Sergius. In addition, the material permits a study of the attitudes of the imperial government towards these festivals as well as the role of the bishop and other local authorities in the organization, participation and maintenance of these festivals.
THE VALUE OF DONATIONS TO CHURCH TREASURES (KEIMĒLIA) IN THE PATRIARCHATE OF ANTIOCH IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN PERIOD
Marlia Mundell Mango (St. Anne's College, Oxford University)
The nature, scope and patrons of church treasures (keimēlia) in the eastern provinces under Antioch can be known to some extent from both written sources and extant objects. The large treasures of city churches provided a prominent target to Chosroes I during his campaign of extortion in 540, as they did to other Persian and Arab invaders. While the wealth lavished upon St. Sophia of Constantinople by Justinian is catalogued by Paul the Silentiary, the riches of the cathedral church of Antioch can only be inferred. Explicit texts, however, refer to the treasures belonging to lesser churches of Antioch and to the cathedrals of other cities. These treasures were clearly extensive and reminiscent of those of St. Sophia, Constantinople. They included silver revetments and vessels, as well as costly vestments and libraries. The treasures of village churches and monasteries are also known through texts such as inventories and, most importantly, surviving vessels and manuscripts. An examination of the historical texts, inscribed objects and annotated manuscripts (62 of which have precisely dated colophons and a further 25 datable ones) yields precise information about the people who donated offerings to churches, in the same manner as pagans had done to temples and Jews to synagogues. The donations extended to the church buildings themselves and their architectural adornment. Among the written sources there are passages which state the amount of money given by certain individuals, as well as the amount thought to be a reasonable average affordable by any member of the congregation. This precise information can be evaluated with reference to the exact weights, and hence monetary value, of individual surviving pieces. The largest group of extant objects from the Patriarchate of Antioch are those of the treasure of the church of St. Sergius of the village (kōmē, kephar) Koraion, most of which is now in the Walters Art Gallery. The exact extent of this treasure is open to speculation, but its large certified core testifies to the existence at village level of a modest counterpart to the vast resources belonging to city churches. A parallel study can be made of the books donated to churches, which extends, in some cases, to the exact prices paid for particular volumes, as noted in the extant manuscripts. The prices of books taken in conjunction with the prices established for silver objects, provides an index of church wealth, individual contributions and individual private resources. Supporting evidence of the private wealth of some individuals, i.e. their personal property including, for example, the enumeration of a silver service (ca. 591), can also be obtained from local historical sources.
PAGANISM AND THE PROCESS OF CHRISTIANIZATION DURING THE PRE-ICONOCLASTIC PERIOD
Frank Trombley (University of Cincinnati)
No study has fully evaluated the evidence for the survival of pagan cult practices during the pre-iconoclastic period, and the precise methods used to catechize the unconverted and partially christianized population of the Byzantine Empire. This paper will discuss the abundant evidence in hagiographies, canonical legislation, and other sources.
The Ecclesiastical History of John of Ephesus attests the existence of pagan groups in Anatolia during the mid-sixth century, and the use of monastic foundations to effect their catechization. The continuation of local cults is demonstrated, as well, by the Vita of Nicholas, hegumen of Hagia Sion in Lycia (ob. 565), including that of Artemis, it appears. The catechization of the countryside required syncretistic methods: Nicholas continued the practices of the pagan priesthood, such as acts of divination and the performance of sacrifice, but with Ohristian cult formulae attached.
The Vita of Theodore of Sykeon confirms the existence of the cult of Artemis in the late sixth century, unconverted pagan magicians, and popular religious awe in connection with pagan monumental architecture. The Vita of Eutychius confirms this last phenomenon in the case of mosaic representational art, and the Vita of Alypius the Stylite in the case of temples and nekropoleis. The Vita of Theodore suggests, once again, a competition for popular acceptance between monastic figures and pagan diviners, such as the nephodioktai or "rain-makers".
Evidence at the end of the seventh century demonstrates the continuation of these forms of popular culture. The legislation of the Council in Trullo (691-92) mentions oracular cults (Canon 60), diviners of various types (Canon 61), and the celebration of such pagan festivals as the Bota and Brumalia (Canon 62), as well as the New Moon (Canon 65.). These had become to some extent calendar customs. Practices of these types are discussed as well in the correspondence of pope Zacharias (ob. 752) and in the De haeresibus of John of Damascus. Sixth- and seventh-century texts explain certain aspects of the Canons that are unclear in a strictly legal context.
Data from the early eighth century confirms the persistence of pagan cult practices, such as the human sacrifice performed at the siege of Pergamon in 717, a notice in Cosmas of Jerusalem about the continuation of the cult of Kybele in Caria, and the fetish of a sacred stone outside Miletus. The last-mentioned had persisted unchanged, except for the accretion of Christian cult formulae, until the tenth century (Vita of Paul the Younger). The ongoing struggle against paganism is attested by a seal of John, archbishop of Gangra, and by the Miraculum S. Michaelis. The latter was directed against cult practices at sacred springs.
This paper will also reassess the text in DAI about the pagans of Maina, and report the evidence for unexorcized temples, cult- effigies, and diviners in Sicily.
All this evidence, in connection with the eighth-century Appendix to the Ekloga, suggests that the process of christianization proceeded at a slower pace than hitherto understood.
PAGAN IVORIES AND CONSULAR DIPTYCHS
Presiding: Anthony Cutler
PAGAN IVORIES AND CONSULAR DIPTYCHS
Alan Cameron (Columbia University)
Following in the footsteps of many distinguished predecessors, Ernst Kitzinger has recently linked the sudden flowering of ivory carving in late fourth century Rome to the so-called 'last pagan revival' of the 390s A.D. (Byzantine Art in the Making (1977), Ch. II). He goes on to trace the influence of this 'pagan style' both on subsequent Christian ivories and on 'official' art, as represented by the long sequence of consular diptychs.1)
This thesis will bear reexamination. In the first place, the significance of this 'pagan revival' has been much exaggerated (cf. Christianisme et formes litteraires de I'antiquitŽ tardive en occident, Entretiens ... Fondation Hardt (1977), 1-30). Secondly, a more careful study of the chronology of this whole group of ivories dated on stylistic grounds to 1c.4001 will suggest that the one conspicuously pagan diptych, Nicomachorum/Symmachorum (Volbach no.55), is in fact the latest of the series.
It has usually been assumed that this diptych commemorated a marriage between the two families named. Why then no nuptial imagery? Why on the contrary (on the Nicomachorum panel) the lowered torches and pine-cones suggesting death and rebirth? Is it not rather (as a Columbia graduate student David Friedman first suggested to me) a funerary diptych? For various reasons I suggest that (like the other Symmachorum panel, Volbach 56) it was issued by Memmius Symmachus in 402 to commemorate the deaths of his father, Q.Aur.Symmachus, and his father-inlaw Nicomachus Flavianus the elder (who died in disgrace in 394). In the same year he erected parallel statues to both forbears in the family house on the Caelian hill. That is to say, long after the 'pagan revival' was over.
As for the Lampadiorum panel (Volbach 54), thanks to the researches of Chiara Formis we now know that the other half of this diptych was inscribed ÎRufiorumâ. I suggest that the central figure is Postumius Lampadius, prefect of Rome in 403/8, and that Rufius Caecina Felix Lampadius, prefect of Rome between 439 and 450, is his son. If so, then Postumius must have married a member of the great fourth century house of the Ceionii Rufii, and the diptych will have commemorated the marriage. The central figure is shown as consul, evidently suffect consul, since no Lampadius was ordinary consul before 530. The consul carries a scepter capped by two imperial busts, wearing the trabea, of very different size, which indicates that one of the reigning emperors was a minor. The only date that fits is 396, when Arcadius was 19 and Honorius 12. The Stilicho and Probianus diptychs (Volbach 62-3) can be assigned the same date for the same reason.
So the 'official' diptychs are earlier than the one 'pagan' diptych. I shall further argue that there was a tradition of ceremonial diptychs going back several years in both East and West, linking the 'Theodosian Renaissance' of the East with the 'Pagan Revival' of the West. For the law of 384 (Cod.Theod.xv.9.1) forbidding all but consuls from issuing ivory diptychs does not (as hitherto assumed) refer to Rome but to Constantinople. Evidently ceremonial diptychs in ivory were being issued freely in Constantinople some time before our earliest datable specimens in Rome.
THE WORKSHOP OF THE TRIVULZIO MASTER AND ROMAN CLASSICISM, CA. 400
Dale Kinney (Bryn Mawr College)
For almost a century scholars have acknowledged similarities among the pagan diptych of the Nicomachi and the Symmachi (=N, S), the inaugural diptych of Rufius Probianus (=P), and the Christian "Women at the Tomb of Christ" from the Trivulzio Collection (=T). With a few unpersuasive dissensions, these similarities are now generally recognized as evidence that the plaques are from a common workshop, localized, for circumstantial reasons, in Rome. Through close analysis of the style of each plaque, this paper seeks to define more precisely the inter-relationship of the craftsmen who produced them, thus to better understand the structure and procedures of the workshop.
The most commonly remarked resemblance among these plaques is the ornamentation of their frames. More than their ornamental vocabulary, however, it is the structural role of the frames intimately relates T, S, and P. The frame works both pictorially and sculpturally; it organizes both the two-dimensional composition and the three-dimensional superimposition of the strata of relief. In each case, a field-and-frame relationship is created that is highly distinctive and quintessentially late antique. The illusionistic picture is turned inside-out, and rather than delimiting the space of the image, the frame is absorbed into it. The protagonists act outside the frame -- behind, and more tellingly, in front of it.
Despite their common principles of design, each of these diptychs is sufficiently different from the others in details of execution that the possibility of common authorship seems remote. This leads to the hypothesis of one master designer, the creator of three-dimensional exempla that were reproduced, with some freedom of variation, by other craftsmen in the workshop. Because the principles of design seem most aptly expressed, and singularly well complemented by the execution of the "Women at the Tomb", I propose to identify the chief designer with the carver of this plaque, and to call him the Trivulzio Master.
Interestingly, the plaque inscribed "Nicomachorum" stands apart from the group just defined, not only in execution but also in design. In order to include it in the workshop, we must assume that several master designers were employed there at one time.
The Trivulzio group is commonly held to be the most classical of the ivories produced around 400 A.D. Consideration of the possible models of these and other, contemporary plaque suggests that this opinion may rest on a too-exclusive definition of classicism, closer to Winckelmann's than to that of the Symmachi. The same consideration bears out Delbrueck's insistence (Bonner JahrbŸcher, 1952) on the freedom of artists in this period to cultivate strongly individualized manners, and it suggests that the role of the patron in guiding stylistic choices might be less important, and certainly less direct, than has recently been supposed.
THE CONSULAR MUSE OF FLAVIUS CONSTANTIUS
Kathleen J. Shelton (University of Chicago)
Among the antiquities lost during the Second World War were some previously housed in the Berlin Antiquarium. A leaf of a consular diptych, conventionally associated with Flavius Constantius and his second consulship of 417 (Delbrueck, Consulardiptychen, no, 36; Volbach, Elfenbeinarbeiten [1976], no. 34), is numbered with the objects apparently destroyed. Plaster casts of the ivory, formerly held in Mainz (R-g Zentralmuseum), suffered the same fate, and the piece is now most commonly referenced through photographs (of photographs) of modest quality available in the standard corpus publications.
The provenance, as well as the abrupt end of the ivory, is unusual: the leaf was discovered in the nineteenth century in debris associated with the seventeenth century destruction of the medieval church of St. Paulinus in Trier. Epigraphic materials and textual sources give some indication of the ivory's long life above ground in Trier during the Middle Ages and, with appropriate care, should be considered in any account of the ivory's worn and fragile condition. The poor state of preservation, unfortunately, helped to relegate the piece early on to the category of "product of provincial workshop." In its brief modern history, the piece figured primarily in debates concerning the non-Roman or Gallic origins of many Late Antique works. The debates are a thing of the past; the ivory can be argued to be city-of-Rome Roman; but the evidence of the ivory bears on other issues worthy of continuing consideration.
A lithograph made after the piece within a few years of its discovery allows a better appreciation of its state. And the efforts of museum officials in both Berlin and Mainz have recently made available photographic prints from rare glass-plate negatives that survived the war. A reconstruction of the ivory is offered that demonstrates its relations to diptychs traditionally associated with major centers by both epigraphic conventions and, generally observed, figural style. But the most significant contributions derive from considerations of basic technique, overall composition, and an iconography utterly anomalous within standard definitions of consular diptychs. The integration of the ivory into the consular corpus proper requires the re-examination of some of the basic guidelines commonly applied to these ivories and broadens our definition of subject matter appropriate to this singular genre of Late Antique aristocratic patronage.
THE CONSULAR DIPTYCH OF BASILIUS (V5) RE-EVALUATED
Diane Schauer (Pennsylvania State University)
Until 1892 no one ever doubted that the diptych of Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius was commissioned by the Basilius who was consul in 541. It was Hans Graeven (RM, 7) who proposed Basilius cos. 480 instead. This date was canonized in the standard works of Delbrueck and Volbach, and no art historian since seems to have had any doubt that the Basilius diptych is one of the earliest extant consular diptychs rather than the very last.
No other late Roman family so dominated the consulship as the Decii, of which our Basilius was certainly a member. However, his identity requires reinvestigation. Caecina Decius Basilius (cos. 463) had three sons who were consuls, Caecina Mavortius Basilius Decius (cos. 486), Decius Marius Venantius Basilius (cos. 484), and Basilius iunior (cos. 480), identified as Caecina Decius Maximus Basilius from a piece of lead piping (CIL xv. 7420). Graeven assigned this inscription to the consul of 463, leaving the name of the consul of 480 as Basilius iunior. However, Ennodius (Epp. ii. 22) remarked that the son of Basilius iunior, Caecina Decius Faustus Albinus (cos. 493) was related (Îparensâ) to Anicius Probus Faustus, son of Gennadius Avienus of the house of the Corvini. None of the sons of Caecina Decius Basilius have names which suggest a marriage between the Corvini and the Decii, but the names of Basilius iunior's two eldest sons--Faustus Albinus and Avienus--strongly suggest that it was he who married into the Corvini. It seems inevitable that one of Basilius iunior's many sons, probably Faustus Albinus, should name his son Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius, incorporating two names from the Corvini and two from the Decii. Furthermore, independent evidence from the Life of Pope Vigilius in the Liber Pontificalis suggests that the consul of 541 was at least named Albinus Basilius.
The difficulty encountered in proposing that the consular diptych issued by Basilius dates to 541 lies in the fact that his was an eastern consulship. As Graeven pointed out, the style of the Basilius diptych is closer to the style of the consular diptych of Boethius, western consul of 487, than to the diptychs issued by Apion and Justin, eastern consuls of 539 and 540. Yet the similarities between the Basilius and Boethius diptychs have been exaggerated. The carving of the drapery, indeed, the entire diptych of Basilius is more crude and stiff than that of Boethius. The head of the consul of 541 is thin and narrows at the chin, while that of Boethius is square and block-like. Basilius' egg-shaped eyes are deeply set within their sockets and have large, deeply drilled pupils. Boethius' eyes, in contrast, are not recessed deeply within his skull, and are flattened by the line of his heavy lids. A thin line delineates his irises, and his pupils are small points. The stylistic differences between the Basilius diptych and the almost contemporary diptychs of Apion and Justin seem to indicate a difference in workshop rather than a difference in time: there is no reason to assume that the eastern consul of 541 commissioned his consular ivories in the same workshop that made the diptychs for Apion and Justin.
The eastern consul of 541 was, above all, a descendent of a very prominent Roman aristocratic family. Caecina Decius Maximus Basilius, the consul of 480, lived on the Aventine in Rome and his four sons all lived in or near Rome, including Caecina Decius Faustus Albinus, who owned an estate twenty-seven miles from Rome. Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius must have been raised in or near Rome and was in Rome after his consulship in 546 (Procop., BG iii, 20.18). There is reason to believe that the consular diptych of Basilius, eastern consul of 541, was made in the West.
THE ORESTES DIPTYCH REDATED AND RECONSIDERED
Nancy D. Netzer (Harvard University)
Since Richard Delbrueck's comprehensive study of the consular ivories in 1929, the inscribed consular diptychs have been considered the principal guideposts used in determining stylistic development in the fifth and sixth centuries. It has been assumed, as Delbrueck proposed, that these diptychs are datable to the year of office of the consul whose name is inscribed on them. In the case of at least one of these ivories, however, the evidence will show that this method of dating does not apply.
The ivory in question, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, bears the name of Orestes and consequently always has been assigned to a Western workshop in the year 530 -- the year when Orestes was consul in the West. That this diptych was used by Orestes to announce his appointment as consul cannot be doubted; that it was commissioned by him is, however, not the case. Scholars long have observed the stylistic and compositional similarities between the diptychs of Orestes and Clementinus, consul in the East in 513. Except for the lower quality of the Orestes ivory, variations in minor decorative motifs, and the portraits of the consul and the two sovereigns, the two diptychs are virtually identical. They are so close, in fact, that if one compares, for example, the heads of the personifications on the two diptychs, it is apparent that they were carved, if not by the same artist, then certainly in the same workshop and, most probably, at about the same time.
The Orestes diptych is unique within the series of sixth century tribunal diptychs for the following reasons. First, it is presumed to be of Western origin, while the others are all of Eastern origin. Second, it shows distinct differences in style and quality of carving between the consular portraits and parts of the clipeate portraits on the one hand and the balance of the figures and decoration on the other.
The peculiarities of the Orestes ivory may all be explained by the conclusion that Orestes has reused and adapted for himself a diptych of his predecessor, Clementinus. He has cut back the monogram shield and ansate tablet and reinscribed them with his name in the Western fashion. The original consul's face and neck have been narrowed, his stubble eliminated, an d his hair and eyes recarved to make a younger, thinner Orestes. In order to change the original Byzantine Emperor Anastasius and Empress Ariadne into the Gothic sovereigns Athalaric and Amalasuentha who appointed him, Orestes has altered only their regalia. When Ariadne appeared on the ivory she must have worn a stiff bonnet and diadem which have been recarved by Orestes into a phrygian cap for Amalasuentha. The original chlamys of Anastasius has been cut back and replaced by a tunic and mantle -- presumably a Germanic costume like that worn by Athalaric's successor Theodahad on his coins. Anastasius's diadem and earrings have been eliminated so that Athalaric with his bare head and caplike coiffure appears as did his grandfather Theodoric on his gold medallion found at Sinigaglia.
Why Orestes chose to reuse a previous consul's diptych is impossible to determine with certainty. The lack of other Western ivories dating from the sixth century suggests that the explanation for Orestes's reuse of the Clementinus diptych may lie in the limited availability of ivory or of skilled carvers -- or both -- in the West during this period. Whether reuse of consular diptychs was a widespread practice is equally difficult to determine because the diptychs that survive constitute only a small fraction of the total number produced. Still, with the precedent for reuse established by the Orestes diptych, even this limited number of diptychs -- and especially those considered to be datable -- will repay careful re-examination.
BYZANTIUM AND THE SLAVS
Presiding: Walter K. Hanak
THE CORONATIONS OF SYMEON OF BULGARIA
John V.A. Fine, Jr. (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
In 913 after Emperor Alexander had insultingly refused Bulgaria its tribute, Symeon's armies appeared before Constantinople. Alexander had died; Patriarch Nicholas Mysticus headed a regency for the minor, Constantine VII. Symeon was willing to discuss peace. The Chronicle of the Logothete states, Nicholas went out to Symeon. Symeon bowed before the Patriarch who, after reciting some prayers, placed on his head instead of a crown (stemma) his own patriarchal head-piece (epirrhiptarion). Honored with many gifts, Symeon returned home. As depicted, this is not a legitimate coronation for anything. Yet, had Nicholas really performed a sham coronation, Symeon would have been dissatisfied and resumed the war. Presumably, then, the Byzantine chronicler simply depicted a legitimate coronation as a sham. Was Symeon crowned as Caesar - like Tervel before him -- or Emperor (of the Bulgarians)? The latter is almost certain. The term "stemma" used, Ostrogorski has shown, was consistently employed for the Emperor's crown; a Caesar's wreath was called "stefanos". Secondly, as Jenkins noted, the oration "On the Bulgarian Peace" refers to the departing Symeon as the imperial brother (not son). In 914 Zoe, Constantine's mother, ousted Nicholas, established her own regency and renounced the treaty. From then until the end of Symeon's reign (927) Byzantine letters addressed the Bulgarian ruler as prince (archon), never recognizing him with any higher title.
But what about Symeon himself? Leo the Deacon reports, in 915 Symeon was demanding the Byzantines recognize him as Emperor. This need mean no more than his aim to gain this title by conquering Constantinople. In 918, Zlatarski claims, Symeon raised his Archbishop to Patriarch; then the Patriarch crowned him Tsar (Emperor) and Autocrat of all the Bulgarians. Zlatarski cites no source for this; as far as I know there is none. Much of the literature, however, has accepted this as fact, assigning varying dates for the event between 918 and 920. When Symeon met Emperor Romanus in 923, according to the Logothete, the Bulgarian troops present hailed Symeon as Emperor. This may signify a coronation had occurred; but it may simply have been an act to insult Romanus. Our next dated source is Romanus' letter from 925 to Symeon which objects to Symeon styling himself Emperor of the Bulgarians and Romans. From this certain historians claim Symeon had himself crowned Emperor in Bulgaria in 925. In fact, it shows only that such seems to have occurred by 925. However, did Symeon ever entitle himself that? A seal (undated) exists saying "Symeon in Christ Emperor of the Romans" -- the title of the Byzantine Emperor. This is the logical title to take for one with Symeon's ambitions and knowledge of imperial theory. Thus maybe in his letter Romanus himself added "and the Bulgarians" to dilute the insult of what Symeon actually claimed.
Thus it seems probable that Symeon did have a second coronation in Bulgaria. Since he had already been recognized in 913 by a Byzantine Patriarch as Emperor of the Bulgarians, the new coronation probably bestowed on him a different and higher title, i.e. Emperor of the Romans. It is impossible to date this coronation, except to place it before 925. Zlatarski has done scholarship no service by stating his 918 date as fact. The Bulgarian coronation could have occurred at any time between 914 and 925.
PROCOPIUS AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE SçZAVA MONASTERY
Walter K. Hanak (Shepherd College)
The role of St. Procopius in the foundation of the S‡zava, Monastery and the early history of this Benedictine-Slavonic institution have been little studied. Established in 1032 on the banks of the S‡zava River, a short distance from Prague, the capital city of the dukedom of Bohemia, the importance of this monastery as the last refuge of the Slavonic liturgy as established by SS. Cyril and Methodius in 863 cannot be denied. S‡zava, became a vital religious and cultural link between Western and Eastern Christendom, a subject that has been studied extensively in its philological and literary aspects by leading scholars.
We should rather concern ourselves with the political and the religious events in Bohemia up to 1032 which will clarify the role of Procopius in the foundation of the S‡zava Monastery. The life of its founder and the annals of the monastery have been well preserved. The major and minor redactions of the Vita of St. Procopius and the Annales Sazavae, however, are of general value and provide little insight into the role of its founder and the origins of this institution. On the other hand, contemporary sources reveal that the late tenth and early eleventh centuries in Bohemia were a period marked by bitter internecine strife between two princely families--the Přemyslides and the Slavniks. The former provided a line of ruling princes and had close ties with the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III and his successors and with Rome. The latter favored political independence from the empire and the retention of the Cyril-Methodian Slavonic liturgy. Against this estranged political background, the Slavonic liturgy prospered in Bohemia. St. Adalbert, bishop of Prague, adopted in 993 the monastic rule of St. Benedict of Nursia and founded the first Benedictine abbey at Břevnov. He brought monks from Rome who were identified with Monte Cassino and were participants in the maintenance of close religious ties with Byzantium. Břevnov developed a climate favorable for the preservation of the Slavonic ritual, particularly among the new and young Czech recruits to the cloister.
Procopius had no direct links to Břevnov, although he must have profited from its work. Formerly an ordained and married priest, Procopius settled in Vyûehrad on the Danube and took up residence as a monk with a religious community in the castle at the site. The religious community, adherents of the rule of St. Basil, drew upon monks from Kievan Russia, Ruthenia, and Poland. After King Stephen of Hungary opted for Latin Christianity in 1000, Procopius escaped the religious turmoil between the pro-Latin and pro-Byzantine antagonists which followed and returned to his native Bohemia where he lived the life of a hermit in the forest along the S‡zava River. He gained the favor of Duke Oldřich, a local Bohemian noble, and in 1032 Procopius was given land on which to establish a Benedictine cloister devoted to the Slavonic liturgy and to build a church in honor of the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist.
Procopius established a monastery that quickly prospered for two reasons--on the one hand, the legacy of Adalbert and Břevnov, and on the other, the monk's links with the monastery at Vyûehrad. These crosscurrents demonstrate that there was a peaceful coexistence of Western and Eastern Christendom in Bohemia and in his lifetime Procopius had little difficulty in establishing and fostering the Slavonic liturgy at S‡zava.
ANTHONY OF NOVGOROD'S "PILGRIMS BOOK": SOME QUESTIONS
George P. Majeska (University of Maryland, College Park)
The "Pilgrim Book" [Kniga Palomnik] of Anthony of Novgorod, a work which chronicles the visit to Constantinople in the year 1200 by Dobrinja Jadrejković (later Archbishop Anthony of Novgorod), is a fascinating document in many ways. It is, for instance, one of the most detailed travel accounts of the shrines and relics of Constantinople, bearing comparison only with the so-called "Mercati Anonymus." It describes the city, moreover, just four years prior to its sack by the knights of the Fourth Crusade, an even in which much of what the text describes was lost.
In some ways, it should be noted, the "Pilgrim Book" is quite different from other Russian travel accounts of Constantinople. One notices immediately, for instance, the tendency of this text to recount some stories at length among the essentially laconic catalogue-like entries about shrines and relics. The Anthony text is also much given to preaching and drawing lessons from stories, a tendency little noticed in other Russian pilgrim literature. But perhaps most startling is the rabid anti-Semitism in two separate excursus which have little to do with events to which they are attached. Thus the narrative of how archdeacons came to be appointed to oversee hierarchs' celebration of the liturgy behind the sanctuary drapes to prevent blasphemy leads into a diatribe against how the "stone-hearted" Jews rejected the divinity of Christ even after the temple veil in Jerusalem was rent in two at the death of Christ. Similarly, the story of the altar cross in Constantinople's Church of St. Sophia miraculously rising during matins one Sunday triggers an impassioned appeal for baptism of the Jews by force if necessary. Do such outbursts represent the kind of fanaticism on the part of the author which lost him his archiepiscopal throne several times in Novgorod, or are they additions by a later editor? There are two reasons to suggest the latter explanation. First, there are at least three entries in the text which could have introduced anti- Semitic remarks quite naturally, but do not. Secondly, two of the nine extant manuscripts of this work (admittedly reflecting a single prototype source) lack the two diatribes against the Jews. If these two manuscripts prove to represent an older branch of the manuscript tradition than do the others, we would not only have at hand a literarily more cohesive work, but we would also be forced to question the authenticity of other entries in the textus receptus of the Anthony "Pilgrim Book."
INDEX OF SESSIONS(with Presidents and Times)
INDEX OF SPEAKERS (with Session and Page Numbers)
* NOTE: Papers marked with an asterisk were presented also at the Sixteenth International Congress of Byzantine Studies inVienna.
Officers and Committees, 1980 -1981
OFFICERS:
GOVERNING BOARD:
To serve until the 1984 Conference:
To serve until the 1983 Conference:
(=Nominating Committee)
To serve until the 1982 Conference:
To serve until the 1981 Conference:
AD HOC COMMITTEE ON DUMBARTON OAKS:
PROGRAM COMMITTEE:
LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS COMMITTEE:
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