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. (c) Copyright reserved to the individual speakers.
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Abstracts of papers-Byzantine Studies Conference, 1st-1975
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Key title: Abstracts of papers-Byzantine Studies Conference.
ISSN 0147-3387
1. Byzantine Empire-Congresses
DFSO1.5.B9a 949.5 77-79346
Library of Congress 77 MARC-S
ABSTRACTS organized for printing by Marios Philippides and Paul E. Kimball
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FRIDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 27, 10:00-12:00
FRIDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 27, 2:15-4:00
FRIDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 27, 4:15-6:00
SATURDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 28, 9:15-12:00
SATURDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 28, 2:00-4:00
SATURDAY AFTERNOON, 4:15-6:00
SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 29, 9:30-11:30
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND ABSTRACTS .58
[Note page numbers were not recorded in the scanning of this document]
BYZANTINE CITIES AND SOCIETY
Presiding: Timothy Miller (Salisbury State University)
A The Problem of Phatr’ai in the 11-12th Centuries"
Charles M. Brand, Bryn Mawr College
In the 11th and 12th Centuries, the citizens of Constantinople were apparently organized into phatr’ai. References are few, but tantalizing; further investigation is warranted.
Phatr’ai is a late-classical variant of phr‡tra, A tribe" or "subdivision of a tribe." This root meaning survives in a few 12th-Century usages: In 1138, Nicetas Choniates 1 (29-30) reports that John II divided his army by ethnic group and phatr’ai: Macedonians, Turks, Franks, etc. In 1184, the soldiers defending Nikaia held meetings by phatr’ai (ibid., 284-5), possibly by nationality.
H. G. Beck ("Byz. Gefolgschaftswesen," in his Ideen und Realitaeten) finds a meaning of "retinue" for this term, although his examples come chiefly from the 9th and 10th Centuries. Some later usages may reflect this signification.
More often, phatr’ai meant something bad, a cabal or faction. Anna Comnena so designates the supporters of Leo of Chalcedon (Alexiad, 11, 13), and Nicetas uses it for the sycophants around Andronicus, Constantine Mesopotamites, and Alexius IV (Nicetas, 335, 491, 556). Closely related was a meaning, "conspiracy": Nicetas, 455, 625.Yet when these usages have been set aside, there remain a number of instances in which the word refers to associations of citizens in Constantinople, without negative connotations. Attaleiates (270) says that in 1078, . having been divided by phatr’ai, the distinguished members of the citizenry and all of the Romans' nation ." formed phalanxes to attack the palace. In 1182, Nicetas (248) reports that the citizenry " .visited Andronicus by phatr’ai ." at Chalcedon. In 1198-1200, " .the commonality learning in the evening of Kalomodios' arrest and aware of its cause, assembled at dawn by phatr’ai .@ (Nicetas, 524).
Evidently there were numerous phatr’ai in Constantinople; Attaleiates' statement suggests that the whole populace, including distinguished citizens, belonged to them. Since the riot on behalf of Kalomodios was certainly guild-sponsored, there may be a connection, even an equivalency, with A guild." Or, possibly, phatr’ai may have been organizations of inhabitants of sections of the city. The problem merits further investigation, and more examples of the word's use are needed.
"Plague and the Perception of its Effects on the Justinianic Empire"
George Contis, Medical Service Corporation International
Procopius' description of the plague epidemic which struck Constantinople in 542 is terrifying. Successive waves of the disease ravaged a large part of the late Roman Empire for over two hundred years (Biraben). Yet, it was not until the scientific breakthroughs of the 20th Century that the complexity of this disease began to be understood. This knowledge has been further enhanced by recent assessments of the social, political and economic effects of the disease. This paper addresses some of the perceptions of various authorities about the impact of the plague pandemic upon the Justinian empire.
The accounts of the Justinian Plague by Procopius, Evagrius Scholasticus, John of Ephesus, John Malalas, and Agathias contain a mixture of facts, beliefs, hearsay and mysticism. These writers give a vivid, poignant and frightening picture of an awesome force unleashed upon defenseless people. They describe the bubonic form of the plague and either do not try to explain its cause or attribute it to such factors as divine justice.
Byzantine scholars have viewed the Justinian plague from different perspectives, depending on their orientation to history and acquaintance with contemporary scientific knowledge about the disease. Writing in 1857, Seibel sought to associate the occurrence of plague with natural phenomena such as floods and earthquakes. In this century, historians such as Vasiliev and Nicol view the pandemic as one incident among many other forces which impacted negatively on Justinian's reign. Others, such as McNeill, have argued that diseases such as plague were formative factors in the rise and fall of empires.
Another group of writers has addressed the demographic, social and economic effects of plague on the Byzantine empire of Justinian's time (Patlagean, Conrad). Scientists, such as Pollitzer, have focused primarily on the medical aspects of the disease. Others, including Zinsser and Gregg, have emphasized the more dramatic characteristics of the plague. Writing for the general public, they have used the experience from Justinian's time to draw attention to the pandemic potential of plague that exists worldwide today.
In the past 20 years, medical research has uncovered new information about the plague bacillus and its disease manifestations which corroborates the descriptions of Procopius and the other early writers. Several of the antigenic properties of the bacillus have been identified, thus partially explaining the human immune response mechanisms to the disease. A number of toxins produced by the bacillus have been isolated. The laboratory characteristics of these toxins attest to the deadly virulence of the Justinian plague. Further, the epidemiology of plague as it relates to the onset and spread of the disease is now more clearly understood (Manson-Bahr). These findings further support the observations of the early chroniclers.
Thus, to fully appreciate the impact of plague on the Justinian empire, this disease and its long continuum should be examined from the multidisciplinary perspective of historians, social scientists, epidemiologists, and medical researchers.
"Leo III's Coinage, the Cities, and the Byzantine Economy@
David Olster, University of Kentucky
The debate over urban continuity in Byzantium in the seventh and eighth centuries seems, in some respects, to resolve itself into a preference for one of two sets of evidence. Literary and epigraphic material attests, however incompletely, to the survival of cities and to their restricted, but still viable, role as trade emporia, centers of economic activity and tax bases. On the other hand, archeological evidence, by and large, presents an image of widespread destruction of urban life in the Aegean basin and Asia Minor, the atrophy of trade, and the collapse of Byzantium's economy.
Numismatic evidence has been consulted naturally to support both these views. But, so far as I know, no detailed analysis of seventh- and eighth-century numismatic evidence has been applied to the problem of urban continuity. Yet, numismatic evidence is one the best sources for studying trade patterns, as in Metcalf's fine study of Aegean trade in the reign of Heraclius. Additionally, the numismatic evidence is possibly the best source for judging the demonetarization of the economy and the evolving (or devolving) character of trade.
Scholars have long argued about the extent to which gold was minted at the beginning of the eighth century (perhaps the nadir of the middle Byzantine economy), but none have studied the die links. In fact, no scholars have attempted to explore the implications for Byzantine trade and economy of the first successful introduction of a silver coin since the second century, the milliaresion.
Such developments in the coinage at the beginning of the eighth century have significant implications for the Byzantine economy, and hence for the continuity of the cities as emporia. We will offer the preliminary results of a die study of the gold and silver of Leo III, and suggest some preliminary conclusions about the evidence.
"Urban Continuity/Discontinuity from the 7th to the 9th Centuries"
Elisaveta Todorova, Institute for Balkan studies, Sofia
Having in view the complicated situation of the Western part of Byzantium, i.e. the Balkan Peninsula, after the massive devastations, depopulations and de-urbanization during the 6th - 7th centuries, the author tries to clarify some general trends in the process of re-urbanization as a consequence of the Slavic, as well as other tribes and peoples settlement in the area, the re-establishment of Byzantine rule over a great deal of the Balkans, especially over the periphery, along the highways and on cross-roads, creating centers for effective control over trade, army, strategic points., civil and ecclesiastical administration.
Settlements' existence being attested by written or archaeological evidence, the main purpose of this paper is to discern which of them were of real urban character, which of limited urban functions and which represented simply market-places or urban nuclei - all that deeply concerned with the general social and economic development of the population, modified by the political organization and the control over it, the concrete military situation, the access to long-distance trade, etc.
Some European and Asia Minor parallels are adduced as well in order to distinguish local specifities, due in particular to the closeness of Constantinople - the principal center of trade and craft, of government and consumers' concentration for the period.
"The Arab Wintering Raid against Euchaita in 663/4"
Frank R. Trombley, University of California at Los Angeles
Two scholars have recently argued that the Arab raid described in Miracles V-VII of the Kiracula of St. Theodore Tiro (BHG 1764) that wintered at Euchaita in the Helenopontus in the seventh year of the indiction and "in the fourteenth regnal year of the God-protected and Christ-beloved reign of Constantine" took place in the year 754. (C. Zuckerman, REB 46, 1988, pp. 191ff. and A. Kazhdan, Abstracts, 14th Annual BSC, p. 4) Both ignore in an eclectic way the findings of previous scholars who have worked with this text. (F. Trombley, Byzantine kai Metabyzantina 4, 1985, pp. 65ff. and D. Abrahamse, Hagior. Sources for Byz. Cities, 1967, pp. 347-354) There are four specific objections for dating the event to 754:
1. Historical Context: According to Miracle V, the Arab raid wintered Euchaita. Wintering raids are attested only for the seventh and early eighth centuries, as Abrahamse demonstrated after an analysis of the Byzantine, Arabic, and Syriac sources, a verdict which R.-J. Lilie corroborates (Byz. Reaktion, 1976). Proponents of the 754 date have glossed over or ignored this essential datum which Miracles V-VII develop in great detail.
2. Regnal Dates: In the documents, the year 754 was not, as Kazhdan supposes, the fourteenth regnal year of Constantine V Kopronymos, but his thirty-fourth, as he became coemperor in 720. This standard method of dating reigns in the seventh and eighth centuries is confirmed by numismatic evidence, a rare issue of bronze which came out in the thirtieth regnal year of that emperor, 749/50. (W. Wroth, Cat.of imperial Byz. Coins in the Br. Museum, v. 2, London 1908, p. 380) Constantine was coemperor with Leo IV from 751 onward. Regnal dates from the first year of junior coemperors turn up as well in seventh-century documents. (Cf. Mansi XI, 208E-209A et passim)
3. Arab Raids c. 750: No Arab summer or winter raids, much less any that wintered, reached Anatolia between 743-755 because of the civil wars of the reign of khalif Marwan and the Abbasid seizure of power. (H. Kennedy/J. Haldon, ZRVI 19, 1980, P. 113) Nor is it probable that an expedition large enough to winter between September-March, as the Euchaita raid did, could have escaped the aggressive Constantine V, who was then on the offensive, having in 754 campaigned against Theodosiopolis in Armenia. (Lilie, pp. 164ff.) Neither Kazhdan nor Zuckerman has grasped this essential side of the question, to wit, that the Arabic sources provide an exceptionally more detailed, if not fully consistent, picture of the wintering raids between c. 663-720 than the meagre Byzantine chronicles.
4.Corruption of the Date
Only Abrahamse has seriously suggested that the date given in the Miracles of St. Theodore may simply be corrupt. The date 663/4 solves most of the Problems: 1) The seventh year of the indiction fell at that time. 2) In that year (or perhaps the year before) Mu= awiya broke the treaty of 659 and attacked the empire. Miracle Five indicates that the wintering raid against Euchaita took place in the seventh indiction, and after the breach of a treaty. Zuckerman's invention of a treaty for the years before 754 is not convincing.
We are therefore left with the problem of reconciling the regnal date, the "fourteenth year of Constantine", with 663/4. If one accepts the possibility that the eleventh-century redactor of the Vienna text of the Miracles glossed over problems in the text in front of him (for example, Miracle IV was left out at some point in the transmission), an obvious if hypothetical solution comes forward, consequent upon the damnatio memoriae of Constantine IV's younger brothers and coemperors Heraclius and Tiberius. (E.W. Brooks, EHR 30, 1915, pp. 42ff.) The year 663/4 was the tenth regnal year of Constantine IV (from c. 2-8 March) and the fifth of his brothers (from between 26 April and 9 August 663). (Cf. Mansi XI, 601D-E and 611B-C) If the new regnal year of Heraclius and Tiberius came toward the end of the termini say in July or August, and the provincial registers at Euchaita had fallen behind through clerical carelessness and/or the impact of the Arab renewal of war, one might easily, because of the proximity of the seventh indiction (which began on 1 September 663) have gotten the date recorded as the tenth year of Constantine IV and the fourth of his brothers. When the names of Heraclius and Tiberius were erased from the documents and inscriptions at Euchaita consequent upon the damnatio memoriae of 681, one might have seen: "In the tenth year of the God-protected and Christ-beloved Constantine and [of the God-protected Heraclius and Tiberius his brothers] the fourth (sic) year," with the section in brackets erased or crossed off. The eleventh-cntury redactor, ignorant of the reason for the lacuna or reading a doublet based on an intermediate text (for example etous dekatou [----] etous tessarou) (cf. Mansi XI, 208E-209A), will simply have conflated the two -dates into the single one of the miracle text, t‚ i tessareskaidekatt‚ i etei.
This hypothesis does not solve every problem for September 663 was also the twenty-third regnal year of the senior Augustus Constantine Pogonatos (Constans II). It is conceivable that the Chalcedonian churches of Anatolia took advantage of Constans, arrival in the West in July 663 (per VI indictionem, in the phrase of the Liber Pontificalis) to purge his name from be ecclesiastical registers because of the odium connected with his promulgation of Typos, the persecution of Pope Martin I and Maximus the Confessor, and the execution of his seemingly popular brother Theodore (Theophanes, v. 1, ed. C. de Boor, p. 351). This solution is consistent with all the historical data pointing to the year 663/4.
ANGELS, SAINTS AND SACRED SPACE
Presiding: Gary Vikan, (The Walters Art Gallery)
"The Significance of Homonymous Saints on Byzantine Lead Seals: A Preliminary Report"
John Cotsonis, Pennsylvania State University
Recently, the vast material source of Byzantine lead seals has enjoyed a revived interest among art historians. As objects associated with personal correspondence and authentication, seals bearing religious iconography offer a means towards an investigation of the private piety of their owners. Individuals from a broad spectrum of Byzantine society are included since seals possessing numerous titles of dignities and functions survive. Motives determining the choice of sphragistic religious iconography are varied and complex. It is commonly assumed that the owner of a seal chooses his or her homonymous patron saint. This assumption, however, fails to stand up under closer investigation. Of 20 common names of seal owners, only 3 within this group chose their homonymous saint for their seals more than 50% of the time; only 2 others chose theirs more than 30%. For the remainder, a low correspondence is found. Since this sample draws from the wide range of both the civil and ecclesiastical administration, it may well reflect the attitude of the society as a whole. Such results require a reconsideration of the role of the homonymous saint in the artistic patronage of all media. The factors determining the relationship between personal piety and iconography need further investigation.
"Concepts of Sacred Space in Ethiopian Christianity and its Relation to the Early Byzantine Cult of Holy Sites in Palestine"
Marilyn E. Heldman, St. Louis
Sacred space was a primary cultic focus of Ethiopian Christianity during its first millennium, just as the cult of icons came to be a central focus of the Greek Church and the cult of relics established itself as a major focus of the Roman Church. Although it is commonly recognized that L~ libal~ , the twelfth-century capital of the Z~ gwÎ Dynasty, was conceived as a model of Jerusalem and the Holy Sites of Palestine, the fact that this political center was conceived as a multilayered quotation of sacred geography has been overlooked. Not only was L~ libal~ a model of Jerusalem, but it also was conceived as a quotation of the ancient Ethiopian capital of Aksum, which had come to be perceived as a sacred center, a New Jerusalem.
The process of symbolic thought by which Aksum became a copy of Jerusalem seems to have been formulated during the sixth century, the period when Christianity was established as the state religion of the Aksumite empire. That Aksum is a second Jerusalem which possesses the precious Ark of the Covenant is clearly stated in the Ethiopian epic, the Kebra Nagast ["Glory of Kings"], the final redaction of which dates to the early fourteenth century, although the historic core of this epic reflects a sixth-century milieu. If Aksum was the second Jerusalem, then the cathedral at Aksum, dedicated to Mary of Zion, was a copy of the Temple (albeit a Christian temple). The sanctuary of the cathedral at Aksum was the Holy of Holies and the altar stone or tablet of the altar was the Tablets of the Law. The mimetic symbolism of the cathedral at Aksum became the basis for the architectural symbolism of each Ethiopian church structure, which was perceived as a copy or quotation of both the cathedral at Aksum and the Temple. The sanctuary of each church was like the Holy of Holies in which was placed the altar, a copy of the Ark of the Covenant.
The genesis of the cult of sacred geography in the Ethiopian Church must be viewed within the context of the Early Byzantine cult of Holy Sites in Palestine. It is significant that the Ethiopian Emperor K~ lÎ b or Elesbaas, the emperor who seems to have established Christianity as the state religion, sent his crown to Jerusalem to be suspended in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre when he retired to a monastery at some point before his death in c. 540. The symbolic interpretation of the cathedral of Aksum as the Temple parallels the symbolism with which both Justinian's Haghia Sophia and the church of St. Polyeuktos in Constantinople were invested, a symbolism that revived the thought so clearly expressed by Eusebius in his dedication of the New Church at Tyre.
"A Reinterpretation of the Role of the Archangel Michael in Three Cappadocian Rock-Cut Churches"
Lynn Jones, Southern Methodist University
In Byzantine art the Archangel Michael is shown in many roles: a prince of Heaven, the representative of Heaven, the commander of the Heavenly army. He appears in all of these aspects in the rock-carved churches of Cappadocia. There is another aspect to Michael's identity: the healing wonder-worker of Chonai and Mount Gargano. This paper proposes that the Archangel Michael is shown in the role of a healing wonder-worker in three Cappadocian churches: KarabaÍ Kilise, Bezir Hane and YŸksekli Kilise, and that these representations are reflections of changes which occurred in the character of patronage in Cappadocia in the eleventh century.
In each church Michael's role is made clear by the saints who are shown with him. In KarabaÍ Kilise in the Soú anli Valley the Archangel Michael is depicted with two of the eight donors of the church kneeling at his feet. The surrounding soffit arch depicts Cyriacus, Pantaleimon, Cosmas and Damian. Cyriacus, a martyr saint, cured several of demons. Pantaleimon, Cosmas and Damian were anargyroi, doctors who practised medicine without charging for their services.
YŸksekli Kilise is located northwest of GŸlÍ ehir on the bank of the Kizilirmak. The Archangel Michael is portrayed in a niche with Euthymius, Antony and Damian in the surrounding soffit arch. It is probable that the bare wall opposite to Damian originally held an image of Cosmas.
In the church of Bezir Hane in the village of Gšreme there are three-images remaining on the inward facing panels of the central piers. Cosmas is depicted on the north face of the southwest pier. Facing Cosmas, on the south face of the northwest pier is a beardless youth similar to Cosmas, who may be identified as Damian. The north face of the southeast pier depicts the Archangel Michael.
Michael of Chonai was most closely identified with pilgrimage sites where miraculous cures were effected by healing waters. During the eleventh century the sustained political stability of Cappadocia allowed an increasing number of pilgrims to travel into the area. This is illustrated by the increase in donor portraits and invocations in the rock-carved churches of this period. The depiction of the Archangel as Michael of Chonai in three Cappadocian churches attests to this shift in patronage. The favored -military saints of the aristocratic and military patrons situated near the unstable frontier of the tenth century coexisted in the eleventh century with the healing wonder-worker venerated by pilgrims.
"Special Cult Places in Early Byzantine Macedonia"
Carolyn S. Snively, Gettysburg College
The most obvious example of a special cult is that of St. Demetrios in Thessaloniki. Demetrios, whatever his origins, became the patron and protector of the city of Thessaloniki, the defender of its walls, the symbol of its existence. Various scholars have commented on the similarities betveen Demetrios and Kabeiros, the pagan patron deity of the city. The focus of popular devotion to the saint was the ciborium in the nave of the church of St. Demetrios.
A second focus of the veneration of St. Demetrios was apparently the hagiasma or healing shrine located in a basement storey under the eastern part of the church. Unlike the ciborium, the hagiaoma is not mentioned in the early source&, but unless Sotiriou= s dates and reconstruction of the early phases in the crypt are quite wrong, it was being visited already in the 6th century. (It may be rash to base any arguments on the crypt of St. Demetrios since the recent investigations there have not yet been published.)
Much smaller and simpler underground complexes were located under the apse in the Episcopal Basilica at Stobi, the capital of Macedonia Secunda to the north, and in two churches in Thessaloniki, specifically the extra muros cemetery basilica on Third September street and the large, late 5th century basilica under Ayia Sophia. In all three churches, the architectural remains suggest that one could enter the underground space by descending steps at one A corner@ of the apse, go around the curve of the apse wall, and eventually exit up steps at the other @ corner.@ Access to these subterranean chambers was apparently not restricted to the clergy.
Examples of underground, vaulted corridors, leading nowhere, are found within the terrace wall at the Episcopal Basilica at Stobi and under the inner south aisle of the church under Ayia Sophia, perhaps the metropolitan church of Thessaloniki. The one at Stobi was identified as a tomb; the re-investigation of the Thessalonian A tunnel@ has not been fully published.
I shall argue that these underground spaces housed special cults. While some may have been connected with the cult of relics, others were not martyria in the strict sense. They held icons or other holy objects and served no the focus for veneration of particular saints. There one asked for the intercession or help of the saint on behalf of those afflicted by illness or other difficulties. Indeed, it is possible that these special cults offered more or less the same range of A services@ provided earlier at the shrines of pagan deities, services safely housed under the auspices of the church by the late 5th century.
"The Transmission of the Byzantine Sticheraric Tradition to Russia"
Nina Ulff-M¿ller, University of Copenhagen
After their conversion to Christianity, the Russians started to use "stichera@ , translated from the Greek , for their religious services. To indicate the melodies, they employed a neume system, related to the palaeobyzantine notation.
This paper deals with the problem of how the Byzantine A stichera" were transmitted and adapted to Russian, and it also discusses how far the Russian translation of the "stichera" adheres to the Byzantine tradition in respect to text, notation, isosyllabic and isoaccent similarity, and musical organization. The conclusions are based on the transcriptions of fifteen "stichera" from four Old Russian Sticheraria from the twelfth century and on comparative material from sixty Byzantine manuscripts (11th - 15th cc.). The collated material shows that the Russian adaptation of "stichera" preserved in the twelfth century manuscripts generally follows the Byzantine tradition very closely. The Russian translation comes very close graphically, and it has almost identical formulaic structure, cadences, and use of thetas, as the Byzantine tradition.
However, in the Russian translation it was not always possible to keep the same number of syllables or the place of the accents. Therefore, there are some cases (approximately 25% of the material) in which the Russian singers did not follow the Byzantine tradition. The deviations in melody, rhythm, or neumes are not very great, and usually consist of small details. They might be the result of a Russian desire to demonstrate creativity in the adaptation, or perhaps the exact archetype for these translated "stichera" has not yet been found.
LITERATURE, LANGUAGE, AND RHETORIC
Presiding: Andrew Dyck (University of California at Los Angeles)
"The 'Rhetorical' Legitimation of Basileios I in the Vita Basilii"
Panagiotis A. Agapitos, Harvard University
In the Vita Basilii Emperor Basilelos I is presented as the perfect ruler, not only through the narration of his deeds, but in particular through the devices of rhetorical epainos and psogos typical of encomiastic biography. Scholarship, so far, has been primarily concerned with establishing the historically "real" Emperor Michael III. The text of the VB has therefore been used more as a historical document than a literary text. But to a high degree it is not possible to break through the mantle of literary devices, especially when the sources available contradict, rather than supplement, each other to such an extent as in the case of Michael and Basileios.
For the following analysis the literary level of the text is taken at face value without considering its supposed historical exactness. The paper, in considering whether the rhetorical techniques employed by the author of the VB are consistent, takes a close look at a less obvious encomiastic device of the text, that of the legitimation motif. Basileios's ascent to the throne is legitimized on three quite distinct levels. The first is that of "time past." Even before Basileios is born his fate has been established, and the author expounds this very carefully: prophecies of the remote past about the rise of the Arsacid descendant (VB [Bonn 241]); two sets of dreams of Basileios's mother -one before his departure, one after (VB 221-3, 225-6); the premonitions of his contemporaries (VB 223-4, etc.). The second is that of A time present." Here Baslleios's actual political legitimation is expounded in detail and with full "constitutional" accuracy: first his coronation by Michael as coemperor (VB 240) and the acclamation of the people, then his coronation as sole ruler (VB 225). The third is that of "time future," which is the time of Emperor Konstantinos VII himself. In retrospect, legitimation is granted to Basileios by the undeniable success of his reign and his importance for future generations (VB 352). On each of these levels an exact contrast is set up with the corresponding "evil" side of Emperor Michael, culminating in the grand presentation of Michael as the "Nero of his day." This makes the first part of the VB a portrait diptych, where neither of the two main characters can be understood apart from the other. It is only after Michael's death that Basileios acquires a "distinct" personality of his own, whereas Michael never does.
The fine use of the legitimation motif ultimately gives to the two distinct parts of the Vita Basilii (before and after 867) a structural unity, and achieves the author's two "literary" aims: Basileios is represented as the model of kingship and, in this way, the will of God is clearly manifested and firmly established.
"The Role of the Character Study (Ethopoeia) in the Twelfth century Literary Revival"
Roderick Beaton, University of London
The 12th century has long been recognised as a period in which the secular concerns of Hellenistic literature came to be revived. However, despite the important work of Kazhdan and Franklin (1984), and others, a full study of literary innovation in this important century remains a long way off.
The revival of secular literature in that century takes three main forms: satire; romance; and a greatly elaborated genre of ceremonial praise poetry, remarkable at this time for the importunate claims put forward on behalf of the poet. The same period also sees the first literary use of the vernacular since Hellenistic times, in 'begging' poetry attributed to Theodore Prodromos and Michael Glykas, and (according to recent proposals by Stylianos Alexiou and others) in the epic of Digenes Akrites.
It will be argued that underlying all these literary developments is a new use of old materials, specifically the rhetorical manuals of the Hellenistic period. This study focusses on a specific element in this rhetorical inheritance, the exercise or 'progymnasma' of ethopoeia (character study) . Investigation of the Hellenistic prescriptions for this form of discourse shows that precepts which had always been available to Byzantine authors are revitalised and their potential realised in distinctive ways in the new climate of the 12th century.
The character study (as defined in these Hellenistic manuals) is functionally similar to what today would be called 'dramatic monologue in prose': it is a form of literary impersonation. In the 12th century the exercise itself of the character study is extended to flamboyant lengths by Nikephoros Basilakes. But the creation of a fictional speaker and viewpoint will also be shown to be central to the romance of Eustathios Makrembolites (an extended first-person narrative which is effect a gigantic ethopoeia); to a group of satirical texts including the anonymous Timarion of the early 12th century; and to the comic begging poems in which impersonation is taken to the extreme of imitating the language of the street. In this way it will be argued that the literary innovation of the 12th century is at once more subtle, and more firmly anchored in traditional rhetoric, than has commonly been supposed.
"Women in Sepher Yosippon"
Steven Bowman, University of Cincinnati
Sepher Yosippon is an extensive history of ancient Israel from King David to the siege of Masada written in tenth-century Byzantine Italy. (An expanded edition was collated by Judah ibn Moskoni in mid fourteenth-century Byzantium.) Of the many fascinating subthemes in this history, the author's treatment of and attitude toward women is not of least interest. In particular the balance of male and female and their respective portrayal as active individuals is quite noteworthy. The author's sources are based on the Hebrew Bible, Vulgate apocrypha, and unknown later chronicles. Therefore it often possible to isolate his own interpretation from that of his sources. This paper will focus on Sepher Yosippon's attitude toward several women and analyze the author's literary and psychological manipulation of his sources. Also the paper will attempt to categorize types of women and isolate specific themes in which women predominate. A superficial reading of the text indicates that female stereotypes and female themes comprise a respectable proportion of the history. Such an analysis of Sepher Yosippon will point out some of the salient differences between Byzantine Jews and Byzantine Christians during this period.
One fifth of the 88 chapters contain either stories of women or character developments of well known figures of the intertestamental period. Three chapters are devoted specifically to women: 1) ch 15 relates with dramatic tension the well known story from IV Maccabees of the martyrdom of the mother and her seven sons. Throughout the chapter the battle is between her faith and the king's pride. Ultimately he has her killed, yet in so doing he admits his defeat; 2) the salacious seduction of Paulina the Roman matron by the Italian stallion Mundus (cb 57). Here the author reworks this story from Hegesippus into a not so veiled satire on the Roman Church whose own virtue in the tenth century was not less tarnished than her patinated ruins; 3) the mother who went insane from famine during the final siege of Jerusalem and roasted her own son (ch 86). Her speech composed with high pathos is a devastating yet sardonic critique of the rebel leaders whom, she invited to feast with her.
Aside from a few set pieces such as the brilliant rhetoricalar argument of Zerubabel before Darius that "There is nothing as strong as woman in the land," the author develops the characters of thirteen women during the course of his history. These are all either queens such as Ester, the Scythian Tamira who slew Cyrus king of the Persians, Alexandra wife of John Hyrcanus, Cleopatra, Mariamme wife of Herod and Glaphyra wife of two kings or royal women such as Yaniah or the Roman Lavinia of Livy fame, Hyrcanus' mother, Herod's mother Cyprin and sister Shlomith, Alexandra mother of Herod's wife Mariamme, Pherora= s wife and Berenike sister of King Agripas.
The author of Sepher Yosippon in the main is influenced by the Hebrew style of the Deuteronomist in his attitude toward these women. These are all of strong character, drawn with bold stroke and acting decisively if occasionally in misguided effort. In this attitude he follows his biblical training using the specifics of the sources at hand. At times he draws from other salient literature as when he puts a prayer in the mouth of Queen Ester which he takes from the prayer of Asenath in the intertestamental romance of Asenath and Joseph. The author apparently found this prayer as he perused the pseudoepigraph perhaps in the excellent library of the Duke of Naples another of equal caliber where be did his research.
"The Coptic Triadon and the Ethiopic Physiologus"
Leslie S. B. MacCoull, Society for Coptic Archaeology
The fourteenth-century Coptic religious poem Triadon preserves material that goes back to Late Antique sources. In particular, the animal, bird and plant similes used by the anonymous Coptic poet can be shown to derive from the so-called Physiologus, a compilation of nature lore thought to have originated in late Roman Alexandria and becomecombined with allegorical Christian interpretation. The Alexandrian work itself preserves in some instances what are thought to be Ancient Egyptian animal legends. The earliest stage of the Greek Physiologus appears to be what underlies the classical Ethiopic (Ge'ez) version from the fifth century (ed. F. Hommel, Die Athiopische Obersetzung des Physiologos, Leipzig 1877). Although no Coptic translation of the Physiologus has come down to us as a whole, it is likely that Coptic as well as Greek material went into the Ethiopic version, which itself is held to have been written in Egypt, possibly by an Ethiopian monk in Scetis (so C. Sumner, The Fisalgwos, Addis Ababa 1982). In this paper I propose to examine the Triadon's use of the phoenix, the antelope, the heron, the eagle, and the sycamore, comparing them with the material on these creatures in the Ethiopic Physiologus. A line of descent can be postulated from earlier Coptic material originating in the fifth century, incorporating old Egyptian Vorlagen, to where it resurfaces in the Triadon, a poem written to protest the death of the Coptic language in the Middle Ages.
"Private History: Writing in the Flyleaves of Paris gr. 2953"
Mimi Morris, University of Chicago
A Greek manuscript preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, MS gr. 2953, contains in its front and back flyleaves a series of notes written in the early fifteenth century, two centuries after the text which the flyleaves enclose had been copied out. These a posteriori records were jotted down by the book's later owner in a thirteenth-century manuscript of Aelius Aristides. Sokrates Kougeas edited and published the notes in the volume of Byzantinische Zeitschrift which appeared at the end of the First World War; up to the present, however, their interest and utility have received only limited recognition.
The flyleaf entries, composed as personal memoranda, are securely datable by internal evidence. The earliest was written in 1419, when the writer was living in Thessaloniki and working as a secular cleric on the staff of the metropolitan bishop. By detailing dozens of instances of direct payments, he demonstrated that a variety of sources in the city- including six of its major ecclesiastical foundations- provided income for the maintenance of Archbishop Symeon's cathedral clergy.
The notewriter moved to Constantinople in April 1425, where the emperor granted him privileges to a portion of the tax revenues accruing from an office of public weights. His family followed him there in November, only six months before a massive attack on Thessaloniki was launched by Murad II, whose troops had been besieging the city since 1422. Family notices mention the births of sons in 1405, 1420 and 1428; in 1435 the writer transcribed a poignant note on the death of his daughter from the plague. His final notation commemorated the departure in 1437 of Emperor John VIII, Patriarch Joseph II and 300 church officials for the Council of Florence.
The language of the notes conveys a sense of vivid immediacy, and the writer's personal interests come sharply to the fore: his involvement in church finances and law, his concern for his family, and his observance of contemporary events impinging upon their safety. The notes constitute a record of his daily life lived in reference to saints' feasts, festivals and his own private devotion to the Virgin Hodegetria.
BYZANTINE MILITARY OPERATIONS
Presiding: John V. A. Fine. Jr., (University of Michigan)
The After-Effects of the Byzantine Offensive against Dar al-Islam: The Demographic Dimensions"
Wesam A. Farag, University of Kuwait
The Byzantine offensive strategy against the Islamic Near East affected the demography of Northern Syria and Mesopotamia. The Permanent loss of territory and the general political instability which followed the Byzantine offensive, produced changes, shifts and minglings of people with the result that the population in certain regions increased, in others it diminished. Patterns of population movement in Northern Syria and Mesopotamia could be traced as follows:
a) Population shift and refugees from towns and territories captured by and incorporated into the Byzantine Empire. For instance the removal of the Muslim population of Tarsos, Mopsuestia (were captured by Nikephoros Phokas in 965), and Antioch (captured on October 28th, 969 A.D.)
b) Population shift from Mesopotamia into Byzantine territories. The migration of Bani Habib with their partisans, cattle and movable property from the region of al-Jazirah (Mesopotamia) to Asia Minor, is a case in point. They were converted to Christianity and the Byzantine administration gave them a choice of good land and furnished them with livestock.
c) The migration of Bedouins to Northern Syria and Mesopotamia. A case in point is the tribe of bani Kilab which moved to Northern Syria. The Kilabi tribesmen extended their power into settled lands and managed to take possession of Aleppo in 415 A.H./A.D.1024 where they founded a dynasty. This dynasty (the Mirdasid) ruled the city with interruption until they lost it , in 472 A.H./A.D. 1079, to another Bedouin dynasty the Uqaylids of Mosul.
d) Among these petty dynasties, emerged the Marwanids in Mesopotamia. The Marwanids - a Muslim Kurdish dynasty - ruled Diyar Bakr in the period 374 A.H./A.D 985 to 477 A.H./A.D.1085.
Finally this paper intends to draw some general observations on the composition of population in Syria and Mesopotamia.
"Leon Sgouros, Michael Komneno-Doukas, and Byzantine Resistance to the Latin Invasion of Central Greece 1204-1210"
Constantine G. Hatzidimitriou, City University of New York
Recent has revised the traditional viewpoint concerninq Michael Komneno-Doukas's establishment in Epeiros, assumption of the title of Despotes and creation of a despotate. Similarly, scholars concerned with the study of the breakdown of the provincial imperial administration have shown that centrifugal movements by local archontes antedated the Latin conquest and were being de facto recognized by the central qovernment. These factors along with the unpopularity of imperial officialdom played a major role in the Byzantines lack of resistance to the Crusaders partition and occupation of the empire after the conqttest of Constantinople in 1204. Yet it remains unclear just how these factors came locally into play and how they helped inhibit Byzantine Resistance and aided Latin conquest.
This paper will explore how this recent scholarship affects our understandinq of the invasion of southern Greece by the forces of Boniface of Montferrat. I will argue that the information provided by Niketas and Michael Choniates concerning Michael Doukas and Leon Sgouros, the two most famous resisters to the Latin advance, must be viewed with caution and placed into the context of the imperial administration's attitude towards toparches. Thus,
Sgouros= infamous withdrawal from Thermopylae miqht be nothing more than a literary allusion. Similarly, the regimes established by Michael Doukas and Leon Sgouros might have more in Common than previously supposed. Certainly, Sgouros had a much better claim to the title of Despotes than did Michael and for a time, formed a coalition of local support for his regime similar to that of the Doukai.
I will examine the sources concerning Boniface's policy during his invasion of central Greece in order to show that he consciously made use of his imperial connections to divide his opponents and to co-opt and recognize toparches, who sought legitimization of their illegal seizure of authority. Thus, in southern Greece the lack of Byzantine resistance to the Latins was as much a result of Boniface's understanding of Byzantine politics and the successful policies he applied, as of preexisting Byzantine disunity and the breakdown of the provincial administration.
Certainly, it had little to do with the cowardice or valor of Leon Sgouros or Michael Komneno-Doukas. In fact, despite the comments of the brothers Choniates, Sgouros and Komneno-Doukas led a determined resistance to the invaders based on their own hastily organized local resources. It was Sgouros' misfortune that, unlike Doukas, he had to face the opposition of the bulk of the Latin forces during the most successful phase of Boniface's divisive political program. It was this factor combined with his inability to win over the most important metropolitans of southern Greece, that led to the collapse of his regime.
"Challenges to Byzantine Military Operations in Iraq (with Special Reference to the Campaigns of Julian and Heraclius in Mesopotamia)"
Walter Emil Kaegi, Jr., University of Chicago
Here I attempt to outline a few points about Byzantine military relations with and transient presence in what is now Iraq. The Byzantine Empire controlled parts of what is now the Republic of Iraq only in the fourth century up to the evacuation of Singara (modem Balad Sinjar) and related fortresses in 363, following the humiliating treaty made with the Sassanians at the death of Julian, and during and probably immediately following Heraclius' victories over the Persians in 628. 1 am a rare Byzantinist who has traveled much within Iraq. Travel in Iraq makes one appreciate how its geography helped to protect it against invasion- -although it did not make it invulnerable to invasion--and similarly how its topography discouraged its leaders and inhabitants from making many major expeditionary campaigns against Byzantine Anatolia. I exclude diplomatic, intellectual, and commercial contacts from this survey, although they occurred at least intermittently over the centuries.
One of the greatest events in the long history of Roman- or Byzantine-Persian military relations was the major but disastrous invasion by Julian in June, 363. Ammianus Marcellinus mentioned that heat and insects were a problem for Julian's and Jovian's army (Amm. 24.4.17, 24.8.3, 25.1.18, 25.3.10, 25.8.6), especially after it was caught in Mesopotamia in late June and early July, 363. It is essential to understand just how hot Iraq can be at that time of year, with temperatures of 120N Fahrenheit in the shade (!) not unknown today. Duty in Anatolia and Syria, even in Egypt, will not have prepared Julian's army for the extreme temperatures in central Mesopotamia. The oppressive heat probably greatly intensified the discomfort and pressure on Emperor Jovian to make terms. The extreme heat in early July was probably a principal reason behind Jovian's acceptance of an ignominious peace. The proposed evacuation route in July 363 of Emperor Jovian's army from Dur (ancient Dura in Mesopotamia, not to be confused with Dura-Europus in Syria) past the ruins of Hatra and thence to Singara (modem Balad Sinjar, is a plausible one. There was very adequate pasture and fodder for an army west of modem Mosul on the route to Singara).
Ammianus Marcellinus was probably the last Byzantine historian who had personal experience in Iraq. Others knew of it only from hearsay. Whether Heraclius or his advisers studied and learned from the failures of Julian's and Jovian's expedition in 363 is doubtful. Heraclius avoided the problem of heat in Iraq by campaigning there in midwinter of 627/628. He also utilized an unusual invasion route via the Rawanduz Pass and an unusual exit route from Mesopotamia, which enabled him to avoid the risks of food and water shortages along the traditional northwestern routes between Iraq and Syria. Yet once an invader from the west enters the ancient region of "Adiabene," east of the Tigris, the path southeast to vital nodal points is relatively easy for an army, except for the challenge of reducing fortified cities such as Arbela, Karkh (Kirkuk), and Kifti. There is some water and forage and most of the route is smooth. It appears that immediately following Heraclius' victory and imposition of peace terms, in 628 and especially in late 629 and thereafter, the Byzantines exercised effective control of a line north and west of Hit on the Euphrates and Takrit on the Tigris.
The last military incident of Byzantine military relations with central Mesopotamia took place in the tenth century. The historian Leo Diaconus maintains that John Tzin-liskes considered a thrust to take Baghdad after capturing Nisibis in Upper Mesopotamia in 974 (pp 162-163 Bonn Corpus, Hase edn.) but the prospect of the sands, lack of water and vegetation, and difficulty of the route all resulted in a decision to avoid a thrust to Baghdad. Desert was not the problem between Nisibis and Baghdad, but the limited routes could have been blocked. Only a few routes offered water and fodder. Leo Diaconus was probably correct in his assertion that Baghdad was not expecting a Byzantine attack and was relatively undefended. Leo indicates that the hurdles to taking Baghdad were at least as much logistical as military operational. He omits to mention the oppressive heat. The population, especially the numerous Christians of the north were very hostile to the Byzantines. Populous Sassanian and Muslim central Mesopotamia needed fortifications against the Byzantines only on its outermost perimeters, for geography otherwise gave it much protection. Mesopotamia= s numerous population, especially in the central and lower regions, presented other challenges to an invader, potentially they could have been difficult to control. Heraclius had been successful through attack via the mountainous hinterland. But that required the cooperation of Armenians. In itself that should not have been an insuperable problem for Tzimiskes, who himself was an Armenian. There were also hazards of disease too. The problem was that although there was water, staying near it forced the Byzantine armies to follow one of several limited and highly predictable routes that enabled any defender to concentrate his troops. Other challenges included the flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates twice a year, potentially threatening troops who followed their banks. Harsh winters in eastern Anatoha compounded the difficulty of conducting Byzantine military operations in and to and from Iraq. Only rare combinations of circumstances worked to favor successful Roman and Byzantine invasions of Iraq. Presumably Byzantium gained information from old maps and ifineraries, prisoners of war, traders, hostages, travelers, ambassadors, Annenians, and spies. On balance, the risks would have outweighed the potential rewards of any Byzantine thrust at Baghdad in the late tenth century. Essentially, a serious Byzantine expedition against Baghdad exceeded the financial, demographic, and military resources of the Byzantine Empire. But the same logistical challenges for Byzantium also inhibited although they did not entirely prevent Muslim expeditions from Baghdad against Byzantine Anatolia.
"Byzantine, Turkish, and Crusading Warfare in Anatolia"
Rudi Lindner, University of Michigan
There is a considerable literature on Byzantine-Arab frontier warfare, and rightly so. In recent years scholars have gone beyond descriptions of battles to analyses of the effects of the wars upon the societies that waged them and also the impact of the contending societies upon the nature of the warfare itself. Less has been done on Anatolian warfare during and after the eleventh century. This paper reflects my own continuing research on Turkic nomads and the response of settled societies to their actions. In particular, I intend to discuss the varying responses of the Crusader and Byzantine strategists and tacticians to the arrival of the Turks.
For this paper I propose to limit consideration of the broader topic to a small number of issues that arise from the sources. First of these is a series of changes in military equipment, design and use, that the Byzantines and Crusaders adopted in order to defeat the Turks. I propose here to go beyond the descriptive approach used in Kolias' important Byzantirdsche Waffen and to discuss the effectiveness of these developments.
Second, I wish to compare and contrast the Byzantine and Crusader experience in Anatolian warfare itself, for the approaches of the Crusaders on the march were quite different from those of, for example, the Comneni tacticians. I believe that a comparative analysis of the two approaches will be helpful in sorting out the reasons for the failure of the Comneni to respond to the Seljuk challenge. I also plan to point out changes in Turkish methods of giving battle, changes determined in large part by the nature of their Christian opponents.
Finally, I plan to discuss the use of these materials as a measure of the growing wealth of the Seljuks (and fiscal enfeeblement of the Byzantines).
The sources for this talk, leaving aside certain artistic depictions of the warfare of the time (collected conveniently in the repertory of Nicolle), tile Byzantine, Turkish, and Crusader chronicles of the eleventh - thirteenth centuries.
THEOLOGICAL QUESTIONS
Presiding: Nomikos M. Vaporis
(Hellenic College)
"Leontius of Byzantium: The Question of an Emendation"
David B. Evans, St. John's University
In the last chapter of his first book Against the Nestorians and Eutychlans, Leontius- of Byzantium explains his Christological formula, a "union according to ousia@ in a division distinguishing its, orthodox from its Monophysite interpretation (PG 86, 1304 Bl-1305 C3). In an analysis of the "essential relations" of all beings (1301 D5-1304 A14) introducing this division, he advances the following argument: "Further, of beings uniited in species but distinguished by hypostases, some possess union and distinction as simple, while others [possess them] as composite" (1304 Al-4)
Although the manuscripts unanimously support the printed text, Friedrich Loofs (LeontByz [1886] 67, as also Otto, Person und Subsistenz; [1968] 41-43), perplexed by this passage, proposed the emendation bracheted here: "Further, of beings united in species but distinguished by hypostases, <and of beings united by hypostases, but distinguished in species>, the former possess union and distinction as simple, while others [possess them] as composite. " This emendation by LeontByz ( [1970] 33-36) rejected, but Brian Daley, now (1989) publishing a critical edition of Leontius's works, has revived it ("The Origenism of Leontius of Byzantium," JourTheolStud [1976] 346-347). Here I argue again that the emendation is unnecessary and distorts Leontius's argument.
First, the emendation as Loofs' proposed it. Loofs (as Otto and Daley) failed to recognize the source of Leontius's distinction here as the classical patristic distinction between Trinity ("simple") and creation ("composite"). Moreover, Loofs' emendation makes Leontius's argument inconsistent in two ways: both by changing his emphasis in 1304 A1-2 from the union in ousia (the topic of CNE 1.7; compare 1301 C11-D5 above and 1304 B1-2 below) to a question of philosophical nomenclature; and by making Leontius incongruously dismiss the union in ousia as- irrelevant to his argument (1304 A4-11).
Second, the suggestion of Stephan Otto, (Person und Subsistenz 41-43 with notes 72; 75; so too Daley ["Origenism" 346-347 and note 3]) that the emendation adds consistency to Leontius's terminology: specifically, beings having union and distinction --- "composite@ 1304 A1-3) are, by reason of their equation in the emendation with beings distinguished in species and united in hypostasis, in turn identical with [beings] in composition . or however else one may please to call the essential relations of [being of] different natures" (1304 A8-11): so that, after the emendation, Leontius uses the concept composition in the same sense in both passages. To this argument two objections. First, it is incompatible with the correct understanding of 1304 A1-2 just offered. Second, it effectively expunges the union in ousia from Leontiu's argument, obscuring Leontius's distinction between two kinds of union in hypostasis (the union of beings of different natures): one in which the union in hypostasis is also and simultaneously a union in ousia; and one in which it is not. For Leontius, only the former describes a union in hypostasis in which each of two beings of different natures, Word and man, preserves its "proper definition of existence. "
An epilogue. For Leontius, the "definition of nature" lies in the two different unions in ousia which define Word and flesh, and A mode of union" in the union in hypostasis which joins them. In a union in hypostasis which is also and simultaneously a union in ousia, the difference between the two unions reflects the traditional distinction, in beings so united, between their "definition of nature" and "mode of union" (SolArgSev 1936 D lff). This distinction too the emendation obscures.
"Balsamon's view of the Primacy of Constantinople"
Paul Halsall, Fordham University
Scholars have noted that the prestige of the patriarch of Constantinople grew in the late Byzantine period just as the stature of the emperors was waning. This greater central authority was associated with the effort of twelfth-century canonists, notably Theodore Balsamon, to establish the character of later Byzantine canon law. Balsamon established Constantinopolitan practice in canon law as normative. My paper will probe the rationale behind Balsamon's judgements and explore the significance of his interpretation of patriarchal power.
Important evidence in Balsamon's commentaries on the Nomocanons in XIV Titles for the association of canon law and patriarchal authority has been largely unexplored. Balsamon's reassessment of the ecumenical councils' teaching on the primacy of Constantinople extended the patriarch's jurisdiction and rebuffed claims for local autonomy. My research indicates that Balsamon stressed those details in a canon that confirmed his elevated view of Constantinople, and commented less exhaustively on issues, such as the primacy of Rome, that might detract. At times Balsamon's stance led him both to extend the application of ancient canons that had once given Constantinople control over neighboring metropolitans, and to regard the practices of Constantinople as more authoritative than those of other dioceses. Since, however, he did not force interpretations of canons beyond what they could bear, his work found wide acceptance.
This is not to claim that Balsamon was deliberately preparing for the survival of the patriarchate. During his lifetime the Empire remained strong. Still, his position in the patriarchal court, and as titular patriarch of Antioch, both at a time when the other ancient patriarchates remained under non-Orthodox control, perhaps led him to see Constantinople as the bastion of Orthodoxy.
The progressive enhancement of patriarchal authority was not, as often presented, simply a matter of prestige; the patriarch's legal powers were strengthened by Balsamon. As the one Byzantine institution to survive under the Ottomans, the patriarchate of Constantinople became the legal agency for Orthodox Christians, and indeed the patriarch almost an eastern counterpart to the pope. This paper analyzes Balsamon's conclusions about the primacy of the see of Constantinople in order to understand the canonical contribution to the authority of the later patriarchs.
"Origen and the Pseudo-Dionysius on Divine Names"
Naomi Janowitz, University of California at Davis
Pseudo-Dionysius' treatise The Divine Names continues a lengthy debate about language, and in particular, about the special function of names. As part of a broadly defined "mystical@ tradition, he is often compared with another A mystic@ Origen. However, an analysis of their vocabulary reveals that they had distinct theories of langauge, theories which we in turn need.
Origen, while he criticizes what we would call natural--based theories of language, ultimately opts for one. The origin of language is divine, which makes the study of language a A Divine science." In Contra Celsum he rejects Celsus's idea that it does not matter which names is used to refer to the deity. Names are a source of power, including the names of the deity, names of daimons and even the names of "wise men" who are "related to God" [I:15]. Moses knew enough about these "secret doctrines" to prohibit mentioning names of gods.
Pseudo-Dionysius shares with Origen only the most general ideas about names. He would find most of Origen's ideas shocking and "magical." He, unlike Origen, had a theory of language, influenced in part by Proclus. Origen was also influenced by Stoic ideas, and in addition was familiar with Hebrew theories of names which he learned from Hebrew exegetes. These theories held that names did not represent, but were actual icons of divine power. Pseudo-Dionysus on the other hand has a strictly representational theory of language in which an iconic notion of names was not a factor.
"A New Argument Toward the Identification of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite with Peter the Iberian"
Elguja Khintibidze, University of Tbilisi
Most popular among the existing hypotheses regarding the authorship of the Areopagitic writings - one of the principal foundations of Christian literature - is the theory that identifies Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite with Peter the Iberian, advanced by E. Honigmann and Sh. Nutsubidze. This theory rests on three arguments: (a) chronological-geographic: the Areopagitic books must have been written in Greek by a non-Greek in the second half of the fifth century in the circle of Syrian monophysites. The Church Father Peter the Iberian flourished at that time in those circles; (b) liturgical: Peter the Iberain's like-minded teacher, John the Laz, died on 4 October. According to Honigmann, the old Syrian calendar ordained 4 October as the festival day of Saint Hierotheos, the teacher of Dionysius the Areopagite. This allows one to identify John the Laz with Hierotheos; (c) literary-theological: the extant biographies of Peter the Iberian give some indication of the doctrines followed by and taught to their pupils by Peter and John. Both Nutsubidze and Honigmann likened those doctrines to Areopagitic theology.
To date, it has been recognized that the theoretical foundation of Areopagitics is, on the one hand, the doctrine of emanations established in Neoplatonic philosophy and, on the other, the mystic view of the Cappadocian Church Fathers on the incomprehensibility of the Divine essence. From the viewpoint of the development of Christian theology, the Areopagitics continued and completed only the researches of the Cappadocian Fathers. The evidence preserved in the biographies of Peter the Iberian clearly point to those Fathers' inclination to ascetic contemplation, as well as to the fact that Peter the Iberian considered the Asketikon of Saint Basil as the literary-theological source of his own mystic-ascetic views. Thus, the only Christian theology developed in the Areopagitic writings is the mysticism of the Cappadocians; the only teaching of the past Christian heritage, adherence to which is urged on his followers by Peter the Iberian, is St. Basil's ascetism and mysticism.
It is suggested that the present observation be also given attention in a critique of the theory seeking to identify Pseudo- Dionysius the Areopagite with Peter the Iberian.
MONASTICISM AND LITURGY
Presiding: Dorothy de F. Abrahamse
(University of California at Long Beach)
"Monastic Reform, Canon Law and Local Monastic Tradition: The Typikon of Nikon of the Black Mountain"
Robert W. Allison, Bates College
The monastic typikon of Nikon of the Black Mountain (d. ca. 1088) is probably the least known and least studied document in the set of typika which the Dumbarton Oaks Typika Project has undertaken to translate. Nikon himselfhas received little attention in the histories of Byzantine literature, in spite of the fact that as a "canonist" he antedates Balsamon by a century. As an abbot writing in a time when monastic reform was in the air, he is an important source for understanding the reciprocal influences of reform, canon law, and the force of local monastic tradition and circumstances.
The present paper introduces Nikon's typikon -- actually a composite of three distinct documents -- and Nikon himself into the purview of American Byzantinists to whom he is hardly known. Its purpose is to analyze the interaction of these three influences on an abbot trying to deal with a degenerate but prosperous monastery near Syrian Antioch on the pilgrimage route to Jerusalem. Why, as John Thomas points out in his Private Religious Foundations in the Byzantine Empire, did Nikon call for subordination of abbots to the local bishops, when the trend of his day was toward institutional autonomy of the monasteries? How could Nikon, who was personally committed to coenobitic monastic life in the tradition of Theodore Studites and the Lavra of St. Athanasius on Mt. Athos, strip away all the administrative authority from the office of the abbot, the very position which he himself held?
To understand these and other peculiarities of Nikon's typikon it is necessary to give due weight to local monastic tradition and circumstances and how they affected Nikon's understanding of canon law and reform. The brotherhood in his charge rejected the Studite coenobitic tradition in favor of a form of idiorhythmism. The monks of the Monastery of the Virgin of Rhoidion, to whom the second and third chapters of his typikon were originally addressed as letters, were uneducated Chalcedonian Armenians, and Nikon viewed himself as a kind of missionary, called by the Virgin to serve in the tseniteia. Nikon himself had received a charge from the Patriarchate of Antioch to serve as a kind of inquisitor, instructing and correcting all of the monks within its jurisdiction. Finally, the calling of an abbot, as Nikon saw it, was to provide for the salvation of souls by keeping the monastery a spiritual world, while the "bodily" or secular world was caught up in the turbulent ethnic relations amongst "Romaioi" like himself, the ecclesiastically divided Armenians, the Franks, and the Turks who had taken Antioch in 1084. In this confused world, Nikon reveals how the monasteries were prey to "secular" persons who sought the office of abbot in order to win control of monastic lands and buildings for personal gain, or to spiritually weak abbots who could be tempted by worldly security, profit, or power. His solution to this problem was to strip the abbot of administrative powers and reassert the authority of the bishops, thereby freeing the abbot from temptation and "concerns" and leaving him what really mattered -- his moral and spiritual leadership. Under these circumstances,
Nikon's notion of reform was to return to the old ways, of the time when St. Sabas was living, "who did not receive revenues or donations from the king or anywhere else." Better to cede the lands and buildings and start another monastic hospice trusting the Mother of God herself to manage it, than to become corrupted by a struggle to retain worldly possessions.
"The Attitude towards the Human Body Found in the Italo-Greek Bioi"
David Hester, St. Mary's Seminary and University
A constant refrain found in the Bioi of the Italo-Greek monks is that of the need for control of the human body and, as the Bioi of Sabas the Younger notes, "to subject the flesh to the spiritu(Sabas, 1). Because the Bioi are so insistent on the need for the subjugation of the flesh, at times even speaking of the human body in such pejorative terms as "hostile" and "enemy" (Elias the Younger, 47) or describing death as a "release from the bonds of the flesh" (Nikodemos, 21), there is a danger that these texts may be read as examples of a dualistic contempt for the body. This danger is particularly heightened by the elaborate descriptions of ascetical struggle found in the Bioi where monks spend nights in vigils of prayer and tears, doing prostrations--the double asceticism formed "by labor and the affliction of the body , along with the vigils (Neilos, 15); where they practice asceticism in food. clothing and shelter, with some monks wearing no clothes at all; where they totally refrain from bathing; where they live in caves or in small huts, often deliberately exposing themselves to the cold.
To understand what these Bioi mean by the burdens of the flesh, and especially to see how these kinds of terms and the asceticism lived by the monks are not to be interpreted as signs of contempt for the body, it is necessary to examine what the monks hope that the body will attain through this ascetical control.
First of all, as many of the Bioi note, asceticism is followed in food, sleep, and clothing so that monks only "indulge the necessities of nature" (Philaret, 26), take enough sleep "as needed to support the body"(Sabas, 8), and give themselves only "those things which are necessary and indispensable for the preservation of the body"(Bartholomew of Simeri, 18). Secondly, monks fight against the desires of the body, its drives. its uncontrolled desires, its passions, so that they can come to control the body and check its inordinate impulses. This control of the body is called "subjecting the inferior to the superior" (Bartholomew of Simeri, 11). a life in which the monk "subjects the flesh and the spirit to the law of the Spirit [and] subjects the flesh to the spirit" (Neilos4 15), and a A learning to purify the thoughts to the farthest point, so that alacrity of spirit gives power over the body" (Elias the Speleot, 13).
The fundamental experience of these monks is that the body and its desires often work against the desires of the spirit, that "fleshly pleasures wage war against the soul"(Elias the Speleot, 67), and that one needs to bring order back into the relationship that exists between the human physical and spiritual aspects by "wasting away the body by hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, so that having become obedient it is easily subordinated to the spirit@ (Ibid). Thus the goal of the monk is to make the physical become responsive and obedient to the spiritual.
That the monks are not opposed to the body, as body, is seen fundamentally in the fact that one of the gifts given to the most perfect of their brethren is that of an anticipated glorification of their bodies while they are still alive. In the Bioi, some monks begin to show forth signs of the glorification of their bodies, such as illumination or pleasant fragrances, even in this life, but especially after death. This is the clearest indication that for these monks the body is not intended for annihilation. but for glorification by God. If anything, the body is looked upon more as a beast of burden, a beast that must be tamed so that "we do not cause the beast to become wilder and harder to constrain" (Nei los , 11). What a monk learns to do through asceticism, obedience. and prayer is to have control over the body, its needs and desires, to make it be subject and obedient to the spirit. This is what the Bioi of Bartholomew of Simeri notes when it states that Bartholomew "mortifies his flesh. subjecting the inferior to the superior, as reasonable, and purifies diligently the sight of his reason, the transparent mirror of the indwelling Holy Spirit"(Bartholomew of Simeri, 11).
"Liturgical orders of Conversion from Islam to the Byzantine Church"
Daniel J. Sahas, University of Waterloo
The Ordo of the ritual of conversion of a Muslim to the [Byzantine] Church, included in Nicetas Chaniates's Thesaurus Orthodoxiae (Book XX), is a rare example of such documents.
Of particular interest to students of Muslim-Christian relations during the Byzantine era is the formula of abjuration, or the apotaxis and the anathemas, which the convert recites prior to his or her admission to the rank of the catechumens. This is the main and most significant part of the Ordo.
The paper examines some of the reasons for the lack of such texts of conversion (in Christianity and in Islam), the origin and the content of this formula of abjuration, and compares this Ordo to equivalent rituals of conversion from Judaism to [Byzantine] Christianity which, most likely, served as the pattern for the Byzantine Church.
"Paul and Thecla, from Home-wrecker to Nymphagogos"
Daniel Sheerin, University of Notre Dame
Contemporary studies draw attention to the emphasis which the apocryphal acts of the apostles placed on the autonomy available to women through the renunciation of marriage and the choice of a life and ministry of consecrated celibacy. These same apocryphal acts are also viewed as evidence of the stresses created by this novel autonomy and the real and imagined threats arising from it: social threats to antique "family values," and political threats to male hegemony in the church. As the potentially destabilizing autonomy of celibate women was brought under control institutionally by various emergent traditions and their enactment, so was it also brought under symbolic control by the portrayal of the consecrated virgin as the Bride of Christ. This involved, in large part, the transfer to the consecrated virgin of the nuptial imagery developed earlier to portray the relationship of Christ to the Church. This development in the symbolic realm can be seen at work in a microcosm in hagiographic and liturgical texts associated with the heroine of the Acts of Paul and Thecla who went on to become "the Holy Megalomartyr and Equal-of-the-Apostles, Thecla."
The Thecla of the Acts accepts the radical celibacy preached there by the Apostle Paul, rejects the notion of any marriage at all, and is portrayed as suffering persecution more on that account than for her witness to the Christian faith. Any romantic interest of Thecla in the Acts is found in an implicit, sublimated form in the relationship of Thecla and Paul. The Saint Thecla of the hagiographical and liturgical tradition is more of a stereotypical Christian virgin-and -martyr and is also more of a romantic heroine, for she takes the place of the Church as the pure and passionate spouse of the Heavenly Bridegroom. The Apostle Paul in the Acts preaches "the word of God concerning continence and the Resurrection" as a virtual misogamy, and is, in fact, like others of the apostles in the apocryphal acts, a disrupter of marriages. In the hagiographical tradition, however, Paul preaches a more balanced, orthodox view of celibacy and marriage, and comes to be portrayed as playing the inter-mediary role, sometimes specified as that of nymphagogos, between Christ and Thecla, just as he had earlier and more commonly been
portrayed as the nymphagogos of Christ and the Church.
VARIETIES OF BYZANTINE ARCHAEOLOGY
Presiding: John Rosser (Boston College)
Notes on the Skeuophylakion of St. Sophia"
George P. Majeska, University of Maryland
The recent removal of the accumulated material that in modern times has filled the lower level of the skeuophylakion of St. Sophia has revealed three levels of interior niches. The brickwork of the first and second levels is typical of Constantinople in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. Between the first two levels of niches are sockets for consoles to hold a gallery. Parts of the consoles were found. The masonry of the wall at the third level of niches resembles that of Justinianic buildings; this level was probably added under Justinian.
Several questions about the building still remain unanswered, however. One of these is where to locate the Byzantine entrance or entrances which were on the newly excavated lower level. The original entrance on the west side of the building is now visible, filled in with rubble and mortar. Was there, however, another door, on the south side of the building where one would expect a direct communication with the church itself? Practicality says that there should have been, and literary sources clearly suggest that there was, in fact, direct access from the east bay of the north aisle of the church to the skeuophylakion. While the Book of Ceremonies is not clear that there was a door on the south side of the skeuophylakion, the thirteenth century Russian traveler Anthony of Novgorod speaks of "an outside door" of the building (apparently in contradistinction to the door through which he had entered the skeuophylakion from St. Sophia), and a manuscript Euchologion noted by Goar has the patriarch go "through the skeuophylakion" (di¶ to¯ skeuofulakίou) on his route from the narthex of the deaconesses to the Great Baptistery. Indeed, the seventeenth-century French traveler Grelot writes as if the south door of the skeuophylakion was still visible in his time, albeit walled up. The filled in arch where one would expect to find a south door is something of a puzzle, however. The double run of vaulting, for instance, is quite different in style from the other vaults on the lower levels and resembles more those on the third, Justinianic level of the building. I would suggest that this opening was cut (and vaulted over) when the third story that we have today was added to the structure and that it was done to adapt the old skeuophylakion to use with the new justinianic church which then must not have been conveniently served by the preexisting west door.
While the third level of niches seems to represent closed window openings, the niches on the two lower levels must have held the armoires (ta armaria) that the patriarch and chartularies opened so that the emperor could cense the sacred vessels on Holy Saturday, but they probably also held famous relics which both foreign visitors and the preserved inventory of the skeuophylakion mention, making of this building a genuine "treasury" such as one finds in great churches of the medieval West.
"The Archaeology of Buildings: The Case of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki"
Cecil L. Striker, University of Pennsylvania and Peter Ian Kuniholm, Cornell University
In contrast to research in Western Medieval architecture, Byzantine scholarship has been neglectful of the archaeology of standing buildings: that is to say the detailed recording and study of the physical evidence of buildings so as to establish their date and original form, and to understand the nature and origin of their materials and their sequence and methods of construction. This is the primary matter of the history of architecture; for however persuasive a theory of style, design, or development may be, to be valid it must be supported--or at least not controverted--by the physical evidence. The default is especially poignant since much evidence is accessible above ground without the need for excavation, and a number of scientific methods now exist for solving specific problems.
The Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki is a case in point. Since 1977 we have been concerned with the study of its above-ground fabric. We were initially drawn to it by the possibility of a dendrochronological (tree-ring dating) solution to the much-debated question of whether the Patriarch Niphon (ruled 1310-1314) built the church de novo or only added the outer structures that bear his inscriptions.
Our analysis of 45 wood samples from the building revealed surprising information about its date of construction; and our interpretation of evidence required a reexamination of the building fabric leading to our revision of a number of hypotheses about its Byzantine construction. We also considered for the first time the changes made in the building for use as a mosque obtaining new information about the date of transformation and the process of adaptive reuse, and clarifying some heretofore problematic features of the building.
"The Land Walls of Constantinople: Prototype or Imitation?"
Alessandra Ricci, University of Rome
An edict in the Theodosian Code (XV. 1.5 1) enables us to date the construction of the land walls of Constantinople to ca. 413 A.D. The new walls crossed the peninsula ca. 1.5 km. west of the previous defensive wall begun during the reign of Constantine I. The walls thus provided space for further urban development. The new Theodosian fortification of the City was truly monumental; it comprised a moat (tάjroς), an outer wall (proteίcisma), and a wall (perίbolos) pierced by eleven gates in addition to the "Golden Gate". The tripartite construction is characteristic of the Theodosian walls, as is an important innovation in building technique - brick bands across the entire wall, curtain and towers both, with alternate layers of limestone and opus coementicium, a technique guaranteeing strength and elasticity. These alternating layers of brick and limestone bands stretching continuously along the 5.7 kilometers of fortification provided a sense of horizontality, retained in the later repairs, which followed approximately the same scheme.
Although scholars have shown considerable interest in these fortifications, their research has treated the Theodosian land walls of Constantinople conceptually in terms of a prototype for later Byzantine fortifications, leading to the false thesis that the new walls of the capital gave rise to a new topos; for city walls, subsequently diffused throughout the empire. In part, this misconception stems from the absence of studies on the predecessors of Constantinople's Theodosian fortifications. Scholars are for the most part content to cite the writings of Philo Byzantinus or, as in the case of the most recent monograph on the land walls, simply to suggest analogies with the fortifications of Bogazkšy, Susa, and Babylon (A.M. Schneider & B. Meyer-Plath, Die Landmauer yon Konstantinopel [1943], 11, p.21).
The present study focuses on archaeological examples of earlier land walls which might be construed as forerunners of the Theodosian walls of Constantinople. Fortifications situated on plains appear to offer the best parallels since such sites had defensive needs similar to those of the capital. Here, the sites along and near the Danubian limes provide some interesting comparisons since this area was constantly subjected to barbarian incursions throughout the third and fourth centuries. Constantinople, faced with the same defensive concerns, was also obliged to reinforce its own defences. This paper argues that the system of defences adopted earlier on the Danubian limes and its vicinity offered a basic model of fortification readily adaptee, to the particular needs of the City.
"Syria in Transition: An Archaeological Approach"
Clive Foss, University of Massachusetts at Boston
This paper will examine selected regions of Syria in the sixth and seventh centuries to determine their condition in the time of Justinian, on the eve of the Arab conquest, and during the first century of Arab rule. It will treat Antioch, Apamea and Bostra, with their territories, considering the physical, social and economic state of both city and country.
These three districts offer extensive evidence based on careful excavation and regional surveys, and show how such archaeological material may be synthesized and correlated with information from the historical sources to produce a comprehensive picture. The amount and quality of the material varies considerably: little from the excavations of Antioch and Bostra, though an abundance of detail from Apamea; conversely, the regions of Antioch and the Hauran (Bostra) have been much more studied than that of Apamea. Direct comparisons will be made between the three areas to determine whether a common pattern exists.
The results will illustrate both history and methodology. They will show how extensive the work of Justinian was in the cites, and how much the countryside prospered through the end of the sixth century; how little difference the Arab-conquest initially made (practically no evidence of destruction or widespread abandonment), but how the situation deteriorated severely in the course of the seventh century in both city an country. From the point of view of method, the paper will demonstrate the importance of careful archaeological work (done in Syria with more focus and concern with historical questions than than in many other regions) in reconstructing the Byzantine situation in a rich and crucial area.
BYZANTINE ART
Presiding: Robert S. Nelson, (University of Chicago)
"The Frescoes of the Crypt at Hosios Loukas"
Carolyn L. Connor, Princeton University
When the monastery of Hosios Loukas was restored in the 1960's a remarkable ensemble of frescoes was virtually re-discovered in the crypt, for accumulated soot over the years had badly obscured them. Eclipsed also by their brilliant mosaic counterparts in the Katholikon above, they have not received the attention they deserve. The decoration consists of an entrance vault with Christ blessining, the apse with the last traces of a Deesis, forty medallion portraits of saints in the vaults and eight scenes from Christ's Passion and of resurrection around the walls. All are surrounded by floral and abstract ornamental borders and pseudo-marble revetment. The program is exceptionally complete and the frescoes of very high artistic quality, with expressive faces, harmoniously proportioned figures, and a range of subtle pastel to jewel--like colors. These frescoes represent a major monument of Byzantine art and also broaden our understanding of the monastery as a whole.
The overall program emphasizes salvation with the themes of intercession and hope for resurrection clearly articulated--appropriately, for we know from the presence of three large tombs that the crypt served a funerary function. In addition, the program call be recognized more specifically as commemorating the life and miraculous healing power of the monastery's founder, Saint Luke of Steiris (see BSC Abstracts, Bryn Mawr, 1966, p. 28f.), and also the abbots who helped sponsor and plan the building of the Katholikon with its crypt. The style and iconography of the frescoes have some parallels with other monuments, but there is no one with a close affinity, except for the mosaics of the Katholikon which appear to have been executed contemporaneously. Largely on stylistic grounds scholars have variously dated the mosaics and frescoes in the first half of the eleventh century.
Dating of the monument should not be limited to stylistic criteria, as in the past, but a broader Spectrum of evidence, should be considered. Comparisons with the few surviving dated examples of monumental painting suggest these frescoes fit into a wide framework of artistic production of the last half of the tenth and first half of the eleventh centuries. To date the Katholikon it; is necessary to synthesize the visual material with textual evidence from the Vita of Saint Luke of Steiris on the building of the monastery (see BSC Abstracts, Houston, 1988, p. 27f.), architectural evidence and historical circumstances. When these criteria are taken into account, we arrive at a new dating for the frescoes and the mosaics in the last quarter of the tenth century. The art of Hosios Lotikas should thus be seen as a rare work of the high Macedonian period.
"The Cortona Cross-Reliquary in History and Art"
Anthony Cutler, Pennsylvania State University
Since DuCange, it has been supposed that the ivory reliquary of the True Cross in Cortona is to be associated with (and by implication made for) Nikephoros II Phokas (963-69). Indeed, for the last half century, this object has lent its name to an entire cluster (the "Nicephorus Group") of ivories, close in style and presumably datable in light of this resemblance. While in truth many of these pieces are related to the ivory in Cortona, the basis for this chronological confidence is fundamentally flawed.
The argument depends upon the assumption that one of the two inscriptions on the back of the reliquary refers to Nikephoros Phokas. The family name of this "king" (anax) is in fact not given and we know less about him than we do about the Stephen mentioned in the other inscription. The emperor is said only to have put the barbarians to flight with the Cross'aid, whereas Stephen is described as a skeuophylax of Hagia Sophia who offered the reliquary to the monastery that raised him.
Now, not a single ivory in the entire corpus bears a contemporary inscription on its reverse.
None, save for the problematical plaque of Otto II and Theophano, carries the name of a donor, or the place to which he or she presented the object. The uniqueness of the Cortona reliquary in this respect should have occasioned suspicion. Fixation on an imperial and ostensibly datable name had led to the supposition that the Nikephoros inscription must take precedence over that of Stephen and that Nikephoros won his victory before Stephen removed the ivory. The skeuophylax is thus presumed to have purloined an object for which he was officially responsible and then advertised the fact by recording it in the inscription. The absurdity of this received interpretation has not been noticed.
More serious is the question of the emperor's identity. The hairy, beserifed and irregular letters of the inscriptions fit neither those on the front of the reliquary nor any other tenth-century lettering. On the other hand, the letter forms closely resemble those of the semi-uncial verses in Paris, Coislin 79, a gospel book done over for Nikephoros III Botaneiates (1078-81). There is no necessary reason to suppose that the staurothque was made for this emperor, but Botaneiates' credentials as a barbarian-basher are as well attested (by Michael Attaleiates) as those of Nikephoros Phokas. There is as little reason to choose between the two emperors in this respect as there is to assume that the date of the inscriptions citing the fate of the ivory is also that of its manufacture. Technical and stylistic arguments suggest that the reliquary itself was carved in the middle or second half of the tenth century. Thus the "Nicephorus Group" as a whole is not undermined. But its title to the name, and the supposedly fixed date of the landmark piece from which it derives, will no longer stand scrutiny.
"A Fourteenth Century Fresco from the Balkans Explained by Coptic Texts"
Smiljka Gabeli° , University of Belgrade
The paper considers the relation between a mid-fourteenth-century fresco depicting one of the Archangel's miracles (the Miracle of a Perjurer), from the church of the monastery in Lesnovo, Yugoslavia, and two Coptic versions of a legend dating from the fourth to the seventh century - one dedicated to Archangel Michael, another to Archangel Gabriel.
"Object to Icon: The Cross of Leo Boreas and its Place in the Development of Middle Byzanntine Processional Crosses"
Karl Sandin, Denison University
The cross in Athens (Benaki Museum no. 11442) commonly known as the cross of Leo Boreas is representative of several engraved bronze processional crosses attributed to the tenth century that display unusual characteristics. The Crucifixion and Virgin orant on the obverse and reverse of the cross, for example, contrast strongly with the inscriptions and busts in medallions decorating tenth century crosses in silver. Other aspects of the iconography also require explanation and it is possible to refine the date.
The iconography and style of the cross is related to Constantinopolitan metalwork of the late tenth to early eleventh century, and a date of c. 980-1020 may be proposed. The date is an important element in establishing the chronology of the related crosses and other liturgical objects of similar workmanship. It may also be shown that the essential iconography of the ninth- and tenth-century pectoral reliquaries of the True Cross survives on the cross of Leo Boreas. The cross and its related examples are also among the first to display formal and iconographic qualities of contemporary icons. These qualities include the exploitation of the surface of the ross for large-scale figuration, paired busts as frame medallions, elimination of secondary figures from the Crucifixion and the specific type of the Virgin Blachernitissa.
The relation of processional cross to icon seen in the cross of Leo Boreas continues through the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The calendar and feast icons composed of numerous small-scale images common in this period are paralleled by the decoration of the reverse of contemporary silver crosses. On these, analogous small-scale portraits, saints' lives and feast images were executed in niello. The cross of Leo Boreas thus presaged the close relation of processional cross to icon that fully developed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. More importantly, the cross may be understood as an innovation of great spiritual power by virtue of its synthesis of the iconography of pectoral reliquaries of the True Cross with contemporary forms of processional cross and icon.
"The Myrelaion-An Imperial Foundation?"
George Stricevic, University of Cincinnati
Systematic archaeological exacavations inside and around the two-storied mediaeval church in Istanbul, best known as the Bodrum Djami,advanced significantly the studies of Byzantine architecture. The identification of the building as the Myrelaion - the foundation of Romanus Lecapenus has been firmly established as were several major phases of its history. Documentation given in C.Striker's recent monograph, supplemented by the observations made earlier, enable us to see clearly what the church looked like when built in the early 10th cent and to recognize the place it occupies in the development of mid-Byzantine monumental architecture and decoration.
Some of the typological and stylistic affinities between the Myrelaion and the Northern church of the Monastery of Lips have already been noted but they appear to be even more significant if it is recognized, as the compelling archaeological evidence shows, that the Myrelaion was an integral part of an architectural complex which Romanus built to serve as his residence and in which the church served as the house chapel, and, finally, that the mansion was converted into a nunnery only after Romanus moved with his household into the imperial palace. The construction of the church, in other words, belongs to the time before Romanus was crowned Emperor on December 17th, 919. Insignificant, as it might appear at first, the slightly earlier date of the Myrelaion does not make Romanus' church and the Theotokos church in the complex of Fenari Isa Djami closer only in time: at the time when the Myrelaion was built future Emperor Romanus was the drungarius of the fleet, that is he occupied the office which was held before by Constantine Lips. An interesting possibility presents itself - that we have here two examples of the type of the church building favoured by high military aristocracy for their private foundations.
The re-examination of the problem of the use of the Myrelaion as the family mausoleum leads to the conclusion that it is in the lower church, that the burial of the members of the Lecapenus family took place. Finds of glazed terracotta revetment tiles in the debris of the lower church to which, again, insufficient attention has been paid - and such material turned up during the excavations of the Monastery of Lips as well - might have something to do with the funerary function of this story of the building.
A church excavated at the turn of the century at Patleina, near the Bulgarian capital at Preslav, shows in its second building phase when it was remodelled, striking similarities with the two Constantinopolitan churches of the early 10th century. It appears that that phase of Patleina church can be dated to the mid-10th cent. when Maria-Irene, a grand-daughter of Romanus, resided in Preslav, being married to the Bulgarian Tsar Peter. The church at Patleina, just like the Myrelaion, was constructed on an artificial platform, and a part of its substructure was here also used for burial. And, finally, at Patleina were also found fragments of glazed revetment tiles. A comparative study of this material might explain the relationship between the use of this kind of polychrome interior decoration in Byzantine capital and in the Preslav region in the 10th century.
"Armenian Manuscript Illumination at Lake Van: The Roles of Patrons and Illuminators in Image Creation"
Alice Taylor, Los Angeles
From about 1290-1500, Armenian scriptoria around Lake Van produced illuminated manuscripts, hundreds of which survive. The illuminations of the sixty or so which have been partially published seem at first glance to be remarkably homogeneous. Most typical are Gospels, prefaced with 25-30 scenes from the life of Christ. Details and entire scenes suggest connections with early Christian traditions; others clearly derive from post-iconoclastic Byzantine
programs. However, the very large numbers of manuscripts surviving, and the fact that most have extensive colophons of scribes, illuminators, and patrons, allow for a more detailed reading of these image cycles, revealing the varied concerns of monastic and secular artists, and of aristocratic, monastic and merchant patrons.
The fifty-three surviving manuscripts illustrated at the seat of the Armenian Catholicos at Altlamar from 1303-1490 reveal the concerns of individual patrons: the Catholicos stresses his dynastic position; monks are concerned with dogma (particularly vis ˆ vis the teachings of Catholic missionaries in the Lake Van area); merchants from neighboring cities seek support for Armenian customs in response to Islamic as well as Catholic objections.
The work of individual artists, such as the peripatetic Minas (fl. ca. 1432-83) reveals that artists could play a role as important as that of patrons in determining the content of illuminations.
BYZANTINE ASIA MINOR
Presiding: John W. Nesbit, (Dumbarton Oaks)
"Early Byzantine Archaeology at Armorium"
R. Martin Harrison, Oxford University
The site of Amorium is 70 km. north-east of Afyon. The Turkish authorities gave us a permit to do an archaeological survey in 1987 (AS 38 (1988), 175-184) and to begin an excavation in 1988 (BBBS 15 (1989), 15-16). The main purpose was to study the Roman and Early Byzantine development, until it was destroyed by the Arabs in 838.
Amorium may well have its origins in the Hittite city of Aura, and earlier. However, it is certain that it was Hellenistic and Roman (MAMA VII (1954), 64-68; M. Waelkens, Die Kleinasiatischen Tursteine (1986), 205-214). The city-walls were reconstructed by Zeno (474-491), and the city grew from that time (TIB 4 (1984), 122-125). After Constantinople and Thessalonica, this was the third city of the Byzantine Empire, and thus the first in Asia Minor (W. Treadgold, The Byzantine Revival (1988), 41). There is further evidence from the middle sixth century (MAMA VII, no. 294), and Theodore of Sykeon visited it in the late-sixth (ed. Festugire, chaps. 105-9). In the seventh century, there was the first of many Arab attacks, and it was, by then, the main centre of the Anatolic theme. There are Byzantine and Arabic texts, which give a good description of the city in the eighth and early ninth centuries. From these accounts come stories of the bishop who went secretly to the (southern) mountains (Theoph. Chron., ed. Boor, 388), the silentiarius who assembled the people by the upper gates of the great church (the north-east corner?) (op. cit., 415); the first Arab Army in 838 which lay two miles to the north (good streams and grass nowadays) (A. A. Vasiliev, Byzance et les Arabes 1 (1935), 161), and the Arabs who fought in the morning, and then Mutasim and his generals went to their tents and had lunch (op. cit., 165). (It was extremely hot at the site during the last two years in the afternoon in August).
Our survey includes plans (the Upper Town and the Lower Town), and the whole area is about 1,400 m. long and 900 m. wide, including the towers and ditch. We recorded some Late Roman inscriptions, two churches (one of them about the 5th century in the Upper Town, and the other Justinianic or a little later, in the Lower Town), and Docimium marble (sixth century and also about 11th century).
In the first excavation season, we opened three trenches in the lower city walls, including the thickness of the main walls (c. 3 m.) and a triangular tower of the 5th century(?), and also three major trenches (20 m. square) in a large building of mortar and concrete. The latter was our main aim in 1988, and it proved to be mainly a substructure. It may have been a palace or major official building in the 6th century or later. We have good stratigraphy from this first season, and some small finds (including an Ummayad(?) bronze weight with two Arabic inscriptions), but the town seems generally poor; or was it robbed by the Arabs? We have also discovered two more churches.
I shall include a brief account of the second excavation in 1989.
"The Context of ‚anli Kilise: Between Constantinople and Cappadocia"
Robert Ousterhout, University of Illinois
Since the publication of photographs by H. Rott and G. Bell, the so-called ‚anli Kilise has elicited attention but has not received a thorough study. Located on the wilds of the Hassan Dag in western Cappacodia, the church is noted for its elegant construction and numerous Constantinopolitan details--the latter enumerated by Krautheimer, who concluded, "In short, the design . stems from Constantinople and was executed by a crew in which at least some members must have been trained in the capital." The discussion has been further clouded by Restle's suggestion of a Palaeologan date for the building, rather than the commonly held 11th-century dating. In this paper I shall rehearse the arguments for dating, concluding in favor of the earlier date, and I shall attempt to emphasize the church's Cappadocian context.
Among the Constantinopolitan features, Krautheimer notes the cross-in-square plan, the alternating brick and stone construction with broad mortar joints, the tall proportions of the interior, the recessed, blind arches and half columnsof the exterior, and the brick decoration. The construction technique is extremely fine (in fact, higher in quality than anything preserved in the capital), and the building seems out of place in a trogloditic community. The fragmentary fresco decoration is also of exceedingly high quality, and both stylistic and iconographic details indicate a painter from a major center.
But for each of the Constantinopolitan features, a non-Constantinopolitan or clearly Cappadocian feature may also be cited. The plan of ‚anli Kilise is of squarish proportions, lacking the eastern extension of the churches of the capital, and originally lacking a narthex. The dome was supported on piers rather than columns. The arches tend toward horseshoe form, and the vaulting is of stone. More significantly, brick (rare in Cappadocia) is used only as a decorative veneer, limited to the most visible facades, and is not integral with the wall construction. The broad mortar joints may imitate the recessed brick technique, but this technique is not employed. The facades are arcaded in two levels that lack vertical alignment. The sculptural decoration is clearly of local derivation.
The desired outcome of the construction seems to have been to give the impression of Constantinopolitan architecture, imitating the style of the capital. The fine brick technique may recommend participation by a master from the capital. However, the plan and the stone construction fit better into a Cappadocian context. Even the design of the facade arcades finds better comparison locally, as for example at Fisandon. The decorative details of the exterior and the fresco decoration of the interior would seem to have offered an element of prestige, of cosmopolitan sophistication in a rural setting. Although the original function of the church is unclear, the picture that emerges is similar to that of several other mysterious buildings in Asia Minor, such as †ayak, Dereagzi, and Belisirma. We may draw one of two tentative conclusions: such buildings with their manifest associations with the capital were intended as symbols of status; or perhaps such buildings were more common in medieval Asia Minor than we now realize.
"Newly Discovered Rock-Cut Church in Kizil ‚ukur Valley, Cappadocia"
Natalia Teteriatnikov, Dumbarton Oaks
In this paper I would like to draw scholarly attention to an important unknown, Byzantine rock-Cut church. I had discovered it 1985 during my fieldwork in Cappadocia. This large cross in-square structure is located in the rock, and at the center of the Kizil ‚ucur valley. The elegancy in its design and richness of its architectural decoration, makes this church significant for the Byzantine architecture. The purpose of this paper than will be to discuss the origin of architectural design of this church, its place among others Byzantine church buildings, and to suggest the date for its excavation.
The four column, cross-in-square plan of this Kizil ‚ukur church is standart, and it is found in a number of 10th and llthcentury churches in this region. However, the large size of the naos, and its elongated proportions especially, close to the 11th-century Direcli Kilise in Peristrema valley or chapel 17 in Gsˇreme. The small round, and deep domes are also alike in these three churches.
The monumental doorframes outlined with several rows of moldings have no parallels among the Cappadocian churches. It seems that the local architect imitated the impressive monumental doorframes of the Constantinopolitan church buildings, as for example, those of the north and south churches of the early 12th century Pantocrator monastery. Moreover, the semicircular openings above the doorways into the naos are also very similar to the ones in the south church of the Pantocrator monastery.
The cubical capitals with emboli\, however, are different from Constantinopolitan taste. Yet this sort of canital found among the 10th and 11th-century Cappadocian churches such as the funeral chapel- under the Tokali Kilise or llth century Kili?lar KŸzlŸk and ‚aricli Kilise. But the capitals from our church are distinguished by the round emboli. The only parallel to this architectural motif we find in Georgian churches of the llth century as for instance, Ianash, Sasashi, Chohuli, and Adishi as well as numerous other examples. Because this sort of capital was popular only in Georgian architecture, it seems likely that its style was borrowed by the Cappadocian architects.
In sum, the stylistic link of the Kizil ‚ukur church with the 11th century church buildings of Constantinople, local architecture, and the one in Georgia, points to its 11th century origin. To find this diversity of sources in the 11th-century Cappadocia is not surprising. It is particularly at this time Cappadocia was one of the most active military regions of Byzantine Asia Minor, which maintained reciprocal relationship with both Constantinople as well as its eastern provinces, including Georgia.
LATE ANTIQUITY
Presiding: Eric McGeer, (Universitv of Montreal)
"Symmachus and Livy"
Alan Cameron, Columbia University
The best known of all subscriptiones in Latin manuscripts are a series naming three different correctors of the first decade of Livy: Nicomachus Flavianus the younger, Nicomachus Dexter and Tascius Victorianus. The first two were related to the famous orator Symmachus (consul in 391) and the last dedicates his labours to "the Lords Symmachus". Despite the fact that the enterprise only reached Bk 9 (out of 142), no one has ever doubted that the three sets of subscriptiones represent three different stages in a massive project to edit the whole of Livy, spread out over three generations. Much has been made of the dedication of the Symmachi to the sacred task of purifying the text of Livy. more careful analysis of these names and notes, based on the sequence in which they appear in manuscripts, will show that in fact all three correctors worked together as a team. The Flavianus subscriptio mentions that he was currently prefect of Rome for the third time. A fresh study of the sequence of prefects will show that his tenure fell much earlier than hitherto supposed, in 400, a few months after Symmachus mentions in a letter that the project is under way. There is no need to believe that these modest corrections (incidentally made at the family villa of Piazza Armerina) took more than a few weeks in all. Victorianus was a professional, hired to do the real work, while Flavianus and his teenage son took turns to help him.
"The Reign of Leo I: A View from Spain"
Frank M. Clover, University of Wisconsin
The minor Latin chronicles, continuations of the tradition set by Eusebius and Jerome, are a major source of information about the Late Roman Empire. Modern critics do not make proper use of these spare assemblages; they are normally so intent on extracting bits of information that they ignore or misconstrue the compilator's point of view. The Chronicle of Hydatius (fl. A.D. 430-470), bishop in the Spanish province of Gallaecia, is a case in point. Historians have quarried facts from Hydatius' continuation of Jerome's chronicle, covering the years A.D. 379 to 469 and written in the early 470s. They have even studied the author's perspective, but here they have gone astray by trying to make Hydatius a spokesman for nascent Spain. Hydatius offers instead a thoughtful estimation of the Roman Empire's condition at the end of the reign Emperor Leo I (A.D. 457-474).
It requires some effort to extract Hydatius' point of view from his spare chronicle. The bishop intersperses notices of events with portents, mostly celestial phenomena such as solar and lunar eclipses. These become more frequent and spectacular in the latter part of his account. One suspects that Hydatius used these omens to reinforce a pessimistic interpretation of contemporary affairs, and the suspicion finds confirmation in the chronicle itself. Hydatius cites two prophetic books of the Bible, Ezekiel and Daniel, as inspirations; and in an entry dated A.D. 451 he announces that the appearance of northern lights in Gallaecia A was completely explained soon by a great event" -- Attila the Hun's invasion of Gaul. Hydatius' chronicle is a piece of Christian apocalyptic literature. What caused him to think that the end of the world was at hand? What specific catastrophes set the world on this baneful course?
A further examination of Hydatius' record of events yields a firm answer to the present question. In entries dated A.D. 455 the bishop describes the murder of Western Emperor Valentinian III, and then states that the removal of this emperor marked the end of the Imperial House of Theodosius. He uses differing terminology to characterize the monarchs who reigned subsequently (see below), and for the time period A.D. 455 to 469 he describes a crescendo of terrestrial violence. The last year of the chronicle, A.D. 469, contains the climax. Hydatius narrates the great expedition of Emperor Leo I against the Vandals (A.D. 468), and then takes note of a most threatening portent B four fish caught in a Gallaecian river, each bearing Hebrew, Greek or Latin characters signifying the number 365. Hydatius here gave expression to an idea current among Christian apologists in Late Antiquity -- that all terrestrial endeavor including the Roman Empire would suffer severe trouble in the 365th year. For Hydatius the year 365 was symbolic: life as he and his fellow provincials knew it was at an end.
The apocalyptic chronicler Hydatius was practical enough to gauge precisely the condition of the Roman Empire at the time he wrote his account of modern events (once again, in the early 470s). In the preface he announces that the Roman Empire is presently "enclosed in narrow straits." And what were the specific causes of this disastrous turn of affairs? I hope to improve on previous answers to this question by studying carefully Hydatius' characterizations of the monarchs who reigned after the assassination of Valentinian III. I shall offer evidence that Hydatius ascribed most of the present misfortune to the emperor who reigned during the time of severe trouble, Leo I. I shall conclude my paper by comparing Hydatius' pessimism with that of contemporary authors writing in Byzantium.
"Where East and West Did Meet: COMOB/CONOB on Early Byzantine Gold Coins"
Luciana Cuppo Csaki, Fordham University
The inscriptions ending in -OB on early Byzantine gold coins ( c. 365-553) constitute an important source of documentation for historians, yet they are not only ignored (there is no comprehensive study of such inscriptions to-date), but often misunderstood. They were at different times technical in character (the equivalent of control marks guaranteeing the purity of gold) or a combination of quality control and mint mark ( TMOB, ROMOB, TROB, etc.). But there were also instances when such inscriptions, while maintaining the character of quality control marks (-OB ending) did not coincide with any particular mint. The problematic inscriptions in this respect are COMOB and CONOB.
CONOB indicated Constantinople, but was used far and wide, in and out of the eastern capital; COMOB generally appeared on western coins, and is therefore taken to signify western provenance, but the inscription CONOB was also found in the West, alternating with coins of the same mint and/or ruler marked COMOB. The fact that the shift from COMOB to CONOB (or vice yersa) occurred on coins of the same mint and even on the same coin suggests that the COMOB/CONOB inscriptions were not related to a mint or geographical area, but to the political authority controlling the minting of gold. Thus the shift COMOB/CONOB corresponded to a shift in political power.
After a brief geographical-historical survey of the coinage with -OB, my paper will present unpublished coins of the American Numismatic Society where the COMOB inscription was deliberately changed to CONOB (or vice versa) and determine their documentary value, as compared to the evidence provided by pertinent textual sources, for a shift in political authority at the time.
Coins of the following institutions were studied for this paper: American Numismatic Society, Bibliothbque Nationale (Paris), Dumbarton Oaks, Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna), Museo Civico (Trieste).
"Anthemius, Zeno, and Senatorial Status in the Late Fifth Century"
Ralph W. Mathisen, University of South Carolina
During the Later Roman Empire, Roman senators became ever more status conscious as senator competed with senator for rank and privilege. Senators looked to the emperor as the bestower of this status. The variations among the ranks of different senators became increasingly finely defined. The distinctions among viri clarissimi, viri spectabiles, and viri inlustres, for example, are well known. Other innovations included fine distinctions among the ranks granted to different offices, to the dates of priority of the holding of offices, and to the holding of multiple offices. Yet one more distinguishing mark was introduced by the granting of strictly honorary offices. The two highest-ranking honorary offices of the fifth century were the patriciate and the honorary consulate.
The patriciate initially had been introduced by Constantine I (A.D. 306-337). In its new form, the title no longer was an hereditary one of a privileged upper class, but became rather an honorary title, held for life, which conveyed very high status. For the rest of the fourth
century, however, the patriciate seems to have been little used. During the fifth century, patriciates appear more often. The highest-ranking western master of soldiers, for example, ustomarily was endowed with the title patricius et magister utriusque militiae. During the first half of the fifth century, several imperial laws defined just what the status of the patriciate was.
It was not until the end of the century, however, that the patriciate really seems to have come into its own, and began to be granted on a wider scale. Two emperors in particular, Anthemius, an easterner who became western emperor in 467, and Zeno, who became eastern emperor in 474, seem to have found additional uses for the status which the patriciate could endow. Both granted the title much more liberally to those whose support they wished to gain, or whose status, for reasons of state, they wished to enhance. Such individuals included not only influential Roman senators but also powerful barbarian potentates. At the same time, Zeno found an additional honor to dangle before the eyes of status-conscious senators: the honorary consulate.
This kind of rank inflation soon became one of the distinguishing marks of the Byzantine Empire. What has not been noticed hitherto is the degree to which the practice accelerated during the last quarter of the fifth century. This paper will examine not only specific examples of the grants of such honors but also the possible policy decisions which led up to them. It also will investigate contemporary legal enactments which attempted to define more precisely the interrelationships among these various ranks, and will discuss, finally, the effects of this practice upon the relations between the emperor and the senatorial aristocracy.
"A Personality of the Gens Caeionii circa A.D. 395"
Ronald J. Weber, University of Texas
In the history of the Roman Empire the generation before A.D. 395 was a period of great change. Roman centralization disintegrated as territory and governmental authority was divided between Rome and Constantinople. Military power competed with civilian influence for control. Christian orthodoxy struggled to become fixed. This paper proposes to examine the effects of change upon one member of the Roman aristocracy in the latter years of the fourth century. He was from the clan of the Caeionii, and he exemplifies just how the clan, in the absence of monumental characters, provides a useful context for understanding individual response.
C. Caeionius Ruflus Volusianus (signo Lampadius) was born to the main line of the clan from female descendants of the Nummii, Fulvii and Gavii. His father and grandfather had revived family fortunes after a long third-century hiatus, but it was Voluslanus who brought the clan to a central prominence. Ammianus, althoughdisliking him, used Voluslanus as a prime example of aristocratic decline. He criticized how Volusianus inscribed his name on new and remodeled buildings as a greedy search for recognition. But Ammianus' nostalgic lament for the loss of domus nobiles misses the significance of Voluslanus as a representative of his social class and the changes of the fourth century. Many of the inscriptions bearing his name survive. Coupled with the Codex Theodosianus and his dealings on his far-flung estates, they form an enlightening picture. Volusianus opperated at the center of an elaborate network of wealth and personal power anchored by his repeated tenure of public office. The period is marked by the growing concentration of civilian offices In the hands of the landed gentry. In this way, Voluslanus and others offset the loss of the traditional military career ladder by a conspicuously civilian cursus honorum. He worked his way through the civil offices of Rome and progressed to the increasingly more important offices of the praetorian prefecture and the urban prefecture.
The significance of Volusianus' career was societal not just personal. He exercised power through his patronage, which passed on to his descendants. We know of the next several generations of Caeionii because of their client relationships. Patronage and civilian office were the way in which the aristocracy maintained itself against the military led by a growing non-Italian officer corps. Volusianus led the way in this. His plotting against the Frankish general, Silvanus, illustrates the gap which was developing between the military and civilian arms of the government. And even though Volusianus was a pagan, the legacy he left contributed to the eventual growth of Christianity. His great granddaughter, the younger Melania, inherited a vast fortune. As a Christian she used her wealth as a means to achieve greater holiness and personal peace. She soothed her private trauma by aiding the poor and building monasteries. Melania's resources helped to form the great endowment which supported Christian work.
BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE AND ARCHAEOLOGY
Presiding: David F. Grose, (University of Massachusetts at Amherst)
"Anticlassicism: The Evolution of the Early Byzantine Entablature Reconsidered"
Lawrence E. Butler, George Mason University
The development of the Byzantine entablature from the classical Corinthian order is a process in many ways parallel to the better-known evolution of the Byzantine capital. F. W. Deichmann's Studien zur Architektur Konstantinopels im 5. und 6. Jahrhundert nach Christus (Baden-Baden, 1956) remains the best published study of its development in the fifth and sixth centuries. Deichmann's observations remain valid; his study was published, however, before the excavation of the church of H. Polyeuktos in the 1960's, which has dramatically altered our understanding of architectural sculpture in the capital in the early sixth century. Accordingly, I propose taking a new look at the development of the Byzantine entablature leading up to the nave cornices of Hagia Sophia.
Thirty years ago, it appeared that the architectural sculpture of H. Sergios and Bakchos and Hagia Sophia had evolved in an orderly way out of the sculpture of the fifth-century Constantinopolitan churches. With the discovery and publication of the H. Polyeuktos material, however, any notions of neat evolutionary development must be rethought. Instead, we see great experimentation, with sometimes startling results, in the architectural sculpture of all the great buildings of the early sixth century.
H. Polyeuktos is hardly the beginning of the process. Rather, it confirms significance of the Cilician churches of the Zenonian building campaign as reflections of a radical, non-classical mode of carving in the Proconnesian workshops as early as the mid-fifth century. Their free use of unantique motifs anticipates the spectacular creativity of the H. Polyeuktos workshop, while their profiles anticipate the shallow, slanting, dramatic profiles of the Hagia Sophia nave cornices. The great entablature at H. Sergios and Bakchos is close to fifth-century Constantinopolitan models in its overall form, but is deeply indebted to the innovations at H. Polyeuktos for its non-acanthus, Sassanian-like palmette ornament. Many of these innovations in ornament reappear in Hagia Sophia, despite its conspicuous return to the use of classical acanthus.
This awareness of of intentionally non-classical architectural sculpture by the Proconnesian marble workshops in the Capital well before Justinian's time does more than help explain the appearance of H. Polyeuktos. It also helps us notice some of the more radical aspects of Justinianic architecture at H. Sergios and Bakchos and at Hagia Sophia itself, aspects overlooked by earlier investigators in their search for a smooth evolution of from late classical to Justinianic forms.
"From Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Some Remarks on the Use of the orders in Justinian's Hagia Sophia"
Judson J. Emerick, Pomona College
Neither the bases, shafts, or capitals of the rich Corinthian and Ionic orders deployed inside Justinian's H. Sophia are homogeneous in form or material. Instead they change and alternate in a regular pattern throughout. Typical of this patterning is that marked out in the ground-storey where the eight shafts in the church's lateral nave arcades, all made of green marble, contrast with the eight shafts made of porphyry distributed in the four conches, two of which flank the entry to the hall, and two the apse opposite. Here the builders set up visual axes which crisscross the nave horizontally and help focus people's attention on the structure's ritually significant domed space at the center.
In his "SŠule und Ordnung in der frŸhchristlichen Architektur" of 1939, F. W. Deichmann argued that such use of the orders by Christian architects departed sharply from that of builders from the preceding period. In pagan Imperial times, said Deichmann, the orders displayed in a festive structure were normally homogeneous in design and material. He argued that by the mid-fourth century everywhere in the Mediterranean orders were being deployed according to new rules that corresponded to a radically altered architectural aesthetic. He claimed to have discovered how Late Antique and Early Medieval architects set up supports or groups of supports inside their churches and baptisteries arranging them by pairs to bring a worshiper's attention to the places in a sanctuary of special honor or importance. In the fifty years since this study was published, Deichmann has often reiterated his conclusions (see his Spolien in der spŠtantiken Architektur, 1975, inter alia) and scholars have generally taken them up (for example, Bryan Ward-Perkins in . Urban Public Building in Northern and Central Italy, AD 300-850, 1984).
But do the orders in the Late Antique and Early Medieval Christian buildings really differ so radically from those in the pagan Imperial ones? In Emperor Hadrian's Pantheon, for instance, built in Rome between 118 and 128, the main Corinthian order circling the interior of the temple's cella exhibits the exact same articulation according to the Paar-Prinzip that Deichmann described as characteristic of Late Antique and Early Medieval architecture. That such colorful column screens appear widely in pagan Imperial architecture of the 1st through the 3rd centuries throughout the Mediterranean -- in temple interiors, fora, palace assembly rooms, streets, gateways, theaters, and baths -- has been underlined once more by William MacDonald in his new book on The Architecture of the Roman Empire, 1986. The rich alternations in the arrangement of supports in Justinian's H.Sophia come close indeed to long Antique practice.
Indeed, such systems of supports in Christian architecture appear right from the start in the great buildings, for example, in Constantine's St. Peter's, then continue right down through the Early Middle Ages. In Italy, they appear most often in Corinthian orders that are indistinguishable stylistically (or nearly so) from those used during the pagan Empire. Consider, for example, how the Pantheon was converted in 609 -- with no structural change whatever -- to a church of St. Mary. In the Byzantine world from the early fifth century onward such orders, basically Corinthian, take on new stylistic guises, but they remain much closer to the Corinthian introduced under Augustus than has usually been recognized.
By contrast to Deichmann, I see no new architectural aesthetic in these Late Antique and Early Medieval systems of orders. Far from innovate in them, the Christian builders apparently took up a pagan Imperial form intact. Thus what's A Late Antique" or "Early Medieval" about the systems in question cannot be any aesthetic quality that they have and that "Antique" orders lack. To search for such a quality is to miss the whole point, which is how the Christians deliberately usurped a bit of the cultural property of the pagan past and put it to new use.
"The Medieval Site of Mt. Tsalika in the Korinthia"
Timothy Gregory, Ohio State University
Despite its rough and mountainous setting. the southeastern Korinthia is rich in churches and monasteries of Byzantine date. In antiquity a fortified settlement Agia Paraskeve dominated the area, as the village of Sophiko does today, but, aside from the monastic complexes, no comparable medieval settlement has previousiy been discovered. Investigation by the Southeast Korinthia Exploration Project in 1985 and 1987 led to the discovery of an important fortified settlement on the summit of Mt. Tsalika north of Sophiko and its identification as the major site in the region during the medieval period.
The site commands a spectacular view, embracing the whole of the Isthmus of Korinth and much of the Saronic Gulf, and it controls the Sophiko plain and all the means of communication in the southeastern Korinthia. It is surrounded by a large circuit wall made of dry rubble masonry, ca. 160 m. x 90 m., inside which there is a smaller circuit. Two churches within the walls are of early modern date, but evidence suggests that they stand on the foundations of earlier structures. Domestic buildings. perhaps as many as 200, cover the interior of the circuit and spill outside into the unprotected area on the southern slope. Many of these structures were substantial, and most have cisterns for storage of water.
Ceramic evidence indicates that the site was occupied primarily in the 13th century, although 12th-century habitation is also likely. The site is probably to be identified with the Ashkalon mentioned by Idrisi as a fortress in the northeast, Peloponnesos.
A Byzantine Verroia and its Monuments"
Thanasis Papazotos, Verroia and University of Illinois
The city of Veroia was important in Byzantine times, but its numerous surviving monuments remain largely unknown. This paper presents some of the results of a recent archaeological examination of the Byzantine churches of Verroia. All of the surviving buildings of the city date from after the termination of the Bulgarian War of the early 11 th century. I shall focus on three: the Old Metropolis, the Megalos Theologos, and Ag. Kyrykos kai Ioulita.
The oldest of Verroia's surviving buildings and one of the most interesting in the Balkans is the Old Metropolis of ca. 1070-80. Originally constructed as a three-aisled basilica of large dimensions, the building was altered several times, and today only the central and southern aisles survive. In addition, several phases of fresco decoration have been preserved, dating from the beginning of the 13th century until the beginning of the 14th century.
The second oldest monument of the city is the church of the Megalos Theologos, built at the beginning of the 13th century. It was a small, wooden-roofed, three-aisled basilica in its oldest phase. The building represents an architectural type prevalent in Verroia from the 13th to the 15th centuries, of which numerous examples survive.
The third example presents an exception to the standard basilican architecture of Verroia. The church of Ag. Kyrykos kai Ioulita, built at the middle of the 14th centuries, originally had an inscribed cross plan with a dome. The dome fell in the 16th century, and today only a few fragments of its superstructure remain.
Except for the Old Metropolis, which was converted into a mosque after the capture of the city by the Turks in 1433, the Byzantine churches of Verroia continued to be used by the Christian community from their foundation until the 20th century. Thus a major problem is presented by the numerous repairs and reconstructions necessitated by continuous occupation and the passage of time, and it is often difficult to recognize the original elements. Recent investigations have clarified the chronology as well as the original forms and decoration of these buildings.
"The Archaeological Excavations at Umm al-Rasas, Jordan"
Robert Schick, American Center of Oriental Research, Amman, Jordan
Six seasons of archaeological excavations and clearance have now taken place at Umm al-Rasas. Jordan, ancient Mefaa, an Iron Age through Early Islamic period town in central Jordan. These excavations have focused almost exclusively on the Christian churches from the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods. The site is mentioned in the Old Testament, Eusebius' Onomasticon and the Notitia Dignitatum, as well as Arabic sources.
Michele Piccirillo, of the Franciscan Biblical Institute in Jerusalem, in cooperation with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan has directed four seasons of' work in a complex of churches on the north edge of the site. In 1986 he uncovered spectacular mosaic pavements laid in the Church of Bishop Sergius in A.D. 587 and in the adjoining Church of Saint Stephen in A.D. ZS6 and A.D. 785, as recorded in dedicatory inscriptions. The A.D. 785 mosaics in the Church of Saint Stephen depict vignettes of the principal cities of Palestine and Egypt. Sometime after A.D. 785 the mosaics suffered total deliberate defacement of their images of people and animals. This date in the early Abbasid period, the reading of which is not beyond dispute due to damage and repair of the mosaic inscription, raises questions about the date of similar deliberate damage to images in church mosaics elsewhere in the area, often attributed to the iconoclastic edict of the Umayyad caliph Yazid II in A.D. 721.
In 1987, 1988 and 1989, with my participation as a stratigrapher, work continued in this complex of churches and the adjoining courtyards and storerooms dating from the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods. Also in 1987 an isolated tower, probably used by a stylite saint, just north of the town was investigated, and the church at its foot was excavated. An intact reliquary, dated by coins to the reign of Justinian, was found in the church.
A second team led by Charles Bonnet of the Max van Bercnem Foundation in Geneva has conducted two seasons of excavations within the large walled enclosure in the south half of the site, revealing further churches.
"Two Basilicas at Amphipolis"
Lucie Wall Stylianopoulos, University of Maryland
Excavations between 1959 and 1982 in the Roman city of Amphipolis, Greece uncovered the remains of four basilicas and one centralized building which have been identified as Christian churches. In these structures fragments of extensive mosaics have been found. Three of the basilicas are similar in plan consisting of three aisles, a projecting semi-circular apse with a stepped synthronon at the east, and an atrium with auxiliary rooms at the west. The fourth basilica had its "atrium" to the south.
Basilica Alpha is the largest of these basilicas. The exonarthex, side aisles, and auxiliary rooms of Basilica Alpha are covered with figural mosaic pavements which are similar both stylistically and iconographically to the mosaics from the other basilicas in Amphipolis.
The nave and the narthex of the church are paved with marble plaques. Basilica Gamma, in comparison, is the smallest church at Amphipolis with what has been identified as an atrium to the south. Basilica Gamma is also entirely paved with figural mosaics. Scholars differ in their dating of the churches at Amphipolis. The dates have ranged from the late fifth to the mid-sixth century.
The dating for the architecture has been based on the date of the style of the mosaic pavements which have been related to contemporary mosaics in Greece. However, Basilica Alpha shows signs of structural change at the east end of the south aisle resulting in a partitioned room. The mosaics are contemporary with the architectural change and, therefore, later than the original building. Basilica Gamne also has partitions at the east end of each aisle, but they are contemporary with both the architecture and the mosaics. Consequently, a chronology can be proposed for the churches of this ecclesiastical center based on the combined evidence of architecture and mosaic decoration. The choice of symbolic medallions preserved in the pavements of Basilica Alpha provides a clue to the purpose of the change in the structure of the east end of the familiar basilica plan and supports the theory of a liturgical change. The basilicas of Amphipolis may well serve as a microcosm for observing two parallel developments in the churches of mid-sixth century Greece, the creation of rooms at the east end and the proliferation of extensive figural mosaics.
BYZANTINE ITALY
Presiding: Nancy Ševčenko, (Dictionary of Byzantium)
"Venice and Aquileia: A Dialogue in Pictures"
Thomas E. A. Dale, Johns Hopkins University
Between the 8th and 12th centuries, Venice and Aquileia fought a bitter campaign for ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the Upper Adriatic. Each side claimed legitimacy through the patronage of Saint Mark, the alleged founder of the Aquileian Church. Pictorial versions of the Marcian legend appear no less than five times in the mediaeval decoration of the Basilica of San Marco: in the enamels of the Pala d'Oro, in the mosaics of the main apse, in the choir chapels, in the Cappella Zen and on the west facade. Two further versions are presented in the decoration of the central apse and crypt of the former cathedral of Aquileia. It is proposed in this paper that the Venetian and Aquileian variations on the Marcian theme are best understood within the context of a pictorial dialogue, which parallels other forms of argumentation employed by both sides--the translation and invention of relics, the construction of new martyria, the development of the patronal festivals, the revision of historiography, the manipulation of church councils and the exercise of military force.
The dialogue in pictures is best illustrated by comparing the mosaic cycle in the choir chapels of San Marco to the painted ceiling of the Aquileian crypt. Mark's mission to Aquileia, the selection of Hermagoras as his successor, his ministry and death in Alexandria are recounted in the chapel of St. Peter, as a pre-history of the Venetian Church. In accordance with Venetian historiography, Mark is consecrated as patriarch by Peter, thus relegating Hermagoras to second position. Mosaics on the arch communicating with the chancel also evoke the (forged) letter of Pope Pelagius sanctioning the transfer of the Aquileian See to Patriarch Helias of Grado (Nova Aquileia) whose authority was inherited in turn by Venice. The status of Venice-Grado is further enhanced by the anachronistic inclusion of Dalmatia in Helias's title (Zadar was subjected to Grado's jurisdiction in 1155). The vault of the chapel of St. Clement is entirely devoted to the recovery and translation of the relics from Alexandria to Venice -in 828, the act by which Venice effectively usurped the patronage Mark.
In the Aquileian crypt, Mark's role as "Patronus" of Aquileia is confirmed, but Hermagoras occupies the prime position in the episcopal succession. Particularly significant are the episodes portraying the canonical election of Hermagoras, his journey to Rome to receive the pallium from Peter, and the ordination of priests and bishops: these episodes underline the legitimacy of the Aquileian patriarchate. The time was ripe for this pictorial response to Venice towards the end of the patriarchate of Ulrich 11 (1161-82). As a legate for Alexander III, he brought his church back into communion with the orthodox papacy ending over a century of Aquileian support for the antipopes. His participation in the Pax Venetiae (1177) between Frederick I and Alexander III resulted in the extension of Aquileia's secular and ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
But most importantly, he brought about the official resolution of the dispute with Venice-Grado under the auspices of Alexander III: the Venetian metropolitan, Henricus of Grado, agreed to recognise in perpetuity the Aquileian patriarch as A caput metropolis totius venetiae et istriae."
"New Finds in South Italy"
Linda Safran, Catholic University of America and Dumbarton Oaks
The Byzantine and A byzantinizing@ art of South Italy is largely unknown to the Scholarly community. Only a few monuments have been adequately published, the same images tend to be reproduced over and over again, and the regional publications are often unavailable to a wider audience. Yet southern Apulia, with its capital at Bari, was an important Byzantine province from 867 to 1071, and for centuries afterward its art, culture, and language remained heavily indebted to Byzantium. Though much has been lost, the region can still boast high-quality monuments that rival those in other Byzantine provinces. New works are continually being uncovered, and some familiar monuments have yielded new information after undergoing restoration.
This paper will present a sampling of the finds of the past five years, none of which have yet been studied satisfactorily. An anonymous church in Bari, with remains of frescoed hierarchs in the apse, may be the only surviving example of monumental painting from the Byzantine period in the capital. A just-uncovered Deesis in S. Maria de Cesano, near Terlizzi in the province of Bari, indicates that Byzantine stylistic models were selected by patrons of a Benedictine monastery. The discovery of narrative imagery in the -lower church" of S. Lucia at Brindisi, noted previously for the complexity of its architecture and the quality of its iconic images, raises questions of program and patronage. Finally, a fourteenth-century funerary inscription from Scorrano, in the province of Lecce, is our sole evidence for the presence of Orthodox clergy in that town.
The addition of these finds to the corpus of medieval art in South Italy underscores the tenacity of the Byzantine artistic and cultural presence. While these particular discoveries may not radically alter our overall picture of the region's artistic production, that picture remains indistinct pending the study and publication of many old and new works.
"The Fifth-Century Libraries of San Giovanni Evangelista"
Janet Charlotte Smith, Lehigh University
The small chambers symmetrically flanking the main apse of the early fifth century palace church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Ravenna, built under the patronage of the Empress Galla Placidia of the Theodosian Dynasty, are architecturally designed to function as libraries. Contrary to true pastophori as they are often called, they are not intimately connected with the performance of the eucharistic liturgy, as suggested by the lack of doors communicating directly with the sanctuary. Instead, they are simple rectangular structures, entered only from their respective aisles, whose thickened lower walls contain numerous niches of rectangular plan for armaria and whose thinner upper walls contain numerous large windows which flood the interiors with light. Furthermore, archaeological evidence (a praefurnium arch and hollow box tiles forming channels) supports the presence of a hypocaust in the northern chamber, a necessary provision in marshy Ravenna to keep the humidity out of the walls in order to preserve the manuscripts.
These two chambers constitute the only surviving set of paired ecclesiastical libraries from the fifth century. Although much has been published about Early Christian libraries in a general sense, very little actual physical evidence of their architectural form has been discovered. Paulinus of Nola described a library/reading room, called the secretum, in the northern side chamber of his no longer extant church and, during the same time period, Jerome suggested that one of his correspondents consult the church libraries, implying that every church had one.
These side chambers at San Giovanni Evangelista follow the Roman architectural tradition of libraries as twin structures (one for Greek works and one for Latin), symmetrically arranged around an exedra/apse or open room for reading and debate, and supplied with numerous rectangular niches for book storage. Whether this design at San Giovanni Evangelista reflects imperial patronage and its innately conservative tradition of design or, rather, a conscious return to earlier Roman library models remains to be further explored.
There is documentary evidence for a continuing tradition or a revival in the placement of ecclesiastical libraries. Carolingian in date, the plan of St. Gall clearly indicates the location of the library in the northern side chamber of the monastery church. Although this ninth century side chamber is two-storied and includes a scriptorium, the similarity to the placement of the library in the fifth century church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Ravenna is striking. Carolingian architecture is well known for its revival of Early Christian models. The placement of the St. Gall monastery library to the left/north of the chancel might well reflect the earlier usage as seen in the surviving chambers at San Giovanni Evangelista and in documents referring to the secretum of Paulinus' church at Nola.
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND ABSTRACTS
(with page numbers)Illustration: Anselmo Banduri, Imperium Orientak sive Antiquitates Constantinopolitanae, Venice, 1729. Courtesy Special Collections & Rare Books, University of Massachusetts Library.
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