Byzantine Studies Conference Archives

Twentieth Annual Byzantine Studies Conference
20-23 October 1994
The University of Michigan Ann Arbor

ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS

I. BYZANTINE MANUSCRIPTS

Chair: Mary-Lyon Dolezal (Dumbarton Oaks/ University of Oregon)

Marginality in the Illustration of Byzantine Psalters

Jeffrey C. Anderson (George Washington University)

From the writings of Andre Grabar, Jean Gouillard, Kathleen Corrigan and others has come a vastly improved grasp of the historical circumstances that led to the making of the first psalters with marginal imagery (Paris. gr. 20, the Chludov and Pantokrator psalters). Among the questions remaining are ones pertinent to source material. If the illustrators of the earliest Byzantine psalters had recourse to a manuscript source, then how old was that work and where did it come from? S. Dufrenne once argued that the source of the ninth-century psalters is known through an eleventh-century MS (Lond. Add. 40,731). Recent work has rendered the hypothesis untenable. Furthermore, doubt has been cast on the belief that the prehistory of the psalter centered on literal and typological imagery, as the base to which ninth-century illuminators added polemical and topical subjects.

In this paper I wish to examine the genesis of the marginal psalters by revisiting the emphasis placed on format. It has long been recognized that the page layout used for the first psalters derived from one invented for the purely literary genre of marginal commentary. It seems possible to prove that the illuminators knew of commentary, or, at least, that the one responsible for Paris. gr. 20 had worked on a manuscript containing commentary (the Patmos Job: Cod. Patmiac. 171). In this paper I will examine the insistent use of a marginal format as more than a convenience or a way of relating pictures to the literal content of the text (though at times both factors may be in play). It is possible that the designer made a leap of imagination and created a visual metaphor for the construction of the "other," the foreign, unacceptable, impure or deviant. By use of this method the illuminators defined what was central to Byzantine culture of the ninth century, and only by recognizing the illuminator's method can we understand the manuscripts' negative quality.

The Scriptorium of the Studios Monastery in the Eleventh Century: A Puzzle Explored

Nadezhda Kavrus (Columbia University)

Four dated Greek manuscripts were produced in the scriptorium of the Studios monastery in the XIth century: Vaticanus gr. 1675; Sinaiticus 319; London, Brit. Mus. Add. 19352; and Parisinus Suppl. gr. 1386. Three manuscripts - Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, and Parisinus - have similar paleographic features and are written in "Perlschrift." This particular kind of Perlschrift, ductus, is typical for monastic manuscripts of the time. All three manuscripts are written professionally but without special beauty. They are modestly decorated with headpieces and initials. The green paint in Sinait. 319 rotted the parchment, which is an unusual defect in Constantinopolitan manuscripts. The codicological characteristics of the three manuscripts are similar, and some features (e.g., size, quality of parchment, and crosses marking the beginning of quires) are traditional for manuscripts of Studite origin.

The codex London, Brit. Mus. Add. 19352, is very different. This famous and well-studied Psalter is written in Perlschrift of special beauty with elements of the "liturgical minuscule" on parchment of the highest quality. The Psalter was richly illuminated with marginal miniatures.

Not one feature - codicological, paleographic, or artistic - points to the Studite origin of the manuscript. But the scribe Theodore clearly indicated that this remarkable Psalter was written in the Studios monastery. Thus the Theodore Psalter diverges dramatically from the long tradition of the Studios scriptorium, and this puzzle demands explanation.

A key to the puzzle may lie in the fact that the Psalter 19352 is closely related in script and illumination to a number of other manuscripts written and illuminated in Constantinople in the second half of the Xlth century. The most important such manuscript is the St. Petersburg Psalter, Rus. Nat. Libr. 214. This codex was executed in 1080 for an imperial family and in an imperial scriptorium. It is very similar to a large group of manuscripts written in the "liturgical minuscule," which is also attributed to the imperial scriptorium.

My explanation is that the scribe of the London Psalter, Theodore, was trained in the imperial scriptorium and later became a monk and presbyter of the Studios monastery, where he wrote the Psalter Add. 19352. I believe that the Studios monastery did not have its own painting atelier. All Studite manuscripts except the Theodore Psalter show the lack of any artistic tradition of book illumination in this scriptorium. It is not clear from the colophon if the scribe Theodore was also the illuminator of the manuscript. I believe it is more likely that the Theodore Psalter was illuminated in a different Constantinopolitan scriptorium or artistic atelier, probably imperial; or the illuminator might have been invited to the monastery by the commissioner of the manuscript, Abbot Michael. In any case, the Psalter Add. 19352 is not a typical Studite manuscript, and we cannot automatically attribute other manuscripts to the Studios scriptorium because of their similarity to the Theodore Psalter. We must recognize the existence of a puzzle and make further efforts to solve it.

The Liturgical Use of the Codex Mount Athos, Esphigmenou no. 14

Dimitrios G. Katsarelias (New York University)

The Esphigmenou codex is a unique example of Byzantine deluxe book production, generally dated to the late eleventh century. It is a liturgical manuscript illustrated with approximately one hundred miniatures and illuminated headpieces. It contains a collection of lives of saints from the months of September to December, and three homilies related to Christ's Nativity.

The codex has been known as a Menologion, since Ehrhard included it in one of his categories of "Abbreviated Metaphrastian Menologia" in 1943. The purpose of this paper will be to show, first, that the Esphigmenou 14 is not a Menologion, and second, to define its precise liturgical use.

To answer the first question, a note in the codex itself is examined. It dates from the sixteenth century and labels this codex as Panygirikon and not as Menologion. Comparing the textual contents of surviving Pan  irika from the Middle Byzantine period with the contents of the Esphigmenou 14, it is ascertained that this manuscript complies better with the definition of a Panygirikon than an "Abbreviated Menologion."

To answer the second question, the textual contents of the codex and its liturgical notation are studied and compared with the small number of liturgical Typika from the Middle Byzantine period. The textual contents of this codex point to its original use in a monastic establishment. The testimony of the Byzantine liturgical Typika indicates that Panygirika and Menologia provided the texts for the readings in the Orthros services. However, doubts have been expressed as to the validity of this evidence, because of the relatively lengthy texts contained in such liturgical codices. The liturgical notations of the Esphigmenou codex

correspond precisely to the instructions for the Orthros readings found in the liturgical Typika. This information not only confirms the validity of the liturgical directions in the Typika but it also provides accurate information about the manner these texts were read during the Orthros service. In addition, both the liturgical notations of this codex and the liturgical Typika suggest that the rules regulating the readings in the Orthros services were not strict on the choice, the number and the length of each reading.

The precise ritual involving the use of liturgical codices such as the Esphigmenou 14 has not been investigated yet. The study of the liturgical Typika in connection with the liturgical notation of this manuscript supplies specific descriptions of the Orthros ceremonial, during which such codices were used. In addition, it renders a more accurate view of the function of deluxe liturgical Byzantine codices.

The Venice Alexander Romance, Hellenic Institute Cod. Gr. 5

Nicolette S. Trahoulia (Dumbarton Oaks/Harvard University)

Of the several Byzantine manuscripts of the Alexander Romance only one survives which is lavishly illustrated. This legendary account of the life of Alexander the Great by Pseudo­Kallisthenes is now in the possession of the Hellenic Institute in Venice, catalogued as Codex 5, and dated on the basis of palaeography to the fourteenth century. The ruler portrait and inscription of the frontispiece indicate that the manuscript was an imperial commission, not surprising in light of the fact that, in various sources throughout the Byzantine period, Alexander appears as an imperial exemplum. Particularly in the late empire, Alexander the Great took on special relevance as an imperial paradigm, the Turks having replaced the Persians vanquished by Alexander centuries earlier. Furthermore, the representation of Alexander the Great in Byzantine art had a history of being ideologically charged, as exemplified by the most common image of Alexander, dressed as a Byzantine emperor ascending in a chariot lifted by griffons. Seen within this context, the production of a luxury edition of the Alexander Romance must have had more than literary interest as its impetus.

This paper will examine the ideology of rule embodied in the illustrations as well as the issues of patronage and dating.

II. MAGIC AND RELIGION

Chair: John Duffy (University of Maryland)

The Jewish Hieratic Arts: Neglected Rituals of Late Antique Judaism

Naomi Janowitz (University of California, Davis)

Tantalizing evidence remains of Late Antique Jewish rituals that claimed to reveal divine operations on earth and gain for humans divine characteristics. A decade ago many of these practices, such as ascent, divination and bi-location, would have been labeled magic and explained accordingly. Recently many of them have been re-labeled "Jewish theurgy" to avoid the pejorative aspects of the term magic. This shift raises issues of ancient practice and modern definition.

The first part of the paper examines the rituals from the point of view of ancient practice. What were the goals of these rituals and how were they understood to operate? The goals reflect the heightened possibilities of Late Antique ritual expression, yet the Jews still viewed them as continuations of traditional practices.

The second part of the paper argues that contra many modern definitions (Dodds' in particular) the term "theurgy" did not refer to a particular ritual. Instead it was used to refer to different rituals by different ancient writers. What coherence of usage there was came from the evaluation by the practitioner that these were the "very best" means of reaching the highest ritual goal, that is, striving for direct contact with and use of divine powers. Jewish rituals evinced similar goals, and thus shared ritual strategies, if not the exact same rituals, with other practitioners in the Late Antique world.

Magic and the Elite of the Late Antique Empire

Kevin H. Crow (University of Kentucky)

Officials of the Late Antique Empire generally frowned upon the use of magic and often reserved the harshest penalties for its practitioners and those who consulted them. Despite this, the use of magic in various forms (divination, astrology, sorcery, and theurgy) remained a wide-spread phenomenon throughout the period, cutting across all levels of society. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to demonstrate the extent of the use of magic among the elite of Late Antique society; and second, to determine not only how this elite avoided the various legal prohibitions against the use of magic during this period, but also the social stigma which often accompanied its use.

I will approach these two problems by following the legal traditions concerning magic that had evolved over the centuries and the ways this system developed to meet the new realities created as the Roman state changed both religiously and (perhaps more importantly) politically. To this end, I will demonstrate that, as time passed, imperial authorities tended to expand both the categories and scope of magical practices that they prohibited. While this process at times may have moved slower than at others (and indeed occasionally even reversed itself), the prevailing trend was unmistakable as was the general inclination of imperial authorities to increasingly resort to, if not harsher, at least more extensive methods of enforcement. Finally, I will contend that these trends, to a great extent, transcended the Christianization of the empire.

I will support the conclusions reached in this paper with information drawn from two types of primary sources: first, Roman legal documents dating both prior to and following the Christianization of the empire; and second, contemporary (both Christian and non-Christian) accounts relating to the use of magic, the ethical arguments both for and against its use, and descriptions of actions taken by Roman authorities in order to suppress the use of prohibited forms of magic.

S. Colluthus and Coptic Christian Syncretism of Greco-Roman Healing Cults

Jennifer Lee Hevelone-Harper (Princeton University)

Colluthus, a Coptic physician from the middle Egyptian town of Antinoue, was martyred under the governor Arianus on the 24th of Pashons in 304 A.D. After his death he was venerated as a saint who performed healing miracles for those who underwent incubation at his shrine. S. Colluthus is of particular historical interest, because the wealth of previously untranslated Coptic sources available concerning his life, martyrdom and later cult is extremely helpful in broadening our understanding of healing in the early Byzantine world. A wide variety of sources survive, including martyrdom accounts, records of miracles, encomia, inscriptions, and a medical prescription.

S. Colluthus provides an illuminating example of the powerful combination of anagyros, martyr, and healing saint. Cults of anagyroi, physicians who offered their services without accepting remuneration, were extremely popular throughout the Byzantine empire. Against the standard legendary tradition of the genre of martyrologies, one martyrdom account of S. Colluthus appears to be a reliable historical record of his trial. The cult of S. Colluthus was first a local cult, almost exclusively observed in Antinoe. By the twelfth century the cultic center had shifted to the vicinity of Asyu t, and in the fifteenth century Islamic writers attest that the saint continued to heal the sick.

The widespread popularity of S. Colluthus' cult should not only be considered within the Christian Byzantine religious environment, but also against the backdrop of ancient healing practices in Egypt. Colluthus, as a physician/ healing saint, reflected the traditional combination of magic and medicine in Egyptian culture. As Egypt was Christianized many local deities gave way to saints who possessed the same attributes and performed the same functions as had the earlier gods. This paper argues that the cult of S. Colluthus followed the pattern of Imhotep, a human physician who was deified after his death, becoming the most popular, medical god in Egypt.

The transformation of physicians from men to healing gods is a recurring motif in Egyptian religion. During the Hellenistic period, Imhotep was identified with Asclepius, another figure who was born human but posthumously elevated to the status of demi-god and finally worshipped as a deity. The veneration of Imhotep, Asclepius, and S. Colluthus in Egypt shared ritual components, including dream incubation, instant and delayed healings, similar prayer formulae, detailed medical prescriptions, and votive offerings.

S. Colluthus' cult demonstrates the continuity between ancient Egyptian and Greek healing practices and the rituals to which inhabitants of the early Byzantine Empire turned in order to find health. Both Egyptian religion and Christianity recognized the need for healers who could combat disease on both spiritual and physical levels. Human physicians who gained divine powers upon their deaths were powerful sources of health for their worshippers.

Archangelos Xorinos, the Exiler

Smiljka Gabelic (University of Illinois)

Among the vast number of surviving Byzantine icons, it is only exceptionally that the depicted saint was inscribed as an "exorcist," the one who cast out evil.

The sixteenth-century icon of the Archangel Gabriel Xorinos i.e. "Exiler," comes from Nicosia, Cyprus. For its large and squarish format, with an arched top, it belongs to the group of large-scale Cypriot icons that were intended to be placed over existing frescoes of the same subject, dimension, and form. The Archangel is presented half-length, holding a staff and a sphere in his hands. The inscription "Xorinos," written next to his head, derives from the magical practice of expelling one's enemy, as attributed to a local saint George Xorinos and Archangel Xorinos. It is also reminiscent of a common formula known from early Christian amulets - "I expel you (Satan)." Finally, there also exist medieval literary sources concerning angels and archangels, Michael and Gabriel in particular, that fully explain the epithet on this Cypriot icon.

Within the iconography of the Archangels there is only one preserved representation of an Archangel as exorcist, a fourteenth-century fresco of the Archangel (Michael) Casting Out the Devil from the Mad Monk Michael, from Lesnovo, and its later copy, on a seventeenth century icon, nowadays in Skopje.

The Cypriot icon and images from Lesnovo attest to the belief in the Archangels as healers-exorcists, which is a comparatively rare function of the Archangels.

III. TOWNSITES AND TEXTS

Chairs: Thelma K. Thomas (The University of Michigan) and Traianos Gagos (The University of Michigan)

Town Cites in Texts: Beyond Provenance

Jennifer A. Sheridan (St. Joseph's University)

Papyrologists have traditionally sought and duly noted the provenance for each papyrus they edit. The texts are often forthcoming with information, including either a toponym or other geographical reference which allows the editor to locate the source of the papyrus. Many published papyri are collected in volumes aceording to their place of origin; the extensive Oxyrhynchus Papyri series is the most conspicuous. In recent years, as excavations of Greco­Roman sites in Egypt increase in number, texts are being published according to find site (the ostraka from Mons Claudianus are an example).

In spite of a seeming emphasis on provenance in papyrology, very little analysis has been done of the information gathered. There are a number of geographical dictionaries which list toponyms, their attestations, and facts gleaned from the citations. Such tools are invaluable in identifying toponyms, that is, in establishing provenance. Yet they tell us very little about the land, its parceling, regional differences - not provenance, but "place." "Place" was very important to both the Ptolemies and the Romans; their interest in organizing and qualifying land must force us, as scholars of Greco-Roman Egypt, to interpret the evidence beyond making lists.

The fourth century CE provides an interesting case study in "place" as a significant factor. It was at the beginning of that century that the Roman provincial government recognized their system of land administration - actually a Ptolemaic system which had been in place for many centuries - no longer suited the needs of a revised tax system. They embarked on series of reforms, beginning in 307/8, with the introduction of the pagus, a group of villages within a nome which functioned as a tax collection unit. The makeup of pagi was altered and refined in the course of the century.

The Hermopolite nome is extremely well-documented for the fourth century, and so the changing land organization for this nome can be traced throughout the century. There has always been a presumption that pagi were organized to facilitate tax collection, i.e. to even out the burden on tax collectors by giving each a moderately equal parcel of land. An analysis of pagi and villages in the Hermopolite, however, proves that this is not the case at all. On the contrary, pagi have very different land areas. The implications of this information are far reaching, forcing us to reconsider the purpose and motivations of the reforms of the fourth century.

This methodological paper will first discuss the problems and consequences of treating "place" with a micro, rather than macro approach. The fourth century Hermopolite nome, which other scholars have analyzed on the narrow level, will be presented here as a case study in the value of the broader approach. Finally the paper will conclude with suggestions for other uses of "place" analysis to provide a context for the study of Roman Egypt, including the importance of "place" in the study of excavation papyri.

The Streets of Jeme-Textual Evidence and Urban Archaeology in a Byzantine Egyptian Townsite

Terry G. Wilfong (The University of Michigan)

The naming of streets in towns was a common practice in ancient Egypt, going all the way back to Pharaonic times. Named streets become prominent in documentary evidence from Egypt in the Roman period and still more prominent in the Byzantine period, when street names seem to be particularly important as towns grew larger and more complex. In spite of the extensive evidence for the streets of Byzantine Egypt, little scholarly work has been done on the subject. In part, this is because of the nature of the evidence: one usually either has the physical streets of a townsite or texts that refer to the streets of a particular town, but rarely both. This makes it impossible to examine the named streets in their physical context.

This paper will examine the naming of streets in Byzantine Egypt through the textual and archaeological evidence from the town of Jeme in Upper Egypt. Jeme was the outgrowth of a Pharaonic town that reached its height of population and prosperity in the seventh century, only to be abandoned at the end of the eighth century. Excavated by the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute from 1926-1931, Jeme is particularly appropriate for the study of streets in an urban context. Not only was a sizable portion of Jeme's plan recorded during excavation, but the town has also yielded many Coptic texts that provide the names and layout of many of Jeme's streets. These documents show how the streets were perceived by the inhabitants of the town and how the names of the streets reflect commemorative or descriptive understandings of the streets' functions. Through both textual and archaeological evidence, the development of Jeme can be observed over time: how a straightforward grid of streets gradually became complex through the crowding of new buildings into available street space and how the names of the streets reflected these changes. Ultimately, in Jeme street names served as a means of navigation in an increasingly complex and irregular urban environment. Jeme street names also had an important function as demarcations of property in a legal context-named streets are most often described as the boundaries of houses and other buildings. The evidence from Jeme will then be examined in connection with the evidence from other Byzantine Egyptian towns to get some idea of regional differences in the naming of streets.

Deserted Villages: Two Late Antique Townsites in Egypt

Peter van Minnen (Duke University)

This paper puts the desertion of two villages in late antique Egypt into a comparative perspective. As we know from documentary papyri from all over the Fayyum, Soknopaiou Nesos and Karanis are not the only villages to decline to virtual extinction from the third century onwards. I have chosen these two villages because they are the only ones that have been more or less properly excavated, as it happens by the University of Michigan about sixty years ago. Soknopaiou Nesos and Karanis offer a unique opportunity for an interdisciplinary approach to the problem of decline, combining archaeological and textual data. In some cases these two kinds of data are indistinguishable, viz. when documentary papyri were excavated in the debris of late antique houses. Not everything that came to light in the two villages has been published in full, but enough is available for an overall assessment.

The desertion of late antique Karanis is the topic of a few documentary papyri. The "eye­witness" perspective of these texts complements that on the structural decline in this village, based on a comparison of tax lists from late antiquity with those from an earlier period. This comparison suggests that the agricultural basis of the economy of the village, the amount of land under cultivation, was reduced by some 90%. The decline of the village manifests itself also in the archaeological record. The built-up area was much reduced in late antiquity, and the layout of what remained was even more chaotic than before. More importantly, the character of the houses also changed considerably. In the earlier period the most remarkable feature of the domestic architecture of Karanis is the storage rooms for grain in the larger houses. The first floor or more often the underground floor of the multistoreyed mudbrick structures was largely occupied by such storage rooms. This feature is absent in the later period. This suggests that by that time the bigger landowners, who most likely owned these houses in earlier times, had disappeared from the scene. Since the bigger landowners generated a marketable surplus of grain in the early Roman period, their disappearance underscores the decline in economic diversity in late antique Karanis.

Soknopaiou Nesos became extinct at an earlier period than Karanis. Its economy was based on the cult of the crocodile god and the caravan trade. The former was apparently never replaced by Christianity as it was elsewhere in the Fayyum. This suggests that a decline or rerouting of the caravan trade, with which the priests of the crocodile god in Soknopaiou Nesos were heavily involved, did the village in. This can be illustrated with both archaeological and textual data from Soknopaiou Nesos.

It is clear that the decline of Soknopaiou Nesos is a different matter altogether from that of Karanis, and that the way we approach the villages will never be the same again, once we have taken the step from a purely papyrological or archaeological perspective to a truly interdisciplinary one.

Urban Politics in Fifth-Century Alexandria and the Chalcedonian Crisis

Christopher Haas (Villanova University)

The ongoing work of reconciliation between the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches has stimulated a great deal of interest in recent years regarding the circumstances surrounding the Council of Chalcedon. Virtually all of the scholarly work done in the last forty years regarding the Council has argued that Dioscorus of Alexandria was condemned for breaking communion with Pope Leo I and for unjustly deposing patriarch Flavian of Constantinople in 449. However, a close reading of the conciliar records indicates that the assembled bishops regarded as equally serious the detailed accusations lodged by prominent Alexandrians that Dioscorus had engaged in certain brutalities against members of his own diocese.

When Dioscorus became patriarch in 444, he inherited a position hedged about with a complex set of expectations and prerogatives. The documents from the third session of the Council of Chalcedon include a number of depositions by Alexandrian clergy and laymen detailing the high-handed methods of their bishop, Dioscorus. These depositions suggest that Dioscorus considered his position to be far from secure in the early years of his episcopate and that he had employed every means in the patriarch's arsenal of political weaponry to eliminate potential rivals to his authority within Alexandria. Dioscorus appears to have targeted certain members of the civic aristocracy as well as the influential family of the former patriarch, Cyril. The vast wealth enjoyed by the relatives of Cyril, (including rental properties, suburban farms, and retinues of slaves), provides a glimpse into the contours of patriarchal patronage. The charges leveled against Dioscorus indicate that his deposition was intimately bound up in the political dynamics of this richly-textured urban milieu.

Other than the Chalcedonian documents, the historical sources on Dioscorus are notoriously fragmentary, late, and tendentious. This makes it all the more imperative to view those few extant sources for his career in the light of the better understood background of fifth century Alexandria. This urban context has been vividly illumined in the past thirty years by ongoing archaeological work at Kom el-Dikka in the center of Alexandria, conducted by the Center for Mediterranean Archaeology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, as well as by representatives of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization. As a consequence, enigmatic references in the Chalcedonian depositions to economic and social conditions which have long puzzled scholars are now elucidated by the city's material remains. Together, these archaeological and literary sources provide a unique glimpse into the inner workings of one of late antiquity's most important cities.

IV GENDER AND HAGIOGRAPHY

Chair: Alice-Mary Talbot (Dumbarton Oaks)

Voicing the Virgin: Dialogic Invention of the Theotokos in the Sixth-Century Kontakion

Gregory W. Dobrov (The University of Michigan)

An important contribution of early Byzantine hymnography is the development of the Theotokos as a three-dimensional figure against a relatively scant background. In distinction from the hagiography of martyrs and ascetics, the narrative tradition associated with the cycle from Birth, Presentation and koimesis to the celebrated acts of intercession is closely bound up with the development of the liturgy of the fourth through sixth centuries. I shall argue in this paper that a watershed in the "creation" of the Theotokos was the sixth century kontakion where the paradoxes of her body-mother/virgin, creatrix/created, hagion archegos/doule-­are projected into a dramatic form giving rise to a sophisticated polyphony. A fundamental aspect of the Virgin-in-dialogue is the opposition of gendered voices as Mary engages a variety of (mostly male) interlocutors in confrontational and argumentative modes grounded in the paradoxes of her being. It is in the interplay, tension, and difference of these voices that the Theotokos takes shape as a leading dramatic and sacred female figure. As we move from hymns such as the Parthenion of Methodius, Proclus' Dialogue and the Akathistos to the mature Threnos tes Theotokou of Romanos (19 Maas-Trypanis) we see the progress from onomastic writing and strophomythia towards an authentically dialogical (and dramatic) concept. It is not an exaggeration to say that this moment in Byzantine hagiography, i.e. the "invention" of the Theotokos, owes a great deal to the ways in which the hymnographers engaged the paradoxes of gender, body and voice in the antiphonal, public performance of kontakia. The Theotokos is given voice, her dramatic persona fleshed out, in the dialogic imagination of kontakiographoi.

The focus of my discussion shall be a reading of the Threnos in light of current discussions of dialogism inspired by the work of cultural philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin (e.g., Morson & Emerson 1989 and 1990).

Models of Female Sainthood: Byzantine Nuns and their Edifying Manuscripts

Claudia Rapp (UCLA)

The religious experience of women has in recent years attracted much scholarly attention. Among many other aspects, holy women have been the object of intensive study and important work has been done on female monasticism in Byzantium.

There is a strange dichotomy in the ascetic ideals which nuns are encouraged to strive for. Typically, their greatest achievement consists in transcending the confines of the female sex and assuming male virtues. Often, however, the models which nuns are supposed to emulate are holy women. The different, gender-specific needs of an audience of nuns were accommodated, for example, in building decoration: We know of one case in Constantinople where the conversion of a nunnery into a monastery also involved the replacement of the depiction of female saints with that of holy men.

This paper addresses the issue of women as ascetic models through a detailed study of a group of six manuscripts from the 14th to 17th centuries (Ann Arbor, Library of The University of Michigan, 50; Athos, Dionys. 166; Athos, Kull. 208; Florence, Bibl. Naz., B. 1.1214; Gothenburg, gr., 4; Vatican, Pian. 36). These manuscripts are menologia devoted exclusively to the Lives of female saints. Additional evidence can be found in manuscripts containing florilegia on the topic of female sanctity (e.g., Athens, Ethn. Bibl., 513) as well as in translations of Greek Vitae of holy women into Church Slavonic and Georgian.

The compilation of such collections in Greek seems to be limited to the Late Byzantine period, coinciding with the greatest activity in the foundation of convents under the Palaeologi. Each manuscript presents a new collection, specifically made for this purpose. The main source of texts is the menologium of Symeon Metaphrastes, but some collections also include material drawn from the Imperial Menologium and Vitae by imnportant authors of the patristic period or of the Palaeologan Renaissance.

Only half of the manuscripts give an indication as to their intended audience. Two were clearly addressed to nuns, while a third (Athos, Dion. 166) was donated by the nosokomos of the monastery, obviously for use in the hospital, where the patients would all have been men.

This challenges our preconceived assumptions about a 'natural' connection between female subject matter and female audience.

The last part of my paper further develops this issue by investigating by whom and for what purpose a female audience is presented with specifically female models and by examining the efficiency of such models as perceived in the hagiographical literature.

V CHRISTIAN CONCEPTS

Chair: Tony Cutler (Pennsylvania State University)

Cyprian and Christ's Seamless Robe

Ellen Emerick (University of Kentucky)

Of the relatively voluminous writings left to posterity by Caecilius Cyprian, bishop of Carthage during a remarkable decade of the third century, none has provoked debate as has his De ecclesiae catholiae unitate. Previous scholarship has consistently interpreted De unitate in the light of a particular crisis, whether as Cyprian's response to a particular schism or, worse, a self-conscious defense with a taste of personal ambition. By labeling it a reaction rather than an endeavor, scholars have stopped short of complete appreciation of its significance and of its place in the synthesis achieved across the spectrum of his writings. This argument against discord and division is but part, albeit an integral part, of a greater vision of what it means to be a Chrisitian facing a swiftly approaching Second Coming in the world's last age. De unitate describes the ark of salvation, the united Church, that will carry the faithful safely through this age to their destiny and very nearly every time he takes up his pen, Cyprian strives to define, and to win his congregation over to, the qualities of those fit to abide in this body of Christ.

The greatest trial of his calling arose from Cyprian s determination to shape the Church in a manner that clashed with the cult of the martyrs and the special reverence for the confessors so endemic to the North African Church. Even martyrs, he believed, were not assured of salvation if they stood outside the communion that was the Church. Driven by his vision of the apostolic tradition instituted by Christ, and possibly by his own social class's organizational biases, he stands firmly behind an episcopal concept of the Church, yet the paramount concern for Cyprian is not which schism to address, but how the discord of schism itself presages the last days and manifests the greatest jeopardy to Christians: finding themselves outside that church at the decisive moment of the parousia. Drawing from a fuller spectrum of Cyprian s work, I intend to show that Cyprian was constantly aware of and serving what he regarded as his most profoundly sacred role: maintaining Christ's seamless robe and making sure his flock was safely within its folds at the advent of the end-time.

It became obvious to even the state that the strength of the Christians lay in the organization they had constructed. Therefore, the following Valerian persecution singled out the leadership of the Church in hope of the very extinction of this ever more dangerous cult.

Following Cyprian s martyrdom, his congregations "were faced with the reality that the Second Coming did not immediately follow the persecutions. By the next century, instead of being a persecuted minority outside Roman society, Christians had conquered the Empire and were part of the established political order."(1) The momentum had shifted to a church organizing itself for a prolonged earthly existence.

1 Joyce E. Salisbury, "The Bond of a Common Mind: A Study of Collective Salvation from Cyprian to Augustine," Journal of Religious History 3, 1985, p. 241.

Eusebius of Caesarea and Christian Images

Steven Bigham (Center for Greek Studies, Montreal)

It is generally believed that Eusebius of Caesarea was at least iconophobic, if not iconoclastic. This reputation is based on a letter written to Constantine's sister, Constantia, supposedly by Eusebius, in which Eusebius refused to send her an image of Christ; the letter also contains a theological justification of the refusal. This letter and the iconophobic theology behind it were used by the iconoclasts during the first iconoclastic period in Byzantium, (726­780). The authenticity of attributing this letter to Eusebius has been questioned in the past, but the dominant opinion is that it is authentically from Eusebius and thus reflects his own personal anti-image theology as well as that of the early Church.

In this paper, I would like to challenge this dominant opinion, not so much on the basis of the problems associated with the letter's transmission from Eusebius' hand to its use by the iconoclasts, as on the basis of its clash with the corpus of authentically Eusebian writings. The question is this: Did Eusebius really write the letter in or about 320? By examining the authentic Eusebian texts that speak about Christian images and the attitude toward such images expressed in them, we see that there is a clash in the testimony. In the many authentic texts, Eusebius clearly shows himself to be neutral or favorable toward Christian images, never derogatory toward them. In the one, problem-filled letter, the author manifests a hostile attitude toward images. In my opinion, the conflict in the testimony requires a reevaluation of the accepted opinion about Eusebius' attitude toward images: 1) the letter is simply a fabrication of the 8th century iconoclasts; 2) Eusebius did write a letter to Constantia, perhaps on the subject of Christian images, but the text we have now has been tampered with and thus does not reflect Eusebius' true opinion; 3) some other reason, which we cannot determine due to our lack of knowledge, precludes accepting the letter as we have it as authentically from Eusebius. On the basis of the clash between the universally accepted Eusebian documents and the letter as we have it, there is one thing we cannot do: maintain two mutually exclusive pictures of Eusebius' attitude toward Christian images, one positive and the other negative. I feel scholars should opt for the picture conveyed by the unquestionably accepted documents and relegate the "iconoclastic Eusebius" to the realm of historical fabrications produced for polemical purposes.

Coptic Sarabaites and Remnuoth

Monica J. Blanchard (Catholic University)

The history of early monasticism in Egypt traditionally has been read through the literary models of early Christian writers. The classical tripartite division of Egyptian monasticism depends significantly upon the first and second hand descriptions of Egyptian monks by John Cassian (c.360-c.432/3) and Jerome (c.347-419). Both Jerome (Letter 22) and Cassian (Conlationes 18.4) independently list three different classes of Egyptian monks. Each list includes two classes of monks which are noted with approval, as well as a third somewhat disreputable group. The disreputable monks are called remnuoth by Jerome (Letter 22.34) and sarabaitae by Cassian (Conlationes 18.4,7). Sarabaitae and remnuoth are presented as Coptic terms. Both terms have occasioned scholarly interest and speculation.

More recently, new perceptions of early Egyptian monasticism have emerged through careful studies of non-literary sources. The traditional categories listed by Jerome and Cassian

have undergone revision as more attention has been paid to local Egyptian documentary materials. It is worthwhile to look again at Cassian and Jerome's third class of Egyptian monks. This communication will review the gown information about sarabaitae and remnuoth. The communication will focus on relevant Coptic texts and etymological considerations.

VI. BYZANTIUM AND ISLAM

Chair: William Klingshirn (Catholic University)

Byzantium and the Byzantines in the Life of the Prophet (Muhammad b. Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah

Daniel J. Sahas (University of Waterloo)

The Sirat Rasul Alldh, a composition of biographical recollections and anecdotes from the Hadith literature compiled by Muhammad b. Ishaq (b. in Medina, d. in Baghdad in 151/168) and revised by Muhammad b. Hisham (b. in Basra, d. in Fustat in 218/834), is a characteristic example of earliest Muslim hagiological, gospel-like, vita of the Prophet. As such, it reflects more the ethos, state, culture and values of the Muslim community at the beginning of the Abbasid caliphate in the second/ninth century, than the strict historical record of the life of Muhammad. The Sfrat may also be seen as the product of a progressive Islamization of Jesus and Christianization of Muhammad which seem to have come about as a result of the "Christological" direction which the Muslim-Christian (Byzantine) debates had taken up to that time.

By the time of the composition of the Sirat, the Muslim community had gone through the experience of the somewhat secular and imperial Umayyad caliphate (661-750), had met Byzantium in the battlefield, had interacted with the Syro-Palestinian community in the field of administration, culture, intellectual life and spirituality, and had debated matters of religious doctrine and practice. In this respect the Sirat reflects Syro-Palestinian cultural, theological, spiritual and hagiological characteristics. Little attention, however, has been paid to these characteristics and to the references the Sirat makes to Byzantium and to the Byzantines explicitly and, even more importantly, implicitly.

The paper will attempt to point to such references and characteristics, in an effort to show that, in contrast to what some have called "Dark Ages" of Byzantium proper, a contemporary Syro-Palestinian Damascene school of intellectuals, theologians, poets and contemplatives [such as Sophronius of Jerusalem; Maximus the Confessor (580-662); Anastasius Sinaites (ca. 640-ca. 700); Andreas of Crete (ca. 660-740); Peter of Maiuma (d. 743); Cosmas of Maiuma (ca.674-ca.751); John of Damascus (ca.655-ca.749); Theodore Abu Qurrah (ca.750-ca.820)] had been at work in the seventh-eighth century, which, collectively, had reshaped and forcefully pursued the classical Byzantine tradition.

By not examining the history and development of the eastern provinces after the Arab conquests as an integral part of Byzantium, Byzantinists in general seem to have failed to notice and acknowledge this Syro-Palestinian renaissance.

Theodosios The Deacon's Capture of Crete as Polemic against Islam

Matthew Herbst (The University of Michigan)

Theodosios the Deacon's tenth century poem Capture of Crete boils over with victorious enthusiasm, revelling in the stunning achievement of 960-1 and looking forward to the future "liberation" of Sicily, Syria and seemingly, the world. The poem vividly portrays an ideological image of an aggressive Byzantium marching over its Muslim enemies. Intertwined with the display of Byzantium triumphant is Theodosios' polemic against Islam. This polemic follows traditional arguments only in part; for the rest it is greatly influenced by the recent Byzantine victories in Crete, Cilicia, and Syria.

The arguments of Byzantine polemicists were never completely disassociated from events on the battlefield. From the seventh through the ninth centuries, Muslim assertions that their great victories over the Christians proved the truth and superiority of Islam posed serious

intellectual challenges to Byzantium, stirring Emperors and others to apologetical and polemical responses. In an attempt to clearly separate the worlds of secular victory and religious validity, the Byzantines explained that their own sins had moved God to chastise them, as he had chastised the Israelites of old. In addition, it was argued that war and killing were unholy behavior; yet, wherever a people practiced such "unGodly" behavior, it was necessarily justified for those attacked to fight for their own survival, as the Byzantines were doing. Still, polemicists such as Niketas Byzantios hopefully looked forward to the success of Christian arms, but only to stem the "arrogant" claims of the Muslims. Thus, in pre-tenth century Byzantium, it was argued that military success and religious truth were not intrinsically related.

By 961 however, this view had become outmoded. Byzantium's victories over its Muslim foes were interpreted by Theodosios as demonstrating the truth of Christianity and the fallacy of Islam. Very different from the Empire of the pre-Macedonian period (and generally of the pre-tenth century), which was kept in a defensive posture, marshalling its resources only to preserve "Rome" and Christianity, (n.b. the defensive polemical/ ideological notions above), by the 960's a new ideology was needed to accompany and to justify the new political and military reality. Theodosios offered such an ideology: the Empire was obliged to rid the world of the "all destroying monster" (i.e., Islam and its adherents) in order to preserve Earthly and cosmological order.

Theodosius's poem contains a number of views supporting the war against Islam, not least of which is the belief that the death of Christian soldiers fighting against Muslims will induce heavenly reward. It is a view not only reminiscent of those of the Muslims, but also that of the poem's ultimate recipient, Nikephoros II Phokas. Furthermore, as the poem was originally dedicated to Romanos II, it may suggest that there was support among the latter's court for such a notion.

This poem is an anthem of triumph which demonstrates clearly the political change during the century from Niketas Byzantios to Theodosios the Deacon, from defensive to offensive war, and also a polemical shift from stressing the "Godlessness" of Jihad to praising Christian martyrdom on the field of battle.

The Byzantine Oneirocriticon of Achmet and the Islamic Science of Dream Interpretation

Maria Mavroudi (Dumbarton Oaks)

The Oneirocriticon of Achmet (ed. F. Drexl, Teubner 1925) is a Byzantine book on dream interpretation that can be dated around the tenth century. It is by far the longest surviving Byzantine book on dream interpretation and was translated from Greek into Latin twice: The first time by Leo Tuscus in 1176 and the second time by Jean Leunclavious in 1577. The paper discusses the following issues:

1. The authorship. Scholars have long believed that the author is (or, rather, pretends to be) either Ibn Sirin, a famous Arab dream interpreter, or Ibn Sirin's son. The reason for this view is the phrasing of the text (Drexl 15,18-19) "Elthon tis anthropos erotese moi toi Achmet toi huioi Sereim . . ." However, the purported author's name in the Latin translation of 1577 is Apomasaris, a name which appears on one of the Greek MSS as well. Apomasaris is evidently the hellenized form of the name of Abu Ma'shar, a well-known Arab astronomer of the ninth century AD. The paper discusses why Ibn Sirin and Abu Ma'shar were both purported authors of the Oneirocriticon and how credible these allegations are.

2. The system of classification. The material of the Oneirocriticon is not classified alphabetically, which is the prevalent system of classification in Byzantine dictionaries of around the tenth century, but rather according to subject. Alphabetical order in Arabic books of dream interpretation was not introduced until the thirteenth century. Before that time, all Arabic books on dream interpretation were classified according to subject, in a system that reflects a hierarchical ordering of the world, beginning with Heavens and moving down to Earth in the following manner: the first chapters treat the dreams about God, the angels, the prophets, then come dreams about men and human activities and finally dreams about animals, plants and inanimate objects. The system of classification of the Oneirocriticon clearly links it to Arabic works on dream interpretation.

3. Textual correspondences between the Oneirocriticon and Arabic books on dream interpretation. The paper offers a sample of correspondences between the Greek text and some Arabic works on dream interpretation from both printed and manuscript sources.

4. Arabic dream interpretation is one of the Islamic religious sciences. The Oneirocriticon, on the other hand, is a work that caters to a Christian audience. The paper explores some of the adaptations made to the Islamic sources of the Oneirocriticon for the purposes of its

Christian readers. It also points out the Islamic echoes in this Christian work.

VII. ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION

Chair: Robert Ousterhout (University of Illinois)

Opaion in Byzantine Churches - An Iconographic Essay

George Stricevic (University of Cincinnati)

The dome which bishop Neon (after 451 AD) inserted in the late-fourth century baptistery of Ravenna cathedral was constructed of hollow terracotta tubes, used also in several other buildings in the city, e.g. San Francesco (Basilica Apostolorum), San Apollinare Nuovo and San Vitale. The crown of the baptistery dome was completed in porous pumice blocks. None of the explanations for this change in masonry that has been offered is convincing and it might be suggested that the difference in masonry indicates two building phases and that the original dome had an oculus in its apex. That would not only fit in well with the classicizing spirit of the time ("a Fifth-Century Renascence' - Krautheimer), but would also make the Neonian baptistery iconographically even closer to both its ideal prototype: the rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and to its immediate model: the baptistery in the Lateran which was remodelled by Sixtus III shortly before Neon added a dome to the baptistery of his own cathedral. The hypothesis might also ease the debate about the iconographic program of mosaic decoration in Neon's dome: the Baptism of Christ, in that case, would not be an integral part of that program, let alone its focal point.

Besides the baptistery of Naples which is for only few years, if at all, later than Neon's restoration, and where the central dome, through its mosaic decoration, offers a view of open sky, there are in Ravenna itself several buildings whose domes, or major vaults, are decorated with depiction of windows through which the sky can be "seen." In the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, which might have been painted by the mosaicists who subsequently worked for bishop Neon, the central part of the chapel is conceived as being sine tecto: A starry night sky with a golden cross floating in the distance. In the upper cubicullum of Theodoric's mausoleum, there is a painted opaion in the center of the dome. Small oculus crowns the groin vault over the sanctuary bay in San Vitale. The Lamb of God, being born aloft in the starry sky, seen in this oculus, will be in the chapel of San Zeno in Sta Prassede in Rome, a 9th century replica of San Vitale scheme, replaced by a bust of Christ. And, finally, in the apse of the domeless San Apollinare in Classe, a circular window frames a view of the blue sky with a crux gemmata seen in a distance. It seems possible that this "misplaced opaion" (Kitzinger) is, in fact, a pictorial rendition of a real window, even as for its place. The intriguing representation of a basilican church ("Ecclesia Mater') from Tabarka shows an oculus in exactly this place, while the Basilewsky bronze lamp in the Hermitage in the form of a basilican church has two small windows in the conch of its apse.

There are preserved many examples - and few allusions in descriptions of domes - which show the continuity of the concept that a window in the dome or in the conch of the apse provided a view of heaven, starting as early as the 5th and 6th cent. (St.Sergius at Gaza - Choricius; cathedral of Edessa - Soughita), all the way to post-iconoclastic and later Byzantine times when the central dome, through its painted decoration, functions as a window through whose rim the God-Man Christ is leaning and looking down (the Apostoleion - Mesarites). When the mid-Byzantine decorative program was adapted to the domeless churches (Cefalu, Monreale), the image of Christ which filled Byzantine domical opaion (Daphni) was transferred to the conch of the apse. There is such a half-figure of Christ in the the apse of the domed Capella Palatina too, but not as an integral part of its original decoration (Demus, Kitzinger); Christ in the dome, however, is set once again in an oculus along whose rim a pointed paraphrase of Isa. LXVI,1 refers to His heavenly abode.

The Oratory of the Holy Cross at the Lateran

Mark J. Johnson (Brigham Young University)

The Liber Pontificalis credits Pope Hilarus (461-468) with the construction and decoration of the Oratory of the Holy Cross near the Baptistery in the Lateran complex of Rome. Destroyed on the command of Pope Sixtus V in 1588, it is known from descriptions by Onofrio Panvinio and Pompeo Ugonio and is depicted in some thirty Renaissance drawings. The present contribution represents the first detailed study of the building.

The core of the building has a greek-cross plan, measuring some eleven meters in length and width. Four small, hexagonal chambers filled the corners creating a complex arrangement of spaces and the whole was preceded by an atrium. Inside, the central bay was covered with a cross-vault raised on a short tower while the short arms were covered with barrel vaults decorated in stucco. The walls were finished with marble revetment and opus sectile decoration. The vault and upper walls of the tower were decorated with mosaics including four angels supporting a wreath encasing a cross and images of saints Peter, Paul, Stephen, Lawrence, John the Evangelist, John the Baptist, Jacob and Philip. This arrangement was apparently copied in the ninth-century chapel of San Zeno at Santa Prassede in Rome.

This paper will focus on three areas: first, it will examine the evidence for the appearance of the building and its decoration, especially the drawings of Giuliano da Sangallo, Baldassare Peruzzi and Antonio Lafrery. Second, it will examine the question of its dating. Richard Krautheimer has suggested that its architectural form is reminiscent of Hadrianic architecture and that Hilarus may have done nothing more than add a cross and figures of saints to a second-century building. However, there are reasons to believe that the fifth-century date is correct. An overlooked inscription (Sylloge Laureshamensis, 12) describes the mound of rubble that stood on the site prior to Hilarus' work rather than the transformation of an earlier building. The account ledger of Domenico Fontana, architect of Sixtus and the man who oversaw the destruction of the chapel, records a payment for the tearing down of the vault, noting that it was constructed of tubi fittili. This technique is not found in Hadrianic buildings, but was used in several other fifth-century structures in Rome including the Chapel of San Giovanni Evangelista, built next to the Lateran Baptistry by Hilarus. Finally, the paper will examine the relationship of this building to other, contemporary structures with similar, greek­cross and inscribed-cross plan churches such as the chapel of SS. Tosca e Teuteria in Verona, the Church of the Prophets, Apostles and Martyrs at Gerasa, and Hosios David in Thessaloniki.

Anthemius' Design of an Elliptical Mirror and the Dome of Hagia Sophia

lakovos Potamianos (The University of Michigan)

Certain observations made in the katholika of the Mount Athos monasteries have led to the basic hypothesis of this author's forthcoming dissertation that Byzantine architecture made conscious, systematic use of natural light for the enhancement of religious experience. As part of a carefully devised overall lighting scheme, light was made to shine on specific locations during liturgically significant times of day in an effort to emphasize visually the message intended to be conveyed by the service.

A frequently observed phenomenon related to light is the impression of a radiant dome in many Byzantine churches. It is the contention of this author that the creation of this impression would require the employment of specific architectural means, such as manipulation of the curvature of the dome or the form of the windows and window sills. Viewed from this standpoint a certain geometrical problem, as stated in the extant writings of Anthemius of Tralles, acquires a special significance. This problem concerns the construction of a reflector capable of aiming sunrays at a single point within a building taking into account the varying position of the sun throughout the seasons. In this paper the above problem is examined in

relation to the theories advanced by Gabriel Millet and Kenneth Conant regarding the form of the original dome of Hagia Sophia. The examination is conducted by means of a three­dimensional model of the dome simulated in the computer, and it aims at investigating the way in which a reflector similar to the one described by Anthemius would have influenced the dome's appearance if it had been embodied in its geometry.

Production Centers for Champleve Revetments

Susan Boyd (Dumbarton Oaks)

Excavations of the early Christian Episcopal basilica at Kourion in Cyprus have yielded over 500 fragments of decorated marble revetments executed in an unusual technique in which the background was carved away, leaving the design in flat relief. The roughly chiseled background was then filled with a colored mastic-black, red, dark green or dark blue­producing a two-dimensional coloristic effect closely resembling polychrome opus sectile. Because of its similarity to the medieval enameling technique, this type of architectural sculpture has been termed "champleve."

Because so many champleve fragments have survived at Kourion, it has been possible to identify the principal architectural elements that were revetted. These include door surrounds, archivolts and tympana, plaster shafts and capitals, wall friezes of different sizes, square plaques and large rectangular plaques, revealing an ambitious program of champleve decoration for the interior of the basilica. The majority of these may be dated to the first half of the fifth century; a small group, which appears to be later, probably dates to the late fifth or early sixth century.

Recent discoveries on Cyprus indicate that the island was one of the most productive centers of champleve carving from possibly as early as the third century to well into the sixth century. Champleve reliefs have been found at seven sites across the island: Amathus, Arsos, Carpasia, Lapithos, Paphos, Salamis-Constantia and Soli. The majority of the finds belong to the fifth century, and include not only the important ensemble at Kourion, but those at Hagios PhiIon in Carpasia and, quite likely, those discovered in the current French excavations at Amathus-where such revetments have been found reused in the pavement of a sixth-century basilica. Because the Amathus reliefs are related to those at Kourion, and the Kourion marbles are related to those from Hagios PhiIon, sufficient information may now be available to discuss workshop practices on the island in the fifth century. The technique continued to be a popular means of interior wall decoration well into the sixth century, when champleve reliefs were used to decorate buildings at Salamis-Constantia, Soli and Paphos.

Until the discovery of the Kourion revetments, the primary exemplars of the champleve technique were the sixth-century revetments of the so-called Martyrion at Seleucia, near Antioch. However, since their 1941 publication, there has been little further investigation of the technique nor an awareness of its wide dissemination throughout the countries of the Mediterranean basin.

Syria/Palestine was clearly one of the more important areas where the technique flourished and fragmentary revetments have been found at sixteen sites. Except for a few fifth century fragments, almost all of these finds date to the sixth century or later. In Asia Minor, the technique was also popular and has been found at six sites in Lycia, Lydia, Cilicia and Phrygia. Champleve revetments are found as far north as the Chersonesus and as far west as Spain and North Africa, although there are only isolated finds from the latter sites. Similarly, in Italy only two sites are known, and in what was formerly Yugoslavia, only a single site. In Greece, however, there are scattered fragments at six sites, although only one or two fragments per site have been found (or published?).

Thus, the greatest concentration of findspots of champleve revetments is in the eastern Mediterranean, with Cyprus, Syria-Palestine, and Asia Minor being the principal production centers. Until recently, Syria was seen as the most likely source of the technique, but the fact that the earliest fragments found there date no earlier than the mid-fifth century suggest that the source of the technique should be sought elsewhere. Champleve fragments dating to the second and third centuries have been found in Greece (Athens) and Asia Minor (Aizanoi), and a late third-century fragment has been found in Cyprus (Paphos). Given the substantial amount of champleve found at multiple sites in Cyprus, and the early fifth-century date of much of it, it is clear that Cyprus was a significant production center-probably before Syria or Palestine. While there is no conclusive evidence regarding the role Cyprus played in the dissemination of the technique, the fact that the champleve technique was so popular and widespread in the first half of the fifth century, continuing well into the sixth century, is an important factor to be considered in evaluating the history of this technique.

Koinovion Trapeza

Svetlana Popovic (Princeton University)

From its beginnings in the 4th century until the Late Byzantine period three prominent features signified a koinovion (koinobion): the main church, the enclosure wall, and the refectory, referred to in the Greek sources as the trapeza (trapeza). Spatial relations between the church and the refectory are seen clearly in the planning of individual monastic complexes - the refectory is always in the vicinity of the church; not uncommonly their main entrances are directly related. The significance of the trapeza is also recognized through the written sources, hagiographies, typica, and even monastic foundation charters (as for the monastery of Euthymious in Palestine, Evergetis in Constantinople, the Great Lavra on Mount Athos, Decani, etc.). This phenomenon has been occasionally discussed in scholarly literature, either through the architectural analysis of individual refectories, or through the interpretation of their fresco decoration. A general consensus on the subject has been reached: the function of trapeza is recognized as a special place for a communal meal structured in close association with the pictorial program on its walls. However, the question why the refectory is situated in the vicinity of the main monastic church has never been adequately addressed. This paper will explore this problem from the point of view of meaning and function of refectories within their monastic koinovion.

Different architectural plans of refectories - basilical, single-aisled, or even cruciform, with or without apses, testify to their close links with the sacral space of the respective periods. Spatial disposition of the building, close to the church, defines these inter-relations through the interior planning as well. The interior layout reveals a vast hall outfitted with built tables (known as the sigma table type) in rows, or a single long table axially placed in the direction of the apse. The iconographic program of the fresco decoration emphasizes the Last Supper, but also scenes from the Christological cycle, the monastic saints, the Menologion. As it was noted a century ago by Brockhaus, some of the programs in refectories have close links with those in church narthexes. Ceremony was a prominent feature of the prescribed refectory ritual. It consisted of the refectory semandron sound signaling the beginning of the ritual, followed by the solemn procession of entrance and the seating of the church dignitaries (the hegoumenos and the high ranking clergy who occupied seats of honor), and included special prayers (psalms, lectures from the Holy Scripture etc.) read during the meals.

Bearing in mind all these facts, the koinovion trapeza was actually a sacral space designated for communal Christian meal with clearly commemorative connotations. The fourth- century 'coemeteria-basilicae' equipped with rows of mensae (also sigma-shaped) used for mass funerary ceremonies are, in my opinion, in some way analogous to commemorative meals (not connected with the Eucharist) performed in the refectory, preceded by the prayers in the church narthex. Finally, the physical placement of the refectory, close to the church, testifies that the two buildings provided a joint setting for the integral monastic ritual which opened in the church and ended in the refectory.

VIII. DARK AGE GREECE

Chair: Marcus Rautman (University of Missouri)

Economic Conditions in the Aegean Islands, A.D. 300-700

Brian Rutishauser (The Ohio State University)

I intend to ascertain what role may have been played by the Cyclades and other Aegean islands in trade and exchange from Late Antiquity into the early Byzantine period (approximately fourth through seventh centuries A.D.). Recent survey work on several of the islands (most notably Melos and Keos) has provided ample fuel for speculation on the nature of economic activity on these islands, in several areas ranging from mining and mineral exploitation to the distribution of pottery and coinage. In particular, the finds of African Red Slip ware and Phokaian ware are strong indicators of exchange. It is the quantity and geographical extent of this exchange that is to be addressed in this study.

The paper will also address the issue of state control, an aspect of trade that has been recently examined by several scholars and may provide the strongest differentiation between Late Antiquity and the early Byzantine era. While imperial regulation of mining was a common phenomenon in areas under Roman control, the smaller scale of most Aegean mines may have allowed greater local control of exploitation while still providing revenue for the state. The presence of rural villas on several islands, well-appointed if not magnificent, would seem to indicate that the resources to engage in commercial and industrial activity were available. Centralized control appers to have increased in the seventh century, with the consolidation of the Aegean islands into a naval frontier for Constantinople and the operation of state warehouses for the distribution of military supplies as well as some luxury goods such as silk. Several local products of the Aegean may have supplied raw materials for state factories as well, involving the islands in the production process as well as distribution.

This level of centralization may help explain why the Aegean was one of the last regions to see a decline in pottery exchange in the seventh century, when imports from North Africa had diminished and other areas of the East Mediterranean also saw decline. The picture is not one of outstanding wealth but of steady and sustained activity and involvement in exchange, whether entrepreneurial or under the aegis of the central government.

Land Use, Taxes, and Consumption in Early Byzantine Greece

Timothy E. Gregory (The Ohio State University)

Survey archaeology and changing academic fashions have encouraged an increase of interest in the lower end of the settlement hierarchy-on the agricultural foundations that lay at the basis of the ancient economy. Most of this work has focused on the prehistoric and classical periods, although increasing interest has been paid to areas of the Mediterranean in Late Antiquity, where evidence is relatively abundant. The Aegean area, however, which lay at the heart of the Byzantine state, has heretofore not received such treatment, despite its importance for an understanding of later Byzantine society and where archaeological surveys have been carried out now for two decades. This archaeological evidence naturally supplements the meager but important documentary material. This latter includes a series of imperial rescripts and a number of partially-preserved tax registers that allow significant insight into agricultural conditions in the Aegean area. This documentary information has, of course, heen studied previously by scholars such as A.H.M. Jones, but a new perspective is now possible, in part by the addition of the archaeological evidence and in part through comparison with recent ethnographic and more anthropologically based studies, such as those of Garnsey, Halstead, and Gallant. Particularly important is a consideration of production possibilities, based on available resources, and the caloric consumption requirements of populations of various sizes. Analysis along these lines is crucial for understanding the strength of basic social and economic structures in the critical period of transition between the ancient and the medieval worlds. Preliminary conclusions suggest remarkable stability and economic diversity.

Towards an Archaeology of Historical Ethnography for the Corinthia, A.D. 585-805

Joseph L. Rife (The University of Michigan)

This study reconsiders the interaction between Slavs and Greeks in the Corinthia from the last decades of the sixth century to the first decade of the ninth through a synthesis of the published archaeological remains. It has been argued that the outstanding characteristic of the scant remains which comprise the Slavic artifactual assemblage is their paucity. The prevailing notion that there is little trace of the prosaic way of life during this phase of Greek history belies two biases in the scholarship: a disproportionate emphasis on artifacts from the public sectors of society and the misconception that the ancient world was foremost an urban world. In an attempt to overcome these tendencies, the objective of this study is a clearer understanding of the region's "historical ethnography" as the term is defined by Weithmann (1978); that is, where the boundaries of each cultural group were and how those boundaries overlapped.

The evidence from Argos indicates that the Slavs occupied the Argolid in the late sixth century, presumably after their capture of Corinth. While some Greeks moved to Acrocorinth and some left for the islands, most returned to Corinth after a brief occupation by the Slavs. Any mass exodus by the locals was probably a consequence of intensified competition for limited resources following Slavic settlement in the countryside and not a direct result of invasion. While much of the post-classical material from Corinth is currently under study, the published evidence for this period entails six burials. Despite various arguments concerning the identity of these individuals, it is certain that their ethnicity as suggested by the associated artifacts was not "Roman" in pre-585 terms. These may have been the graves of native Corinthians who had adopted certain foreign customs through daily intercourse with the Slavs. Recent explorations at Isthmia, a Corinthian satellite and the focus of the transisthmian fortifications of Theodosian and Justinianic construction, have illuminated the status of the rural areas at this time. The evidence for continuous site use includes an even scattering throughout the Fortress of a brand of "Slavic ware" with noteworthy deviations from the Argive prototypes and, more significantly, a settlement in the former Roman Bath, as yet the only such instance from this period in the Peloponnese. Rotary querns found here were designed after Roman models and manufactured from igneous materials imported from Aegina and Nisyms. These millstones and other implements for processing food, including cooking wares not unlike those from the Fortress, provide some sense of the agricultural livelihood during this period. Both the unusual domestic architecture and the local ceramic variant may imply an assimilation of Slavic traits by the indigenous population.

A revised model for interaction between locals and foreigners in which the Slavs neither devastated nor transplanted the Corinthians wholesale is therefore required. Their relationship was an acculturative one which involved a practical, if not peaceable, cohabitation. Therein lies a connection between classical and medieval times: during both eras the demographic history of the Corinthia, a crossroads in many respects, was marked by a capacity for integrating exogenous cultural entities to create a distinct regional character. Although it is difficult to assess the precise degree of acculturation without new evidence, one possible sphere of interaction can be extrapolated. If the millstones were exotic commodities, there must have been a regional trade network involving a serviceable harbor on the Saronic Gulf, probably .Kenchreai. Corinth, still under the authority of Constantinople, would have provided a consumer base in the civic hub as well as a distribution center for its hinterland.

Assessing Acculturation in the Byzantine Dark Age: An Archaeological Approach

P. Nick Kardulias (Kenyon College)

The character of the Byzantine Dark Age (DA) (7th-8th c. A.D.) is a matter of considerable debate. Historical sources describe the Slavic incursions during this period as the cause of considerable displacement of the native Greek population. For example, Sinclair Hood argued that, beginning in the 580s, many Greeks fled from the mainland to small, inhospitable islands near the shore to escape the rampages of Slavs and Avars. Recent archaeological investigation of such islands has cast serious doubt on this model. At Argos and elsewhere on the mainland, some scholars have interpreted the presence of "Slavic" pottery as an indicator of destructive raids that seriously disrupted urban life throughout the northern and eastern Peloponnesos. What most of the studies have lacked is a coherent theoretical foundation from which to evaluate the archaeological evidence. In order to comprehend the effect of the Slavic migrations on local society in the northeastern Peloponnesos, this paper studies a specific class of artifacts (millstones) using the anthropological concept of acculturation (change generated by culture contact). The paper examines millstones in order to provide an economic profile of the Byzantine DA squatter settlement in the Roman Bath at Isthmia, Greece. Such stones were used to process grains and grind bone and other materials. The concentration of querns near the DA structures and floors suggests milling was a domestic chore associated with particular households. The querns indicate the residents in this period milled grain they raised themselves, i.e., that they were permanent farmers rather than itinerant raiders or nomadic

squatters. Furthermore, the paper examines the relationship between ethnicity and material culture in a period of flux and contact. The paper critigues sources that suggest Slavic remains reflect the introduction of a hostile foreign population, and evaluates competing hypotheses about the nature of acculturation as a selective process. The evidence suggests that the household acts as a cultural filter to determine which foreign features to adopt.

Spileo: A Fortified Settlement from Greece's Early Middle Ages

John Rosser (Boston College)

Spileo is a modern village in the present Greek nomos of Grevena, in southwest Macedonia. It is situated in the foothills of the Pindos Mountains, where subsistence agriculture, the cutting of forest timber, and year-round pastoralism have been traditional economic pursuits. As reported at the 19th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference (Abstracts of Papers, 47-48), the region has always been a frontier zone between Epirus and the rest of Macedonia, and its history has been one of invasions and migrations. How does Spileo fit into that history?

Spileo's fortifications run for hundreds of meters, enclosing the present village and acropolis. They are of rubble construction, built with a copious and very hard lime-mortar. The best preserved sections of the wall are over two meters in preserved height and width. To the southeast of the present village there is a fortified entrance through the walls, guarded by what appears to be the remains of a tower. The walls themselves are not dissimilar to those from Late Roman refuge sites (reported on at the XVIIIth International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Moscow; see Summaries of Communications, II, 964), and pottery collected from the acropolis and elsewhere within the fortification walls indicates a settlement at Spileo during Late Roman times into the Early Middle Ages.

The most important question concerns the purpose and continuity of Spileo from Late Antiquity into the Early Middle Ages. In examining this, it is necessary to consider several factors, including the collected surface pottery, and whatever comparison can be made between Spileo's fortifications and other similar fortifications in the region (including the nearby one at Romaiou Serai). Spileo is above a crossing of the Venetikos River, a major boundary of the region. Presumably, the fortifications are related to Spileo's strategic location. Also important to consider are the Slavic migrations, which must have had a great impact on the region, as attested by the fact that all of the region's major place-names are Slavic. When these factors are taken into consideration, the argument that Spileo is a fortified Late Roman site that was abandoned at some point during the Early Middle Ages, may be most compelling. However, this poses yet another question, namely when this abandonment occurred and when the village was subsequently resettled?

IX. COMNENIAN CULTURE

Chair: Annemarie Weyl Carr

The Second Sex in Komnenian Courts

Barbara Hill (Queen's University, Belfast)

It is an accepted tenet of feminism, since the work of Simone de Beauvoir, that women are made, not born, creatures constructed by social rather than natural forces. Gender is a cultural category, not a biological imperative. Women's perceived or prescribed nature in any culture can therefore be deconstructed to show what they were expected to be or do, an exercise which reveals as much about the culture under consideration as it does about the women involved. As far as Byzantium is concerned, the study of the constructed female is a rich source of knowledge about the assumptions of Byzantine men, but has not yet been carried through in all areas where there is available evidence. There is room for more work not only on the centuries of the empire which have not yet been addressed, but on different social groupings within those which have. For example, an examination of the courtly literature of the Komnenian era reveals a difference in what was expected of women from the monastic works which have been most studied to date. The ideal imperial woman of this period is well defined, but has not received the attention from historians merited by the ideal imperial man. Owing to this fact, the task immediately relevant to feminist historians of Byzantium is to recover the women, and if possible their ideals, before they undertake the analysis of the culture as a whole, which often once again obscures the women who provided its beginnings. This paper will examine Byzantine courtly males' expectations of the ideal imperial women during the Komnenian era, inquiring to what extent women themselves shared these expectations and what their alternative assumptions were. Some expectations were shared by men and women but there is a distinct range of qualities which appear as women's ideals of women's nature which were not generally emphasised as desirable in a woman.

Slave Women in the Legislation of Alexius I

Charles M. Brand (Bryn Mawr College)

In one of his most important pieces of legislation, Alexius I Comnenus laid some severe restrictions upon slave-holders. In Part I of his Novel of March, 1095 (Zepos, us Graecoromanum 1, 344-346; Dolger, Re_gesten. No. 1178), the emperor made it easier for slaves to obtain their liberty by proving that they had, as children, been sold into slavery by their parents, on account of the parents' necessities. In the second part of the same novel, the emperor describes a situation in which slave-owners have refused to allow the sacrament of marriage to their slaves, in the belief that by receiving the sacrament, they would become free. Alexius points out that slaves receive baptism and the eucharist without being considered free. He therefore orders that unions of slaves shall be blessed with the sacrament of holy matrimony. Any existing unions are to be so blessed. In neither case is the servile status of the individuals to be affected by the sacrament. The penalty for slave-masters who refuse to sanction Christian marriage was the liberation of the slaves concerned.

Evidently it was difficult to persuade slave-owners that sacramental marriage did not confer freedom on their slaves. In the 1130's or '40's, a monk of Cappadocia wrote to the Metropolitan of Thessalonike, complaining that slave-owners continued to deny slaves such marriage, on grounds that Alexius' law was a forgery; they also forced slave-girls to become prostitutes. Metropolitan Niketas of Maroneia answered with a strong assertion of the law's genuineness, and insisted that masters who engaged in any of the conduct described by his correspondent, should be denounced in church and were subject to excommunication. (PG 119: 997-1001; Rhp, 5: 443-5)

Slaves, although not extremely numerous, were an accepted part of middle-Byzantine society. Slave-women unquestionably experienced a most difficult time. The masters apparently believed that celebration of their marriages in church would make them recognized as persons in the eyes of the law, entitled to liberty by the very fact. Therefore, the classical usage of cohabitation was continued, and the children born to such unions would share the slave status of their mothers. A female slave could also be in effect rented out to a third party as a concubine. To judge by the origins of the complaints, the slaves in question belonged to provincial owners, probably rural landlords.

Alexius' law is not specific about the sex of the children sold by needy parents (Bulgarian and other), but the probability is that parents more often sold daughters than sons. Thus, the first part the law endeavors to protect the status of women as much as the second part does.

Engendered Category of Recognizable Life: Anna Comnena and her Alexiad

Thalia Gouma-Peterson (College of Wooster)

In the April, 1993, issue of Speculum Kathleen Biddick ("Genders, Bodies, Borders: Technologies of the Visible") and Nancy Partner ("No Sex, No Gender') propose different methodological frameworks for the study of medieval women. In this paper I will consider Anna Comnena and her Alexiad as a test case of the potential usefulness of these approaches. In considering Anna Comnena in the context of the antithetical frameworks proposed by Biddick and Partner it is crucial to ask: can one identify or reconstruct recognizable human lives (Partner) knowing full well that "experience is always already an interpretation and something that needs to be interpreted" (Joan Scott). Is it in fact possible to render women visible without blinding ourselves "to the historical processes that define, redefine, and engender the status of the visible and the invisible" (Biddick)? Anna Comnena's case is further complicated by the fact that she has left us a lengthy text, a history of her fathers reign, that has usually been accepted as the equivalent of an official authorial voice. I suggest that the question of voice, in her case, is much more complex. Her history is also to a large degree an autobiography. We know more about Anna's likes and dislikes and desires than about those of any other Byzantine princess or indeed most other women in the history of the Byzantine Empire. And we know it from her own account. She is one of the few medieval women that has not been muted.

In the complexities of her multiple-engendered self as daughter, granddaughter, sister, wife, and Roman princess, Anna Comnena's experience is already an interpretation and something that needs to be interpreted. But Anna, as she makes clearly manifest in her history, is a self-conscious subject eloquently aware of the divide between "the pressures of wishes and the frustations of reality" (Partner). Her Alexiad reflects the organization of an individual mind, both conscious and unconscious, which must continually adjust its wishes to the demands of a real exterior world. She is both a human being and a cultural ideogram. Her gender is unstable and crosses the boundaries of other categories taken for granted in Byzantine society and in Anna's history (e.g., emperor, Roman empire, patriarch, Latin, barbarian, the body of the Lord, the saintly mother).

It might be fruitful to look at Anna Comnena's Alexiad as a text more complex than a straightforward report on her fathers reign. Perhaps there is some validity in Edward Gibbon's complaint that the Alexiad is not "the naked truth," that is, it is not an unproblema­tized masculinist history, and that "instead of the simplicity of style and narrative which wins our belief, an elaborate affectation of rhetoric and science betrays in every page the vanity of a female author." Indeed, Anna was an author profoundly conscious of her female gender, a cause of much sorrow to her throughout her life.

It is within this multivalant complexity that the account of Anna Comnena's life and her recording of her father's reign need to be studied. Keeping in mind that she is offering her own narrative within the context of an official version of reality, we need to be alert to the fact that she provides her own framework which can reinterpret that which already has been interpreted.

Oracles, Pebbles, and Science - Anna Comnena's Comments on Astrology

Sarolta A. Takacs (Harvard University)

Anna Comnena's engaging biography of her father Alexius I includes a short expose on astrology (divination) (Alex. 6.7). Seth, an Alexandrian astrologer, had foretold Robert Guiscard's death in the form of an oracle. The accuracy of the Chresmos and the incredible appeal of this man, who had reached the acme of this very craft (sophia), prompts Anna to digress from her intended narrative. She remarks that this science (episteme) was a recent discovery and unknown to the ancient world. Men like Eudoxus, Plato, and Manetho lacked either knowledge of the rules or accurate information about this science (synesis). Anna reveals that she had "explored" the art a little - stressing, however, that she did so only for informational purposes. All sciences, which seems to include astrology, flourished during the reign of her father. Quite a statement since church fathers had labled astrology, a superstitio divinationis, a demonic art.

The whole passage on astrology (divination) is striking in terms of diction and content. Anna employs various words for "science" and "knowledge," not to impress the reader with her linguistic abilities, but to express various possible levels of knowledge and shadings of science. Two of the three astrologers she mentions came from Egypt, a land in the Roman/Byzantine sphere of interest that had the oldest historical tradition. Its history reached back into remote times and yet existed beyond a merely mythological context. Learned men from Egypt were known to have access to ancient knowledge which had survived the millennia as sacred knowledge. This passage is a window of opportunity to learn more about 1) this "new science," which seems to be embedded in tradition, and 2) imperial policy toward it in light of the traditional (Roman) practice in dealing with superstitiones and its proponents.

X. CHURCH PROGRAMS

Chair; Henry Maguire (Dumbarton Oaks)

The North Wing of the Narthex of S. Marco in Venice: Some Observations on Its Decoration and Function

John Osborne (University of Victoria)

The paper will briefly examine two aspects of the north wing of the narthex of San Marco in Venice. The first is the rationale for the addition of this wing in the mid 13th century, and it will be suggested that it may have been intended to serve as the burial place of the Venetian doges, beginning with Marino Morosini (d. 1253), whose sarcophagus is indeed placed in the first bay of this wing. In this respect San Marco would thus parallel other churches in the Byzantine cultural orbit, with the north wing functioning as a form of parekklesion.

The second and longer section of the paper will examine the mosaic decorations of this area - not the Old Testament scenes which have been extensively analyzed elsewhere, but the "secondary' programme which comprises a series of saints, shown either as standing figures or in medallions. The choice of saints is highly unusual. Many are obscure (e.g. Alipios, Fantinus, Geminianus), and particular prominence is given to the recently-founded Dominican order (both Dominic and Peter Martyr are included, but no Franciscans). The solution proposed by Demus, namely that they represent saints whose cults were prominent in Venice at this time, is simply not convincing. Instead it will be suggested that the choices may depend on the very personal interests of the patrons, the Venetian doges themselves, and strong ties to the Dominican order can be demonstrated for both doges who are the probable patrons of the north wing mosaics: Renier Zeno (1253-1268) and Lorenzo Tiepolo (1268-1275). In the absence of written documentation, this proposal cannot be proven -but it will be suggested that an examination of the interests and needs of the patron, as well as the architectural context, offers the best path towards solving this rather vexatious problem.

San Marco at Venice: The Cycles of Saint Mark in the North Choir Chapel and the Capella Zen

Lesley Jessup (University of Victoria)

The church of San Marco, at Venice, is decorated with a wealth of mosaics that are testimony to the prosperity that Venice enjoyed during the later Middle Ages. Despite the extensive amount that has been written on San Marco, little is known of how the church was used in the Middle Ages, especially in the twelfth century. Since the published documents appear to he remarkably silent, one avenue left open is to study the iconographic programmes in order to discover what light they may throw upon the function of the various areas they decorate. As mosaic cycles of Saint Mark decorate four separate areas of the church (the choir chapels, the Cappella Zen, the south transept, and the facade), it seems likely that each group of cycles was produced with a different function and audience in mind. This paper will focus on the twelfth-century cycle in the north choir chapel, and its thirteenth-century successor in the Cappella Zen.

The Marcian cycle in the north choir chapel served a propagandistic function, one intended to underline the divine rights of the Venetians to possess the relics of Mark, a right the Venetians believed was theirs by succession. As Demos has suggested, the use of the north choir chapel appears to have been reserved for the clergy. This idea will be taken one step further, and it will be proposed that the chapel's decorative programme was designed expressly for the patriarch of Grade, who was admitted into the church of San Marco for the first time in the mid-twelfth century.

In the thirteenth century the Venetians were concerned with documenting their place in world history. They saw themselves as the first-born sons of Mark, and needed a more public proclamation of the role Mark played in their lives. An up-dated version of the Marcian cycle in the north choir chapel was placed in the Cappella Zen which, at this time, was one of the main entrances into the church. Although Demos has suggested that the repetition of this cycle resulted from a desire to update the legend of Mark, it seems more likely that the intention was to make Mark's story available to a wider audience. That is, the up-dated version of his legend appears to have been the result of a desire to recreate Mark's life in mosaic, not its cause.

Pairing of the Prophets and Their Quotations: A Constantinopolitan Tradition and Its Dissemination

Ljubica D. Popovich (Vanderbilt University)

Comparisons among representations of the prophets in surviving Byzantine monumental painting show that there are no exact duplications of these figures as groups nor of their associated texts. Nevertheless, certain patterns of repetition can be established, one of which is a particular pairing of prophets and texts. In this paper such a pair and the accompanying textual selections will be followed, as much as preserved evidence allows. The purpose is to trace the possible initial coupling of these chosen figures and the texts that they carry to their place of origin and to follow their subsequent dissemination throughout the Byzantine world. The chosen pairing consists of Isaiah carrying a scroll with the quotation Isaiah 7:14 and Jeremiah with the text from Baruch 3:36.

Among hundreds of representations of these two prophets in Byzantine monumental painting, to the best of this author's knowledge, fewer than a dozen pairs carrying the scrolls with the above-mentioned texts are preserved. These surviving, paired prophet images and texts range in date from the early eleventh to the second half of the fourteenth century. Because these two quotations were so frequently used in liturgical reading(1) and were individually familiar to people and popularly used in painting, it may seem that the number of preserved monumental examples with this specific pairing is very small. Nevertheless, this limited number of such occurrences facilitates the search for a possible prototype allowing to follow the dissemination pattern. The geographically widespread distribution of these coupled prophets and quotations-from Crete (Panagia Antiphonitissa, Myriokephala Monastery, e. 11th c.) to Russia (St. Sophia, e. 12th c., Novgorod); from the Greek mainland (Panagia ton Chalkeon, ca. 1028, Thessalonike, St. Demetrios Katzouri, 3/4 13th c., and Parigoritissa, 1. 13th c., Arta) to Sicily (Martorana, ca. 1148) and Cyprus (Panagia too Arakou, Lagoudera, 1193, St. Nicholas tis Stegis, mid. 14th c., Panagia Phorbiotissa, Asinou, 3/4 14th c.)-suggests that the original source for such paired selections might be found in a very influential center and in a very important monument.

The search for such a center and such a monument stops with the Fossati drawings of the great tympana of Hagia Sophia.(2) These drawings document the images of several prophets in those architectural spaces of the Great Church, but only two texts are known from Fossati's drawings: Isaiah 7:14 and Baruch 3:36, inscribed on the scrolls once carried by Isaiah and Jeremiah respectively. To the best of this author's knowledge, there is no surviving evidence documenting the depiction in monumental painting of Isaiah paired with Jeremiah and the texts of Isaiah 7:14 with that of Baruch 3:36 anywhere within the Byzantine empire predating the representation known to have existed in Hagia Sophia. Furthermore, the Typicon of the Great Church confirms that these two quotations were a part of the liturgical reading in Constantinople at least by the year 878 AD,(3) a date close to the period of the execution of the mosaic images of the prophets in Hagia Sophia. Therefore, one might assume that Constantinople was not only the place of origin for this practice of paired Isaiah and Jeremiah holding scrolls with the above-mentioned quotations, but served also as the disseminating center for this particular theological exegesis. The loss of monuments disallows a definite establishment of usage pattern for these particular quotations, but once established in the course of the second half of the ninth century, the selections occur in Byzantine monumental painting until 1453. In conclusion, one can observe that only among many surviving monuments created during the first half of the fourteenth century, these particularly paired selections of prophets' texts are inexplicably absent.

1. Alfred Rahlfs, "Die alltestamentlichen Lektionen der griechischen Kirche," Nachrichten von der Kdniglichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gdttingen, 1915 (Berlin, 1916), pp. 32, 36, 54, 61-62, 67-68.

2. Cyril Mango, Materials for the Study of the Mosaics of St. Sophia at Istanbul, Dumbarton Oaks Studies Vill, Washington, D.C., 1962, pp. 58-60, diagrams III and IV, fig. 78-82, 85-86.

3. Juan Mateos, Le Typicon de la Grande Eglise, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 165 and 166, Roma, 1962 and 1963, vol. 1, pp. x-xi, vol. 2, pp. 222-223.

The Genesis Frieze at Trebizond

Linda Safran (Catholic University)

The frieze of Genesis scenes carved on the south porch of the monastery church of Hagia Sophia at Trebizond (1238-63) has received little attention since it was briefly described in 1895. An article in 1927 also described the scenes, and claimed that the aim of the reliefs was to give a detailed illustration of the corresponding biblical text; indeed, the text of Genesis 2:8 is still legible above the right half of the frieze. Above the left half the text is not from the Bible, but from the Lenten Triodion. The reliefs themselves, their relationships to the accompanying texts, and their meaning in the wider contexts of the porch and of the church have not been addressed.

The Genesis episodes at Trebizond reveal both compositional and iconographic peculiarities. The scenes, from the Creation of Eve to after the Expulsion, are arranged from right to left. This compositional anomaly has been attributed to "oriental taste" and specifically related to the disposition of images in Syriac bibles. This hypothesis needs reevaluation. In the scenes depicted, Adam and Eve are clothed in Paradise and nude after the Fall. The iconography of a clothed Adam is rare, but not unique: it may be observed in a thirteenth­century wall painting at Otranto in South Italy and in several eleventh-and twelfth-century manuscripts. In addition, there is a long literary tradition that Adam wore "robes of glory' or "garments of light" that were lost by the serpent's wiles. The Triodion itself refers to the "robe woven by God." The development of this tradition in homiletic literature and its reiteration in the liturgical book from which one of the two neighboring inscriptions derives evidently influenced the planner of the sculptural decoration. The association of clothing and the prelapsarian state would not have been lost on the (clothed) worshipers approaching the south porch, which was the facade seen first by anyone entering the monastic complex.

As noted, the sculpted frieze unfurls beneath two textual excerpts. The scriptural text was read on the first Thursday of Lent, while the liturgical phrase occurs on the Sunday before Lent. It therefore seems likely that the porch served a penitential function during Lent. The Genesis frieze at Trebizond cannot be understood as simple illustration of the biblical narrative, nor as an illustration of the adjacent inscriptions. This paper will probe the unusual choices made in the composition, iconography, and tituli of the Genesis scenes at Trebizond, and posit a specific liturgical function for the south porch.

XI. MEDIEVAL GREECE

Chair: Sharon Gerstel (University of Maryland)

Settlement and Citadel in Frankish Morea

Joseph D. Alchermes (University of Minnesota)

In the 1993 and 1994 field seasons, the Minnesota Morea Project successfully concluded the survey of many abandoned fortifications and towns in the medieval Principality of Achaia. The monuments studied over the last two years received little or no attention from earlier historians and archaeologists interested in medieval Peloponnesos. In the northwestern corner of the principality on and near Mts. Skollis and Erymanthos, survey was completed at the so­called Gyfthokastro north of Skollis, the ruined town of Portai on Skollis' crest near the southern end, the town of Sandomeri near the mountain's main peak, a very large but anonymous hilltop site in the upper Peneios valley, and a locality today called Ayia Triada (southwest of Erymanthos). All five locations feature substantial remains that have been recorded and whose analysis has begun; of these sites, Sandomeri was the most important. As a seat of the powerful St.-Omer family, it was one of the largest medieval settlements in Morea; a document of 1377 gives it the considerable population of 500 households. The state of preservation of these sites varies considerably; the circuit walls of Gyfthokastro are virtually intact, while Sandomeri, Portai and the nameless settlement are ruined and covered with scrubby growth. A dense woods has grown over the remains of Ayia Triada. Reconnaissance of another group of sites, comparable in importance and in state of preservation, was performed in the rugged territory between the towns of Halandritsa and Kalavryta delimited by Mts. Erymanthos, Panachalikon and Aroania.

This paper presents a brief summary of the outcome of field work, an overview of the methods used in gathering field data and an outline of the results obtained in the computer laboratory when: 1) certain data are processed and incorporated in the Geographic Information System (GIS) developed for northwest Peloponnesos; 2) information on the individual components of abandoned sites-buildings, roads and natural features-is entered in computer­aided design (CAD) files which can then be elaborated to produce reconstructions of specific buildings, groups of structures, entire sites and the broader landscape. The combined use of advanced technologies and more traditional survey methods makes it possible to gather quickly and interpret most effectively the evidence for medieval patterns of settlement, land division and exploitation of the territory.

Evidence of Greek Women's Economic Activities under Venetian Rule

Sally McKee (University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh)

Greek women under Venetian rule in the fourteenth century found ways to participate in the economy of Crete, in spite of occupying the lowest rung on the colony's social ladder. However, their economic role in the Venetian colony is still little understood, since most traces of Greek women appear in largely unexamined sources, namely, notarial registers. The registers of the notaries working in fourteenth-century Candia (Crete), Venice's largest and longest-held colony, contain various kinds of documents, which make it possible to learn more about the ways Greek women survived and even prospered under Venetian rule. Such archival sources are also the principal means of discerning whether women were more active economically than the legal restrictions placed on them might suggest.

Wills are a principal source of information about the activities of Greek women in the colony. The Greek women who made wills were either women of the elite, whose wills reveal possession of large amounts of property, or they were the wives of more humble artisans, notaries and tradesmen. When they are mentioned in the wills of others, they are most often in servile positions - servants, nurses and a few other occupations, earning wages in Latin and Greek households. Furthermore, the wills show that Greek women commonly lent money in exchange for pawns. Three wills, in particular, are of special interest. These wills were made by three monache, Greek religious women residing in monastic houses, who regularly lent money and took pawns. The Venetian administration apparently allowed some of its Greek subjects more latitude than it might have granted to its Latin subiects in similar circumstances, since the practice of usury was normally forbidden to Christians of the Roman church.

Notarial transactions involving sales of goods or sea loans constitute another important source of information. One notarial register in particular contains numerous transactions involving a moderately wealthy Greek woman, Cali, the widow of Andreas Agapito. In the last two years of her life, 1345 to 1347, Cali bought very large quantities of wine, made modest sea loans to merchants about to embark on commercial voyages and sold livestock and silk. These fifty-four notarial transactions, ending with the recording of Cali's will, appear in the register's first folios and present an uncommon opportunity to glimpse the economic activity of a Greek woman, living in a society which historians have traditionally presented as being economically restrictive to its Greek members.

The notarial documents make plain that Greek women developed a resourcefulness in adapting to a system that did not favor them but tolerated their efforts to support themselves. Moreover, examples such as those presented in this report demonstrate the need to bring historians' understanding of women's economic capacities more in line with evidence of their economic actions in the late medieval period.

XII. HISTORY AND TEXTS

Chair: George Majeska (University of Maryland)

Controversy about Prescription (Statute of Limitations) in Macedonian Novels: Policies and Politics

Danuta Gorecki (University of Illinois)

A list of conditions under which a person could acquire property of an object held by him with intention of becoming its owner was combined by medieval jurists into a smart hexameter: res habilis, titulusque, fides, possessio. tempus. Res habilis was an object not excluded by law from commercial traffic; titulus was to be J ides- bona possessio - not challenged by claim of another person during time prescribed by law (tempus). Justinian continued to adjust the tenus to the changing needs of the empire's economy. The final form of his prescription required a good faith 30 year possession of private land and 40 year of fiscal, ecclesiastical and imperial properties. In post Justinianic era, the condition of good faith was dropped and, thus, during the Macedonian rule, it was possible to acquire ownership of land held in bad faith for the 30 or 40 years.

In order to stop disintegration of rural communities caused by acquisition of peasant land by the powerful (dynatoi), Romanus 1 Lecapenus reintroduced preemption law in the novel of 922. In his novel of 934, the emperor pronounced invalid all sales of peasant land to the powerful which took place after the famine of 927/28 and, thus, turned all these powerful into bad faith possessors of peasant property. It is unthinkable to assume that Romanus I intended to allow these powerful to benefit from the 30 year bad faith prescription. Yet, he failed to express his imperial will in this matter in any clear statement. It was only Basil It who, sixty years later, deplored the disastrous consequences of Romanus' lack of precision, which was interpreted by the powerful in favor of their own interests. Stressing that, in fact, Romanus I excluded peasant land sold to the powerful after 927/28 from the category of res habiles, Basil II retrospectively abolished any prescription that would limit peasants' right to vindicate their property. I do not share N. Svoronos' assumption that this decree referred to the prescription mentioned in Constantine Vll's novel of 949 which, as I believe, was a fraudulent interpolation totally contrasting with Constantine's legal philosophy.

The powerful continued to defend the legality of their acquisitions well into the 12th cent. Svoronos in his comparative analysis of various versions of the novels found numerous changes of their wording which distorted the meaning of the original text, and interpolations which changed provisions of positive law . These deceptive practices in conjunction with tendentious interpretation of existing law by jurists aimed at sabotaging the proper enforcement of Macedonian legislation (TM 1119651, pp. 352-391; ZRVI 8(1964), pp. 427-434). The novel of 922 became the main target of the attack. Its later versions include such interpolations as provisions permitting the powerful to acquire state and escheated land in the community; a 10 year prescription for challenging their purchases of peasant land; a strange addition dealing with a 30 year prescription in case of alienating land of a stratiotes.

I have a feeling that some of interpolations in this novel deserve a new look, especially in light of N. Oikonomides' analysis of imperial policies to restore tax income from unproductive state lands (see ByzF 7(1986), pp. 161-168 ), and of recent comments by J. Haldon on the addition concerning stratiotic land (DOP 47 (1993), p. 32, note 80).

Gregory Pakourianos and Byzantine Internal Expansion

Leonora A. Neville (Princeton University)

After decades of fighting strenuously and ineffectively against the Turks in eastern Anatolia, Gregory Pakourianos retired with his companions to lands granted to him in the western spur of the Thracian plain. There he founded the great Georgian monastery at Backova. He was not, however, able to enjoy a peaceful retirement because the lands he was given, while technically well within imperial borders, were hardly under Byzantine control. When this part of western Thrace was taken from the Bulgarians in 971, the emperor John Tzimiskes settled the region with Paulican separatists whose power in northeastern Anatolia he was trying to break. Tzimiskes' goal was to protect eastern Thrace by having a strong group of Paulican warriors serve as a buffer against the attacks of the Pechenegs and other northern raiders. Through the eleventh century real Byzantine control of the region remained tenuous and the Paulican community was still large, unassimilated and rebellious during the reign of Alexios I Komnenos.

The settlement of Gregory and his companions in this region can be considered part of Alexios' efforts to strengthen the empire's hold on its western possessions in face of its losses in the east. Alexios undertook to confiscate the lands of Paulican leaders in the Balkans and granted these lands to his loyal supporters. Some of the lands granted to Pakourianos and listed in the typicon of the Monastery at Backova may have been among those Alexios confiscated from the Paulicans. Pakourianos died not far from Backova fighting the rebellion of a Paulican whose family had suffered from Alexios' attacks. It can be argued that Alexios attempted to strengthen the Byzantine position in the Balkans by granting loyal warriors lands that he did not effectively control. This paper will try to evaluate the impact of Pakourianos' settlement and the foundation of his monastery on Byzantine control of western Trace, and explore the possibility that Pakourianos benefited from the confiscations of Paulican land.

The Letters of Theophylact of Ohrid as a Source for the Events of the First Crusade

Kenneth Snipes (Manhattan College)

Sir Steven Runciman, at the end of the first volume of his History of the Crusades (Cambridge 1951), gives a list of the principal sources for the history of the First Crusade. Contemporary Greek sources, with the exception of the Alexiad of Anna Corunena, are surprisingly meager. Sir Steven remarks, however, that "the letters of Theophlyact, Archbishop of Bulgaria, as yet inadequately edited, provide a little additional information." A modem critical edition of these letters appeared in 1986, Theophylacti Achridensis Epistulae, edited by Paul Gautier, and published posthumously by his colleague Albert Failler, as volume XVl /2 of the Corpus fontium historiae byzantinae (Thessaloniki). No study has yet been made of these letters as a source for the events of the First Crusade.

Theophylact, as Archbishop of Ohrid, witnessed the march of the Crusaders through territory over which he had spiritual authority, as they passed along the Via Egnatia en route to Constantinople. Letter 52 to the Bishop of Kristos, briefly refers to the passage of the Crusaders and the troubles they had caused the local inhabitants. Letter 81, to Gregory Taronites, refers to the capture of the Norman leader, Bohemond, by the emir of Siwas in 1100. There are numerous problems and difficulties associated with the use of these letters as an historical source. Many of them are not securely dated, and the names and positions of the recipients are often doubtfully identified or unknown. In spite of these problems, it is possible to extract more information from these letters, especially if they are read carefully with the known events of the First Crusade in mind.

The Use of Foul Language and the Medieval Bon Ton: Some Examples from the History of Byzantino-Bulgarian Relations

Liliana Simeonova (SUNY-Albany)

About ten years ago J. Paramelle published a short Greek text, which he entitled Pornike he On Boulgar6n basileia.(1) The text may have been written by a Byzantine emperor and describes the difficulties which a Byzantine army had to endure in Bulgaria during a terrible winter. Having given the author some hard time, Bulgaria, no doubt, deserves bad epithets. Paramelle translates pornike as "decevante" and suggests that in this case the epithet pomikos is used in the early Christian sense of "illusoire, menteur." In other words, the text refers to the "deceptive Bulgarian nation."

However, if we examine this passage in the context of what other high ranking Byzantine officials and even emperors wrote or said of neighboring Bulgaria, we will see that the use of foul language is not uncommon among Byzantine intellectuals. Most often Bulgarians are referred to as theomisetoi (goddamned): see, for example, the references in Constantine Porphyrogenitus and Nicholas Mystikos. Both the Bulgarian nation and its rulers are often called Skythai, which is the equivalent to our modern epithet "Vandals." Sometimes Byzantine intellectuals go as far as to invent compound words, which are supposed to convey certain characteristics of their Bulgarian neighbors and, above all, of their neighbors' dislike of them: misoromaiof, Rhomaioktonos.

Attempts to humiliate the other country's envoys are not an uncommon practice. The humiliation was actually directed at their sovereigns. Byzantines complain that Bulgarian rulers are sometimes quite arrogant in their attitude toward imperial diplomats: of all Bulgarian rulers who are said to have been mean to Byzantine envoys Symeon and John Alexander seem to have been the worst ones. Some Byzantine emperors are also described as having been arrogant with Bulgarian embassies: Alexander, Leo VI's brother, was so arrogant with Symeon s envoys, that this resulted in a Byzantino-Bulgarian war; Nicephorus Phocas, apart from being arrogant with the Bulgarian envoys, called their ruler, Peter, ho tridoulos ek progonon skytotrdktes ("a three times slave by ancestry who gnaws leather').

In other words, the use of foul language was not unknown to medieval diplomatic practice. Sometimes refined etiquette gave way to outbursts of arrogance when the normally accepted bon ton was abandoned. In the absence of diplomatic immunity in the modern sense the rulers wrath might result not only in a verbal but also in a physical assault aimed at the foreign envoy. (Leo Choerosphactes' Bulgarian experience proved to be both humiliating and physically exhausting; however, medieval sources can provide examples when envoys were beaten and thrown in jail.) It is small wonder then that pornike used with reference to the empire of the Bulgarians should be interpreted in its original sense, i.e. of/ for harlots. Or, no matter whether the author of this text was an emperor or another Byzantine aristocrat, he simply could not refrain from cursing the country which had caused both him and his predecessors so many headaches.

I J. Paramelle, in Byzance et les Slaves. Etudes de Civilisation. Melanges 1. Dujcev, Paris 1983, pp. 317-331.

XIII. BYZANTINE ART AND THE WEST: A RE-EXAMINATION

Chair: Maria Georgopoulou (Yale University)

Vienna Cod. 93 and the Use of Byzantine Art in southern Italy

Rebecca W. Corrie (Bates College)

Despite his reputation as a patron of the arts, scholars working on Frederick II Hohenstaufen are often hard-pressed to find extant manuscripts that can be ascribed to his patronage. Among the few works that conform to our impression of Frederick as a patron of both art and science is the medical compilation Codex Vindobonensis 93 in the Austrian National Library in Vienna, which was executed in Southern Italy shortly before or, more likely, shortly after Frederick's death in 1250. This manuscript has drawn the attention of scholars across the twentieth century from Georg Swarzenski to Franz Unterkircher, and most recently Giulia Omfino, but most have focussed on the study of its stemma, although Orofino has discussed it in terms of Frederick's scientific interests and the developing naturalism of the thirteenth century. The result of such particularized study has been the omission of Vienna 93 from recent general discussions of South Italian manuscripts.

Yet close study of the illuminations' style can be be revealing. G.M. Kauffmann has commented that in some details the manuscript resembles others produced during the reign of Manfred, Frederick's son and successor in Southern Italy, and Unterkircher accurately noted parallels to the Sicilian mosaics. Most extensive and helpful has been the work of Heide Grape-Albers. In her book published in 1977, she observed that the highly Byzantinizing Vienna 93 is not as close to its late antique model as is its "pendant," the Laurenziana's MS. Plut. 73.16, also produced in Southern Italy at about the same time. Like Unterkircher she suggested that the artist who executed the Vienna images modified the models, enhancing the Byzantine qualities of costumes and drapery. These comments are intriguing, for close parallels to the figure types and drapery in Vienna 93 can be found in the Conradin Bible, MS. 152 in the Walters Art Gallery, produced a few decades later in an atelier closely related to one that produced manuscripts for Manfred. Like Vienna 93, the Conradin Bible has illuminations which suggest that a painter "Byzantinized" the style of the images in his models. Study of Vienna 93 provides us with a clearer and more convincing explanation for the style of the Conradin Bible and other works from the same atelier. The presence of an artist working in a similar Byzantinizing manner in Southern Italy fifteen years before the primary activity of the Conradin Bible atelier provides a larger context and a partial explanation for the later atelier's facility in imitating and incorporating Byzantine models. It underlines the importance of looking beyond the usual array of religious and liturgical manuscripts and studying secular works despite their different formats and contents. And, finally, it allows us to put the problematic Vienna manuscript into its full historical context.

Documenting the Maniera Greca

Ann Derbes (Hood College)

Twenty-four years after the publication of Otto Demus's Byzantine Art and the West, much about the reception of Byzantine art in thirteenth-century Italy is incompletely understood. Even basic assumptions about the mamera greca are coming under scrutiny. For instance, at the Dumbarton Oaks Symposium in May, 1993, Robert Nelson and Anthony Cutler presented papers that challenged one of the long-held tenets of the field, that Byzantine manuscripts and ivories were available in significant quantities in thirteenth-century central Italy. Even before Demus, scholars believed that the painters of the maniera greca had access to such works, presumably plundered from Constantinople by looting soldiers of the Fourth Crusade. Nelson and Cutler concluded from a close examination of records and inventories that there is very little evidence of these objects in central Italy before the fifteenth century.

This paper is intended as a response to their papers-or at least to conclusions that a casual reader might draw from their work. It is not surprising that we have scant written documentation of Byzantine manuscripts and ivories in the dugento. We have little documentation of Italian painting in thirteenth-century Italy. If we were forced to rely only on documents, we would have to conclude that fewer than two dozen people worked as panel painters in all of Italy during the thirteenth century. There have been enormous losses, too, in the works of art that must have once existed in dugento Italy. Garrison's conservative estimate, which most specialists find convincing, is that perhaps 1% of the original production of panel paintings survives today; he estimated destruction of a similar magnitude for Italian manuscript painting.

Italy, then, has suffered such vast losses-both in written records and in the works themselves-that one must approach what has survived with caution. Yet the 1% of dugento painting that remains does provide us with some information about the availability of Byzantine works in Italy. An examination of panels produced between c. 1235 and c. 1300 will reveal that their painters had studied Byzantine art very closely, and at times reproduced Byzantine compositions meticulously. To be sure, they did not always do so; the reception of Byzantine objects in central Italy varied considerably, for reasons that 1 have examined elsewhere. Further, there is good reason to question the traditional role assigned to the Fourth Crusade; it is only some decades later that central Italian painters, or their employers, evinced much interest in Byzantine art. But beginning around 1235 Italian painters at times appropriated so much from Byzantium, in such precise detail, that they must have had access to Byzantine images in some form-either originals or excellent copies. My purpose is not to insist that they used either manuscripts or ivories; the painters may well have worked from icons, although few of these can be documented either, or from copies. The point is that they had to work from something. As we refine our understanding of the maniera greca, we need to reconcile evidence provided by written documents with the evidence of Italian art itself.

Byzantine Art and the West: Pattern Books or Artists?

Robert S. Nelson (University of Chicago)

In 1845, Alphonse Didron published Manuel d'iconographie chretienne and thereby introduced Byzantine art into the medieval revivals of French and German Romanticism. Indeed, Didron dedicated his book to his hero, Victor Hugo, whose Notre-Dame de Paris was termed the "cathedral of the Middle Ages." Didron s Middle Ages were similarly textual, not visual. What Didron published was a vast compilation of iconographic details about Orthodox iconography, now credited to an eighteenth-century Athonite painter far removed from the Middle Ages. Didron, however, presented it differently. For him, the Greek painter was the "slave of theologians," someone, like the bee making its hive, who acted by mere instinct, following the traditions recorded in his text. Throughout the later nineteenth century, Didrons book was one of, if not the mostly frequently cited source for Byzantine art, especially by historians of western medieval iconography. For the latter, Byzantium was like the Painter's Manuel, a stockpile of motifs for the use of the West.

Otto Demus' Byzantine Art and the West of 1970 attempted to shift the inquiry from the, by then, traditional area of iconography into "more purely artistic values." Yet Didrons legacy has not disappeared, and the notion still lingers in some quarters that Byzantine iconography was literally codified, that is, written down in a code. Studies of Byzantine manuscript illumination have contributed to this attitude by widely disseminating this imagery and turning the manuscript into a work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction.

This pattern of scholarship will be juxtaposed with the historical reception of illustrated Byzantine manuscripts in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In brief, virtually no illustrated Greek manuscripts were available in Italy before the fifteenth century and in France and Germany before the sixteenth century. Thus whereas it is entirely legitimate to cite a Byzantine miniature as an example of an image known to a western artist, it is problematic to claim a specific manuscript as the very source. A manuscript, such as the Cotton Genesis whose replication was politically motivated, is the exception that proves the rule. In the aftermath of 1204, Greek manuscripts were not collected on a large scale in the West. Unlike hardstone carving or metalwork, a manuscript had little intrinsic value; unlike a relic or icon, it could work no miracles; and most importantly, it could not be read by Westerners before Greek began to be widely taught in Quattrocento Italy.

How then did late medieval Italian painters learn about the maniera greca? A few might have traveled to the East; some may have copied icons. However, Italian and Byzantine painting share not only iconography and style, but also technique, be it mosaic, panel painting, or fresco. Perhaps then, we should pay attention to Vasari, when he writes of Greek painters coming to thirteenth-century Florence. Certainly we have artistic and textual evidence that Byzantine painters worked in Venice, Genoa, and Sicily in the later Middle Ages. But then did Byzantine painters bring with them something like a "painter's handbook" and leave it behind for their Italian apprentices? We do have textual evidence of sketches and drawings being passed from artist to artist. However, surviving sketches are rare. Of greater importance must have been the visual memories of painters, whose acuity in this respect was at least at great as the art historical "eye." Painters look and paint; scholars read and write. In accounting for the presence of the "Greek manner" in the West, have we scholars emphasized our own craft traditions?

XIV CHURCH CONTROVERSIES

Chair: David Evans (St. John's University)

Did Juian Try to Create a "Pagan Church"?

Anthony Kaldellis (The University of Michigan)

No scholarly account of the reign of Julian (361-363) is complete without describing his alleged efforts to rally pagan cults into a Christian-like 'Church'. According to this theory, Julian created a pagan ecclesiastical hierarchy modeled on the Christian Church, nominating provincial high priests to function as bishops in a pagan context, organizing charity, giving moral advice, appointing lower ranking priests to the temples of their provinces, etc. Corollaries of this systematic effort were the establishment of a pagan doctrine, penance for sins, monasteries, and prayers.

This theory has held the field unchallenged for too long. It loses credibility by the fact that it was first formulated by Julian's enemy Gregory of Nazianzus, who wished to portray Julian asa slavish imitator of successful Christianity. My paper will try to refute this theory by a piecemeal re-examination of the evidence, which will lead to a new interpretation of Julian's policies. I will conclude that Julian utilized traditional structures and practices in order to meet the great challenge of Christianity.

In his Kata loulianou basilebs steliteutikos pr6tos (111-2), Gregory accused Julian of planning to appropriate certain Christian practices and incorporate them into pagan cults. It is highly significant that Gregory admits that this religious theft "den eteleiosen homos, oute eginen ergo to egcheirema too andros." Furthermore, many of the practices in question, such as prayer, letters of recommendation for priests, and ceremonial initiation, were never exclusive to Christianity, and were essential components of pagan cults from pre-Christian antiquity down to the fourth century. The remainder of Gregory's accusations (with one exception) find no confirmation in our remaining sources and, by Gregory's own admission, were not even carried out by Julian.

The ecclesiastical hierarcy of the 'Pagan Church' has received most attention, although Gregory does not mention it. Its existence and Christian model are allegedly established by Julian's own letters. However, it will be shown that these provincial high priests were unlike Christian bishops in important respects. They had a limited term of service (significantly referred to as a leitourgia by Julian), and they moved without difficulty from these hieratic positions to administrative or even military ones. Julian urged them to promote local traditional rites, whatever they may be. Julian was obviously not much concerned with uniformity. Furthermore, Julianic high priests are attested only in Asia Minor. There was no Empire-wide pagan ekklesia. I will show that far from creating an ecclesiastical hierarchy, Julian utilized the Imperial cult, which had always been organized by provincial high priests, to repair the damage done to temples and traditional practices in the reigns of Constantine and Constantius.

In conclusion, I will question the validity of the use of the word 'Pagan'. Paganism was never a monolithic religious structure, nor could it ever have been made into one. Julian never promoted any one cult over the others, and the religious diversity of the pagan world was highly unsuitable material for a unified 'Church'.

The Church Recast: The Struggle between Arians and Nicenes for the Churches of Constantinople

Josephine Shaya (The University of Michigan)

The first target of rebels in any modern revolution is the radio and television stations, that is, the source of "authoritative" information. In the fourth century, during the Arian controversy, those who possessed the churches held the pulpits from which popular opinion could be informed and swayed. The controversy was an intellectual dispute over the relationship between the Father and the Son. But at the local level, this dispute was manifest as a struggle for the possession of churches. A change of power in Constantinople between^, Nicene and Arian emperors was followed by the transfer of churches from the unfavored sect to the emperor's favorite. The church building-the physical body of the church-was more than a stage on which the local battle between Arians and Nicenes took place. It was the object of this battle. Arians and Nicenes took turns evicting one another from their churches and claiming the buildings as their own. One church might pass from Orthodox to Arian and back again.

In my paper I consider the battle for the possession of churches in Constantinople during the Arlan controversy. I examine the literary evidence of church takeovers to consider the ways in which this process was played out. How were the churches possessed and how was the possession of churches legitimized? What role did myths and legends play in these struggles? In AD 343 Constantius appointed Macedonius as bishop in Constantinople. Sozomen describes the ensuing struggle for the possession of the cathedral. Soldiers escorted the Nicene bishop Peter out of the city into exile. Philip, the Prefect of Constantinople, proceeded with a military guard to the cathedral with the Arian Bishop. Arians and Nicenes both rushed to get in on the action over possession of the church. The crowd was large, and when the prefect and Macedonius arrived, the mob blocked the soldiers from the church. The soldiers attacked and allegedly over 3,000 persons were slain, only some by the soldiers. Bishop Macedonius and the Arians took control of the cathedral and the other Constantinopolitan churches as a result of the bloodshed. Possession by Bishop Macedonius made the cathedral Arian. When Macedonius took the cathedral of Constantinople, he claimed its congregation as well.

The literary record describes more subtle aspects of the struggle over the possession of churches. A church may have been like a fort to capture. But to defend it, Nicenes and Arians alike strove to legitimize their possession, to symbolicaily recast a particular church as their own. Under Theodosius, the Nicenes took back the cathedral of Constantinople from the Arians. But they needed more than the power of Theodosius and his troops to legitimize their possession. The Nicenes brought the relics of Bishop Peter into the very church that Macedonius had displaced him from. The relics of Macedonius, which the Arians had put in the cathedral, were cast out. The transfer of relics symbolically revised the cathedral's history, honoring the Nicene bishop, Peter, and sweeping away the Arian Macedonius as one who had illegally held the Constantinopolitan see.

In a similar effort to legitimize possession the Nicenes created myths which conceal the Arlan history of their churches, saving the congregation from having had an Arian past. Socrates reports that the congregation of the church of Anastasia tore down their building rather than cede it to Macedonius. They carried the stones, tiles and timber outside the city walls and rebuilt the church. When Julian ordered the Arians to restore Nicene churches, the congregation again unassembled their church, hauled the debris into Constantinople, and resurrected the building on its original site. The myth recasts the history of the church, which in all likelihood the Arians had held. The church of Anastasia was recreated and remembered as steadfastly devoted to Nicene.

Centralized Authority in the Syriac Dyophisite Church? Catholicos Isho-yahb 111 (644-658) vs. Bishop Simeon of Rev Ardashir

Victoria Erhart (Dumbarton Oaks/ Catholic University)

The synodical records of the Syriac Dyophysite Church preserved in J.B. Chabot's edition, Synodicon Orientale (Paris, 1904). present the idea that all juridical authority for ecclesiastical matters resided with the holder of the office of catholicos; that the idea of centralization of authority was widely agreed upon; and that the idea was one of long standing. In actual fact, an individual catholicos had only as much authority as he could wring from monastic loaders, powertul laymen and quasi-autonomous bishops. Catholicos Isho-yahb 111(644-658) had his problems with members from each of those groups.

In particular, Catholicos Isho-yahb III had problems with Bishop Simeon of Rev Ardashir and the monks from Katar, a district on the Persian Gulf near present-day Bahrain. It was a location far removed from the catholicos and the center of the Sasanian Empire, crumbling under the first wave of Islamic conquerors. Bishop Simeon refused obedience to Catholicos Isho-yahb Ill, for reasons that have long been unclear to scholars. The collection of 7 letters from Catholicos Isho-yahb III to Bishop Simeon and the monks of Katar, preserved in Thomas of Marga's Book of Governors (London, 1893), has yet to be translated into a modern language. Through a careful reading of these letters I intend to show that the dispute between the catholicos and the bishop must be seen as one among many examples of challenges to the authority of the Catholicate itself from a variety of quarters. This dispute was concerned with matters of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and only secondarily involved questions regarding the christological controversy spreading throughout the Syriac-speaking Christian community.

Oikonomia in the Religious and Political Controversies of the Eighth and Ninth Centuries

Carl Lardiero (Lanham, Maryland)

From 784 to 815 Tarasios and Nikephoros governed the church and shared a common view of oikonomia and how it should be applied. In the Simoniac, Moechian and Iconoclast controversies, the patriarchate applied oikonomia in order to achieve the general well-being of the church and state. In the case of repentant iconoclast bishops and priests, the council fathers at Nikaia II under Tarasios' presidency extended oikonomia to repentant iconoclast bishops and priests, but they rejected the extension to simoniac bishops under pressure from the rigorist monks. The empress Eirene, however, pressured Tarasios and the permanent synod to issue a decree reinstating simoniacal bishops. The rigorist monks predictably opposed the patriarch's position of applying oikonomia in this matter and broke communion with him. In the divorce and remarriage of Konstantinos VI, the controversy began in the reign of Tarasios and extended into patriarch Nikephoros' reign. At the bidding of the emperor, both patriarchs applied oikonomia and restored Joseph of Kathara to the priesthood. For Tarasios and Nikephoros, bishops possessed the power of applying oikonomia, that is, relaxing ecclesiastical law in order to eliminate any obstacle to salvation. With the reemergence of iconoclasm in 815, Nikephoros refused to apply oikonomia in the matter of venerating ikons, since he considered this was a matter of church doctrine and could not be changed at all, under any circumstances.

Most research on oikonomia has concerned canonical issues by focusing on such matters as marriage. Little attention has been given to the principle of oikonomia in the religious and political controversies of the eighth and ninth centuries, and yet this principle figured prominently as an essential concept in determining the relationship between church and state. For example, the primary focus in the Moechian affair was not the validity of Konstantinos VI's marriage but the relationship between church and state The patriarchate applied oikonomia in this controversy and in the Simoniac affair in order to achieve the general well-being of the church and state. The interdependence between church and state required, as long as doctrine was not involved, the application of oikonomia for the good order of both church and state. It is in this context that oikonomia should be analyzed.

XV CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY I

Chair: Alice Christ (University of Kentucky)

The Implications of the Quedlinburg Itala Fragments

David H. Wright (Berkeley, California)

It is commonly agreed that the four scattered fragments of a Latin Books of Kings found pasted down to seventeenth-century bindings in Quedlinburg are the remains of a manuscript made in Rome in sometime around 400, in the same milieu as the Vatican Vergil. It is also commonly recognized that the detailed instructions to the painter written by the organizer of the production on three of the pages left empty for illustrations prove that the artist was expected to invent the illustrations from scratch, and that the casual pen marks and labels indicating the content of the fourth illustrations imply the same assignment to the painter. It is obvious the painter used formulae from imperial art and the other ordinary stock motifs to carry out his task.

But there are other important questions that need to be considered: what was the scope of the whole project? for whom was this undertaken? What do such considerations yield for our understanding of developing Christian culture in Rome at this time?

It is easy to estimate that the text of the four books of Kings written in this large and beautiful uncial script in two narrow columns, on pages roughly 30x28 cm, required about 190 folios. Two of the scattered fragments come close enough together in the text to allow a careful estimate of the number of folios lost between them: from I Samuel 9.8 on folio Iv to I Samuel 15.9 immediately before the illustrations on folio 2r requires 11 folios of text, or slightly more. Considering the relation of illustrations on text in the surviving pages, the number of illustratable incidents in this part of the text, and the likely chapter divisions, there were probably three pages of illustrations lost between these, requiring a total of 14 folios. Extrapolating from that, a conservative estimate would give 75 pages of illustrations form the whole book, each with four or more incidents illustrated, meaning at least 300 episodes illustrated, which is not unreasonable considering that the entirely independent Middle Byzantine Kings manuscript in the Vatican illustrated 115 episodes in the first book of Samuel before slowing down the pace in the second book. For comparison, consider the two other books known to have been illustrated in Rome around 400: the Vatican Vergil had about 280 illustrations but those for the Aeneid had an iconographic model while the painter had to invent ten illustrations for the Eclogues and at least 60 for the Georgics; the lost Terence had seven frontispieces and 147 narrative illustrations, all invented. The complete Quedlinburg Books of Kings was thus a very large artistic undertaking.

Who paid for it? Who would want such a splendid edition of a relatively unfamiliar and inglorious part of the Bible? The only reasonable answer seems to be the Pope. Indeed, this is the era when the Bishop of Rome became truly the Pope. Innocent 1 (401-417) is often considered the first to deserve that dignity. The sources amply document the assertion of papal authority in this era, beginning with the first papal decretal, issued by Siricius in 385, but they give no information on these popes' cultural and artistic activities except to make it clear that Innocent was actively involved in building new churches. We know nothing of a papal library but it is reasonable to suppose that there was one.

To carry this speculation one step further, surely it is reasonable to suppose that other books of the Bible would have been illustrated in a similar manner. Some subjects already had an established iconography from their use in funerary art, and such familiar schemes were probably adapted for these manuscripts, but a great deal of Christian narrative inconography must have been invented for these Roman manuscripts, following the procedure documented for the Quedlinburg fragments. In the next generation we reach the first great cycle of wall painting, in S. Maria Maggiore, dated between 432 and 440; some of these scenes obviously depend on the traditions of monumental art, but some resemble manuscript illustrations of this time in style, while differing from familiar iconography. The Quedlinburg fragments at least show that Roman painters could rise to such a task; they may also suggest that some of these scenes were invented a little earlier in books illustrated for the Pope. If such books contained the Old Latin text, as does the Quedlinburg Itala, they soon became obsolete as the Vulgate gained universal acceptance; such a book could still have been used for S. Maria Maggiore before being set aside, and then, like the Quedlinburg Itala itself, have left no further trace in Christian iconography. At any rate, these pathetic fragments imply an extraordinary flourishing of Christian art under papal patronage in Rome around 400.

According to the Flesh: King David and Christ in Early Christian Art

Charlotte Houghton (Duke University)

Among early Christian portrait types of Christ none has proved more puzzling than the short-haired, trimly-bearded one which appears in the Rabbula Gospels and on the coinage of Justinian II. While only a few examples of the type survive-mainly from the sixth through early eighth centuries-this short-haired Christ has proved particularly interesting because in some contexts it appears in seemingly intentional juxtaposition with a contrasting, long-haired, flowingly-bearded "Jovian" Christ type. Numerous art historians have explored the possible meaning of these juxtapositions. None, however, has proposed a satisfactory explanation for the short-haired type's origin, its sudden appearance in the sixth century, or its initial function.

Through a visual analysis of early Christian portrait types and an application of reception theory, the current study draws two conclusions: first, that the short-haired Christ type was based on contemporary representations of the Biblical King David; second, that its makers relied upon their audience's knowledge of Byzantine portrait vocabulary to draw a desired connection between the two. An examination of contemporaneous Christological debates suggests, furthermore, that certain parties had much to gain through representing Christ with clear reference to David.

Earliest surviving depictions of David present him as a valorous youth conquering Goliath. Well before Christians engaged in overt illustration of Biblical narrative, this scene functioned as an evocation of Christ's redemptive power and his victory over Satan. Augustine later glossed the Goliath incident in just these terms. Indeed, throughout the Early Christian era, David played a continuing role as a type for Christ.

From the early sixth century, however, we find evidence of a new development in David's representation. In contrast to the youthful giant-slayer, there arises a distinctive portrait type of David as king. In a variety of contexts, this David appears as mature and trimly bearded, with short, dark, curly hair and a triangular face. These physiognomic attributes are precisely the ones which later mark the Rabbulaic short-haired Christ.

Analysis of the visual and verbal lexicon of attributes in early Byzantine portraiture suggests that a contemporaneous audience would have read a Christ-David reference in such portrayal. Indeed, in the context of sixth through eighth century Christological debates, such a visual demonstration of Christ's human ancestry could prove a powerful tool in arguing Christ's fully human nature. This paper, therefore, not only suggests that a new methodological approach may offer a richer understanding of the puzzling short-haired Christ; by locating the type's development in a context of Christological argument, it also suggests an expanded role for visual imagery in the power politics of religious debate.

Putting Theodora in Her Place: The Imperial Presence at S. Vitale in Ravenna

Sarah Diebel (Rutgers University)

The most intriguing feature of the mosaic decoration of the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna is the double imperial portrait set into the lower walls of the apse. The specific nature of the activity in which Justinian and Theodora are engaged, and its intended significance within a larger decorative scheme has occasioned much scholarly comment. But a survey of critical treatments of the activity of this imperial duo reveals that probably the greatest obstacle and yet finally the only key to understanding the images fully is an explanation of the ambiguous but distinct settings in which the two figures are depicted. On the right side of the apse, our left as we face it, the Emperor and his somber affiliates appear before a flat gold ground in a setting of largely iconic abstraction. Significantly, however, the wall opposite shows the Empress and her party subtly integrated into a more defined space that is densely filled with a complex variety of carefully rendered architectural forms, upsetting an otherwise careful symmetry between the two imperial groups, and thereby inviting closer consideration.

Most readings of the intended activity of these imperial groups and of the settings in which their activity occurs, leaning heavily on supposed aspects of liturgical practice, cannot adequately explain the presence of the Empress whose role in such church activities is still disputed. As a consequence of this emphasis on male-dominated liturgical practice the prominent placement of the image of Theodora is treated largely as a result of her position as imperial spouse, and therefore as of less central importance to an understanding of the wider decorative program. This trend is reflected on readings of the Empress' architectural surround as a simple atrium, awkwardly separated in time and space from the actual ritual. But as a figure recognized by admirers and detractors alike as a strong and authoritative individual, and who here enjoys a prominence equal to that of her husband, the significance of Theodora's placement should not be under-rated. In focusing too exclusively on aspects of liturgical procession in which the Empress may have played only a minor or symbolic role, previously proposed readings do not adequately encompass the possibility of a fuller political significance for both imperial portraits in a Ravenna newly under Justinianic sway.

The conspicuous presence of the Imperial couple within the apse affirms a decorative program of largely political significance for the Byzantine reconquest of Italy and, I would suggest, indicates a wider motivation that resolutely vaunts the renewed rule of the Byzantine Emperor through a concerted reference not merely to church-related ritual, but to a more secular ceremonial as well. The key to a more fully developed reading of this driving political undertone may be found precisely in the bewildering architectural setting in which the Empress' architectural surround that centers less exclusively on ecclesiastical architectural forms than on secular, imperial structures, in an attempt to restore the essential importance of Theodora's image within the greater iconographic program of the apse.

XVI. PAPYROLOGY

Chair: Raymond Van Dam (The University of Michigan)

The Aphrodito Murder Mystery: A Return to the Scene of the Crime

James G. Keenen (Loyola University)

Two sixth-century Michigan papyri, PMich. XIII 660-661, from the middle Egyptian village of Aphrodito, contain a report of administrative proceedings before a comes militum. Protocols are in Latin; testimonies are recorded in Greek. The incompleteness of the first papyrus and severe loss to the second leave great doubt about the incidents they report. That two men have been murdered, that mysterious collections and exchanges of money have occurred are not in doubt; but the "context" of the events remains uncertain.

The two papyri, probably because they are so physically damaged-and so perplexing in their contents-have received little scholarly attention since their 1977 publication. In 1990, however, there appeared Leslie MacCoull's article, "The Aphrodito Murder Mystery," Journal of Juristic Papyrology 20, pp. 103-107 (since reprinted in Leslie S.B. MacCoull, Coptic Perspectives on Late Antiquity, Variorum Reprints, Brookfield, VT, 1993, chapter XVIII). In that article MacCoull intriguingly speculates that the murders described in PMich. 660 and 661 may have been acts of violence perpetrated by Chalcedonian sectaries upon Monophysites.

The textual evidence for this view, which strikes me as thin and questionable, suggests the need for another critical look at the two Michigan papyri. This paper will therefore:

(1)     review the textual and social arguments for the religious scenario of the Aphrodito murders;

(2) scrutinize the papyrus texts, especially their Latin protocols, for possible emendations;

(3) re-examine and re-summarize the contents of the papyri, working from the certain to the more puzzling details of the crimes reported;

(4) conclude by affirming a secular environment for the murders.

This will come close to the original editor's understanding of his texts and, I suspect, closer to the truth.

A Unique Armenian Papyrus and Its Paleography

Dickran Kouymjian (California State University, Fresno)

In 1892 A. Carriere reported on a Greek papyrus in Armenian characters from the Fayyum. It was first discussed by Hagop Dashian, the Vienna Mekhitarist, after a photograph sent from Paris (1998). Later it was published by C. Cuendet (1937) and M. Leroy (1938), based on the photo of Dashian, because the original had disappeared. No other papyrus written with Armenian characters is known to exist.

The document is a list of expressions in everyday Greek written by someone who had a weak knowledge of that language. It has been conjectured that the author was an Armenian soldier in the Byzantine army. On historical grounds, the papyrus has been dated prior to the Arab conquest of Egypt in 640 and more specifically to the late sixth or early seventh century. Scholars regard it as the oldest surviving example of Armenian script.

While conducting research for the Album of Armenian Paleography, a joint project with colleagues in Denmark and Israel, the papyrus was uncovered and proved to merit a close reexamination for a number of reasons. A strip of the papyrus on the left side and a fragment from the upper right corner were not in the photograph published by Dashian, and, therefore, was never transcribed or translated by later scholars. There is nearly one-sixth more text than believed. More remarkable, however, the document has a text of equal length on its verso side which has never been studied.

On paleographic grounds, the papyrus could date to the sixth century, perhaps even the late fifth. Certain letters resemble those in lapidary inscriptions traditionally ascribed to the fifth century. This would put the writing very close to the invention of the Armenian alphabet in the first decade of the that same century. Equally interesting is the type of script used. Dashian considered it erkat'a¢ir, that is uncial, the form used in all Armenian lapidary inscriptions until the eleventh century and found in all of the earliest manuscripts. Yet, it is quite that any other know early hand and displays a cursive character.

The papyrus is important as a link between the origin of the Armenian alphabet in the fifth century and our earliest manuscripts four hundred years later. It also forces to reevaluate notions about the evolution of Armenian script from erkat'aeir to boloreir (rounded or cursive), while contributing to our knowledge of early Byzantine Greek. A Byzantine Protocol Book Boudewijn Sirks (University of Amsterdam)

Of the papyri known to have been in Europe alrady before the import from Egypt, the Greek collection in Pommersfelden (Germany) is not well known. It was given, together with some Latin papyri, to the Count of Schonborn in 1725 by the Bamberg Cathedral Chapter ("auf Rinten vorhandene rara manuscripta," rare writings on bark). In 1812 Zacharia published four of these papyri. It appeared that these were, most probably, fragments of a protocol book, containing instructions for the appointment for and transfer of the municipal function of sitones (curator frumenti comparandi) and perhaps of another function. After Zacharia no attention to the Greek papyri has been paid, except by Tjader and Herrmann. Zacharia assumed that the instructions were meant for a part of the Roman Empire, where the Byzantine chancery system had to be introduced. He thought of South Italy or Sicily, and assumed further that they dated from the sixth century. Tjader, on the contrary, assumed, on basis of the European Latin papyri we possess, that their origin is to be sought in Byzantine Ravenna.

The papyri, including the unpublished ones, indeed deal with Byzantine administration and give us an insight in how administration actually worked on the municipal level. They show how the prescriptions of the central government on the auditing of municipal funds (CJ 1.4.26 of 53, Nov. Just. 128.16 of 545) and the appointment of new functionaries (here for the sitonia: CJ 10.27.3 of 491-505) were followed or, if the book was meant as a means of implementing rules, how they were meant to be followed, and how various procedures were combined. The book dates regarding both its contents and its writing from the second half of the sixth century, and must indeed have been used in Byzantine Italy; but it may well have been composed and written outside of Italy. It is also possible to give some suggestions as to the way it was transmitted during the period after Ravenna's fall and in which it came, finally, in Pommersfelden.

XVII. RELIGIOUS LIFE

Chair: Hagith S. Sivan (University of Kansas)

Sanctity and Stench: When Holy Fragrance Turns Foul

Susan Ashbrook Harvey (Brown University)

In the post-Constantinian era, the Christian's religious experience in ritual, art, and devotional piety became a feast for the physical senses, despite continuing tension about the nature of the physical realm. This shift towards a more sensorily oriented piety was notably marked by the development of olfactory codes in religious conduct and literary symbolism, demarcating sacred from profane, the holy from the demonic, and redeemed creation from fallen order. Incense gained sumptuous usage in Christian liturgy, private and public prayer, and at the tombs of saints; perfumed chrism anointed the baptized. Holy relics exuded rich fragrance; heavenly scent surrounded saints at prayer. These religious uses or perceptions of fragrance were distinguished from "secular" sweet smells: John Chrysostom, for example, insisted that bodily perfumes could only conceal (or even engender) foulness of soul, whereas the true Christian should be adorned with spiritual fragrance - that of virtue or of good works. Again, demons and heretics emitted horrid stench, and foul odors accompanied visions of hell. The structure of this olfactory system was straightforward, although elaborate in its variations.

However, in the latter fifth century a discordant element to the structure emerges: the literary motif of sanctity known through stench. In this paper I will examine three themes within this motif as it appears in hagiography: penitence, edification, and cosmic warfare. With penitence, the saint chooses to subject himself or herself to foul stench, intolerable to others, in order to atone for sin (Apoph. Patr., Arsenius, 18; V Sim. Sty. [Antonius] ch. 5-8). By contrast, a saint might use stench for didactic purposes, to shake the complacency of the Christian culture (Simeon Salos' dead dog, or, more important for this text's presentation of olfactory codes, choosing a diet that produced excessive flatulence; V. Sim. Sal. [Leontius]). Most distressing to the cultural sensibility, apparently, was the occurrence of stench produced by grave illness in the saint, occasioning such putrefaction that even the most devoted of disciples could not bear to approach (V. Sim. Sty. [Syriac version A], ch. 48-52; V Syncletica, ch. 111; V. Theo. Syk. ch. 20). In these cases, the saint's suffering is likened to that of Job and the condition is understood to be one of combat against Satan, although the event is viewed as one that transgresses religious order to the extreme.

The motif of sanctity and stench adds a more complex texture to the religious olfactory codes of Late Antiquity. However, a further agenda may be present. Fragrance as a category of religious experience becomes prominent during the late fourth century, and soon is crucial to the sensory ordering of Christian piety in the Byzantine world. The motif of holy stench offers a profound critique of what may well have been perceived by some to be excessive enthusiasm in the religious use of incense and spices - a corrective to any simplistic understanding of how sense perception relates to religious knowledge.

Christian Attitudes towards Male Impurity in the Early Byzantine Period

G.L.C. Frank (University of South Africa)

The rise of gender-orientated studies within academic circles has been one of the positive effects of the feminist movement. Much of contemporary scholarship has tended to concentrate attention on women's issues and on historical attitudes towards women. This has, quite naturally, included an interest in traditions concerning female bodily purity and impurity. At times, however, the interpretation of this history has been decontextualised.

To understand properly female purity-impurity traditions within Christian history, it is necessary to look at them together with those traditions concerning male bodily purity and impurity. During the early Byzantine period there was a concern for both. For women attention was largely focused on the emission of blood during menstruation and childbirth, while for men it was concentrated on the emission of seminal fluid in, for example, nocturnal emissions, masturbation, homosexual acts and heterosexual intercourse.

Within early Byzantine Christianity there was a fairly wide spectrum of opinion, however, as to what exactly constituted male bodily impurity. This diversity reflected, first of all, differences between orthodox Christianity and various sectarian groups, and secondly, divergent opinions within the orthodox mainstream itself. To understand the various attitudes towards male, as well as female, impurity, it is necessary to take into account several powerful factors which impinged on the life of the Church: the Old Testament purity traditions, the inheritance of "scientific" ideas from the classical Graeco-Roman world, the major shift in cosmology that was taking place in late antiquity, the virtual revolution concerning virginity brought about by Christianity, and ideas about purity and impurity in the New Testament tradition itself.

The Church, by and large, came to adopt an attitude towards male purity-impurity which attempted to keep together the physical and psychological dimensions. With stress placed on the volitional character of maintaining bodily purity, greater moral responsibility was, of course, presupposed. Inasmuch as this synthesis took into account the idea of volition, Christian thought showed greater sensitivity to the question of male impurity than it did with regard to the question of female impurity. One must remember, however, that there were also powerful voices within the Church questioning those attitudes which tended to reduce female impurity to a purely involuntary physiological level. While differences in attitude towards male and female bodily purity-impurity can be discerned in the early Byzantine period, neither men nor women were exempt from such concern.

Hysteria and Conversion in Late Antiquity

Ronald J. Weber (University of Texas, El Paso)

The early literature of Christianity, its poetry, history, epistles, and especially the biographies of the early saints and martyrs, depended upon a repertoire of stylized episodes and topological behaviors. It communicated an idealized image of Christian holiness to an illiterate society. Stock depictions of total sexual abstinence, agonizing penance, painful fasting, complete devotion to the poor, piety, miracle cures, and deep devotion to prayer made heroes of male and female saints. And while there are numerous similarities in the accounts of men and women, there are also significant differences. The goal of this paper is to explore the way authors wrote of men and women in order to determine whether the expectations for men of faith differed from the expectations for holy women. Does Christian literature convey any clear gender identity? In particular, do descriptions of conversion experiences show any differences between the reactions of women and their male counterparts? The guestion is asked out of a desire to study the rhetoric of the lives of saints, which seem excellent examples of the extent to which human agency rather than biology helped to define gender and sexuality in the early Christian community.

Hysteria as a condition is an emotional malady that is stereotypically attributed exclusively to women. In the ancient Mediterranean world from Euripides' Bacchae to Virgil's Dido and beyond excessive emotionalism in women emphasized their weakness. In the Christian tradition emotionalism was often associated with the act of conversion, and as this paper will show the conversions of women were more frequently overwrought than the conversions of men. For example, in the lives of Antony of Egypt and Martin of Tours conversion is a revelation, a rather intellectually enlightening experience, as it seems to be even in the more tortured conversion process that Augustine elaborates in his Confessions.

And while not all women converted amidst an emotional swoon, there are significant examples of emotional behavior that resemble hysteria. Melania the Elder converted under the pressure of her "womanly" nature in the midst of her sorrow at the death of two of her three children, a point of conversion quite common among women saints. Jerome makes a point about women who demonstrated their piety by sobbing through their fasting and penance, all to create an effect, and Paula swooned at the funeral of Blessilla.

In conclusion, while manifestations of hysteria are not the only topoi that differentiate male from female holiness, it does seem that female emotionalism was one device whereby Christian writers constructed sexual identities and defined gender roles.

XVIII. CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY II

Chair: Nancy Sevčenko (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

Drums in Byzantium and the Iconography of Psalm 136/137

Alfred Büchler (Berkeley, California)

In the familiar text of the Authorized Version, Ps. 137 (Septuagint and Vulgate: Ps.136) begins, "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion / We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof." It thus seemed puzzling that the illustration accompanying this psalm in the century psalter Benaki 34.3 should show a group of standing figures and, hanging from a tree, a large cylindrical drum (Cutler and Carr, REB 24 (1976)). At least the latter element, however, can be accounted for on the basis of the text of the Septuagint and of the role of drums in the context of Byzantine iconography and, it may be surmised, of Byzantine life.

Both Septuagint and Vulgate render the kinorot of the Hebrew Ps. 137, the Authorized Version's 'harps, as or ana. The Latin of the Carolingian Stuttgart Psalter thus shows at Ps. 136 two small pipe organs. The Greek 'organa.' however, implied instruments in general, and therefore allowed considerable latitude to the illuminators of Byzantine and related manuscripts. In the psalter Vatopedi 760 (12th century?) a large variety of instruments, including drums and cymbals, are hanging from the trees, while in the 14th-century Bulgarian Tomic Psalter the organa have become pairs of drums and trumpets. In the Bulgarian psalter, the trumpets also appear as part of Joseph's triumph in Fgypt (Ps. 104), while the illustration of Miriam's Dance (Ex.15:20) which accompanies the First Ode (First Canticle of Moses, Ex.15:1-19) shows two pairs of cymbals in addition to Miriam's drum (t m anon . In turn, cymbals are present among the instruments of Ps. 136 in the Kiev Psalter of 1397, while at least one of the other oreana is probably to be seen as a drum. In this psalter, too, cymbals as well as Miriam's drum appear in the illustration of the First Ode.

It is the connection with Miriam's Dance which can account for the appearance of drums in the context of Ps. 136. In both the Ode illustrations of the psalters and the Exodus illustrations of the Octateuchs, the Old Testament context of the dance is the liberation of the People of Israel from Egyptian slavery; in the Babylonian Exile the drums are silent, "hanged upon the willows." The 'harp' of the Authorized Version, on the other hand - a more adequate rendering of the Hebrew kinor - is David's instrument, suggestive of both the Psalmist himself and of his city, Zion (verse 1). David appears in Vatopedi 760, and in Vat. gr. 1927, which at Ps. 136 shows several clearly drawn string instruments, the scene is dominated by the Psalmist, crowned, nimbed, and playing his harp.

It should be noted, however, that the type of drum which represents Miriam's tympanon in the Octateuchs and psalters is not found in Classical or Hellenistic sources; the Greek tympanon was a frame drum (tambourine). Byzantine illuminators had no illusionistic representations of cylinder drums to draw upon: particularly in the earlier examples (e.g. Vat. gr. 747) the drums are shown with both heads ('top' and 'bottom') displayed. However, both cylinder and barrel drums appear on a first-century Indian relief, while the hooked drumsticks of the Byzantine illustrations are found both in the Indian example and in a second or third­century Gandharan relief. It appears likely that the cylinder drums which are represented in Byzantine manuscripts from about the middle of the eleventh century on were an Eastern contribution to the Byzantine instrumentarium.

The Sephardic Haggadot and Byzantine Art

Katrin Kogman-Appel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

A group of Passover Manuscripts decorated with an extensive Biblical cycle at their opening pages was produced in various Catalan workshops during the fourteenth century. Concerning the iconography of these cycles Byzantine influence has been suggested by various scholars, but never clearly analyzed. Narkiss, as well as Sed-Rajna, assumed that the iconography of these cycles depends to some extent on the Byzantine Octateuchs. The existence of an Octateuch manuscript available to the creator of the (hypothetical) prototype of the Sephardic cycles has been suggested. Ursula Schubert related the Creation of Adam in London BL, Or. 2884 to the Cotton Genesis recension. Sed-Rajna pointed out that the Genesis cycles of the Haggadot are in general related to the Cotton Genesis recension, basing her arguments mainly on evidence taken from the San Marco mosaics and the Vienna Histoire Universelle, works of art that are believed to be copied directly from the Cotton manuscript and therefore to represent the Eastern branch of the group. Broderick searched the iconographic sources of the Creation scenes of the Sarajevo Haggadah and assumed that Octateuch types were interwoven with Western traditions. Pacht established a connection to the Vienna Genesis.

The paper shall examine the relation of these Sephardic cycles more specifically to the Western branch of the Cotton Genesis recension. The iconography of these cycles harks back either to the archetype of the group or to Italian parallels, as the San Paolo wall paintings, the Salerno ivories or the Padua Bible.

None of the Sephardic cycles is a direct copy of any of the members of the Cotton group. The illustrators seem to have used a Jewish model of Spanish origin based on an Italian intermediary dating from late antiquity or the early Middle Ages. The paper is concerned with alterations that occur through the transmission of iconographic formulas, as well as with the particular contribution of the Jewish Catalan illustrators of the late Middle Ages, who were eager to enhance the Jewish background of their cycles.

Most iconographic types that seem to be borrowed from the Octateuchs appear already in late Roman works of art or in members of the Cotton Genesis family. It seems therefore that the influence of the Octateuchs was overestimated in former research. The relations with the Cotton group on one hand and the lack of clear dependence from the Octateuchs on the other may shed new light on the question how to interpret the Byzantine influence on Western art: as direct influence from works of art available to the creators of Biblical cycles or as development of late antique types, many of which are of Eastern origin. From the point of view of the iconographic models serving Sephardic illuminators the latter seems to be more appropriate.

Loca Sancta et Profana and Crusader Representational Arts

Jaroslav Folda (University of North Carolina)

In an important article entitled "Loca Sancta and the Representational Arts of Palestine," published in the 1974 Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Kurt Weitzmann discussed imagery pertaining to the holy sites. In summarizing his observations on these pictures, he proposed three basic points:

1. Each locus sanctus allows the creation of more than one archetype, and each version may emphasize different aspects of the locality.

2. The influence of loca sancta pictures spread into different parts of the Christian world, thus playing a role in the formation and dissemination of Christian iconography, in which topographical elements are stressed.

3. loca sancta pictures existed in a wide variety of media. While Weitzmann focussed on representational arts in Palestine before 1100, he also included a few later icons dating to the twelfth/ thirteenth centuries among others, from the collection at the Monastery of St. Catherine's on Mt. Sinai.

These three principles derived from the analysis of loca sancta imagery in Early Christian and Byzantine Palestine by Weitzmann can be usefully employed in the study of the representational arts of Crusader Palestine and Syria as well. In fact, the interest in topographical settings can be found not only in Crusader loca sancta pictures, but also in what we might call loca profana, representations of secular sites in Crusader art.

I propose to discuss a series of Crusader works in various media which include or refer to both sacred and secular sites. The sites referred to, directly or indirectly, include Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Antioch, and Resafa among others. The images contain both traditional iconography and reflections of contemporary circumstances occasioned by Crusader commissions at the sites.

Weitzmann has demonstrated that the holy sites in Palestine such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Sinai, received loca sancta pictures more or less continuously through the centuries. Working from the foundation which he laid it is possible to see how the Crusaders encountered, continued and diversified this tradition in Palestine and Syria during the period from 1099 to 1291.

XIX. BYZANTINE SPAIN

Chair: Ralph W. Mathisen (University of South Carolina)

The Creation of Byzantium's Spanish Province

Luis A. Garcia Moreno (University of Alcala de Henares)

The creation of a Byzantine province in Spain in 552 and its survival, albeit finally reduced to the Balearic Islands, until the Muslim invasion at the beginning of the Vlllth century poses two main problems: the motives behind its creation and the support for Byzantium in the province. Both are examined here.

To understand the creation of Byzantine province in Spain there is an essential question: was Justinian s conquest circumstantial, motivated by the civil war between the Gothic kings Athanagild and Agila; or, was it a previously planned, well motivated project whose time had come? Existing opinion has favored the first possibility. Today, I shall attempt to demonstrate that there was a premeditated plan, motivated essentially by Byzantium's need to control the Straits of Gibraltar and the Western Mediterranean to assure its recent conquest of Vandalic Africa.

The support for the Byzantine conquest and domination in Spain is double: ideological and real. The real support came from the Hispano-Roman groups involved in foreign trade and the occupying army, which expected land in the new province.

Last, the survival possibilities of an occupation so motivated and supported are analyzed. The course of later events has demonstrated that Byzantium never intended to extend its domain to the entire Iberian Peninsula and that its hold on the area of the Straits and the Balearic waters was quite solid.

The Treaties between Justinian and Athanagild and the Legality of Byzantium's Peninsular Holding

Margarita Vallejo Girves (University of Alcala de Henares)

Certain aspects of the Byzantine situation in Hispania have barely been analyzed, in particular the reference in a epistle from Gregory the Great to Reccared to a treaty between Justinian and the Visigothic Kingdom, that must have been signed between 552, when the Byzantines entered the peninsula, and 565, the year Justinian died.

In that epistle Gregory advised Reccared to forget the treaty, since its terms, given the territorial position in 595, seriously prejudiced the Visigothic interests. This means that in the last years of the sixth century the Byzantines controlled less territory than what they would have been entitled to by the terms of that treaty between Athanagild and Justinian.

After Comentiolus's rule in Spania, when Reccared was the Visigothic King, more territory was under Byzantine sovereignty than when Leovigild died (586), but it was not nearly so much as before this monarch's successful campaigns against the southern and eastern territories that had belonged to the Byzantines at the time of Justinian's death. Additionally, the extent of Byzantine Spania between 552 and 565, our key date, had varied markedly, since it seems evident that when accepting to help Athanagild, the Emperor, in exchange demanded a series of territorial concessions and the signing of a treaty legitimizing his peninsular sovereignty.

The territory ceded by Athanagild could only have been the strategic Betic coast, which would have been served to protect Byzantium's African domains, but Justinian would not have requested eastern territory since the Visigoth could not negotiate with territory where he had no control. However, what is evident is that by the time he died, Justinian had increased his peninsular hold until he dominated the entire coastal strip between Gibraltar and the mouth of the Jucar River.

If Byzantine territory was practically circumscribed to the Straits of Gibraltar in 552, and by 565 had spread along the entire south-eastern Peninsular coast with holdings in the interior, which had been lost by 570/571, and that the terms of the treaty still prejudiced the Visigothic interest in 595, it seems likely that the treaty mentioned in the epistle cannot be the same one that Justinian would have signed with Athanagild prior to giving the pretender his military aid.

This paper will discuss the size of the Byzantine province, Spania, and whether two treaties were signed between Justinian and Athanagild, one in the months prior to the Byzantine troops' entry into the Peninsula and the other at some time between 555, when Athanagild was still the Visigothic King, and 565. The possible reasons for signing a second treaty, reasons that we believe would be connected with the complicated internal affairs of the Byzantine Empire and the Visigothic Kingdom in the sixth decade of the sixth century, will also be discussed.

Archaeological Evidence about the Hispanic Byzantine Border

Francisco Salvador Ventura (University of Granada)

In relation to the Byzantine presence in the Iberian Peninsula one of the most important problems which is still raised is the demarcation of borders of the imperial hispanic province. There is scarce but significant evidence about its extension offered by literary and epigraphic sources. However, there is not any explicit evidence about its borders. There are, indeed, some isolated news from Juan de Biclaro and Isidoro de Sevilla, in addition to some inscription, that could be related to them.

The object of this work is to verify the contribution of the information brought from archaeology in order to try to solve this problem. We deal with a series of isolated data that are difficult to interpret, due to the particular characteristics of the archaeological documentation. But, together, from a spatial point of view, if we connect them all as from the context of the situation of all the meridional zone, and, of course with enough guarantees of reliability to the reality of the events.

The point of departure is to assume that the Byzantines adopted in the Iberian Peninsula the defensive system of late-imperial origin; known as "double limes." As it might be assumed, the system was adopted to the peculiar conditions of the province which could be summed up in two: a limited extension a narrow coast, and the presence in the north side, border of a natural frontier, the Baetic Range, the highest mountainous range of the Peninsula. In this way, the fortificated "ciuitates" must have been the few that existed in the province, and the "castra" being located in the natural passages that comunicated the interior with the coast.

The only "ciuitas" that is systematically being excavated besides the punctual emergency urban excavations in several cities, is "Begastri," in the municipal district of Cehegin, province of Murcia. Perhaps it is the best example in order to observe the fortification of cities due to its nearness to the border, and to the fact that the site has not been subsequently occupied.

The "castra," as I have already pointed out, were situated in first defensive line, located on the natural communication passings. They are difficult to detect archaeologically due to their equipment precarious, even temporal character. Nevertheless, there are several necropolis with the chronology which could with great probability fit "castra."

It is a question of those located in the municipal districts of Teba and Villanueva del Rosario, in the province of Malaga; in that of Alhama de Granada, in the province of Granada; in the one in Tabernas, in the province of Almeria; in Mula, province of Murcia.

The analysis of all these sites conforms a coherent plan, geographical and chronologically that leads to the confirmation of the existence of a border which agrees with an imagined line that crosses the highest zone in the Betic mountains rage from the strait of Gibraltar to Cape La Nao.

Weddings, Widows and Wealth: The Role of Elite Women in Late Roman and Byzantine Spain

Leonard A. Churchin (University of Waterloo)

Although women played an important role in Roman and Byzantine society, the role of elite women in Late Antique Spain has never been investigated. In large part, this neglect is a reflection of our literary sources, written by and about men for a predominantly male audience; women are mentioned but rarely, and sometimes anonymously. Nonetheless, sufficient evidence survives to allow us at least a glimpse of their identity and activities.

Rich women of high birth were involved in several types of activity. Not least of these was the traditional role of wife and mother, essential to the continuation of aristocratic houses and the production of heirs to wealth and power. Apart from the obvious example of the house of Theodosius, Spanish noblewomen married such prominent figures as Matemus Cynegius, Paulinus of Nola, the Gothic king Theudis, and the Arab conqueror Abd-al-Aziz. The role of women as hostages is shown by the noblewomen seized by Constans in 408 and by the Suevi in 465. Whether single, married or widowed, Spanish elite women owned large tracts of land in Spain and other provinces, and used the revenues of these estates for benefactions or to raise troops.

The importance of these women in the "villa-culture" of central Spain is reflected by their portraits on mosaics in the Late Roman villas of La Olmeda (Palencia) and Banos de Valdearados (Burgos). Another female representation, on a mosaic at Carranque (Toledo), has been identified as the mistress of this Late Roman villa, but the nimbus around her head suggests that she is rather a goddess.

Elite women also played an important role in the Church. Some are attested as martyrs, nuns or abbesses; others were influential in the spread of Priscillianism; still others used their great wealth to found monasteries, or sold their lands and gave the proceeds to the Church; yet others persuaded their husbands to convert to Christianity and even to destroy pagan temples.

Catalans and Spaniards in Constantinople and Beyond

Elisaveta Todorova (Northern Kentucky University)

The aim of this paper is to confront and reevaluate the role that the people coming from the westernmost part of the Mediterranean had played in the business relations of Byzantium, as well as their contribution to our knowledge of the Byzantine commonwealth.

Most of the evidence about Catalans and Spaniards in the Eastern Roman Empire consists of their transaction records or of those of other commercial and diplomatic actors in the Mediterranean basin, such as Venetians, Genoese, etc.

Travel writings, subjective as they are, give either new information, or at least substance, flavor and color to the usually bare economic and political framework we are getting from other documentation. The narrative of Roy Gonzales de Clavijo, Spanish ambassador to the court of Tamerlan in 1403-1406, gives both; so does, to a modest degree, his follower, the hidalgo Pero Tafur, who between 1436-1439 visited the same part of the world. We are indebted to these writings for a lot of details concerning the geography and navigation in the area too.

Travels per se and moreover travel accounts were relatively rare during the late middle ages, compared to the number of people, Catalans and Spaniards among them, who participated in the transfer of merchandise in Constantinople and the other outlets of Byzantium or Byzantine-controlled territories. Scarce direct evidence as well as indirect source materials attest permanent participation of Iberian sailors and merchants in the life of the Levant, Aegean, the Straits of Constantinople and the Black Sea.

One kind of such sources are the records of slave trade, stipulated in Barcelona or elsewhere, deaing with people originating from the above-mentioned regions who were sold as slaves during the 14th-16th centuries. Another are certain practical devices, commercial manuals or navigational guidebooks, testifying if not of Catalan contribution to their compilation, at least that Catalans and Spaniards had made use of them.

Chronicles and histories written by Byzantines or other authors rarely dwell on distant informal visitors to the Empire. Eg., Ramon Muntaner, describing Catalan presence in early 14th century Byzantium seems to have concentrated basically on the Almugavares' campaigns, raids and warfare, not even mentioning (if aware at all) his fellow countrymen in Constantinople and the rest of the Empire. They escape the attention of later chronists and official scribes as well.

XX. MAKING BYZANTINE HISTORY

Chair: George Dennis (Catholic University)

Revision of Law and Reconstruction of History: The New History of Christianity Implied by the Codex Justinianus

Patrick T.R. Gray (York University)

Both the Codex Theodosianus (particulary C.Th. XVI) and the Codex Justinianus, in citing legislation affecting the Christian Church by date, provide "histories" of Christianity in the Roman Empire from the time of Constantine to their own day.

Theodosius retained all of the legislation, leaving it to the reader to discover what legislation was actually in force, where there might be a question, by identifying the latest­dated version. Justinian modified this inclusive history of the Fourth-Century Church by eliminating the laws which had been superceded, claiming that to do so was only to eliminate confusion.

In fact, a study of the sections of C.Th. XVI eliminated by the commission tells a rather different story. At the most superficial level, this change left the reader of C.J. with the impression that Christian history had unfolded seamlessly, without contradicting itself along the way-a not-insignificant achievement. At the social-historical level it eliminated from the record the long struggle to reconcile the civil responsibilities of members of wealthy families who took up careers in the Church with their clerical responsibilities and privileges, a major theme of the C.Th. It also-as one might expect from the age that condemned the Three Chapters-eliminated the orthodox status once enjoyed by members of the Antiochene School such as Diodore of Tarsus, thus revising history in light of the Sixth Century's narrowing notion of orthodoxy. Most importantly of all, perhaps, it eliminated the record which showed the ambivalent status of various heretical Christians at various times during the Fourth Century: tolerance for the Novatianists; lesser penalties than the complete state terror of Justinian's time against Manichaeans; widespread support for various branches of Arianism, Donatism, and Apollinarianism, civil disobedience by their followers, and vacillations about their legal status (as e.g. in being allowed to make wills or not) on the part of legislators.

These changes truly, it is submitted, transformed the C.Th.'s complex and historically-fresh vision of struggles to define a Christian place in society, and struggles to control Fourth­Century Christian belief when it was by no means clear to everyone what orthodoxy was, into a sanitized Justinianic vision of a Christian past in which the present status of the Church in society had existed virtually unchanged since Constantine, and in which Fourth-Century orthodoxy as the Sixth Century reconstructed it, far from "hanging by an iota" (as Newman put it), had serenely controlled the Empire from the start, heresy never having been the business, one was left to believe, of more than a few malcontents.

Malchus of Philadelpheia on the Destiny of the Roman Empire

Frank M. Clover (University of Wisconsin)

Early in the reign of Emperor Anastasius I (A.D. 491-518) Malchus, a rhetorician from Philadelpheia in the Decapolis, published a highly popular history in more than seven books, recounting events from the time of Constantine I through the turbulent years when Zeno was emperor (A.D. 474-475, 476-491). The Patriarch Photius indicates that the last books (treating for the most part events of the 470s and 480s) enjoyed wide circulation, making Malchus' history in effect a sequel to the equally famous history of the preceding years, set by the rhetorician Priscus of Panium. The title of Malchus' work reveals its focus: the Byzantiaka gave much attention to the New Rome of the East, and to events of interest to the Roman population dwelling in or near Constantine's City.

The modern critic does not have the entire Byzantiaka in hand. Instead, he or she must rely for the most part on testimonies from the Patriarch Photius and the Suda, and on excerpts assembled at the orders of Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. A few additional excerpts appear, for instance, in the Suda, the ecclesiastical history of Evagrius Scholasticus, and the chronicle of John Zonaras. All modern assemblages of the remains (including the influential Fragmentary Classicising Historians, by R. Blockley) leave much to be desired. The modern editors give several anonymous quotations in the Suda to Malchus, without first proving beyond doubt that these fragments do not come from the pen of another historian, such as Candidus of Isauria. Furthermore, the editors consistently disregard two quotations of Malchus (again from the Suda which replicate portions of Xenophon s Anabasis; quotations from the classical greats were a hallmark of classical-minded rhetoricians like Malchus.

Once a conservative list of the remains of the Byzantiaka is assembled, the modern observer is in a position to assess an important theme in this influential work, the condition of the Roman Empire in Malchus' day. A few critics have brought to view special passages in which Malchus announces the absolute ruin of Roman power, the bitter fruit of various failures of nerve by the cowardly Emperor Zeno. If only these remarks bear attention, it would seem that Malchus prefigures the modern notion that the dramatic changes in Roman government around A.D. 476 marked the doom of the Roman Empire. But there is more than pessimism in the Byzantiaka. Most of the fragments show Zeno doing remarkably well in managing Roman affairs after the collapse of the imperial government in the West. In effect, the few surviving pessimistic flourishes are better taken as rhetorical intrusions rather than representations of major convic­tions on the part of the historian. On the balance, Malchus of Philadelpheia's Byzantiaka is a contemporary record of the survival of the Roman Empire at the end of the fifth century.

Mission Narrative and Classical Ethnography in the Ecclesiastical History of Philostorgius

Joel Walker (Princeton University)

Between 425 and 433 CE, Philostorgius of Cappadocia first published his account of church history covering the period from the Arian controversy through the tenth consulship of the Emperor Theodosius 11. Like earlier writers of the Eunomian sect, Philostorgius drew much of his literary inspiration from classical rhetorical models. The prose of his Ecclesiastical History abounds in Atticisms, poetic vocabulary, and antique syntactic constructions; there are speeches before the troops, prodigious human births, and planetary omens. Above all, Philostorgius parades his erudition in digressions on various "scientific" topics.

This paper examines the ethnographic and geographic digressions of HE to clarify Philostorgius' aims and methods as a historian. Two striking examples of such excursus survive in the epitome of Philostorgius' work prepared in the mid-ninth century by the bibliophile patriarch Photius. Photius transcribes in full detail Philostorgius' description of the four rivers of Paradise (HE, 111,7-10) and his account of the exotic animals of India (HE, III,J 1). As parallels with Ammianus Marcellinus demonstrate (see now Milena Dusanic, The Geographic-Ethnographic Excursus in the Works of Ammianus Marcellinus, 1986), the HE's digressions derive from polytheist models. By intermingling ethnographic erudition with history, Philostorgius places his work within a high classical tradition of Greek polytheist historiography stretching back to Herodotus.

But Philostorgius was also aware of the inherent difficulties of such synthesis in an ecclesiastical history; the more orthodox church historians of the fifth century - Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret - following the lead of Eusebius, completely avoid such excursus as too reminiscent of pagan historiography. In the second half of my paper, I outline the omissions and adaptations that allow Philostorgius to appropriate classical excursus for Christian use. Philostorgius creates a descriptive ethnography marked not by the usual temples and legendary Greek founders, but by Biblical history. He creates an animal lore, which proves the ignorance of the Hellenes, and a geography which culminates with Scriptural attestations to Paradise's location. Lastly, Philostorgius finds a fitting narrative context for his ethnographic and geographic erudition: the embassy of the Eunomian bishop, Theophilus the Indian, to Himyar, Aksum, and other parts of "India" (HE, III, 4-6). Philostorgius' HE thus fuses classicizing ethnography and geography with Biblical "science" and evangelical narrative. Other writers of the fifth century, such as the Christian poets of Egyptian Panopolis, show fewer qualms about writing in a purely polytheist style. But historiography in Late Antiquity was both confessional and polemical. To understand Philostorgius' "classicizing" digressions, we must also understand his role as a sectarian, Christian apologist.

The View of the Past in the Chronicle of John of Nikiu: Civic Historiography in Seventh-Century Egypt

Nicola Denzey (Princeton University)

This paper investigates civic life in Byzantine Egypt, from the perspective of Egypt's only native historiographer of the seventh century, John of Nikiu. Since Emile Zotenberg's publica­tion of the editio princeps nearly a century ago, John's chronicle has been recognized as a vital source for Egypt under early Islamic rule. Born in the 640's, during the time of the Muslim invasions, John served as Monophysite bishop of Nikiu in Upper Egypt in the last decades of the seventh century.

Most Byzantine historians focus on the later chapters of John's chronicle which cover the Muslim invasions of Egypt. I will concentrate in this paper on John's "historiographic vision," his understanding and use of the archaic past and its relation to the world in which he himself lived. I shall examine the earlier chapters of the Chronicle, which John organizes on the basis of three recurrent, interrelated themes: technological innovations, cultural innovations, and the establishment of cities. These categories are all essentially interrelated under the broader rubric of the "history of civilization."

John of Nikiu writes a thoroughly civic history, a history of culture, civilization, and the city. In the first half of the paper, I will examine the way in which John diverges from the Byzantine Greek historiographic tradition and his immediate sources - John Malalas, John of Antioch and the Chronicon Paschale. Next, I place John in his socio-cultural context and question how the transitions and social upheavals in the latter half of the seventh century shape his "historiographic vision." It will become evident that John's archaic history is the history of technology and culture not because he felt culture no longer existed or moved forward, but because in his capacity as bishop in a time of great socio-cultural transition, cultural and civic continuity mattered. As bishop, he chose to write history in the form of a chronicle which reminded his people of who they were and whence they derived their culture. John of Nikiu's concern for social continuity within Greek, Coptic, and finally, ecclesiastical circles directly reflects Byzantine attempts to come to terms with altered social relations under the new Muslim rulers of Egypt.

XXI. CULTURAL COLONIALISM

Chair: Annabel Wharton (Duke University)

A Bronze Censer from the Malcove Collection: East Meets West in the Small Portable Object

Ellen C. Schwartz (Eastern Michigan University)

This paper presents a study of a censer from the Malcove Collection at the University of Toronto. The censer is in good condition, albeit without its chains. The bronze body measures 16.5 x 12 cm, appearing slightly ovoid in form. Perforated with unusual shapes above and triangles below, the censer is also decorated with incised concentric circles on its upper portion. In the Malcove Collection catalogue, Sheila Campbell posited a western medieval provenance for the piece, perhaps Italy, and tentatively dated it into the thirteenth or fourteenth century. In her entry she suggested Byzantine or even Coptic influence for the decoration. My research focuses on untangling this mixture of western type and Byzantine decoration. A new attribution to Germany, and a firm twelfth-century date are offered. Parallels with Byzantine liturgical objects-especially processional cross stands-exhibiting similar decorative elements underscore the Byzantine character of the embellishment. This new provenance and the liturgical comparanda help to explain this combination of Byzantine and medieval western forms in one object, and related censers show what may be further development of this influence in surprising ways. Thus, our censer-a portable, iconographically neutral object-shows us Byzantine forms copied for aesthetic and functional reasons, extending our understanding of Byzantine influence and cultural colonization in western European art.

The censer will be on view during the conference at the exhibition entitled, "Beyond Empire: Artistic Expressions of Byzantium," at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, co-curated by Ellen C. Schwartz and Thelma K. Thomas.

The Iconological Program of the Door of Monte Sant'Angelo and Byzantine Encomia of the Archangel Michael

William Melczer (Syracuse University)

1) The Byzantine door of Monte Sant'Angelo is one of the seven early Medieval bronze doors executed in Constantinople in the XI century for Italian patrons. The doors continue to adorn variously until our own days particularly important ecclesiastical structures in Amalfi, Montecassino, San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome, Salerno, Atrani, San Marco in Venice, and Monte Sant'Angelo in the Puglia.

2) The Monte Sant'Angelo door, cast or set in place in 1076, is particularly important for Byzantine history of ideas and iconography, because all but one of its 24 panels carry representations in one way or another related to the activities of the Archangel Michael or to the Aneelus Domini, ultimately interpreted as Michael. The cycle is one of the only two extant monumental programs on the "Acts of Michael."

3) The notion of attributing angelic interventions at large to the Archangel Michael derive from a number of encomium writings known to Eastern and Byzantine culture only. One of these is a Coptic piece of the VII century written by Theodosius, Archbishop of Alexandria: in a banquet of Old and New Testament personages, each narrates the particular assistance he received from Michael in episodes that the scriptural texts do not directly relate to the Archangel.

4) The tradition of such encomiastic writings must have henceforth kept a steady course: this is demonstrated by the fact we find in the XII century two more such encomium writings. One of these is by Pantaleone, deacon and chartophylax of the Great Church in Constantinople; this one was known already to Cavalieri in the XVII century, and more recently to Frazer. And another encomium written by another Pantaleone, of whom not much is known.

5) The continuous presence of such encomiastic tradition in Byzantine culture is reconfirmed by the South door of the Cathedral of Suzdal executed in Suzdal or Vladimir around 1220-30. The program of this door too is constituted by the "Acts of Michael."

6) A number of scenes common to the Monte Sant'Angelo and the Suzdal doors correspond in their iconographic details to each other to a remarkable degree: this fact points to a common iconographic source for both cycles, to be sought probably in manuscript illumination(s) no longer extant.

7) The resourceful iconographer of the Monte Sant'Angelo door, well-acquainted with both Byzantine manuscript traditions as well as the legends concerning the origins and the foundation of the Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo on the Gargano, might conceivably have been Giraldo, the Archbishop of Siponto, within whose ecclesiastical jurisdiction the Sanctuary was located.

8) Approach: close parallel reading of the encomium texts and the pictorial cycles. Conclusions to be reached: a) necessary derivation of the Monte Sant'Angelo cycle from the literary tradition of the encomium of the Archangel; b) Archbishop Giraldo, or some close collaborator, the possible iconographer of the program.

Faithfully Byzantine, Unmistakably Kievan: The Church of St. Cyril in the Context of Middle Byzantine Architecture

Olenka Z. Pevny (New York University)

The Church of St. Cyril provides important insights on the relationship between Byzantine and Kievan Rus' architecture in the twelfth century. While there is some disagreement over the extent of local influences in Rus' masonry architecture of the late tenth and eleventh centuries, as well as over the Middle Byzantine church type that best describes the plan and form of these structures, scholars usually agree that after the eleventh century, Rus' masonry construction developed along indigenous lines. The gradual demise of central authority over Rus', a result of political in-fighting among the rulers of individual principalities and the incursion of Asiatic nomads in the southern steppe area, is believed to have made interaction between Kiev and Constantinople difficult, and to have contributed to the increase in prominence of such principalities as Halych, Vladimir-Suzdal' and Novgorod. The established familiarity with Byzantine architectural forms and masonry building techniques, the use of locally available materials, the incorporation of foreign influences and existing aesthetic preferences, led to the gradual expression of regional architectural traits. From a centrist Byzantine perspective, it has been argued that after the eleventh century, the Rus' failed to keep up with Byzantine architectural developments and were content to elaborate on the one cruciform-domed form of church structure which was infused from Byzantium in the late 10th-11th centuries. Kiev, however, remained the ecclesiastical and cultural capital of Rus' until the Mongol invasion, and was recognized as such by Byzantium. The Church of St. Cyril reveals that while twelfth century construction in Kiev took on local characteristics, it continued to refer to and to incorporate features current to Byzantine architecture. It speaks of the continuing dialogue between Byzantine and Kievan culture.

The primary structure of the Church of St. Cyril, the only extant twelfth century monument in Kiev, exhibits the distinguishing features of twelfth century Kievan masonry construction. The monument follows the three-aisle, tri-apsidal, domed-cross plan which characterizes twelfth century Rus' architecture, yet it adopts the all-brick masonry construction that differentiates it from the monuments of such Rus' principalities as Halych, Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal'. The brick construction and engaged columns of the original exterior articulation refer to Middle Byzantine practices. This is also the case with the interior components of the church. Such features as the narthex arcasolia, the gallery and narthex chapels, and the compartment of the south wall of the south apse are all part of the Middle Byzantine architectural vocabulary. This is not to imply that the Church of St. Cyril is not specifically Kievan. The plan and dimensions of the church are grounded in the architectural solutions of 11th century Kievan masonry construction and the corbel-table frieze, which becomes so widespread in the decoration of twelfth century Rus' monuments, figures in the external articulation of the church. In the interior, the chapels and subsidiary compartment do not follow the symmetrical arrangement that is usual for Byzantine monuments. The Church of St. Cyril demonstrates that the ongoing appropriation of Middle Byzantine architectural features played a key role in the development of 12th century Kievan architecture.

Byzantine Imperial Iconography in a Muscovite Context: The Katapetasma of 1556

Isolde Thyret (Kent State University)

The institution of tsardom in Russia in 1547 was anticipated by the creation of myths, such as "Moscow the Third Rome" and the "Crown of Monomakh," in the early sixteenth century. While these myths model the Muscovite tsar after the powerful head of the Byzantine Empire, the Palm Sunday and Epiphany ceremonies which were developed after the coronation of Ivan IV focus on the tsar's Christ-like quality, as Michael Flier has pointed out. In spite of the recent focus on Ivan s ruler image the exact relationship of the myths of the pious tsar and "Moscow the Third Rome" still awaits explanation. An analysis of the iconography of the katapetasma which Ivan IV and his wife Anastasiia Romanovna donated to the Serbian Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos in 1556 shows a gradual shift from deriving the tsar's dignity from the Byzantine imperial tradition to a more native concept of rulership.

The central image of the embroidered liturgical curtain shows Christ blessing the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. Although the image formally represents the theme "The Queen Stands to Your Right" its compositional peculiarities suggest a close relationship to the coronation portraits of Byzantine emperors. The depiction of Christ resembles the image of Christ standing on a pedestal and blessing the Byzantine ruler Romanus and his wife Eudoxia in an ivory from the tenth century (Paris, Cabinette des Medailles). The two angels handing down the imperial insignia recall a miniature from 1017 depicting the coronation of Basil the Bulgar-Slayer (Library of St. Marcos, Venice, Ms. Gr. 17-421). The iconography of the katapetasma thus presents Ivan IV whose name saint was John the Baptist, as a legitimate successor of the Byzantine emperor.

The formal acknowledgment of Ivan s affiliation with the Byzantine purple in the katapetasma however takes second place to the message of the tsar's Christ-like quality. The unusual episcopal garb of Christ and the accompanying inscription likening him to the Old Testament priest-king Melchizedek associate Ivan with a mandate of Christ to lead the faithful to salvation, a theme reminiscent of the Muscovite chronicles' interpretation of Ivan s Kazan campaign of 1552.

The theme of Judaic priestly kingship suggests that the Russian tsar perceived his authority in a larger cosmological framework. The Old and New Testament figures in the medallions on the borders of the katapetasma place the tsar in the context of salvation history. Ivan s recent victory over the Tatar infidels mentioned in the katapetasma's inscription enhanced his political image, rendering any further legitimization of his position unnecessary. The depictions of SS. Constantine, Vladimir, Helena, and Anastasiia merely stress the spiritual relationship of the Byzantine and Russian ruler couples.

The imagery of the katapetasma of 1556 skilfully transcends Ivan IV's claim to the Byzantine imperial tradition in the larger concept of his spiritual leadership over the Orthodox world. After the victorious battle of Kazan the priest-king no longer sought legitimization solely in the illustrious Byzantine past, but rather saw himself as the Christ-like savior of the Orthodox world in the final battle of good versus evil.

XXII ICONOCLASM

Chair: Kathleen Corrigan (Dartmouth College)

The Significance of Matter in the Iconoclastic Controversy

James R. Payton, Jr. (Redeemer College)

Scholars have long recogniz:ed that the fundamental issue in the Iconoclastic Controversy was a Christological one. While many other social, cultural, and political concerns influenced the controversy, the main arguments for both the iconoclasts and the iconophiles focussed on, and the issue was finally decided by, Christological considerations.

However, scholars also acknowledge that the Christological concern was not the initial stimulus: there is a general consensus that concerns about certain practices of piety which had become widespread in the church probably provoked the initial conflicts on the issue.

Suspicions that the second commandment of the decalogue was being violated, on the one hand, and that Christians were falling to render the "worship in Spirit and truth" which was divinely expected, on the other, led to arguments about religious imagery. In due course, these were transformed into specific questions about whether the one confessed as God incarnate by the first six ecumenical councils could be visibly represented.

While the Christological issue came to dominate the controversy, the earlier concerns contmued to play an important role. As the controversy played itself out, these earlier concerns coalesced into contrasting perspectives on the value of the material realm for Christian worship and piety. The iconoclasts and the iconophiles ended up articulating, in their arguments, opposing viewpoints on the significance of matter.

This paper examines these opposing viewpoints, as they came to expression in the Horos of the Iconoclastic Council of Hieria in 754 and in the answers rendered to this declaration in the Sixth Session of Nicea II in 787. Taking cognizance of prior affirmations on the issue­including John of Damascus' exaggerated response that the iconoclasts held to Manichaean views on the question and the ways in which Constantine V Copronymos had expressed himself-, the paper considers the various statements in the Horos about the value of matter for the realm of the holy and, specifically, what is urged in its eighth anathema. This is then compared with what the fathers of Nicea II argued in response.

This investigation indicates that the iconoclasts presented a perspective which denigrated the spiritual potential of the material realm and urged, instead, a variety of disembodied and intellectualized spirituality which was in the general lines of Origen and Evagrius Ponticus. The iconophiles, in contrast, argued for a perspective which affirmed the significance of matter for the "worship in spirit and truth" which God now expected, ever since and because of the incarnation. The paper concludes by noting that these two perspectives present opposing worldviews. By repudiating iconoclasm, the Seventh Ecumenical Council also rejected its worldview; correlatively, the affirmation of the iconophile position involved the endorsement of the worldview of the iconophiles.

Exotic Technology and Politics in the Vitae of loannikios

Denis F. Sullivan (University of Maryland)

The two versions of the vita of St. loannikios (d.846), by the monks Peter and Sabas, exhibit a number of significant differences. Cyril Mango, in his persuasive article "The Two lives of St. loannikios and the Bulgarians" (in Okeanos. . ., Cambridge, 1984), has noted among them Peter's open hodtility to the Studites and his description of loannikios' friendly reception of Joseph of Kathara, both absent in Sabas' account.

A third contrast noted by Professor Mango is found in Peter's description of loannikios saving Constantine VI from Bulgarians at Markellai (792) when the retreating emperor was "lassoed" (Greek = sokisthenta) by some device," a method Peter subsequently describes as a "snare" and a "diabolic contrivance." Sabas says that an anonymous noble, not the emperor, was "caught" (Greek = kataschethenta) by some rope-like device." The historicity of the event has been questioned. Given the rarity of the terms (sokizein, sokos) for "lasso" (9 attestations, all three other 9th century ones, in Theophanes and George Hamartolos, derived from John Malalas, who has four examples), and clear verbal similarities between Peter's description and that in Theophanes (deBoor 1:217-218) of a 6th century Bulgarian incursion (Bulgarians attack, Romans retreat, a Constantine is lassoed, the lasso is cut), I suggest that Peter, or perhaps his source the abbot Eustratios, has borrowed the story from Theophanes. I would further posit a link to Peter's anti-Studite rhetoric; loannikios is thus said to save from this exotic and memorable technology the emperor who would three years later begin the Moechian controversy with his second marriage, performed by Joseph of Kathara. Sabas, notably, does not use the term sokizein and his victim is not the emperor.

Another significant difference, I believe, also lies in the view of icons and iconoclasts taken in the two lives. Sabas provides a brief history of the iconoclastic controversy, uses eikonomachos 18 times, hairesis 27, and mentions Theophilos as a persecutor of iconophiles on three occasions. Peter, however, mentions physical icons only twice, once in a description of the persecution of Leo V and again in loannikios' statement of faith ( taken verbatim from the patriarch Nikephoros' Apologeticus), never uses the term eikonomachos, uses hairesis only 4 times and never mentions Theophilos or any aspect of iconoclasm after Leo V Peter does, however, present loannikios as a "living icon" (zographos, ekmimesamenos chrysographikais ennoiais en plaxi kardias; ho Christon sesarkomenon exeikonizesthai; to archetypon kallos tes eikonos ephylaxas) as well as a "new Moses" and as conquering with the sign of the cross.

I will set these contrasts in the context of the unstable political situation following Theophilos' death, Theodora's insistence on excluding her deceased husband from the general anathema against iconoclasts, Studite opposition to the 'conciliatory' patriarch Methodios, and loannikios' own questionable status as an iconophile.

Angelic Epiphany and Artistic Imgination

Glenn Peers (Johns Hopkins University)

The appearances of angels had always been, as described in scripture and hagiography, a notoriously difficult experience for the recipient. Consequently, angelic epiphanies implicated conceptual problems that generated debate over how best to commemorate such revelations. This paper examines opposing views on commemoration and the relation these views have to the problems of making images of formless beings.

Divergent views on commemorating angelic epiphany find their clearest expression during Iconoclasm, particularly in the polemical writings of the Patriarch Nicephorus. Nicephorus refuted early opponents of representing angels, such as the fourth-century theologian Macarius Magnes. Macarius Magnes had looked to scripture for the best prescription on preserving the memory of angelic epiphany. He had stated that the Patriarch Abraham did not "carve an idol in resemblance nor did he paint a panel" to commemorate the appearance of the three angels at Mamre; rather, Abraham delighted in the spiritual contemplation of the memory "in the storehouse of his soul." This example of the intellectual approach to commemorating divine manifestations characterised the iconoclast position, and Nicephorus energetically contested the exclusive quality of this approach. For Nicephorus and the iconophiles, material images were also appropriate means of preserving the memory of angelic interventions.

On the other hand, both iconoclasts and iconophiles were equally suspicious of the ability of artists to represent angelic epiphanies since these manifestations are symbolic and only partially fathomed. The iconophiles defended the necessity of manufacturing images, but attempted at the same time to efface the intervention of artistic imagination from that process. In iconophile theory, this effacement is personified by Bezaleel, the paradigm of the true artist, whose input is restricted to technical skill.

Artistic imagination, and the part it plays in the commemoration of angels' appearances, is countered in another way as well. In a revealing passage of the vita of Nicephorus, for instance, the emperor asked the Patriarch, 'By what means do artists arrive at knowledge of the angels?' If the artists are relying on their own visions or inspirations, the worth of an iconography based on personal revelation and subjective interpretation is very low, according to the emperor. Nicephorus answered that the artists do not invent any elements nor manufacture according to their craft's artifices; instead, unsubjective tradition provides hallowed inspiration for Christian artists, thereby eliminating the opportunity for personal artistic mediation.

Texts such as these reveal a basic mistrust of artistic practice before angelic epiphanies. This suspicion runs through Christian theology from the fourth-century and finds elaborate expression on both sides of the iconoclast debate. However, the theoretical scope - and difficulties - was increased by the acceptance of images by the iconophiles as seemly memorials for angelic epiphany. In advocating a symbolic, stable iconography that bears no real resemblance to the angelic model, iconophile theory effectively erased the role of artistic imagination; by extension, iconophile theory also increased the share of the viewer in explicating allusive, material images of angelic epiphany.

An Ironic Icon: Theodore Graptos

Charles Barber (University of Illinois)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate an irony in the representation of the Martyrdom of Theodore Graptos in the eleventh-century marginal psalters (Theodore and Barberini). In these two identical images of the saint's "martyrdom" we see Theodore being inscribed. This moment is central to Theodore's identity as a saint. Although Theodore does not die from this unusual punishment (he lives for perhaps another eight years), it provides the culminating point of his life and, indeed, provides his name.

In this paper I propose an interpretation of the appropriateness of this punishment, setting it within the context of second iconoclasm. The writings of John the Grammarian and Nikephoros are cited and are used to show how the construction of Theodore's criminality/ saintliness belongs to the discourse of this second, ninth-century phase of iconoclasm. In particular I discuss the relationship between Theodore's punishment and the dispute over the relative values of the visual and the verbal that can be found in the writing of the two Patriarchs. It is within the terms of this specific discourse that the nature of Theodore's punishment can be identified.

Given this, Theodore's representation in the psalters marks an ironic turn. The punishment meted out by the iconoclasts employs writing to control Theodore's body and to identify its criminal status. In a very real sense the saint is inscribed with this criminal status. In the manuscripts this same body has necessarily become an icon of virtue (as pointed out by Walter and Anderson). The act of inscription, that marks Theodore's body as criminal, has now become part of his saintly image. The condemnatory act of writing on the body has, therefore, ironically become an iconic event, which must now necessarily be seen.

XXIII. EARLY BYZANTINE HISTORY

Chair: David Olster (University of Kentucky)

The Angry Emperor within Julian's Misopogon

Jacqueline Long (University of Texas)

In Antiochikos, or, Mosopogon, the emperor Julian documented his frustration with the citizens of Antioch during his residence there in 362-363. Modern scholars have long read it as a wail of anguished impotence, a strange or even perverse statement for an emperor to issue (e.g., Glanville Downey, Church Hist. 8 [19391310; Glen Bowersock, Julian the Apostate [1978] 104). More recently, Maud Gleason placed it in a tradition of imperial edicts rebuking citizens URS 76 [19861106-19). I have tried to demonstrate Julians rhetorical control (against, e.g., Polymnia Athanassiadi-Fowden, Julian [19811202, cf. rpt. [1991] xii) by arguing that he assumes a series of poses within Misopogon (Ancw 24 [1993115-23). His angry outburst (366B­371B) is framed by his persona as a sardonic Cynic sage, who at the beginning and end ironically lets the Antiochenes set the terms of their interchange (338A-344B, 365D-366B, 371B). I argued earlier that the Angry Emperor represents an oblique threat, a character which Julian pointedly rejects (356D, 371B). I wish now to examine his persona more closely. I shall argue that he evoked not just an image of how an emperor in Julians position might feel, but memories of how Julian's half-brother Gallus had felt and acted.

Gallus was a figure both potent and risky for Julian to recall. His disastrous handling of alimentary crisis at Antioch (cf. Amm. 14.7; J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, Antioch [1972] 126-32) afforded Julian a spectacular counterexample against which to define his own actions. Yet his close kinship could be taken to imply that Julian would react similarly badly. Julian faced the same illative danger when he revolted against Constantius. In his extant letter soliciting Athenian support, he takes care to blame "any savage or rough quality about Gallus's character" on Constantius, and to distinguish his own character as the enlightened product of philosophical training (Ath. 271D-272A). Just so in Misopogon he opposes the Angry Emperor to the other specifically imperial persona in which he casts himself, a Platonic Philosopher­King (344B-357A). He contrasts his own decorous upbringing under Mardonius, and his philosophical principles, with the hedonistic education of the Antiochenes. Next he distinguishes himself against the Christian Constantius (357A-358A). Gallus shared the points of distinction Julian notes: he enthusiastically supported both Christianity and public entertainments at Antioch (cf. 340A; Amm. 14.7.3; Greg. Naz. Or. 4.24; Soz. 3.15,5.19), and it is he who like Julian attempted to regulate prices of scarce grain (cf. Arnm. 14.7.2). Julian hints at Gallus more directly, but still in anonymous praeterition, near the end of the section rehearsing the Angry Emperor he refuses to play (370C). Gallus foils Julians conduct. Julian also aligns contrasts within Misopogon so as to assign Gallus the mentality he supposes the Antiochenes urge on himself. The Angry Emperor is not Julian, but a device for reminding the Antiochenes how ill such an emperor would serve them.

Fravitta and Barbarian Career Opportunities in Constantinople

Hugh Elton (Trinity College)

It has been frequently stated that the Late Roman Army included in its ranks large numbers of barbarians. There is abundant evidence, particularly in the form of legislation prohibiting intermarriage, or barbarian dress, to indicate a climate of opposition. Despite this hostility, many barbarians succeeded in entering the hierarchy of the army and, from the reign of Constantine onwards, penetrating to its highest ranks.

One such individual was Fravitta, an eastern soldier of Gothic origin. He became ma ister militum and was awarded the consulate in 401. This would be an outstanding career for any Roman general. Since such a climate of opposition towards barbarians existed, how did such men achieve these positions?

This paper will outline Fravitta's career, showing what he achieved. Fravitta is of particular interest since he was opposed to Gainas in the uprising of 400, and was himself a Goth. This, with his reward for defeating Gainas, suggests that the Gothic nature of the rising has been over-stressed in the past, and that our understanding of the role played by barbarians in the army and politics needs to be reconsidered.

Fravitta is then compared with other contemporary generals, of both Roman and non­Roman origins, to show how he was typical of the era. Like many, he was a pagan, and played an active part in court politics. He had a Roman wife, which required a special dispensation on the part of the emperor. Other generals owned property in Rome or Constantinople, corresponded with other prominent men, and were Christians.

The paper concludes that there was little difference in contemporaries' attitudes towards officers of Roman and barbarian origin. The similarities between so-called barbarians like Bauto, Ellebichus, Gainas, Fravitta, Arbogast and Stilicho, and Romans like Theodosius the Elder, Promotus, Timasius and Aetius were greater than their differences, leading to their treatment as a single, homogenous class in terns of politics and promotion.

Ravenna and Constantinople

Peter Heather (University College, London)

For the bulk of his reign, relations between the Ostrogothic Italian kingdom of Theoderic and a succession of eastern Emperors were far from smooth. It was clearly a highly exceptional interlude in the 510s which culminated in the grant in 519 of a consulship by the Emperor Justin to Theoderic's son-in-law and heir, Eutharic. This paper will explore the dynamics underlying the reconciliation of the 510s and the preceding and subsequent periods of more or less open hostility.

The basic hostility has always seemed problematic given the great deference shown to Constantinople by Theoderic in formal contacts such as Variae 1. 1 (of 507/8), and a host of other ways. On closer inspection, however, the letter displays an iron fist behind its velvet glove. Decoded, it contains a claim to a Roman legitimacy equal to that of the Eastern Emperor, and demands, on the basis of that claim, that Constantinople should be in alliance with Theoderic - as head of the other Roman state of the world - rather than with other, non­Roman and therefore lesser powers. Anastasius was then involved in an anti-Theoderic alliance with Clovis.

Theoderic's essential independence of Constantinople thus emerges with striking clarity. His Romanitas was not the imitative awe of the amazed barbarian, but a deliberately adopted pose to be manipulated for his own ends. As this stresses, and his earlier career underlines, Theoderic may have had to operate in a world in which the Eastern Roman Empire remained the single greatest power, but this never prevented him from using all means to maximize his own position, even where this involved conflict with Constantinople.

This paper will argue, indeed, that from at least 511 onwards when he was directly ruling Italy, Spain and large parts of Gaul, as well as exercising some hegemony over the Burgundians and Vandals - Theoderic was conceiving of his dominion in imperial terms: the Western Empire revived. Not only did he deliberately ape so much of the imperial style, but control of Spain was not the temporary aberration sometimes imagined. His original idea would seem to have been to pass on all of his lands to his first designated heir, his son-in-law Eutharic.

Theoderic's independence and imperial pretensions largely explain, of course, why his relations with Constantinople were for the most part difficult. The eastern imperial authorities cannot have been happy to see the emergence of this ambitious new powerblock in the western Mediterranean. Only when the Emperor Justin faced internal difficulties at the beginning of his reign, was Theoderic able to extract formal recognition and acceptance of his succession plans: in return - in all probability -for facilitating the end of the Acacian schism. Not only was Eutharic granted the consulship, he was adopted as the Emperor's son at arms. This was no more, however, than a grudging concession at a moment of maximum political difficulty. As soon as the early death of Eutharic offered the opportunity, Justin's regime made every effort to destabilise Theoderic's succession plans, refusing to recognize his next choice, Eutharic's son Athalaric. The East, I would argue, very much got its way, therefore, when Theoderic's kingdom broke up upon his death, with Spain and Italy going in separate directions. The rise and fall of Boethius, I would argue, must also be seen as a footnote to the diplomatic manoeuvres surrounding Theoderic's succession plans.

The Crisis of 641 Once More

Walter E. Kaegi (The University of Chicago)

The struggle for the imperial succession that followed the death Of Heraclius (11 February 641) needs more clarification. The Synopsis Chronike attributed to Theodore Skutariotes mentions a census ordered by Heraclius to be implemented by Philagrius, koubikoularios and sakellarios. The existence of this census has possible implications for the imperial succession crisis of 641. Philagrius allied himself with Heraclius Constantine and later with Constans II, and against Martina and Pyrrhus, Patriarch of Constantinople. He reported the existence of a secret fund in the hands of Pyrrhus for the benefit of Martina, Heraclius's second wife, and her sons, accordingly these funds were seized from Pyrrhus and used to purchase military support for Heraclius Constantine. Philagrius, according to John of Nikiu, was popular at Constantinople and through his bodyguard Valentinus, an Armenian who championed

Constans II and fought Martina, with an important military constituency. Valentinus commanded troops in Asia, and became comes Excubitorum. Probably the census was done in Heraclius' name and in conformity with his memory, or at least some attempt to implement it, however far that succeeded is uncertain. Philagrius would, as sakellarios and as responsible for the new census, have possessed extraordinary and timely information about the finances of the empire, including what was not yet written, recorded, and organized. That detailed information would have given him great leverage, even more than normally a sakellarios possessed, with elements of the military. The sakellarios had long been indispensable to the financing of expensive military operations. Philagrius was concerned to prevent himself from being purged by Martina and her partisans, but he did not escape that fate. For he was exiled by Martina to Africa, to Septem (Ceuta) at the straits of Gibraltar. General Valentinus was able to have Philagrius recalled from Africa, but we do not know what official position he held after his recall, namely, whether he again became sakellarios. Martina and her faction, who included Patriarch Cyrus of Alexandria, wished to negotiate with the Muslims in Egypt and probably elsewhere, while Valentinus and his allies, including Philagrius, favored violent resistance. The civil strife inhibited devising a successful resistance to the Muslims, yet it appears that Philagrius, consciously or unconsciously, contributed to stiffening the will to resist, and for prioritizing the allocation of financial resources to the military in the east who were responsible for devising that resistance. Martina's alliance with clergy and military officers who wished to negotiate with the Muslims needs more investigation. Philagrius may well have shared the views of Heraclius in favor of tough resistance to the Muslims and rejection of terms. In any case, he was allied with those in the military who wished strong, violent resistance. He was willing to finance that armed resistance. The prestige and final will and testament of Heraclius overshadowed that short succession crisis, and contributed to the victory of the descendants of his first wife, the late Fabia-Eudocia. Valentinus and his men drew on Philagrius' funds and probably expected to benefit from the results of any new census of taxable properties. The elusive Valentinus was an Armenian; his ambitions and actions require more analysis. Martina and her sons enjoyed the support of the Thracian army, but unit rivalries and ethnic dimensions of the succession struggle are difficult to assess accurately. One must also weigh whether Philagrius simply calculatingly allied himself with Valentinus and his soldiers in an effort to save his own self and position in the midst of the succession power struggle. There is no report that Philagrius was disliked because of efforts to implement a tax census; acceptance of such a census may have been facilitated by attributing it to the last wishes of Heraclius.

XXIV ARCHAEOLOGY

Chair: Susan T. Stevens (Randolph Macon Women's College)

Report on the Research and Excavation of Dermech I, Carthage

Christine Kondoleon (Williams College)

In recent years, the efforts of many teams have resulted in a rich picture of the basilican development in Carthage (e.g. Bir el Knisia) both intra and extra muros. The operations of the Corpus of Tunisian Mosaics in the urban area to the west of the Great Baths of Antoninus Pius are showing how Christian public edifices come to be interwoven into the fabric of the

developed Roman metropolis. Two Christian complexes (Dermech I Basilica with Baptistry and annexes, and Dermech II basilica) stand equidistant from the great Byzantine conversion of the civil basilica to the south, and, to the north, from the Basilica of Ste. Monique. The activities of the Corpus have resulted in a complete reevaluation of previous work concerning the architecture, decoration and dates of the buildings. For example, during the campaign of 1993 an entirely new level of mosaic flooring was discovered below the well-known coffered floor in Dermech I which has altered the relative chronology of the architecture of the building and especially its liturgical arrangements. In addition, the altar of the latest phase of Dermech I was not in its original position, instead excavations have revealed that an early altar existed with a masonry receptacle for the reliquary in the middle of an earlier nave. This paper will outline many of these elements briefly.

Industry and Urban Change in Early Byzantine North Africa: New Evidence from Leptiminus (Lamta), Tunisia

Lea Stirling (University of Manitoba) and Nejib Ben Lazreg (Institut National du Patrimoine)

In 1992, a team co-sponsored by The University of Michigan and the Institut National du Patrimoine de Tunisie excavated part of an early Byzantine amphora production site built into a Roman bath building in Leptiminus, Tunisia. This report presents the archaeological data from Leptiminus, explores the changes in urban and social fabric implied in the building's drastic alteration of function, and reviews evidence for similar change in other coastal cities of North Africa.

At some point in the late fourth century the building ceased to function as a bath. Hypocaust tiles under the bath floors were robbed out for reuse, and packed dirt and ash floors established atop the collapsed mosaics. Pits and upright storage amphorae were situated in these floors. Service courts, pools and furnaces were adapted to industrial purposes: most notably, the furnaces were converted into kilns (these were exposed briefly during construction work immediately south of the Michigan trench). A stratified deposit 1.2 m thick of amphora sherds, many of them wasters (badly misfired pieces), and kiln fragments lay over the floor of one service court. The amphora sherds, studied by Robyn Schinke, run continuously between the late Roman and Vandal periods, that is the late fourth and fifth centuries A.D. An aqueduct and cistern which had provided water to the baths in Roman times may have continued to serve the kilns. Industrial slag found in the building raises the possibility that more than one industry was located there. Coins indicate that the site was occupied, possibly for industrial purposes, into the Justinianic period. Later still, ashlars from the walls were robbed out.

In the course of two centuries, then, this building had completely changed its function from being a mid-sized municipal bath to being an industrial area containing kilns and possibly other industrial equipment. Such a change is evidence of a significant shift in the zoning of the ancient city, a shift which cannot be attributed to disruption from the Vandals, as the unbroken amphora production shows continuity between late Roman and Vandal times. Baths at other African sites were turned over to industrial purposes (kilns, olive presses), but mostly at a later date. The changes in land use at Leptiminus may be related to changing patterns in the olive oil trade. Although alterations in the functions of public buildings are often ascribed to changes in population or social behavior, they may in fact show a positive response to changing economic conditions. Perhaps Leptiminus experienced the change earlier than other sites because of its coastal location. The stratified, well-dated evidence from Leptiminus provides a starting point for examination of industrial practices and urban change in the coastal cities of early Byzantine North Africa.

The Peristyle of the Roman Villa at Sidi Ghrib

Lucinda L. Neuru (University of Waterloo)

The Roman villa at Sidi Ghrib, located in the north African countryside southwest of Carthage, the capital of the Roman province of Africa, has been most recently presented to the Byzantine Studies Conference at Princeton University, November 1993 and most recently published in Archaeological News and Classical Views in 1994.

The investigation of the site thus far has shown that it was a rural villa complex, an excellent example of the late antique luxury villa, the monumentale complexe a iuxtaposition of the villa antique type as classified in I-G. Gorges. The villa at Sidi Ghrib was destroyed by a fire at about the end of the first quarter of the sixth century, and reused for commercial and residential purposes. Dirt floors were laid over mosaic ones and the rooms and corridors were subdivided. One set of rooms to the east of the peristyle became a shop, perhaps Byzantine 'fast-food joint' with mixing vat, hearths cut into the floors and a counter-top.

The peristyle was investigated in the 1994 season. A series of shallow limestone vats in the peristyle belonging to the Byzantine re-use of the building were already exposed. They proved to be troughs for a fondouk or caravanserai. Parallels exist in Africa, at Maktar and Aidra, and elsewhere, at La Hillcre near the luxury villa at Montmaurin. Under this Byzantine structure was a peristyle which had been walled, creating a long rectangular peristyle in place of an earlier probably square one. The floor of the peristyle seems to have been paved; in the phase just prior to its use as a fondouk it perhaps had a mosaic pavement for which the foundation remains.

At the north end of the peristyle was, in the Byzantine phase, a forge. Remains of the chimney, furnace arch, much iron slag and a quenching basin were found; this structure was perhaps a blacksmith's shop. This forge had caught fire, judging from the phenomenal amount of ash at this end of the peristyle, and had gone out of use before the final phase of the fondouk. At this end of the villa there appear to have been an earlier and a later fire; the later fire did not extend and did not show in the commercial premises already uncovered in the southeast of the building.

The Roman villa at Sidi Ghrib which was long-lived, probably dating from the first century AD, became a type of rural 'condominium' with some commercial facilities. This phenomenon, the re-use of a structure, is paralleled in urban contexts in the late antique period, and generally the re-use of late Roman villas for a variety of other purposes, such as cemeteries, monasteries, churches and rural or urban settlement and associated needs is attested widely throughout the area of the Roman Empire in the post-Roman period.

Recent Excavations at Amorium

C.S. Lightfoot (Bilkent University, Ankara)

Amorium is first recorded as a minor provincial town in eastern Phrygia. Traces of the Roman city are restricted to surface finds (i.e. pottery sherds, coins, etc.), architectural fragments and inscriptions, although the site boasts a large number of Roman tombstones, particularly those of a type known as 'Phrygian doorstones'. These have been re-used both in the Byzantine fortifications and in the buildings of the modern village. The city only rose to prominence during late antiquity and is said to have been refounded by the emperor Zeno (AD 474-491). Two large churches were built, one in the Upper City, the other in the Lower, during the late 5th or early 6th century, which reflect its growing ecclesiastical importance. In the 7th century Amorium was made the capital of the Anatolikon'theme', principally because it lay on the main southern route across Anatolia between Constantinople and Syria. It became the target of repeated Arab attacks, culminating in the well-documented siege of AD 838. This catastrophe was the result of not only its strategic position but also its enhanced status as the home of the ruling Amorian dynasty.

When excavations started at Amorium in 1988, a major aim was to find evidence for the siege of AD 838. Attention was, therefore. directed towards the defenses that encircled the city. A trench was opened on the southern side of the Lower City, revealing a gateway, an impressive stretch of curtain wall and a large projecting triangular tower. These fortifications were clearly erected during peace-time when time, care and new materials could be utilised. Their construction should be regarded as a major, imperial enterprise and may represent Zeno's work. Excavations within the triangular tower in 1993 produced ample evidence for the sudden and violent end to the tower's existence, although it remains to be proven whether this occurred during the sack in AD 838. Other areas of the site, notably the church in the Lower City, have also revealed signs of its chequered history while Amorium served as a theme capital and military base. Apparently no attempt was made to rebuild the Lower City walls after the catastrophe that destroyed the triangular tower, and all future efforts to fortify and protect the city were concentrated on the Upper City. Excavations there in the past two seasons have revealed the latest phases of the Byzantine settlement and associated with them is a final rebuilding of the fortifications that encircle the top of the large, man-made mound. They have also provided evidence for a gradual transition in the occupation of the Upper City between the Byzantine and Seljuk periods. But after the arrival of the Turks the city slowly declined, having lost its strategic importance.

It is now clear that there are at least three stages to the construction of the city's defenses. They bear ample witness to the investment in resources and effort that was put into this strategic site at different times. The building and rebuilding of the fortifications between the 5th and 11th centuries may also be taken as representative of the major changes that the physical appearance of the city underwent during this period. The transformation of Amorium involved the wholesale demolition of its Roman public buildings and cemeteries, and consequently the remains belong principally to the Byzantine period. The excavations in the first six seasons have thus demonstrated that the site offers a unique opportunity to excavate and study a Byzantine city in its entirety. The program for future excavations is to investigate further the nature of occupation in the Upper City, the nucleus of the whole site, and to try to ascertain how much of the Lower City remained inhabited, thereby enabling us to build up a picture of the stages by which Amorium developed during the 'Dark Ages'. It is also planned to continue work at the Lower City church, which has become a major feature of the site since its excavation.

The Byzantine Gold-Mining Town at Bir Umm Fawakhir, Egypt

Carol Meyer (University of Chicago)

In January of 1992 and 1993, the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago conducted two seasons of archaeological survey at Bir Umm Fawakhir in the central Eastern Desert of Egypt. The site is located about 5 km northeast of the famous graffiti in the Wadi Hammamat, or about halfway along the Hammamat route from the Nile to the Red Sea, a track that has been used for millennia. Bir Umm Fawakhir lies in rugged Precambrian mountains in a long, narrow wadi not visible from the modem road. Formerly considered a Roman caravan station, the site is now identifiable as a Byzantine gold-mining town of the 5th-6th centuries.

The ancient town consisted of over two hundred buildings on either side of the wadi, with the sandy wadi bottom serving as the main street. The ruins are sufficiently well preserved that individual houses, doors, and built-in features such as wall niches and benches can be identified. All buildings appear to be domestic. The project mapped 105 buildings in detail, which yielded a population estimate of roughly 1000 inhabitants for the main settlement. The survey also identified outlying cemeteries and a guard post, but no formal defenses, which is surprising in a region where security was often a concern. A sherd sample and analysis produced a working date of 5th-6th century A.D. for the town. Although crosses stamped on some of the bowls indicate a Christian population, no church has yet been located. A geological study of the immediate vicinity has been prepared, with special attention to the Fawakhir granite and its gold-bearing quartz veins and some investigation of the mines and trenches riddling the surrounding mountains. Epigraphic material consists of over forty red­painted inscriptions in Greek on the shoulders of Gaza wine amphorae. The project has also carried out walking surveys of some of the nearby wadis and has identified seven clusters of outlying ruins contemporaneous with the main settlement. Some 1st-3rd century A.D. graffiti in a nearby cave have been documented and a column segment from the Ptolemy III temple, destroyed by recent mining activity, has also been located.

Older historical accounts of Byzantine/ Coptic Egypt did not consider the imperial govern­ment powerful enough to control the Eastern Desert, which was consequently abandoned to nomadic tribesmen. The previous assessment is simply not the case, as indicated by the growing number of recently studied Byzantine sites in the desert, which include the Bir Umm Fawakhir gold mine, the fortress at Abu Sha'ar, caravan way stations, and the continued use of the imperial porphyry quarries at Mons Porphyrites and the port at Berenice. Long mis­identified as a Roman hydreuma on the Coptos (Quft) to Leucos Limen (Quseir) road, Bir Umm Fawakhir can now be recognized as a Byzantine gold-mining town - a very large one for its date and remote location - and one of the first archaeologically documented gold mines for the Byzantine empire.

XXV CLASSICAL SURVIVAL IN BYZANTIUM

Chair: Marios Philippicies (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

Learning How to Write in Byzantine Schools

Raffaella Cribiore (Columbia University)

According to the ancient testimonia the teaching of grammata followed a very strict and rigid order. Students were exposed first to the letters of the alphabet, then to syllables, individual words, and sentences. From the literary evidence it is clear that in teaching reading the ancients followed the so-called synthetic method which started from the basic elements, the letters, and built on them to construct words and sentences. The same sequence was probably followed when someone learned how to write consciously and knowingly a word, syllable by syllable, that is when he really learned how to write and to express himself, therefore going beyond simple copying.

But did students always have to wait and learn their syllables before writing down their first sentences? The evidence of the school exercises of Byzantine Egypt shows the existence of a different method of learning how to write according to which beginners, immediately after learning the letters of the alphabet, had to copy whole sentences to improve their hand, even if they did not yet know how to read. Very uncertain hands, in fact, copy letters of the alphabet, sentences, and short passages, while more developed hands seem to write syllabaries and lists of individual words often divided into syllables. This approach to writing would therefore make the process of writing precede reading and seems rather modern by laying emphasis on larger units at the beginning. The school exercises show that such practice originated in the Roman period, but found an application especially in the Byzantine age.

This method of teaching writing is not really contradicted by the literary evidence. Even when St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa or St. Jerome mention a very rigid ordo docendi according to which a student moved from letters to syllables and names, they seem to follow their illustrious predecessors, and among them especially Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Quintilian, in alluding to a method used especially to teach reading.

In addition to the palaeographical evidence which points to very unskilled hands writing sentences while syllabaries were written by more expert hands, the Byzantine school exercises exhibit the writing of letters of the alphabet and sentences or short passages side by side on the same tablet, piece of papyrus or parchment. In Louvre inv. AF1195 (RA 2 [1983] 276-79) or in MPER NS XV 132, for instance, the same student copies with a very uncertain hand a sentence or a short passage, but practises at the same time whole alphabets or the letters which baffle him most.

The process of reading, in conditions of scriptio continua, probably took longer than nowadays and required more mature skills. Beginners were often asked to copy from models which they could not understand to improve the quality of their handwriting. In a culture in which educational opportunities were very limited, basic copying skills may have been deemed more desirable than the ability to read complex texts.

Antioch and Antehomerica: A Locally Revised Account of the Trojan War's Origins

J.G. Farrow (Wayne State University)

Johannes Malalas' Chronographia is a strange and erratic document. Even the author's identity and date are open to challenge: the Patriarch Johannes III of Antioch (565-577) may be our man. The Chronographia is aimed at a readership of modest education: the Greek style is a simple Koine; the world-history, constructed from a Christian perspective, begins with Adam and combines Biblical and pseudo-biblical narrative with rationalised Greek myths for the first five books out of a total eighteen. The Troy story occupies almost the whole fifth book and is based primarily on the Greek original of Dictys of Crete's Ephemeris Belli Troiani, an alleged eye-witness war diary which was probably forged in the last quarter of the first century AD. Malalas cites Dictys as his source more than once; other authorities are cited in addition for later portions of the war.

This paper concerns Malalas' introduction to the characters and circumstantial origins of the war. First, the structure of the fifth book's opening portion is compared with that of Dictys and with some of the prose introductions which frequently appear in Byzantine manuscripts of Homer's Iliad. Other parallels will also be seen in a progymnasia attributed to Libanius (also from Antioch) and in three mythographical extracts found recently on papyri.

One of Malalas' unique features is that he not only tries to rationalise the famous Judgement of Paris scene, but he also locates the event in a Mandra: possible associations between the mythical scene and the revered enclosure round Antioch's landmark Stele will be discussed. Malalas makes the association even more confusing by linking it aetiologically, through Paris' name, with a "Parian Field." Other peculiarities of Malalas' Book V will be outlined and evaluated briefly. They include the notorious "Portrait List," a relic of a tradition also reflected in Dares Phrygius and in Isaac Porphyrogennetos' Peri t6n kataleiphthentin hypo tou Homerou.

In conclusion it will be seen that this clumsy pastiche of popular mythography was most likely Malalas' own work. His preliminaries owe nothing at all to Dictys, his alleged source. Instead he adds his own spice of local interest to a tradition which had evolved in the rhetorical schools. At the same time he tries to preserve the narrative content as a combination of history and romance. Finally it will be demonstrated that Malalas' revision was primarily responsible for some highly unclassical elements which appear in later Antehomerica and in some articles in the Suda.

Procopius and Thucydides on the Meaning of Words

Charles F. Pazdernik (Princeton University)

As his famous statement about the Corcyraean civil war (Hist. 3.82) makes clear, Thucydides regarded semantic confusion. resulting from the willful obfuscation of the usual ethical connotations of words, as emblematic of devastating social collapse. He reserves his assessment of this condition, however, for the severe and relatively rare circumstances of violent revolution. Procopius, in a speech attributed to the Gothic king Totila (Wars 7.8), makes the observation that the great majority of mankind is accustomed to distort the names of things until they reverse their meaning. What Thucydides views as perhaps the most regrettable depredation of stasis is, at least from the point of view of a sympathetic character, for Procopius a predominant condition of mankind.

Citing a number of further examples from both authors, this paper addresses the question of Procopius' debt to Thucydides from the specific standpoint of the authors' respective attitudes toward the representative function of words and also toward the kinds of agency and contingency involved in the distortion of words and their meaning. Procopius adopts a Thucydidean framework in posing the issue as a sociological critique, in which the operation of power and political advantage plays a conspicuous role. Nevertheless, Procopius' assessment of his society differs markedly from that of Thucydides. Where the latter views semantic confusion as an aberration, Procopius views it, no less negatively, as a defining characteristic of his age. This perspective serves to illustrate the dynamic quality of Procopius' engagement with the legacy of the past and the uneasiness with which he approaches contemporary developments.

This paper aims to make a contribution to the critical reevaluation of the question of Procopius' "classicism" and the role played by ancient exemplars in the evolution of Byzantine historiography. Procopius' allusions to Thucydides in this instance do not seek simply to lend his work an appropriately classicizing veneer, creating the impression of historical and literary continuity; instead, Procopius self-consciously mobilizes a Thucydidean model as a means of giving expression to, and marking the distinctness of, Procopius' sense of the singularity of his times and of his own historiographical enterprise.

Plethon's De Differentiis: Interpretation or Manipulation

Stelios Vasilakis (New York University)

In his introduction, George Gemistos Plethon asserts that his primary intention in writing De Differentiis is to point out the misconceptions that the West has in its perception of Plato in comparison with Aristotle and vice versa. As a result of this, as C. M. Woodhouse points out, Plethon intends to reintroduce Greek philosophical thought (i.e.,Plato and Aristotle) to the West. Nevertheless, an analysis of Plethon s arguments on behalf of Plato and against Aristotle in De Differenths (in relation to the intense debate between Plethon and Scholarius instigated by these arguments) indicates that Plethon deviates from the purpose he defined in the introduction, and that he has a rather different reason for writing De Differentiis. This paper will examine certain Platonic views on God and creation in order to judge how accurate Plethon is in his account of the Platonic writings. I shall argue that Plethon s intention in writing De Differentiis is to support his plans for a classical revival of Byzantium, rather than reviving Platonism in the West.

De D&rentiis was written in Florence in 1439. The fifteenth century represents an era of strenuous socio-political and cultural turmoil and changes in the history of the Byzantine Empire. As Speros Vryonis mentions, the period is dominated first by'crises and anxieties' caused primarily by the problem of ecclesiastical union and by the continuous Turkish advances against the empire, and second by the presence of two different cultural forms, an old and a new one, as the direct result of these anxieties. The old cultural forms appear as the 'reassertion' of orthodoxy and of traditional values and customs, and they are reflected primarily in the writings and deeds of Symeon, the archbishop of Thessaloniki, and Scholarius. From a philosophical perspective, Scholarius supports Aristotle, whose philosophy he considers more consistent with the Christian faith than Plato's. The new cultural forms appear as the reform of the Byzantine state and society according to the political, social, educational and religious standards of the classical period, and they are manifested mainly in the writings of Plethon.

The examination of Plethon s arguments concerning certain doctrines of Plato shows that he has a preference for Plato in comparison to Aristotle. I will argue that the deficiencies and paradoxes in the Aristotelian thought suggested by Plethon are more often the result of the clash between the old and the new cultural forms in fifteenth century Byzantium, rather than the outcome of objective philosophical interpretation and judgement.

Michael Psellos and the Literary Survival of Romulus

Elizabeth A. Fisher (George Washington University)

A full and quite consistent set of stories associated with Romulus, eponymous founder of Rome, survives in the Greek and Latin literature of the early Roman Empire. The compendious first-century histories of Livy, Diodorus of Sicily, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus preserved a tradition which emerged after the Fourth Century B.C. and which Plutarch and Dio Cassius later reflected and elaborated. The familiar tale is replete with mythical elements; in summary, twin boys, Romulus and Remus, were born to the royal vestal virgin Ilia/ Rhea Silvia and exposed by their evil uncle. Suckled by a she-wolf and raised by poor shepherds, the boys became leaders of a ragtag outlaw band, discovered their true royal identity, and restored to the throne their grandfather Numitor. To provide a home for their followers, the twins planned a new city and agreed upon a contest in augury to decide which one of them would be eponymous founder and king. The victorious Romulus or his supporters killed Remus in a dispute, then populated Rome by snatching brides from their Sabine neighbors. Romulus insured the prosperity of his reign by successful wars and diplomacy; after 37 years as king, he mysteriously disappeared, leaving no heirs.

The literary anthology De sentenths compiled for Constantine Porphyrogenitus preserves excerpts concerning Romulus, evidence that tenth-century Byzantine scholars considered his exploits significant for an understanding of their own Roman past. Michael Psellos inherited this consensus about the importance of Romulus and also encountered the legends of his career in two ancient authors whom he regularly cites, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch. Close examination of Psellos' references to Romulus suggests an ambivalent attitude towards this legendary figure as well as towards Byzantium's Roman Past.

In the Encomium to Constantine Monomachos (Sathas V, 141.9) Psellos includes Romulus in a group of six Greek and Roman statesmen/ generals who owed their immortal fame to the authors commemorating their careers; Romulus joins company with no less a figure than Alexander the Great, an acknowledgement of his stature as a literary exemplum. In an essay for two contentious brothers, nephews of the patriarch Cerularius, Psellos counsels harmony, supporting his advice with specfic references to the good effect of a common project upon Romulus and Remus and the evil result of Romulus' subsequent ambition (Or. Min. 31. 130-4, 209-12 Littlewood). In addition to portraying Romulus as a moral exemplum, Psellos also uses the figure to illustrate the flawed nature of Byzantium's Roman past. In his Oration on the Miracle at Blachernae (p. 202, 23-7 Bidez), Psellos remarks upon the irony of humble creatures like birds designating Rome's founder by their flight and rejoices that Romulus' Christian successors could turn to the Theotokos for oracular guidance in great matters of state. Finally, in the Chronographia (11, 35 S 134 Renauld) Psellos calls the debased citizenry and ignoble Senate of his own day "an inheritance from the past," explaining that Romulus formed the Roman state without reaard for noble birth, in contrast to Athenian practice.

In conclusion, the Psellan Short Historu (p. 2/3 Aerts) includes straightforward references to events of Romulus' career and a brief positive assessment of his character. These references to Romulus are unlike the others surveyed, suggesting that they represent a different literary tradition.

INDEX OF SPEAKERS

Alchermes,Joseph D............................................................30
Anderson, Jeffrey C.................... ........................ .................. 1
Barber,Charles.................................................................63
Ben Lazreg, Nejib ..............................................................68
Bingham,Steven...............................................................12
Blanchard, MonicaJ.............................................................12
Boyd,Susan...................................................................18
Brand, Charles M...............................................................24
Buchler, Alfred.................................................................48
Churchin,Leonard A............................................................53
Clover, Frank M................................................................55
Corrie,Rebecca W...............................................................34
Cribiore,Raffaella..............................................................72
Crow, Kevin H.................................................................. 4
Denzey, Nicola.................................................................56
Derbes,Anne..................................................................35
Diebel,Sarah ..................................................................42
Dobrov, Gregory............................................................... 9
Elton, Hugh...................................................................65
Emerick,Ellen .................................................................11
Erhart, Victoria ................................................................39
Farrow,J.B.....................................................................73
Fisher, Elizabeth A..............................................................75
Folda,Jaroslav.................................................................50
Frank, G.L.C...................................................................46
Gabelic,Smiljka ................................................................ 5
Garcia Moreno,Luis A...........................................................50
Gorecki, Danuta................................................................31
Gouma-Peterson,Thalia.........................................................25
Gray, Patrick T.R................................................................54
Gregory, Timothy E.............................................................21
Haas, Christopher.............................................................. 8
Harvey, Susan Ashbrook ........................................................45
Heather,Peter.................................................................65
Herbst, Matthew ...............................................................14
Hevelone,JenniferLee........................................................... 4
Hill,Barbara...................................................................23
Houghton,Charlotte............................................................42
Janowitz, Naomi................................................................ 3
Jessop,Lesley..................................................................27
Johnson, MarkJ................................................................16
Kaegi, Walter E................................................................. . 66
Kaldellis,Anthony..............................................................37
Kardulias,P. Nick..............................................................22
Katsarelias, Demetrios ................... . ....................................... 2
Kavrus, Nadezda............................................................... 1
Keenan,James G................................................................43
Kogman-Appel, Katrin..........................................................49
Kondoleon,Christine...........................................................67
Kouymjian, Dickran ............................................................44
Lardiero,Carl..................................................................40
Lightfoot, C.S..................................................................69
Long, Jacqueline ...............................................................64
McKee,Sally ..................................................................30
Mavroudi, Maria...............................................................15
Melczer, William ...............................................................58
Meyer, Carol ..................................................................71
Minnen,Peter Van.............................................................. 7
Nelson, RobertS................................................................36
Neuru,Lucinda................................................................69
Neville,Leonora A..............................................................32
Osborne,John .................................................................26
Payton,James R.,Jr.............................................................61
Pazdernik,Charles.............................................................73
Peers, Glenn...................................................................62
Pevney, Olenka Z...............................................................59
Popovich,Ljubica D.............................................................28
Popovic,Svetlana ..............................................................19
Potamianos,Iakovos............................................................17
Rapp, Claudia.................................................................10
Rife, Joseph L..................................................................21
Rosser,John...................................................................23
Rutishauser,Brian..............................................................20
Safran,Linda..................................................................29
Sahas,DanielJ.................................................................13
Salvador Ventura, Francisco ...................................................... 52
Schwartz,Ellen C...............................................................57
Shaya,Josephine...............................................................38
Sheridan,Jennifer A....................... ........ .............................. 6
Simeonova,Liliana.............................................................33
Sirks,Boudewijn...............................................................45
Snipes, Kenneth................................................................33
Stirling,Lea...................................................................68
Stricevic, George...............................................................15
Sullivan, Denis F................................................................61
Takacs,Sarolta A................................................................26
Thyret,Isolde..................................................................60
Todorova,Elisaveta.............................................................53
Trahoulia, Nicolette S............ ................................................ 3
Vallejo Girves, Margarita ........... . ............................................ 51
Vasilakis, Stelios ............................................................... 74
Walker,Joel...................................................................56
Weber,Ronald.................................................................47
Wilfong,Terry.................................................................. 7
Wright, David H................................................................40

Officers and Committees,

1993-1994 Officers

• President: David Olster
• Vice President: Susan T. Stevens
• Secretary-Treasurer: Denis Sullivan

Governing Board:

To serve until the 1997 Conference:

• Helen C. Evans
• Elizabeth A. Fisher
• Ralph W. Mathisen
• Daniel J. Sahas

To serve until the 1996 Conference:

• Mary-Lyon Dolezal
• John VA. Fine, Jr.
• Susan T. Stevens
• Denis Sullivan

To serve until the 1995 Conference:

• Timothy Miller
• John Nesbit
• Lucille Roussin
• Nancy Sevčenko

To serve until the 1994 Conference:

• Jeffrey C. Anderson
• Christine Kondoleon
• Jacqueline Long
• David Olster
• Marius Philippides

Program Committee:

• Mary-Lyon Dolezal
• Sharon Gerstel
• Ralph W. Mathisen
• Marios Philippides
• Hagith S. Sivan
• Susan T. Stevens
• Thelma K. Thomas

Dumbarton Oaks Liaison Committee:

• Jeffrey C. Anderson (Chair)
• Helen C. Evans
• Timothy Miller
• Nancy Sevčenko
• David Olster (ex officio)

Local Arrangements Committee:

• Rudi Paul Lindner
• Ellen C. Schwartz, Chair
• Thelma K. Thomas