Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

"Although Byzantium is known to history as the Eastern Roman Empire, scholars have long claimed that this Greek Christian theocracy bore little resemblance to Rome. This book reconnects Byzantium to its Roman roots, arguing that from the fifth to the twelfth centuries CE the Eastern Roman Empire was essentially a republic, with power exercised on behalf of the people and sometimes by them too. Kaldellis recovers for the historical record a less autocratic, more populist Byzantium whose Greek-speaking citizens considered themselves as fully Roman as their Latin-speaking 'ancestors.' He shows that the idea of Byzantium as a rigid imperial theocracy is a misleading construct of Western historians since the Enlightenment. With court proclamations often draped in Christian rhetoric, the notion of divine kingship emerged as a way to disguise the inherent vulnerability of each regime. The legitimacy of the emperors was not predicated on an absolute right to the throne but on the popularity of individual emperors, whose grip on power was tenuous despite the stability of the imperial institution itself. Kaldellis examines the overlooked Byzantine concept of the polity, along with the complex relationship of emperors to the law and the ways they bolstered their popular acceptance and avoided challenges. The rebellions that periodically rocked the empire were not aberrations, he shows, but an essential part of the functioning of the republican monarchy"--

Legitimacy of governments --- Power (Social sciences) --- Republicanism --- Monarchy --- Authority --- History --- Byzantine Empire --- Politics and government --- Empowerment (Social sciences) --- Political power --- Exchange theory (Sociology) --- Political science --- Social sciences --- Sociology --- Consensus (Social sciences) --- Governments, Legitimacy of --- Legitimacy (Constitutional law) --- Revolutions --- Sovereignty --- State, The --- General will --- Political stability --- Regime change --- Roman history --- History of Southern Europe --- History of Greece --- anno 500-1199 --- anno 400-499

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This book proposes a long view of Byzantium, one that begins in the early Roman empire and extends all the way to the modern period. It is a provocative thought-experiment which posits Byzantium as the most stable and enduring form of Greco-Roman society, forming a sturdy bridge between antiquity and the early modern period, as well as between East and West, and which sees the ancient Greek, Roman, and Christian traditions as flowing together. It offers a Byzantium unbound by other cultures and fields of study that would artificially cut it down to size.

Byzantine Empire --- History. --- Civilization. --- HISTORY / Civilization. --- Ancient history. --- Byzantium. --- Constantinople. --- Greco-Roman. --- Mediterranean. --- civilization.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Psellos and the Patriarchs: Letters and Funeral Orations for Keroullarios, Leichoudes, and Xiphilinos contains translations of the funeral orations written by Michael Psellos, the leading Byzantine intellectual of the eleventh century, for the three ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople whom he knew best: Michael Keroullarios (1043-1058), Konstantinos Leichoudes (1059-1063), and Ioannes Xiphilinos (1064-1075). The orations are significant sources for the lives and reputations of these patriarchs; they are also a prime source for the educational reforms made by the emperor Konstantinos IX Monomachos in the mid-1040s, and for many events of that turbulent century that Psellos witnessed, including popular uprisings, plots, civil wars, and the battle with the Catholic legates in 1054. Never before translated into English, the orations and letters are introduced by a detailed analysis of Psellos’ historical relationships with the patriarchs and an interpretation of the works.The orations are not only important historical sources: they are crucial specimens of Byzantine rhetoric in a period of transition, as well as being key texts in the corpus of Psellos himself. Psellos used them to score important points in support of his own philosophical agenda and to make broader claims about ethics and metaphysics and the role of learning in political and ecclesiastical life. The orations are here accompanied by translations of a long letter that Psellos wrote to Keroullarios and a pair of letters to Xiphilinos, in which he defended key aspects of his philosophical project.

Byzantine literature --- Funeral orations --- Political customs and rites --- Patriarchs and patriarchate --- Authors, Greek (Modern) --- History and criticism. --- History. --- Psellus, Michael. --- Byzantine Empire --- Social life and customs. --- Politics and government. --- Officials and employees.