Kategoria BISAC: History >> Byzantine Empire

In her work, the historian Anna Komnene (1083 to approx. 1153), daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I, deals with the period of her father's reign from his first successes as a youthful army commander and his successful rebellion up to his death. She includes an account of the First Crusade from a Byzantine perspective and draws impressive portraits of the protagonists. Together with the works of Michael Psellos and Niketas Choniates, her account belongs to the most brilliant achievements of Byzantine historiography.

This new critical edition contains numerous textual...

The only manuscript preserving this collection of letters, in the British Library, is damaged at the beginning, thus depriving us of the author's name. However, the letters of the Anonymous Professor, a scholar and headmaster of a private school in Constantinople in the mid tenth century, comprise an important source for our knowledge of education and intellectual life in Byzantium in this period. The present edition, which aims to fulfil the need expressed by many scholars for a new, fully annotated critical edition of the letters, attempts to reconstruct the main events in the life of...

Obwohl der Bestand an fruhbyzantinischen Wand- und Gewolbemosaiken im ostlichen Mittelmeerraum sehr gering ist, waren die umfangreichen Reste des erhaltenen musivischen Dekors der Acheiropoietos-Basilika in Thessaloniki bisher noch nicht Gegenstand einer umfassenden Untersuchung. Die vorliegende Studie stellt diese uberwiegend in den Arkaden und Fensterlaibungen erhaltenen Mosaiken in den Mittelpunkt. Aufbauend an die ausfuhrliche Analyse dieses qualitatvollen Dekors werden weiterfuhrende Fragen zu den fruhbyzantinischen Mosaiken von Thessaloniki (v. a. Hagios Demetrios, Gerogios-Rotunde)...

Zwischen 395 und 624 residierte der Kaiser des Ostens ununterbrochen in Konstantinopel. Er reiste nicht mehr durchs Reich, er fuhrte keine Armee in den Krieg, er verlie die Stadt nicht weiter als eine Tagesreise. Konstantinopel war ohne das Kaisertum undenkbar, aber ebenso war der Herrscher auf die Stadt angewiesen. Ein romischer Kaiser konnte namlich, anders als ein Erbmonarch der Neuzeit, Macht und Leben an einen Usurpator verlieren, seine Stellung blieb stets prekar. Daher mute er immer wieder um die Unterstutzung der Einwohner Konstantinopels werben, sie um jeden Preis behaupten - und...

Das Byzantinische Archiv ist die Begleitreihe der Byzantinischen Zeitschrift und umfasst sowohl Monographien als auch Sammelbande. Es bietet ein Forum fur Editionen, Kommentare sowie vertiefende Studien zu Einzelaspekten aus dem Bereich der Byzantinistik. Literatur, Geschichte und Kunstgeschichte einschlielich der damit verbundenen Neben- und Randdisziplinen sind gleichermaen vertreten.

The Varangian Guards were Viking mercenaries who operated far beyond their native shores as an elite force within the Byzantine Armies. Descendants from a legendary line of warriors, the Varangian Guard was formed after a group of Viking mercenaries made a major contribution to the Byzantine Emperor Basil II's victory over rebel forces in 988 AD. These 5,000 men were then retained as Basil's personal guard and would provide loyal service to many successive occupants of the imperial throne.

Commonly referred to as 'foreigners' (Etaireia), they were nonetheless absorbed into a new...

The new critical edition of Michael Psellos Chronographia takes into account the entire scholarly work on this text since 1874 in a critical apparatus and a separate text-critical commentary. Compared to previous editions, it provides an improved text, suggesting many new readings. Comprehensive indices facilitate the search within the Greek text. The German translation appears in the Sammlung Tusculum.

This volume presents a broad array of contributions on Byzantine literature and culture, in which well-known Byzantinists approach topics of ceremonial, education, historiography, hagiography, homiletics, law, philology, philosophy, prosopography, rhetoric and theology. New editions and analyses of texts and documents are included. The essays combine traditional scholarship with newer approaches, thus reflecting the current dynamics of the field.