Authority in Byzantium

Description

First Published 2013 by Ashgate Publisher. Authority is an important concept in Byzantine culture whose myriad modes of implementation helped maintain the existence of the Byzantine state across so many centuries, binding together people from different ethnic groups, in different spheres of life and activities. Even though its significance to understanding the Byzantine world is so central, it is nonetheless imperfectly understood. The present volume brings together an international cast of scholars to explore this concept. The contributions are divided into nine sections focusing on different aspects of authority: the imperial authority of the state, how it was transmitted from the top down, from Constantinople to provincial towns, how it dealt with marginal legal issues or good medical practice; authority in the market place, whether directly concerning over-the-counter issues such as coinage, weights and measures, or the wider concerns of the activities of foreign traders; authority in the church, such as the extent to which ecclesiastical authority was inherent, or how constructs of religious authority ordered family life; the authority of knowledge revealed through imperial patronage or divine wisdom; the authority of text, though its conformity with ancient traditions, through the Holy scriptures and through the authenticity of history; exhibiting authority through images of the emperor or the Divine. The final section draws on personal experience of three great 'authorities' within Byzantine Studies: Ostrogorsky, Beck and Browning. A+++ List of illustrations xi List of Contributors xv Preface xxi Introduction 1 Part I. The Authority of the State 1. Aspects of Moral Leadership: The Imperial City and Lucre from Legality / Jonathan Shepard 9 2. Trial by Ordeal in Byzantium: on whose Authority? / Ruth Macrides 31 3. A Case Study: The Use of the Nominative on Imperial Portraits from Antiquity to Byzantium / Sergey Ivanov 47 4. Response / Susan Reynolds 59 Part II. Authority in the Marketplace 5. Displaying the Emperor's Authority and Kharaktèr on the Marketplace / Cécile Morrisson 65 6. The Authority of the 'Eparchos' in the Markets of Constantinople (according to the Book of the Eparch) / Johannes Koder 83 7. Response / Chris Wickham 109 Part III. The Authority of the Church 8. Coming of Age in Byzantium: Agency and Authority in Rites of Passage from Infancy to Adulthood / Jane Baun 113 9. The Authority of the Church in Uneasy Times: The Example of Demetrios Chomatenos, Archbishop of Ohrid, in the State of Epiros 1216–1236 / Günter Prinzing 137 10. Response / Miri Rubin 151 Part IV. Authority within the Family 11. Family Ties, Bonds of Kinship (9th–11th Centuries) / Christine Angelidi 155 12. The Limits of Marital Authority: Examining Continence in the Lives of Saints Julian and Basilissa, and Saints Chrysanthus and Daria / Anne P. Alwis 167 13. Response / Janet Nelson 181 Part V. The Authority of Knowledge 14. Knowledge in Authority and Authorised History: The Imperial Intellectual Programme of Leo VI and Constantine VII / Paul Magdalino 187 15 The Authority of Knowledge in the Name of the Authority of 'Mimesis' / Charalambos Bakirtzis 211 16. On Whose Authority? Regulating Medical Practice in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries / Dionysios Stathakopoulos 227 17. Response / Alexander Murray 239 Part VI. The Authority of the Text 18 Believe It or Not: Authority in Religious Texts / Albrecht Berger 247 19. From the Workshop of Niketas Choniates: The Authority of Tradition and Literary Mimesis / Alicia Simpson 259 20. 'And many, many more': A Sixteenth-Century Description of Private Libraries in Constantinople, and the Authority of Books / Marc D. Lauxtermann 269 Part VII. Exhibiting Authority in Provincial Societies 21. Organic Local Government and Village Authority / Leonora Neville 285 Part VIII. Exhibiting Authority in Museums 22 Exhibiting Authority: Byzantium 330–1453 / Maria Vassilaki 299 Part IX. Authority in Byzantine Studies 23. George Ostrogorsky St. Petersburg, 19 January 1902 – Belgrade, 24 october, 1976 / Ljubomir Maksimović 327 24. Hans-Georg Beck / Vera von Falkenhausen 337 25. Robert Browning / Elizabeth Jeffreys 345 Index 355