Byzantine Studies Conference Archives

Seventh Annual Byzantine Studies Conference
13-15 November 1981
Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts

ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS

The Byzantine Studies Conference is an annual forum for the presentation and discussion of papers embodying current research on all aspects of Byzantine history and culture. The Abstracts of Papers is printed from camera-ready copy supplied by the speakers. Copies are presented to each registered participant, and they are available for purchase by libraries and other interested persons. A five-year subscription covering the years 1980-1984 (Nos. 6- 10) can be ordered for $20. Individual copies of Nos. 6 ff (1980 ff) can be ordered for $5 a copy. Prices quoted include postage. Orders should be prepaid (checks payable to Byzantine Studies Conference) and sent to:

Byzantine Studies Conference
c/o Dumbarton Oaks
1703 32nd Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20007

CONTENTS

• WOMEN AND MONASTICISM (Friday, November 13, 10:00 a.m.) 1
• ARCHAEOLOGY (Friday, November 13, 10:00 a.m.) 5
• BYZANTINE LITERATURE (Friday, November 13, 2:00 p.m.) 11
• LATE BYZANTINE QUESTIONS (Friday, November 13, 2:00 p.m.) 16
• BYZANTINE MUSIC (Friday, November 13, 2:00 p.m.) 22
• INTERNAL LIFE OF THE EMPIRE (Saturday, November 14, 9:30 a.m.) 24
• ART HISTORY: GENERAL SESSION (Saturday, November 14, 9:30 a.m.) 29
• BYZANTIUM AND THE BARBARIANS (Saturday, November 14, 2:15 p.m.) 34
• MIDDLE BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE (Saturday, November 14, 2:15 p.m.) 40
• MIDDLE BYZANTINE ART (Saturday, November 14, 4:00 p.m.) 45
• RELIGION AND SOCIETY (Saturday, November 14, 5:00 a.m.) 50
• PAGAN IVORIES AND CONSULAR DIPTYCHS (Sunday, November 15, 9:00 a.m.) 54
• BYZANTIUM AND THE SLAVS (Sunday, November 15, 9:00 a.m.) 58
• INDEX OF SESSIONS (with Presidents and Times) 62
• INDEX OF SPEAKERS (with Session and Page Numbers)* 62
• BSC OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES Inside Back Cover

(Copyright reserved to individual speakers.)

*Note: papers listed with an asterisk in the Index of Speakers were read also at the Sixteenth International Congress of Byzantine Studies in Vienna.

ABSTRACTS organized for printing Byzantine Studies Conference
by Annemarie Weyl Carr.

Abstracts of papers--Byzantine Studies Conference, 1st-
1975-
Madison, Wis. [etc.] Byzantine Studies Conference.
v. 22 cm. annual.
Key title: Abstracts of papers--Byzantine Studies Conference.
ISSN 0147-3387
1. Byzantine Empire-Congresses.
DF501.5.B9a 949.5 77-79346
MARC-S
Library of Congress 77

COVER ILLUSTRATION: Cameo with Adoration of the Cross. Three-layered agate. Height 2.6 cm. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., 47.21.

WOMEN AND MONASTICISM

Presiding: Annemarie Weyl Carr

"HUMBLE LEADERSHIP": A CONFLICT OF VALUES IN EARLY FEMALE MONASTICISM

Elizabeth A. Clark (Mary Washington University)

Christianity from its inception was torn between two conflicting desires: to exalt humility as the prime virtue of the Christian life and to convince the pagan world that the rich and the powerful might find the new religion worthy of adherence. Although opportunities for Christians to exercise authority were admittedly limited in the first centuries, the fourth century opened new avenues for the wielding of power. And if the ambiguity present in simultaneously manifesting meekness and exerting authority appears problematic for Christian men of the era (Ambrose provides a nice case in point), it is even more so for women: women labored under the burden not only of Christianity's universal call for humility, but also of its special strictures regarding female subjection, based on such Biblical passages as I Timothy 2:11-15. When, in addition, the women who exercised authority in monasteries were ascetic converts from society's most eminent and wealthy families, the problem of reconciling authority and humility was further exacerbated.

The admittedly limited evidence from the fourth to early sixth centuries is of a twofold nature: (1) the monastic rules expressly for women written by Augustine and Caesarius of Arles, and (2) the Vitae and letters pertaining to particular founders of women's monasteries, such as Paula, Melania the Elder, Olympias, and Melania the Younger. The former documents enjoin the nuns to humility as an answer to conflicts that arose from the mixing of classes within the monastery, a mixing unprecedented in secular life. Obedience to the mother superior is seen as a prime expression of that humility. Her right to exercise authority remains unquestioned, although if she can disguise it as a rule of love, so much the better.

The Vitae and letters concerning individual women also stress humility as their subjects' cardinal virtue. These documents, however, startle the contemporary reader by their near total in attention to the women's organization of monasteries. For example, John Chrysostom never once in his seventeen extant letters to Olympias mentions her in her role as the founder and superior of one of Constantinople's first monasteries for women. Likewise Paula, Melania the Elder, and Melania the Younger: their male biographers so emphasize their humility as to obscure almost totally their administrative abilities. Doubtless one reason for this stress was to dramatize the disparity between the women's earlier lives of luxury and their present abject condition. Yet the emphasis on humility, when coupled with the neglect of women as leaders, could well serve the convenient function of mitigating the discrepancy between Christianity's theoretical consignment of women to silence and submissiveness with the actual competence displayed by the females who organized and oversaw the earliest monasteries for women about which evidence remains.

WOMEN'S MONASTERIES IN THE MIDDLE BYZANTINE PERIOD

Dorothy deF. Abrahamse (California State University, Long Beach)

Despite a growing body of research on female ascetic institutions in western medieval society and the current interest in many aspects of Byzantine monasticism, little specific study has yet been devoted to monastic ideals and institutions for women in the Byzantine Empire. As part of an integrated panel on Byzantine female asceticism, this paper has two purposes. It presents a general background on some of the sources, problems, and prospects for further investigation of women's monasteries in the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries. A single question--the roles of abbesses and masculine overseers within and without their convents during this period--is considered in greater detail.

The sources for women's monastic ideals and practices for this period are diverse and often difficult to assess. A body of writings addressed to the theoretical concerns of female asceticism (canon law and its commentaries, letters and other advice literature and the detailed typikon of Irene Dukas for the monastery of the Theotokos tēs kecharitōmenēs in the early twelfth century) describes a rigidly enclosed community dominated by the principle of absolute separation of sexes among ascetics and the need to protect nuns from the world. Evidence for actual foundations indicates that the middle Byzantine period was one of new prominence for women ascetics, and that their convents often served purposes at variance with the ideals of enclosure. Janin's register of Constantinopolitan monasteries, for example, shows a relatively high ratio of known female foundations for most of this period, and hagiographical sources demonstrate the mobility of women ascetics and the growth of public veneration at the tombs of women saints. A fundamental concern of this paper is the problem inherent in evaluating the relationship between theory and actuality in feminine foundations.

Although the evidence for the size, composition and longevity of convents is much too sparse for general evaluation, it is possible to make some investigation of who endowed convents and why they did so. Four patterns of patronage are evident in this period. Imperial foundations, frequently with empresses as patrons, are especially prominent as burial places, repositories for the relatives of deposed emperors and as homes for imperial daughters and widows. Aristocratic foundations, serving some of the same dynastic needs, appear as family foundations in a variety of sources, but wealthy citizens also appear to have invested in women's monasteries for less immediate reasons. Convents were also established by masculine ascetic leaders for their female relatives (Euthymios the Younger, Peter of Atroa). Finally, hagiographical sources suggest that women's ascetic institutions might develop in response to the charisma of a woman ascetic. An examination of nuns known from seals and landholding documents helps to characterize the popularity of these foundations.

In theory, Byzantine abbesses exercised spiritual authority within their communities, while sacramental needs and external administration were carried out by masculine overseers. In patristic and early Byzantine sources, however, woman ascetics were strongly tied to masculine spiritual directors who played a dominant role in their individual lives and in the functioning of their communities. Middle Byzantine hagiographical sources present a different viewpoint. Although masculine figures are generally present, their roles appear to be less dominant, and abbesses, even when not the heroines of the biography, are portrayed as figures of major authority within the community. A final section of this paper will evaluate these portraits and compare them with earlier texts in an attempt to determine whether they represent any real change in the governance of convents. Against these portraits theoretical writings, the regulations of the typikon of Irene Dukas, and what can be determined of the backgrounds and offices of abbesses and masculine officials will be analyzed to see whether the period saw developments in the way Byzantine writers viewed this relationship, and what varieties of authority may have existed in actuality.

NUNNERIES AND THEIR FOUNDRESSES

Angeliki Laiou (Harvard University and Dumbarton Oaks)

The surviving typika for nunneries of the Comnenian and Palaeologan periods are a precious source for the mentality and the concerns of the women who issued them--members of the court aristocracy. These women had certain common characteristics: a profound pride in their aristocracy and their progeny is a trait which they shared with males of the same class. Evident in the typika is a great family solidarity and loyalty; that affected also the role of the convents which were meant to function, to some extent, as retreats for the female members of the foundress' family. In the particular case of Irene Doukaina, family loyalty was sex-specific, for she entrusted the ephoreia of her convent to her female relatives, to the exclusion of males.

The provisions regarding the administration and economic life of the convents are very revealing. They show a great concern on the part of the foundress for the proper (and conservative) administration of the property. This concern is expressed, among other things, in the detailed fashion in which the duties of the economic/ financial officers of the convent are described. It is clear that the foundresses were women who were used to administering large estates, and versed in the art of bookkeeping . It is also clear that, until the middle of the 14th century, the aristocratic nuns of these convents were expected to know how to read, write and keep accounts.

While the above remarks apply to all the nunneries whose typika survive, there are also some differences which reflect primarily the differences between the twelfth and the early fourteenth centuries. In the twelfth century, there is an insistence on the part of the foundress that contact with the male world be kept at a minimum. In the fourteenth century, this attitude has changed, and a more open relationship with the rest of society is maintained: characterised by the fact that in one convent the oikonomos was to be a nun, and not a man, as was usually the case, whereas in another convent a school for boys and girls survived until the middle of the century. The life of Irene Choumnaina Palaiologina, in the nunnery she restored, serves as an example. She remained close to her family, was very much involved in political affairs, and retained her ties with outsiders, even seeking the company of learned men. It is argued here that in this period urban monasteries in general functioned less as retreats and rather as the last places of habitation of an increasing number of people; which would explain the rather close connection with the rest of society. This phenomenon is characteristic not only of the aristocratic nunneries, but also of smaller and poorer ones.

The aristocratic foundresses of Byzantine nunneries donated to these institutions fairly considerable property, and tried to preserve it against external threats, sometimes by going to court. But they also commonly retained personal property, even after becoming nuns, and administered it themselves. A phenomenon which contradicts canonical legislation, and even the provisions of their own typika, it becomes important when one is trying to examine both the personalities of these women and the realities of Byzantine monasticism.

NUNS AND NUNNERIES OF PALAEOLOGAN CONSTANTINOPLE

Alice-Mary Talbot (Hiram College)

Although in the late Byzantine period both men and women turned to monastic establishments for spiritual and physical refuge, there are indications that monks greatly outnumbered nuns, and that monasteries were more numerous than convents, and better endowed.

Still there were several large and prosperous convents in Palaeologan Constantinople, inhabited by 50-100 nuns, and possessing substantial estates. A brief description will be given of some of the leading nunneries, such as the convents of Christ Philanthropos of Lips, of Ss. Cosmas and Damian, of Lady Martha and of the Virgin of Sure Hope. Typika survive fur three of these convents; the others are known from narrative sources.

The paper will examine in some detail the reasons why women entered convents, their age, marital status, and family background. For some, monastic life was a true vocation embraced in youth; the great majority of Palaeologan nuns, however, were widows who found convents a place of spiritual comfort in their bereavement, a sanctuary where they would be cared for in their declining years; others were women who sought to escape unhappy marriages, or received the tonsure in thanksgiving for a miraculous cure, or in repentance for such sins as sorcery.

Palaeologan nuns played varied roles in their monastic communities, and in the larger context of urban society. The primary occupations of nuns were prayer, attending services, study of the scriptures, attending to administration and housework, handwork, such as embroidery and charitable services. There are also occasional, tantalizing allusions to nuns who copied manuscripts themselves or commissioned the production of manuscripts and church furnishings, or architectural restoration. At least one nun composed canons; others became involved in the theological controversies of the day.

As might be expected, the ideal of cloistered, celibate and communal life which is set forth in the typika. of late Byzantium was not always reflected in reality. Synodal documents reveal scandalous lapses from monastic discipline, and the repeated pleas for asceticism and obedience found in the writings of patriarchs and spiritual confessors lead one to believe that the provisions of typika were frequently disregarded.

On the whole, however, the convents seem to have been capably administered by foundresses, abbesses and conventual officials; for the women of a declining Empire, they provided a safe and peaceful haven, security in old age, and hope of spiritual salvation.

IRENE-EULOGIA CHOUMNAINA PALAIOLOGINA, ABBESS OF THE CONVENT OF PHILANTHRŌPOS SŌTĒR

Angela Constantinides Hero (Queen's College, CUNY)

Daughter of the imperial chancellor Nikephoros Choumnos and daughter-in-law of the emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos, Irene founded the convent of Philanthrōpos Sōtēr shortly after the sudden death of her young husband, the Despot John, in 1307. Her decision to give away her vast fortune and to become a nun at the age of sixteen was due both to the emotional trauma of her bereavement and to the spiritual guidance of the metropolitan Theoleptos of Philadelphia, who remained her director until his death (ca. 1322).

Although none of her letters to that well-known prelate survived, her correspondence with a scholarly hesychast, who became her adviser during her later years and whose identity remains conjectural, has been preserved in part and constitutes not only an important source for the study of spiritual guidance in Byzantium, but also a document of exceptional psychological interest and a unique example of spontaneous correspondence, characterized by an unabashed expression of feeling rarely found in Byzantine epistolography.

The late Fr. Laurent was the first to draw attention to and comment on these letters. I have just completed a critical edition of the letters and the purpose of my paper is to reexamine some of Laurent's conclusions and to add some complementary touches to the picture he painted of the Princess and her director in the light of the evidence in their correspondence as well as in the writings of the principal participants in the Hesychast controversy in which Irene-Eulogia was actively involved. The paper will also comment on the unpublished letters of Theoleptos to the young abbess which show the dominant role that her first spiritual adviser played in her life.

ARCHAEOLOGY

Presiding: James R. Wiseman

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY AND THE STUDY OF BYZANTINE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY

Timothy E. Gregory (Ohio State University)

This paper will present a rationale for the use of intensive, systematic archaeological survey in the study of Byzantine historical geography. It will, in addition, provide examples of the usefulness of this technique from two ongoing surveys in southern Greece.

Byzantine historical geography has so far focused largely on the upper end of the settlement hierarchy, in the identification and location of cities, churches, monasteries, and larger administrative units (e.g. the TIB). Examination of the lower end of the hierarchy--villages, farmsteads, villas--has been possible almost only for the late Byzantine period, and only for very limited areas, where adequate documentary evidence is available (Ahrweiler 1965, Laiou- Thomadakis 1977). Furthermore, much previous analysis has been relatively simplistic; the purpose of research has frequently been only to identify a site and not to say anything about its size or importance. The reason for such an approach is quite obvious: in the absence of better documentary records, the traditional written sources simply will not permit detailed investigation of settlement history.

Archaeological evidence, however, can help to fill the gaps left by the written sources and this has been done most effectively for the western Middle Ages (Rosser 1979, Reece 1980). This is not to suggest that archaeological excavations hold the key to an understanding of Byzantine geography: far from it since excavations are costly and must necessarily focus on small areas and fairly detailed specific issues. Instead, the archaeological surface survey seems to be an appropriate tool to use in the investigation of the patterns of settlement that characterized the Byzantine period.

Archaeological surveys, of course, have been undertaken for years, but they have not always been both intensive and systematic. Investigators frequently conducted a hunt for sites or for evidence of a specific nature without enough thought for the larger methodological questions. An intensive survey, in contrast, is accomplished by examining thoroughly all of the landscape in given areas, which should allow generalizations to the level of the region as a whole. This necessarily involves the application of a proper sampling technique. The degree of intensity of the survey will be determined both by practical and theoretical considerations, such as the level of funding and the minimum size of the settlements which the survey proposes to discover. The survey must also be rigorously systematic in that the procedures for the site discovery and examination must be repeatable and everywhere the same, thus allowing for the comparison of results from all areas of the region surveyed, and hopefully beyond.

Thus, archaeological survey is not merely a "treasure hunt" for the discovery of lost cities or unknown churches, which can then be excavated. It is a series of techniques to gather information which will be valuable in its own right. Thus, archaeological survey should be able to contribute to the chronological study of individual sites and to the overall settlement map of a given region, frequently indicating the settlement size as well as location and presumed importance in the communication network. Analysis of much of the material from archaeological survey can be done through the use of appropriate spatial statistics.

Two recent archaeological surveys demonstrate how such programs can contribute to the study of Byzantine historical geography. The first of these is the Ohio Boeotia Expedition, which began a detailed examination of the Boeotian landscape in 1979, working closely with teams from the Universities of Cambridge and Bradford in England. The Ohio expedition focused its attention on southwest Boeotia, in the city territory of Thisbe. In the early seasons the project has investigated the boundaries of the urban area of Thisbe and it has discovered several concentrations of early, middle and late Byzantine habitation, including the remains of several churches. The second project is a preliminary survey of the Corinthia, carried out under the authority of the Greek Center for Byzantine Studies and with the support of the European Science Foundation.

THE BYZANTINE HARBOR AT MAREA NEAR ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT

Karl M. Petruso (Boston University)

On the southern shore of Lake Maryut, 45 km. southwest of Alexandria, Egypt, lie the remains of a large ancient city. The modern Arabic name of the lake preserves the ancient Greek name of the province, Mareotis, which is likely cognate with ancient Egyptian m-r-t, Îportâ. The site was identified in the 19th century by Mahmoud Bey el Falaki as Marea, capital of the nome of Mareotis during classical antiquity. Marea was renowned for its wine, which was distributed widely about the Mediterranean.

Since 1979 faculty and students of Boston University, at the invitation of Prof. Fawzi el Fakharani of the University of Alexandria, have participated in the excavation of the site. Our efforts have focused on the architectural remains fronting onto the lake, particularly on the westernmost of three large ports. The finger of Lake Maryut on which Marea was sited is today nearly completely desiccated. Thus the harbor facilities, including two jetties ca. 120 m. in length, are fully exposed and extremely well preserved. The most interesting structure yet explored in the West Port is a building whose plan, orientation and elevation suggest that it was a boatyard or graving dock. Pottery within the building indicates that it was in use from ca. the 5th to the 7th centuries. No close contemporary parallels for this building are known; thus it has the potential to tell us much about Byzantine shipbuilding technology. Remains of similar structures can be seen on both sides of this building. Directly behind this complex are large flat rectangular areas which might have been horrea.

Casual reconnaissance a few kilometers farther to the west has revealed another cluster of port facilities, previously unreported, which are even more substantial than those of the harbor currently under investigation.

During the 1981 excavation season, work will continue in the West Port, and we shall begin systematic survey of the outlying areas of the site. We are particularly interested in determining the chronological relationship between the two harbor areas, and between the lake level and the harbors at the time of their use. Documentation of oscillations in lake level might provide clues concerning settlement pattern and the eventual abandonment of the site.

A JUSTINIAN FORTIFICATION NEAR THERMOPYLAE

W. J. Cherf (Loyola University of Chicago)

Recent investigations have established that Dhema, an archaeological site located ca. 13 linear km. west of Thermopylae and just southwest of the modern village of Kato Dhio Vouna, is the location for the sixth century site of Myropoles(2). This conclusion is based upon the best available scientific data-topographical, architectural and archaeological--and upon literary evidence.

Dhema is situated astride the strategic northern entrance of the only easily negotiable, year-round, upland pass connecting the Malian basin with Central Greece(3). This narrow constriction(ca. 200 m. wide x 500 m. long)is formed by the western end of the Trachinian Cliffs and the steep Petseta area slopes of Mount Oeta's southeastern Tsouka promontory.

The architectural remains at Dhema reveal a nearly intact, frontier fortification complex, complete with long walls, signal-towers, and military compound. The chronology for these remains is derived from: their rubble and mortar construction; an experimental lime-mortar C- 14 dating method(4); and the late Roman/ early Byzantine pottery excavated from within the military compound.

Myropoles, an obscure toponym described by Procopius (Aed.IV.ii.17-22)(5), fortified by means of a cross-wall a strategically important mountain pass or cleisura. The author further tells us that this cleisura was the entrance into Central Greece. Finally, Procopius' reliability and the literary analysis of this passage led to the belief that Procopius' topographical and architectural descriptions can be followed and observed(6).

The convergence of the above scientific data and literary evidence indicate, that the above mountain pass is identical with the cleisura described by Procopius in Aed.IV.ii.17; that the Dhema fortifications represent a sixth century frontier phrourion; and finally, that the topographical and architectural details found at Dhema are identical with those described by Procopius. The inescapable conclusion is that Dhema is to be equated with the sixth century site of Myropoles.

(1)As a member of the Loyola University of Chicago Phokis-Doris Expedition in Central Greece under the direction of Prof. E.W. Kase, I had both the opportunity to study, discuss, and investigate the site of Dhema at length(summers of 1976-78, 1980-81), and the pleasure to participate in the expedition's multi-disciplinary activities. (2)Procopius, De Aedificiis IV.ii.17-22. P. MacKay, AJA 67(1963), 250 and E.W. Kase, personal communication. Contra: W. Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, 1, 28, n. I and J. Koder and F. Hild, Hellas und Thessalia, 223, 274. (3)E.W. Kase and G.J. Szemler, "Herodotus 8.31-35. Xerxes' March through Phokis," Klio (forthcoming). (4)R.L.Folk and S. Valastro, JFA 3(1976), 203-8. (5)B. Rubin, RE 23(l)(1957), 28, 14-24. (6)MacKay, 241.

BYZANTINE FRONTIER TOWNS IN THE BASALT COUNTRY OF NORTHERN JORDAN

Geoffrey King (University of Riyad)

In 1980, a survey of Byzantine and early Islamic sites in the Jabal Hawrān in northern Jordan was carried out, concentrating on religious architecture. This field-study continues in 1981. During the 1980 season, the Byzantine sites extending eastwards into the desert from Mafraq were studied: Samā, Umm al-Surab, Umm al-JimāL, Umm al-Quttain, Dair al-Kahf, Dair al-Kinn and Qasr Burqu^c. The main study of the region as a whole remains that of the Princeton Expeditions of the early 20th century,¹ although recently studies have been made of Umm al- Jimāl² and Qasr Burqu^c.³

The present survey indicates that the history of the monastery- churches at Samā and Umm al-Surab is more complicated than so far realized. St. George at Samā has two periods of construction during the Byzantine period with major Islamic alterations which the Princeton Expedition misinterpreted; Sts. Sergius and Bacchus at Umm al-Surab is a far more extensive monastery-church than suggested hitherto, and it also has major Islamic additions. In the case of the villages further east, especially Umm al-Quttain, a number of churches were identified, confirming that it was a major Christian site before Islam; however, none of the churches identified were those described by the Princeton Expedition. Several other sites in the vicinity were examined, apparently for the first time, and again a number of churches were noted. In addition to this sustained Christian Arab presence in the area under the Byzantine government, there was a subsequent early Islamic settlement: in a later period, the Ayyūbids and Mamlūks may have re- occupied some sites.

Until the Islamic conquest in the 7th century AD, the Hawrān villages marked the southernmost east-west line of settled Christian communities in contact with the Arab tribes in the desert and with the Byzantine government centres towards the Mediterranean coast. These villages are situated at the end of the route from Wādī Sirhān and Dūmat al-Jandal, as wel as the Hijāz, areas of Arabia particularly exposed to Christianity before Islam.

¹ H.C. Butler, et al., Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904-1905 and 1909 (Leyden, 1909-1921). ² B. de Vries, "Research at Umm el-Jimāl, Jordan, 1972-1977," Biblical Archaeologis , vol. 42, no. 1 (Winter, 1979), pp. 49-55. Dr. de Vries proposes to undertake further excavations at Umm al-Jimāl in Summer, 1981. ³ H. Gaube, "An Examination of the Ruins of Qasr Burqu^c," Annual of the Department of Antiquities (of Jordan) 19 (1974): 93-100.

THE BYZANTINE HARBOR OF CAESAREA MARITIMA: A PRELIMINARY REPORT

Robert Hohlfelder (University of Colorado, Boulder)

Although some scholars have maintained that Caesarea Maritima (Israel) declined in importance during the early Byzantine era,¹ recent archaeological data suggest quite the opposite. The current excavations at this important Mediterranean site are uncovering the remains of a major early Byzantine metropolis that may in fact have reached its floruit in the sixth century. It would appear that extensive rebuilding and expansion began in the late fifth century, perhaps during the reign of Anastasius I, and continued at least through the reign of Justinian.²

While extant literary sources and the land excavations conducted to date provide no evidence about the location or nature of the harbor that served Byzantine Caesarea, it can be safely assumed that a major port did exist to accommodate the city's revived maritime commerce.³ During the summer of 1981, the Caesarea Ancient Harbour Excavation Project (CAHEP), operating under the aegis of the Center for Maritime Studies of the University of Haifa and funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, undertook underwater explorations of the submerged ruins of Caesarea's three harbors/anchorages in an effort to locate and define the Byzantine facilities.

The preliminary investigations of the last summer suggest that the main harbor of Roman Caesarea, the magnificent and 'modern' complex built by Herod the Great and described in detail by Josephus (JA, XV, 334-338), was rehabilitated sometime in the early Byzantine era, probably during the early years of the reign of Anastasius I.⁴ Although it is not yet clear how extensive the rebuilding program was or how much of the Roman port was restored to service at this time, it seems probable that at least portions of the outer harbor of Herod's complex continued in use until and perhaps beyond the city's capture by the Arabs in 639/640. In addition, it seems likely that two possible anchorages discovered in the bay south of the Roman port, where an important Byzantine commercial and governmental district fronted the sea, could have been available for use during periods of favorable weather. To the north of the city center, adjacent to the synagogue excavated by Professor M. Avi-Yonah, the proposed Hellenistic harbor of Strato's Tower seems to have been abandoned by the Byzantine period. A fortification wall was constructed here on top on an earlier quay, which by the late fifth century was largely submerged owing to a c. 1.0 m. rise in sea level since Caesarea's foundation 500 years earlier.

¹ Lee I. Levine, Caesarea Under Roman Rule (Leiden, 1975) 135-139. ² Robert C. Wiemken and Kenneth G. Holum, "The Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima: Eighth Season, June 24-July 27, 1979," forthcoming in BASOR; see also Appendix B to this article, "Coin Finds: A Conspectus," by Robert L. Hohlfelder. ³ Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus in Imp. Anastasium, XIX, speaks in general of the restoration project but does not indicate which harbor or anchorage received the emperor's prudent attention. ⁴ Avner Raban and Robert L. Hohlfelder, "The Ancient Harbors of Caesarea Maritima," Archaeology 34 (1981) 56-60.

THE BYZANTINE MOSAIC PAVEMENTS FROM CAESAREA MARITIMA--450 TO 650

Marie Spiro (University of Maryland, College Park)

Over seventy geometric and figural mosaic pavements were excavated between 1972 and 1980 by the Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima. in Israel. They come primarily from the public and official sectors of the city, to date the main focus of the excavations, and reflect the influence of their architectural contexts.

By far, the majority of the pavements contain large-scale geometric designs of intersecting and adjacent octogons and oblique and straight grids. They are articulated by simple fillets or narrow bands and are inscribed with small, stepped geometric or floral motifs. The color scheme for the designs and filling motifs is limited to black, red and red/ochre and a local "pseudo-white" limestone (with gradations from beige to yellow) is used for the ground. This "pseudo-white" limestone is also used for the monochrome floors which sometimes are inscribed with Greek inscriptions. The tesserae from these pavements are irregular in size and shape and the foundations are poorly mixed.

These rather crude mosaics are located along the cardines and decumani and in a bathing establishment. They reflect their utilitarian function in the size, color and material of their designs. Elsewhere, at a distance from the main avenues, the geometric pavements are more complex and polychromatic, the filling motifs are larger and more varied and the tesserae smaller and more regular. Still, in comparison with the style and technique of the figural mosaics, they also are less than impressive.

Although few figural pavements have been uncovered to date, it is clear that at least one workshop had master craftsmen. Recent excavations in an area containing an Archives building, an official Audience Hall and a building with inscriptions honoring past Governors of the Province brought to light a room with large fragments of an impressive polychrome mosaic. In its original state, the composition comprised a figural panel in each corner of the room, separated by complex meander swastikas, and a fifth panel, possibly more, in the center. The corners contained the Four Seasons (only winged, female busts of Spring and Winter survive) and the central panel, largely destroyed, probably continued the cosmographic theme of nature since part of a Greek inscription is preserved, KARPO. The Seasons are very well executed with small limestone, marble and glass tesserae (to 3mm). Spring, however, is more naturalistic and classical while Winter is more abstract and byzantine. Indeed, the latter more closely resembles other figural representations in Palestine from the same period, 450-550, a chronology established by ceramic finds from the sealed strata beneath the pavement. For Spring there is no analogy from this period in Palestine or, for that matter, in other areas of the Greek East. She represents a remarkable example of the revival or survival of the classical style in official art of the Holy Land.

BYZANTINE LITERATURE

Presiding: Ihor Ševčenko

JULIAN AS MENIPPEAN SATIRIST

Joel C. Relihan (University of Wisconsin, Madison)

Julian's Caesares is, despite recent misgivings (cf. B. Baldwin, Klio 60 (1978) 449ff), a Menippean satire. An analysis of Julian's traditional and original exploitations of Menippean motifs shows clearly the comic context in which Julian's predecessors and the Olympian gods are presented. This analysis refutes the modern criticism which sees in the Caesares a work of serious tone that serves as propaganda for Julian's religious views and depicts him as the heir of the intellectual and military excellences of the Greek and Roman worlds.

In the introduction, 306A-307A, the narrator says that he will tell, at second hand, a comic story to fulfill the requirements of the Saturnalia. The fantastic source of his tale (the god Hermes) and the separation of the narrator from the truth of the story which he tells (he does not know whether Hermes is telling the truth or not) are both characteristic of Menippean satire (cf. the introductions to Seneca's Apoc., Capella, and Fulgentius' Mythologies). The tone is definitely established as tongue-in-cheek.

The anecdotal history of the Roman emperors which follows in 308D-316A is related to the abbreviated Roman histories current in the fourth century. The presentation however is comic and abusive. The only genre which allows a comic display of encyclopedic knowledge is Menippean satire. Varro makes this device crucial to Latin Menippean satire, and it is prominent in the late classical Menippean satirists Capella, Fulgentius, and even Boethius. Julian's models for the Caesares are largely Roman.

Roman history is therefore given a comic form. Furthermore Silenus, playing the role of mocker (cf. Menippus in Lucian's Icaro. and Momus in Jup.Trag.), makes jokes at the obvious expense of both emperors and gods. Other Menippean structures confirm the comic intent of the narrator's tale. The kataskopos, or view from heaven of human folly (cf. Lucian Icaro.11ff and, in parodied form, Seneca Apoc.12 and Varro's Endymiones), is here used in a new way, when the gods in heaven review the follies of the emperors in the sublunar sphere. The gods are figures of fun not only because of Silenus' abuse, but also because of their presence at a symposium (cf. Capella, and the symposia in Petronius and various of Varro's Menippeans). The Caesares therefore comically presents unworthy applicants for godhead and unworthy gods to try their merits; this is the humor of both Seneca's Apoc. and part of Lucian's Jup.Trag.

The conclusion of the Caesares is typically Menippean in that it puts an ambiguous end to a seemingly serious debate. The winner of the imperial contest for deification is not announced at 335C. All contestants are given the same prize, and are allowed into the heavenly company on the same terms, although at the outset only one was to be admitted as a companion for Romulus (316A). Julian's bitterness at the injustice of this is seen in Zeus' pardon of the evil Constantine at 336B; this is parallel to the equally bitter end of the Apoc., where Claudius is relieved of his evil torment. In both authors, the Roman imperial custom of apotheosis is tacitly condemned.

The Caesares is not a consistent anti-Christian polemic. Nor is it a NeoPlatonic myth, for the gods here are not lofty allegorizations but traditional and flawed Olympians. Julian abuses the traditional gods and the emperors who believed in them, while asserting his unique devotion to Mithras and his right to access to heaven without delay (336C). What we see ultimately in the Caesares is Julian's well-known pride, for he disassociates himself from his predecessors both in nobility of earthly purpose and in depth of religious feeling.

THE MAKING OF A MANDARIN OF LATE ANTIQUITY: CONSTANTII ORATIO AND THEMISTIUS' "ELITE MOBILITY"

Lawrence J. Daly (Bowling Green State University)

In 355 Themistius was adlected by Constantius II into the senate of Constantinople. That emperor's dmgoria announcing as well as explaining the philosopher's appointment was read to the senate on 1 September 355 and now survives in the Themistian corpus (Themistii Orationes, ed. G. Downey & A.F. Norman [Teubner, 1974] 111, 121-128). Adlection into the senate of Constantinople initiated the distinguished political career of that scholar-official whose service would span three decades and encompass terms as proconsul, ambassador, court tutor, polemicist, and urban prefect during the reigns of Constantius, Valens, and Theodosius.

The thesis of this paper is that the Constantii oratio--a document A. Alfoldi rightly termed "a formal confession of faith in the higher culture" (A Conflict of Ideas in the Late Roman Empire [1952] 28)--can be interpreted from a sociological frame-of-reference to explicate and elucidate, in terms of contemporaneous evidence, Keith Hopkins' structural analysis of social mobility in late antiquity ("Elite Mobility in the Roman Empire," Past and Present 32 [1965] 12-26; "Social Mobility in the Later Roman Empire. The Evidence of Ausonius," CQ 11 [1961] 239-249). Employing the Hopkins model, analysis of Constantius' message to the senate spelling out his reasons for Themistius' adlection reveals the three processes that "involved mobility in the assimilation of provincials into the Roman honour system": 1) "emperors could and did employ non-aristocrats in positions of power"; 2) "the development of differ- entiated institutions ... which limited aristocratic power"; and 3) "emperors were interested in the uniform or maximum exploitation of the empire" P&P 32, p. 20). Verification of the thesis will involve not only elaboration of the three processes as articulated in the Constantii oratio but also its correlation with Themistius' early biography, itself a typology of mobility. The conclusion expects to demonstrate the value as well as the validity of Hopkins' model in configuring and explaining the patron-client relationship (in terms of its form and dynamics) of the boorish prince and the ambitious professor.

Such an analytical framework also promises dividends in researching other aspects of Themistius' career and orations. For the interpretation of his behavior as a mandarin carries with it a reassessment of key features of his biography--for example, his insistence on the collaboration between philosophy and politics, his views concerning the senate and the monarchy, his ambivalence toward Julian, his plea for toleration, and his advocacy of a policy of accommodation with the barbarians, not to mention his promotion of Constantinople which cost him the friendship of Libanius.

THE LETTERS OF THEOPHYLAKTOS SIMOKATTA, A "SCRIPTOR NON INIUCUNDUS"

Ann Moffatt (Australian National University, Canberra)

None of Theophylaktos Simokatta's works can be dated precisely though the dialogue and prooemium prefacing the History of the reign of Maurice imply that the History was written under Heraklios, and that this was because the reign of Maurice's immediate successor, Phokas, had not provided a climate suitable for free expression. Charles Garton, translating the little debate On Predestined Terms of Life, sensibly remarked that at whatever age Theophylaktos actually wrote it "the temper is that of a young man recently through the rhetorical schools". The same is true of the Problems of Natural History, in introducing which Theophylaktos adopts the stance of addressing his teachers, acknowledging that he was just then learning to tread the halls of the literary Žlite. The 85 classicizing letters of Theophylaktos at first sight read as charming but harmless literary exercises on pastoral, amatory and moralizing themes. When were they written and for what purpose?

Some topics or phrases appear in two or more of Theophylaktos' works and are signals of important motifs. Both letter I and the dialogue of the History refer to rhetoric, philosophy and history as having been for a long time as good as dead. In each case Theophylaktos uses almost identical words to suggest that Philosophy is now free to explore and has come to dwell in per- son amongst mankind. While there is no doubt that a political reference was intended in the introduction to the History, could this also have been the case with the first letter? Or was Theophylaktos in the History simply using one of his earlier rhetorical flourishes in a new, political context? In the dialogue History remarks to Philosophy that their saviour has established a platform and free speech. Likewise in letter 1 the trilling cicada who represents the literary revival has his platform. Together the statements of letter I seem too strong to be innocent, and letter 1 at least is not an early work.

The dialogue and prooemium stand unconnected with the rest of the History. Similarly only The first letter reads as a pointed allusion to the new order under Heraklios. Nevertheless, Because of this, events in Theophylaktos' lifetime might be alluded to in some of the other letters. E.g. in letter 4 a tyrant is advised to set limits to his anger. In letter 27 a farmer is urged to emigrate from Attica to Etna. They have been unable to contend with both famine and the enemy. An Athenian setting is used for the Problems of Natural History and Theophylaktos sees himself writing in the Attic tradition, but this does not preclude contemporary relevance in reference to Attica. Letters 5 and 71 also speak of farmers driven off the land by the enemy.

However, the bulk of these tightly constructed letters succeed because once the scene is described or topos elaborated a twist is given to it which takes the letter out of the class of a harmless literary exercise. There is a barb to these pieces which suggests something more than Boissonade's description of Theophylaktos as a "scriptor non iniucundus, nec ut in mala aetate malus".

THE YEARS 591-602 IN THEOPHYLACT'S ECUMENICAL HISTORY

Timothy Duket (Boston College)

The seventh century historian Theophylact is often considered unreliable in his chronology of events, especially for the years 591-602. This decade in Theophylact's Ecumenical History is of crucial importance to scholars of early Byzantine history, however, and is accessible almost exclusively through Theophylact. As a result, each scholar, as he or she attempts to develop an exact chronology, comes to some opinion about Theophylact. Blaming discrepancies in Theophylact's history on the "literary construction" of the work, N.H. Baynes believed, for example, that Theophylact often became bored with his straightforward narrative and added out-of-place digressions. For Baynes, Bury, Goubert, Hauptmann, Labuda and Lemerle the fault was to be found in Theophylact.¹ This paper, on the contrary, assumes the reliability of Theophylact's history for study of 591-602.

There is time to discuss in detail only three parts of my revised chronology for these years, but three that may have the widest interest. Because, however, my arguments are part of a recalculation of this period as a whole, I am providing a chronological chart which lists all events mentioned by Theophylact, fits them in appropriate years and indicates how they have been dated by other scholars. The three topics in this paper are (1) the probable source of Theophylact's information for this period and the chronological implications of such a source, that is, the testimony of two fellow officers of the centurion Phocas interviewed by Theophylact after 622, (2) dating an embassy from the Frank Theodoric to the Roman Maurice in 596, and (3) a relationship between the Avaro-Slavic siege of Thessalonika, known to have ended on Sunday, September 22 in 586 or 597 and mentioned only in the Miraculi Demetrii, and the Avar siege of Drizipera in 597.

Resolution of these and the related chronological problems has a certain significance, My revised chronology provides a place in Theophylact's narrative for the siege of Thessalonika. Its absence from Theophylact hitherto served to weaken one's confidence both in the comprehensiveness of Theophylact's history and in the historicity of the Miraculi Demetrii. Secondly, this chronology retains Theophylact's sequence of events in its entirety. Finally, one can offer a more definite interpretation of the impressive reign of emperor Maurice. He enjoyed fifteen years of success, including a lasting and favorable peace with the Persians and a 586-597 modus vivendi with the Avars as well. These 15 years to 596/97 ended when the 5-year-old Emperor became deathly ill. Only as Maurice withdrew from personal control of imperial affairs did the Avars renew attacks on the Romans, first in 597 and again in 601. As late as 601 invaluable Theophylact gives us a glimpse of the character of the Maurice era in the terms of a treaty, diomologeitai de Rhōmaiois kai Abarois ho Istros mesitēs, kata de Sklaubēnōn exousia ton potomon dianēxasthai: two warring powers, Avar and Roman, grudgingly cooperating to deal with a rising tide of Slav migrants; Avars, Romans, Franks, Lombards and Persians in one political environment. This ends with Maurice's murder.

¹ N.H. Baynes, "The Literary Construction of the History of Theophylact Simocatta" in Xenia, Hommage Internationale ˆ l'UniversitŽ de Grce (Athens, 1912); J.B. Bury, "The Chronology of Theophylact Simokatta", EHR 3(1888), 310-315; P. Goubert, Byzance avant lâIslam, II, 1 (Paris, 1956), 90; L. Hauptmann, "Les rapports des Byzantins avec les Slaves et les Avares pendant la seconde moitiŽ du sixime sicle", Byzantion 4(1927-28), 137-170; G. Labuda, "Chronologie des guerres de Byzance contre les Avares et les Slavs ˆ la fin du sixime sicle", Byzantinoslavica 2 (1950), 167-173; P. Lemerle, "Invasions et migrations dans les Balkans depuis la fin de lâŽpoque romaine jusquâau huitime sicle", Revue Historique of 1954, 291, 292nl.

A CORPUS OF ANONYMOUS BYZANTINE POEMS

Barry Baldwin (University of Calgary)

One of the many debts owed by Byzantinists to Professor Robert Browning is his editio princeps of the group of anonymous poems contained in Cod. Oxon. Baracci 50, a manuscript now commonly regarded as from the tenth century. Since this publication (Byzantion 33 (1963), 289-315--reprinted in B's Variorum Studies on Byzantine History, Literature, and Education), no further work on the poems seems to have been done, a claim confirmed (per litt.) by Professor Browning himself, who has encouraged me to the present study.

The corpus consists of 29 poems, all iambic, ranging in length from 4 lines to 51. Religion is their common theme, with most being epigrams on icons of Christ, the Virgin, and various saints. By no stretch of the imagination could they be called great poems. However, they should be of comparative interest to the students of the religious epigrams of (say) Theodore the Studite or John Mauropous, not to mention the first book of the Palatine Anthology. And, as Browning himself observes, these poems are not without literary and linguistic interest.

Browning inclines to see the corpus as the work of a single poet writing around 900. He bases this view on the similarity in language and metre between the poems and on the sometimes strident iconodule content which, he suggests, best fits the period after the orthodox restoration of 842. A reasonable conclusion, to say the least, and I have no theories on other matters which would benefit from its overturning. However, if only for the sake of discussion and refutation, a contrary view might be aired. There is nothing inherently improbable about the notion of a collection of anonymous poems from different sources and periods; the Palatine Anthology and all that goes into it provides the obvious point of comparison. Homogeneity of language and style need not be conclusive: second-rate epigrams on common themes cannot usually be told apart without a scorecard. Moreover, the paper will point to a few details which might imply at least more than one author. For his dating, Browning adduces a few passages which seem strongly iconoclastic in tone. But there had been strong language on both sides of this subject since at least the 4th century (cf. for easy reference the documents collected in Iconoclasm (ed. Bryer-Herrin).

Subject to the exigencies of time, the proposed paper examines the content and language of the poems (with copies of B's text made available to the audience). In two respects, some improvement over B's commentary may be possible. First, considerations of external factors such as changes in iconography (cf. the two valuable papers by Henry Maguire in DOP 28 and 31) may assist in the general dating of at least some of the poems.

Second, the language of the poems can be shown to be a good deal less unusual than Browning claims. A fair number of the alleged hapax legomena or neologisms can in fact be seen elsewhere, sometimes in patristic texts, sometimes in the efforts of other Byzantine iambographers, with strikingly similar content.

The corpus of epigrams, then, falls very naturally into the general traditions of Byzantine writing about icons, and for this reason they merit the attention of students of the iconoclastic controversy as well as Byzantine poetry.

WHAT THE MEN OF KIEV SAW AT TSARGRAD IN 911

John Wortley (University of Manitoba)

The Russian Primary Chronicle has not generally been highly regarded as a reliable source for Byzantine history, especially in its earlier pages, mainly because so little of what it has to say can be controlled elsewhere. Having noted a certain curious coincidence which seemed to suggest at least a degree of factual basis to an early episode in the Chronicle, the visit of the Kievan delegation to Tsargrad in 911 (see Analecta Bollandiana 89 [1971] 149-154), the present writer has now proceeded to examine some other details recorded in connection with that event. When their business was concluded, the emperor (Leo VI) had the R™s shown "the Golden Palace and the riches contained therein", which included: "the relics of our Lord's Passion and the crown, the nails, the purple robe, as well as the bones of the saints. . . ." As something can be known of the ways in which the imperial relic-collection was built up--at the Lighthouse Church--from its foundation by [?] Constantine V to its despoliation in 1204, it should be possible to deduce from which relics are mentioned and also (though less confidently) from those that are not, at what time any given description of the collection originated.

The matter of putting the Russian Primary Chronicle to this test is complicated by the fact that it presents both the first surviving description of the collection and the last for almost two centuries. Prima facie the mention of the nails seems to indicate an observation made later than the year 1106, but it may be possible that this was a mistaken reference to the [point of the] Holy Lance. If this explanation carries any weight, then there are sufficient data and inter-relating factors to suggest that the passage in question was based ultimately on eye-witness experience, and that this experience is more likely to have occurred during the period 870-944 than at any other time, that being the period in which the relics mentioned in the Chronicle are most likely to have been already assembled, and to have constituted the chief attractions in the imperial relic collection. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate one way in which a detailed study of how relics were acquired by and disposed at Constantinople (in which the writer is heavily engaged) can serve the practical interests of Byzantinists and other students of the mediaeval world.

LATE BYZANTINE QUESTIONS

Presiding: Michael Jacoff

THEODORE HAGIOPETRITES AND THESSALONIKI

Robert S. Nelson (University of Chicago)

The late Byzantine scribe, Theodore Hagiopetrites, was active in the years between 1277/8 and 1307/8, and today there survive seventeen of his signed manuscripts of which sixteen are dated. The present writer is studying these from the varied perspectives of palaeography, codicology, textual criticism, and art history in an effort to define the characteristics of Hagiopetrites' oeuvre and to elucidate the stages in his career. In the process, it has been possible to attribute four other manuscripts to him and to identify three texts written by closely related scribes. The criteria for these attributions can be developed in detail for any of the four codices, but one in Gšttingen, UniversitŠtsbibl.

Theol. gr. 28 from 1289/90, is of particular interest. Its script, canon tables, Gospel prefaces, quire signatures, headpieces, and major initials conform closely to Hagiopetrites' work from this period. Furthermore, the Gšttingen manuscript contains an owner entry which aids in localizing Hagiopetrites' work. At the back, a hand different from the scribe's has erased the parts of the colophon which probably once designated the original copyist, and has added the name Antonios Malakis, a known collector of Greek manuscripts in the second half of the thirteenth century and, according to one colophon, the archbishop of Veroia in 1287. The manuscript is linked, therefore, to the general region around Thessaloniki.

Several documented manuscripts of Hagiopetrites also have indications of a similar nature. A. Turyn has shown that Brit. Lib. Burney 21 was copied for the Philokales monastery in Thessaloniki, and in correspondence with this author, Professor Turyn has noted that Kosinitza ms. 35 contains a hagiographic text about the Latamos monastery in Thessaloniki. A note in Vatopedi cod. 962, written in 1283/4, establishes that by 1308/9 the book belonged to a member of the Sarantinos family, prominent landowners in Macedonia in the fourteenth century. Furthermore, eleven of the seventeen documented manuscripts of Hagiopetrites are, or once were, in libraries of Northern Greece. Of the six remaining books, five are first documented only in Western European collections and cannot be traced back to the territory of the Byzantine Empire. The last manuscript, Mt. Sinai gr. 277, is presently in the Eastern Mediterranean, but there is no reason to suppose that it was made anywhere near the Sinai desert. Finally, illuminations in two manuscripts, Mt. Athos, Pantocrator 47 and Williamstown, Mass., Williams College, cod. De Ricci 1, have specific connections with Palaeologan art of Macedonia, suggesting that Hagiopetrites collaborated with miniaturists from the same area. Evidence of a varied nature argues, therefore, for localizing the scribe's activity in the region of Thessaloniki.

THE ATTRIBUTION OF A FOURTH LECTIONARY MANUSCRIPT TO THE ATELIER OF THE PALAIOLOGINA, VAT. GR. 352

Kathleen Maxwell (University of Chicago)

Hugo Buchthal and Hans Belting recently published an outstanding group of manuscripts of the late thirteenth century which are related by their ornament or script.¹ The manuscripts have been divided into two groups on the basis of the style of their script: one consisting of seven Gospelbooks, a New Testament and three Lectionaries and another comprising a Praxapostolos and three Psalters. The purpose of this paper is to note the existence of another Lectionary in the Vatican Library (Vat. gr. 352) which may be attributed to the first group. As is true of the three Lectionaries cited by Buchthal and Belting, the text of Vat. gr. 352's Menologium indicates that the manuscript was intended for use in Constantinople and it, likewise, contains solely ornamental illumination consisting of headpieces and initials. Appropriate parallels for its headpieces (folios 1, 44, 69, 99 and 179) can be cited in Buchthal and Belting's publication, but two may be singled out for special attention. The large, two- column rectangular headpiece marking the beginning of the readings from the Gospel of John (fol. 1) parallels that on fol. 1 of the Sinai Lectionary 228.2 While the gold band at the beginning of the readings from the Gospel of Mark (fol. 99) is a variation of the 'pseudo-Kufic' type which occurs only rarely in other products of the atelier. The closest parallel is again found in the Sinai Lectionary in an unpublished example on fol. 261. The three remaining headpieces maintain an excellent standard of quality, but are smaller in scale, being only one column in width.

Vat. gr. 352's text is profusely ornamented with illuminated initials which may be classified according to one of four types. The most popular style is the splendid gold and colored epsilon and tau initials which find numerous parallels in manuscripts of both groups. On occasion, the distribution of the various types of initials throughout the text clearly indicates codicological correlatives in that one quire may limit itself to one type of initial. A special relationship between Vat. gr. 352 and the Sinai Lectionary is confirmed by their mutual use of unusual initial types to introduce the same textual passage on two occasions.

Vat. gr. 352's importance is enhanced by the presence on fol. 244 of a nonscribal colophon of the year 1375 which indicates that at this date the manuscript belonged to the Church of the Theotokos of the Brontochion in Mistra. Mistra was the capital of the Byzantine dependency of the Greek Peloponnesus alternately known as the Morea. The information contained in the colophon contains nothing which detracts from Profs. Buchthal and Belting's proposed patron for the atelier, Theodora Palaiologina Raoulaina.

Finally, the script of Vat. gr. 352 is in every way comparable to the most representative examples of the first group. In short, the ornament and script of Vat. gr. 352 can be successfully compared to the most illustrative member~ of the group defined by Profs. Buchthal and Belting. Neither its script nor its ornament has anything in common with the non-inclusive aspects of some members of the first group and its place as the fourth Lectionary manuscript of the atelier is thereby confirmed.

¹Patronage in Thirteenth-Century Constantinople: An Atelier of Late Byzantine Book Illumination and Calligraphy, (Dumbarton Oaks Studies, XVI) Washington, D.C., 1978; cf. also the review by G. Vikan, Art Bulletin LXIII (1981): 325ff. An expanded version of this paper will be published in Dumbarton Oaks Papers XXXVII (1983). ² Ibid., pl. 32a.

THE BROTHERS PHOKA AND PALAEOLOGAN PAINTING IN CRETE

Thalia Gouma-Peterson (College of Wooster)

Late-fourteenth and fifteenth-century Palaeologan painting has not received the careful attention it deserves, doubtless because it is to a large degree a retrospective art that lacks the optimism, confidence, and vitality which had produced early-Palaeologan art of C. 1270-1320. Even the two most significant painted ensembles of this period, the frescoes of the Peribleptos (c. 1370-1390) and the Pantanassa (c. 1428) at Mistras, both of excellent quality, have not as yet received monographic treatment.

Though retrospective, eclectic, and conservative, the art of this period is, in fact, especially interesting because its development leads from the over-charged and mobile mannerism of the Pantanassa frescoes to the severe, calm, and restrained style of Theophanes the Cretan, one of the central figures of the post-Byzantine Cretan School. His frescoes at the monastery of St. Nicholas Anapavsas at Meteora (1527) exemplify the Cretan School at its best.

It has become clear in recent research that this style was in process of formation during the last decades of the Empire and that it is not a post-Byzantine phenomenon. In this development from late-Byzantine to post-Byzantine art the island of Crete, with its wealth of fourteenth and fifteenth-century churches and the documented activity of its numerous resident painters, played a central role.

For some of these painters we are fortunate to have both pictorial and archival documentation. The Ritzos family, of at least three generations of icon painters active c. 1451-1571, is the most famous example. Less known but equally important are the Phoka brothers, whose dated paintings in three small churches of eastern Crete span a period from 1436 to 1454, and whose presence in Candia is also attested by legal documents. This paper will examine the frescoes created by the Phoka brothers and their contribution to the development of late Palaeologan style. The quality of the paintings and the nature of their style, makes them significant examples of the art of the Empire during its last decades.

The documented evidence provided by the work of the Phoka brothers confirms the formation of the so-called Cretan style by the mid-fifteenth century and shows that within that style different artists created personal variants which do not conform to a linear chronological sequence. It is fortunate that the two brothers were careful to record both the authorship and the date of their paintings in lengthy dedicatory inscriptions and that these are unusually well preserved, for otherwise this group of painted decorations would, on stylistic grounds, probably have been dated in the sixteenth century.

A LATE BYZANTINE DEFENSE OF THE LATIN CHURCH FATHERS

Frances Kianka (Reston, Virginia)

The last century of Byzantine history was a period marked by destructive civil wars, social unrest, urban violence, and irreversible defeats at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. It was also a time of intellectual ferment from within and new currents of thought from without. The best known and perhaps most significant of these was the theological method and synthesis of Thomas Aquinas, introduced to Byzantium in the 1350's by the translations of Demetrius Cydones and his brother Prochorus. The Byzantine reaction to Thomism, its total acceptance by Cydones and his followers, its rejection by notable theologians such as Nilus Cabasilas, and its later guarded acceptance by George Scholarius, has already been explored, at least to some extent.

Less well known, however, is the introduction by the same Demetrius Cydones and his "Latin circle" of a number of Latin patriotic and scholastic texts into the world of Byzantine theological polemics. The Byzantine reaction to these works, Greek translations of Augustine, Pseudo-Augustine, and Anselm of Canterbury, remains almost entirely unexamined. What, in fact, was the Byzantine response to the works of Augustine and Anselm which taught the filioque or to Anselm's treatise justifying the Latin use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist? In the decades ]preceding the Council of Florence, what was the Byzantine reaction to the demand made by Cydones and his followers that the Latin Fathers be accepted on an equal footing with the great names of Byzantine theology, such as Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus?

A short polemical treatise of the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century offers a partial answer to these questions. This work, first mentioned by the late Dominican scholar R. J. Loenertz, who gave it the title On the Authority of the Latin Church Fathers, remains unedited. The text is preserved in a single manuscript, Vaticanus graecus 1879, written in the careful hand of Cydones's younger disciple Manuel Calecas. Since Loenertzâs brief notice of it in the course of editing the correspondence of Calecas, no one has yet examined its contents or determined whether the work should be counted among the polemical works of Demetrius Cydones, as Loenertz suggested.

Yet the treatise does merit consideration. Even a cursory reading of the text indicates that the author was clearly pro-Latin, and its preservation in a manuscript belonging to Calecas points to a member of Cydones's group as its author. Putting aside for the moment the question of whether this pro-Latin author was Cydones, Calecas, or some other member of their circle, this paper will deal with the contents of the treatise itself. A brief summary will be given of the author's arguments for the use of Latin patristic writings in theological discussions and his heated replies to objections of his opponents. This new information will then be considered in the light of late Byzantine anti-Latin polemics and the pro-unionist position of Cydones's Latin circle.

VERONA, SALZBURG AND VENICE: ARTISTIC LINKS IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY

Luba Eleen (University of Toronto)

Continuing study of the two Verona New Testaments in the Vatican Library has led to the suggestion that there existed in that city in the thirteenth century a large workshop using factory-like methods. It was composed of individuals of diverse origins who had access to models drawn from similarly diverse sources. Consideration of the iconography reveals that among the models available to this group of illuminators were exempla from Salzburg, from the Veneto, and from Byzantium. It is also evident that the stylistic sources encompass this variety as well.

In order to distinguish between the style used by individual artists and their iconographic models it is necessary to review what I have discovered about the methods of production used by the Verona workshop. In the assembly-line process there, was, apparently, a principal draughtsman responsible for all of the underdrawings in each of the manuscripts. We can get an idea of the style of these drawings from a third New Testament manuscript for which the intended overpaintings were never carried out; underdrawings can also be discerned in the painted manuscripts where the green pigment has rubbed off.

These drawings are in a style common in North Italy and unlike that of Salzburg or Byzantium. Forms are defined by a silhouette outline with little indication of the drapery patterns of the finished product. The elaborate drapery evident in many of the scenes is, therefore, the contribution of the colourists, several of whom worked on each of the manuscripts. Some of the finishers used a "Romanesque" system of primary colour combined with a type of drapery arranged in simple shapes, with little colour modulation. Both of these characteristics are reminiscent of Salzburg, although the colour range is different. There is a contrasting style/colour complex used by another group of colourists, a rather eccentric interpretation of articulated Byzantine drapery and "impressionistic" Byzantine colour, in which highlight and shadow are represented by contrasting hues, rather than by--or in addition to--light and dark tones.

Having defined the contribution made by artists trained in disparate traditions, we are now in a position to penetrate beyond their individual contributions, in an attempt to lay bare their models, which they tended to copy passively. It becomes possible to identify their sources, which fall into three categories: a central core of material which had been circulating in Italy for several centuries and, in addition, more recent importations from both Byzantium and Salzburg, all co-existing rather clumsily in one hastily assembled admixture. Similar elements are to be found in contemporary works of Veneto art. The uneasy eclecticism of the Verona workshop gives insight, therefore, into the elements that made up the more harmonious synthesis of Veneto miniature painting in the mid-century.

PYRGOS--STL'P--DONJON. A WESTERN FORTIFICATION CONCEPT ON MOUNT ATHOS, AND ITS SOURCES

Slobodan Ćurčić (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

Late Byzantine monastic fortifications are distinguished by the presence of single dominant towers --pyrgoi (sing. pyrgos in Greek; stl'p in Old Church Slavonic). Their affinities with western medieval fortification towers--donjons--have been noted, while the Crusades have been considered the means by which this western fortification concept reached the Byzantine world. The entire matter is far from being fully understood and deserves considerable further study.

The fortification towers of Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos represent a coherent group and offer some valuable insights regarding the chronology and sources of a specific tower type. This type is distinguished by pronounced pilasters, or spur walls which articulate all four tower facades and rise nearly the full height of the building. At the top, these are joined to each other by large arches which, in turn, support a gallery on the top floor. No less than five towers of this type survive within the system of Hilandar defenses. Two--the Tower of Sv. Sava and the Tower of Sv. Djordje (St. George)--belong to the fortification walls of the monastery itself. The Tower of Sv. Vasilije (St. Basil) belongs to a small fortified outpost which once protected the harbor of Hilandar. Two additional towers--"Pirg kralja Milutina" (the Tower of King Milutin), and "Arbanaûki pirg" (the Albanian Tower)--constituted detached fortified stations whose function was to control strategic points on the approach paths to the monastery. The Tower of St. Sava (specifically, its lowest portion), is the oldest of the five towers, dating probably from ca. 1200. The tower was extensively restored, most likely at the time of King Milutin's reconstruction of the monastery. The tower of St. George may be from the middle of the thirteenth century. The remaining three towers are generally attributed to King Milutin. The five towers display design similarities which prompted some scholars to refer to the type as the "typical Athonite tower." The fact of the matter is that a very limited number of Athonite towers share these design characteristics.

Searching for prototypes, we find that very few such towers are to be found elsewhere in the Balkans. Foundations of one were excavated in front of the main entrance into Banjska Monastery, and may be attributed safely to King Milutin. The finest of all examples is located in Rila Monastery, Bulgaria. It was built in 1335, by one Hrelja, a high-ranking official of the Serbian king Stefan Duûan. The relative geographic and chronological coherence of all of these towers suggests that they may have been the work of the same workshop or, at the very least, that they belong to the same building tradition which was imported into this area. The basic concept of these towers, as well as their formal articulation, is foreign to Byzantine fortification architecture in general. Instead, their source appears to have been fortification architecture of twelfth and thirteenth-century France. A group of French donjons of this period displays the same basic planning characteristics, similar dimensions, and the same subtle variations in the articulation of facades as the Hilandar group of towers (cf. donjons at Chervix, Saugues, Chevreuse, La Roche-Posay, Abbeville, Eschizadour, and Saint-Genies).

Links with France are better understood if one is reminded that King Milutin's mother Jelena (Helen) was a French royal princess. As the Dowager Queen, Jelena ruled over the coastal region of the Serbian state. From there she maintained friendly relations with Italian towns on the other side of the Adriatic sea (most notably with Bari), and with the Papacy. On Topaona island in the Skadar Lake, within Jelena's domain, are located impressive remains of a tower, referred to in literature as belonging to the "Athonite tower type." In this important example, I believe, we have the actual link between the French donjons and the towers of Hilandar. Taking all of the above information into account, we may conclude that the large monastic towers of Mount Athos, built toward the end of the thirteenth and during the first decades of the fourteenth century, were French donjons transplanted into the monastic milieu of the Holy Mountain under the patronage of King Milutin.

BYZANTINE MUSIC

Presiding: Dimitri Conomos

WOMEN COMPOSERS OF MEDIEVAL BYZANTINE CHANT

Diane Touliatos-Banker (University of Missouri, St. Louis)

It is only in recent studies of Byzantine music that composers of medieval Byzantine chant have been examined. Not unlike composers of Western medieval music, such as Leonin, Perotin, and Machaut, little is known about most Byzantine musicians. Nevertheless, renowned Byzantine musicians and composers from both the East and the West were predominantly men.

In my investigation of medieval Byzantine chant, I have found references to two women composers. One of these composers is limited in importance because of her one reference and is identified as the daughter of the celebrated composer Ioannes Kladas. Because of her one musical composition, little can be determined about her style of composing. The other composer, Kassia, is outstanding in importance as a composer, poetess, and legendary historical figure. She is perhaps best known in Byzantine history as one of the participants of the brideshow of Emperor Theophilos.

There is some doubt concerning the authenticity of some of Kassia's melodies. Forty-nine liturgical compositions are attributed to Kassia, but only twenty-three are considered to be genuinely hers. These compositions were written after she had entered the monastic life during the reign of Theophilos (829-42) and his son Michael (842-67). Most of these compositions were settings to her own sacred poems; however, Kassia is also known for having composed music to the poetry and prose of Byzantios, Georgios, Kyprianos, and Marcos Monachos.

Because of the length and complexity of Kassia's liturgical compositions, it is impractical to discuss in detail the forty-nine hymns in the present study. Consequently, analyses will concentrate on three selected hymns from the list of genuine compositions in the hope of determining characteristics of her style.

THE SLAVIC KANON FOR ST. DEMETRIUS AND ITS MUSIC

Miloû Velimirovicâ (University of Virginia)

One of the earliest examples of Slavic poetry after the conversion to Christianity is the Kanon for the feast of St. Demetrius. Its authorship has been ascribed to Methodius (Jakobson) and Cyril (Vasica). Its music has so far not yet been studied. An examination of recently acquired microfilm-reproduction of the basic body of the Kanon offers some intriguing suggestions. Since each Ode of the Kanon is preceded by the text of the Heirmos which had served as a model (textual and therefore also musical) for the Slavic text, there is at least a clue for a possible reconstruction of intended melodies to be chanted with the new Slavic text. An attempt at localizing each Heirmos, that served as model for its respective Ode, presently in progress, should provide us with the Byzantine melodies as chanted in the 12-13th centuries. A comparative study of the texts and their verses with a thorough syllable-count could provide a pattern to which the Slavic texts might be accommodated. If the length of verses and if the comparative study of the musical notation demonstrate a reasonable degree of similarities, there is a good possibility that these texts may be fitted to Byzantine melodies and thus tested for their adaptation to singing, perhaps for the first time since they had been written down in their original notation.

PSALTI IN THE MADRID SKYLITZES MANUSCRIPT

Neil K. Moran (Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies)

No less than 574 miniatures accompany the narration of the late eleventh century historian John Skylitzes in Codex Madrid, Nat. Lib., Vitr. 26-2. Thanks to the discovery of other documents written by the principal and secondary scribe a dating close to 1150 has of late gained general acceptance.

By far the most instructive Skylitzes miniature from the musicological point of view appears an folio 23. Before a domed structure the emperor Leo V directs by means of the cheironomy a group of three singers. This miniature illustrates a paragraph describing the musical ambitions of Leo. The motive of the emperor's love of music recurs in the account of his death. On Christmas Eve of 820 conspirators donned clerical robes and entered the palace chapel together with the singers. Leo entered the church with the morning hymn for he wished to sing the Christmas canon. At that point in the service when he sang the seventh ode the conspirators sprang out of a dark corner and cut off his head. The illustrated history recaptures on, f. 22 another moment in the life of Leo V. The miniature shows the patriarch celebrating the Mass while the master of the palace singers conspires with Leo in the interests of the iconoclastic movement. Given the sinister nature of this proto-psaltes it is possible that he appears earlier on f. 12v in a miniature depicting the proclamation of Leo to emperor.

The last of the iconoclastic emperors Theophilus (829-842) prided himself on being considered a hymn writer. On one occasion after conducting the choir of St. Sophia he distributed to the clergy 100 pounds of gold. A mutilated miniature on f. 57 depicts the consecration of John VII in 832 as patriarch. At the right of the scene four figures represent in all probability the chanters at the service.

Theophilus was followed on the throne by his impious son Michael III. The Skylitzes ms depicts one occasion when Gryllos "the pig" was sent by Michael with sane musicians dressed in clerical robes to taunt the patriarch Ignatius (f. 78v).

In the year 902 Leo VI was attacked by a conspirator in the church of St. Mocius. Behind the ambo a groups of six chanters observe with astonishment the assault. At the beginning of his reign in 886 Leo the Wise ordered that the body of Michael III be transported to Constantinople. The group on the left of the scene probably represents the singers (f. 106v).

It is indeed regrettable that our historical sources for the ninth century should be so blatantly biased because the period is certainly one of the most fascinating in the history of Byzantine music. The remnants of ninth century chronicles in the Skylitzes history and their visual realizations by twelfth century miniaturists proffer us at least a glimpse into the musical activities of this "noch-nicht-zureichen-erhelligte" era.

INTERNAL LIFE OF THE EMPIRE

Presiding: Aleksander Kazhdan

UPWARD MOBILITY AMONG NOTARII UNDER CONSTANTIUS II

Mary Michaels Mudd (Rutgers University)

In the reign of Constantius II (337-361), the palatine civil servants known as notarii had three functions. They served as the secretaries who recorded the minutes of the consistory (the emperor's council of state), as envoys who carried the resolutions of the emperor and consistory to the appropriate recipients, and as investigators of potential cases of treason or of other situations thought to threaten the personal security or the majesty of the emperor or the harmonious execution of his policies. Especially remarkable is the political advancement that was available to notarii serving under Constantius. Former notarii were honored with such posts as magister officiorum, quaestor sacri palatii, comes sacrarum largitionum, provincial governor, praetorian prefect, consul, patrician, and count.

Notarii were not the only secretaries in the palatine civil service. The four scrinia which, under the directorships of the magister officiorum and the quaestor sacri palatii, edited and issued the emperor's edicts and correspondence, organized his appointments and judicial hearings, and arranged his travels, all employed sec- retaries known as palatini. The two financial ministries (the res privata and the sacrae largitiones) also made use of palatini. Nor were the notarii the only func- tionaries who served as envoys and investigators: the corps of agentes in rebus performed similar investigations, while both agentes in rebus and palatini acted as envoys. Neither of the latter two groups of palace bureaucrats appears, however, to have shared the upward political mobility of the notarii. Constantius' own legis- lation implies that palatini were expected to remain in service for twenty years and then to retire on pension. The most for which an agens in rebus might hope, prior to retirement after twenty years in his schola, was a one-year appointment as chief of staff (princeps officii) of a praetorian or urban prefect.

In assessing the reasons for the elevation of notarii to high office, one will recall that the responsibilities of these bureaucrats included the secretarial services of the palatini, the investigative functions of the agentes in rebus, and the emissarial duties of both. Notarii, therefore, must have been more highly qualified personnel than their fellow palatine civil servants, simply because more was demanded of them. As consistory secretaries, moreover, notarii were provided both with a first-hand knowledge of the workings of the government at its highest level, and with the emperor's precise intentions in the formulation of his policies. Their intimate involvement with affairs of state---not only as consistory secretaries but also as investigators---must have required of notarii an unquestioning loyalty that no doubt endeared them to the suspicious Constantius. Ability, knowledge of and experience in government, and trustworthiness clearly made the notarii excellent candidates for positions of great responsibility. Their immediate contact with the emperor also enabled him to assess personally the suitability of individual notarii for high office.

In 359, Constantius ordered the corps of agentes in rebus purged of men of base (indignus) extraction. No birth status, however, appears to have been demanded of notarii, some of whom were of very modest backgrounds. Their upward mobility, therefore, demonstrates that under Constantius II, service as a notarius provided a man with the opportunity to make his political and social fortune on the basis of his competence alone.

THE ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS OF THE EMPIRE (785-912)

Warren T. Treadgold (Stanford University)

The administrative divisions of the Middle Byzantine Empire corresponded to its military divisions. As is well known, a "theme," properly a unit of soldiers, was also the district in which those soldiers were normally stationed and a province for purposes of civil administration. Each theme had a capital where its strategus normally resided (e.g., Ancyra for the Bucellarians). The larger themes were subdivided into turmae, again units of soldiers that corresponded to territorial divisions; the chiefs of turmae were the turmarchs, one of whom seems normally to have resided at the theme's capital while the other or others had headquarters of their own, attested by surviving seals (e.g., Claudiopolis for the other turmarch of the Bucellarians). Probably the turmarchs, as deputies of the strategi, had some administrative duties as well as military ones.

For military divisions smaller than turmae, the evidence varies at different dates. The Life of St. Philaretus, referring to a mustering of soldiers in the Armeniac Theme probably datable to 785, mentions chiliarchs, hecatontarchs, and pentecontarchs, apparently commanders of 1,000, 100, and 50 men respectively. Ibn Khurdādhbih and Qudāmah, quoting al-Jarmī whose information is datable to 839-843, mention drungaries who commanded 1,000 men, counts who commanded 200 men, and "centarchs" who commanded 40 men. Finally, a passage in the Tactica of Leo VI (XVIII 149) apparently dating from 899-912 describes drungaries or chiliarchs commanding 1,000 men, counts commanding 200 men, hecatontarchs or centarchs commanding 100 men, and pentecontarchs commanding 50 men. The Tactica call the unit of 1,000 commanded by a drungary a drungus and the unit of 200 commanded by a count a bandum. At least from the reign of Leo VI, the bandum is attested as a territorial division. A drungus was evidently a territorial unit as early as 785, when the cavalryman of the Life of Philaretus had to report to his local chiliarch.

The three different descriptions just cited seem to show three stages in the organization of the Byzantine army, so that the bandum of 200 men was created between 785 and 839/43. The most likely time for its creation is late 839, when Theophilus sent 2,000 Khurramite soldiers to each of 15 themes, where they could only have been provided with military lands by shifting the boundaries between drungi all over the Empire--a shift that would have provided an opportunity to introduce the new territorial division of the bandum. A more detailed picture of these territorial divisions appears in a passage in the De Administrando Imperio (ch. 50) that describes the transfer of certain turmae and banda from one theme to another under Leo VI. From this passage it is clear that each bandum had a name, evidently that of the town or village where its c:ount resided (e.g., the garrison of Aspona in the Bucellarians).

The impression that is given, therefore, is of an Empire organized along military lines, but also organized around many cities, towns, and villages. The introduction of the bandum as a territorial unit, perhaps in 839, may well mark an advance in the number and security of Byzantine towns and villages, which could then provide permanent seats for as many as 500 counts all over the Empire.

THE CRISIS OF PRIVATE BYZANTINE RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS IN THE TENTH CENTURY

John Philip Thomas (Georgetown University and Dumbarton Oaks)

The prestige of the title of ktistes or "founder" insured that private benefactors preferred to found a religious foundation of their own rather than assist an old one with much-needed repairs and capital improvements. By the mid-tenth century, thousands of ageing foundations had fallen into serious financial trouble or physical decay. The problem of providing for these institutions was not new, but in 964 Emperor Nicephorus Phocas issued a law which went to the root of the difficulty and attempted to reverse the traditional patterns of private philanthropy. He intended to channel pious benefactions in new, more socially useful directions.

The basis for the endowment of private foundations established by the Council of Constantinople in 861 encouraged the development of de facto autonomous institutions with extensive properties but deficient in capital assets. These foundations were no longer bound, as previously, to the fortunes of the founders' private estates. Moreover, this council decreed that bishops couldno longer spend diocesan funds to restore ruined private foundations.

Although it was a bold measure, Nicephorus Phocas' law failed because he neglected to provide a financial incentive for the restoration of old foundations. Basil II, a notable friend of private benefactors, repealed the law in 988. He also rendered an important legal decision that made it impossible for the ecclesiastical authorities to take over private foundations without regard for the rights of the property owners.

It took some time for the development of a legal mechanism that would respect the conflicting claims of preserving private property rights and of arranging for badly needed restorations. The vehicle decided upon was the charistike, a public program sponsored by the emperor and his patriarch Nicholas Chrysoberges for the private management of religious institutions under concession. The concessionaires were permitted to reap the financial rewards of profitable administrations, and this incentive narrowed the perceived difference between the benefits of restoring an old foundation and erecting a new one. Patriarch Sisinnius II later raised canonical objections to the program and halted patriarchal participation. Yet he was unable to prevent the emperor or the rest of the ecclesiastical hierarchy from granting out foundations under the program.

By the time of Basil II's famous novel of 996, Peri ton dynaton it became apparent that the charistike had opened a loophole in the imperial agrarian legislation which forbade transfers of land from the peasants to the magnates. The bishops thought they had to intervene to preserve the ecclesiastical character of unsponsored village churches. Since the bishops could not spend diocesan funds to support these foundations, their only recourse was to grant them out to wealthy benefactors under the charistike just as if they were diocesan monasteries. This Basil II could not allow, but his law was carefully drafted to permit the continued employment of the charistike in situations where the transactions would not disturb further the existing imbalance of land tenure in favor of wealthy property owners. Thus Basil II's regulation of land ownership and private religious foundations in the same novel was more than fortuitous.

COMNENIAN QUESTIONS: SOME MILITARY PROBLEMS

Charles M. Brand (Bryn Mawr College)

Students of the Comnenian era tend to overlook questions involving military technology, on grounds that Chalandon has said everything necessary. But military success was fundamental for the survival of the empire. This paper will focus on the question of whether the Byzantine Empire in the twelfth century was keeping pace in military technology and technique; for reasons of space, recruitment and leadership cannot be considered.

The heavy-armed lance-wielding cavalryman, as Kaegi has shown, was inefficient against Turkish bowmen; the early Comneni revived the bow as a cavalry weapon, with some success against Turks, Petchenegs, and Cumans. Seemingly to oppose Westerners, Manuel rearmed the cavalry in Latin style. His success was at best mixed. Early in the century, Alexius seem to have developed a new technique which permitted marching and fighting simultaneously, which way have been copied by the Westerners in Palestine To a certain extent, Turkish raiding was hindered by a network of fortresses covering much of Byzantine territory. on their own raiding expeditions, the Byzantines experienced great successes against the Serbs and Hungarians. Vlach and Bulgarian ravagers, however, could not be repelled.

In siege warfare, the Byzantines seem markedly less successful both in attack and defense than their Western neighbors. Few Byzantine for- tresses could hold out against lengthy assault, the Acrocorinth, 1205- 121U, was exceptional. And in capturing fortresses, stratagem (at Sozopolis, ca. 1120, or Strumnitza, 1202) proved more effective than direct assault (Shaizar in 1138, Neokaisareia in 1139, or Prosakon in 1197). In addition to ancient types of siege equipment, a manually powered stone-thrower was making its way, and the mechanically powered trebuchet was not far behind. Whether either of these reached Byzantiun before 1204 is uncertain.

The Byzantine navy of the twelfth century seems to have followed patterns set by Italian shipping. The galley was partially replaced by sailing vessels. In naval engagements with Norman and Venetian fleets, the Byzantines did not fare well; even pirate fleets could successfully challenge the Byzantines. Greek fire seems to have been used less, as defenses against it improved. The Byzantines were more often successful in combined land-and-sea operations, whether on the Danube or at Corfu in1149.

But in the sieges of 1203 and 1204, it was exactly in this department that Byzantine military technology failed. The Byzantines seem to have been able to defend their massive land-walls aqainst attacks of Frankish chivalry, but the Venetian development of boarding bridges mounted on the masts of ships enabled marines to get over the top of the sea-wall. Here, as elsewhere, the Venetians proved the best pupils of the Byzantines.

THE PUZZLING PROBLEM OF THE COMNENI

Aleksander Kazhdan (Dumbarton Oaks)

1. It is a commonly held opinion that from the eleventh century onward Byzantium was steadily decaying, and its political history seems to confirm this concept. Although Paul Lemerle, quite recently, ventured to "rehabilitate" the eleventh century, he still regards the Comnenian period as the time of disintegration and decline.

2. The concept of the "Comnenian decline" originated with the Russian nineteenth- century school of Byzantine studies that considered that it was the Byzantine orthodox monarchy, supported by and in its turn supporting the allegedly Slavic community, which was accountable for all political successes from Leo III through Basil II. According to this concept, it was the dynasty of the Comneni--yielding to "spoiling" western influence, giving up the imperial support of the village community, and accepting the feudal system--that inevitably led to disintegration and downfall.

3. It is, however, astounding that this "Comnenian decline" coincided with a cultural upsurge in both the visual arts and literature, that the period after the Macedonian dynasty was one of such incredible creative activity that it could be called--with slight reservations--the Byzantine Pre- renaissance.

4. Art and literature constitute the most visible vestiges of Byzantium under the Comneni. Economic life is more humble and modest and also less apparent. However, recent investigations, based especially on the broad stream of new archaeological and numismatic data, compel us to reconsider our judgment on the Comnenian economy. Two points should be stressed: The eleventh and twelfth centuries were a period of lively economic activity in all those spheres of production for which we have evidence: ceramics, textiles, buildings, glass. It was also a period of diffusion of Byzantine goods and coins throughout the western countries. It was also a period of shift in economic and cultural activities from the capital to provincial centers; this is particularly evident in the history of Byzantine earthenware. Provincial silk production competed successfully with that of Constantinople, and in commerce provincial towns rivaled with the capital. It is reasonable to assume that Balkan towns were economically more active than those of Asia Minor.

5. These observations allow us to question whether it was the feudal or semi-feudal elements of Comnenian society that were responsible for its political decay by the end of the twelfth century. I surmise, on the contrary, that it was the weakness of the Byzantine semifeudal system and the rout of the Comnenian forces during the reign of Andronicus I and later on, under the dynasty of the Angeli, as well as the return to pre-Comnenian social policy at the close of the century that were the true causes of the catastrophe of 1204.

ART HISTORY: GENERAL SESSION

Presiding: Henry Maguire

THE AŁT^cAMAR GENESIS FRESCOES

Thomas F. Mathews (Institute of Fine Arts, N.Y.U.)

Recent photographs of the Genesis frescoes in the drum of the church of Ałt^camar reveal more of the tenth century iconography than Der Nersessian was able to decipher (S. Der Nersessian, Aght^camar, Church of the Holy Cross [Cambridge, Ma., 1965]). One can read at the start of the sequence a) the Lord forming Adam with his hands, b) Adam in Paradise and c) the Lord drawing Eve from Adam's side while an angel attends; after a gap of perhaps three missing scenes the sequence resumes with x) the Lord cursing Adam, Eve and the Serpent, y) an angel expelling Adam and Eve from the garden and z) a Cherubim guarding Paradise with a sword.

In trying to deal with the iconography of these six scenes as a set in the context of other sets of Genesis iconography, one is immediately plunged into a plethora of diverse traditions of representing the Creation and Fall. The story is illustrated in Greek illuminated manuscripts -- in the Cotton Genesis, in the Vienna Genesis, in the Paris Gregory and in the Octateuch mss. -- each time in a somewhat different iconography. In the West further variations occur whether one looks at the Early Christian frescoes of S. Paolo in Rome, the Carolingian Bibles of Tours, or the mosaics of Sicily. The currently popular method of dealing with this diversity of traditions is a method developed by Weitzmann and referred to as "picture criticism." In parallel to "text criticism" the method of "picture criticism" aims at reconstructing the lost originals from which later sets of iconography derived. The end product of such "picture criticism," however, is extremely hypothetical. Because the transmission of texts by scribal copying is a quasi-mechanical process in which the scribe is required to refrain from making decisions, it becomes possible to reverse the process of accidental corruptions of text by applying simple rules of probability of error under such headings as homeoteleuton, ioticism, etc. The transmission of sets of images, on the other hand, is a conscious process involving free and purposeful re-thinking and re- interpreting of the tradition, There can be no secure rules by which such a process can be reversed to regain the lost originals, The most one can attain is a kind of generalized set of images in which the differences of individual sets have been artificially reconciled.

It is the differences, however, which are most important iconographically. What is most revealing about the Genesis frescoes of Ałt^camar is the extent to which the iconography departs from or adds to the story as told in the text of Genesis, for it is precisely here that we detect the evidence of what might be called a "cultural filter." The original story is being filtered through the vision of intermediary interpreters; it is being re-worked to reflect a special bias; it is being made to accommodate other traditions besides the tradition of the unadorned text of Sacred Scripture.

The challenge of the Ałt^camar frescoes, then, is to understand the peculiarly Armenian reading of the text of Genesis that underlies the iconography. Weitzmann might classify these departures from the text under the term "conscious deviations;" but this term in itself presupposes the existence of an archetype which had as its scope a simple, naive scene-by-scene illustration of the content of the text. It must be insisted upon that this is an unproven assumption. The opposite is every bit as likely, namely that from the outset the Christian artist read the text only through the filter of Christian exegeses of the text. At any rate, this seems to be the way the artist is working in the Genesis frescoes of Ałt^camar.

THE ARMENIAN PALETTE OF THE TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES

Diane E. Cabelli (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

The work reported here aims at establishing the pigments used by Armenian manu- script artists in the tenth and eleventh centuries; illuminated manuscripts from this period being among the oldest still extant. The modern techniques of-small particle analysis, particularly those of polarized light microscopy and x-ray powder diffraction methods, were chosen as they allow reliable identification of samples on the basis of particles that are virtually invisible to the naked eye.

The tenth and eleventh centuries represent a crucial formative period in Armenian manuscript illumination, yet it is a period of momentous political upheaval. Several different styles coexist, some with obvious ties to Byzantine art, others with links to Syria, and others that still cannot be placed. The development of the famous Cilician School of manuscript illumination has its roots in this material.

The manuscripts chosen for this study were:

• 1.Walters Gallery of Art 537 Four Gospels AD 966 unlocated
• 2.Pierpont Morgan Library 789 Three Leaves of Gospel 10th century unlocated
• 3.Thoros Library Jerusalem 2555 Second Etcbmiadzin Gospel ca AD 1000 unlocated
• 4.Thoros Library Jerusalem 1949 Tyche Initial Page ca AD 1000 unlocated
• 5.Treasury Jerusalem 2556 King Gagik Gospel AD 1050 Kars, Central Armenia
• 6.Thoros Library Jerusalem 1924 Sbukhr Khandara. AD 1064 Taurus Mts. (Melitine)
• 7.Freer Gallery of Art 33.5, 47.2-4 Four Gospels 11th century Melitine Group

These manuscripts encompass a broad stylistic range over a rather limited span of time, ca, 100 years. The most famous of these works, the King Gagik Gospel, was a royally commissioned manuscript and is thus likely to be representative of the full palette in the mid- eleventh century. The pigments found in all seven of these manuscripts, however, indicate that there was a great diversity in the palette found in different workshops at this time. Specifically, pigments such as ultramarine, whose use was widespread during later periods in Armenian manuscript illumination, are apparently still rare and quite prized in the tenth and eleventh centuries. In addition, there is an indication that manuscripts from the Melitine Group may have had a consistently different palette from those of Greater Armenia.

This study was carried out at the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University in collaboration with Professor Thomas Mathews (IFA, NYU). Funding was provided by grants from the NYU Challenge Fund, the National Museum Act. and the American Friends of the Israel Museum.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN PROVINCIAL ART FROM CYPRUS

Christine Kondoleon (Harvard University)

The relationship between the Greek East and Latin West is a familiar topic in Roman and Medieval art historical studies. However, many discussions are influenced by the prevailing view of the intrinsic differences between the two. Irving Lavin's major study of the Antioch hunting mosaics challenged the view of polarized centers in the Roman world. His conclusions, however, allowed only for a limited period of exchange, characterized as a "progressive diffusion of a Western point of view." The realization of this exchange took the form of hunt carpet floors inspired by earlier North African innovations and absorbed by fifth century Antioch. It is Lavin's contention that this exchange determined a radical break with Classical tradition and ushered in a Medieval style in the East.

Recent finds of mosaic pavements, largely from private residences in the Mediterranean allow us to broaden Lavin's theory considerably. They suggest an eastward path of western provincial achievements at least by the Antonine period, and in certain cases earlier. There is no doubt that in the Severan period, for instance, artists from the East were involved in projects in Lepcis Magna. But it is also now certain that Western workshops and pattern books traveled to the East. Recent reports of the discoveries by the Italian Archaeological Expedition to Iasos confirm the wholesale importation of Italian black-and-white mosaic designs and techniques to Asia Minor. It is becoming clear that a dynamic exchange of artistic developments between provinces, through trade and official patronage, was actively supported at an early stage.

Significant light is shed on these cross-currents by the discovery of the so-called House of Dionysos in Paphos, Cyprus. This large peristyle residence with its twelve paved rooms, situated near the harbor and the main public buildings of the capital city, obviously belonged to a member of the local aristocracy or to a Roman official. The house is dated archaeologically to the late Antonine period, although stylistically this date is problematic. However, whether the villa dates to the Late Antonine or Severan period is not the issue to be discussed here. The fact remains that several of the mosaics represent exceptionally early appearances of certain compositions in the East. This is demonstrated by three floors in particular: the vintage "carpet" of the triclinium; the three hunt panels of the peristyle; and the "multiple- decor" design in the south section. All of these compositions have close parallels in North Africa and Gaul, and do not appear in second or third century Antioch, the center to which the Cypriot mosaics are most closely linked by their style and technique.

While it is clear that these compositions fit most comfortably in the western mosaic repertoire, the process of transmission and execution is less certain. Some aspects of this process can be detected in the vintage panel which reveals the originality of the Cypriot workshop and its obvious dependence on some model. However, the composition does not betray either the direct use of a copy book or an imported artist, but rather a familiarity with a Western innovation, the vine carpet floor. Innovations such as the "carpet" floors were picked up later in the fourth and fifth centuries by Eastern workshops and became part of the koine of Early Medieval art. However, the early date of the Paphos floor suggests that such compositions were at least introduced by the late second century. The vintage and hunt floors were part of a widely circulated repertoire that was favored because of its association with the patronage of the governmental and mercantile elite. Thus, by aligning the tastes of these wealthy patrons, these compositions entered into mainstream developments in the East.

THE DATE OF THE FRESCO CALENDAR UNDER SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE AND THE RELATION OF ITS POLITICAL DATES TO THOSE IN THE MANUSCRIPT CALENDAR OF 354

Inabelle Levin (American University)

The third-century fresco calendar discovered in Rome under S. Maria Maggiore contains rare references to imperial festivals celebrated during the last half of the year which have not survived in the only other extant third-century calendar, the Feriale Duranum Art historical analysis of the Labors of the Months panels accompanying these calendar texts has indicated that the entire cycle was painted in the second quarter of the third century A.D. rather than in the fourth century as their excavator, F. Magi, proposes

Reexamination of the political festivals in this fragmentary calendar substantiates its pro- fourth-century date. The most important evidence which challenges Magi's Constantinian attribution is the absence of this emperor's earliest major festivals from the calendar's texts. They make no mention of the Evictio Tyranni established in commemoration of Constantine's defeat of Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312 or of his Adventus Divi on October 29, 312 and related ludi votivi of October 30-31, all of which appear in the Calendar of 354. The absence of the Constantinian Ludi Alamannici from our fresco calendar further corroborates this evidence. Therefore we must also reassess the attribution of several festivals which occur in this fresco calendar as well as in the Calendar of 354.

One of the most critical pieces of evidence for establishing the date of our calendar is the anniversary of a triumph over the Sarmatians celebrated on December 1. The same festival appears in the Calendar of 354. Until now, scholars have agreed with Mommsen's attribution of this festival to Constantine. They have usually considered it the anniversary of his victory over the Sarmatians in 332 rather than of his earlier victory in 322. Reexamination of the calendar under S. Maria Maggiore in light of Roman history enables us to identify this festival with Marcus Aurelius's and Commodus's triumph over the Sarmatians in 176 A.D. The continued celebration of their festival in our calendar reflects the Severan emperors' political fiction of their Antonine ancestry.

The Antonine origin of the December 1st victory over the Sarmatians need not preclude its customary attribution to Constantine. Based on evidence concerning fourth-century attitudes towards the Antonines, the history of Roman-Sarmatian relations and the recurrent practice of establishing now imperial festivals on older politically significant anniversaries, we may conclude that Constantine deliberately chose to celebrate his own triumphs over the Sarmatians on this historic day.

Two ludi circenses recorded on July 29-30 in the calendar under S. Maria Maggiore continue to celebrate the Ludi Victoriae Caesaris of Julius Caesar. They are not victories over the Sarmatians and Marcomanni on July 27 and 30 recorded in the Calendar of 354, as Magi has hitherto proposed based on an incorrect reading of the text. These and other festivals appearing in our fresco calendar demonstrate the continued celebration of particular first and second-century political festivals in the first half of the third century.

CHAMPLEVE RELIEFS FROM CYPRUS: A LITTLE-KNOWN TECHNIQUE OF ARCHITECTURAL SCULPTURE

Susan A. Boyd (Dumbarton Oaks)

Recent excavations of the early Christian episcopal basilica at Kourion, Cyprus have yielded a large number of fragmentary marble revetments executed in the socalled champlev6 technique. Although fragments of early Byzantine champlevŽ revetments have been found all over the Mediterranean basin (e.g. in Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Greece, Cyprus, and Italy) the paucity of the finds, and the fact that none has been found in situ, have resulted in the technique generally being overlooked as a major sculptural or decorative genre. In fact, the only well-known monumental ensemble in which entire friezes of champlevŽ sculpture survive in place is in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, dating from the early Ommayad period.

Until the discoveries at Kourion, the only site where the volume of finds indicated that a large portion of the architectural decoration was executed in the champlevŽ technique was at the so-called Martyrium at Seleucia, near Antioch. When the Antioch finds are considered together with the large quantity of champlevŽ, discovered at Kourion and several other sites in Cyprus, the evidence suggests that this must have been a much more prevalent type of architectural decoration in the Mediterranean provinces during the fifth and sixth centuries than has hitherto been thought. Certainly the widespread finds in Cyprus indicate that on the island it was a thriving method of decoration.

The champlevŽ technique involves carving away the background of a thin marble slab (D. 1. 5 ö 4 cm. ), leaving the design in flat relief. Details are then simply incised into the surface of the stone. The two-dimensional quality of this low relief is further enhanced by filling the roughly chiseled background with colored mastic-black, red, and occasionally dark green being the principal colors. The result is a highly decorative relief in which plasticity is replaced by a two-dimensional coloristic effect. This aesthetic approach is remarkably similar to that of the deeply undercut carvings in Hagia Sophia, where shadow plays the role of the dark ground, as well as to that of the foliate opus sectile on the gallery level, where dark red and green marbles serve as a foil to the white of the dolomite inlays. With their bright polychromy, champlevŽ reliefs may have been intended as a less expensive and more easily produced version of elaborate opus sectile revetments, for the cost of importing precious colored marbles made them a rarity in early Christian churches in Syria, Palestine, and Cyprus.

The date of the Kourion champlevŽ is unfortunately not established by any archeological evidence, but it is clear that it was not part of the original decoration of the basilica, the construction of which is now dated to about A.D. 400. Preliminary study of the sculptures on the basis of style and ornamental details tends to indicate a date in the second half of the fifth century, although the first quarter of the sixth century cannot be excluded.

Although none of the champlevŽ revetments were found in situ, and most are in numerous small fragments, enough of them have been pieced together to allow us to identify the principal architectural elements which they revetted. They were used not only as decorative friezes and as large individual panels of wall revetments but also as door frames, tympana, arches, keystones, pilasters, and pilaster capitals. In contrast to the Antioch reliefs, where the decorations were primarily figural and specifically Christian in character, the limited decorative repertoire of the Cypriot sculptures is exclusively ornamental, consisting primarily of animal, vegetal, and geometric motifs. Moreover, except for a few reliefs on which wreaths enclosing crosses are depicted, there is little overt Christian subject matter.

One particular group of revetments will be discussed in this paper. They are a series of long, narrow rectangular panels of varying sizes that may be distinguished from other rectangular panels by their distinctive ornamentation. The latter consists of a symmetrical, wave-crested palmette framed by a lozenge, with acanthus rinceaux filling the corners of the panel. The discussion will focus on the decoration of these panels, on their function, and on their likely placement within the basilica.

BYZANTIUM AND THE BARBARIANS

Presiding: Barry Strauss

THE ESSENTIAL BARBARIAN? COMMENTS ON THE DE-ROMANIZATION OF GAUL

Edith Mary Wightman (McMaster University)

Much attention has been paid to the Romanization of Gaul and somewhat less, of late years, to an equally important and controversial subject, the stages and date of its eventual de-Romanization. Historians, not surprisingly given the wide range of possible view-points, have never reached unanimity on the manner in which Gaul, or its several parts, can be said to have ceased functioning as a part of the Roman Empire. Though the conquest of the north by Clovis provides a convenient cut-off date for many, arguments can be made in favour of a date as early as 406/7, on the grounds that the invasions of that time were never reversed. Alternatively we may follow Pirenne in dismissing obvious military and political changes as superficial and rely on wide-ranging economic arguments to identify a much later period, the 8^th century, as the one of profound change. Venantius Fortunatus certainly allowed for the continuation of Romania alongside barbaries in the 6^th century, though basing the distinction on language. If an administrative view-point is preferred, a case can be made for a 'plain man's view', that Gaul ceased to be Roman when its taxes went to barbarian kings rather than the imperial coffers, and fresh light on this process has been shed by a recent study. On almost any view except Pirenne's, the barbarians play an important role, though one which can be variously interpreted÷thus Camille Jullian could virtually ignore Visigoths and Burgundians and regard the Franks as the only outsiders deserving attention.

Recently, arguments for a radically different approach have been offered for both Gaul and Britain. Examination of the archaeological evidence, including settlement patterns, has suggested that Romanization, while a very real socioeconomic phenomenon, was never so thorough as to be irreversible: in fact from the 3^rd century onwards the basic structures of society, about which we know so little from literary sources, saw a strengthening of indigenous base at the expense of Roman overlay. Moreover the early 5th century nay have seen less disruption than the 3rd, if we look at the countryside rather than the dramatic incidents recorded for some towns. This reversal of direction in the 3rd century was Gaul's particular response to the economic changes of the period which, while general in character, provoked differing regional reactions. A recent study has sought to provide a link between the empire-wide scene and the regional by an examination of Rome's taxation system and its effects: thus the insights generated by archaeological evidence fit well with an attempt to provide an overall working model of the Roman economy. The increased regionalism of the Later Empire entailed, for the northern provinces, the re-emergence of traditional social patterns, modified but not transformed by the intervening centuries. Increasing evidence will eventually allow for further nuances between the various areas of Gaul.

If the foregoing views are accepted, then there is a sense in which the barbarians entered a Gaul tha