Byzantine Studies Conference Archives
Twelfth Annual Byzantine Studies Conference
October 10-12, 1986
Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr, PA
Abstracts of Papers
TABLE of CONTENTS
FRIDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 10, 2:00-4:00
Session A: LATE ANTIQUITY 1: THE PRIVATE SPHERE
Kathleen Shelton presiding
Session B: BYZANTIUM AND THE TURKS
Clive Foss presiding
FRIDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 10, 4:00-6:00
Session A: LATE ANTIQUITY II: THE PUBLIC SPHERE
Kathleen Shelton presiding
Session B: OSTROGORSKY AND BEYOND
John W. Barker presiding
SATURDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 11, 9:00-10:30
Session A: THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE AND ITS IMPACT AMONG THE SLAVS
George Majeska presiding
Session B•. EASTERN AND WESTERN HAGIOGRAPHY OF THE TENTH-TWELFTH CENTURIES: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY COMPARISON
Dorothy de F. Abrahamse presiding
SATURDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 11, 10:30-12:00
Session A: BYZANTINE LITERATURE: HAGIOGRAPHY
Emily Albu Hanawalt presiding
Session B: THE BYZANTINE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS
Frank M. Clover presiding
SATURDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER I1, 2:00-4:00
Session A: BYZANTINE MONASTICISM I: THE ROLE OF MONASTICISM IN THE EARLY BYZANTINE WORLD
John Thomas presiding
Session B: PROBLEMS IN BYZANTINE ART AND ICONOGRAPHY
Sheila Campbell presiding
Session C: DIALOGUE AND DISAFFECTION IN THE CHRISTIAN ORIENT
Susan Harvey presiding
SATURDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 11, 4:00-6:00
Session A: BYZANTINE MONASTICISM II: SOURCES AND PROBLEMS IN BYZANTINE MONASTIC HISTORY
Alice-Mary Talbot presiding.
Session B: CONSEQUENCES OF ICONOCLASM: BYZANTINE ART EIGHTH-TWELFTH CENTURY
Anna Kartsonis presiding
SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 12, 9:00-10:30
Session A: PROBLEMS IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE
John Duffy presiding
Session B: BYZANTINE ARCHAEOLOGY: TOWN AND COUNTRY
Cecil Striker presiding
SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 12, 10:30-12:30
Session A: BYZANTINE SOCIAL HISTORY
Warren Treadgold presidin
Session B: NEW WAYS OF UNDERSTANDING ICONOGRAPHY
Thomas F. Mathews presiding
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND ABSTRACTS
1N MEMORIAM
LATE ANTIQUITY I: THE PRIVATE SPHERE
Presiding: Kathleen Shelton (University of Chicago)
"A New Late Antique Ivory from Rome"
Alan Cameron, Columbia University
This paper will present for discussion a late antique ivory diptych that has been lurking for more than a century unnoticed and unpublished in the Capitoline Museum in Rome.
The two panels are undecorated except for (a) an ornamental pediment similar to that on the British Museum Consecratio panel; and (b) one name engraved on each panel. BASSIORVM and EVPLVTIORVM (both names otherwise unknown). Though badly damaged, the diptych is nonetheless of considerable interest. Two other panels bare except for an inscribed name are known, and we may probably assume that (even for presentation purposes) undecorated diptychs greatly outnumbered the elaborate and inevitably more expensive specimens that (because of their decoration) were more highly prized and mote likely to survive. Plain panels were no doubt normally reused in medieval tines - or even in antiquity.
In addition, the two engraved names (both in the genitive plural) provide an exact parallel to the inscription of perhaps the most celebrated of all late antique ivories, the NICOMACHORVM/SYMMACHORVM diptych. They may also provide a key to its interpetation, much discussed of late. Art historians tend to start from the iconography of the two "priestess" scenes, and come up with explanations in terms of mystery initiations. Perhaps contemporaries would have begun with the linked family names, no doubt the standard heading to diptychs commemorating family occasions, such as weddings and funerals.
"Art and Spectacle in Roman Cyprus"
Christine Kondoleon, Williams college
The hunting mosaics from the peristyle of the House of Dionysos at Paphos, Cyprus offer an exemplary study of the development of an original composition in response to the intention of a patron. These hunting panels represent a rarely depicted category of the amphitheater events that was undoubtedly inspired by the first-hand experience of such spectacles. The donation of the games was the political and social responsibility of the wealthiest members of the community and they insured that visitors and posterity would recall their generous civic gifts by commissioning mosaics that commemorated these events within their homes. The illustration of this unusual type of hunt in the Paphian residence dramatically illustrates the intrusion of social and political realities into preset pictorial formulae.
The study of the hunting theme in mosaics led to the discovery of several compositions in various artistic media that could best be explained by the influence of actual performances on the visual language of art. Mythological episodes reenacted by mimes and dancers, were presented alongside gladiatorial and hunting events in amphitheaters throughout the Empire. Through mime, especially, a wide range of subjects drawn from myth, tragedy, and legend passed graphically before the eyes of Roman audiences. It is my contention that these theatrical episodes conditioned the way the public "saw" myths. It is plausible that these publically staged and recast forms of popular dramas inspired artists and patrons alike in the selection and combination of themes for their domestic interiors. The artist, viewer, and patron shared a common public experience--the theater--for artistic stimulus and for social and political meaning. The Paphian hunting mosaics provide a key insight into artistic innovation inspired by actual events that were sponsored by the same patrons for whom the mosaics were made.
"Asceticism and Transformation of Patronage in Late Antiquity"
Elizabeth A. Clark, Duke University
Patronage and munificence, patterns of social life that persisted across the Christianization of the Empire, were especially evident with the conversion of the senatorial aristocracy from the late fourth century on. Although some modern commentators have argued that Christian donors were motivated by love, not by love of honor, such donors nonetheless received honor, whatever their motivation.
Moreover, Christianization brought opportunities for patronage in which women could share on an equal footing with men. To be sure, non-Christian women had had ample opportunities for giving, as is well-attested by inscriptions. Yet two demurrers must here be registered. First, the holding of offices in the cursus honorem appears to have been a prime determinant in male aristocrats being named patrons of cities and territories; the exclusion of senatorial women from those offices resulted in reduced chances for them to be honored as patrons. Second, some Inscriptional evidence suggests that non-senatorial women in pre- and extra-Christian society were not lauded as patrons nearly as frequently as modern discussions lead us to expect. For example, in Clemente's study of over 400 persona named as patrons of collegia, fewer than 87. were women. The evidence pertaining to non-aristocratic women thus calls for careful study.
With the sharp decline of municipal patronage in late antiquity and a corresponding rise in the patronage of ecclesiastical and monastic Institutions, women found new avenues of benefaction and thus new avenues for honor. Wealth was not the only factor at work: the shift away from civic benefaction, and asceticism's break from familial obligations were also decisive.
In the building of churches and monasteries--and in receiving the honor accrued from such benevolence--women found arenas for munificent display that were the same as those open to men.
"The Bishop as Civic Patron: Ritual and Art in the Orthodox Baptistry of Ravenna"
Ann Wharton Epstein Duke University
(Abstract not received in time for publication)
BYZANTIUM AND THE TURKS
Presiding: Clive Foss (University,of Massachusetts)
"Turks in Byzantine Service: Twelfth Century"
Charles M. Brand, Bryn Mawr College
The role of Latins in the Byzantine army and government in the age of the Komnenoi has frequently been noted. The Position of Turks in the same period deserves consideration. While most Turks in Byzantine service were simple soldiers. some attained command posts, and a few rose high in the Byzantine heirarchy. This paper will concentrate on those who entered the command structure and aristocracy.
Turks were recruited for service to the Byzantine state in a variety of ways. Some (like Tzachas or Chaka) were captives taken in battle and enrolled for military service; other captives were enslaved: Tatikios is stated to have been the son of a "Saracen" slave of Alexios I's father John. John Axouchos was a Turkish lad taken by Alexios I and reared alongside the future ruler John II. Other Turks voluntarily joined the Byzantines: Elchanes (Il-Khan) and the so-called "Siaous", for instance.
While a few Turks were members of the emperor's entourage. without military command (Poupakes or Abu-Bakr, for instance). among the officers we find Prosouchos (Borsua, Nicephorus Chalouphes (Halifa). John Ices (<Isa), Michael Isach (Ishaq), and others. Axouchos contrived the apprehension of potential conspirators against Manuel at the start of his reign.
The Hellenization of these Turks commenced with their conversion to Christianity; the controversy in Manuel's reign over the form of abjuration of Islam suggests that the emperor was attempting to ease such conversions. The school at Alexios I's orphanage may have educated young Turks as well as other foreigners. The final step in full integration of Turks Into Byzantine society was intermarriage; the marriage of Alexios Axouchos to a granddaughter of John II represents a peak of advancement, but it clan brought great perils.
While Turks integrated well into Byzantine society. Kinnamos' apparent dislike for John Axouchoa and his son suggests that some hostility remained. Even the grandson of John Axouchos, John Komnenos Axouchos "the Fat", could never escape the notation of Turkish descent.
In the age of the Angelot, few Turks appear in Byzantine service, partly due to the lack of victories to bring in captives, partly due to the declining attractiveness of Byzantium. Arguably, this lack contributed to Byzantium's collapse. Until then, the integration of Turks Into the Byzantine state demonstrated its assimilative powers.
"From Byzantium to Islam in Western Anatolia"
Clive Foss, University of Massachusetts
(Abstract not received in time for publication)
"Some Byzantine and Ottoman Urban Structures: The Case of Istanbul"
Berge Aran, University of California, Los Angeles
We have some idea about the fate of the people of Conetantinople and some of its illustrious buildings after the fall of the city to the Turks. However, very little has been said about the fate of the more common buildings in the hands of their conquerors. Various historians, namely Asiki, Ibn Kemal, Nesri Tursun Bey, and Kritovoulos mention that many residential buildings were given to people who willingly came to settle in the city. Undoubtedly, military and civil functionaries also got their share of immovable property. In the Tahrir Defteri of 1546, there are a number of references to old or ruined buildings replaced by now residential or commercial property. These and some still inhabited houses or used cisterns that particularly appear in the vakfs of individuals established during the initial few decades of the conquest may have belonged to the Byzantine period.
The continuation of specific building types such as commercial-residential or simply residential two story units,in a row without any kind of attached courtyard, seems to occur within certain districts of the city. The Venitian, Pisan, and Genovese quarters of Constantinople along the inner harbor offer some good cases of this architecture as described in the chrysobulls of the twelfth century. For instance, a row of units consisting of shops on the ground floor and the triclinaria above with their spherical vaults, faced with an upper floor toward the street was a common view around the year 1202. In the same area, the emergence of similar buildings during the early Ottoman period cannot be taken as a matter of coincidence but a conscious continuation of an architectural type.
Another type of building which will concern us here is the . In Constantinople, this term refers to a two story structure whose ground level is a portico whereas the second level has a terrace facing the street. This terrace is called solarium or #vtx;~S . Occasionally, the word 1ftPtt101Zps replaces both terms by referring to a specific function of this terrace as a walkway. Attached .to Lpp4wy, there are houses with their shops on the ground level.
Both Suetonius and Tacitus claimed that Nero made the Romans built porticus with solarium over it in front of insulae for the purpose of firefighting. As it has been pointed out, however, this type of porticus did not become a common feature of Ostian and Roman buildings.
Libanius' description of the great Tiberian colonnaded street at Antioch, coupled with what can be made of scanty remains on the site suggests a system of porticoes not so different from the Constantinopolitan examples. In fact, the porticus with solarium over and shops or houses behind that crossed the Latin quarters along the Golden Horn, had arches built at its crossing points with major streets just like the colonnaded streets of Antioch.
Were these porticoes of Constantinople rebuilt in their original form after being burned by the Latins in 1204 or replaced by a somewhat simplified version of the same system? Did they finally perish when the Turks took the city? A particular type of building which repeatedly appears where the best known Byzantine porticoes stood is called höcerat in the Tahrir Defteri. This term often refers to a row of rooms forming one or two story buildings. Occasionally, shops replace the rooms on the ground. In few cases, loggias (gurfe) are put over the ground floor shops or rooms. An interesting case of hocarat consisting of fourteen rooms built before 1473, included a wooden portico or a shade (zulle) in front and loggias ( gurfe) above. This building was most probably within the old Venitian quarter of the Byzantine city. The main street between Atik Ali Pasa and Bayezid Mosques, that is a portion of Byrantine , was lined by hocerat on its both sides between 1462 and 1527 as the related vakfs mentioned.
Furthermore, this area had a high concentration of bakeries according to the same documents. This actually suggests more a reoccupation and conservation of a building and a function than just a continuation of land use patterns. The new occupants had no reason to bake at the same location unless they made use of an existing structure.
The possible disappearance of porticoes can be explained by the fact that they related to the municipal life of the city an Libanius pointed out for Antioch. Such a public space and what it stood for did not probably have much meaning for the new owners.
"The Political Dimension of Early Ottoman Architecture"
Ulku U. Hates, Hunter College, City University of New York
The portrait of Mehmed II (1451-81, his second reign) by Gentile Bellini and the perfectly symmetrical layout of the mosque complex of this ruler In Istanbul are often cited as symbols heralding a new era, that of the "Imperial" period in Ottoman history. As much as the portrait and the architectural ensemble may point to imperial patronage par excellence, they can also be taken to mark the climax of a long cultural development in the Ottoman realm before the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. This paper will pursue the latter approach, and will attempt to examine the first hundred years of Ottoman art (1300-1400) as it developed in northwestern Anatolia and the Balkans. The major factor shaping Ottoman artistic expression in its first hundred years is the rapidly changing political, social and religious climate in Anatolia. This period saw the ascendence of the Mongols in western Asia, the demise of the Abbasid Caliphate (1248), the collapse of the Sultanate of the Seljugs of Rum (1308) and the formation of various Turkman amirates, the forceful expansion of the Mamluks In eastern Mediterranean region, and finally, the rise of a new power in the East, that of Timur. Another no less important fact was that Ottomans expanded their territories to the lands that were not previously under Muslim rule. The formation of Ottoman art and architecture in its early stages can be seen as a political response to developments In the Muslim world as well as to newly conquered peoples and lands that had hitherto belonged to the Byzantine Empire. The Ottomans used artistic expressions that proclaimed their rising power both to Muslims and Christians alike. To that end the Ottomans blended late antique and particularly Byzantine elements Into their essentially Islamic art and architecture. For example, Ottoman architecture that developed by the end of the 14th century is distinct from contemporary Islamic styles, having assimilated many late classical and Byzantine elements, yet is never to be confused with non-Muslim structures. Since most of the artistic achievements that have survived from the first hundred years of Ottoman history comprise buildings, I shall concentrate on architecture and Its decoration. My objective will be to outline the main characteristics of early Ottoman architecture and Its development. 1 shall also speculate on the possible intentions behind the choice of locations for the buildings as well as their design elements and decorative motifs. The paper will focus on architecture as a political expression of the early Ottoman period.
LATE ANTIQUITY II: THE PUBLIC SPHERE
Presiding: Kathleen Shelton (University of Chicago)
"Constantius, Constantine, and the Mint of Trier"
David H. Wright, University of California, Berkeley
On the first of March 293 Constantius was named Caesar for the West, with his capital and a new mint at Trier. When he and Galerius, Caesar for the East, were named Consuls for the year 294, special gold medallions celebrating the new Tetrarchy were struck both in Rome, the principal mint of Maximian, Augustus for the West, and in Trier, and one from each mint was presented to the high officer whose hoard was discovered near Arras in 1922 (admirably studied by Pierre Bastien, Le Tresor _de Beaurains (dit d'Arras), 1977, where these are nos. 160 and 197). Surprisingly, the Trier medallion is of higher artistic quality than the Roman medallion, thus predicting the extraordinary development of the Trier mint in the next two decades. Base metal coins were first struck at Trier (in 293) by two workshops that had been brought directly from Lyons, but there had been no gold struck in Lyons in recent years and therefore the craftsmen who produced the first Trier gold probably came from Rome. If they were Immediately led to improve upon their previous work the stimulus must have been the personal invulvement of Constantius.
After his reconquest of Britain in 296, a further series of medallions was struck at Trier with reverse designs that are among the most elaborate of the age (Bastien 218-225). Even some normal aurei struck at this time have comparably elaborate reverse designs (Bastien 226-230, RIC VI, 87-89). Furthermore the rendering of the portrait of Constantius became increasingly naturalistic. Even in the silver coinage of the time the portrait of Constantius is thoroughly individualized, while the portraits of the other three Tetrarchs are shown in essentially formulaic types (RIC VI, 109-110).
Diocletian's political principle of concordia among the Tetrarchs naturally led to similitudo among their portraits, as is obvious in the porphyry groups and in most coinage of the time, and is praised in panegyrics. There might be one recognizable feature, such as the turned-up nose of Maximian, particularly in coins from the western mints, but there was a basic emperor type, and in eastern mints it was usually rendered very schematically. Constantius retained the iconographic features of this type, the close-cropped hair and stubble beard, but he had it rendered in an increasingly naturalistic style. By the time he became Augustus, in 305, the mint at Trier was routinely producing gold coinage with extraordinarily naturalistic portraits and with reverses in good classical style. Such artistic qualities, unique in these years, must have reflected the personal taste of Constantius, though it is hard to imagine how this professional soldier of humble Illyrian origin and no formal education became such a discriminating patron of art.
When young Constantine inherited his father's mantle and mint in 306 he chose a new iconography for his portrait. In the very rare gold coins of his first months he showed himself clean-shaven and very young, with a face that seems almost delicate but is identified as a portrait by the distinctive family nose (RIC VI, 627). Then in the next months, when we have only silver coins to study, he modified his portrait to accord with the traditional portrait of Augustus. combing his hair forward over his brow and showing himself with idealized strongly articulated cheekbones and jaw (RIC VI, 636 and 638). At this point we lose track of the exact sequence of changes in his portrait because we have no Trier gold from the next three years, but by the time gold is again plentiful, in the years 310-313 (see Bastian 445-450 and 465-470 for the dates), there is a new portrait type for Constantine, with the same hair and nose, but with a very fleshy face and slightly receding chin, obviously an accurate portrait in which he rejected the idealized Augustan model and extended further the implications of his father's naturalistic style.
After Constantine "liberated" Rome in October 312 his attention naturally shifted to the Italian mints, where in the winter of 312/3 the Augustan model became firmly established as his portrait type, to be used also for the recut heads on the arch dedicated in 315. When this iconography reached the mint at Trier (by 315, see RIC VII, 18, etc.) it was rendered with great subtlety, appearing much more naturalistic in detail than in the versions from the Italian mints, but it was more a type than an accurate portrait.
Constantine had been able to experiment so easily with his portrait style in his first years because the mint at Trier had achieved such unique artistic capability under Constantius, but as he went on to conquer the rest of the world Constantine needed a portrait type that could be well reproduced in less capable mints, and of course he wanted a type with more favorable political resonance. The idealized Augustan portrait type was also part of the general revival of clasical style sponsored by Constantine in these years, as evident in the sculpture from the Baths of Constantine (c. 315) and the Baths of Helena in Rome (323-326).
Left on its own, as Constantine concentrated on the East, the mint at Trier became an artistic backwater. The heaven-gazing portrait based on the iconography of Alexander the Great was introduced at Thessalonica soon after the defeat of Licinius in 324 and took about two years to reach Trier; the naturalistic portrait of Constantine in old age was perfected at Constantinople in 336/7. Emperors were the creative artistic personalities of the age, and their direct patronage was essential for official art of the highest quality.
"Constantine the Great and the Obelisk at Arles"
Caroline Smitter, Bryn Mawr College
Some Late Roman cities enjoyed particular favor as imperial residences. For some, such as Milan and Constantinople, the residence and the favor were frequent and sustained. Others enjoyed the emperor's presence for briefer, more specific lengths of time.
Arles in the South of France was a residencr of Constantine in the first decade of his reign. It does not seem to have been important to his predecessors the Tetrarchs and was not to enjoy such prominence again in the fourth century.
There is as yet little archaeological evidence which may be firmly associated with the short time Arles enjoyed Constantine's presence. There is, however, one monument which may be taken to reflect Constantine's concerns. The fractured remains of a red granite obelisk, of presumably Egyptian origin, were disengaged in the 16th century near the site of the city's circus. Modern excavations of the circus and its surroundings are not yet fully published. The obelisk itself bears no inscription, Latin, Greek or Hieroglyphic. Evidence is scanty; but if the obelisk was put up under Constantine's patronage, and it is hard to propose any other date for its erection, it can be associated with other acts and attitudes of his first decade as emperor.
From quite early in his reign. Constantine set out to distinguish himself from the 'tetrarchs in style and policy. The new imperial image is apparent in coin portraiture; the lean, long-haired and clean-shaven Constantine contrasts with the middle-aged, burly, bearded Tetrarchs. Constantine constantly favored causes - most obviously the Church - the Tetrarchs had neglected.
The Tetrarchs encouraged chariot racing, but there is no evidence that any of the circuses they built were adorned with obelisks. Indeed they seem to have distrusted Egyptian culture. Obelisks may have interested earlier emperors, such as Augustus, but the existing evidence suggests that the practice of erecting them in circuses had died out in the century before Constantine. The erection of one other, in the Hippodrome at Constantinople, was certainly planned by Constantine. It is likely he was responsible for that at Arles.
One further obelisk of the period survives, that in the circus built by Maxentius (c. 306) on the Via Appia outside Rome. This might be the work of Constantine, though it in usually attributed to Maxentius. Maxentius also broke the mould of Tetrarchic imagery, though less strikingly than Constantine. If it is Maxentius' it is interesting to see another rebel against the Tetrarchy adopting the obelisk an a distinctive monument.
Can we suggest reasons why Constantine might have chosen to erect obelisks at Arles and elsewhere? Maybe to symbolize the break with the Tetrarchy. More specifically, might there be a connection with the ancient significance of the obelisk in Egypt as a symbol of the Sun. Constantine, but not the Tetrarchs, was concerned with the Sun as a source of religious power.
Constantine and the Tetrarchs shared a common enthusiasm for chariot-racing. Both he and they built circuses, but by deciding to decorate the circus of his residence at Arles with an obelisk Constantine might have been demonstrating by a significant detail at an early stage of his reign that he wished his subjects to associate fresh messages with his policies and patronage.
"Palace and Tomb: Display and Source of Authority in Late Antiquity and Byzantium"
Slobodan Curcic, Princeton University
One of the more conspicuous generic roles of palace architecture is the visual expression of the occupant's power and authority. A related, though less obvious aspect of a number of Late Antique and Byzantine palaces was the demonstration of the source of the occupant's authority with the emphasis on the perpetuity of the established traditions. A small but distinctive group of Late Antique imperial palaces with accompanying mausolea stand out as manifestations of the latter phenomenon. The Palace of Diocletian at Split is the best known, and the most representative example of this group. Presumably built as Diocletian's retirement residence, the palace at Split includes the Emperor's mausoleum among the many components of its complex plan. The mausoleum is situated adjacent to an open court commonly referred to as the "peristyle." I will argue that the "peristyle" is in fact the atrium-vestibulum of the palace, and that its functions and its meaning are closely linked to those of the nearby mausoleum. The traditional functions of the palace vestibulum (among others) were the accomodation of the processio, as well as the lying in state of the deceased occupant. Futhermore, the atrium of a Roman house was the place for the display of the portraits of the owner's ancestors. In the context of the Palace of Diocletian, and the tetrarchic system of succession, the symbolic role of the atrium-vestibulum acquired a new, though related, meaning. Because imperial (and by extension, divine) appointment became institutionalized as the form of succession, the atrium-vestibulum would have provided any legitimate successor of Diocletian with a stage equipped with an awesome 'ancestral' display -- with the temple of Jupiter to the west and the Mausoleum of his 'son' Diocletian, to the east, forming a transversal axis in relationship to the principal axis of the palace.
Reliance of rulers on palpable sources of authority in the context of their official residences through the inclusion of predecessors' tombs was no invention of the Tetrarchic age. Employed long before, in pharaonic Egypt, and the Hellenistic world, this concept was rediscovered in Late Antiquity, precisely at the time when contacts with the East were especially intense.
Dormant for centuries after the end of the Tetrarchy, the 'concept' was 'rediscovered' once more during the Middle Byzantine period. Starting in the tenth century, the custom of building individual imperial mausoleum churches set in (Myrelaion, ca. 920, and Christos tes Chalkes, ca.971, both in Constantinople). By the mid-eleventh century, 'decentralization' of imperial burials (away from the church of the Holy Apostles) had become a norm. All reasons for this development are for from clear. The possibility of association of a mausoleum church with s specific residence an a symbolic seat of authority stands out as one of the likely explanations. Such a notion is confirmed by the tenth- or eleventh-century epic poem, Digenes Akritas. According to the relevant passage, the hero, Digenes Akritas, builds himself a palace on the Euphrates. In the centrally situated courtyard of the palace he builds a church and deposits in it the remains of his father. This detail, introduced in the description of an imaginary palace, underscores the importance of the palace-tomb association in this period. That such a concept may have been inspired by Late Antique examples is gleaned from Constantine Porphyrogenetus' De Administrando Imperio. Writing about the cathedral of Split, Constantine Porphyrogenetus refers to it as the church of St. Domnus "...which was the resting-place of the ... emperor Diocletian" -- long after the actual remains of Diocletian and his tomb were removed and destroyed. This would suggest that the encyclopaedically-minded emperor must have obtained his information from an older source. That he should have been interested where the pagan emperor had been buried, in the first place, is relevant to our argument. The Middle Byzantine source of ideas relating palaces and mausolea may have been a product of the same cultural framework which we have come to know as the Macedonian Renaissance.
OSTROGORSKY AND BEYOND
Presiding: John W. Barker (University of Wisconsin)
"George Ostrogorsky's Concept of Byantine History and the Russian School of Byzantine Studies"
Alexander Kazhdan, Dumbarton Oaks
Even now, despite partial criticism. Ostrogorsky's concept of Byzantine history remains the dominant view of Byzantium. The gist of this concept is as follows: The decline of the Late Roman empire was stopped by reforms introduced by Heraclius and his dynasty in the seventh century; the free peasantry and the thematic army formed the essence of Byzantine social structure and the basis of its strength that endured unchallenged until the beginning of the eleventh century. Then the development of feudal forces (large estates, immunity and pronoia) destroyed the Byzantine social structure and resulted in the decline and fall of the empire. This concept originates in the views of the Russian school of Byzantine studies (Vasil'evskij, Uspenskij, Skabalanovich etc.) which, in its turn, reflected the political program of the Russian czardom--the idealization of the strong monarchy, based on Orthodoxy and on the essant community of taxpayers, and strongly opposed to "evil' western influences.
Ostrogorsky slightly changed the ideas of his predecessors but retained their political biases. His two major changes were that he developed the idea of a fiscal peasant community instead of the ethnic (Slav) community, the existence of which Vasil'evskij and his colleagues had argued, and that he transferred the period of radical changes from the period of the so-called Isaurian dynasty (the eighth century) to the time of the Heraclides. Ostrogorsky retained, however, the following methodological faults of his predecessors: he considered feudalism as a destructive phenomenon only, whereas, at a certain historical point, feudal forces were more powerful than the Orthodox and "peasant-protecting" centralized empire. Further, Ostrogorsky limited historical development to the rural area, ignoring or rather denying the considerable change in the central social institution of Antiquity--the polis-municipium. The dramatis personae of his presentation were peasants, feudal lords and emperors, as if the Byzantine hommes d'affaires did not have their say in deciding the fate of Byzantium. Finally, in building his historical concept Ostrogorsky did not take into account the role of intellectuals; he ignored the fact that the period after the flourishing Macedonian dynasty coincided not only with the growth of landed aristocracy but also with the upsurge of city life and spiritual culture. Actually, however, the major cultural values created by Byzantium after the sixth century belong to the period when the Orthodox and bureaucratic monarchy was "besmirched" by semi-feudal, western influences.
"Beyond Ostrogorsky"
Panel
Anthony Cutler (Pennsylvania State University)
Timothy E. Gregory (Ohio State University)
Emily A. Hanawalt (Boston University)
Warren Treadgold (Hillsdale College)
THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE AND ITS IMPACT AMONG THE SLAVS
Presiding: George Majeska (University of Maryland)
"The Historical Value of Nestor-lskander's Povestzo Tsaregrade"
Marios Philippides, University of Massachusetts
The fall of Constantinople in 1453 to Mehmed Il Fatih, the sultan of the Osmanli Turks, has been related by numerous contemporary writers. Few of them, however, were actual eye-witnesses to this monumental event in the history of south-eastern Europe. The major Greek writers of the fifteenth century, i.e., Doukas, Khalkokondyles, and Kritoboulos, were not present in the Byzantine capital during the siege and fall: George Sphrantzes left no account of the siege operations and of the last battle (May 29) in his authentic Chronicon Minus. Thus there survives no Greek eye-witness account for this event that heralded the end of Greek independence for a number of centuries.
It is in western accounts that we encounter eye-witness reports on the fall of Constantinople. One of the most important is the epistula in Latin of Bishop Leonard of Chios, who had been an active participant and sent his account to the pope soon after the sack. It was this Latin account that became the nucleus of the famous siege section that was elaborated into the Chronicon Maius c. 1580 by Pseudo-Sphrantzes.(1) In addition to Leonard's relatio to Pope Nicholas V, there exists another account composed by the Venetian physician Nicolo Barbaro; Barbaro's account takes the form of a Tagebuch; his Giornale dell' Assedio presents us with important information on the operations of the siege, with particular emphasis on the operations at the harbor, where he had been stationed. Barbaro's connections in Constantinople were with the foreign communities, especially the Venetian and the Genoese, and he comments on the Greeks and their leadership whenever the emperor paid a visit to the Venetian quarter and sector. Leonard and Barbaro are the best known and most widely used primary sources on the fall of Constantinople. Together with the accounts composed by Tetaldi, Richerio, Pusculo, and the recently recovered Latin report by the Anconitan consul at Constantinople,(2) Leonard and Barbaro are the most reliable witnesses to the fall.
There is, in addition, another, rather neglected account. It is an eye-witness narrative in Russian, which is usually referred to as the Povesti; it in usually attributed to a Nestor-Iskander, who was present in the siege, fall, and sack of Constantinople. This composition has been overlooked by modern scholarship, even though versions of Nestor-Iskander's narrative were published as early as the middle of the nineteenth century.(3) While modern historians have gone out of their way to include in their accounts information supplied by questionable "sources" (such as the Maius), this eye-witness account has not been effectively utilized and remains neglected.(4)
Nestor-Iskander apparently kept notes from the beginning o£ the siege in the form of a diary, like Barbaro. Barbaro's early entries match the information supplied by Nestor. A close comparison of the two accounts will demonstrate how the two diaries compliment and suppliment each other. Nestor-Iskander's version of the siege will be discussed; his composition will be examined in detail. His knowledge of events and of Byzantine Constantinople will be compared with the information furnished by other, reliable eye-witness accounts. It will be demonstrated that Nestor-Iskander confirms a number of hypothese that have been already formulated in regard to the events that took place during the siege. Other events, which appear in later patriarchal texts from Istanbul,(5) will be shown to have a basis on truth. Emphasis will be placed on Nestor-Iskander's original contributions and observations (e.g., the sanitation measures taken by both sides after each battle, which are overlooked by all other sources). Thus, it will be argued, Nestor-Iskander has produced a counterpart to Barbaro's Giornale; the latter is account of the operations at the harbor, for the most part; the Povesti supplies information on the land side. While Barbaro wrote from the Venetian point of view, Nestor-Iskander, it becomes evident, is closer to the Greek-Byzantine tradition, especially in his religious views and in his anti-unionism. Both individuals, Barbaro and Nestor-Iskander, eventually reworked their notes from 1453 and elaborated them into major historical documents. Thus, it will be concluded, there in room for a new, modern history of the siege and fall of Constantinople to the Osmanli Turks in 1453. As some of the extant sources have recently undergone re-examination and re-evaluation and the authenticity of some has become questionable, it to a imperative that a new history of this important event be written, which would be based exclusively on authoritative, eye-witness accounts. Some of the latter are new (e.g., the report of Benvenuto, the Anconitan consul); others, like Nestor-Iskander and Ubertino Pusculo, deserve closer scrutiny while the information supplied by them should be taken into serious consideration.
(1) Cf., among others, M. Philippides, "E&y poves "EpetNCC o-td Keliisva lot) EQpavtEn," Parnassos 25 (1983), 94-99.
(2) E. Pertusi, "The Anconitan Colony in Constantinople and the Report of its Consul, Benvenuto, on the Fall of the City," In Charanis Studies: Essays in Honor of Peter Charauls, ed. A. E. Laiou-Thamadakis (New Brunswick 1980). English translation in M. Philippides, Byzantium, Europe, And the Early Ottoman Sultans, 1373-1513: An Anonymous Greek Chronicle of the Seventeenth Centery (the Barberini Codex 111), forthcoming.
(3) English translation: W. K. Hanak and M. Philippides, Nestor-lakander: The Tale of Constantinople (of its Origin and Capture in the Year 1453), the Troitso-Sergievaia Lavra Ms. No. 773, forthcoming.
(4) E.g., S. Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople 1453 (Cambridge 1965), in which material from the Maius by Pseudo-Sphrantzes has been accepted.
(5) E.g., the Ekthesis Khronike. Cf. M. Philippides, Emperors, Patriarchs, and Sultans of Constantinople: An Anonymous Greek Chronicle of the Sixteenth Century, (the Ekthesis Khronike), forthcoming. Idem "Patriarchal Chronicles of the Sixteenth Century,"GRBS 25 (1984), 87-94.
"Who Was Nestor-Iskander?"
Walter K. Hanak, Shepherd College
Few eyewitness accounts of the final siege and the subsequent fall of Constantinople on May 29, 1453 have survived. A singular work is The Tale of Constantinople (Of Its Origins and Capture in the Year 1b53) by one Nestor-Iskander. But the very life of Nestor-Iskander is fragmentary and largely unknown. He did append to his Tale a brief vita of one page in length. The vita is quite general in content and often incomplete in its statements. Only the Troitso-Sergievaia Lavra ms., early 16th century, No. 773, has appended the vita and the entire text has been known to scholarship or little over a century, when first discovered by Archimandrite Leonid in Russia. Assuming that the vita to authentic and its information is valid, I seek in this paper to analyze the contents of the vita and to draw upon the few personal observations which Nestor-Iskander included about himself in the Tale and that can be gleaned from the text. Russian and Soviet scholars have vigourously disagreed on the role of Nestor-Iskander prior to, during, and following the fall of Constantinople. Their arguments will be examined at length.
Commentators
John V. A. Fine (University of Michigan)
Steven Bowman (University of Cincinnati)
EASTERN AND WESTERN HAGIOGRAPHY OF THE TENTH-TWELFTH CENTURIES: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY COMPARISON
Presiding: Dorothy de F. Abrahamse (California State University, Long Beach)
Although scholarly interest in hagiography has flourished in both Byzantine and western medieval studies in recent years, comparisons between the writing and illumination of saints' lives in east and west are not drawn as frequently as they should be. Hagiographers in Byzantium and medieval Europe shared common models and the fact of working within a traditional genre, but their aims and preconceptions were often quite different. This panel will examine contrasts and similarities in the writing and illustration of Byzantine and western medieval saints' lives between the tenth and twelfth centuries on some fundamental issues. How did hagiographers in east and west use traditional themes to create a portrait of a saint? Was there a difference in the hagiographer's approach to the reality of the saint he portrayed and, by extension, in the expectations of what made a saint? How must a modern historian read a hagiographical text from this period? How do Byzantine and western approaches to the illustration of hagiographical texts differ? To what extent are the various genres of hagiographical illustration found in the east (such as portraits, martyrological sequences or hagiographical cycles) met in the west?
Each panelist will present a short paper with specific examples of the topic as a prelude to a general discussion of these issues by the panel and the audience. Nancy Sevcenko and Barbara Abou-El-Haj will use examples of Byzantine and French and English manuscripts from the tenth-twelfth centuries respectively to determine what types of texts were illustrated in Byzantium and Europe and what particular purposes illustration served. For western art historians, a central issue to establishing the conditions in which cults of saints were expanded, accompanied by rebuilding of shrines and the addition of pictures and cycles of illustration to rewritten hagiographical texts. How does the lack of a similar historical context for most Byzantine illustrations affect the approaches that can be taken to pictorial representations of Byzantine saints?
Dorothy Abrahamse and John Howe will offer a more limited comparison of Greek and Latin saints' lives from tenth-twelfth century Italy. Comparisons will be drawn, first, between the treatment of some themes common to texts in both traditions (e.g., demons, women and Arabs) and the way these images changed between the tenth and twelfth centuries. How do these images reflect the rhetorical traditions, imagination and historical context within which Byzantine and Latin writers worked? From this, the panelists will compare Greek and Latin hagiographers' images of sanctity and the ascetic tradition behind them in more general terms. Since both the Greek and Latin hagiography of Italy are quite distinctive within their own literature, the comparison will focus on these two inter-related traditions rather than on Byzantine and western hagiography in general, but it should also demonstrate more general similarities and contrasts in Byzantine and western hagiography during this era.
Participants
Barbara Abou-El-Haj (SUNY, Binghamton)
Dorothy Abrahamse (California State University, Long Beach)
John Howe (Texas Tech University)
Nancy Sevcenko (Cambridge, Massachusetts
BYZANTINE LITERATURE: HAGIOGRAPHY
Presiding: Emily Albu Hanawalt (Boston University)
Ihor Sevcenko begins our discussion with an analytical introduction to hagiography, examining some of the following issues: the origin of the genre; various forms of the genre; levels of sophistication of individual authors; levels of style; the development that culminated in a standard life as reflected in ninth-century hagiography; the activity of Simeon the Netaphrast; various topoi of hagiographical texts; wandering motifs and borrowings from one text to another.
Alexander Kazhdan then asks what makes a (good) Vita a piece of literature. After his observations, Margaret Alexiou speaks about neglected "folkloric" aspects of the Lives, with specific attention to particular texts (e.g. Life of Saint Theodore of Sykeon), and on the relation of hagiography and medieval romance. Following discussion among the panelists, John Philip Thomas comments briefly on the hagiographle features of Byzantine monastic typika, illustrating the influence of this literary genre even on legal documents.
Participants
Margaret Alexiou (Harvard University)
Emily Albu Hanawalt (Boston University)
Alexan der Kazhdan (Dumbarton Oaks)
Ihor $evcenko (Harvard University)
John Philip Thomas (The Citadel)
THE BYZANTINE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS
Presiding: Frank M. Clover (university of Wisconsin, Madison)
"Episcopal Hierarchy and Tenure in Office: A Method for Establishing Dates of Ordination"
Ralph W. Mathisen, University of South Carolina
Many ecclesiastical documents, such as letters and the acts of church councils, contain lists of names of bishops. These lists, moreover, often appear to be organized according to the relative status of the bishops whose names appear, and sometimes such statuts seems to have been granted on the basis of episcopal tenure in office. This aspect of these episcopal lists hitherto has been insufficiently appreciated, for if the lists are in fact ordered according to tenure in office, and if the ordination dates of some of the bishops are known, it ought then to be possible to approximate the dates of ordination of many of the other bishops in the lists. And if this could be done, it would allow for a much closer dating of events involving these bishops, for in the past suggested dates of ordination have been based, at best, upon the date at which a bishop is first attested, which could be as much as several decades after his ordination.
But before such a method can be applied it is necessary first to establish that a bishop's position in the lists was in fact based upon episcopal tenure. For there were other ways of assigning status as well, such as more chronological age, or the status of one's see. But tenure in office also was certainly recognized as a means of granting status. Leo of Rome, for example, in 445 gave his opinion that a deposed metropolitan should be replaced by the bishop in the province who exceded the others "antitiquitate episcopali," "in episcopal tenure," and in 462 Hilarus of Rome similarly decreed that a metropolitan should be replaced by the bishop who was first-ranking by his "save honoris," "tenure in office."
Perhaps the best way to establish the method used to assign episcopal status, however, is an empirical one. This can be done by juxtaposing the lists of names of bishops which appear in several different contexts. Now, if this is going to be done successfully, and convincingly, it is necessary to have available several documents, issued over a relatively short period of time, listing many of the same individuals. Happily, such a circumstance exists in fifth-century Gaul for the years circa 439-452, for which years there are no less than eight different documents, both letters and church councils, which repetitiously list many of the same individuals. It will be shown that the position of each name vis-a-vis the others remains remarkably constant from one list to the next only rarely is a name out of place, and even then usually by only a few positions.
Clearly, then, there was some recognized method of granting episcopal status being used here. But was it necessarily based upon tenure in episcopal office? The names at the beginning of each list at least would suggest not. For every list is headed by one or more metropolitan bishops, who appear to be listed according to the status of their sees--the bishop of Arles nearly always comes first--rather than by their tenure in office. But the remainder of the bishops do indeed appear to be listed according to their episcopal tenure. This can be shown to be the case by inserting into the list the dates of ordination of those bishops whose dates are known, or can be approximated. In every instance, the known dates fall into a proper chronological order, with no obvious inconsistencies. Bishops known to have been ordained at approximately the same time, moreover, appear close to each other in the lists. There is every indication, therefore, that the majority of the bishops listed are indeed ranked according to their tenure in episcopal office.
This paper will be concerned not only with demonstrating (with appropriate illustrations) the validity of this method, but also with discussing specific applications of the method for establishing the dates of ordination for some bishops of fifth-century Gaul whose dates previously had been known only very inexactly and, as will be seen, very incorrectly. Suggestions also will be made as to other areas in which this method might be applied, as in the case of the sixth-century Gallic councils, or of the late fifth and early sixth-century Italian councils. Some of the problems with this method also will be discussed. such as instances where the bishops did not rigidly adhere to their tenure status and where their names appear out of order. This, unfortunately, seems to have been the case at some of the eastern councils.
"Asketike Politeia: Holy Men and Women in the Worlds of Theodoret and John of Ephesus"
John H. Corbett University of Toronto
We have privileged access to the ascetics in the region of Antioch ca. 400-450 AD, thanks to the Historia Philotheos of Theodoret, recently re-edited by Canivet. In his study. Le monschisme syrien selon Theodoret de Cyr (Paris 1977), Canivet rightly focuses attention on the Syrian background of Theodoret and the Greek-Syriac "bicultural" context of N. Syrian asceticism to this period. The same situation is reflected in the parallel Greek and Syriac traditions regarding Simeon Stylites, which still require study despite the pioneering work of Delshaye and Peeters, and some more recent studies. By contrast the Lives recorded by John of Ephesus have scarcely been touched, even by Syriac scholars, though they too have much to add to our picture.
Of course, Peter Brown has laid the foundations for any study of ascetics in Late Antiquity, making frequent use of Theodoret (Society and the Holy, Univ. of Calif. 1982, 103 ff) and noting how a more developed asceticism to reflected in John of Ephesus (ibid. 166 ff). Yet, strange to say, as with his contemporary Gregory of Tours, the religious world view of John of Ephesus has been until lately rather neglected (Brown ibid. 222 ff). I now intend to turn my attention to this subject, working on the model of my recent studies of Gregory of Tours (J. of Medieval History 7, 1981, 1-13 and Florilegium 5, 1983, 44 ft).
Here, however, we encounter two challenges: the first arises from the confused state of the debate over cultural pluralism in late ancient North Syria. This can no longer be discussed in terms of assimilation of, and resistance to, Greco-Roman culture, as Classical scholars have been accustomed to do (criticised by Brown ibid. 153 ff). The relationship of town and village is not to be explained only in terms of an opposition of Greek and Syriac cultures. Neither must cultural factors be neglected, however (which Brown sometimes seems inclined to do), as our emerging new understanding of Syriac christianity should now make clear. The results of my recent reassessment of these cultural factors, as they are reflected in the ascetic literature, will be presented in summary form.
The second challenge is to integrate this larger cultural background into our understanding of ascetic ideology. The Greek context of Theodoret's ascetic politeia is well presented by Canivet. Some brilliant recent studies give us access to early Syriac asceticism. Here I have in mind not so much the serviceable History of Asceticism by Voobus (Il Louvain 1960) but rather Murray's Symbols of Church end Kingdom (Cambridge 1975) and Brock's recent study (in Syriac Perspectives on Late AntiquIty, London 1984). The picture of Syrian asceticism which emerges is complex but remarkably coherent. To what extent is it reflected in the Simeon tradition or the Lives of John? Can it be reconciled with the characteristically Greek rationale offered by Theodoret?
These questions are too large to be "answered" in a 20 minute presentation. My survey of the evidence will be presented in outline, with special attention to methodological questions. As well, I hope to be able to indicate to what extent Greek and Syriac rationales for asceticism are compatible, to what extent each is unique, focusing especially on Simeon Stylites for whom we have parallel traditions.
"The Career of Victor of Tonnena"
Susan T. Stevens, Luther College
This is a case study of Victor of Tonnena, an African bishop of the early Byzantine period. His career is particularly interesting because it spans approximately the first two thirds of the sixth century, a significant period of transition for the African church. On the one hand. It was struggling to assert its old order and privileges disrupted by the Arlan Vandals. On the other, It was confronted with Justinian's efforts to bring its hierarchy into line with other western ecclesiastical provinces and Byzantine political aims. Victor's career reflects both the internal and external pressures on the African church and provides an illustration of the changing profile of African churchmen in the course of the sixth century.
The first part of the study is devoted to reconstructing Victor's life from the meager information offered by his Chronicle. He was probably born around A.D. 500, during the reign of the Vandal king Thrasamund. After 530 the Chronicle details African events leading up to the Three Chapters Controversy, presumably a reflection of the author's participation in current events in his native land. At what date he became bishop of Tonnena is uncertain, though it was sometime before 555 when Victor was exiled for his continued support of the Three Chapters. Virtually nothing is known of his see, except that it was in Proconsularis. For almost a decade after his expulsion, he was confined to prisons and remote monasteries in North Africa, finally ending up in Alexandria. From there he with a few other recalcitrant African clerics was summoned to Constantinople. After refusing to condemn the Three Chapters he was again imprisoned, then, sent to a monastery, isolated from the other African exiles in Constantinople. He evidently devoted the last years of his life to writing his Chronicle in the city where he died shortly after 567.
The second part of the study compares Victor with his near contemporaries. As a bishop of a minor see, he exercised his independent and combative spirit through literature, a characteristic of such late fifth century orthodox African prelates as Fulgentius of Ruspe. By comparison with Fulgentius, however, Victor was parrochial and isolated. The Chronicle, though it purports to be a universal history, is purely ecclesiastical in outlook and African in focus. Unlike Fulgentius, Victor was not connected with the church or aristocratic circles in Rome. Furthermore, unlike his contemporaries Ferrandus, Verecundus and Prlmasius, he had no associatlon with military or civilian authorities in Africa, influential monastic communities or the powerful at the Byzantine court. In short, Victor was not equipped for a successful career in the mainstream African church in the mid to late-sixth century. Yet he may be a prototype for leaders of the Latin African church in the countryside which, strengthened by the disruptions of Vandal rule, resisted assimilation into the Byzantine urban-based hierarchy and survived at least into the early seventh century.
"The Dissolution of Betrothal: A Specific Case Mirrors a Social Reality"
Carmen E. Hernandez Fordham University
(Abstract not received in time for publication)
BYZANTINE MONASTICISM I: THE ROLE OF MONASTICISM IN THE EARLY BYZANTINE WORLD
Presiding: John Thomas (The Citadel)
"The Sinai Monastery in the Early Seventh Century"
Frank R. Trombley, Georgetown University and Dumbarton Oaks
This paper will treat the poet-Justinianic history of the Sinai monastery down to the Arab conquest of Palestine (ca. 635-640). The reconstruction will be based on a seldom used source: Anastasius' "Narratives about the Holy Fathers of Sinai" (OC 2, 1902 pp. 58-89). These narratives (referred to hereafter as the Acta) are replete with miracles, but nevertheless offer substantial topographical, ethnographic and economic data about the monastery. Points of detail are confirmed by such sources as the Nessana non-literary papyri (Excavations at Nessans, v. 3, ed. C. Kraemer, 1958), the Sinai Greek inscriptions (ed. I. Sevcenko, DOP 20 1966, pp. 255ff.), and recent excavations (back issues of IEJ). The analysis will be divided into sections, viz.:
1) Buildings, Sites, and Personnel: The Acta give names of churches and buidings well outside the perimeter of St. Catherine's where monks settled. Recent Israeli excavations confirm this in the form of habitations and prayer niches. Also noted is a settlement in the Bay of St. Anthony on the Red Sea coast. It is possible to establish preliminary conclusions about the ethnic background of monks because the Acts. invariably state their country of origin. Thus, we have Anatolians, Armenians, Cappadocians, Cilicians, Cypriots, etc. (Cf. the inscriptions at Choziba in Palestine, ed. A. Scheider, Rom Quartalschrift 39, 1931, pp. 297ff.). Two excubitors from Constantinople became monks, as did Stephen, ex-chartularius and Maurianus, magister militum per Armeniam. The Acta mention many paramonioi stationed in chapels. An inscription (Sevcenko, No. 14 confirms the existence of this office among the monks in the sixth century.
2) External Relations: The Acta report that the Arab conquest of Palestine (ca. 635-40) stopped the shipment of olive oil from there to Sinai. Trade contacts between the two localities are proven by the account book of a trading company which operated between Nessana and Sinai circa 600 A.D. (P.Ness. 3.89). A regular Armenian pilgrim traffic is attested between circa 629-49. Islamic pilgrimage supplemented the Christian in the 680's A.D. (P.Ness. 3.72 and 73). The Acta attest a pilgrimage and transit route to Aila which was recently noted by Mayerson (IEJ 32, 1982. pp. 44ff.) and noted by M. Stone (Armenian Inscr. from Sinai, 1982). Monies reached Sinai as well as from Gregory the Great (ep. Rome 590-604) for the construction of a hospital (nosokomeion). Sinai was less a backwater in the early sevent century than hitherto supposed.
3) Local Flora and Fauna: The Acta attest an occasional snowfall of 3-4 feet at the summit, Local use of camels, the movement of transhumant Arabs with flocks of goats, and such fauna as wild goat herds, rock-rabbits, the wild caper plant, etc. It was thus possible to live off the land.
4) Rooms and Objects: The Acta mention various objects at the monastery such as seal rings (cf. Laurent, Sceaux v.5, no. 496- saec. VII), keys to the eucharistic chest, jars (pithoi) of oil stored in the elaiotheke, an incense burner, and sealing wax. It would be of interest to compare these notices with extant objects at Sinai. The existence of a mausoleum of the fathers mentioned in the Acta is somewhat confirmed by Sevcenko, No. 6.
5) The Pre-Islamic Arabs: There are many references to un-Christian Arabs in this text. Although raids by these tribes were greatly feared, the general picture seems to be one rather of symbiosis between the monastery and friendly groups. Some examples are: a certain transhumant goatherd who grazed his flocks on the upper slopes of Sinai during winter, the Christian slave of an Arab who grazed his camels nearby, and tribal outcasts who begged the monks for food. Also mentioned is a lately Christianized tribe which went over to the Muslims almost to a man during the Arab conquest of Egypt.
The picture which emerges from the Acta, is that of a Sinai which maintained its contacts with the Mediterranean oikoumene until circa 635-40 A.D. This source fills an important lacuna in our knowledge of the monastery in the sphere of prevailing social and economic conditions (cf. Sevcenko, p. 255). The correspondence of reports in the Acts with information from other sources suggests that our "Narratives" are a reasonably accurate gauge of extant conditions. There are, in addition, some accurate references which help to establish chronology (e.g. "in the times of Nicetas the patricius of Africa").
"Early Byzantine Monasteries in Greece: A Survey of the Evidence"
Carolyn S. Snively, Gettysburg College
Greece is famous for Byzantine and post-Byzantine centers of monasticism such as Mount Athos and Meteors. The evidence from an earlier period seems to indicate that in the 5th and 6th centuries, before the coming of the Slavs, monasteries were located in Macedonia and on the Greek islands, e.g., Samoa and Lesbos. The evidence for monastic establishments within Greece proper, i.e., in the province of Achaea, in those centuries is rather sparse. Although writers frequently refer to Kaisariani and Daphni in Attica as examples of early monasteries, the evidence is nevertheless so scanty that one scholar has stated that no monasteries were located in Greece proper in the early Byzantine period. In view of these conflicting opinions, a survey and reassessment of the evidence for monastic establishments of the Late Antique period in the western part of the Balkan peninsula and in Greece in particular seems to be in order.
Three types of evidence may be cited for monastic activity in the area: literary references, inscriptions, and architectural remains. Most of the literary references, and especially those concerning Greece, date much later then the period in question. The epigraphic evidence includes, e.g., the inscription from Thasos recently republished by D. Feissel as a 5th-7th century building inscription (Une monastère paléochrétien à Thasos d'après une inscription peu connue, Actes du Xe Congres International d'Archeologique Chrétienne 1980 (Rome and Thessaloniki 1984) vol. II, 113-120, the epitaph of the abbess Theodora from Veria in Macedonia (D. Feissel, Recueil des Inscriptions Chrétiennes de Macédoine, BCH Supplement VIII (Athens 1983) 64-66 #60) and that of the nun from Acarnania (B. Mastrokostas, AAA 4 (1971) 185-192).
The identification and study of the remains of early monasteries by archaeologists and architectural historians has been complicated by several factors. At Hosios David in Thessaloniki (and at John Studios in Constantinople, a better known example although out of the geographical area), the church is the sole surviving element of the monastic complex. Frequently the church alone or only a few of the associated annexes and buildings of a complex have been excavated, and even excavated auxiliary structures may be published sketchily or not at all. Thus on the one hand it may be difficult or impossible to identify a monastery as such from the plan, and on the other no very clear picture of the arrangement of an early Byzantine monastery in this geographical area has emerged.
The tentative conclusion from the survey of available evidence is that monastic activity left very little trace in Greece in the early Byzantine period. A few pieces of evidence for the existence of monastic communities, however, cannot be ignored or explained away.
"Cappadocian Ecclesiastical Foundations: Social and Economic Implications"
Natalia Teteriatnikov Dumbarton Oaks
Whether built for a hermit, a large monastic congregation, a family, or a village and urban parish, church buildings were constructed in various geographic and social spaces, and thus, they must be understood within a context of their environment. The essential focus of this presentation is the social and economic implications that have reflected the diffusion of Cappadocian ecclesiastical foundations, their function and church planning from the 9th until the end of the 13th century. Although this area has been extensively studied, the nature of monk-lay relationship and the impact it had on patrons of local church foundations has not been understood. Jerphanion, Shiemenz, Thierry, Lafontaine-Dosogne provided valuable investigation of individual patrons in connection with the church dating. These works contributed a great deal for the establishing chronology of Cappadocian church foundations. In addition, Kostof, Epstein and Thierry have recently expressed interest in the social and economic aspects of patronage. In the scope of these studies art historians obviously emphasized the role of patronage. Nevertherless, a vast body of various sources has not been fully explored, and, therefore, the actual role and nature of patronage still remains unclear.
The goal of this study is to examine the social and economic background of Cappedocian communities and their relation to the local environment. Three major questions will be addressed: 1) the extent of Cappadocian church foundations and their geographic destribution, 2) the role of monk-lay patronage, 3) the financial support of monastic communities.
Over 150 Byzantine rock-cut churches end monasteries have been recorded in Cappadocia. Although these churches were placed on the map of this region, the principl of their location in connection with local villages and towns was not considered by the art historians. However, observing the pattern of the church location in each district of this area, it becomes apparent that churches and monasteries are situated within or at least near villages or small towns.
All these church foundations are within half-hour to one--hour walking distance. from a population center. Most of these villages and towns, such as Urgup (Hagios Prokopios), Avcilar (Matiane, Macan), Damaskoy (Tatimos), Sivas (Sobesos), Ortakoy, Avanos (Venassa), Nevsehir, Nigde (Magida) and others have been recorded in the sources from the Early Christian times on. In addition, recently Hild and Restle clearly outlined the road system of this area that includes major church settlements. Furthermore, Jerphanion, Hild and Restle established materials on the bishopric centers. It is significant that among the major bishoprics (such as Caesarea, Nazianzoa, Mokkioa and others), Macan (Matiane) and Hagios Prokopios have been already mentioned in the sources from Early Christian time on. Nigde appeared in the sources as a bishopric during the 8th and 9th centuries. In sum, the church topography shows the importance of population centers, the road system, as well as bishoprics for the location of the rock-cut monastic settlements. All these factors have to be considered in further discussions of the social and economic relationship between the monks and laity.
The construction of a church or a large monastery as well as commission of the painted decoration requires a great deal of wealth, and scholars have recognized the importance of patronage as a major economic resource for monastic foundations. Dealing with the question of the social structure of patrons we have to rely on the dedicatory inscriptions, invocations, grafitti, and donor portraits.
According to our calculations there were about 40 monks and clergy mentioned in the dedicatory inscriptions, funeral epitaphs and invocations. Twenty of them appear in the sources as donors and the rest were mentioned in the funerary epitaphs and invocations. Those of the second group could not be considered major donors. Yet, any form of church commemoration in the church inscriptions requires some donation of money. Dealing with monks and clergy as donors (only 45 in 53 churches), it is apparent that their contribution in church foundations is half than that of the laymen (8I). Although we have information on only 53 churches, it is safe to suppose that this situation was typical of other church foundations as well. Thus, monks and clergy as donors were outnumbered by laity. The table of statistics gives a clear picture of all ranks of monks and clergy as donors. Since the percentage of monks and deacons is fairly high, one wonders whence did their money come from. Some dedicatory inscriptions reveal a joint benefection of churchmen with the members of their families as for instance, in Karabas Kilise in Soganli and St.Michael in Ihlara. Although we do not have much information on this matter it seems likely that monks must have received some financial support from their families. Further observation of the dedicatory inscriptions and donor portraits shows that monks and clergymen frequently have appeared with wealthy laymen in joint benefections, as for example in the 11th-century Karanlik Kilise in Goreme portraits of presbiter Niphon and lay Bassianos represented in the apse. A combination of churchmen and laity occurred in five dedicatory inscriptions, as well as in many invocations. All this further signifies the importance of the laity to the local church congregations.
Fifty three churches and monasteries, dating from 9th to the 13th century, provide information on the 61 lay donors including donor's parents, siblings, and wives and children. Statistics reveal twenty seven women donors from the 9th until the 13th century. Their absorbtion within each century is in proportion to the numbers of monk-clergy and laymen ktetors. It is clear that lay involvement as ktetors with church foundations falls particularly within the 10th and 11th centuries. The Cappadocian province, after the Byzantines reclimed it from the Arabs. enjoyed security and increasing wealth for almost two centuries. It is particularly at that time that the high ranking officials appeared as donors in dedicatory inscriptions, invocations, grafitti and donor portraits. The presence of women and children in these sources as well as the family portraits strongly testify for the involvement of the local families in the life of monastic foundations.
Thus, economic resources of Cappadocian ecclesiastical foundations seem to have depended heavily upon the laity, local families and villages. Their location near the population centers is not simple coincidence. Their proximity was probably important to both the monks and the laity.
"Hospitals and Byzantine Monasticism"
Timothy S. Miller, Salisbury State College
Among approximately fifty surviving Byzantine typika those from three monasteries --the Pantokrator, the Kosmosoteira, and the Lips -- require the monks of their communities to build and manage hospitals for the sick. All three of these documents specify that the superiors are never to neglect the sick in these hospitals. On the other hand, these same typika exclude the monks from any active role in serving hospital patients as physicians, medical assistants, or servants. The famous Pantokrator Typikon adds that sick monks should never be assigned hospital beds, but should instead be treated in a separate infirmary. All three typika create the impression that a wall separated the religious from the laymen they were obliged to serve. Indeed, at the Kosmosoteira the hospital lay outside the inner wall of the monastery. The monks of these monasteries fulfilled the command to love their neighbor not by bending and stooping in personal service of the sick, but by paying the salaries of professional doctors and nurses.
These three typika—all from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—represent one solution to a fundamental dilemma in Byzantine monasticism: how did the monk, the ideal Christian, love both God and neighbor. In order to serve God as perfectly as possible and to love Him with one's whole being, the monk ought to flee the world and seek the solitude of the desert for prayer and contemplation. Thus, Anthony of Egypt had left his town and his younger sister to pursue theoria —prayer and quiet contemplation. Basil of Caesarla, however, perceived that the anchorites who chose this course were ignoring the second great commandment—to love one's neighbor as oneself. According to Basil, the asceticism of the monks only had value if their sacrifices ultimately helped to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to comfort the sick. Thus, Basil insisted that the monasteries he founded be located in or near towns and that they maintain charitable facilities including hospitals for the sick. He emphasized praxis in the monastic life—active Christian charity (PG, 311 928-33).
Basils's socially active monks, however, soon were criticized for their worldliness and for their failure to adopt a life of pure theoria. In the fifth century, Neilos of Ankyra condemned the active monks as fools who were risking their immortal souls to aid others (PG, 791 1061-93). Countering these arguments, the sixth-century Dorotheos of Gaza warned the ascetics who renounced praxis that their life of pure theoria could lead them into the deadly sin of spiritual pride.1This tension continued to plague Byzantine monasticism until 1453.
It is necessary to consider the typika of the Pantokrator, the Kosmosoteira, and the Lips monasteries in the context of this tension. The authors of these rules were trying to create communities where the monks could practice theoria, yet not neglect the corporal works of mercy. This compromise met with success despite the aggressive asceticism of fourteenth-century hesychasts and increasing political and economic instability, for Byzantine monasteries continued to support hospitals for the sick until Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks.
1Nikodemou Agioreitou biblos Barsanouphlou kai Ioannou, ed. Soterios Schoinas (Bolos, 1960), questio 314.
"A Monastic Group Portrait: Therapeia at ilosios Loukas"
Carolyn L. Connor, Lafayette College
A monumental portrait of a group of monks appears on the left wall as one enters the crypt at the monastery of Hosios Loukas (X-XI century) in central Greece. This group is part of a larger fresco composition on the barrel vault spanning the entrance. At the apex of the vault the Pantocrator gestures to the monks with one hand and to the figure of Saint Loukas of Stiris with the other, to the right. This rare depiction of a group of monks -- its leaders, wearing the cowl or koukoulion characteristic of the highest rank of monks, stand in front of the close-knit band of some twenty-two monks -- has a true portrait quality; individualized features and traits distinguish the upturned faces, lending the scene a feeling of immediacy and liveliness in spite of the fresco's somewhat damaged surface.
Scholarship to date has concentrated on trying to identify the leaders of the monks. Since infra-red photography shows the heads and hands were overpainted, this effort at identification is not likely to succeed. In any event, a more significant question is the reason such a depiction appears at all, so prominently located and confronting all who enter the crypt. What statement is intended and what are the implications.of such a composition within its monastic setting? We are especially fortunate in having the Vita of St. Loukas of Stiris, an important historical and hagiographic document of the tenth century which provides a vivid picture of life within this monastery. By correlating the information in the Vita with that provided by some artistic parallels we can better understand the significance of the scene.
This monastic group portrait is unique in Byzantine monumental painting, but some parallels in manuscript painting help clarify its iconography. The well known Heavenly Ladder of St. John Climacus (Princeton, Garrett 16) shows on fol. 4r a group of monks conversing with their spiritual leader who offers them advice, while Christ blesses them from a mandorla above. The best known portrait of a monastic community, however, is found among the headpieces of the fourteenth century Typikon of the nunnery of Our Lady of Good Hope in Constantinople (Lincoln College, Oxford) where aristocratic monastic donors pray to an unseen presence. From these parallels it is clear the program of our vault is intended as a combination of the themes of patronage and Intercession: it is an intercession scene with Christ who offers salvation to those who serve him. A further parallel, the great parousia fresco in the narthex of the Panagia Chalkeon in Salonika, confirms this interpretation.
The monks in the Hosios Loukas fresco are being singled out not only as patrons of the monastery and recipients of Christ's intercession; their role is also more specific and practical. Medical saints figure prominently among the mosaics of the Katholikon, or principal church, at Hosios Loukas; moreover, in the crypt sheltering the tomb of St. Loukas are portraits of a host of thaumatourgoi—wonderworkers whose powers were manifested especially in healing miracles—from the early days of monasticism to the tenth century. in the Vita, accounts of miraculous cures indicate that the principal association of the saint was healing -therapeia; he and several other monks, who are named, cured people of the region of Thebes, rich and poor alike. After his death, healing continued to be the principal association of the monastery he had founded and of his tomb in particular—the monks participated and assisted in what were always hailed as miraculous cures. in this paper I will argue that the therapeia described in the Vita reveals the true contribution and role of "the sympathetic brothers" of Hosios Loukas. The monks at Hosios Loukas are depicted in the fresco as those who carry on the work of their monastery's patron saint, Loukas the wonderworker; they too are dedicated to healing.
PROBLEMS IN BYZANTINE ART AND ICONOGRAPHY
Presiding: Sheila Campbell (Pontifical institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto)
"An Unpublished Ampulla from the Shrine of St. John the Evangelist in Ephesus"
Maggie Duncan-Flowers University of Illinois
A terra cotta ampulla acquired by the World Heritage Museum at the University of Illinois in 1922 is decorated with relief images which suggest evangelist portraits. On the obverse, a figure with a long, pointed beard stands in a static, frontal pose flanked by two palm-like branches. In his arms, he is holding a codex decorated with a cross. On the reverse, in three-quarter view, a figure with a short, rounded beard is seated on a high-back chair with X-shaped legs under en sedicula suggested by a spiral column on the right. He is writing in a codex resting on his knees.
The ampulla may be grouped with six other similar flasks from Asia Minor, referred to as the "evangelist" type. M. E. Michon, who studied the ampullae from Asia Minor in the Louvre collection, suggested that these "evangelist" ampullae may have been associated with the Shrine of St. John the Evangelist in Ephesus. The marvels of the Evangelist's sanctuary celebrated in the writings of pious travelers end the Church Fathers suggest that his shrine was one of the most important cult attractions in Asia Minor. This paper will attempt to support Michon's hypothesis with literary references that will illuminate the context in which the ampullae were created and the audience to whom they were directed.
St. John was the most distinguished of the evangelists, and the only one associated with Asia Minor. The apocryphal literature recounting his life describes Ephesus as the base of his missionary activities fn this region, the site where he wrote the Fourth Cospel, and the place where he was buried. The widespread belief that John was not dead in his tomb, but sleeping until the Second Coming, elicited comments from the Church Fathers as early as the late fourth century. St. Augustine mentioned that many Christians claimed that John provided proof of his living presence by blowing dust up to the surface of his tomb. Gregory of Tours related that this highly-priced dust, called "manna,' had the power to cure every disease.
The Feast of St. John, like those of many saints in the eastern Mediterranean, coincided with the annual panegyrts when travelers from all corners of the world came to Ephesus to take advantage of the commerce. The prohibition against the operation of commercial shops within sacred precincts issued by the Council In Trullo in the seventh century suggests that these celebrations could have been highly profitable for the local churches. It may be no coincidence that St. John manifested his presence only once a year on his feast day. Since it was reported by more than one source that those who witnessed the miraculous emission took away with them small portions of the dust, it is possible that terra cotta ampullae were mass-produced to contain St. John's living presence and subsequently sold to the pilgrims.
If the "evangelist" ampullae are to be associated with the Shrine of St. John, then the standing and seated figures depicted on their sides must be identified. Both are closely related to the evangelist portraits found in Gospel manuscripts and other media dating from the fifth to the seventh century. Although a positive identification is problematic owing to the lack of inscriptions, there is some evidence to suggest that both images may have been reproductions of local icons of St. John.
"Loca Sancta Souvenirs: Impression and Memory"
Cynthia Ha n
Florida State University
(Abstract not received in time for publication)
"The Narrative Scenes of the Luke Folio in the Gospels of Saint Augustine"
Jean-Guy Violette Universite Laval, Quebec
The HS 286 of the Corpus Christi College, called the Gospels of Saint Augustine, a manuscript dated in the second part of the VIth century, contains two painted folios. This paper will deal mainly with the narrative scenes of the folio 129v.
These scenes are accompanied by inscriptions which identify the episodes illustrated. These inscriptions were written in the Vilith century, or the end of the VIlth century, in an Isular script. The gap of time between the painting of the folio and the Inscriptions may explain why some scenes were wrongly identified. I want to propose new identifications of some of the scenes, but also a precise way to work out better identifications.
I consider that there are only five scenes which offer no problem of identification: scenes 1, 2, 3, 11 and 12 (see the table below). In the problematic scenes we may put apart scene 5 and scene 6, since the identification implied by the inscriptions may be accepted. Five scenes are left. To establish the identification of the these five scenes. I propose that we should use the evidence which is available in a greek illustrated Gospels of Florence, the Laur VI 23, from the end of the Xlth century.
From this comparison of the scenes of the Cambridge ms with those of the Florence ms one important conclusion is that both cycles refer to the same source, and that this source was a greek Gospels, since this source has been better preserved in the Florence ms.
Now, if we adopt thin new set of identificatlons for the twelve scenes of the Luke folio, what can be said about the principles of their arrangement? The scenes follow certainly a sequential order which is the order of the Gospel's text, even if one exception has to be recognized. But there are also lateral correspondences between the scenes, and I suggest that the planning of theme lateral correspondences is one explanation of their selection and is probably the explanation of the placement of the Call of Levi in the sixth place instead of the fifth.
The same type of ordering which combines on two columns a vertical order which may be sequential (or chronological) and an horizontal order which la rather thematic is found in ivory leaves made of five sections, so that it is reasonable to think that ivory carvings were probably the source of this type of arrangement.
An examination of the other painted folio (fol. 125) of the Cambridge ms, on the point of view of the arrangement of the scenes, confirms the idea that there is more than a sequential order in the Lake page, mince to this other folio another principle of organization is also present.
The narrative scenes of the Luke folio (fol. 127v) with new Identifications (*)
1. The Annunciation to Zachariah
(1:12)
2. Christ among the doctors
(2:48)
3. Christ teaching from a boat
(5:3)
*4.The Healing of the leper
(5:12)
5. The Raising of the son of the widow of Nain
(7:12)
6. The Call of Levi
(5:27)
*7. Christ invited by a Pharistan
(7136)
*8. The Mother of Jesus wants to speak to him
(8:19)
*9. Christ teaching people and healing them
(9:l1)
*10. The Healing of the crippled woman
(13:10)
11. The Healing of the dropsical man
(14:1)
12. The Call of Zachaeus
(19:1)
'Portraits' in Palestinian Pavement Decoration"
Lucille A. Roussin, Yeshiva University
(Abstract not received in time for publication)
"The Alteration of the Main Portal at Torcello and the Lost Soule"
Irina Andreescu Treadgold, Hillsdale, Michigan
The liturglcal sculptures to the church of Santa Maria Assunta at Torcello, which include four chancel screen slabs and the present pulpit all roughly of the eleventh century though not from the same set, are reused in their present location. The date at which they were reused is not known. While the high quality of the two sculpted pairs of chancel screen panels, decorated with peacocks and lions surrounded by vegetal scrolls, has made them textbook items, their provenance has not yet been established. Because of thelr quality, Demus has considered them as originally belonging to the church of San Marco in Venice and later displaced to Torcello; he has also offered a theory of how the several stages of San Marco's furnishing occurred. Though in recent years Demos' theory of the successive stages at San Marco has largely been refuted, subsequently additional sculptures at Torcello have been ascribed to an original location at San Marco. Among these, the architrave of Torcello's main portal was wrongly identified as an epistyllon of an earlier iconostasis from San Marco by Duchwald and Polacco, the latter dating the whole transfer of marbles to a restoration of tile 1420's in Torcello.
The examination of the carved architrave makes its identification as an epistyllon very unlikely because of its size and shape (though two other, previously unpublished marbles preserved at San Marco must have belonged to such an epistyllon. possibly in San Marco itself). The examination of Torcello's portal proper shows that the main door was altered from its original ninth century state by the lowering and widening of its opening: the threshold was raised and its jambs were shortened by a total of 36cm. Also. the side walls were broken and the jambs pushed by about 15cm on each side. While other remodelings in San Marco or Torcello are still the object of speculation, at least the date of this operation in Torcello can be determined from its "archaeological" context. The wall which tops the portal is the west wall of the church, famous for its eleventh century wall mosaics of the Last Judgment. The section of wall corresponding to the renewed portal was restored and decorated with mosaics postdating the operatlon and clearly datable to the end of the twelfth century. Byt in the process of enlarging the door, the last register of the mosaic had to be reduced slightly. The neat seam dividing the original from the restored mosaIc--now just gold ground and green meadow- conceals the disappearance of one original feature: It is extremely likely that in the original version the scene included a qroup of souls led by Peter through the gates of Paradise.
The alteration of the portal's proportions and of the mosaic's iconography, along with the remaking of large areas of the mosaic decoration, fit in with other important changes of the same campaign: chiefly the remade east end of the church and the new twelfth century floor mosaic. Both the wall and the floor mosaics show close connection with contemporary works in San Marco. But the traditional identification of the sculptural furnishings and their chronolgy in both Sail Marco and Torcello needs thorough, revised investigation.
DIALOGUE AND DISAFFECTION IN THE CHRISTIAN ORIENT
Presiding: Susan Harvey (University of Rochester)
"Christians and Pagans in Northern Mesopotamia during the Fourth Century: Literary Sources,,
David Bundy, Asbury Theological Seminary
The cultic and ideological struggles between "Christianity" and "Paganism" in Northern Mesopotamia are important facets of fourth century intellectual and social history.
The secondary literature is extensive and the essay builds on and dialogues with the work of F. Cumont (1929), J.B. Segal (1970), R.A. Oden (1977 , J. Telxidor (1977), and especially Drijvers, Cults and Beliefs at Edessa (1980). These scholars, and others, have described the inscriptions, coins and archaeological data thoroughly. Less adequate attention has been given to the literary sources.
The present study begins with an examination of the various definitions of "Paganism" held by different fourth century Syriac Christian groups. Particular attention is given to the writings of Ephrem Syrus, especially the Prose Refutations of Mani Marclon and Bardaisan, Hymns against Heresy, Hymns on Nisibi, and the Hymns on Nicomedia. The latter, preserved almost exclusively in an Armenian translation, have been ignored by scholars of Syrian religion. They purport to be a description 0f Nicomedia at the time of the earthquake of 358 C.E. but are actually more illuminative of life and religious practice in Nisibis on the imperial frontier. Reference is also made to Pseudo-Ephrem C and Ephrem's Contra Julian,which indicate the perspective ot the Nicene Christian community on the Julian period, as well as Aphraates, Eznik of Kolb and early hagiographical and pseudepigraphical texts.
This data is used, along with sociological profiles of various authors and groups discussed, to suggest the manner in which religious identity and perceptions functioned in the larger socio-cultural matrix of northern Mesopotamia during the fourth century.
"Discerning the True Religion: Jews, Christians and Muslims in the 'Sectarian Milieu' of the Early Caliphate"
Sidney H. Griffith, Catholic University of America
In 1978 John Wanebrough published a book on the early Islamic apologetic motifs evident in the composition of the first extended biography of the prophet Muhammad. Wanebrough titled his book "The Sectarian Milieu" to reflect his contention that certain motifs in the biography owed their formulation to the author's intention to present Muhammad's claims to prophethood in language calculated to meet challenges coming from Jews and Christians. Wanebrough's felicitously phrased title suggests what was the fact: the challenge of Islam prodded the Christian and Jewish scholars in Byzantium's "oriental patriarchates" to sharpen their own apologetic skills for the argument about how one might discern the true religion.
The present communication discusses the general strategies employed in theme arguments about religion in the ninth century by presenting and briefly discussing the work of Theodore Abu Qurrah, "on the Existence of the Creator, and the True Religion." Here one may observe the new agenda in religious thought, which emerged as a result of Islam's triumph in the oriental patriarchates.
"Early Byzantine Treatments of Palm Sunday and Local Religious Conflict"
Robin Anne Darling, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C.
This paper will examine a number of fifth and sixth century treatments of the Messianic Entry into Jerusalem (homilies, commentaries, and hymns) in order to show how they reflect local religious conflict in the urban life of the eastern Roman Empire. It will discuss such themes as messianic kingship, the king's entry into the holy city, and the marriage of the gentiles to their king in order to discover how various authors applied these themes to their own localities and how the newly-developed Palm Sunday liturgy lent itself to wider interpretations among Christian authors in Syria and Palestine.
By the late fourth century there had developed in Jerusalem a Palm Sunday liturgy at the beginning of the Holy Week celebration, described fully by Egeria. Very quickly this special toast honoring and reenacting the entry of Jesus into his city spread to Syria, where it appears to have begun in Edessa, possibly to compete with pagan festivities. Although it became common in the churches of Syria and of Jerusalem, it was not adopted in the West until much later. In Palestine and Syria, however, the feast stimulates a rather large body of literature describing and commenting upon it.
However, well before the establishment of the Palm Sunday liturgy, with its procession from the Imbomon to the Church of the Anastaois, . ecclesiastical writers had given some thought to the significance of the event inaugurating the week of the Passion. Thus some attention will be paid to theprior exegetical tradition, as attested by such authors as Origen. Theodore of Mopsuestia and Ephrem. However, of primary importance will be the treatment by authors after the institution of the feast: for western Syria, pseudo-Ephrem, pseudo-Chrysostom, Jacob of Sarug; for east Syria. Narsai of Hisibis. 'Of the Greek authors, Severian of Cabala. Severus of Antioch and Hesychlus of Jerusalem will be of special importance, with numerous pseudonymous authors.
It is suggested that these authors often reflect on the Palm Sunday accounts and the liturgy in reactlon to the religious conflicts which most preoccupy them, and that the religious celebrations themselves may have been designed to reinforce religious allegiance as much as to underline the strictly theological significance of the period of Holy Week. Dix called the original installation of the Palm Sunday liturgy, with its historical reenactment, as "exploitation of the enius loci" of Jerusalem, but if this is so, the feast proved useful in other loci as welt. The sermon of Pseudo-Ephrem, for instance, witnesses to the continuing argument with the Jews over the significance of OT Messianic texts, while Jacob of Sarug is more concerned with the victory of Christianity over pagan •religious expression.
"Letter 36 of the Nestorian Patriarch Timothy I and Christian-Muslim Apologetics"
Thomas R. Hurst, St. Mary's Seminary and University
The first Abbasid century (A.D. 750-850) was a period of great tension for the Christian Churches of the East. Islam was making remarkable progress among its non-Arab subjects. This threat to Christianity produced a number of apologists from Christian groups, via., Jacobite, Melkite, and Nestorian, writing in both Syriac and Arabic. One of the earlier of the religious controversialists of this period was the Nestorian Patriarch, Timothy I (727-823).
The publication of an edition and translation of Ti moth 's Apology for Christianity in 1928 by Alphonse Mingana made clear the forceful and theologically insightful role that Timothy played in the apologetics of his day. Hans Putman's new edition of the Arabic text of this same work, accompanied by a thoughtful analysis, has underscored the value of Timothy as a religious controversialist. Most recently, publications regarding Timothy's Letter 40 have brought into clear view the presence of apologetic concerns in yet another major work of this patriarch. However, previous studies of Timothy's other letters, for examples letters 34, 35, and 36, have often failed to notice very similar apologetic concerns.
The purpose of this communication is to study the contents of Letter 36 of Timothy I with a view to highlighting its specific apologetic purposes. It is the contention of this paper that in Letter 36 Timothy intended to offer the Christian • faithful some guidance in their religious discussions with Muslims. As in other instances, e.g. Letter 40, the patriarch uses the epistolary genre in order to accomplish his anti-Muslim apologetic goals.
The letter is addressed to Mar Nasr whom Timothy calls a doctor and interpreter of the scriptures. In the opening paragraph the patriarch states that this letter is concerned primarily with those who denigrate the majesty o£ Christ. During the course of the letter the author refers to various groups who, in his opinion, hold an incorrect understanding of the Word become flesh. There are first the Jews, who according to Timothy, have altered, currupted, and misinterpreted the texts of Scripture. The followers of Marcion and Mani are also named as adversaries, as well as the blasphemous Arians who fail to accept the divine nature of the Son. There is finally an un-named group who are simply called, "the opponents' (Syr. saqûble), whom we will see are the Muslims.
The focus of the argumentation is primarily defensive, aimed at explaining and justifying the union of will and power between the divine and human in Christ. The method is primarily scriptural, with both a wide range of citations and a careful analysis of the Hebrew text of the OT, along with the Greek and Syriac versions. Some of the biblical citations are the standard texts from the Torah, prophets, and Gospels that Christians used in other places in anti-Muslim polemic.
In the anti-Muslim section of Letter 36, both the opinion of the adversary and the responses of Timothy reflect the standard arguments in Christian-Muslim apoiogetics.
Specifically, the opponent's questions regarding the Incarnation center on the significance of the virginal conception of Jesus. In his responses to the Muslim Timothy alludes to a number of passages found in aura al'Imran in the Qur'an. Again, a number of the arguments employed in this section of Letter 36 parallel more extensive treatments 0f the same material in Timothy's larger apologetic works.
Letter 36, then, is an apologetic work written in the epistolary genre. The author's purpose was to provide his readers with responses to a wide range of adversaries who, each in his own way, attack the Nestorian, and therefore for Timothy, the orthodox, understanding of Christ. This letter reflects Timothy's particular concern with the new opponents to Christianity, the Muslims, whose growing influence and religious persuasiveness posed a threat to the Church over which Timothy presided and for which he felt responsible.
BYZANTINE MONASTICISM II: SOURCES AND PROBLEMS IN BYZANTINE MONASTIC HISTORY
Presiding: Alice-Mary Talbot (Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium)
"Some Notes on the Language of the Byzantine• Monastic Typika"
Angela Constantinides Hero, Queens College, City University of New York
Of the fifty-four documents included in the Dumbarton Oaks translation of Byzantine monastic typika fifty-one have survived in Creek and three in Old Slavonic. The Greek formularies are Constantinopolitan as well as provincial in origin and they cover a span of six hundred years, from the early ninth to the early fifteenth centuries. Their authors are equally diverse. They include imperial personages, lay and ecclesiastical officials, men of letters and simple uneducated monks. These documents also vary in size from lengthy foundation charters to one pare testaments. All of them together add up to approximately 1100 pages of text.
As befits their practical purpose, the typika are written in the middle to low style associated with Byzantine technical manuals, legal codes, governmental business and middle and low-brow hagiography. In other words, they do not use forms and constructions favored by the literary tongue, they abound in cliches, their vocabulary is not purist but includes colloquialisms and foreign loan-words, and their quotations are from the Scriptures, fr m ascetic literature and from the canons of the councils of the Church. It must be noted however that within the limits imposed by the subject matter, the differences in the literary competence of individual authors are highly evident.
Style also varies from section to section within the same text. Prologues, as a rule, display a degree of elevation which declines noticeably in the chapters dealing with the life and administration of the monastic community. Here the Ianguage is macaronic: elements of the classical tradition appear side by side with elements from the popular speech. The composition of these chapters varies little from document to document due to the repetition of standard legal formulae and especially to the interdependence of the typika which results in whole chapters being duplicated in several documents.
Lastly, the brevia or inventories of movable and immovable properties owned by monastic communities are couched in pure demotic. Their vocabulary contains a considerable number of Greek and foreign loan words which are unattested in standard dictionaries. And this brings us t0 the most outstanding linguistic feature of the typika, namely the information they provide about toponymics, proper names, and all kinds of technical terms connected with civil and ecclesiastical administration, the army, the fisc, agriculture, commerce, the arts and crafts, architecture, religious art and ritual, furniture, clothing, hygiene, food and various other necessities and aspects of daily life.
The monastic typika constitute a valuable, but hitherto underutilized, source for the study of both the Byzantine vernacular and the development of modern Greek. They deserve to be the object of an exhaustive study, but first the old and inadequate editions of these documents must be replaced with sound critical texts of the excellence of the series of Byzantine monastic typika recently published by the late Father Paul Gautier.
I On the levels of style in Byzantine literature and their characteristic traits, see q. Browning, "The Language of Byzantine Literature," The Past in Medieval and Modern Greek Culture, S. Vryonis, ad. (Undena Publications, 197§), 103-133 and I. Sevcenko, "Levels of Style in Byzantine Prose," AB. 31 (1981), 299-312.
"The Mamas Typikon"
Anastasius C. Bandy Villanova University
Athanasios, superior of the monastery of the great martyr Mamas, located in Constantinople, wrote its Typikon at the behest of its so-called "New Builder," Georgios Mystikos of Cappadocia. The Typikon of Mamas presents to us in all clarity and with great detail matters pertaining to the monastic life in the Byzantine Empire during the latter's mid-medieval period and constitutes an important contribution to Byzantine monasticism. This Typikon is found in the Bibliotheque Nationale (Suppl. Gr. 92), written on clear parchment with 97 folia, containing 48 chapters. It was legally confirmed and signed by Georgios' full brother, Theocharistos, Georgios having died earlier, and by Athanasios, in November, in the year A.D. 1158. Georgios Mystikos, smitten with an extraordinarily strong love or this monastery, which had already existed before his time, dedicated all of his personal wealth and devoted all of his physical energies to restore the monastery of Mamas to its previous condition and thus embarked upon an extensive building program, not only repairing the temple itself, refectory, and other delapidated structures but also adding more buildings. His attention fell upon Athanasios, who held at that time the office of steward of the imperial monastery of the Mankind-loving Savior, and had him appointed superior of the Mamas monastery and thus both of them closely worked together to restore the monastery to its pristine glorious state. Georgios Mystikos himself also became a monk of the monastery and was renamed Gregorios. He and Athanasioa succeeded in having the monastery declared independent of any, authority whether patriarchal or any other. Athanasios was enjoined by Georgios Mystikos to draw up a Typikon for the monastery, which he finally did after Georgios' death, taking into consideration all of the latter's wishes and objectives for the monastery, and wrote it in relatively good Atticistic style.
This paper will discuss the general content of the Mamas Typikon: the various officers of the monastery, their qualifications and duties and manner of appointment: the regimen of the monks; and their twenty-four-hour prayer sequence.
"Uses of the Monastic Typika for Byzantine Art History"
John Philip Thomas, The Citadel
With a few noteworthy exceptions, the Byzantine monastic foundation documents or typika have remained virtually unexploited by art historians. This paper will outline a few of the potential uses of this source material.
I. Architectural features and their employment: pronaos (washing of the feet on Maundy Thursday); narthex, (Epiphany festival, hearing of confessions); hiale exonarthex (visitor's room; burial of overseers); door between nunnery and adjacent patroness' residence; tropike (private cell for special nuns).
II. Artifacts: books, icons, diptychs, ivories, banners associated with icons, coffins, tombs, altar cloths, candles, wood panel paintings, glass and silver lamps, and other keimella; the typikon itself. Complete Inventories. Decoration of gospel book of candles for special occasions, before particular mosaics, and in special areas of the churches. Reception of pastoral staff before an icon. Exposure and warming of sacred vessels in the sun. Maintenance of matching sets of diptychs by the librarian and the ecclesiarch.
III. Structural maintenance: Retiling (done annually); replacement of broken glass in windows; rebricking of damaged exterior walls; prohibitions against new entrances, windows, bow slits; tiles, nails and plaster for repairs; replastering and repainting of interiors.
IV. Burials: of founder in a separate heroon chapel; transferral of a coffin to a family grave in a monastery church; use of diptychs to keep track of memorial services; women may be commemorated but not buried in some foundations.
V. Auxiliary structures: monastic hostel (xenodocheion); hospice (xenon); bell tower; fortified tower for refuge; cell at gate of a courtyard for gatekeeper; burial ground with mud-brick wall.
VI. Situational context: dedicatory boundary lines of two Constantinopolitan nunneries of the 12th and 14th centuries with information on site plans and neighboring structures. Also, details on the intermixture of consecrated and non-consecrated property in an eleventh century typikon.
"The 'Baptistry' of the Church of the Chora in Constantinople"
John Cotsonis, Pennsylvania State University
"Italy-Greek and Latin Ecclesiastical Relations in the Eleventh Century"
David Heater, St. Mary's Seminary and University
The gradual worsening of relations between Rome and Constantinople in the 11th century is mirrored in two dialogues recounted in the Goi of two ltalo-Greek saints, one who died at the beginning of the Ilth century and the other at the beginning of the 12th. both men, the monk Neilos of Rossano, best known as the founder of the monastery of Grottaferrata. and Luke, bishop of isola Capo Rizzuto, are recorded to have engaged in dialogues with the Latin clergy and monks of Southern Italy. The marked difference in the attitudes and level of tolerance portrayed in each dialogue reflects the different ecclesial relations found at the beginning and end of the century. It is here that hagioqraphy helps one to see the effects of this worsening on the local level in Southern Italy.
Towards the end of his life Neilos decides to leave his mountainous sanctuary to search for greater anonymity among the Latin speaking populations near Salerno. His plans are frustrated, however, because of his great popularity, and he continues to wander. Eventually he is accepted very warmly by the monks of the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino, who hail him as another Benedict. There is a long dialogue recounted in the ßioc between Neilos and the Benedictine monks, which emphasizes differences of lituroical practice and days of fasting. The monks are very pleased with Neilos, and there is a general feeling of mutual acceptance and respect for differences.
The encounters recorded in the ßioc of Luke are quite different. Luke was consecrated around the year 1092 as a kind of roving bishop for the Italy-Greeks, traveling in Southern Italy and Sicily, preaching and ordaining. The contacts between Luke and the Latin clergy are very hostile. The ßioc even speaks of Luke as having to face &8kouq AxOpo6S in Sicily, a thinly veiled reference to the Normans. in a dialogue with some Latins, Luke condemns them for celebrating the Eucharist with unlevened bread, for baptizing on any day of the week, and for &Xocg Nuptotg afpitcratq. The encounter ends with the Latins threatening to burn Luke alive.
What is the difference between there two encounters? The dominant factor for the Italy-Greeks is the Norman occupation of Southern Italy and the Norman practice of gradually replacing Italy-Greek bishops by Latin ones. The clearest emample of this is seen in the reaction of the deposed metropolitan of Reggio, Basil, who wrote in 1089 to the patriarch of Constantinople, who had appointed him, telling him to have no dealings with the pope of Rome and the atheist Franks. The atmosphere between the Italo-Greek and Latin clergy was poisoned. It is because of these conflicts with the Normans that dialogue between Italy-Greek and Latin Christians took a turn for the worse in the latter half of the tenth century.
Commentator
Demetrios J. Constantelos Stockton State College
CONSEQUENCES OF ICONOCLASM: BYZANTINE ART EIGIITH-TWELFTH CENTURY
Presiding: Anna Kartsonis (University of Washington)
"Literal to Didactic to Liturgical Imagery in Manuscripts of the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus from the Ninth trough the Eleventh Centuries"
Leslie Brubaker, Wheaton College
The earliest preserved illustrated manuscript of Gregory's Homilies (Milan, Ambrosiana E.49/50inf) and the second oldest example (Paris, Bib.Nat.gr.510) have several features in common. Both date to the ninth century, provide a nearly complete edition of Gregory's sermons, share a textual recenslon and a common core of images, and are the most profusely illustrated of the extant manuscripts. Yet the two books are also significantly different.
The Milan Homilies presents simple figures bereft of settings acting out the events narrated by Gregory literally and directly; if a venerable figure is mentioned in passing, a bust medallion authenticates the reference. The type of text-- a 'transcript" of Gregory's sermons-- is itself commemorated in numerous pictures of Gregory preaching. The narrative images are literal illustrations while, as Corrigan has suggested, the busts and preaching scenes legitimize the authority of the text, a crucial issue during and after iconoclasm.
The miniatures in the Paris Homilies, on the other hand, rarely respond directly to Gregory's sermons. These images, incorporating over 400 episodes drawn from the Bible, hagiography, and history, instead provide visual commentaries on the test in much the same way as the marginal catena, invented slightly earlier, supply literary ones. As the pictures in the Milan Gregory, theme too respond to ninth century concerns, but the Paris miniatures are more overtly didactic and subtler.
Unlike the two ninth-century copies of the Homilies, the edition popularized in the eleventh century-- the so-called Liturgical Homilies, with at least 33 illustrated copies extant-- contains only those sermons read during the Byzantine liturgy, and a greatly reduced sequence of images. In addition, due to the specifically liturgical function and concommitant popularity of the new text, the pictures in the Liturgical Homilies manuscripts differ markedly from those in the two early books. Compositions are simplified, old details are suppressed while new ones (church trappings, genre details) are emphasized, and bright figures stand out against neutral or monochromatic grounds. As in the Milan Gregory, the illustrations are again literal, direct, and simple to comprehend, but in a different way end for different reasons. The simplified and colorful forms are legible and eye-catching, and the already literal pictures are made even more accessible by the addition of anecdotal material. Yet, at the same time, the dematerialized space and often abstracted physiognomies of the figures parallel Middle Byzantine expressions of asceticism and the increasingly distant institution of the liturgy.
The Liturgical Homilies threw Into sharp relief the distinctive features of the two ninth-century copies. In the Milan manuscript, the illustrations are subservient to the text; no anecdotal material makes them more palatable for popular consumption, no liturgical iconography distracts from their purely illustrative character. These are spare, functional images, enlivened only by their gold glitter. In these aspects, the Milan pictures conform neatly with the prescriptions devised in the first third of the ninth century by the Patriarch Nikephoros that art be 'functionally instructive" and "made from the purest and most splendid material." The Paris manuscript is equally literary, but hwre, following the lead of a later patriarch, Photios (858-67, 877-861, the miniatures take on the functions of a text. The lofty didactic aims of both the Milan and Paris Homilies distinguish them neatly from their more temporal and generic Middle Byzantine relatives, and illuminate a (temporary) consequence of Iconoclasm.
"Cues for Heaven and Earth in Pictorial Detail"
Eunice Dauterman Magutre, Urbana, Illinois
The end of iconoclasm magnifies the rapport between seen and unseen, heaven and earth, making religious art a drama full of visual cues. Familiar units, or ideas, may be used or expressed in apparently new ways. Details, in Middle Byzantine images, may be subtle but revealing carriers of thought. Small signs often point to changes in emphasis, or in concept, fusing within individual details the visual means and the message they contain.
The choice of an oval ring of paired cornucopias as a pictorial frame, in Paris gr. 510, has cosmic implications, demonstrating how pre-iconoclastic elements from outside. the figural repertory survive to be selected for extra dimensions of meaning. The originally Bacchic ivy leaf appearing on textiles or even in footwear plays a role equivalent to the pine-cone thyrsus in sculpture, as a cue to courtly associations in heaven or on earth.
In the same way, the anecdotal enrichment of feast scene compositions may present additional doctrinal points. At Daphni, specific items of the Virgin's dress illustrate the meaning of the Annunciation scene. Another example at Daphni is the pastoral landscape of the annunciation to the shepherds, with sheep drinking while goats turn away from the water, transcending the genre of rustic imagery which Constantine the Rhodian had praised in an earlier Nativity. In Dumbarton Oaks MS. 3, the insertion of the seated Virgin between the Magniftcat and the Annunciation scene given the page an emphasis which is more than liturgical and more than narrative; holding the book open on one knee makes her not only a speaker, but author of the text, her words the harbingers of the incarnate Word she was to hold as mother. The post-iconoclastic period being one of pride in the literacy of imperial women, a Theotokos with a book may reflect a new social attitude.
In a time when texts acknowledge the ascendant power of the eye to teach, both Leo VI and Mesaritea indulge in interpretive speculation about a particular detail puzzling to them: the absence of legs in depictions of the Pantocrator. When a learned Patriarch, like Photlun, may be accused of promoting his own polemics with illustrated books, we must look for significant details, and try to see them through the eyes of their own time, when they might he informed but no longer defined by earlier standards and norms.
"The Relative Authority of Words and Pictures in the Ninth Century"
Kathleen Corrigan, Dartmouth College
(Abstract not received in time for publication)
"The Iconography of Constantine and Helena -- The Post-iconoclast Veneration of the Cross"
Natalia Teteriatnikov, Dumbarton Oaks
Although the frequent use of the images of Constantine and Helena in Byzantine church decoration and media has been noticed by art historians, the origin of this iconography has never been discussed. The purpose of this paper is to examine the origin of this iconographic theme as well as its role and use in the Byzantine art.
The representation of Constantine and Helena with the cross to my knowledge was not found in Byzantine art before the Iconoclastic period. Although they were often depicted on Early Christian coins, their representation together,with the cross, occurred in Byzantine church decoration and media only in the post-iconoclastic period. The earliest representation of this iconography is found in the early 10th-century Cappadocian churches such as Ayvali Kilise in Gulu Dere and; the Holy Apostles in Sinassos. Since that time this iconographic theme became one of the popular subjects in Byzantine monumental art and other media.
In this paper I would like to suggest that the assumption of this iconography might be based on iconoclastic circumstances and, precicely, on the assumption that the orthodox concept of the cross was established jointly by Constantine and Helena. It has been noticed that in the Church Council of 787, Pope Hadrian compared Eirene and Constantine VI, the first restores of icons, to a new Helena and new Constantine. Roger Scott, in a recent article, pointed out that the phenomenon is also present in literature of that period. For instance, the 9th-century author Theophanes emphasized particular orthodoxy of Constantine. Moreover, the establishing of their feast in the Henologion seem to have stimulated further spread of their iconography. Thus, its source might be a reflection of the orthodox attitude toward the cross. Although iconoclasts and iconodules both believed in the cross, after Iconoclasm it was important to emphasize a particular historic view of the veneration of the cross. Once it appeared, thin iconographic subject become an integral part of Byzantine decorative programs.
PROBLEMS IN BYZ
| 
