Proceedings Of The 22nd International Congress Of Byzantine Studies Abstracts Of Free Communications

The main theme of the congress, Byzantium without borders, aims at exploring the role of this great empire in the medieval world and its undiminished contemporary significance. The Congress program was designed so as to encourage the presentation of research in both traditional and novel areas. There emerged the five main themes around which the round table discussions in volume 2 have been constructed. These are: Philology, Palaeography, Codicology; Archaeology and History; History of Art and Music; Theology and Philosophy; Economy, Politics, Urban Life. Volume 3 contains a diverse collection of more than 500 abstracts of free communications and posters presented at the 22nd International Congress of Byzantine Studies--Publisher.

The main theme of the congress, Byzantium without borders, aims at exploring the role of this great empire in the medieval world and its undiminished contemporary significance. The Congress program was designed so as to encourage the presentation of research in both traditional and novel areas. There emerged the five main themes around which the round table discussions in volume 2 have been constructed. These are: Philology, Palaeography, Codicology; Archaeology and History; History of Art and Music; Theology and Philosophy; Economy, Politics, Urban Life. Volume 3 contains a diverse collection of more than 500 abstracts of free communications and posters presented at the 22nd International Congress of Byzantine Studies--Publisher.

The theme of the 2006 International Congress of Byzantine Studies was display, assessing what strategies the people of Byzantium used to express their thoughts, ideals, fears and beliefs, and how these have been interpreted through various modern discourses. The first volume presents the texts of the 28 plenary papers delivered at the Congress; the second and third contain the abstracts of the many hundreds of papers written for the 64 separate panels and the sessions of communications.

The author traces 150 years of the study of relations between Byzantium and various North Pontic nomads, with particular attention to how colonialist or national aspirations often triggered, hampered, biased, or otherwise influenced scholarship.

Modern historiography has become accustomed to portraying the emperor Theophilos of Byzantium (829-842) in a favourable light, taking at face value the legendary account that makes of him a righteous and learned ruler, and excusing as ill fortune his apparent military failures against the Muslims. The present book considers events of the period that are crucial to our understanding of the reign and argues for a more balanced assessment of it. The focus lies on the impact of Oriental politics on the reign of Theophilos, the last iconoclast emperor. After introductory chapters, setting out the context in which he came to power, separate sections are devoted to the influence of Armenians at the court, the enrolment of Persian rebels against the caliphate in the Byzantine army, the continuous warfare with the Arabs and the cultural exchange with Baghdad, the Khazar problem, and the attitude of the Christian Melkites towards the iconoclast emperor. The final chapter reassesses the image of the emperor as a good ruler, building on the conclusions of the previous sections. The book reinterprets major events of the period and their chronology, and sets in a new light the role played by figures like Thomas the Slav, Manuel the Armenian or the Persian Theophobos, whose identity is established from a better understanding of the sources.