286 41 33MB
English Pages 319 [163] Year 1997
Published under the Auspices of The Speros Basil Vryonis Center fur the Study of Hellenism Sacramento, California This work is the fourteenth volume in the series Hellenism: Ancient, Medizval, Modern General Editors
Christos P. loannides, StyHanos Spyridakis, Speros Vryonis, Jr.
BYZANTINE INSTITUTIONS, SOCIETY AND CULTURE Volume 1 The Imperial Institution and Society Speros Vry onis, Jr.
ENSA 110AIBW:r.on:r MEAIIV.I
Aristide D. Caratzas, Publisher New Rochelle, New York
Dedicated to the memories of ROBERT STRICKLER who taught me the language of my ancient ancestors Studies i" Byumtme lmtitutiom, Society and Culture. Volume 1: The Imperial Institution and Society Copyright 0 1997 by Speros Vryonis,Jr.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher.
Aristide D. Caranas, Publisher Melissa Media Associates, Inc. 30 Church Street, P. 0. Box 210 New Rochelle, N. Y. 10802 Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Byzantine institutions, society, and culture/ Speros Vryonis, Jr. Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: vol. 1 Institutions and society 1. Byzantine Empire-Civilization. I. Title DFS21.V77 1994 949.5--dc20 94-76.3 OCIP
This Volume
ISBN 0-89241-528-2 Two-volume Set ISBN o-89241-542-8
Printed in the United States of America
JOHNH.KENT who taught me the history of my ancient ancestors & JOHN H. DAVIS who taught me historical and intellectual courage all at Southwestern-Rhodes College 1946--1950
Contents
Part I
THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTION
Comments on the Byzantine Imperial Institution
The Continuity of Absolutism in Legal Literature-The Question of Divinity-Paedagogues, Education, and Imperial Virtues 3
Byzantine Imperial Authority
Theory and Practice in the Eleventh Century
25 ·rhe Vita Basilii of Constantine Porphyrogennitos and the Absorption of Armenians in Byzantine Society 51
Two Numismatic Items from the Thomas Whittemore Collection 81
Part II
S OCIETY
Cultural Conformity in Byzantine Society 91
The Peira As a Source for the History of Byzantine Aristocratic Society in the First Half of the Eleventh Century 133
wi
Contents
The Will of a Provincial Magnate, Eustathios Boilas (1059) 143
The Question of the Byzantine Mines 169
An Attic Hoard of Byzantine Gold Coins (668-741) from the Thomas Whittemore Collection and the Numismatic Evidence for the Urban History of Byzantium 195
Byzantine 4T1J.l01CpaT1a and the Guilds in the Eleventh Century 209
The Panegyris of the Byzantine Saint A Study in the Nature of a Medieval
Institution, Its Origins and Fate 251
Byzantium The Social Basis of Decline in the Eleventh Century 293 INDEX 311
Part I
THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTION
Comments on the Byzantine Imperial Institution The Continuity of Absolutism in Legal LiteratureThe Question of Divinity-Paedagogues, Education, and Imperial Virtues
T
he subject of the theory of the imperial office has received con siderable attention in the scholarly literature because of the cen trality of institutional and legal history in medieval studies during the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. Given the nature and importance of monarchy in the Byzantine polity, it was by the very essence of things both incumbent and unavoidable. Further, the character of the sources, both written and artistic, provided a complex body of material for analysis.Already, and well before the foundation of Dumbarton Oaks, Treitinger had written on the office of emperor and imperial ideology as reflected in court ceremonial; A. Grabar on the emperor in Byzantine art; F. Dolger and G. Ostrogorsky on the idea of the family and hierarchy of kings; and N. Baynes on Eusebios and the Christian empire.1 These were then, and remain now, fundamental contributions and have, in a sense, chan neled much of subsequent scholarship. Scholarly activity at Dumbarton Oaks has made its own very con siderable contributions to the study and understanding of the institu tional apex of Byzantine society. Here, I refer to the researches of the late Father Francis Dvornik and to my own teacher, and former col league, Professor Milton Anastos, who, before his decision to join the faculty of UCLA, was professor of Byzantine theology at Dumbarton Oaks and was one of the original fellows appointed there. I should also add that it is he, and not I, who should be pre• senting these remarks. The works of Dvornik and Anastos on the Byzantine imperial institution, though quite remarkable, are differ-
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ent, the one from the other, in almost every respect: Dvornik's fun damental contribution traverses the vast historico-geographical area from the shores of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Hittite Anatolia, and the Levant, and from the Greeks of Mycenae, Athens, and Philip, to Iran.2 Though it is concerned with the origins and background of early Christian and Byzantine political philosophy, it is nevertheless a vast banquet at which Dvornik invites us to sit and partake, but one where the banqueter may order but a restricted portion of the menu. It is rather to one of Anastos's numerous studies that I wish to turn.3 This long article is written with a sharpness of conceptualiza tion, a clarity of structure, and an argumentation which are dazzling both as to the breadth of knowledge of the primary sources and to the mastery of the vast secondary literature. Among the principal ar guments of Anastos two in particular concern us here: (1) the older theories of the oriental origins of the Byzantine theory of absolutism are invalid, though Anastos does allow restricted areas of influence in what he considers to be external or secondary features; (2) in con trast to Hans-Georg Beck, who had denied this, Anastos demon strates that the Justinianic legal corpus provides a clear and unmis takable constitutional basis for Byzantine absolutism and for part of its divine character. Anastos depicts the elements and procedures in the development of Byzantine political theory in six stages: 1. Stage one centers about Plato's philosopher-king, who because of his sophia is above the law, and about Aristotle, who stated that a ruler who is wise is above the law and should be treated "like a god among men." 2. Stage two of the development of the argument of Anastos points to Aristotle's most famous pupil, Alexander the Great, for whom the philosopher had composed a treatise, now lost, entitled "On Kingship." Thus in the historical person of Alexander we pass from the theoretical basis of absolutism to its application in history, and it is an absolutism already hued by divinity of the monarch. 3. The Hellenistic kingship is wimess to an intensive development of the absolute divine monarch where the ruler is the living embodi ment of the law. 4. There follows the Roman absorption and adaptation of this the oretical and applied political form.
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5. Christianity, in the person and multitudinous writings of
Eusebios, and in the deeds of the first Christian emperor Constantine, encounters this ancient theory of the absolute divine monarch in a contact that transforms both sides and which produces the Christian version of the ancient absolute and divine monarch. 6. Finally, the legal definition of absolutism by the Roman jurisprudents of the second-third century is incorporated into Justinian's CIC. The presentation of materials and arguments by Anastos is both terse and convincing, and, using his work as a jumping-off point, I should like to consider, very briefly, three important questions in the rest of this presentation: (1) the continuity of absolutist claims in Byzantine legal literature; (2) the question of the divinity of the Byzantine princes and em perors; (3) the Mirrors of Princes, paedagogues, and education of Byzantine princes and emperors. The first two of these flow directly from the study of Anastos, and in a sense extend his method and arguments for later periods, though the second topic is a return to an argument which I had already posited in an earlier study, and which tends to go contrary to the ac cepted wisdom of Byzantinology. The third is a subject which, though it has been discussed in the past, stands in need of more de tailed consideration. I. THE CONTINUITY OF ABSOLUTIST CLAIMS IN BYZANTINE LEGAL LITERATURE
In examining this essential aspect of the Byzantine monarchical institution, one must go back to the five or six texts that Anastos cites in his fundamental analysis: 1. First is the pronouncement of the Roman jurisconsult Ulpian (d.228): "What the emperor ordains has the force of law since by the royal law passed with regard to his sovereign power the people have transferred to him and bestowed upon him all their sovereignty and authority. .. . These are what are called constitut�ons" (Inst. 1.2.6). 2. "The emperor is exempt from the laws" (princeps legibus solu tus est, D. 1.3.31).
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3. "Whatever has been established by a law is annulled by a con trary law" (D. 50.17.100). This principle, from Modestinus, is ren dered by the Greek version of the Digest as follows: "Later laws pre vail over earlier ones." 4. "There is no recourse from an imperial judgment" (D. 49.2.1 &4). 5. "Disputes concerning an imperial judgment are forbidden. For doubt as to whether the official selected by the emperor is worthy is a kind of sacrilege" (385 Cod. Theodosianus). One year earlier, the emperor had decreed that violation of an imperial law constituted sac rilege (incorporated into the Codex Justinianus, 9.21.1). 6. Then, in Novel 105.2.4, Justinian declares the emperor to be ex empt from all the regulations he had set forth, since God had sub jected the laws themselves to him and sent him to the earth as ani mate law (nomos empsychos} (Anastos}. These texts, which Anastos has marshaled and critically exam ined, show Justinian's clear understanding of the Byzantine monar chy: it is an absolute monarchy in which the emperor's word is law, in which the current emperor is not bound by past laws, in which con travention of his laws is an act of sacrilege, and in which the emperor is the incarnation of the law, or the inspiration of the law (nomos empsychos). Anastos has demonstrated clearly that by the incorporation of cer tain dicta of the Roman jurisconsults, dicta which they had inherited from the Hellenistic and early Roman imperial practices, Justinian legislated the legal basis of Byzantine absolutism, in which system the Hellenistic concept of the nomos empsychos, itself divine in nature, makes of the emperor the living font of law. The Basilica, a reworking of the Justinianic corpus and of some later materials, and promulgated by Leo VI, as well as the Hexabiblos of Harme nopoulos in 1345, repeated a number of these legal principles. In his study, Anastos has pointed the way, quite clearly, to the relevance of these later texts. In Basilica II. 6.1, we read: • 0 f'aa,ieuc; Toic; VOl,101(;; oux U'ltOK£1Ta1, � AvyoiiaTa VKOK£1TQI f>i&oa, f>e aUTIJ O r,a.a,Al!uc; TIX €otUTOU 1tpov6µ1a.. The emperor is not subject to the laws. The Augusta is subject to them, for it is the emperor who gives her his privileges.
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The text is repeated, verbatim, in Harmenopoulos, Hexabiblos (A.a 39). In Basilica 11.6.2, we observe: 01t£p apeaet T4> r,aatA.£1, voµoc; €aTIV, That which is pleasing to the emperor is law. This too is repeated, verbatim, in Harmenopoulos, Hexabiblos, (A.a.28). Basilica 11.6.5 proclaims: ai µncxyeveanpai f>taTa�e,c;; iaxup6Tepa1 TCOV 1tpo ot\lTWV £ia,v. The later rescripts prevail over those that (came) before them. The Greek of this pronouncement, which is from Dig. 1.4.4, is also repeated in Harmenopoulos, Hexabiblos (A.a.31). In Basilica 11.6.6, lifted from Digest 1.4.5, and repeated by Harmenopoulos (A.a.27), the rights of the emperor in law are further elaborated: "Ow.v hepov Tl TO v6µ,µov r,ouA.£1 £Tepov l>e TO f>1tcaiov, µovov O r,aa1A.£Uc;; 6uvaT1' £1C£\VCl>V TCOV lCClll!COV lCCX.1 TCOV xcoprov nopeuoµevoc;, l!n' �v TO 1tpoa8ev µ£TIX paa1A.1K�c; Tijc; r,op°'opiac; iao8eqµiav mc; Oeoii T(9 OVTI 1to8£tvcoc; £7t£TCJ.XUVOV. anxiously hastened his arrival as that of a true God. 16
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Attaliates, accordingly, indicates to us that the Anatolian provin cials had considered Romanos IV Diogenes as ia68eoi;, the equal of God, and that the guards of the imperial palaces of Constantinople awaited the arrival of Nikephoros Ill Botaniates, already acclaimed emperor in Nicaea, as the entry into Constantinople of a True God. The texts are dear and, to me at least, convincing. The writings of Theophylaktos of Bulgaria leave us with similar impressions: Alexios I Komnenos is referred to as 8etoT«Tq>, most divine, as well as an apostle (for his conversion to Christianity of the Scythians). 17 The right hand of an imperial princess is Tijs 8etoT«Tflt; aou ��•t'lµOT11C(9 11:l�Oet, IC(Xl OUflCAl'ITtlCij Taee1, IC(XI OUVT«yJICITt C1Tpcin (l)T11C(9.,, 48. Psellos-Sewter, 275. 49. Psellos-Renauld, II, 98-102. 50. Zonaras-Bonn, III, 674. Earlier Leo Tornikios was Tupavvoc;, PsellosRenauld, II, 25. 51. Zonaras-Bonn, III, 684; Attaliates-Bonn, 99. 52. Zonaras-Bonn, III, 726. 53. Ibid., 731. 54. Patrologia graeca, 126.269. 55. Cecaumeni strategicon et incerti scriptoris de officiis regiis libellus, ed. B. Wassiliewsky and V. Jernstedt (St. Petersburg, 1896) (hereafter Cecaumenus), 64.
56. This is in consonance with the general conservatism which character ized so much of the culture and society of Byzantium. On this, see P. Lemerle, "La notion de decadence a propos de !'empire byzantin," in R. Brunschvig and G. von Grunebaum, Classicisme et declin culturel dans l'histoire de l'Islam (Paris, 1957), 26:3-77.
57. Attaliates-Bonn, 269; also 271: "&a.p &iyµci Tijc; eic; 0tov cxvTou mottmc; IC1toc;).62 By his power (Mvcxµt,;) he expanded the boundaries of the empire of the n;£p10001oc; l.ao c; and repelled the barbarians. By his justice (ll1ica1oaov11) he brought back to the lives of the citizenry iaovoµia, etivoµia, iaoTqc;. He brought calm (yal�vri) to the troubled life of the church. He r uled paternally (n;£a,i;oTIIC�V ICCli K£p1 TO 8£10V eu:A.aj3e1av ica\ 'ltpoc; TOuc; t£p£'ic; ICUI µov�o� a.il>m ICCll TO :n:poc; TOU(i 1t£Vt)Ta.c; e:A.eov 1ea\ �v :n:poc; 'ltavmc; l>1ica1oauvl\V ica1 iaOTI\TU." 62. Ibid., 258, 262, 263. 63. Ibid., passim. 64. Ibid., 352; Iliad 3.179. On the classical element, see M. V. Anastos, "Byzantine Political Theory: Its Classical Precedents and Legal Embodiment," in The "Past• in Medieval and Modem Greek Culture, ed. S. Vryonis (Malibu, 1978), 13-54, especially 15-26. Since this article was written there has appeared the excellent study of P. Agapitos, "H £tic6va Tou a.uToicpchopa Baa1:A.Eiou A' aTI\ cp1:A.oµaice l>ov1icti -ypa.µµaTEta. 867-959," Ell17v1rca 40 (1989): 285-323.
T
his short note will attempt to describe and explain two interest ing items from the Thomas Whittemore Collection of coins housed in the Fogg Museum of Harvard University. The extraordi nary richness of this collection and its historical importance have already resulted in publications and scholarly controversy, 1 and its contents will figure prominently in the important catalogue of Byzantine coins which Dumbarton Oaks is sponsoring. The first object, a small gold bar (3cm x 0.4 cm), has the letter A stamped on one side. The actual weight of the bar is 4.50 gms, an interesting fact when one considers that this is also the weight of the Byzantine solidus. The letter A almost certainly stands for four scru ples, the weight of the solidus. One might consider the possibility that this bar represents a form in which "idle" gold was stored, though its weight might even suggest that it was a weight which offi cials used to weigh solidi (it is highly unlikely, however, that such weight would be in gold). The weighing of solidi by government offi cials is mentioned in two provisions of the Theodosian Code, which provisions date from Constantine and Julian respective]}( The first of these relates that. in the payment of taxes, When gold is paid, it shall be accepted with equal balance and equal weights. Of course, the top cord shall be held with two fingers, and the other three fingers shall be free and point toward the receiver. They shall not press down the weights with any finger; thus the balance of the scales shall be preserved and the weighing pans sha]) be suspended with equal and similar weights,2
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The second document establishes in every city an official, the zygostates, whose duty it is to ensure the full weight of solidi used in transactions. The purchase and sale of solidi are impeded if the solidi are clipped or diminished in size, or nibbled away, to use the proper term for such avarice, since some persons refuse to accept such solidi on the ground that they are light and inadequate. Therefore it is our pleasure to establish in each munici pality an official called by the Greek word zygostates, who by reason of his trustworthiness and vigilance will neither deceive nor be deceived so that in accordance with his judgement and reliability he may settle any dispute that may arise between the seller and the buyer with respect to the solidi.3
It is highly improbable, however, that gold would have been left idle in the form of weights, and indeed Byzantine weights have sur vived in other metals but not in gold. Scholars have, in the past, noted the importance of the Justinianic Edict XI (A.D. 559) for the history of Byzantine numismatics. The document in question concerns itself with the zygostatae and the chrysonae of Egypt and with the fact that they were often dishonest in the stamping of gold with their seals. The meaning and intent of the edict have been somewhat obscured by the vagueness of the ter mini technici, particularly the phrases xa.parr6µevov xpuaiov and &:n:6:A.uTov xapocyµa.. • The most detailed exegesis of the contents is that which L. C. West and A. C. Johnson essayed in 1944.S A brief resume of their explanation follows. Justinian issued this edict to correct the abuses which had arisen from the greed of the zygostatae and chrysonae. These officials were levelling a charge (o�puta.) on transactions in Alexandria which was exorbitant {it amounted to nine gold pieces for every pound of gold or 72 gold pieces, there fore 12 1/2 percent) and which was seriously disrupting business transactions and the affairs of the fisc. Specifically he ordered that gold (To xpuatov) be exchanged with the special bronze coinage of Alexandria (a:n:o)..uTov xapocyµa.) in exactly the same manner as it was exchanged in Constantinople.6 Crucial to the explanation which the joint authors give to this edict is their translation of cixo'.A.UTov xcxp«yµa. as "bronze of Alexandrian issue." Justinian then ordered that the zygostatae and chrysonae be placed under
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bond in the discharge of their official obligations and that further more they were to facilitate contracts expressed in terms of an:6).uTov xapocyµa (bronze coins) and should indicate the exact value of money in containers (bags, folles, or baskets) which they were then to stamp with seals.7 According to West-Johnson, then, the crux of the matter is that the officials had been profiting illegally from business activities involving the &.no).uTov xdpayµa. the bronze coinage of Alexandria. It would seem, however, that Edict XI is capable of still another interpretation which gains a certain degree of probability when one takes into account the gold bar (stamped -6) from the Whittemore Collection. The basic questions center about the termini technici, xa.pa.TT01,1£VOV XP\ICJtOV, otJtOA.UTOV xapocyµa, and whether the docu ment is dealing with copper coins of Alexandrian provenance or sim ply with uncoined gold. The title of the Edict reads as follows: The zygostatae and chrysonae of Egypt shall have no license whatever in the future to demand anything on behalf of opputa, but the gold cut there [To xapor.TTOJJ£VOV £K'.tiia£ XPUe1C11Tat ic:a, eiallp�'ITal . • • . The verb eian:pal;f11'U1 does not fit the sense of the sentence at all. 10. a1to1icoc; yap µno. TO O'UV011c:�aa, µe TllV voµ,µov µoo yaµ£Tqv Tij EV o a i � TJl µvtjµ!J • AvvTJ µnavaaTa. c; Tqo c; tea, ei c; [T� v]vuv 1tapo11c:oem1S11µ11aac; xoopav µe:8' OO'O>V 1tape+uAax811aav µ01 XPl'lf.lv vuv Ee dtya6ou 1topou O'UVl!aT11aaµ11v, ic:a1 a,rep µ01 ex;ap1a811aav TEICVCX 8uyaTp1a Mo !CCXI appev ev. The scribe's grammar seems quite awkward. The general meaning of the passage is that Boilas left his original home
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after his marriage to Anna, and that he brought with him whatever money he still had (along with that which he was able to raise) and his son and two daughters. But the word oaov in the dause tc:CXI oaov vuv 2� cxya8ou ff0p0U auvea-r11aa,a11v has been incorrectly transcribed by Bene§evi� "Zav. viz.," 223. In the manuscript it reads roaov, obviously a misspelling for oamv. The latter form seems to be correct, for the word is governed by µe:11 and agrees with XP11/JCXT6lV, Thus, the text should read µ£8' oa(l)v :n:aJ>e+ul.ax811aa.v µ01 xpriµaTmv tc:al OO'IXIV vuv El; cxya8ou 11:opou 0'1lVl!O'TflaO.j.11)V, But the word vuv presents a further difficulty, for it does not fit into the general meaning of the sentence, i.e., that Boilas brought with him whatever money was left to him and whatever he was able to raise. It is not absolutely clear whether the children were born before or after Boilas set out for his new home, but the inference is that they were grouped together with the money as items which he brought with him to the new land. 11. ic:a1 Kl)(OTOV µev eic; U'lfflAOTEpac; ICUI ic:p£tTTOVac; ljlpomt>aA; �µriv, 'iv' 0 8eoc; µv11µoveuna1 ic:or.\ 1flUXl1 llPat; TO a.pxhun:ov ica't 8£1tov seems to designate a piece of land wnich differs from a xmpiov or a npoa.aT£tov. The word is also used to signify a small monastery.
14. On the place-names, see the commentary that follows the transla tion. 15• • • • unoopou tc:a1 &vu6pou. u:n:al>pou should probably read u♦u6pou. 16. This was the sum of money paid for the pasturage of livestock in the fields. See F. Dolger, Beitriige zur Geschichte der byzantinischen Finanzverwaltung besonders des 10 und 11 Jahrhunderts {Leipzig and Berlin, 1927), 53-54; Also Dolger, Aus den Schatzkammern des heiligen Berges (Munich, 1948), 158-59, 171. 17. Zeugotopion for tax purposes was the amount of land which a farmer could plow with a pair of oxen. See D. Xanalatos, Beitriige zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte Makedoniens im Mittelalter, hauptsach Lich au{ Grund der Briefe des Erzbischofs Theophylaktos von Achrida (Munich, 1937), 40. 18 . . • • IC1V1)TOUp £IX ICIXl u,copac; • • . • Bendevif transcribed this phrase incorrectly as • • • ioxep �UKO�• • • • Perhaps v:iropac; is a corrupt form of OltCDpac;.
,cw
21. ,SA.epi«x i�. ,SAejlt«x is an incorrect form of MXtJ.ltCl. See L. Petit, "Le monastcre de Notre Da �e de Pitic en Macedoine," Iwestiia russkago _ . arltheolog,cheskago tnst,tuta v Konstan#nople 6 (1900) (hereafter Petit' "Notre Dame de Pitic)•: 129-30.
22. 61 '":o,ronjpr,v. According to the dictionary of Sophocles, this refers to the chalice only. The paten (&io1ecx;) is listed separately here. 23, This item has been inserted into the manuscript by a later hand.
24. Bcn�vif, "Zav. viz.," 226. This doth is described as 011:ovlhJYllTtTJ. The word appears to be a form of o,cov&�, "libation." Hence, it possibly re�ers to the doth covering the communion chalice. This explanation fits in with the fact that the preceding items are cloths for covering the paten. 25. The scribe's calculations arc somewhat erroneous here.
26. The omophorfon was a long strip of doth worn over the shoulders by bishops. See F. Cabrol, Dictionnaire d 'archeologie chretienne et de liturgie, XII, 2 (1936), 2089--90. 27. Possibly with the device
�xc
NIIKA
2 8 . hepov xcxo&1ov iaOTOY 1C(lt +ov+ou&T]v !Cat 1evicov. The word +ot+>u6TJY probably refers to the doth of gold brocade. Sec the dictionary �f Du Cang� under piv&«x: pev&o.v ,Sa,Sv1ovmicqv +ov+ov&oTqv 1eal11v, TJYOllY x1aµu«x ,S«xo111x:� v xpvo�v. It also occurs in the inventory of Xylourgou, Akty russkago na Sviatom Afonie monastyria (Kiev, 1873) (hereafter Xylourgou, Akty), 54, 63.
29. , • • � OTCX\lp(l)o1c; oAoicavovcx; &18upov. According to the dictionary of Soph ocles, the word o101eavovoc; refers to an object made completely of recd. But this docs not seem to fit the text here.
�- o�ouTcipT)v possibly refers to an icon painted on a shield, perhaps to an icon in the form of a shield. Petit, "Notre Dame de Pitie " 133-34 believes that it refers to icons painted on shields, as the in;cntory of �ylourgou, Akty, 56, lists shields (oicoUTcip1a) and swords among the items m the treasury of the monastery. In this same document, there is also men tion of OlCOllTapT]v icons.
31 . These are described as aapo1fr1a, W. Nissen Die Diataxis des Michael Attaliates von 1077 Gena, 1894), 80, erronco:isly translates this
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word as signifying mosaic icons. See the dictionary of Du Cange under uapovim,.
32. �1,oypa+i r.c; xpual!c; &ux+opEc; Tp1TCOV• • •
72. Sec G. Moravcsik, Byzantinoturcica {Budapest, 1942-43), 2:91-92.
73. Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor, I {Leipzig, 1883) (here after Theophanes}, 474.
74. George Continuatus, Chronicon, ed. I. Bekker {Bonn, 1838) (hereafter George Continuatus), 8.96-97.
75. George Continuatus, 903. 76. De adm. imp. 212.
77. S. Lampros, "Euµµumi: Necx; '&).11voµv,fµ0v (1912) 301-4; Cedr. 2:605; Psellos, Chronographia, ed. E. Renau.ld (Paris, 1926-28) {hereafter Psellos, Chron.), 2:38-44; Ioannes Zonaras, Epitome historiarum, vol. 3, ed. T. Biittner-Wobst {Bonn, 1897), 644. 78. Lampros, "Euµµt1CTa.," 301-4,
79. Cedr. 2:604-5.
80. See J. B. Bury, The Imperial Administrative System in the Ninth Century {London, 1911), 22-23. The designations of protospatharios and hypatos still denoted senatorial rank in the eleventh century. On this, see A. Christophilopoulou, 'H uvyd11Tcx; ei� TO (Jv,avnvov 1qxfro� {Athens, 1949) , 36. Also, Synopsis Chronike, in Sathas, MB 7: 171. 81. Bene�evif, "Zav. viz.," 222. 82. Ibid., 223. 83. Attaliates, Historia, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1853), 83, Blnescu, "Ouches," 32-33. 84. Attal., 47. Matthew of Edessa, Chronique, trans. E. Dulaurier (Paris, 1858) (hereafter Matthew of Edessa), 99. 85. Matthew of Edessa, 180-81, 186. 86, Cedr. 2:675-76. 87. Matthew of Edessa, 51.
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88. J. Laurent, Byzance et Jes Tures seljoucides dans l'Asie occidentale jusqu'en 1081 (Paris, 1913), 40, 43, 70, 84. 89. Theoph. 436.
90. Theoph. 447.
91. Constantine Porphyrogcnnetos, De ceremoniis aulae byzantinae, ed.
J. Reiske and I. Bekker (Bonn, 1829-30), 1:681. In De adm. imp., 154, there is mention of the twelve great fjo'iA.®o>v. 92. Bene�vit, "Zav. viz.," 223.
93. E. Honigmann, Die Ostgrenze des byzantinischen Reiches von 363 bis 1071 (Brussels, 1935), 219-21.
94. Kekaumenos, Strategikon, ed. B. Vasilievsky and V. Jcmstedt (St. Petersburg, 1896), 18. 95. Benekvif, "Zav. viz.," 223. 96. Ibid.
97. Sathas, MB 1:49-50, 66-68; Petit, Balkovo, 53.
The Question of the Byzantine Mines*
W
here did Byzantium get its metals after the period of the Arab conquest? These metals-primarily gold, silver, copper, iron, and lead-were of considerable importance to Byzantium for its superb coinage and manufacture of luxury items, as well as for the manufacture of weapons and for other industries. The problem of the source of these metals has not been satisfactorily treated, and perhaps it really cannot be completely solved because of the lack of sufficient source material. M . Bloch and M . Lombard touched on this point when discussing the general question of the circulation of gold in the Middle Ages. According to these two scholars, Byzantium was, up to the seventh century, the domain of gold par excellence for three reasons: (1) a favorable balance of trade which brought in a steady stream of gold, (2) arrival of new gold from neighboring lands which possessed gold mines, (3) and, the already existing stock of gold within t he empire. But by t he end of t he sixth century Byzantium's gold stocks had greatly diminished because of the flux of gold to the East, and because, with the Arab conquests in the sev enth century, the Byzantines lost contact with those lands where the gold was mined.Of course this reasoning left the phenomenon of the gold solidus unexplained. If Byzantium did lose control of the gold to the Arabs, how was it that the Byzantine solidus remained pure and stable to the middle of the eleventh century, i.e., for a period of over four hundred years after the Arab conquests had begun? The explanation which Lombard and Bloch give is that (1) Byzantium began to touch its inactive gold stocks, and (2) it eventually acquired
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a favorable balance of trade with the West, which in turn wa s acquir ing gold from the Arabs in favorable commercial relations.But one might well ask whether Byzantium might not have obtained gold, or other metals, within its own domains.l In the question of the Byzantine mines one must begin, a s with so many other aspects of Byzantine history, with the sources of the late Roman Empire. Except for a limited number of in scriptions, the principal source is Roman legal literature.Here the most important testimony i s that of the Codex Theodosianus, the mining decrees of which a re repeated, often verbatim, in the Codex Justinianus, the Basilika, and the Hexabiblos of Harmenopoulos. The information in the Codex Theodosianus is of a general nature. One of the most striking facts which emerges from this legal collection, and a not unexpected one, is the widespread use of work in the min es as pun ishment for criminals and prisoners of war.This is of course an old practice.To condemn someone to the mines, in metallum damnare, or in Byzantine language, µe-rall.1t21v, was probably the worst pun ishment in Roman law next to the punishment of death itself. The unfortunate individuals condemned to such a life naturally sought to escap e it by any means, with the result that the legal proscriptions forbidding the hiding of escaped miners are severe.Most of these unfortunate miners were no doubt employed in mines belonging to the state. A combination of the rigors of mining life and the scarcity of labor manpower in the late empire forced the emperors to i ssue measures which would keep the supply of miners from dwindling. Thus we read a decree of the emperor Theodosios 11 addressed to the Count of the Sacred Imp erial Largesses Maximos dated 424: If miners should desert the district where they appear to have been born and should migrate to foreign parts, they shall undoubtedly be recalled to the family stock and the household of their own birth status.Moreover, if such men and women should prefer to choose marriage unions from the homes of private citizens, their progeny shall be divided into equal parts between My fisc and the parents, and those who are proved to be parents of only one shall surrender such a single child entirely to the fisc.In the future, if any person shall be borne from a miner and from any other stock, he shall necessarily follow the ignoble birth status of a miner.2 However, it seems that not all miners belonged exclusively to the
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state durin g the later Roman Empire, for a dec re e of emp eror s Valentinian and Valens addressed to Kreskonios, Count of Minerals and Mining, in 365 reads: With long pondered deliberation, We consider that a sanction must be issued to the effect that if any person should wish the industry of mining to flourish by his own labor he may acquire advantages both for himself and for the state.Therefore, if any persons voluntarily should come together in large numbers for this purpose, Your Laudability shall require such persons to pay eight scruples each of gold dust.Moreover, if they should be able to collect more, they shall preferably sell the same to the fisc, from which they shall receive an appropriate price from Our Largess.3 And the edict of 424 quoted above also implies that not all min ers were slaves: If it should be claimed that any person has purchased the property of min ers that is obligated to the aforesaid compulsory service, he shall undoubt edly become subject to the compulsory public services which the author of his right was accounted to fulfill.4 Here we see miners who can dispose of their property and even leave the profession, provided, of course, that their services are taken over by the purchasers of the property; But in the middle Byzantine period the fixing of urban and industrial society to its professions and trades was relaxed, as implied in the Book of the Eparch. So it i s quite possible that it was relax ed in the sphere of non-slave miners.The Byzantin e government continu ed to permit private individuals to engage in mining alongside the state mining enterprises.Thus the_pri vate ownership of min es i s described in the Basilika and in certain scholia on the Basilika: "If he found day or silver, or other substance, or metal ore, it is reckoned as 'fruit."'5"It is also possible for a private individual to have min es of day, silver, and the like."6 On the other hand, the grimmer aspect of mining life was retained, and the ancient practice of sending the condemn ed to the min es remained in force.7 Thus, from this brief survey, it do es not seem to be stretching the point to say that mining held the same position in Byzantine society that it did in the society of the late Roman Empire.The question has been raised by certain scholars, however, whether the Byzantin es, after the great losses to the Arabs in Africa and Asia, were not in fact
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cut off from the mines which had supplied them with the various metals. To phrase the question differently, did the Byzantines actually derive any of their mineral supply from the Balkans and Asia Minor after the Slavic invasions in the Balkans and the Arab conquests in the East, or were they simply left without any mines and mining industry? The discussion of mines and mining is no mere academic exercise, for it must be obvious that they were important sources of raw material and wealth for ancient and mediaeval socie� In fact the importance of mines and the mining industry have been given great emphasis for the actual or comparative prosperity of ancient and mediaeval states. This has been asserted for the Hetite state of Asia Minor. One historian maintains that the failure of the mines in the western half of the Roman Empire and their continuity in the eastern half help to explain the collapse of the empire in the West and its sur vival in the East.8 Another historian posits the development of the mining industry in the Balkans as one of the bases for Bosnian and Serbian strength and prosperity in the fourteenth century.9 But in dis cussing Byzantine mines one meets with an obstacle which plagues the historian of Byzantium all too frequently. Unlike the Muslim authors, the Byzantines, because of their indifference or sophistica tion, do not bother to discuss such matters.JO The little information to be gleaned on this subject is scattered amongst a small number of Byzantine, Armenian, Arab, Persian, Turkish, and Latin sources. Though this information is not plentiful, when one combines it with what is known about pre-Byzantine and early Ottoman mining in Asia Minor and the Balkans, it is possible to get a general answer to the problem of Byzantium's source of metals after the Arab conquest. ASIA MINOR
The most informative of the classical authors on the subject of mining, for our purposes, is the geographer Strabo. An inhabitant of northern Asia Minor writing in the first century A.D. , Strabo took particular care to record the presence of several mining districts in Asia Minor, the seat of the Hetite Empire, whose primary economic basis was the mining industry, and the home of the Chalybys, to whom Homer attributes the invention of the art of mining. 11 Strabo speaks of gold mines at Syspritis near Kaballa, a considerable dis-
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tance to the southeast of Trebizond.12 He gives the most information concerning the Pantie coast with which he was so familiar, as this was the place of his origin. He says of the northeastern Pantie coast: Generally in these lands the coast is extremely narrow, and the mountains lie immediately beyond, being fulJ of mines and thickets.There is little agri culture, and the miners make their livelihood from the mines.13
Strabo mentions specifically the presence of iron mines at Pharnaci (Byzantine Kerasos) to the west of Trebizond,14 mines at Cabira (Byzantine Neokaisareia) to the southwest of Trebizond,15 and mines in Mount Sandaracurgium south of Sinope. 16 Finally he mentions the presence of copper mines on Cyprus. 17 Thus in the first century A.O., according to Strabo, there were in Asia Minor and Cyprus mines providing gold, copper, and iron; and the east ern Pantie region seems to have been the most important mining area. 18 The gold miners of the area of Asia Minor come up for specific mention in the Theodosian Code, first in the year 370 and then a few years later in 392. The first of these two decrees was issued jointly by Emperors Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian to Probus the Praetorian Prefect. Just as our Lord Valens commanded throughout all the Orient that if the miners with vagrant wandering should there seek out the mineral gold, they should be kept away from the property of all landholders.19
The second decree was issued by Emperors Valentinian, Theodosios, and Arkadios to Romulus, Count of the Sacred Imperial Largesses. This is of interest in that it seems to be indicative of active mining operations in western Asia Minor. "Each year seven scruples per man shall be paid to the largesses by the gold miners, not only in the Diocese of Pontos but also in the Diocese of Asia.»20 There are also a few interesting references to a century-long dis pute between the Sassanids and Byzantines over what must have been comparatively rich gold mines in the border regions of Armenia. Disputes over the rights to these mines figured as principal causes in at least four wars between Persia and Byzantium, giving them some what the appearance of economic wars. These disputes took place
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first in 421-22, then under Anastasios (491-518), again in 530, and finally in 534.On his accession Vahram V began a persecution of the Christians in Persia, and Emperor Theodosios II used this persecu tion, along with the refusal of the Persians to hand back certain gold mines, as a casus belli in 421. It happened at this time that the Rhomaioi were vexed with the Persians because of another reason; because the Persians, having those gold mines which they had leased from the Rhomaioi, did not wish to give them back,21 Apparently the Persians were leasing the mines from the Byzantines at this time. Malalas records the fact that in the reign of Anastasios (491-518) certain gold mines in Armenia were taken over by the Byzantines at the expense of the Persians. He took as a pretext the [matter] of the gokl-strcaming [mountains] which were found previously, in the time of Anastasios the emperor, in the posses sion of the Rhomaioi.Formerly these mountains were under Persian rule. The gold-streaming mountains are located between the boundaries of the Armenians, Rhomaioi, and Persarmenians, as those who know say.These mountains bring forth much gold.When rains and storms occur, the earth of these mountains is brought down, and nuggets of gold gush up.Formerly certain persons leased these mountains both from the Rhomaioi and Persians for two hundred pounds of gold.Afterward these same mountains were seized by the most sacred Anastasios, and the Rhomaioi alone received the decreed revenue.And as a result of this the treaty was violated.22 The mines in these mountains were very rich, and the gold was so near to the surface that after heavy rains nuggets of gold could be found on top of the soil.Hence extraction of the metal pre sented no problem at all.Malalas seems to imply that formerly these mines were leased out by both Persians and Byzantines to certain individuals for two hundred pounds of gold, presumably per year. No doubt the yield of the mines was then sold to one or other or both of the governments. According to Malalas, the disputed ownership of these mines became the pretext for war between Justinian I and Kavad in 530. In this war the Byzantines took possession of certain other mines held by the Persians at Pharangium a n d Bolum in Armenia, 23
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Kavad had leased the working of one of the mines to a local busi - . ness man, Symeon by name. But from ·there begins the territory of Persarmenia; and here is the gold mine which, with the permission of Kavad, was worked by one of the natives, Symeon by name.When this Symcnon saw that both nations were actively engaged in the war, he decided to deprive Kavad of the revenue. Therefore he gave over both himself and the Pharangium to the Rhomaioi, but he refused to deliver over to either one the go]d of the mine. 24 Symeon was very shrewdly playing off one side against the other and attempting to retain the gold taken from the mine, instead of turning it over either to Persians or Byzantines.The new mines at Pharangium and Bolum, first mentioned by Prokopios, would seem to be mines other than those seized by Anastasios as reported by Malalas.25 For at the outbreak of hostilities between Justinian and Kavad, Pharangium and Bolum were held by the Persians, and the other mines were in the hands of the Byzantines. The peace conclud ing this war in 532-33, however, provided that Pharangium with its gold mine should be returned to the Persians.26 But, evidently, either the terms of this treaty were not kept, or a violation of some earlier mining agreement was alleged, for the Persians once more declared war on Byzantium in 534 over the gol d mines.27 This short survey makes it clear that the gold mines of the border areas were a prime factor of contention between the Sassanids and Byzantines for over a century. Evidently the output of the mines was considerable. Armenian, Arab, Persian, and Turkish sources also mention the presence of mines in northern and eastern Anatolia.Lazar of P'arpi (about A.D.500) says that gold, copper, and iron were to be found in the province of Ararat,28 while Ghevond (about 778-85) mentions the discovery of a new vein of silver in Armenia.29 In the eighth century, however, this was utilized by the Muslim governor of Armenia for his mint, and the silver could not have been available to Byzantium until a later date, when the Armenian provinces were incorporated into the Byzantine Empire . Copper mines were also located at Varajnounik (northwest of Van), Gougark, an d Mananaghi in Armenia.30 Most of the later references to mines in Byzantine and eastern Asia Minor come from Muslim geographers and travellers.
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lstahri, writing in 951, speaks of gold, silver, copper, and iron in the vicinity of Taron,31 and his contemporary, al-Maqdisi, mentions cop per mines in eastern Anatolia.32 The anonymous Persian work, Hudud al-Alam, which was written in 982-83, gives a number of references to mines in the area. It men tions the presence of gold in the mountains between Rum and Armenia, gold and lead in the mountains of the Alans, silver and copper in the mountains of the Georgian border, and silver and cop per in Cyprus.33 Though the references in this author are rather hazy, they point to the general area of northeast Asia Minor and Cyprus as regions with mines in operation. Finally the place-name Xai1eoupy1a in the epic of Digenes Akritas indicates the presence of copper mines near the Syria border.34 In an interesting article published in 1937 R . P. Blake attempted to show that from the tenth to the thirteenth cen turies exports and minting of silver in the Muslim east declined sharpl� He maintained that one of the reasons for this was the fact that during this time the Muslims had lost control of certain argen tiferous lands, amongst them parts of Asia Minor arid Armenia. It was at that time, then, that many of the mines in Armenia must have passed into Byzantine hands.JS There is also mention of the mines of Anatolia in later Islamic authors after Asia Minor had been overrun and settled by the Seljuks and had thus become more accessible to the Muslim travellers. Yacut, a Greek slave from Asia Minor who turned Muslim, reports the pres ence of copper mines in eastern Asia Minor around Chliat,36 while Abul Feda speaks of silver mines at Amasya.37 Marco Polo saw the rich silver mines of Paipurt and Argyropolis-Gilmiish Hane when he went through Asia Minor on his way to China in the thirteenth cen tury38 Ibo Bau;iita, in his travels through Asia Minor, visited the sil ver mines of Giimiish Hane in eastern Anatolia and remarks that a number of merchants from Syria and Iraq come to this city, no doubt to buy the silver. 39 His travels also carried him to the area of Taganrog in southern Russia. This area, formerly either under Byzantine control or in close contact with Byzantium in ibn Banuta's time still had a good number of Greeks. Perhaps the product of the mines in this region had been available to the Byzantines at the time when Byzantine influence had still been paramount there.
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A day's march from this town are the mountains of the Russians. These are Christians, red-haired and blue-eyed, with ugly faces and treacherous. In their country are silver mines and thence are brought the ingots of silver with which selling and buying are done in this land (Crimea). The weight of these ingots is five ounces.40 The most detailed and best-informed source as regards _ the mines of Asia Minor in this Islamic period of Asia Minor prior to the Ottoman conquest is the Arab geographer al-Umari, who seems to have got much of his information from a Genoese renegade to Islam. He mentions the presence of one iron and fout silver mines. In the part (of Asia Minor) occupied by the lieutenants of the princes descended from Jingiz Khan, there are three silver mines: one is in the vicin ity of the city of Luluh; the second is near Gumush; and the third near Badhert • • • in the year 733, these mines were still in full production and producing a very pure silver.41 This passage refers to the city of Luluh in southern Anatolia near the modern Ulukishla, to Gilmiish Hane in northern Anatolia (men tioned by ibn Ba�µija), and to Paipurt (mentioned by Marco Polo). Then al-Umari in his description of that part of Anatolia, in the west, which was not directly under the rule of the Mongols, describes an important silver mine in the principality or beylik of Germian (the regions about Cotyeion-Kutahya). He [the bey of Germian] had under his dependence a city named Giimiish Sar, that is, the city of silver, which one must not confuse with that of the same name which is in the lands of the family of Jingiz Khan. One sees there a prosperous mine, of a rich product and great importance, which is far superior to that of the lands under the domination of the Mongols in respect to the metal's quality, the accessible nature of the land, and the ease of exploitation.42 This latter notice is particularly interesting in that it refers to western Asia Minor, an area which produced metals in Hellenistic and Roman times. Finally, he says that there was an important iron mine in the southern Anatolian district of Ermenak: "In their land (the Karaman dynasty) is an iron mine which has greatly contributed to their success and assures them considerable profits. "43 The Byzantine jurist Harmenopoulos, writing in 1345, records that
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each gold miner of Pontos and Asiane (western Asia Minor) had to pay a sum of seventeen keratia annually to the government,44 It is dif ficult to tell, however, whether this is anything more than an anachro nism and a carryover from the earlier legislation on the subject. The Greek and Ottoman historians of the fifteenth century, record more pertinent information on the mines of Pontos, information which indicates that they were flourishing in the fourteenth and fif teenth centuries. These mines, which yielded copper for the most part, were located at sites near Castamon, Samsun, Tzanik, Osmanjik, and Sinope. Bayezid I brought the rich copper mines of Castamon, Samsum, Tzanik, and Osmanjik under Ottoman control during his reign.45 In the beginning of the fifteenth century Mehmed I forced Ismael of Sinope to turn over to him the rich revenues of the copper mines of his city,46 and in 1425 Murad II retook the mines of Castamon.47 At the time of the conquest of Sinope by Mehmed II in the middle of the fifteenth century the mines brought in annually fifty thousand gold pieces in taxes alone.48 With these references to the mines of Asia Minor in the Byzantine and Ottoman historians of the fifteenth century we come to the Ottoman period proper. For this period the Ottoman archives and sources throw a great deal more light on the problem of mining in Asia Minor and in the Balkans as well. Thanks to the publications of Anhegger, Gordlevsky, Refik, and others, quite a bit is known about mining in the Ottoman Empire, and it is now obvious that the mines continued to be active throughout this later period.49 In addition to the aforementioned mines in Anatolia, there were deposits of gold at Artvini, and of copper, lead, and iron in the valleys of the Chorokh and Oltis-Tsgali. Along the Debeda valley to the east of Kars were also deposits of gold, copper, lead, and at Akhtala gold and silver.SO An interesting sidelight is the persistence of the mining skills and tra ditions amongst the Greeks of Pontos (the descendants of the Byzantine inhabitants of the area) down to the beginning of the twentieth century. The core of these Greek miners lived to the south of Trebizond at Giimiish Hane (Argyropolis), and from time to time throughout the centuries of Ottoman rule they sent out mining colonies to the south as far as the Taurus at Bulgar Maden. They also sent mining colonies to the region of the Pyramis river, to the
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lead and silver mines of Keban Maden on the Euphrates, and to the copper mines of Arghana Maden in the vilayet of Diyarbekir.51 In the eighteenth century, the Georgian king lrakli brought in many of these Greek miners to work the gold and silver mines at Akhtala.52
THE BALKANS
The references to mining in the Balkans during the Byzantine period are even fewer than in the case of Asia Minor. Strabo men tions the presence of gold mines at Datum on the Strymon GulfS3 and extensive gold mining at Krenai near Mount Pangaios, as well as on Mount Pangaios and in the land of the Paeonians.S4 Concerning the famous silver mines of Laurion, he says that in his time these were already exhausted.55 However, in the late Roman period the Balkans were a very important source of metals. A certain amount, although not enough, is known about these mining activities from the decrees and inscriptions addressed to the mining officials and organizations. For example, the comes metallorum per lllyricum is mentioned in the fourth century, and an inscription mentions the procurator argentariarum per provincias Pannoniam et Dalmatiam, and a collegium auriarium. S6 Two edicts in the Theodosian Code for _the years 370 and 386 reflect certain difficulties which the state was having with the mining industry. The first of these, addressed to Probus, the praetorian pre fect by the emperors Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian, reads: Just as our Lord Valens commanded throughout all the Orient that if the miners with vagrant wandering should there seek out the mineral gold, they should be kept away from the property of all landholders, so Your Sincerity by edict should notify all provincials throughout IJlyricum and the Diocese of Macedonia that no person shall suppose that on his own landholding any Thracians may be harboured any further, but that each and every one of them shall be compelled rather to return to the land of his birth, whence they are known to have come. Otherwise a grievous punishment shall be inflicted on that person who furnishes hiding places to such men after the issuance of this interdict.57
There is no doubt that the invasions and attacks of the Goths increased the confusion in the Balkans and cut down the output of
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the mines. Ammianos Marcellinos reports that the Thracian miners, because of excessive taxation, joined the Gothic army. Besides these there were not a few who were expert in following out veins of gold, and who could no longer endure the heavy burden of taxes; these were welcome . . . and rendered great services . • • as they wandered through strange places, by, pointing out hidden stores of grain, and the secret refuges of the inhabitants. With such guides nothing that was inac cessible and out of the way remained untouched,58
The edict of 386 which Emperors Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosios addressed to Eusignios, the praetorian prefect, further reflects the troubles and disruption which the invasions had brought. Since the procurators of the mines within Macedonia, Midland Dacia, Moesia, and Dardania, who are customarily appointed from the decurions and who exact the usual tax collection, have removed themselves from this compulsory public service by pretending fear of the enemy, they shall be dragged back to the fulfillment of their dutics.S9
It is obvious that the mining industry of certain areas in the Balkans was partially disrupted. But it would be incorrect to claim that it was permanently discontinued. First of all, the Goths left the area, and, secondly, we have the decree of 424 (quoted above) which attempts to prevent the miners from leaving their homes to go else where. It would seem that scarcity of manpower and the difficult nature of the work were more important obstacles to a successful mining industry at this time than were the Gothic invasions. Where were the Balkan mines located? The sources here are rela tively abundant for the period of the late Roman Empire, and for the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries for mediaeval Bosnia, Serbia, and the Ottoman Empire. But the period between the two is almost blank as far as records of mines or mining are concerned. The mining center of Illyricum in the Roman period seems to have been the city Vrbas in modern Bosnia. According to Pliny, the area produced fifty pounds of gold daiJy.60 Silver was mined at the site of modern Srebrenica in Bosnia, while iron and lead were also found in the area. An inscription of the second century mentions a procurator of the silver mines of Pannonia and Dalmatia who was stationed at Srebrenica. These deposits continued to be exploited
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systematically in the fourth century as is indicated by the appoint ment of a comes metallorum in Illyricum.t.1 Dacia, a&er it was opened up by Tra;an•s conquest, became a rich source of metals for the empire. Evidently the mining centered in cen tral and southern Transylvania. Immediately upon the conquest Trajan settled the Pirustae, who had practiced mining in northern Albania, in the area of modern Rosia Montana (Verespatak), where there were important gold mines.62 Gold was also mined at Zalatna, Ruda, and Boicza. John Lydos informs us that Trajan reconstituted Roman finances with gold from the province of Dacia to the tune of five mil lion pounds of gold and ten million pounds of silver.63 The figures are without a doubt exaggerated, but nevertheless are symbolic of the comparativ e wealth and importance of the Dacian mines. Copper and iron, and probably silver and tin, were also mined in the area. It has been maintained that as a result of the barbaric invasions the mining industry here broke down between the second and fourth centuries, and that mining was renewed only in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen turies with the appearance of the Saxon miners in the Balkans.64 This is an important point and will be dealt with in a later section. Moesia was also productive from the point of view of the mining industry, though we know fewer of the details her e. The Theodosian Code mentions procuratores metallorum of this district along with the other Balkan districts.65 It has also been asserted for this area that with the barbaric invasions all mining activity ceased until the appearance of the Saxons in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.66 Metals were mined in Macedonia, Thrace, and Greece as well as during the period of antiquit}t The site of Kratovo and Osogov pro duced lead, gold, silver, and copper, and Bozica produced iron.67 Above we noted the itinerant Thracian gold washers in the Theodosian Code in A.D. 373. Most of the streams of the Rhodope region were probably auriferous at that time. In the peninsula of Chalkidike, the later area of the Mademochoria, the metals were mined extensively, as also at the rich fields of Mount Pangaios. A smaller amount of the precious metals was also extracted from the mines of eastern Thrace and the islands. In Greece there were the mines of Attica producing silver, lead, and iron, the copper mines of the Othrys range, silver in the vicinity of Lake Ochrid, and copper in Euboea.68
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From this rapid survey it is highly probable that the later Roman and early Byzantine empires drew a considerable revenue and metal supply from the mines of the Balkan area. Let us now examine the sources for the next thousand years and see what is mentioned about this rather extensive mining industry.: It has been implied, by Davies in particular, that mining ceased in the Balkans as a result of the var ious invasions. And the relative silence of the sources would seem to favor this view. Literary references to the sources of Byzantium's met als are extremely rare. One such reference is in the sixth-century description of the church of Saint Sophia, in which Paul Silentiarios mentions silver from Pangaios and Sounion. 69 A certain number of place-names from this period refer to mines, though it is not possible to say whether the mines were being worked at the time that the names are mentioned. Such are Metallus, Argentares, Ferarria,70 Sidera Chora,71 and Siderocausa.n Metallus has been identified with Boizica, which in later times produced iron. Siderocausa is in the peninsula of the Chalkidike; it is the area later called Mademochoria which flourished as a mining center in Ottoman times. Davies has rejected Siderocausa as a genuine Byzantine place-name on the grounds that it is a combination of Greek and Turkish words, ot�flpoc; and kapusu, an imperfect translation of Demir kapusu, "iron gate." Therefore, since this place-name is a late one, it does not indicate the presence of mines in the area in Byzantine times. However, there is no reason to doubt that Siderocausa is truly a Byzantine place-name, :r.,�11po1CUVTCIIV 'Pcoµotio,i; TE lCQI Ilipaa,i;, vuv &e: 'Pmµaio1,; Jivo1,; TEAOUVTcov."
"a .;c;
189
28. Lazare de Pharbe, i.e. Lazar of P'arpi, in Collection des historiens anciens et modernes de l'Armenie, ed. V. Langlois, vol. 2 (Paris, 1869), 263.
29. Ghevond, Histoire des guerres et des conqu.ites des Arabes en Armenie, trans. G. V. Chachnazarian (Paris, 1869), 149.
30. J. Laurent, l'Armenie entre Byzance et l'Islam (Paris, 1919), 37, 41, 98. According to Laurent, the Ashot family had as a basis of its wealth and power private silver mines. On silver in mediaeval Armenia there is an arti cle by Ritter in Erdkunde, vol. 10, which was, unfortunately, unavailable to me. For mediaeval Armenian legislation on mines see Sempadscher Kodex aus dem 13. Jahrhundert, trans. J. Karst, vol. 1 (Strassburg, 1905), 25. 31. Al-Istahri, Viae Regnorum, ed. M. J. de Goeje, in Bibliotheca Geographicorum Arabicorum, vol. 1 (Leiden, 1927), 190-91.
uil� � .U!, t!;J!,
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�J ..
32. Al-Mokaddasi, Descriptio lmperio Moslemici, ed. M. J. de Goejc, in Bibliotheca Geographicorum Arabicorum, vol. 3 (Leiden, 1877), 148. •;_,.� I , .:., _.., dl.iSj � . . ." E. Honigmann, "Un itineraire a travers le Pont," Annuaire de l'lnstitut de philologie et d'histoire orientales et slaves 4 (1936): 263. He seems to imply that Muslim prisoners of war were working these mines. 33. Hudud al-Alam, trans. V. Minorsky (London, 1937), 59, 67-68.
34. Digenes Akrites, ed. J. Mavrogordato (Oxford, 1956), 156: "Kat Tijc; 'o5oii qn6µ£8a mi; 11:poc; T�v Xal.lcoupyiav (roaoc; yap outoc; n:e+un :n:�11aiov tijc; :Eupi�)." 35. R. P. Blake, "The Circulation of Silver in the Moslem East Down to the Mongol Epoch," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 2 (1937): 291, 30110.
36. Yacut, ]acut's geographisches Worterbuch, ed. F. Wustenfeld, vol. 4 (Leipzig, 1869), 92-93.
-- JII ,.JI J.,-ll � �.,I, -M -\>JI
v -'-"-
� I Jr;_"
I (1924), 455 I o ....,_., -l,., � .:,, .al, �� J...L.... ,:,, .,- JI/ "_, l..t � .,.,.__, � v �_, ul !., .u 'YI
e'J.
Sec also I. H. Uzun�ar§thoglu, Anadolu Beylikleri ve Akkoyunlu Karakoyunlu Devletleri (Ankara, 1937), 111.
Speros Vryonis. Jr.
190
The Question of the Byzantine Mines
191
37. Abul Feda, Geographie d'Aboulfeda. ed. M.Reinaud and M. de Slane (Paris, 1840), 383. ·"' Uill
.:i.u.
� ul
la!, � J:-,,
.;J-.J "
These are also mentioned by the fourteenth-century biographer of the Mevlevi dervishes, Eflaki, Les saints des derviches tourneurs, trans.C. Huart, vol.2 (Paris, 1922), 380. 38.Marco Polo, The Description ofthe World, ed.A, C.Moule and Paul Pelliot (London, 1938), 1: 96-'.17.It is interesting that Marco Polo still refers to Giimilsh Hane by its earlier Byzantine name, Argiron. "The others are Argiron which is great, and a very great quantity of silver is dug there ... and in a certain village which is called Paperth there is a very large silver mine.,. 39. Ibn Banufa, Voyage d'Ibn Batoutah, ed.C.Defremery and B. Sanguinetti, vol.2 (Paris, 1877), 293 . .. ;j.a.11 �.-L.- � �!, 'J!,.,JI � .,� l.,,'6 •.,.1, � .\r...,.. 40. Ibn Banuta, Voyage 2:414. v-.1111 J� .,;..aJ I • .iA ,.;,- UI •.A!.Jl .u-1' c.� �· J.ei .,o,A!J I ,;..:. • -s.,I.: t-, ,.. ..., .,J � I Uill � � cSA., ,,.,., Ir J.- ,-,. Jj., ,:,-.1 :u.i.11 ,:,, .1 La.. •�!,i � t..,... a._,.J I � .1li;JI •.Ha. .J ,s.J..!,,u t'-' Lt,
�l
"'°"-'"
Byzantium was one of Kievan Russia's main sources of gold, silver, and copper.G.Vernadsky, Kievan Russia (New Haven, 1951), 46, 112. 41. Al-Umeri, AJ-Umari's Bericht iiber Anatolien in seinem Werke Masalik al-absar fi mamalik al-amsar, ed.F. Taeschner (Leipzig, 1929) .. (hereafter al-U mari), 20. .(i_ _ v• l..� � &... I:.,o• �.J o-il, d�J i}} f'\r.a, . c,o.!.,I, la .a.I .,j._; v "'La.. .iJ�· �it l,J)i v i .J I &JA.J Jli .::._.,.. � �• '-"6!,I, ��� ._µ __ .;.L..: J..,J I •� .lw _:�_, �j/J.J �j,, .._ -'.t .... _ J �" I.., ult.JI �I
-...a.
Also p. 31. The productive nature of the Anatolian mines is confirmed by the fourteenth-century author Hayton, La flor des estoires de la terre d'Orient, in Recueil des historiens des Croisades: Documents armeniens vol. 2 (Paris, 1906), 132. "Le roiaume de Turquie est molt grant e riche. Miniers y a d'argent, d'araim, de fer, e de lume asses e bones."
·"
43.Al-Umari, 23-24. .,:,� .. , •l'Q'.'
.. ....... -11.i
44. Harmenopoulos, 310. " 'Ev iicaeica ICl!pch,a Et c; eicae, me; cilloei µ01 TOU l.oyo\l 4>£p£1 � xcopcx llUTfl JlOV1l TQV £V Tij 'Acriqt, X«AICOV l5e ica.UtCJTOV µna. ye TOV Tii�'If}ripi a.c; xab:ov,
192
a♦'
Society
ou 611 1epoa11e1 T" paa,At'i hhe,oc; ♦opoc; xpuai ou 11:ivn µupui6ec; a1UT1\pmv." 49.A number of documents dealing specifically with mines i n the Ottoman Empire were published by Ahmet Refik, Osman/, Devrinde Turkiye Madenleri, 967-1200 (Istanbul, 1931). An article on Turkish min ing based to a great degree on these documents but also on a wider selec tion of sources was published by V.Gordlevsky, "3KCDJIO&TaQH.R He.Qp 3eMJtH B TypuHH," CoBeTcKoe BocTOKOBe.QeHHe 3 (1945): 109-45. The first volume of what promises to be the last word on the su bject has appeared: R.Anhegger, Beitrlige zur Geschichte des Bergbaus im osmanis chen Reich, I: Europiiische Turkei, vol.1 (Istanbul, 1943). 50. W.E.D.Allen, A History of the Georgian People (London, 1932), 57, 59, 201. 51.R.M.Dawkins, Modem Greek. in Asia Minor (Cambridge, 1916), 68. There are some very interesting comments on the descendants of these miners and communities i n the early nineteenth century i n Kyrillos, 'Ia-ropnc11 1eep1ypa+� Toii bo B1tvv1J 11:poe1dS08ino«; xcopoypa+ucou 1ei va1eo«; T'lt; µeyci1ric; apx1oaTpaiac; 'J,coviou (Constantinople, 1815), 14-15, 23, 55. He records that some of these mining communities had immigrated from the mines of the Pontic region. 52.Allen, Georgian People, 201. 53.Strabo, 3:354 54.Strabo, 3:354. "on ff�tCJTa µhalla eon xpuaou ev Tate; Kp11via1v, 011:0U vuv oi d>i:lntK01 11:o:l1c; 'i6pu-ra1, KAf'ICJIOV TOU Ilayyaiou pout;·1eai au-ro � TO Ilayyaiov op«; xpuaeia 1ea1 apyvpeia exe, µnaU.a iccx\ � 11:ipav ,cu\ � enoc; TOU ITpuµrovot; ffOTaflOU µexp1 na,ovi at;· ♦cxal. lie ICIXl TO'U� TJIV Ilcx1oviav yijv a.poilvTw; eup1CJ1C£tv xpuaoil nvcx 1,16p,a." 55.Strabo, S:12-13. But this does no seem to have been true, at least for the later period. 56.Davies, Roman Mines. 2, 7, 9. 57.Pharr, 284, Cod.Theod.10.19.7. 58. Ammianos Marcellinos, ed.and trans.J .C.Rolfe (Cambridge, 1942), 31.6.6-7. 59.Pharr, 35.Cod.Theod.1.32.5 60.Pliny, Natural History, ed.H.Rackham (Cambridge, 1942), 33.21.67. For a general survey of the BaJkan mines, see Davies, R.oman Mines, 182-267. 61.Davies, Roman Mines, 182-87. 62. Davies, Roman Mines, 201, feels that these mines were deserted as a result of the Marcomanni Wars. However, G.Teglas, "Zur Verwal tungsgeschichte der romischen Eisenbergwerke in Dakien," Klio 9 (1909):
The Question ofthe Byzantine Mines
193
376, shows that mining did not cease after these wars and invasions. 63.Joannes Lydos, De magistratibus populi romani libri tres, ed. R. Wuensch {Leipzig, 1903}, 2.28. 64.Davies, Roman Mines, 206. 65.Cod.Theod.1.32.5. 66.Davies, Roman Mines, 209-10. 67.Davies, Roman Mines, 227-29.He asserts that they did so only under the Romans and the Saxons. 68.Davies, Roman Mines, 267, 239-St.Again, he maintains that they were worked in Roman and Turkish times, but not, generally, by the Byzantines. 69.Paulos Silentiarios, Descriptio S.Sophiae et Ambonis, ed.I. Bekker (Bonn, 1837), 33. £v8a& Ilayyaio,o i>ax1t; ,cai Io\lvtcu; UICP'll cipyupiac; co"i �av o:lat; ♦UPac;. 70.Prokopios, Buildings, ed.H.B.Dewing and G.Downey (Cambridge, 19S4), 4.4, 11. 71.John Zonaras, Epitome historiarum, vol.3, ed.T.Biittner-Wobst (Bonn, 1897), 389. 72.G.Smyrnakis, To"Ayrov •opo� (Athens, 1903), 25.By the time of Leo VI, Chalkidike was called Siderocausa because of its mines. 73.Davies, Roman Mines, 233 n.5. Even the Turkish spelling in the Ottoman documents published by Ahmet Refik testifies to this. Here, the name appears as Sidre Kapsi, not as Sidre Kapusu. 74. See the Athonite documents in F.Dolger, Aus den Schatzk.ammern des heiligen Berges (Munich, 1948), 338, where the name appears during the Byzantine period. 75. Davies, Roman Mines, 234.
76.Davies, Roman Mines, 198. He lists his source as Maclaren, Gold, a work which, unfortunately, was not available to me. 77. Davies, Roman Mines, 244; C.Jirel!ek, "Archaologische Fragmente aus Bulgarien," Archiiologisch-epigraphische Mitteilungen aus Oste"eich Ungarn 10 (1886): 75-85. 78.As pointed out above, Teglas confirms that the Marcomanni Wars did not put an end to Dacian mining. The Theodosian Code implies that in the years 386 and 424 mining was being carried on in spite of invasions. It is too easy to attribute to the invasions everything that is convenient for the historian.
194
Society
79.Jirel!ek, Bergwerke, 42. For a detailed analysis o f the Ragusan archives on the subject of mining, see pp.48-58 of this work. 80.Jire«k, Bergwerke, 43.He implies that the ancient mining tradition had not died out. 81.J ire«k, Bergwerke, 47.Most of it probably came from Novo Brdo and Bosnia. 82.J irel!ek, Bergwerke, 47. Kritoboulos, 110."cx♦uc vt'iTa1 ec; 7tol1 v qupcxv icai eu&aiµova. NoPKpo&)v ovTm 1ea.louµev11 v ...oo 5� xai 7tlt'icrroc; xpuao c; ,ca, ri py upo c; ye:1D pyt'iTa1 cx vapUTTO J,l tVoc; ." Doukas, Historia Byzantina, ed. I.Bekker (Bonn, 1834), 17: " • .•apyupoii Tttla.VTa ixava tt Tciiv J.18Tall.C'llv teppi�."Doukas, 208 records a conversation in which the minister of Murad II is supposed to have advised him to take the city of Novo Brdo for the following reason: .. &plDJ,ltV a,i:' auTOU Tac; 7t'lYY 1Ca.t -riµta, 1Ca.t ic:6aµoc; &uoc; xpuacp teat apyup'tT)ptC06TJ tca.n:A.aµKpVVUO, fl f>e. ll:p01tOJ.l'II:� 8a.uµaOT� 'f(p ovn 1CQI fjcxa1111c:�. 1ta.vTa.x66ev eu♦m,ia,c; auyic:po TOUJl!Vfl ,cat xap,at KO.I ll:QUJ.VtaJ,Lo'ic; e�cx1pouµevT) Tijc; n:61Emc;." Note that where Kedrenos refers vaguely to the whole city, Attaliates speaks of the inhabitants of the marketplace.
56. The Chronographia of Michael Psellus, E. R. A. Sewter (London, 1953) (hereafter, Sewter), p. 93. Psellos, Chron. 1:96. 57. Psellos, Chron. 1:96.
58. Stockle, Zunfte, 71-72.
59. Janin, Constantinople, map no. 5.
60. Nicole, Livre, 24: '"Mq exetv tc:e1Euoµev e(ouaia.v xpuaox6ov oitc:01 epycil;ea6a1 xpuaov � cxpy upov. cxU' ev Tote; Epya.crrripiou; Tijc; M£oric;." 61. Attal., 13.
62. Attal., 14; Cedr. 2:536-37; Psellus, Chron. 1:98-100; Zon. 3:609. 63. Cedr., 2:537.
64. Cedr., 2:537.
65. Cedr., 2:537: •cir.vaaic:a.+eiTJ TIX 0OTcx -roil ic:a.1a+chou."
244
Society
66.Atta]., 14: "e1a8e I>£ TOV ICOOl:VOV UlmC1C1tV(OV Eiapal.mv eic; TO 1tiip." 67.Psellos, Chron. 1:102: "oi I>' ouv bi Tmv e: py aaTl)picov Kai ,rpoc; µeycv.ai; T61µai; n:apecncEu�ovTo." The ipyaaT11p1a were the workshops of the craftsmen aJong the Mese. Stock]e, Livre, 71-72.NicoJe, Zunfte, 24: " .•.EV Toic; i:pyaaT1Jp101c; Tijc; Mtal)t;.,. 68.Psellos, Chron. 1 :102: "To &I! ayopa'iov yevoc; ,ca\ ci+eTov ij611 nou ,cat ,i;apttEICIVl)TO coc; otVTITUpavvijaov T«. TUpavveuaavn." Here the phrase ayopa'iov yevoc; realJy refers to the peop]e of the agora, that is, to the crafts men.This is made dear in other passages.PseJJos relates that women left their seclusion to join the rebellion: "eym youv ,ro� io>pci1ef}v, cit; ou6e1c; axp1 TOT£ Tflurretvoµev11 ."
96. Novellae, 645: "Tov e; &e CJUOTflJ.laTlteOU c; teal. 11:payµaT£uea8a.1 fJouloµevouc;. µ� TOU 1tpovoµ1ou TOUTOU aitol.aue,v • . . 611µ00,q TOUTouc; oµ \IU£I\I, 1Ca8cxff£p Touc; µ11l\ev� TETUXf'IICOTac; �coµaToc;.'' 97. Psellos, 148: "µhoxo1 &£ TOU atceµµ«ro,; OU T(O\I ayevrov µovov !Cat av covuµot." Atta1iates (Attal., 74), speaks of the a+aveaTEpot in the rebellion. 98. Attal., 73: "tea\ o llijµoc; &itac; auve1tcxvu,c:n:pEUElV; the presiding archbishop is apx18ecopoi;.44 It is obvious from the text that the author is very conversant with classical literature, and so his utilization of these terms may in part be explained by a classical influence on his style; but this can only be a partial explanation. Again in the miracles of Saint Thekla we encounter other such terms, iEpa. vu1euy£pai a, v"µcj,£\)Tflptov,45 and again our author is an orator who is likely to seek such terms from classical antiquity. Is the simi larity between the Byzantine and classical panegyris then the product
261
In Delos do you, 0 Phoebus, most delight your heart; for there the long robed Ionians gather in your honor with their chi1dren and shy wives: mindful they delight you with boxing and dancing and song, so often as they hold their contest. A man would say that they were deathless and unaging if he should then come upon the lonians so met together. For he would see the graces of them all, and would be pleased in heart gazing at the men and well-girded women, with their swift ships and great wealth.50 Many centuries later Strabo, in writing of the panegyris of Delos, says: ij n: 1t«V1lYOpu; eµ1top11c:ov Tt xpayµa. eaT1.51 This combination of religious, commercial, and other secular activities was particularly noticeable in the four greatest panegyreis of the pagan Greek world, celebrations which remain par excellence the panegyreis of this ancient world. Both Demosthenes and Pindar refer to the Olympian, Isthmian, Nemean, and Pythian festivals as panegyreis. 52 Dio Chrysostom gives details as to the variety of the participants at the Isthmia and at the temple of Poseidon. There, he saw sophists with their students, orators, authors, poets, miracle men, seers, and ped dlers.53 But the term panegyris was also applied to the celebrations of political federations such as the Delia, Panionia, and Pamboiotia. Though the ancient panegyris had, variously, religious, commercial,
Speros Vryonis, Jr.
262
The Panegyris of the Byzantine Saint
athletic, and political characteristics, the basic common denomina
tors seem to have been the assembly of large numbers of people, commercial activity, and the popular flavor to its various manifesta
tions.S4 Individual features common to most panegyreis were the fol lowing: oratorical performances to celebrate the occasion, commer
cial markets, tents to house the merchants and other participants, the
great procession to the temple, the sacrificial meal following the pro cession, and the giving of provisions from the income of the deity to the participants.55 The ancient panegyris provided society not only
with religious and economic expression but also with the opportu
nity for rest and recreation. As Demokritos wrote: �ioc; «ve6pTaa-roc; (O(; µal.ex i)' Iepoao).uµcov m).11aia, � iccxt 1,1u�ae1c; EV (lUTij 1d.iia6a1, ICUI OIC'TQ> 1\µipac; ��ijc; eicd,11cnatetv, aUV1EVUl T£ xo). :A.ouc; ax�v £IC 11:aa11c; rile; "'' ij).,ov, oi icaJI icrropia.v TCOV iepmv TOltCOV nav To&v auVTpexoua1 ica-r« -rov 1Ca.1pov Toc; :n:e:p\ CX.UT�V EV uµvC96iatc; ica8a:n:ep tll:1 µapTllpCl>V :n:ctVl}YllP£(0&e 'll:0tV11YUPimv ei,vciv WU!ixov Kaµ1n,�v &ifl,po\> Demosthenes, De Corona 91: a.11:oatt'ila, &e Kot\ 8empi� ei.c; Trt10Tcov teax:06a11.1.6vcov �ocoVT(l)V ica1 101!,opouµevmv ci11�1otc;, KU\ TCOV 1eyoµevcov µot8f)TCOV ch1ou aUco µaxoµ£V(l)V, '11:0AACOV &£ auyypcx♦ee>v avaytyV(l)£tV(>TaTOV yevoc; u11:oul6v ean icat +auMOl>£ec; T£ ica\ Tpe'ltTov ica\ PaaKa'ivov, 11:ecj,ucncoµevov 11:aµ1tl£taTa. Kat Mlou 1tlijpec;· eh:e T1c; a� 1t£pi T01JTCOV eiic6noc;· ' Apµev,01 +auM>t µev. !CCXV aoo�coat, ♦aUAOTepot 611:yivovTat oo,a.a8evm;, 1tM>UT� 00.VT� l>e +auloT£pot 1Ca80M>U, U1t£p1tlo1ma8e� (l>e) IC0.1 Tlflll8£Vffi; cpaulem♦aul6TaTot ooiicvuvTat mia,. Krumbacher, "Kasi a," 336, also quotes a proverb attributed to Maximos Planoudes expressing this hatred between Greeks and Armenians: ' Apµevtov 2X£tc; ljltM>V, xeipov' ex8pov I'll ee)..e 30. Typikon of Bal'.:kovo, ed. L. Petit, Typikon de Gregoire Pacourianos pour le monastere de Petritzos (Backovo) en Bulgarie (St. Petersburg, 1904), 44-45: "IIEpl Toil I'll ICO.TaTaaaea8at ' Pmµa'iov ,cpeaPvttpov ii µovatovTa E:V Tl] ICaT' eµe µovij. IC0.1 61' ijvT1va TllV u'1nav· " Further incidents of this ani mosity are to be found throughout the chronicles. Philaretos, though a Chalcedonian Armenian, had the Greek troops of Antioch treacherously slain after they had handed the city over to him (Matthew of Edessa, 179). In the great revolt of Bardas Skleros in the reign of Basil II, the Greek troops, who seem to have had a particular dislike for the Armenian troops in the army of Skleros, marked them out for special treatment and put them all to the sword (Kedrenos-Skylitzes, 2:425-26). On the hatred between Greeks and Armenians in the beginning of the thirteenth century, see Charanis, "On the Ethnic Composition of Asia Minor," 144.
Index
Absorption: implications of term, 53 Accounting systems, 119-120 Adalian, Ruben, 53 Adontz, Nicholas, 53 Aghia, 282-283 Agriculture: Geoponica treatise, 115; peasant behavior and, 116 "Ahdath," 232 Akhis: political activity of, 210 Alexander the Great, 4; teacherpupil relationship, 100 Alexandria: abuses of officials, 82-85 A lexius I, 36, 102 "Anacreontic Verse on the Most Philosophical....• (poem), 123 Anastos, Milton, 3-7 Anatoli.kon, 295 Andrew the Fool, Saint, 112 Anthony, Saint, 92 Anthony the Young, Saint, 279 Antioch, 106 Apokapes family, 156-158 Apokapes, Basil, 154, 156-157 Apokapcs, Pharesmanes, 154, 156-157 Arboriculture: Geoponica treatise, 115
Archangel Michael, 260 Arethas, Archbishop, 111
Aristides, 103 Aristocracy: and decline of empire, 295-296; Peira as historical source of, 133-140 Aristotle, 111; on the city, 106; teacher-pupil relationship, 100 Armed 99-102; importance of, 99; and urban violence, 220--221.See also Military Armeniacon, 105 Armenians: description of, 122; importance of, in Byzantine Empire, 54; integra�ion into Byzantine culture, 55-56; role in Byzantine Empire, 51-52 Artists, 94-123.See also Merchantscraftsmen-artists Asceticism: of Saint Andrew, 112 Asterios, 265-266 Attaliates, Michael, 143, 221 Autocracy: in Byzantine rule, 117-118 Avar Khan, 213 Axouch, John, 124
forces,
Bafkovo monastery, 143 Baghdad: Tughrul Beg's invasion of, 293 Bakers, 217; guild of, 215 Balkans: and Byzantine pani!gyris,
Index
312 269-279 Balsamon, 267 Bankers: guild of, 214 Bardas, Caesar, 55, 102 Bari: capture of, 28 Barta, 146, 155-156 Basil I, the Macedonian, Eastern Roman Emperor, 146; as builder and restorer, 73; career of, 62-Gl; daily life under Basil I, 72; as Emperor, 70-71; ethnic and social origins of, 56-60; justice and law, 71; rise of, 65-69; virtues of, 75-76 Basil II, Eastern Roman Emperor, 95, 100, 140, 155; novels of, 134 Basil the Parakoimomenos, 19 Basilika, 230 Bassos, Cassianos, 115 Baynes, N., 3 Beck, Hans-Georg, 4 Bene§evit, V., 144 Bezobrazov, P., 145 Bloch, M., 169 Boilas family, 151-158; slaves of, 157-158 Boilas, Anna, 152-157 Boilas, Bardas, 151 Boilas, Constantine, 151 Boilas, Eustathios, 110, 143-163 Boilas, Irene, 152-157 Boilas, Maria, 152-153 Boilas, Petronas, 151 Boilas, Romanos, 152-153, 156-157 Book of Ceremonies, The, 154, 213, 218-219 Book of the Eparch, 113, 213-216; organization of, 214-216 Book of the Prefect, The, 230 Botaniates family, 107; backgr ound of, 295. See also Nikephoros III Botaniates, Eastern Roman Emperor
Bounzes, George, 55, 140 Bouzina, 145, 155-156 Bryennios family, 295 Bucellarium, 105 Bureaucratic class, 94, 101-123; characteristics of, 103-105; and decline of empire, 294-297; edu cation of, 102; epistolographic tradition, 103-105; rising from, 112 Bury, J.B., 212 Butchers, guild of, 215 Byzantine bureaucracy: Alexandrian officials, 82-85 Byzantine culture: agricultural influ ences, 116; aristocracy and, 133-140; Armenians and, 54-56, 122; artists in, 94-123; Christianity and, 27-29, 116, 121-123; and conformity in Byzantine society, 91-124; defini tions of, 93; economic factors influencing, 81-87, 119-120, 195-204, 222-223, 232; festivals, 251, 261-263, 272-284; Graeco Roman continuity, 232; Graeco Roman influences on, 209-210; imperial elections, 30-36; influ ences of guilds, 211-231; legal influences, 71, 119, 134-140, 170-171; musical instruments; 282; patronage and, 104-105; prostitution, 265; religion in, 27-29, 71-73, 209-230, 251-284; religious influences, 251-284; royalty in, 30-34, 94-123, 138, 197.See also Numismatics Byzantine economy: accounting sys tems, 119-120; agriculture and, 115-116; trade fairs, 280-283 Byzantine Empire: backgr ound of, 5-21; civil wars, 294-295; daily life under Basil I, 73-75; decline
313
Chronoiiraphl11, H>-12, 92, 95 Chry1lppo11 1 t t Chry1onae: 1hu1c1 of, 82-84 Church: Church father■, 264-266 Circus faction,, 2.1.1 Cities: Ari11tol10'1 view• of, 10fi; panl!gyria anJ, 276-2H.1 i urban violence:, 219-221 Clement of Rome, 264 Clergy, 94, 111-12.1; By:r.antinc cul• ture and, 121-123; conformity of clergy, 111-112 Codex Justinianus, 170 Codex Theodosianus, 170-174 Coinage, 169-171 Coins, 81-87 Conformity, 91-124; definitions of, 94 Constans II, 197; numismatic evi dence from reign of, 195-204 Constantine I, 5, 96-98; and Byzantine pancgyris, 268 Constantine IV, numismatic evi dence from reign of, 195-204 Constantine IX Monomachos, 102, 105, 152-153, 156; accession of, Candle makers: guild of, 215 30; reign of, 152-153, 226-227 Cappadocia, 92, 153, 155 Constantine V, numismatic evi Chakedonian Byzantines, 52 dence from reign of, 195-204 Chalcedonian Tzats, 54 Constantine VI, 213, 256 Chaldia, 151 Constantine VII, 56, 102, 151, 218; Charanis, P., 196 and Armenian Byzantines, 56; Charsianon, 295 death of, 28 Chatzimichales, Theodore, 278-279 Constantine X Doukas, 34, 113, Cherson, 213 227-231, 298 Choirosphaktes family, 295 Copts, 51 Choniates, Michael, 270-271 Corporations: Book of the Eparch, Choniates, Niketas, 211 comments on, 215; in Byzantine Chorikios of Gaza, 265 culture, 113 Chouspakrati, 145 Christianity: agricultural influences, Craftsmen, 94-123; Kedrenos's account, 222-223; munera, 116; Byzantine culture and, 218-219.See also Merchants 121-123; in eleventh century, craftsmen-artists 27-29
of, in eleventh century, 293-305; homogeneity, 25-26; Imperial authority, 25-44; multi national character of, 52; myths and legends, 78 Byzantine guilds, 209, 213-231; and Easter procession, 223-224; Graeco-Roman roots, 232; mili tary importance, 231; munera, 218-219; political activities, 213; political potential, 219; topo graphical location, 217; and urban violence, 219-221; wealthy guildsman, 213-214 Byzantine mines, 169-186; Roman influences, 170-171 Byzantine politics: guilds and, 213-222 Byzantine royalty.See Imperial fam ily Byzantine saints; literature regard ing, 252-255; panegyris of, 251-284 Byzantine society, See Society forced
314
Index
Index · '
Cretan expedition (of 911-912), 203-204 Cults. See Byzantine saints; Religion Culture, See Byzantine culture; spe-cific categories of culture Currency: numismatic items, 81--87
Education: of bureaucratic class, 102; of Byzantine Emperors, 13-20; imperial paedagogue, 100; patronage and, 104-105 Elections: imperial, �36 Emperors: defined roles of, 96-99; divinity of, 8-13; education of, 13-20; and guild members, 214; origins of, 113. See also Imperial family Epanagoge, 95, 120 Epicurus, 111 Epistolographic tradjtion: of bureaucratic class, 103-105 Eugenios, Saint, 254, 270 Eusebios, 3, 25, 94-95, 103 Eustathios, archbishop of Thessalonike, 111 Evagrios, 253 Evliya, 274-275
Dalisandos, 255 Daniel of Raithou, 143 De administrando imperio, 96 De cerimoniis, 96-97 delta: meaning of, 81-83 Demetrios, Saint, 104, 254, 260; pani!gyris of, 256-259 Democracy, 209-231; meanings of, 211, 233 Demosthenes, 103, 261 "Descent to Hades,• 123 Dikaiosyne: as quality of Emperor, 98 Diogenes, Romanos, 34, 154 Diomedes, Saint: Monastery of, 73 Divinity: of Byzantine Emperors, 8-13 Dilger, F., 3 Dolian, pan�gyris of, 274-275 Doukades family, 33-36, 107 Doukas, Andronikos, 34, 143 Doukas, Caesar John, 34, 228 Doukas, Michael, 19, 34, 100, 143 Dreams, 59, 64 Dumbarton Oaks, 3-7, 81 Dvornik, Father Francis, 3-7 Dynatoi, 133
Families: aristocratic, 294-296 Family names: in Byzantine history, 92 Fatouros, George, 103 Fear: as social motivator, 91-92, 108 Feast of Calends, 265 Festivals, 251, 261-263, 272-284 Finance: bureaucratic class and, 101 Fishmongers: guild of, 215 Fogg Museum, 81, 195 Foreign relations, 96-97; bureaucratic class and, 101 Foreigners: xenophobia and, 99-100
Easter procession: and Byzantine guilds, 223-224 Economics, 119-120; and decline of Byzantine Empire, 294-298; Graeco-Roman continuity, 232 Economy: bureaucratic class and, 101 Edessa, 154
Gabras, Michael, 102-103, 253 Gadolin, 92 Generals: payment of, 214; and wealthy guild members, 213-214 Generals-magnates, 94, 105-123; description of class, 105-106 Geoponica, 115 Georgians, 51
Glabas family, 295 Gobineau, 52. Gold: as assassination reward, 213; in Byzantine trade, 169-172 Gold coins, 81-87, 119-120, 19S-204; Kedreno111 account, 222-223; weighing of, 81-82 Government: accounting ay1tem1, 120; bureaucratic class and, 101 Grabar, A., 3 Graeco-Roman continuity: and Islamic civilization, 209-230 Gregoire, H., 53 Grocers, 217; guild of, 215 Guild members: initiation fee, 216; oath taking, 227 Guilds. See Byzantine Guilds Gypsies, 51 Hapax legomcnon, 102 Harmenopoulos, 6-8, 170 Healing, described in panegryis, 255 Heraklcios, 213, 219 Herodotus, 103 Hexabiblos of Harmenopoulos, 6-8, 170 Homer, 103, 105 Imperial authority, 25-44 Imperial election, 30-36 Imperial family, 94-123; autocratic rule, 117; behavioral norms of, 94-95; and decline of Byzantine Empire, 294-295; emperor's role,
95
Individualism: and Byzantine literature, 92-93; definitions of, 91-92 Initiation fee: of guild members, 216 Innkeepers, 217; guild of, 215 Irene: numismatic evidence from reign of, 195-204 Isaac I Komnenos, 10, 31, 118 Isaion, 1S5-56
JU
Islamic clvllluclon, aot-1,0, 232-238; Gr■eco•Rom•n &:nn&l• nuity, 209-211, 232 Isthmian festival, 261 Jenkins, Romilly, 52, 93 Jewelers: guild of, 213-214 Jew,, 51; conversion of, 72-73 John Chrysostom, Saint, 264-265 John the Theologian, Saint, 256 John11un, A.C., 82 Juatlce: Ba1ll'1 reign and, 70 Ju1tin II: numi■madc evidence from reign of, .19.�-204, 214 Justinian, 6, 821 Edict XI, H2-N4 Justinian II (ht relan), numl■matlc evidence from reign uf, 19J-204 Justinian II, (2nd reign), 213 Kalaphates, Michael V., 221-2.JJ Kalmouch, 145 Kalmouche, 155-56 Kastorissa, Maria, 140 Kazhdan, A., 196 Kedrenos, 152, 221-229 Kedrenos-Skylitzes: chronicle of, 297 Kckaumenos, Katakalon, 106-108, 116, 118-123, 156, 231, 297 Kephalas, Leo, 143 Keroularios, Michael, 38, 112 Khouspakrati, 155-56 Kilij Arslan, 114 Kletorologion of Philotheos, 218 Klimax, John, 143 Kluckhohn, 93 Komana festival, 262-253 Komnenos, Alexios, 35, 119, 143, 227-230 Komnenos, Isaac I, 10, 35, 226 Kopteriou, 145, 155-156 Koukoules, P., 253 Kounikios family, 295
316
Index
Kousneria, 145, 155-156 Kroeber, 93 Laekapenos, George, 103 Landed gentry, See Generals-mag nates Languages: in Byzantine Empire, 52 Latin civilization: Graeco-Roman continuity, 209--211, 232 Latins, 51; and Byzantine panegyris, 269 Law: Basil's reign and, 71; and Byzantine mining, 170-171; obe dience to, 119; in Peira, 134-140 Lazes, 51 Legal system: Basil's reign and, 71-72 Leichoudes, 112 Leichoudes, Constantine, 143 Lekapenos, Romanos, 151 Leo II, 219 Leo IV, 213: numismatic evidence from reign of, 195-204 Leo the Mathematician, 111 Leo Tomikios, 226 Leo V: numismatic evidence from reign of, 195-204 Leo VI, 55 Leontios: numismatic evidence from reign of, 195-204 Leukippc, 110 Libanios, 253, 263 Liberalism: individualism and, 91 Linen merchants, guild of, 215 Literati, 103; bureaucratic class and, 101 Livestock market: fairs, 280 Logos Nouthetitikos, 8-19, 97, 99-102 Lombard, M., 169 Macedonian dynasty: generals-mag nates and, 105-106
Magistros, Nikctas, 104, 253 Magnates, .94-123. See also Generals-magnates Maleinoi family; 106 Manasses, Constantine, 229-231 Manzikert: defeat at, 293 Marriage celebration: and panegyris, 253 Martyrdom: described in pancgyris, 255-273 Matthew of Edessa, 51 Maurice: numismatic evidence from reign of, 195-204 Mauropous, John, 105, 256 Mavronoros fair, 275 "May Education Be Anathema," 113 Mazaris, 123 Merchants-craftsmen-artists, 94, 112-123; description of class, 112-113; Italian competition and, 114-115; munera, 218-219; regulations of, 214-217. See also Byzantine guilds Metals, and Byzantine mines, 169-186 Metochites, Theodore, 106, 118 Michael II: numismatic evidence from reign of, 195-204 Michael III, 54 Michael IV, 29, 98 Michael V Kalaphates, 29, 104, 221-231, 298 Michael VI, 29-33; election of, 30; removal of, 33, 298 Michael VII, 9S, 100, 228-230, 298 Miles, George, 85 Military: defeat at Manzikert, 293-295; importance of, 99; and Michael V Kalaphates, 224-230; nobility and, 296; as a profes sion, 107; and wealthy guild members, 213-214
Index
Mining, 169-186 Modestinus, 6 Monarchs. See Imperial family Monasteries: suits involving, 136--139 Monastery of Saint George, 269 Monetary system: bureaucracy and, 119-120 Money economy: gold coins and, 81-87, 119-120, 195-204,
222-223
Monomachos family, 295 Moscholouri fair, 275-276 Munera: and Byzantine guilds, 218-219 Musical instruments, 282 Myths and legends, 78 Naxarars, 53 Nea logarike accounting, 120 Nemean festival, 261 Nicholas, Saint, 254 Nikephoritzes, 143 Nikephoros I, 36, 214 Nikephoros III Botaniates, 11, 113, 143, 212, 227-229; election of, 35 Nikopolis fair, 275-276 Normans: capture of Bari, 28 Notaries: guild of, 214 Numismatics, 81-87; gold weighing and, 81-83; Justinian Edict XI, 82-84 Ohrid, 92 Omont, H., 144 Oneirokrites, 110 Ophidobouni, 145, 155-156 Optimaton, 295 Ostrogorsky, G., 3, 105, 197 Ouzike, 145, 155-56 Padeia Basilike, 95 Paedagogue, imperial, 100
317
Pakourianos, Gregory, 143 Palace of Lausus, 217 Palaia Logarike accounting, 120 Pancgyris: assimilation by Church, 266--268; attitudes of Church fathers, 264-266; Byzantine saints, 251-284; classical roots, 26o-264; cultural adaptation, 284; distribution of, 259-260; fes tive spirit, 251; meaning of term, 253-254 Parabounion, 155 Patriarchal School, 111 Patronage: education and, 104-105 Patzinaks, Seljuk battles, 156 Paul, Saint, 254-256 Pauline Epistles, 103 Peasants, 94, 115-119; agriculture and, 116; behavioral norms, 115-116 Peira, 133-140, 230 Peloponnese, panegyris system, 271-272 Perfume dealers, guild of, 215 Personality, conformity and, 92 Peter, Saint, 253 Petrion monastery, 224 Pharsala, panegyris of, 278 Pharsala fair, 275-276 Philaretos, 154 Philes, Manuel, 253 Philippikos: numismatic evidence from reign of, 195-204 Philotheos, 218 Phokades family, 106 Phokas, Saint, 254, 260, 270; numis matic evidence from reign of, 195-204 Photius, 55, 112 Phronesis: as quality of Emperor, 98 Pindar, 261 Plato, 4, 103, 111 Poetry, 113
318 Pogoniani fair, 275-276 Political structure: of Constantinople, 212 Politics: and Byzantine guilds, 213-214; imperial elections, 30-32 Pork sellers: guild of, 215 Porphyrogennetos, Constantine, 19-21 , 27-29, 51-75, 96, 115, 122, 154, 213, 218 Prilep fair, 275-276 Princes. See Imperial family Private clubs, 212 Property law: in Peira, 134-140 Prostitution, 217, 265 Psellos, Michael, 10--12, 28-32, 92, 95-103, 143 Psychike andreia: as quality of emperor, 98 Ptochoprodromos, 113 Pythian festival, 261
Ravinica Monastery, 270 Religion: Basil's reign and, 71-72; Byzantine forms of, 120--123; changes in 11th century, 27-29; conversion of Jews and Slavs, 71-72; and Islamic civilization, 209-230, 232-238; panegyris of Byzantine saints, 251-284; struc tural dogma, 252 Rentakios family, 295 Rhomaioi, 104 Rhomaios, Eustathios: Peira of, 133-140 Romanos II, 218 Romanos III Argyros, 29, 112, 154 Romanos IV: defeat of, 118 Royalty: See Imperial family Saint Barbara, Church of, 156 Saints.See specific saints by name Salem, 155
Index
Index
Sassanid Persia, 112 School of the Holy Apostles, 111 Seljuk invasion: impact of, 270 Seljuk invasions, 51, 155-158 Sexuality: asceticism and, 112 Shrines: pancgyris of, 254 Silk manufacturers: guild of, 215, 217 Silk merchants: guild of, 214-215 Skleros family, 106, 134-140; munera and, 218 Skleros, Romanos, 134-140 Slaves: manumission of Boilas's, 15�157 Slavs: and Byzantine panegyris, 269; conversion of, 71-72; description of, 122; Hellenized, 52; role in Byzantine Empire, 51-52 Soap makers: guild of, 215 Social class: origins of emperors and, 113 Social status: in Byzantine society, 112-113 Society: bureaucratic class and, 101-103; conformity in, 91-124; functions of conformity, 94; indi vidualism and, 91; methods of analyzing, 91-92 Socrates, 111 Solidi: weighing of, 81--83 Sophia, Saint, '.J7, 226-229 Sophrosyne: as quality of Emperor, 98
South Slavs: role in Byzantine Empire, 51-52 Sozomenos, 213-214,253, 267 Spyridon, Saint, 254, 260 Sraurakios: numismatic evidence from reign of, 195-204 Stephen Uro§ II (Milutin), 269 Stephen Uro§ III (�anski), 269 Strategikon, 106--07, 116 Strongia fair, 275-276
Suits: lega lity of in Peira, 134-140 Synadenos family, 140 Syriac speakers, 51 Taboularioi: described in Book of the Eparch, 216 Taiq, 153, 155 Tanning industry, 281 Tantzoute, 146, 155 Taronites family, 295 Taronites, Gregory, 55 Tatios, Achilles, 110 Taxes, 119-120; accounting sys tems, 120; weights and measures and, 81--82 Teachers: imperial paedagogue, 100
Tessarakontopechys family, 295 Textile industry, 281 Thekla, Saint, 254-256, 260 Theodora, Empress, 28, 54, 227-230 Theodora (Zoe's sister), 224 Theodore, Saint, 254 Theodore (Teacher), 100 Theodosian Code, 6--8, 81, 85 Theodosios II, 170 Theodoulos, 143 Theophanes, 151, 154, 214; Theophanes's chronicle, 151 Theophanes Continuatus, 92 Theophilos, 112-113; numismatic evidence from reign of, 195-204 Theophylaktos, 97, 112 Thessalonike, 104, 111 Thessaly: panegyris of Pharsala, 278 Thomas Wittemore ColJection. See Whittemore Collection Thompson, M., 195 Thracesion, 105 Tiberios I and II, numismatic evi dence from reigns of, 195-204 Timarion, 104, 256 Toghrulbeg, 154
319
Tornikios family, 295 Tomikios, Leo, 155 Trade: gold and, 169-172 Tradesmen: in twelfth century. 2.11 Treason: legal i11ue1, 138-1.19 Treitinger, 3 Trinity: in Byzantine 1oc:iery, t 17 Tughrul Beg, 293 Tzalema, 145, 155 Tzctzes, John, 104, 122 Ulpian, 4 Urban disorder, 211-212; outbreaks in twelfth century, 233 Urban violence, 219-221 Vaanes, 54 Varangians, 118 Vatatzes family, 295 Virtues: as qualities of Emperor, 98 Vita Basilii, 51-76, 92, 106; political theory of, 74 Vlachs, 51; and Byzantine panZ:gyris, 269; description of, 122 Vrachori fair, 275-276 West, L.C., 82 Whittemore Collection, 81-86, 195-203 Women: Kekaumenos's views of, 109 Woodworking industry, 281 Wroth, 196-1'.17 Xenophobia, 99, 114 Xiphilenos, John, 105, 112 Xiphilinos, 296 Y armuk, battle of, 54 Zeitoun fair, 275-276 Zoe, Empress, 28, 221-230 Zonaras, 116, 267 Zygostatae, abuses of, 82-85