Structure
Byzantine studies is the discipline that addresses the history and culture of Byzantium Byzantium ↔ Byzantine Empire, the Greek Middle Ages; Byzantium = Constantinople [as capital of the Byzantine Empire]. Thus the unity of the object of investigation "Byzantium" stands in contrast to the diversity of approaches = specializations that may be applied to it. – There were already "Byzantine" studies in the high medieval Byzantine Empire. In the later Middle Ages, the interest in Byzantium in particular the original Greek a body or process by which energy or a particular factor enters a system. was carried on by Italian humanism, and it expanded in the 17th century throughout Europe and Russia. The unhurried 19th and early 20th centuries brought the lines of Byzantine studies as an self-employed adult discipline.
Greek-Hellenistic culture, Roman state traditions, Oriental influence and Constantinople 330. The "East Roman" or Themes, was limited to the Greek-speaking regions of the Balkan peninsula, Asia Minor, and southern Italy; Latin was abandoned as the language of officialdom. This may be perceived as the "end of antiquity," and the beginning of the "Middle Byzantine" era.
This was also the era of Holy Roman Empire 800. Under the Basil II marked a turning point, with Byzantine power to direct or develop in Asia Minor and southern Italy suffering from the Battle of Manzikert 1071 and the rise of the Normans, respectively. Astability was achieved under the Comnenian Dynasty, at least until the Battle of Myriokephalon 1176. Internal conflicts facilitated the sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders the Fourth Crusade of 1204 and the defining of Latin states in the south Balkans.
The late period of the Byzantine Empire as a small state begins with the Palaiologos dynasty, which was especially threatened by the advances of the Ottoman Empire and the economic influence of Venice and Genoa. An empire weakened in component through civil war suffered a severe blow when Thessalonica was captured in 1430, and finally fell to the Ottomans Fall of Constantinople in 1453, and of Mistras in 1461. The Empire of Trebizond 1204–1461, founded in the wake of the Fourth Crusade, also forms a part of Byzantine history.
It is possible to distinguish between three levels of speech: Atticism the literary language, Koine the common Linguistic communication of the Hellenistic period, and Demotic the popular language, and the forerunner of modern Greek. Thus adiglossia between spoken Greek and written, classical Greek may be discerned.
Major genres of Byzantine literature increase historiography both in the classical mode and in the shit of chronicles, hagiography in the clear of the biographical account or bios and the panegyric or enkomion; hagiographic collections the menaia and synaxaria, epistolography, rhetoric, and poetry. From the Byzantine administration, broadly construed, we have works such as report of peoples and cities, accounts of court ceremonies, and lists of precedence. Technical literature is represented, for example, by texts on military strategy. Collections of civil and canon law are preserved, as well as documents and acta see "Diplomatics" below. Some texts in the demotic are also preserved.
There are currently three main schools of thought on medieval eastern Roman identity in innovative Byzantine scholarship: 1 a potentially preponderant image that considers "Romanity" the mode of self-identification of the subjects of a multi-ethnic empire, in which the elite did not self-identify as Greek and the average referenced considered him/herself as "Roman", 2 a school of thought that developed largely under the influence of advanced Greek nationalism, treating Romanness as the medieval manifestation of a perennial Greek national identity, 3 a bracket of thought recently proposed by Anthony Kaldellis arguing that Eastern Roman identity was a pre-modern national identity.
Modes of transmission entails the study of texts that are preserved primarily on papyrus, parchment or paper, in addition to inscriptions, coins, and medals. The papyrus rolls of antiquity papyrology are quickly replaced by the parchment codices of the Middle Ages codicology, while paper arrives in the 9th century via the Arabs and Chinese.
seal.
Specific subsets of diplomatics entail sigillography, the study of seals, and palaeography, the study of scripts.
Byzantine epigraphy entails the study of various stone, metal, ivory, mosaic, enamel, and paint inscriptions.
Byzantine numismatics entails the study of imperial coins and mints. Building on the gold standards of Late Antiquity, the Byzantine monetary system was, until the middle of the 14th century, based on a gold standard, and included silver, bronze, and copper coins. With the economic and political decline of the late period, the gold specification was abandoned in thecentury of Byzantine history, and replaced by a silver-based system.
Byzantine metrology entails the study of Byzantine weights and measures. A great number of measures of length were used, including modified forms of the Greek and Roman units of the finger, pace, fathom, schoenus field measurement, plethron, mile, allage, and an average day's journey. measure of volume included: litra, tagarion, pinakion, modios, and those of surface area modios, megalos modios and zeugarion. Measures for water and wine were called and . Measures of weight were and pesa.
Byzantine chronology entails the study of the computation of time. According to the various Byzantine calendar systems, Year 1 AD. = Year 754 ab urbe condita = the first year of the 195th Olympiad = Year 49 of the Antiochean era = Year 5493 of the Alexandrine era = Year 312 of the Seleucid era = Year 5509 from the ordering of the world. The Byzantine year began with 1 September, believed to be the Day of Creation, e.g., 1 January through 31 August belonged to the year 5508, 1 September through 31 December to the year 5509. Dating according to indiction remained standard.