Empresses of Late Byzantium

Empresses of Late Byzantium PDF Author: Petra Melichar
Publisher: Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften
ISBN: 9783631746677
Category : Byzantine Empire
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The study presents the biographies of fifteen empresses in the period from 1261 to 1450. It also considers the selection of imperial brides and the rituals accompanying their arrival in Constantinople. Finally, the author inquires into these women's contributions to public, ritual, and ecclesiastical life and reflects on the seasons of their lives.

Empresses of Late Byzantium

Empresses of Late Byzantium PDF Author: Petra Melichar
Publisher: Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften
ISBN: 9783631746677
Category : Byzantine Empire
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The study presents the biographies of fifteen empresses in the period from 1261 to 1450. It also considers the selection of imperial brides and the rituals accompanying their arrival in Constantinople. Finally, the author inquires into these women's contributions to public, ritual, and ecclesiastical life and reflects on the seasons of their lives.

Byzantine Empresses

Byzantine Empresses PDF Author: Lynda Garland
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134756380
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
Byzantine Empresses provides a series of biographical portraits of the most significant Byzantine women who ruled or shared the throne between 527 and 1204. It presents and analyses the available historical data in order to outline what these empresses did, what the sources thought they did, and what they wanted to do.

Unrivalled Influence

Unrivalled Influence PDF Author: Judith Herrin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691153213
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Explores the exceptional roles that women played in the vibrant cultural and political life of medieval Byzantium. Drawing on a diverse range of sources, this title focuses on the importance of marriage in imperial statecraft, the tense coexistence of empresses in the imperial court, and the critical relationships of mothers and daughters.

Women in Purple

Women in Purple PDF Author: Judith Herrin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691117802
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
In the eighth and ninth centuries, three Byzantine empresses—Irene, Euphrosyne, and Theodora—changed history. Their combined efforts restored the veneration of icons, saving Byzantium from a purely symbolic and decorative art and ensuring its influence for centuries to come. In this exhilarating and highly entertaining account, one of the foremost historians of the medieval period tells the story of how these fascinating women exercised imperial sovereignty with consummate skill and sometimes ruthless tactics. Though they gained access to the all-pervasive authority of the Byzantine ruling dynasty through marriage, all three continued to wear the imperial purple and wield tremendous power as widows. From Constantinople, their own Queen City, the empresses undermined competitors and governed like men. They conducted diplomacy across the known world, negotiating with the likes of Charlemagne, Roman popes, and the great Arab caliph Harun al Rashid. Vehemently rejecting the ban on holy images instituted by their male relatives, Irene and Theodora used craft and power to reverse the official iconoclasm and restore icons to their place of adoration in the Eastern Church. In so doing, they profoundly altered the course of history. The art—and not only the art—of Byzantium, of Islam, and of the West would have been very different without them. As Judith Herrin traces the surviving evidence, she evokes the complex and deeply religious world of Constantinople in the aftermath of Arab conquest. She brings to life its monuments and palaces, its court ceremonies and rituals, the role of eunuchs (the "third sex"), bride shows, and the influence of warring monks and patriarchs. Based on new research and written for a general audience, Women in Purple reshapes our understanding of an empire that lasted a thousand years and splashes fresh light on the relationship of women to power.

Theodosian Empresses

Theodosian Empresses PDF Author: Kenneth G. Holum
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520068017
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
Theodosian Empresses sets a series of compelling women on the stage of history and offers new insights into the eastern court in the fifth century.

Empresses and Power in Early Byzantium

Empresses and Power in Early Byzantium PDF Author: Liz James
Publisher: Burns & Oates
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
The role of the Byzantine emperor has been exhaustively analyzed; the place of the Byzantine empress -- often perceived as an appendate to male imperial power -- is more problematic. Elizabeth James begins her study with Helena, mother of the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great, and ends with Eirene, the only woman to rule as an "emperor" in Byzantium. More than simply a biography of each empress in the period between the fourth and eighth centuries, this book analyzes the nature of female imperial power during that time. What rights and responsibilities, what access to power, if any, did the office of empress carry?

Representations of Early Byzantine Empresses

Representations of Early Byzantine Empresses PDF Author: A. McClanan
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137044691
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
This book reconsiders a wide array of images of Byzantine empresses on media as diverse as bronze coins and gold mosaic from the fifth through to the seventh centuries A.D. The representations have often been viewed in terms of individual personas, but strong typological currents frame their medieval context. Empress Theodora, the target of political pornography, has consumed the bulk of past interest, but even her representations fit these patterns. Methodological tools from fields as disparate as numismatics as well as cultural and gender studies help clarify the broader cultural significance of female imperial representation and patronage at this time.

Empresses-in-Waiting

Empresses-in-Waiting PDF Author: Christian Rollinger
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1835532470
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
Empresses-in-Waiting comprises case studies of late antique empresses, female members of imperial dynasties, and female members of the highest nobility of the late Roman empire, ranging from the fourth to the seventh centuries AD. Situated in the context of the broader developments of scholarship on late antique and byzantine empresses, this volume explores the political agency, religious authority, and influence of imperial and near-imperial women within the Late Roman imperial court, which is understood as a complex spatial, social, and cultural system, the centre of patronage networks, and an arena for elite competition. The studies explore female performance and representation in literary and visual media as well as in court ceremonial, and discuss the opportunities and constraints of female power within a male dominated court environment and the broader realms of imperial activity. By focusing on imperial women, the volume not only addresses questions of gendered rhetoric and agency but throws into relief general dynamics in the exercise of imperial power during a period in which the classical Mediterranean world at large, as well as the Roman monarchy, underwent crucial transformations.

A Companion to Byzantium

A Companion to Byzantium PDF Author: Liz James
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9781444320022
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
Using new methodological and theoretical approaches, A Companionto Byzantium presents an overview of the Byzantine world fromits inception in 330 A.D. to its fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Provides an accessible overview of eleven centuries ofByzantine society Introduces the most recent scholarship that is transforming thefield of Byzantine studies Emphasizes Byzantium's social and cultural history, as well asits material culture Explores traditional topics and themes through freshperspectives

Theodora

Theodora PDF Author: David Potter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199392390
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Two of the most famous mosaics from the ancient world, in the church of San Vitale in Ravenna, depict the sixth-century emperor Justinian and, on the wall facing him, his wife, Theodora (497-548). This majestic portrait gives no inkling of Theodora's very humble beginnings or her improbable rise to fame and power. Raised in a family of circus performers near Constantinople's Hippodrome, she abandoned a successful acting career in her late teens to follow a lover whom she was legally forbidden to marry. When he left her, she was a single mother who built a new life for herself as a secret agent, in which role she met the heir to the throne. To the shock of the ruling elite, the two were married, and when Justinian assumed power in 527, they ruled the Eastern Roman Empire together. Their reign was the most celebrated in Byzantine history, bringing wealth, prestige, and even Rome itself back to the Empire. Theodora was one of the dominant political figures of her era, helping shape imperial foreign and domestic policy and twice saving her husband from threatened deposition. She played a central role trying to solve the religious disputes of her era and proactively assisted women who were being trafficked. An extraordinarily able politician, she excited admiration and hatred from those around her. Enemies wrote extensively and imaginatively about her presumed early career as a prostitute, while supporters elevated her, quite literally, to sainthood. Theodora's is a tale of a woman of exceptional talent who overcame immense obstacles to achieve incredible power, which she exercised without ever forgetting where she had come from. In Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint, David Potter penetrates the highly biased accounts of her found in the writings of her contemporaries and takes advantage of the latest research on early Byzantium to craft a modern, well-rounded, and engaging narrative of Theodora's life. This fascinating portrait will intrigue all readers with an interest in ancient and women's history.