The Chronicle of Constantine Manasses

The Chronicle of Constantine Manasses PDF Author: Constantine Manasses
Publisher: Translated Texts for Byzantini
ISBN: 9781789621587
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book translates the mid-12th-century Synopsis Chronike by Constantine Manasses which was widely circulated. It extends to 1081, marking the end of Nikephoros Botaneiates' reign and the accession of Alexios I Komnenos. Commissioned by the Sevastokratorissa Irene, whose sponsorship likely determined its format in verse and subject matter, the chronicle begins with a dedicatory epigram and introduction lauding Irene for her largesse and love of learning. Manasses proceeds to relate a pastoral view of creation, biblical stories, a history of the peoples of the East, Alexander the Great's conquests and the subsequent Hellenistic empires. He then provides a non-Homeric view of the Trojan War and continues with Rome through the Principate and early empire until the reigns of Constantine I in the East and Theodosios II in the West. Manasses then focuses on the New Rome with a colorful treatment of its individual emperors. The chronicle attracted the attention of Emperor John Alexander for whom the Middle Bulgarian Synodal or Moscow manuscript was translated. This is the mid-14th-century copy taken into account here with deviations from the Greek contained in the footnotes. The so-called Middle Bulgarian Short Chronicle is interspersed in the appropriate places.

The Chronicle of Constantine Manasses

The Chronicle of Constantine Manasses PDF Author: Constantine Manasses
Publisher: Translated Texts for Byzantini
ISBN: 9781789621587
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book translates the mid-12th-century Synopsis Chronike by Constantine Manasses which was widely circulated. It extends to 1081, marking the end of Nikephoros Botaneiates' reign and the accession of Alexios I Komnenos. Commissioned by the Sevastokratorissa Irene, whose sponsorship likely determined its format in verse and subject matter, the chronicle begins with a dedicatory epigram and introduction lauding Irene for her largesse and love of learning. Manasses proceeds to relate a pastoral view of creation, biblical stories, a history of the peoples of the East, Alexander the Great's conquests and the subsequent Hellenistic empires. He then provides a non-Homeric view of the Trojan War and continues with Rome through the Principate and early empire until the reigns of Constantine I in the East and Theodosios II in the West. Manasses then focuses on the New Rome with a colorful treatment of its individual emperors. The chronicle attracted the attention of Emperor John Alexander for whom the Middle Bulgarian Synodal or Moscow manuscript was translated. This is the mid-14th-century copy taken into account here with deviations from the Greek contained in the footnotes. The so-called Middle Bulgarian Short Chronicle is interspersed in the appropriate places.

The Chronicle of Constantine Manasses

The Chronicle of Constantine Manasses PDF Author: Constantine Manasses
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781800857896
Category : Byzantine Empire
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description


Byzantine Chronicles and the Sixth Century

Byzantine Chronicles and the Sixth Century PDF Author: Roger Scott
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351219448
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 538

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Book Description
Byzantine chronicles have traditionally been regarded as a somewhat inferior form of Byzantine history writing, especially in comparison with 'classicizing' historians. The aim of many of these papers is both to rescue the reputation of the Byzantine chroniclers, especially Malalas and Theophanes, and also to provide some examples of how these two chroniclers in particular can be exploited usefully both to reveal aspects of the past itself, notably of the period of Justinian, and also of how the Byzantines interpreted their own past, which included on occasions rewriting that past to suit altered contemporary needs. For the period of Justinian in particular, proper attention to aspects of the humble Byzantine chronicle can also help achieve a better understanding of the period than that provided by the classicizing Procopius with his emphasis on war and conquest. By considering more general aspects of the place of history-writing in Byzantine culture, the papers also help explain why history remained such an important aspect of Byzantine culture.

Imagining the Byzantine Past

Imagining the Byzantine Past PDF Author: Elena N. Boeck
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107085810
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
The first comparative, cross-cultural study of medieval illustrated histories that engages in a direct, confrontational dialogue with Byzantine historical memory.

Imagining the Byzantine Past

Imagining the Byzantine Past PDF Author: Elena N. Boeck
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316381234
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Two lavish, illustrated histories confronted and contested the Byzantine model of empire. The Madrid Skylitzes was created at the court of Roger II of Sicily in the mid-twelfth century. The Vatican Manasses was produced for Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria in the mid-fourteenth century. Through close analysis of how each chronicle was methodically manipulated, this study argues that Byzantine history was selectively re-imagined to suit the interests of outsiders. The Madrid Skylitzes foregrounds regicides, rebellions, and palace intrigue in order to subvert the divinely ordained image of order that Byzantine rulers preferred to project. The Vatican Manasses presents Byzantium as a platform for the accession of Ivan Alexander to the throne of the Third Rome, the last and final world-empire. Imagining the Byzantine Past demonstrates how distinct visions of empire generated diverging versions of Byzantium's past in the aftermath of the Crusades.

The Chronicle of the Logothete

The Chronicle of the Logothete PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781789628074
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The Chronicle of the Logothete covers the period from the Creation of the World to the burial of emperor Romanos I Lekapenos in the summer of 948 AD. If we deduce a medieval text's importance and success from the number of extant manuscripts, this work must score highly. While some medieval chronicles have come down to us in only one manuscript, about thirty manuscripts transmit the Chronicle of the Logothete in its main form, and there are also manuscripts containing different kinds of elaborated versions of the text. Also, the chronicle was translated into Old Slavonic at least twice. In spite of the work's popularity, the chronicler himself remains obscure. It has been suggested that this could be Symeon Metaphrastes, an illustrious Byzantine literate who collected and edited, or wrote, Saints' Lives. However, fairly certain is only that the final compilation of the text was made in the second half of the tenth century, and there seems to be a pro-Lekapenian bias and an antipathy towards the Macedonian dynasty. This volume is based on the translator's 2006 edition of the text and constitutes the first translation ever into English.

The de Thematibus ('on the Themes') of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus

The de Thematibus ('on the Themes') of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus PDF Author: John Haldon
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781802078435
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The 10th-century treatise on the military provinces (the 'themes') of the medieval East Roman (Byzantine) empire is one of the most enigmatic of the works ascribed to theemperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos. A mix of historical geography, imperial propaganda, historical information and legend or myth drawn from ancient, Hellenistic as well as Roman and late Roman sources, it was one of the emperor's earliest works, although the extent to which he was its author remains debated. Its purpose, and the emperor's aims in commissioning or writing it, are equally unclear, since it offers neither an accurate historical account of the evolution of the themata nor does it appear to draw on available administrative material that would have been available to its writer. It has remained until now untranslated into English and thus inaccessible to many, in particular to students at all levels both within and outside the field of Byzantine Studies, as well as non-specialist readers. This volume is intended to rectify this situation with a translation into English, accompanying detailed notes, and three introductory chapters providing context and background to the history of the text, Byzantine ideas about geography, and the debate over the themata themselves.

A Companion to Byzantine Poetry

A Companion to Byzantine Poetry PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004392882
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 590

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Book Description
This book offers the first complete overview of Byzantine poetry from the 4th to the 15th century. By bringing together 22 scholars, it explores the development of poetic trends and the interaction between poetry and society throughout the Byzantine millennium; it addresses a wide range of issues concerning the writing and reading of poetry (such as style, language, metrics, function, and circulation); and it surveys a large number of texts by looking closely at their place within the social and cultural milieus of their authors. Overall, the volume aims to enhance our understanding of Byzantine poetry and shed light on its important place in Byzantine literary culture. Contributors are Eirini Afentoulidou, Gianfranco Agosti, Roderick Beaton, Floris Bernard, Carolina Cupane, Kristoffel Demoen, Ivan Drpic, Jürgen Fuchsbauer, Antonia Giannouli, Martin Hinterberger, Wolfram Hörandner, Elizabeth Jeffreys, Michael Jeffreys, Marc Lauxtermann, Ingela Nilsson, Emilie van Opstall, Andreas Rhoby, Kurt Smolak, Foteini Spingou, Maria Tomadaki, Ioannis Vassis, Nikos Zagklas.

East and West in the Crusader States

East and West in the Crusader States PDF Author: Krijna Nelly Ciggaar
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
The meeting of East and West in the Crusader States was the theme of a symposium held at Hernen Castle in 1997. It was the continuation of a similar symposium which has been published in the Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 75. Various communities (Arabs, Armenians, Ethiopians, Greeks, Syrians and Latins) and various religions (the Church of Rome, the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, the Jacobites, the Muslims and others) play their part in the various Crusader States, sometimes in the effort to ecumenism, sometimes in the form of confrontations. Coins and seals in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem betray Eastern and Western influences. Daily life is reflected in historical texts, and in exempla and miracula. The fall of Edessa is described in the Lament of Edessa by Nerses Snorhali, which is here for the first time translated into English. Even icon-painting in Egypt reflects crusader influence.

The History of Zonaras

The History of Zonaras PDF Author: Thomas Banchich
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134424736
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
While an exile from Constantinople, the twelfth-century Byzantine functionary and canonist John Zonaras culled earlier chronicles and histories to compose an account of events from creation to the reign of Alexius Comnenus. For topics where his sources are lost or appear elsewhere in more truncated form, his testimony and the identification of the texts on which he depends are of critical importance. For his account of the first two centuries of the Principate, Zonaras employed now-lost portions of Cassius Dio. From the point where Dio’s History ended, to the reign of Theodosius the Great (d. 395), he turned to other sources to produce a uniquely full historical narrative of the critical years 235-395, making Books XII.15-XIII.19 of the Epitome central to the study of both late Roman history and late Roman and Byzantine historiography. This key section of the Epitome, together with Zonaras’ Prologue, here appears in English for the first time, both complemented by a historical and historiographical commentary. A special feature of the latter is a first-ever English translation of a broad range of sources which illuminate Zonaras’ account and the historiographical traditions it reflects. Among the authors whose newly translated works occupy a prominent place in the commentary are George Cedrenus, George the Monk, John of Antioch, Peter the Patrician, Symeon Magister, and Theodore Scutariotes. Specialized indices facilitate the use of the translations and commentary alike. The result is an invaluable guide and stimulus to further research for scholars and students of the history and historiography of Rome and Byzantium.