Heroes and Romans in Twelfth-Century Byzantium
Heroes and Romans in Twelfth-Century Byzantium
Nikephoros Bryennios' history of the Byzantine Empire in the 1070s is a story of civil war and aristocratic rebellion in the midst of the Turkish conquest of Anatolia. Commonly remembered as the passive and unambitious husband of Princess Anna Komnene (author of the Alexiad), Bryennios is revealed as a skilled author whose history draws on cultural memories of classical Roman honor and proper masculinity to evaluate the politicians of the 1070s and implicitly to exhort his twelfth-century contemporaries to honorable behavior. Bryennios' story valorizes the memory of his grandfather and other honorable, but failed, generals of the eleventh century while subtly portraying the victorious Alexios Komnenos as un-Roman. This reading of the Material for History sheds new light on twelfth-century Byzantine culture and politics, especially the contested accession of John Komnenos, the relationship between Bryennios' history and the Alexiad and the function of cultural memories of Roman honor in Byzantium.
- The first detailed study of Nikephoros Bryennios' major narrative history of the eleventh century
- Provides a new interpretation of Anna Komnene's Alexiad
- Addresses the current debates on Byzantine identity and understanding of classical Roman culture
Reviews & endorsements
'… elegantly written and persuasively argued … it rekindles the conversation about twelfth-century culture, politics, and historiography, aligning it with recent scholarship in the fields of Roman and Byzantine studies.' Dimitris Krallis, English Historical Review
'… dazzling and insightful …' Mike Markowitz, The NYMAS Review
Product details
October 2012Hardback
9781107009455
258 pages
235 × 159 × 20 mm
0.52kg
2 b/w illus. 2 tables
Available
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Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Part I. Contexts:
- 1. Twelfth-century politics and the House of Komnenos
- 2. Writing history in twelfth-century Constantinople
- 3. Nikephoros' reading
- 4. Sources for the Material for History
- Part II. Reading in the Material for History:
- 5. Problems of the Empire: civil war and mercenaries
- 6. The rise of Alexios
- 7. Romans and their enemies
- 8. Military virtue
- 9. Roman family politics
- 10. Religion and providence
- 11. Roman heroes
- 12. A Roman mother
- 13. A bold young man
- Part III. The Material for History in Twelfth-Century Politics and Culture:
- 14. The Material for History and imperial politics of the twelfth century
- 15. Nikephoros and Anna
- 16. Roman ideals and twelfth-century Constantinopolitan culture
- Conclusions
- Appendix 1
- Appendix 2. Vocabulary of virtue.
