Volume 77 (2023)
Timothy Greenwood and Robin Darling Young, “Robert William Thomson (1934–2018),” vi–6.
Digital Supplement: Publications of Robert William Thomson
Anne McCabe and Michael Featherstone, “Cyril Alexander Mango (1928–2021),” 8–17.
James N. Carder, “Susan A. Boyd (1938–2022),” 18–21.
Brian Croke, “Emperor and Archangel: Justinian at Germia,” 23–46.
For four decades (525–565), from his 40s to his 80s, Justinian enjoyed imperial power. Most of that time was spent inside the imperial palace precinct at Constantinople. Only twice, however, did he venture beyond the city’s neighboring imperial palaces, and on both occasions he was an old man in the final years of his reign. In 559 he made a morale-boosting trip to Selymbria in Thrace where the Long Wall which protected the city and its water supply was being repaired after parts of it fell down following an earthquake. Then in 563, aged over 80, he undertook the long and arduous expedition to Germia in Phrygia to visit the shrine of Archangel Michael in fulfilment of an unspecified vow he had made. To elucidate an otherwise neglected episode in Justinian’s reign, this article capitalizes on recent research both on angels and on the archaeology of Germia with its Archangel Michael church. It seeks to explain what lay behind the vow Justinian made in the context of a series of events threatening his sovereignty in 561–562 and why he was impelled to keep his vow. It then goes on to illustrate the likely route the emperor and his entourage took to Germia and back, as well as what was involved in executing such an imperial expedition. Finally, attention is given to the pilgrimage site of Germia itself and the emperor’s stay there.
Omri Matarasso, “Making Sense of a Mediterranean Controversy in Byzantine Africa: The Collectio Sichardiana and Justinian I’s Condemnation of the Three Chapters,” 47–84.
In the middle of the sixth century, Justinian I sent to ecclesiastical centers across the Mediterranean world a request to condemn the Three Chapters. The intricate theological matter at hand had originated in the Greek East a century before and refueled a tradition of controversy that divides eastern Christianity until this very day. In the Latin West, on the other hand, the details surrounding the Three Chapters were less familiar. In this paper I will argue that the Collectio Sichardiana was assembled in Byzantine Africa for the purpose of better understanding the theological questions and sociological consequences of the Three Chapters Controversy. Uncovering the structure and editorial principles according to which the collection’s documents were picked and arranged, I wish to highlight the underlying apologetic narrative of the Sichardiana and how this narrative aligns with our knowledge of the African resistance to Justinian I’s condemnation of the Three Chapters. My reconstruction of the Sichardiana’s origins and temporal layers gives us a glimpse into the local African reception process of a wide range of materials that documented supposedly far-away disputes couched in arcane terminologies and carried in languages that were foreign to members of the African church. At the same, the Sichardiana also reveals how African Christians spun an episode of Mediterranean history in a way that spoke to their particular local concerns. The Collectio Sichardiana, therefore, is not only a hitherto unappreciated source from late-antique North Africa, but it also sheds lights on the local African scholarly environment whose participants navigated with ease any perceived intellectual boundary between the Latin West and Greek East.
Christian Rollinger, “Another Heaven: Imperial Audiences and the Aesthetics of Ideology in Late Antique Ceremonial,” 85–129.
This article takes a fresh look at imperial audience ceremonies of late antiquity, particularly in the context of diplomatic exchanges. A reconstruction of the audience ceremony based on the account of Corippus and the information contained in the Book of Ceremonies forms the basis for a double reading of the ritual and its implications for imperial ideology. In order to arrive at a more holistic and deeper understanding of these implications, the article combines a traditional analysis of literary ekphraseis and narratives with an analysis of the materiality and sensuality of court ceremonial by adopting the theoretical concept and methodological framework of the hierotopy, first proposed by art historian Alexei Lidov. The aim of the article is to show that diplomatic audiences, as other ceremonies, served a wider purpose beyond their prima facie intention of inter-state negotiations, and to show that a new approach can help in better understanding political ceremony.
Nikos Tsivikis, Thanasis Sotiriou, Olga Karagiorgou, and Ilias Anagnostakis, “Reconstructing the Wine Industry of Byzantine Amorium: Production and Consumption of Wine in Central Asia Minor, Seventh to Ninth Centuries,” 131–76.
This article examines the evidence from Amorium attesting to extensive wine production taking place inside the walled city from the seventh to the ninth centuries. Amorium wineries, their archaeology, and their operation, are examined in a synthetic and holistic approach. We elaborate on the idea that the strong presence of the Byzantine army in Asia Minor after the Arab expansion in the seventh century and its reorganization in the newly established thematic system could have been crucial to a rising demand for wine locally and as a result the intensification of wine production in Amorium during this period. Lastly, we raise the discussion of what type of wine and for what exact use could have been produced in Amorium based on the existing literary evidence on Byzantine Anatolian wines.
Przemysław Marciniak, “Byzantine Cultural Entomology (Fourth to Fifteenth Centuries): A Microhistory of Byzantine Insects,” 177–93.
This article focuses on Byzantine ethnoentomology and cultural entomology, that is, on the presence and influence of insects in culture and literature. It surveys the terminological issues (such as the definition of insects), considers insects as both real and imaginary creatures, and demonstrates how their metaphorical meaning evolved as the Greek world shifted from having a classical to a Christian worldview.
Meir Ben Shahar, “The Elephant Mosaic Panel of Huqoq: ‘Write on the Horn of a Bull,’” 195–219.
This article offers a new interpretation of the Elephant Mosaic Panel found in Huqoq’s synagogue. The mosaic is a visual representation of a rabbinic midrash depicting a theological confrontation between the Greek kingdom and the people of Israel during the Hasmonean period. An analysis of the various motifs of the mosaic in the light of the midrash and artistic motifs from the Roman and Byzantine periods makes it possible to present the iconographic richness of the mosaic. This interpretation sheds more light on the relationship between the rabbis and their culture and the world of the synagogue and the Jewish society in Late Antique Galilee.
Manolis Ulbricht, “The Authorship of the Early Greek Translation of the Quran (Vat. gr. 681),” 221–43.
This article sheds light on the first Greek translation of the Quran and the possible cultural-religious background of its translator(s). The fragments of this quranic translation are mainly preserved in the anti-Islamic work of Nicetas of Byzantium (ninth/tenth century), Refutation of the Quran. Through a philological-theological analysis of the remnants of this quranic translation handed down in Nicetas’s work, referred to as Coranus Graecus, the article aims at giving a detailed picture of the understanding of the Arabic quranic text and its subtly nuanced rendering in Greek. Therefore, the article examines some of the Greek quranic fragments in terms of their philological rendering into Greek and compares them synoptically with the Arabic quranic readings. Through this Greek–Arabic analysis, the article elaborates on the early Christian understanding of the quranic text as documented in the Coranus Graecus. The argument therefore focuses on verses which are theologically relevant to Christian–Muslim interfaith topics. In a final part, conclusions are presented about the cultural and religious background of the translator(s) of the Coranus Graecus based on the philological-comparative analysis and its cultural-historical interpretation.
Eleftherios Despotakis and Vasiliki Tsamakda, “Archival Evidence and Byzantine Art in Fifteenth-Century Venetian Crete: The Case of Georgios Mavrianos and Konstantinos Gaitanas,” 245–319.
The present article aims to connect for the first time commissions to painters documented in Veneto-Cretan notarial deeds with surviving fifteenth-century church decoration programs. Specifically, we connect published and unpublished contracts with wall paintings executed by two painters: Georgios Mavrianos in the churches St. George at Vrachasi and Panagia at Kato Symi and Konstantinos Gaitanas in the church of the Holy Apostles at Kato Karkasa. Moreover, we offer an overview of the published archival material and the pertinent information it provides on commissions of wall paintings and the painters themselves.
John Cotsonis, “A Unique Image of the Holy Patriarch Germanos I on a Lead Seal,” 321–28.
This Byzantine lead seal, newly acquired by Dumbarton Oaks, bears the unique sphragistic image of the eighth-century sainted patriarch Germanos I. In this article, the author provides epigraphic and stylistic details for dating the specimen as well as a discussion for the proper identification of the saintly figure. Further argument is offered for the correct identification of the seal owner’s monastic foundation, that of St. Phokas in Constantinople, and the significance of the seal owner’s iconographic choice of an Iconophile patriarchal saint in light of the recent history of this foundation and its role during the period of Iconoclasm.
Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann, “Major Recent Additions to the Dumbarton Oaks Collection of Greek Manuscripts (DO MS 6 and DO MS 7): Codicological and Paleographic Descriptions and Analyses,” 329–63.
In 2016 and 2018, the Dumbarton Oaks Museum added two manuscripts to its increasingly comprehensive collection of Greek manuscripts: the early tenth-century Four Gospels (DO MS 6) and the ninth-century codex of forty-four homilies on the Gospel of Matthew by John Chrysostom (DO MS 7). Ninth- and tenth-century Greek manuscripts are rarely offered for sale, and Dumbarton Oaks was fortunate to acquire both manuscripts, which had been in private collections but now have become available to scholars. With these acquisitions, the Dumbarton Oaks collection of manuscripts encompasses the entire period of minuscule manuscript production in Byzantium from the ninth to the fifteenth century and exemplifies all major writing styles of this period. I was privileged to examine both manuscripts soon after their acquisitions, and this article summarizes the results of my research. The article combines a cataloguing format with extensive paleographic and codicological analyses and complements previous publications in DOP on DO MSS 1, 3, 4, and 5.
“Ancient Histories and History Writing in New Rome: Traditions, Innovations, and Uses. Dumbarton Oaks Symposium, 5–6 May 2023,” 365–66.