The Byzantine achievement. An historical perspective A.D. 330-1453

The

Byzantine Achievement

E !

COMMERCE IN THE GOLDEN HORN

Byzantine

The

Achievement

A N HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE A.D.

33O-I453

ROBERT BYRON

NEW

RUSSELL

YORK

& R U S S E L L • INC 1964

FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1 9 2 9 REISSUED, 3964, BY RUSSELL & RUSSELL, INC. BY ARRANGEMENT WITH ROUTLEDGE & KEGAN PAUL, LTD. L. C. CATALOG CARD NO! 6 4 — 1 5 0 2 5 PRINTED IN T H E UNITKD STATES OF AMERICA

IN PAST

CELEBRATION YEAR,

SINCE T H E FATHER

OF

THE

TWENTY-FIFTH WEDDING

AND

OF

MOTHER

MY R.B.

CONTENTS AUTHOR'S

PACB

NOTE

PART

XI

I . — T H E

H I S T O R I C A L

I M A G E

CHAPTER

I.

THE

HISTORIAN

3

II.

THE

GREEKS

7

III.

THE

BYZANTINES

PART THE

TRIPLE

V.

THE

IMPERIAL

VI.

THE

SUBSTANCE

VIII. IX. X. XI. NOTES

TRADE THE

.

.

.

.

24

A N A T O M Y

FUSION

43

CHRONOLOGY

.

OF T H E S T A T E

AND T H E

QUEST

.

I I . — T H E

IV.

VII.

.

BEZANT

OF R E A L I T Y

.

.

.

77

.

.

. 1 1 2

.

.

.

- 1 3 2

.

•

•

« 1 5 3

CULTURE THE

JOYOUS

BATTLE ON

187

FOR

THE

221

EUROPE

267

ILLUSTRATIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

.

INDEX

.

.

LIFE

.

•

•

•

*

3*3

•

•

*

3

•

33

.

.

-

.

.

•

vn

2 1

2

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS jJcknowledgements and relevant details will be found in the notes on the illustrations, page 3 1 3 . I. II.

COMMERCE

IN

THE

OF C O N S T A N T I N E

III.

A

III.

THE

CITY

WOODCUT LAND

THE

GOLDEN

Frontispiece

HORN .

.

OF C O N S T A N T I N O P L E WALLS

.

.

.

face page

70

„

„

78

„

„

78

IV. RoMANUS II AND HIS FlRST WlFE EUDOXIA V.

LATER

.

BYZANTINE

THEODORE VI.

,

LATER

BYZANTINE

IX.

XI. XII.

„

„

114

.

.

„

„

123

.

„

„

122

„

„

132

„

„

172

„

„

184

„

190

OFFICIALS :

HIGH

ADMIRAL

CHRIST, THE

GALATA

.

RULER

OF T H E

EMPEROR

LOGUS : X.

.

CONSTANTINOPLE, T H E GOLDEN HORN, AND

VIII.

.

OFFICIALS :

METOCHITES

APOCAUCOS, VII.

.

S T SOPHIA

BY

.

JOHN

WORLD

VIII

PISANELLO

WITH

.

PAL^EO.

TURKISH

.

.

MINARETS

S T SOPHIA :

F A C I N G T H E W E S T DOOR

„

„

200

THE

BYZANTINE

„

„

244

LATER

ix

COURT

.

L I S T OF ILLUSTRATIONS XIII.

B Y Z A N T I N E HUMOUR : T H E THEOPHYLACT

XIV.

THE

XV.

THE

SULTAN

THE

PATRIARCH

.

.

HIPPODROME ABOUT

GENTILE X V I .

.

1450

MOHAMMED BELLINI

SULTAN

COSTANZO .

.

MOHAMMED .

.

X

face page

. .

II :

.

„

„

252

„

„

288

„

„

298

BY

. II :

250

BY

AUTHOR'S NOTE THE proportion of emphasis in every book muSt vary with the measure of misapprehension in the popular imagination concerning the subject with which it deals. The history of the Levant, hitherto distorted by journalist and scholar alike to the furtherance of their private hypotheses, demands, in its present phase, an element of correction, which should result in the imposition of a foreground of recent fadt upon a distant plane of historical analysis. The intention of this book was originally to present a hiStory of the eastern Mediterranean between the years 1919 and 1923. But it became immediately apparent, upon a second and protracted exploration of the Greek seaboard in 1926, that to portray the events of those years without previous investigation of their historical foundations, were equivalent to offering the public the laSt aft of a problem play without the fir£t. The fault now committed, the offer of the firSt without the laSt is, I hope, the lesser. The extension in scope needed another two years' work. And an author's time, above all men's, is money. A manuscript once completed, he will as soon lock it in a box as a financier horde gold pieces in a vault. The present volume is in no sense one of research, among original sources. Its intention has been simply to gather xi

AUTHOR'S

NOTE

the currents of the pa£t into a single Stream; and while indicating, with deference, a number of unexplored eddies in the spate of Western evolution, to enable a successor, if ever it is written, to show which forces have retained their vitality in the present time. Above all its intent is not didaitic. It is hoped, simply, that the reader will in future experience some quickening of historical emotion, when next there obtrudes on his notice the seaboard of the Greeks and its capital city of Constantinople. R . B.

xii

" Of that Byzantine Empire the universal verdict of history is that it constitutes, without a single exception, the most thoroughly base and despicable form thai civilisation has yet assumed. . . . There has been no other enduring civilisation so absolutely destitute of all the forms and elements of greatness, and none to which the epithet mean may be so emphatically applied. . . . Its vices were the vices of men who had ceased to be brave without learning to be virtuous. Without patriotism, without the fruition OY desire of liberty . . . slaves, and urilling slaves, in both their actions and in their thoughts, immersed tn sensuality and in the most frivolous pleasures, the people only emerged from their listlessness when some theological subtlety, or some chivalry in the chariot races, stimulated them to frantic riots. . . . They had continually before them the literature of ancient Greece, instinct w-ith the loftiest heroism : but that literature, which afterwards did so much to revivify Europe, could fire the degenerate Greeks with no spark or semblance of nobility. The history of the empire is a monotoncrus story of the intrigues of priests, eunuchs and women, of poisonings, of conspiracies, of uniform ingratitude, of perpetual fratricides." An example of clássico - rationalist criticism, from WILLIAM LECKY'S History of European Morals, iS6g.

xiii

PART I T H E HISTORICAL

IMAGE

CHAPTER 1 THE

HISTORIAN

of the masses in birth and circumstance, termed when racially manifest, patriotism, is habitually evoked in the defence either of institutions or ideas. Since his divergence from the lesser forms of creation, man has Striven to maintain not only his social organisations, tribal, municipal or imperial, but also, on occasion, the less concrete principles of religion, honour and mental freedom. To-day, as a force in the second quarter of the twentieth century, patriotism is variously regarded. While it remains the opinion of many that immolation in the furtheSl desert to which their country's sovereignty extends, constitutes the higheSt form of human expression, there are others who, with parallel intemperance, dismiss every token of national existence as a kind of original sin dating from Louis XIV and George III. Mental patriotism, such as that which fought the Reformation and led England to declare war on Germany in 1914, is viewed by nationalists with less enthusiasm, by " little Englanders" with greater tolerance. But removed from these definitions is another form of pride in which the individual can permit the reSt to share ; a form seldom felt, more seldom given words, which transcends the consciousness

PRIDE

3

THE

HISTORIAN

of this or that tradition, the sunsets of an empire or the concept of a god; which surmounts the barriers not only of political, but of ethical, intelledtual and spiritual disagreement, World-consciousness is a commonplace ; European already a reality. But the supreme pride is measured not in terms of the exiting earth, of temperament and social device, but in divisions of time, in terms of human development—that development, which, whether it prove ultimately progressive or retrograde, is continuous. The inStindt is a pride, a patriotism in our age. Sons of fathers, fathers of children, we Stand companion to a moment. Let the flag fly, not of lands and waters, morals and gods, but of an era, a generation. In communion with this apotheosis of the age, this pride in the present's relation to the paSt and future, there emerges from the furthest antiquity of every country and every race, the science of historical analogy. This process, commonly a mere embellishment of popular writers, makes it possible, by sorting the centennially and millennially repeated incidents and trends of hiStory, to surmise the adtual moment of our progress. Civilisations are uncommon phenomena. They are to be distinguished from transitory cultural epochs such as those enjoyed by Periclean Greece and the Italy of the Renascence. Ours is barely come. But not only are we poised on the footboard of the encyclopaedic civilisation now being launched ; in addition, we are gathered to the brow of infinity by the initial achievement of the scientific revolution. 4

THE

HISTORIAN

Thus, like Moses on Nebo, we occupy a vantagepoint: we look both ways; back to Darwinism, daguerreotypes and railway trains; ahead to mathematical pantheism, television and the colonisation of the Stars. And it is this increasing syStematisation of intuitive analysis, standardisation of old form to produce new, and interconnection of place, which distinguishes the oncoming civilisation from its precursors. Its vitality will endure, as theirs did not, from the scope and unity of its embrace. Thus the historian, substituting for the methods of the pedagogue those of the scientist and the philosopher, is the high prieSt of the inStant. To assimilate peacefully the forces of the advancing epoch, as yet but faintly discernible on its distant horizon, the world must revise its conception of the paSt, distilling from a recoordination of essential fa"'*" \^ ^ \ \'LY3AN0/.: , • « Î ANATOLI CON\V O •v 'v.

b* u,Vi

.

A

... / TH

; y

>CYB"

T

4FiU*A'

TH CYPRU C

*£TE

THE ORGANISATION OP THE THEMES UNDER THE MACEDONIAN DYNASTY (c. 975)

«.,.. :

THE

S U B S T A N C E OF THE

STATE

organised provinces were henceforth known. Each was under the command of a General; and these soldieradminiStrators ranked with the powerful officials of the Slate, those of the Asiatic provinces taking precedence over the others. The larger of these territorial units maintained separate forces of about 10,000 men each, which were charged to the expense of the local populations. At the same time, a central army was Stationed in or near Constantinople, thus preserving that mobility of aftion which had been Diocletian's primary objeCt in freeing the army from the burden of provincial administration. But though, under the Isaurian reorganisation, the whole military, financial and judicial power was concentrated in the hands of the In-partryo^ or Governor, there was also resident a civil representative, who was independent of the Governor's authority and in direCl communication with the Palace at Constantinople. A limit was thus set to those provincial despotisms which were always potential, and sometimes actual, sources of insurrection and usurpation. With the coming of the crusaders in the eleventh century, and the consequent infiltration of feudal ideas, the imperial practice of granting extensive land tenures, carrying with them a large measure of de jacto personal jurisdiction, in return for military aid and levies, threatened to disrupt the administration and interfere with the arrival of the revenues. On this point, the division between the bureaucrats and the great military landowners was wideSl. T h e speCtacle of a b o d y of trained officials in aCtive opposition to a virile military party is not one w h i c h

126

THE

S U B S T A N C E OF T H E

STATE

history often presents. But for those familiar only with the automata of Whitehall or the peculators of Washington, the personnel of the Byzantine bureaucracy is not easily visualised. The vicissitudes and methods of its schooling may be traced in the hiStory of the royal universities of Constantinople, which were founded mainly to that end. FirSl province of learning in which all were to be inStru&ed, was the humanities; even the texts considered essential to the moulding of these girders of society have been preserved in the gigantic manual of convention left by the scholarEmperor, ConStantine VII Porphyrogenitus. And it may be to the recognition of the fa£t that a clerk will do his work better if he is a human being as well, that the world owes the infinite copyings of which one here and one there escaped to tell the modern world of the wisdom of the ancient. In philosophy, literature, rhetoric, and all branches of mathematics including astronomy and geometry, professors were attached to the successive foundations. In 727, the already existing university of the OCtagon was closed by Leo III, the Isaurian, partly, it may be supposed, on account of its monkish teachers, partly as the nursery of a class whose influence he was determined to weaken. A century later, however, the iconoclaSt Emperor, TheophiJus, was promoting the instruction of mathematics. And twenty-five years after, the Caesar Bardas, the Regent, opened what is commonly called the Byzantine Renascence with his reconStitution of the university of the Magnavra, in the precinCts of the Great Palace. His 127

THE

SUBSTANCE

OF T H E

STATE

work was continued, in the firSt half of the tenth century by ConStantine VII Porphyrogenitus, under whom not only were the professors paid, but also the Students —a clear indication of the purpose for which they were there. All were personally known to the Emperor; and from their ranks, in due time, were chosen the judges, the civil servants, and the prelates of the Church. At length came the glorious reign of Basil II Bulgarodtonos, who held all forms of learning in open contempt. But the more prosperity, success and leisure were theirs, the more the minds of his subjeits turned to their books. It needed only the accession of a pedantEmperor in the person of ConStantine IX Monomach, husband of Zoe, laSt but her sister of the Macedonian dynaSty, to bring the bureaucracy, reinforced in popular opinion by its recent discovery of Plato, into its own again. The military magnates were ouSted from power, and their places taken by vain academicians, in whose selection birth and tradition were considered superfluous. In Asia Minor, a syStem of scutage was introduced, whereby the obligation on the part of the landowners to maintain levies for the service of the State was converted into money, thus weakening both their power and the Empire's borders. Finally, 107 1 saw the disaSter which this cleavage had rendered inevitable. The Byzantine army was almoSt annihilated on the Armenian border; the Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes taken prisoner; and the richest provinces of Asia Minor were loSt for ever. Before its reorganisation by Alexius I Comnenus on his accession in 1081, the Byzantine 128

THE

S U B S T A N C E OF T H E

STATE

army had almoSt ceased to exiSt. But if the fault is to be laid at the door of the anti-military party, it muSt be remembered, in mitigation, that even so Strong a monarch as Basil II had been seriously threatened by insurrections of the magnates. The conditions that led to the defeat of Manzikert have been recounted at some length, because they illustrate the curiously balanced elements of the Byzantine administration: a liberally educated civil service working in conjunction with a military aristocracy. With the loss of the inland themes, the power of the latter was gone. And though the throne became now the perquisite of the great families, the backbone of the State was Still, as formerly, the bureaucracy. Not until the middle of the fourteenth century was the syStem officially interrupted. It then became necessary, owing to the perpetual incursions of Turks, Normans, Italians and Spaniards, and the consequent isolation of the capital from the provinces, to create minor autonomies known as Despotats, under royal governors. Thus the disintegrating Empire assumed an almoSt federal character. And Constantinople was shorn of the few revenues that Still remained to her. An important, though wholly distinCt, funCtion of the central authority in the capital was the treatment of peoples newly conquered or subdued. In this the Byzantines sought not only conciliation, but also to evoke for their civilisation and institutions such a degree of admiration on the part of savage races that the latter 129

THE

S U B S T A N C E OF T H E

STATE

were fain to refieCt all they could of the glory of the queen of cities. In the writings of ConStantine V I I Porphyrogenitus, it was laid down as an established principle that each subjeCt nationality should retain, as far as possible, the laws and cuStoms peculiar to it. It was also the policy of the Greeks to make use of the native nobility in the work of local government. Thus the early Ventian Doges received their piCtorially familiar robes at the hands of the Emperors of Constantinople. And even after the savage campaigns of Basil II Bulgaroitonos, the Bulgar nobles were received at Constantinople and invested with the insignias of Byzantine rank. Some of them, like the Venetians before them, obtained wives of noble Greek family. The latter was a common means of securing the goodwill of adjacent potentates, there existing in the capital no prejudice againSt the marriage of even royal princesses to Tartar chieftains and Moslem Emirs. The far-flung monasteries of the Orthodox Church, together with travelling missionaries and merchants, helped also to implant the seeds of a uniform faith and culture. It was, in fa£t, the aim of the Byzantine Empire to win the adherence of its subjects and the submission of its neighbours, not by the imposition of a spurious nationalism, but by the attraction which the brilliance of a great civilisation muSt always exercise upon the moth-like tribes within its sphere of light. For the Byzantines, therefore, in three elements lay the political Stability which was the firSt condition of 130

THE

S U B S T A N C E OF T H E

STATE

their civilisation: in sovereignty; in law; and in a trained executive. The absence of any veStige of parliamentary institution may not accord with the political ideals of the twentieth century. But nowhere since its introduction to the Mediterranean countries has the unhappy fetish of constitutionalism produced efficient government. And the Greek, above all, with his whole temperament saturated in political emotion, may well ask himself the question: How did a seeming autocracy maintain the efficacy of the Byzantine State without offence to his democratic susceptibilities ? The secret lies in that uncommon adjustment of forces which the Mediterranean peoples have yet to rediscover.

*3*

C H A P T E R

VII

TRADE AND T H E

BEZANT

IT is t h e h a b i t o f c o n t e m p o r a r i e s , w h e n t h e i r a t t e n t i o n is d i v e r t e d to t h e g l o r i e s of t h e p a S t , to r e c a l l

with

critical diStaSte t h e u n c o u t h c o n d i t i o n s o f l i v i n g

that

accompanied them.

T h e radiance of the

Roi Soleil

is

d i m m e d at r e c o l l e c t i o n o f the u s e s to w h i c h t h e S t a i r s of Versailles w e r e habitually

put.

n a s c e n c e is m o r e

the prospect

sullied

by

The

English of

Re-

Henry

V I I I ' s s i n g l e c a m b r i c s h i r t than b y all t h e e x e c u t i o n s of B l o o d y M a r y . Colosseum,

A n d to w h a t p u r p o s e P a r t h e n o n a n d

when

prosperous

citizens

lived in m u d h u t s a n d Stone c u b i c l e s ?

beneath

them

T h r o u g h all t h e

history of E u r o p e , it is o n l y in t h e c a s e o f C o n s t a n t i n o p l e that these n e r v o u s q u e r i e s d o n o t a r i s e .

T h e amenities

of life w e r e p r o p o r t i o n a t e to the E m p i r e ' s w e a l t h .

And

there is no m o r e r e m a r k a b l e p r o o f o f t h e u n i q u e p o s i tion o c c u p i e d in h i s t o r y b y mediaeval G r e e k tion than the s»ze o f t h e

By7>antine

budgets,

civilisawhich

h a v e r e m a i n e d , c o m p u t e d on t h e b u l l i o n v a l u e of t h e i r gold alone, w i t h o u t p r e c e d e n t u n t i l t h e p r e s e n t T h i s wealth w a s the g r e a t a u x i l i a r y E m p i r e ' s Stability.

condition of

age. the

I t r e m a i n s to d i s c o v e r w h e n c e it

w a s d e r i v e d ; w h a t its a m o u n t ; a n d of w h a t n a t u r e its international c o n s e q u c n c e . 132

TRADE

AND T H E

BEZANT

It has been said that the transference of the Roman capital to Constantinople opened up the EaSt as the discovery of Columbus did America. Whatever the exaggeration of this Statement, it was here, henceforth, at this thwarted kiss of two continents, that the trade between the richeSt extremities of Europe, Asia and Africa, was sucked and spewed at the lips of the Golden Horn. Through Antioch and Alexandria, till their conqueSt by the Moslems, through Salonica, Trebizond and Cherson, the Streams of commerce flowed. From Hungary", Germany and Central Europe; from the Adriatic by the road from Durazzo; from Kiev and the early Russian States, down the Dnieper and the Don, to the Black Sea; and from Samarcand, Bokhara, and the Caspian; from Persia, India and China; from Ceylon, from Abyssinia and the heart of Africa up the Red Sea; from every degree of the compass came the caravans and fleets, to pour their dues into the imperial cuStoms, and dump their goods in the clearing-house of Constantinople, the " middleman " of three continents. Furthermore, in the eyes of three continents, or rather their adjacent territories comprised in the Levant, the city Stood as a symbol of security in a discordant and unStable world. Not once in nine centuries was the Byzantine government bankrupt; and for nine centuries the walls remained impregnable by land and sea againSt the ebb and flow of Islam and the barbarous contacts with the North. The European, the Levantine, horizon, offered no comparable safety, Countless sums were inveSted from without in this universal truSt. *33

TRADE

AND

THE

BEZANT

And for the Moslem, here was a depositor)' where he could obtain the intereSt on his money that his faith forbade. Under every impulse, from every quarter, wealth converged. Good position and good reputation are familiar slogans. For Constantinople, as with other institutions, they formed the basis of commercial prosperity. The Greeks themselves were wont to say that two-thirds of all the world's riches were concentrated within the city's walls. Of the merchandise that arrived in the capital, the greater part was raw material; and even of this much was redistributed in the WeSt. All the hackneyed refinements of our mediaeval life, those treasured spices and medicaments, were introduced, prior to the thirteenth century, from the Byzantine mart. From India came pepper and musk, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and camphor; from Persia, sugar; from China, ginger and rhubarb. Aloes and balsam, preserved fruits, curative nuts, and Arabian incense accompanied them. For the manufacture of those objets d'art^ of which book-covers and reliquaries filtered through to the WeSt, and some Still survive in such sandtuaries as Athos, the traders brought ivory and amber, pearls and precious Stones; for the colouring of enamels, mosaic cubes, and manuscript illuminations, saffron, indigo, alum and gum. In the heyday of commerce, before the eruption of the Mongol races beyond the Oxus, porcelain from China and glass from Mesopotamia were imported ready-made. Byzantine looms received their flax from Egypt, their cotton from Syria and Armenia; while the 134

TRADE

AND

THE

BEZANT

names Muslin, Taffeta, and Damask bespeak the large trade in the finished textiles of the EaSt. CoaSting round the shores of the Black Sea in their river-built boats, the Russians contributed gold and silver, honey, wax, furs, corn, fruit and slaves. Every foreign merchant arriving in Constantinople was obliged to report to the State authorities. He was permitted to remain three months; and if by that time his wares were not sold, the State undertook to dispose of them on his behalf. Within the city, the various craftsmen were organised in guilds, which were under the supervision of the Eparch. Consumer and producer alike were protected from the middleman; wages and hours were fixed; and any form of trade-competition or possibility of the concentration of trade-control in the hands of an oligarchy of capitalists, was out of the queStion. Each guild purchased the raw material for its members at prices fixed by the State. Its wares were exposed for sale only in specified places, the more precious trades, such as the goldsmiths and silversmiths, enamellers and glassmakers, being grouped together near the entrance to the Great Palace under semi-royal patronage. ArtiSls also were protected, particularly by such Emperors as Theodosius II or ConStantine VII Porphyrogenitus, who were themselves painters. But the moSt jealously guarded of all the industries was the manufacture of the m a g n i f i c e n t silken Stuffs, which the Byzantines prized above jewels, and of which the export was absolutely prohibited. The Story is famous of how 135

T R A D E AND

THE

BEZANT

the Holy Roman Ambassador of the tenth century, Liutprand, on his second mission to Constantinople, •was deprived by zealous officials of the very SlufFs with which he had been officially presented in the capital. Until the time of JuStinian, all raw silk necessary for the produition of these Stuffs was sent from China to Ceyhn, whence it was eventually fetched by sea to the Persian Gulf and transported thence overland. The Persians had thus a monopoly of the carrying trade, from which they did not hesitate to profit at the expense of the Byzantines. About 550, however, so the Story runs, some NeStorian missionaries succeeded in smuggling eggs of the silkworm over the Chinese border. And it is certain that within a decade the silk induStry was fully established round Constantinople. Thenceforth it was the moSt foStered business of the Empire; the prosperity of old Greece and the Morea was reconstituted by it; and the European monopoly thus inaugurated was maintained intaCt till the eleventh century, when Roger Guiscard transported the secret and the inseCts from Thebes and Corinth to Palermo. After the fourth crusade, the Nicasan Emperors continued to protect it, John III Vatatzes even forcing his subje£ts to wear materials of Greek manufacture rather than those imported from the WeSt. And its vitality may be estimated by the magnificence of the Stuffs which Greek workmen, adhering to the traditional patterns, continued to produce after the Turkish conqueSt. But the almoSt sacred character that attached 136

TRADE

AND T H E

BEZANT

to the moSt precious fabrics was due to more than their arti&ic value or intrinsic worth, large as both were. From the royal purple, or scarlet as it was in fa6t, with its woven golden pattern of encircled eagles, through the numerous shades, lemon, rose and apple-green, and the numerous devices, ivy-leaves, roses, arabesques, each variety constituted an insignia of rank or office. When the Emperor travelled, cheSts of them accompanied him for distribution to local governors and envoys; and visiting monarchs, such as Amaury I of Jerusalem in 1 1 7 1 , were loaded with similar presents. Half the majeSty of the imperial court was enshrined in these uniforms. And was the fount of honour to be smirched by the casual barter of its veStments for any barbarous chieftain or Norman upStart to assume? Only the nondescript might be exported. And the demand from within the Empire was large enough. Visitors to Constantinople teStify to the splendour of the inhabitants; each man, says Benjamin of Tudela, in the second half of the twelfth century, was clothed like a prince. Thus, as is the fortune also of a world linked by rapid transport, commerce brought to the mediaeval Greeks all those amenities of life which were the particular discoveries of other races. Hence derived the profusion and universality of that financial phenomenon, the Byzantine gold coinage. Even to-day, in Englandj the " bezant " is Still familiar as a heraldic synonym for 137

TRADE a gold piece.

AND

THE

BEZANT

P r i o r to the f o u r t h c r u s a d e it c o n s t i t u t e d

the greater part of the p o r t a b l e w e a l t h of E u r o p e .

And

in the nineteenth c e n t u r y , treasuries o f c o n q u e r e d I n d i a n princes were f o u n d b y B r i t i s h soldiers filled w i t h c o i n s bearing the pontifical i m p r e s s of the G r e e k

Emperors

o f the EaSt. T h e B y z a n t i n e b u d g e t s , a f t e r the m a n n e r o f m o d e r n , were calculated every y e a r . chief sources

were

and arsenals, and

O f subsidiary income, the

patents the

and

extensive

monopolies,

mines

crown-lands.

Such

expedients as the d e b a s e m e n t of the c o i n a g e o r t h e s a l e of titles were a d o p t e d only in the laSt d e s p e r a t e y e a r s , the E m p e r o r A l e x i u s I C o m n e n u s * trial o f t h e f o r m e r at the close of the eleventh c e n t u r y h a v i n g b e e n o n l y temporary.

T h e main r e v e n u e , h o w e v e r , w a s d e r i v e d

f r o m the customs' dues and the l a n d - t a x .

T h e former

were colledted in e n o r m o u s p r o f u s i o n in the c a p i t a l , and also at all frontiers.

T h e latter, w h i c h , s i n c e l a n d

was the staple investment, c o r r e s p o n d e d to t h e p r e s e n t day income tax, was assessed on a detailed scale o f values.

House

property r e m a i n e d

in o n e

category.

Agriculturally, the theoretical u n i t of taxation

con-

sisted in the natural resources c a p a b l e o f m a i n t a i n i n g a single m a n : five acres in the case o f v i n e y a r d , t w e n t y in that of plough, and in an olive g r o v e , 2 2 5 trees.

The

syStem had f a u l t s : m o n a S t i c a n d military l a n d l o r d s w e r e often e x e m p t ; the nobles m i g h t m a n a g e to avoid t h e t a x ; and in such cases an a d d e d onus w a s c o n s e q u e n t l y borne by the small cultivator. T o r e m e d y this c o n d i t i o n , and

to ensure the identity of eStimate

138

and

revenue

TRADE

AND T H E

BEZANT

received, districts were made collectively responsible for the production of the sums for which they were assessed. Nevertheless, though the rich could not then so easily escape, the smaller independent proprietors, obliged in bad years to sell their freeholds in return for assistance in paying their share, tended to become absorbed by the larger. This process was to some extent checked by the legislation of the Isaurian and Macedonian Emperors. The everlaSting and moSt urgent problem before the central administration was to ensure the honeSty of the tax-colledtors. Measures to this end were generally among the firSt reforms of an able ruler. While it is impossible, owing to lack of evidence, to arrive at any exact analysis of Byzantine finance, certain isolated statistics1 are available to corroborate the travellers' fables and the encruSted splendour of such few objets (Tart as have survived into the present. Where large sums were concerned, the general monetary unit seems to have been the pound of gold: worth, as pure bullion, slightly less than £43. It has been computed that the purchasing power of precious metal in the Middle Age was five times greater than it is in our own. And though this comparison is open to dispute, the faCt that the Byzantine Emperor Theophilus was paying £85 in bullion (two pounds of gold) for a horse, while his contemporary, Egbert, could get 1

The following figures are only calculated approximately. For more detailed analysis, see Andrdad£s' Le montant du budget de /'Empir 139

TRADE

AND

THE

BEZANT

one for two-thirds of a pound of silver, illustrates the enormous purchasing power of Byzantine gold at leaSt outside the capital. £85 for a horse may seem on the other hand to denote exceedingly high prices inside it; but the Byzantine nobles were enthusiastic breeders of horses, especially for polo; and £425 (£85 x 5) would not to-day be considered an unreasonable price for a jfirSt-class pony. There seems, in fa£t, justification for ascribing to the intrinsic metal of the bezant a quintuple value in modern terms. The hiStory of WeStern Europe before the discovery of America teems with problems arising from the shortage of currency. And if it is open to doubt whether a pound of gold was always worth £ 2 1 5 ( £ 4 3 x 5 ) in Constantinople, it seems probable that, outside, its power of purchase was even greater. It is recorded by both Benjamin of Tudela and the Venetians that the Comneni Emperors drew yearly between four and five million pounds Sterling in specie from Constantinople alone: an income which, in modern parlance as defined above, benefited the government to the extent of £20,000,000 annually. The island of Corfu, at the same period, contributed a yearly 1500 pounds of gold, £64,000 in metal and £320,000 in purchasing power. Following the sack of the capital in 1204, the crusading barons, after consulting the existing accounts, guaranteed the Emperor Baldwin I an annual income of approximately £6,300,000 in specie. This was from but a quarter of the Empire; and it has, therefore, been deduced that 140

TRADE

AND T H E

BEZANT

under the Comneni, the whole annual revenue, already, be it remembered, considerably shrunk since the days of the Macedonians, amounted in terms of purchasing capacity to £126,000,000. However hypothetical this figure, it is interesting to compare it with those received by the British Exchequer in 1883-1884 and 19131914, which totalled £86,999,564 and £195,640,000 respectively. Proportionately, reserves in bullion of £5,500,000 and £10,000,000 (£27,500,000 and £50,000,000 in purchasing value) were left by the Emperors Theophilus and Basil II BuIgaroCtonos in the imperial treasury. The two millions laboriously hoarded by King Henry VII of England five hundred years later, to the grateful astonishment of his subjects, fade into insignificance. And an idea of the diffusion of wealth in humbler places may be gathered from the fait that in 935 two thousand male inhabitants of the Peloponnese paid £4280 in specie as commutation for military service: an average, in terms of purchasing value, of £ 1 0 , 14s. apiece. The part played by this wealth in maintaining the Stability of the Byzantine Empire is apparent by contrast with the States of WeStern Europe, where permanent services, such as a Standing army, fleet, or bureaucracy, were almost entirely precluded, owing to the difficulty of raising sufficient coin for their wages. As a rule, the only rewards that a king could offer his adherents were land and hereditary privilege. Hence the perpetual expansion of feudalism and the perpetual scourge of civil war that accompanied it. In the 141

TRADE

AND

THE

BEZANT

EaSt, on the other hand, the political organism rented on its money, and in the end failed with it. At the centre, the expenses of concentrating the whole of Byzantine majesty in the imperial office were enormous. VasT: public works at royal charge, fortresses, walls and aquedu£ts; intimate and bewilderingly splendid private edifices; a daily ceremonial involving the employment of thousands; an interminable ritual of present-giving and largess-throwing; bounties, hospitals and religious foundations; altogether a prodigality as lavish and beneficial as it has generally been called purposeless and vulgar, was prescribed by custom and expediency. Focused round the palace, the Logothetes and their ministries of trained officials demanded enormous upkeep, particularly that of Foreign Affairs, or of the Barbarians, as it was Hellenically designated. In the archives of this, were records of the characteristics of every people with which the Empire was in contact, their Strengths and weaknesses, their leading families, and the particular presents that they moSt appreciated. The bulk of the latter was doubtless bullion, and whole nations were kept in fief by subsidies which historians persiSt in terming tributes. The coSt of rebuilding Milan during the Struggle with Barbarossa was defrayed by the gold of the Emperor Manuel I Comnenus; the massacre of Normans in 128a, known as the Sicilian Vespers, by that of Michael VIII Palaeologus. And four and a half centuries earlier, when John the Grammarian was despatched on embassy to Bagdad by the Emperor Theophilus, he. 14a

TRADE

AND

THE

BEZANT

took with him a sum of nearly £90,000 in

purchasing value, which he distributed " like the sand of the sea." • The chief responsibilities of the treasury, after the support of the court and central ministries, were the army and navy and the provincial administrations. Salaries, even of private soldiers, would seem to have been high. In 809, King Kroum of Bulgaria captured 11,000 pounds of gold, equal to £470,000 in specie, and in reality worth some £2,350,000, which was being transported with the army for its payment. And in 949 the Emperor ConStantine VII Porphyrogenitus notes that an expedition to Crete of 14,459 men coSt 3706 pounds of gold, in other words £159,000 in specie and £795,000 in atftual value. A compara^ tivc table of salaries recorded by that Emperor in the middle of the tenth century, and translated into purchasing value, together with those current in the British Empire immediately before the outbreak of the Great War» reveals a curious approximation;— BYZANTINE Corporate

BRITISH £4 a week

Lieutenants (with servants, etc., to find) £44° a year Captains £600 „ Governors of 5th class themes (border marches) £1070 143

Sergeants (infantry, without allowance) . . £ i y 5s. a week Lieutenants . . £l22ayear Captains . . £210 Governor of Falkland Islands . £ 1 $00

T R A D E AND T H E

BEZANT

BYZANTINE

BRITISH

Governors of 4th class themes (maritime) . £ 2 1 4 0 a year

Governors of Newfoundland, Bahamas and Tasmania between £2000 and £ 2 7 5 0 s Governors of New South Wales, Victoria, Jamaica and Straits Settlements . . £sooc Governors of New Zealand and CeyIon . . , £7000 Governors of Madras, Bombay and Bengal . , £Soao G ove mors- General of Canada, Australia and South Africa . £10,000

Governors of tie five 3rd class theme« . . £4280 Governors of the three 2nd class themes . . £6420 Governors of the three 1st class themes . • £8560

year

'* „

„

In the cases of New Zealand, the civil and military commands are combined, as they were in the person of the Byzantine S-rpaTFjyo?, or Governor. It may also be noticed in passing that the chair of philosophy in the University founded by the Emperor Conftantine I X Monomach in the middle of the eleventh century, was worth £856 a year, exclusive of keep and titles. This compares favourably with the £800 a year, supplemented by rooms in college, which was received by the occupants of the three philosophic chairs in Oxford before the Great War. Thus by means of a constant system of reward, prejudicial to no interest of the Slate, was the beSt service of officials assured. 144

TRADE

AND T H E

BEZANT

It is remarkable to think that while the world to-day conduits its affairs almost wholly by written draft, transactions in the Byzantine sphere involved transportation of the aCtual gold; that in fait the mediaeval Greeks conducted a finance of almost modern dimensions without the assistance of the modern credit syStem. Produced by the Empire's trade, the bezant was absorbed in the Empire's welfare, social and political. Yet there was more involved in the Byzantine Dives than domestic accounts. The repercussion was international. Fluttering at the golden beacon, the lazzaroni of Europe and Asia alike beseeched commercial favours of the imperial government. And juSt as at Constantinople there arose the firSt syStematisation of European diplomatic procedure, it was there also that the firSt principles of the extra-territoriality of ambassadors and the treatment of resident foreigners were formulated. Racial and religious distinctions, save where ChriStological heresies were concerned, were viewed with toleration. The Jews, hounded over the face of the earth, found refuge behind the walls of Galata. And the crusaders, to their inexpressible indignation, discovered in the city a Saracen mosque of official conStruCtion, where services for the Moslem residents were conducted in the full light of day. This magnetic cosmopolitanism which Stamped mediaeval Greek civilisation, was definitely organised, and from the tenth century on, exercised an increasing influence on the policies of the WeSt. The earlieSt and moSt pertinacious of the regular 145

TRADE

AND T H E

BEZANT

traders seem to have been the Russians. The peculiar Stru&ure of the firSt Russian city Slates, based on a commercial rather than a territorial authority over the neighbouring magnates, rendered Byzantine trade indispensable to their existence. For what reasons their intercourse with Constantinople was threatened, hiStory does not record. But whatever the circumstances, they were prepared, if necessary, to preserve it by force; and many a fleet from the great rivers above the Black Sea was repulsed from the city walls by Greek arms and Greek fire. In 9 1 1 , however, an agreement was reached which constituted the firSt of the famous " Capitulations," and the firSt enunciation of the principle of extra-territoriality. The rules were Stri w a s l deputation to Constantinople, seeking admission for them to the Orthodox Church. It is here, in the light of historic consequence, that the salient outcome of iconoclasm is to be found. The monks had won the icons; but they had loSt their bid for papal authority. Henceforth there was a definite divergence between Constantinople 176

THE

Q U E S T OF

REALITY

and Rome. With this emergence and fruition of a spiritual austerity beyond the comprehension of Latin materialism, the hiStory of Christianity develops from the formative to the contrasting. It may be supposed that when the historians of a thousand years hence come to analyse the European modes of thought and living which now dominate the world, a factor in their calculations will be the admittedly beneficial influence of Christianity in the building of European civilisation. They will disentangle the various communions of that religion; they will mark the Reformation as its turning-point; and they will then, judgment matured by thirty generations' detachment, note the upshot of new and extraordinary phenomena in that branch of it which retained its allegiance to the ancient Pope in Rome. The success with which, from the seventeenth century on, the counter-reformed Latin Church pursued its formula for the cure of souls; the devotion of its servants; and even the measure of their spiritual attainments; these they will applaud. But the.manner in which the great multitude of its adherents was henceforth effectually debarred from communion with the Holy Spirit, the paramount, and for the future, only permanent element in the Christian Trinity; together with the hourly denial practised, from the Vatican to the remoteSt missionary, of the Christian ethic, can but evoke surprise. We as contemporaries can give the Roman Church its due: to the troubled and the wavering it 177

THE

Q U E S T OF

REALITY

brings a peace that is nowhere else to be found. But history loses sight of detail in perception of an institution's relative contribution to the furtherance of the human queSt, Subsequent speculation may debate as to whether it was the Italian core or the Spanish infiltration that inaugurated these traditions. But the verdiót of a posterity unbiassed, as we are, by the survival of partisan Christian seCts, can be foretold. In that view, poft-Reformation Catholicism muSt appear a baStard aberration from the main body of Christendom; a product of obsolete Mediterranean materialism which henceforth played no part with Christianity in man's discovery of Reality; which desecrated his divine soul with self-conStrufted specifics of salvation; which extinguished all intellectual and material progress wherever its influence was StrongeSt; and finally, which outraged, separately and in the aggregate, every canon of behaviour which enables a human being to dwell in amity with his neighbour. To this postulated criticism, the Greek Orthodox Church offers commentary. The latter hiStory of its Byzantine phase reveals, in its relationship with Rome, the beginnings of those tendencies on the part of the latter which, even in the twentieth century, continue to render odious the Papal Curia and all its political works. It provides also a contract valuable for the understanding of both institutions, and one obscured by no serious doitrinal dispute. This contraSt is temperamental. And in temperament lies the key to the hiStory. For in that muát be sought the fundamental ex178

THE

Q U E S T OF

REALITY

planation of the great schism, for which, in the firSt instance, the Greeks were more responsible than the Romans. The psychological difference between the two Churches lies at bottom in their temporal outlook. To the Greek, who by nature lives entirely in the present, the conception of future resurreClion and future after' life is obscure. To the Roman it is clear as his own hand. The result is that while, for the latter, the whole impulse of religion is in essence eschatological, woven with the idea of poSt-human progression, for the Greek it is derived from the desire to seek transfiguration, not in the future, but the present. The Roman, in this life, is concentrated on the problems of sin and grace: his eyes are fixed on the below; the other world, though parent of his activity, is yet far off. For the Greek it is here. He lives in two worlds at once, and his eyes are on the upper of them; the Eucharist is not so much a means of grace as a " medicine of immortality —rpap/jLULKov a&avavicis" While, in Roman opinion, God became man that man's sins might be forgiven with a view to juture immortality, in Greek it was that his human nature might be deified, not in some future State, but now. Thus for the Roman the prime function of religion is an ethical one, the regulation of conducual seminary within the precinCts of the Great Palace itself. A University, founded in the fifth century by Theodosius II, and known as the OCtagon, also flourished. Here grammar, rhetoric, dialectic and the classics were Studied after the manner of Antiquity. But it Stank in the noStrils of the iconoclaSts and was closed by the Emperor Leo III the Isaurian, in 727. Greeks without education are as bees in mid-winter. Moreover, as Rambaud has written, " in the Greek Empire, the humanities seemed indispensable, and at the same time, sufficient, for the formation of civil servants." During more than a century, the Study of the humanities was in abeyance. Nor only individuals, but the State services themselves, suffered proportionately. For in Constantinople, as in England to-day, the broadeSt mental training was considered essential to eventual administrative success. It was to repair the efficiency of the bureaucracy, as previously shown on pp. 127 and 128, to set seal on the iconoclaSt defeat, and to gratify both his own and the popular craving, that the Caesar Bardas, broti\er of the Empress-Regent Theodora, and virtual ruler of the Empire from 856 to 866, refounded the University of Constantinople. Cultured and loose-living, an efficient administrator and dispenser of justice, the typically " Renascence " personality of the Ciesar became the centre of an intellectual clique who impressed their names on hiStory: Photius, afterwards Patriarch of the firSt schism, and sometimes called the wiseSt man of the Middle Ages; ConStantine, apoStle to the Slavs, whose cultural birth through 204

CULTURE

him accomplished was jointly inspired by Photius and the Caesar; Methodius, parent of the modern Czech; and Leo the Mathematician, Bishop of Salonica, to whose care the new University was entrusted. FirSt in the revived curriculum came the classics. It is not to be supposed that the part of the Byzantines, les bibliothecaires du genre humain, in preserving the

writings of Antiquity, was a wholly passive one. More of those fabled books were their possession than are ours. And these lay, not mouldering in cupboards as historians have sedulously preached, but beneath the scrutiny of perpetual copyiSts, whose volumes were disseminated to Student and dilettante alike. It was computed, at one time, that the royal library alone contained 30,000 books. In the higher ranks of society, women were often as well-educated as men. Simultaneously, the ninth century witnessed an advance in the practical application of science. Greek fire was already discovered. Under the Emperor Theophilus, laSt of the iconockSts, Leo of Salonica invented the dial in the Emperor's cabinet, recording the messages of the Asiatic fire-telegraph, and was also responsible for the jewelled birds and golden lions that sang and roared about his throne. Such, in fait, was the fame of Constantinople in this respect, that the Caliph of Bagdad in concluding a treaty with the Greeks, Stipulated for the visit of three professors of mathematics to his court; of these Leo was one. At the beginning of the twelfth century, it is recorded that the blinded conspirator, Nicephorus Diogenes, 205

CULTURE Studied g e o m e t r y b y m e a n s of

figures

in solid r e l i e f .

A f t e r the L a t i n C o n q u e s t , the m a n t l e of s c i e n t i f i c a n d mathematical

learning

fell

to

Trebiz-ond,

whither

v o y a g e d Students in search o f it f r o m e v e r y p a r t o f t h e Levant.

B u t the eleventh c e n t u r y w a s the g o l d e n a g e

of B y z a n t i n e e d u c a t i o n .

And

the w i d t h of its

field

m a y be j u d g e d b y the subjects of w h i c h , at t h e a g e o f twenty-five, mastered

Pselios

informs

the u l t i m a t e

posterity

intricacies:

that

he

Rhetoric,

sophy, M u s i c , L a w , Geometry, A S t r o n o m y ,

had

Philo-

Medicine,

M a g i c , and, through Neoplatonism, P l a t o n i s m . M u s i c , as a p r o v i n c e of the h i g h e r c u l t u r e is s e l d o m mentioned

in

the

Middle

Ages.

Unfortunately,

B y z a n t i n e a t t a i n m e n t in this s p h e r e is d i f f i c u l t t o r e construct. court

M u s i c p l a y e d a l a r g e p a r t in m i l i t a r y a n d

ceremonial.

Whenever

the

Emperor

moved

f r o m the G r e a t P a l a c e , he w a s a c c o m p a n i e d b y b a n d s of

drums

and

marched to the the t r u m p e t ;

trumpets; s o u n d of

and the

on

flutes; firSt

campaigns,

soldiers

orders were given

by

recorded army bands

of

WeStern E u r o p e a r e said to h a v e b e e n b o r r o w e d f r o m the T u r k s , i n h e r i t o r s of

the Byzantine.

Mechanical

organs g l a d d e n e d the E m p r e s s to h e r b a t h ;

a golden

organ filled the t h r o n e - r o o m of the b i r d s a n d l i o n s w i t h rnvSterious

s o u n d at the reception of f o r e i g n a m b a s s a -

d o r s ; the f a c t i o n s o f the c i r c u s had each its s i l v e r o r g a n , to

be

played

gardens.

The

on

a

wooded

ecclesiastical

s u r v i v e d in n u m e r o u s pretation is u n c e r t a i n .

terrace music

manuscripts;

in

of

the

the

palace

time

b u t their

has

inter-

T h e c h a n t s a p p e a r to h a v e b e e n

206

CULTURE akin to G r e g o r i a n , o f w h i c h they w e r e p r o b a b l y the original inspiration;

their r e n d e r i n g b y the embassy

o f M i c h a e l I R h a n g a b £ c h a r m e d the E m p e r o r C h a r l e magne;

and they a r e represented, to s o m e extent, in

the traditional tones of the modern G r e e k f o l k - s o n g s . A l s o they f o r m e d the basis o f R u s s i a n c h u r c h m u s i c , t h u s l e n d i n g all R u s s i a n tunes and c o m p o s e r s their di£Hn&ion

both f r o m those of W e S t e r n E u r o p e

and

t h e f o r m l e s s m o n o t o n y of the lesser Slav peasantries. To

the

Chrysanthine

system

of the m o d e r n

Greek

C h u r c h , they a r e in no w a y r e l a t e d ; this b e i n g a p u r e l y Oriental importation. In

language

witnessed

and

literature,

the eleventh

century

the f u r t h e r g r o w t h o f an evolution

which

w a s d e s t i n e d to p r o v e , r i g h t d o w n to the present t i m e , a n d p r o b a b l y f o r m a n y y e a r s b e y o n d it, the herediias

of the G r e e k race.

between

t h e written

and

damnosa

T h i s w a s the d i v e r g e n c e the s p o k e n

tongue.

The

A t t i c p e d a n t r y o f s c h o o l m a s t e r s l i v e d then as n o w , and w i t h disastrous results f o r the u n f o r t u n a t e l a n g u a g e of w h i c h the A t t i c dialedt w a s f o r m e r l y a part.

T o write

e v e n letters in t h e v e r n a c u l a r w a s to d e f y the accepted canons

of

taSfce.

And

while in the W e S t

French,

S p a n i s h a n d Italian w e r e g r o w i n g out of L a t i n ,

the

y o u t h o f C o n s t a n t i n o p l e w a s Still o b l i g e d to load its p e n w i t h the j e j u n e purity o f classic models.

W i t h the

r e v i v e d S t u d y o f the h u m a n i t i e s , and particularly of P l a t o , in the e l e v e n t h c e n t u r y , the d i v e r g e n c e w a s r e n d e r e d permanent. nised

T h e l a n g u a g e of conversation,

as a m e d i u m

of

unrecog-

artiStic expression, w a s

207

con-

CULTURE signed to the limbo of vulgarity. In the phrase of K r u m bacher, it was as though the Italian R e n a s c e n c e h a d substituted Ciceronian L a t i n f o r the l a n g u a g e of D a n t e . Words evolved, but were never committed to paper. Style became but a heaping o f clauses. T h a t , in a thousand years the highly developed B y z a n t i n e culture produced no literary work of the leaSt importance, is a convincing testimony to the d a n g e r of the o f t - m o u r n e d pact's survival. Posterity may be t h a n k f u l that no s u c h adherence to the models of Praxiteles and P h e i d i a s developed, as it was later to do in W e s t e r n E u r o p e , a similar Strangle-hold on art. T h e r e exists, of course, a l a r g e b u l k o f B y z a n t i n e literature. Its foremoSt w o r k s , the theological, are of too topical an intercut to attratt the attention of s u b sequent generations. In hiStory, the G r e e k s have at all times excelled. R o y a l t y , ecclesiastic, b o u r g e o i s , each in turn assumed the function of chronicler. And despite the tedium of f o r m , their outlook is balanced and understanding of human character. T h e output of poetic hymns, f r o m the eighth century on, w a s p r o f u s e ; unfortunately their beauty has not w i t h s t o o d translation into A n c i e n t and M o d e r n . Apart from such songs as the d i r g e to the fallen city, quoted on the laSt of these pages, the moSt u n i q u e product of mediaeval Greek literature is the epic of D i g e n i s A k r i t a s . This poem, dating from the tenth or eleventh centuries, is a romance of the Anatolian border in the days b e f o r e M a n z i k e r t , when the B y z a n t i n e dominion stretched almoSt to the E u p h r a t e s . T h e r e pervades it not only

208

CULTURE t h e eternal s p a r k o f G r e e k patriotism,

championing

the sacred m o n a r c h y in Constantinople a n d its heavenly p r o t o t y p e , but s o m e t h i n g of the j o y o u s lassitude of P e r s i a , t o g e t h e r w i t h the c h i v a l r e s q u e caprice of t h e g r e a t captain of the m a r c h e s .

T h e exploits of the h e r o ,

in w h i c h hiStory and l e g e n d m i n g l e , h a v e penetrated even R u s s i a n f o l k l o r e .

H a d the E m p i r e e n d u r e d , and

A t t i c i s m lapsed, as it muSt eventually h a v e done, b e f o r e the n e e d f o r p o p u l a r expression, this p o e m w o u l d h a v e o c c u p i e d , f o r m o d e r n G r e e k s , the position of the C h a n son d e R o l a n d o r the C a n t e r b u r y T a l e s f o r F r e n c h or English. W i t h s u c h m e a s u r e o f c u l t u r e , s a v e in art, a p p r e c i a tive r a t h e r

than

creative,

the Byzantine

civilisation

r e a c h e d a c l i m a x that laSted f r o m C h a r l e m a g n e to the crusades.

T h e W e S t lay d a r k and s a v a g e ; b e h i n d the

w a l l s of C o n s t a n t i n o p l e , the classic spirit of h u m a n i s m w a x e d a n d w a n e d , but w a s n e v e r quite e x t i n g u i s h e d . T h e r e a l o n e the amenities o f l i v i n g sionally

flourished.

in architectural f o r m , the E a S t e r n

Occa-

influence

w e n t W e S t , as s h o w n at A i x or P d r i g u e u x ; but m o r e o f t e n it w a s in the p r o d u i t s o f c r a f t s m a n s h i p , in r e l i q u a r i e s o f j e w e l l e r s ' a n d g o l d s m i t h s ' w o r k , in g l a s s , e n a m e l s a n d f a b r i c s s u c h as w e r e a f t e r w a r d s d i s c o v e r e d in C h a r l e m a g n e ' s t o m b .

A n d it is the s p l e n d o u r , o f

w h i c h these objedts w e r e but echoes, w h i c h Strikes the true n o t e o f the a g e .

S o m e t h i n g of it r e m a i n s in the

g o r g e o u s c o l o u r i n g o f the m o s a i c s o f D a p h n i , a c c e n tuated by their i n t i m i d a t i n g auSterity o f f o r m .

B u t its

outstanding

of

monument

is the g r e a t c h u r c h

209

the

CULTURE monaSlery of St L u k e of Stiris. H e r e the mosaics, if lacking the conspicuous genius of the f o r m e r , breathe a cold, vernal brilliance f r o m each shadowed vault a b o v e the bevelled panels of dull polychrome marble. In this church alone, situate on a trackless, o l e a n d e r e d spur of Parnassus, is a true interior of the E m p i r e ' s middle period to be seen. T h e effect is one, w h i c h words, in the absence of analogy, cannot c o n v c y . T h i s splendour, and the material wealth i m p l i e d , were the sponsors of the B y z a n t i n e R e n a s c e n c e , w h i c h took place in the eleventh century. T o the man in the Street, the term " R e n a s c e n c e " conjures v a r i o u s a n d diverse portents: pagan Italy and M a r t i n L u t h e r ; manuscript-mongcring scholars and the v a n q u i s h i n g of G o t h i c ; the seed of painting planted out of n o t h i n g in Giotto; C o l u m b u s in his cockle-shell, C a x t o n at his press. B u t in reality the R e n a s c e n c e w a s a u n i t y o f which each force represented by these names w a s b o r n , and to which each contributed. It w a s an i n t e l l e & n a l impulse, born of reaction againSt the Stale e n c y c l o paidics of AriStotle and a mySticism no longer s y n o n y mous with, but opposed to, the trend o f h u m a n progress. T h e queSt of R e a l i t y unaided w a s o b s o l e t e ; there was need for subsidiary channels. T h e syStem of the Ancients, of sensible enquiry into m a n ' s p r o p e r significance, muSt be invoked. Before the WeSt was even thus consciously a g r o p e , in Constantinople, Greeks b e i n g G r e e k s , the logic of humanism, the relating of life's f u n d a m e n t a l p u r p o s e

210

CULTURE

to the delicious manifestations of the organic world, had never been wholly discredited. And it was thence, from the Byzantines themselves as well as from the anceStral classics in their keeping, that the impulse of the WeStern Renascence emanated. But the rediscovery of Plato in the EaSt was attended by no such revolution as it afterward produced in the WeSt; the physical odds againSt which the Empire had now to contend were too great, and the patent abuses of Plato's opponent, the Orthodox Church, too few, to secure his profoundeSt effect. It was Italy, therefore, that reaped where the Greeks had sown. Save only in painting. In that, the harveSt was shared between them. Although the creative faculties of the Byzantine were mainly guided by the myStic and inspirational, it was, none the less, only its hold on the rational Hellenic perception of sensory values that gave Byzantine culture its uniqueness. Though, from the firSt, the free exercise of Reason to discover for each individual an interpretation of destiny and duty had been suspedt in the eyes of the Church; though the flesh of Hypatia, NeoplatoniSt of the fifth century, had been scraped from her bones in the Streets of Alexandria; though the philosophical schools of Athens had been closed by JuStinian in 531, and the University of Constantinople by the iconoclaSts two hundred years later; yet always there had existed those who, though not so draStic as the fourth-century Emperor Julian the ApoState in his contempt for the Christian intellect, despite the civil 211

CULTURE virtues thereby engendered, retained the belief that not only religion, but material phenomena in addition, provided channels of communication with the A f f i n i t y of man's perpetual seeking.

O f these was the Cassar

Bardas, leader of the anti-Puritan r e a f t i o n of the ninth century, and precursor, with his learned and influential contemporary, the Patriarch P h o t i u s , of a m o v e m e n t which reached its climax at the end o f the eleventh. For it w a s then that the true B y z a n t i n e took place.

Renascence

PselJos, the wisest man o f his a g e a n d

m i n i v e r of the E m p i r e , advertised P l a t o , T h e r e now arrives that monStrous, Stupid paradox, the rejection of Platonism, f u n d a m e n t a l l y religious in outlook and classical only in method, by a b o d y

of

Christian opinion that had l o n g accepted the u n d i l u t e d materialism of AriStotle.

T o s u m , in a sentence, the

difference between the two is a presumption which o n l y the present context can excuse.

B u t h o l d i n g this in

view, it may be said that, in the firSt place, to AriStotle the conception of an A b s o l u t e R e a l i t y , external to m a n , but possessing in him a personal affinity, w a s u n k n o w n ; such Reality as he sought was of diverse and i m p o s s i b l e elements, such as JuStice and B e a u t y , each possessed of that insulated significance which has proved the greatest curse of the classical incubus.

A n d that, in the s e c o n d ,

this limited and scattered T r u t h was contained f o r him wholly in objects admitting of sensory p e r c e p t i o n ; queit, in f a f t , was a matter of analysis. other hand, discovered G o d .

his

Plato, on the

T h e "Absolute Reality,

external to man, but possessing in him a personal

212

CULTURE a f f i n i t y , " w a s the b e g i n n i n g of t h o u g h t f o r h i m ; " JuStice and B e a u t y "

w e r e co-ordinate;

in it

the signi-

f i c a n c e o f materia! p h e n o m e n a was apparent only in t e r m s o f it.

T o AriStotle, material p h e n o m e n a w e r e as

v i s c e r a to the a n a l y s t ; to P l a t o they w e r e subsidiary to his inStinCtive location o f the element sought.

The

queSt o f R e a l i t y , a R e a l i t y in w h i c h the w h y and w h e r e f o r e o f t h i n g s had no part, g a v e him his ideal, and was f o r h i m the ideal o f m a n . were Reason.

And

B u t the hounds o f the pursuit

s u c h , f o r the sake of that v e r y

foinCtion, w a s his exaltation of R e a s o n , that the means became

c o n f u s e d with

the e n d :

g o l d e n calf, s y n o n y m o u s with

R e a s o n became his

God.

Hence,

AriStotle, the encyclopaedist, chcmiSt d e l v i n g

while in

the

earth f o r a b s t r a c t i o n s , w a s a docile creature in the hands o f C h r i s t i a n doctrinaires,

Plato, glorifying Reason

no

m a t t e r w h e r e it led, opened viStas o f unlimited heterodoxy.

Thus—to

trace the s e q u e n c e o f h i S t o r y — t h e

f u n d a m e n t a l i m p u l s e of the R e f o r m a t i o n was the ideal o f P l a t o c o m m u n i c a t e d as an intellectual State. muSt t h i n k i n d e p e n d e n t l y : faCt s y n o n y m o u s

with

Men

the queSt of R e a l i t y is in

logical,

independent

thought.

B u t R e a l i t y is absolute, i m m u t a b l e by speculation.

By

a c c e p t i n g this dodtrine, p r e s e r v e d f r o m idolatry by the latter r e s e r v a t i o n , the r e f o r m e d churches r e g a i n e d in s o m e m e a s u r e the path w h i c h the old h a d loSt. the O r t h o d o x

C h u r c h , as diStinCt f r o m the

B u t in Roman,

w h o s e A b s o l u t e , f a r f r o m b e i n g i m m u t a b l e by t h o u g h t , was

the p r o d u c t o f an inventive and politically

grossed

h i e r a r c h y , the path had never been

213

en-

actually

CULTURE

out of sight.1 Had Byzantine civilisation survived, the Platonic element in the future Protestantism might have filtered North-west by means of imperceptible mental conta Berlin, 1892. WALTON, F. P., Historical Introduction to the Roman Law, Edinburgh,

DIEHL, C . ,

1920. CHAPTER V I I :

COMMERCE

AND

WEALTH.

De la monnaie et de la puissance d'achat des métaux précieux dans l'Empire byzantin, Liège, 1924. Le montant du budget dans l'Empire byzantin, Paris, 1922. Lesfinancesbyzantines, Paris, 1 9 1 1 . COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES, Topographia Christiana, English translation by J. W. McCrindle, London, 1897DIEHL, C., Venise, Paris, 1 9 1 8 . HEYD, W . , Histoire du commerce du Levant au moyen âge, Leipzig, 1 8 8 5 . HODGSON, F . C . , The Early History of Venice, London, 1 9 0 1 . Venice in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, London, 1 9 1 0 . KLUCHEVSKY, V . 0 . , A History of Russia, Vol. I , chs. V and V I , London, 1 9 1 1 .

ANDRÉADÈS, A . ,

CHAPTER

VIII :

ORTHODOX

CHURCH

GENERAL

HISTORY.

Those wishing to study (his îubjea and its particular aspects are warned against the numerous works of English Roman and AngloCatholics. Under cover of spurious erudition and pretended impartiality, they exhibit a feminine spite, which makes the reader realise, after perhaps hours of attention, that he has been wasting his time. ADEKEY, W . V . , The Greek and Eastern Churches, Edinburgh, 1 9 0 8 . BRÉHIHR, L., Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. I V , chs. I X and X I X . Véglise at l'Orient au moyen âge, Paris, 1907. Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. I V , ch. I. DDKKER, ]. A., History of Development of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ, English translation by W. E. Alexander and D . W .

DIEHL, C . ,

Simon, Edinburgh, 1894-8.

324

BIBLIOGRAPHY A., A History of Dogma, English translation byN. Buchanan, E. B. Speirs and J. Millar, London, 1894-8. HEILER, F . , The Spirit of Worship, English translation by W . Montgomery, an excellent and wholly impartial comparison of the different ideals of the Christian Churches, London, 1926. LTJCHAIRE, A., Innocent III et la question de l'Orient, Paris, 1907. NEALZ, J. M., A History of the Holy Eastern Church, London, 1850OECONOMOS, L., La vie religieuse dans l'Empire byzantin au temps des Comnenes et des Anges, Paris, 1918. PARCOIRE, R. P. J., L'église byzantine (527-845), Paris, 1905. STANLEY, A . P . , The Eastern Church, London, 1869. TOZER, H. F . , The Church and the Eastern Empire, London, 1897 WICRAM, W . A., History of the Assyrian Church, London, 1 9 1 0 The Separation of the Monophysites, London, 1923, HARNACK,

CHAPTER

V I I I : ICONOCLASM.

T . W . , Painting in Islam, ch. 1, analysing the anti-representational impulse of Mohammedanism, Oxford, 1928. BRÉHIER, L., La querelle des images, Paris, 1904. GFRÖRER, A., Der Eildersturm, Vol. II of Byzantinische Geschichten, Graz, 1874. SCHWARZLOSE, K . , Der Bilderstreit, Gotha, 1890. TOUCARD, A . , La persecution iconoclaste d'après la correspondence de saint Théodore Studite, Revue des Questions Historiques, Paris, July, 1891. ARNOLD,

CHAPTER

VIII:

MONASTICISM.

E. C., Cambridge MeJia-val History, ch. X V I I J . BYRON, R . , The Station : Athos, Treasures and Men, London, 1928. GARDNER, A . , Theodore of Studium, London, 1905. HAN NAY, J . O . , 7/KR «FY/V/V W ^ Christian Monasticism, London, 1903. L A K E , K . , Early Days of Monastkism on Mount Athos, Oxford, 1909. M A R I N , L., Les moines de Constantinople, Paris, 7897. BUTLER,

3*5

BIBLIOGRAPHY Me Y ER, P., Die Hdupturkünden für die Geschichte des Athoskloster9 Leipzig, 1864. CHAPTER I X :

GENERAL

CULTURE.

Le recrutement des fonctionnaires et les universités dans l'Empire byzantin, Extrait des Mélanges de Droit Romain, Paris, 1926. KRUMBACHER, K . , Greek Literature : Byzantine, in the current Encyclopaedia Britannica. Geschichte der Byzantinischen Litteratur, Munich, 1897. RAM BAUD, A., Michel Pie llos, philosophe et homme d'état, Revue Historique, Paris, 1877. SYMONDS, J. A., Renaissance in Italy, Vols. I and II, London, 1898. ZERVOS, C., Michel Psellos, Paris, 1920. ANDRÉADÈS, A.»

CHAPTER I X : A R T A N D

See also Chapter IF : stantinople.

ARCHITECTURE.

Topography and Monuments of Con-

E. M., rfc iytas Zo Leipzig, 1908. WROTH, W . , Catalogue of the coins of . . . the Empires of Thessalonica, Niceea, and Trebizond in the British Museum, London, 1908. WULFF, 0., Die Koimesiskirche in Nuäa und ihre Mosaiken (destroyed by the Turks in 1921), Strasbourg, 1903. PERNOT,

XI : BYZANTINE DEFENCE AND T H E E A S T E R N INVADERS.

CHAPTER

De la population de Constantinople sous les Empereurs byzantins, Metron, Rovigo, Dec., 1920. Cambridge Mediaval History, Vol. IV, chs. V, X, X X and X X I . GIBBONS, H. A . , The Foundation of the Ottoman Empire, Oxford, 1916. LAURENT, J . , Byzance et les Turcs seljouädes, Paris, 1 9 1 3 . MJJATOVJCH, C., Consrant'tne, the Last Emperor cf the Greeks, unreliable, but giving legends and details from the Slavonic Chronicle, London, 1892. OMAN, C . , A History of the Art of War ; the Middle Ages, London, 1898. PÎARS, E., The Destruction of the Greek Empire, London, 1903. SCHLUMBERGER, G . , Le siège, la prise et le sac de Constantinople par les Turcs, en 14. * 99» 2ro, 212-213, 305 And Art, 67 The Unknown, 13 Golden Horde, 310 Golden Horn, 27, 70, 133, 147, 222, 253, 262, 289, 294, 2CJ7 Goths, 46, 47, 78 Gozzoli, Bcno'izo, 243, 2O4 Grammar, Study of, 204 Grant, John, 294 Great Palace, Constantinople, 71, 72, 123, 135, 191, 222-229, 310 Banquets, 223-224 Churches, 227 Forsaken, 262 Fountains, 227-228 Ritual, 115, 142, 166, 222-229, 249; transferred to Moscow, 310 Sentries, 22S Schools, 228 Treasure, 150 Greece and Greeks— Ancient, 4, 8, 26 Modern, 8, 9 Greece, proper, 68, 80, 88, 104, 109, 136, 175, 193, 260, 284, 300 Greek conceit, 16

Greek entity, racial, 7-23, 112, 157, 161, 311 Greek fire, 85, 146, 205, 279-280

Illustrations of, 280 Greek patriotism, 15, 107, 113, 209,

235, 232, 263 Greek respect for learning, 13 Greek revival, 8 Greco, see E\ Greco Gregoras, Niccphorus, note on PL V Gregory the Great, Pope, 162, 174 Grelot, J. G., notes on Pis. V I I and X

Guiscard, Robert, 99 Guiscard, Roger, 136 King of England, followers of, 146 Harun al Rascbid, 270 HatsImperial of Trebizond, 243 Palaeologus, 243-244 Of Empress Maria Comnena, 246 Helena of York, St, 74 Hellespont, 69, 86 Henry of Flanders, Latin Emp., 105 Henry I of Franco., note on PI. I V Henry I V of England, 265 Henry VI, Emp., 107 Heraclea, 104, 162 Metropolitan of, 163 Heraclius, Emp., 82, 83-84, 269; note on PL XII. Heraldry, Byzantine, 241 High Admiral, Office of, note on PL V I Hill, G. F., note on PL I X Hippodrome, Constantinople, 30, 7173, 82, 147, 249-252, 301 ; notes on Pis. I I and X I V ; see also Spina Betting, 250 Factions, 227, 249 Later displays, 251-252 Spheadone, 252, note on PL X I V History and Historians— Byzantine, 105, 208 Greek, 77 I-Iofsted van Essen, G., notes on Pis. I and I I I Hohenstaufcn, Dynasty of, 166, 303 Holy Apcstles, Churches o f — Constantinople, 74, 222, 256 Salonica, 190 Honorius I I I , Pope, 260 Horse, Byzantine use of, 88, 232, 246, 250-251, 274, 277-278 ; care of, 251, 278; price of, 139-140 Hospices, 246, 252, 253 Hospitals, Byzantine, 105, 142, 254 01 Basil oi Caisarea, 252 Of the Pantocrator, 248, 2,53 Of the Redemption of the World, *S4 HAROI-D,

INDEX Hospitals, Byzantine— continued Ox Sfc Paul, 253-254 Use of soap in, 254 Hugo, King of Italy, note on PI. I V Hulagu, 271, 301 Humanism and Humanities, 12, 31, 38» 193» 195> 204, 209, 215, 217. 219. 255 Humility, 60 Humour, Byzantine, PL X I I I Hungary and Hungarians, 133, 271, 286, 287 Iluns, 80 Hunting, Byzantine, 232-233, 251, 287 Hus and Hussites, 38, 176, 303 Hymns, Byzantine, 208 Hypatia, 211 ICONOCLASM,

88-90,

Z67,

I7O-I77,

l8o-l8l And Art, 88, 90, 170-273, 176, 1 92-193 I n Islam, 173 iconoclast Emperors, 160, 191, 238, 247 Icons, 88-90, 174-176, 216 Iconography, Byzantine, 191 Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople, 93, 181 IUyria, 6R Independence, Creek—• In fifteenth ccntury, n o map War of, 16, 20, 285, 301 India, 70, 94, 133, 170 Inheritance, 118 Innocent I I I , Pope, 104, 183 Insígnias, Byzantine, 124, 241, 277 Irene, Empress, 89, 174-175, 236 Irene Dukaina, Empress, 248 Isaac Angelus, limp., 241 Isaurian dynasty, 86-89, 139, 230, 309 Isidore, Cardinal, 185 Isidore the Milesian, 199 Islam, 37, 50, 60, 85-86. 87, iji, 96, 124, 163, 173, 267-271, 283 In Spain, 285 Islamic Empire, 269-270 Ismail Shah of Persia, 302 Italian defenders of Constantinople, 289, 293, 297, 298

Italy and Italians, 4, 24, 78, 80 88 9z, 99, 107, 175, 182, 188.243* 255. 270, 300, 302, 303-307 ; sec also Genoa and Vcnice Painting in, 107, 193-194, 2i 5> 2 I Q Ivan I I I of Muscovy, 307 Ivan the Terrible, 310 JACOBITE Church, 169 janizaries, 185 Jenghis Khan, 108, 281, 282 Jerusalem, 74, 81 map, 84, 96, 99, 269 Church of, 164 Latin kingdom of, 97 Patriarchate and Patriarchs of, 86, 162-164 jews and Judaism, 26, 46, 55, 58, 59-60, 66, 145, 173, 268 John I Tzimisces, 92 John I I Comnenus, 97, 166, 253 John I I I Vatatzes, 105, 136, 231, 243, 261 John I V Lascaris, 106, 166 John V Palaiologiis, 108. 151, 184, 285-286; note on PI. V I John V I Cantacuzene, 151, 284 ; note on PI. V I John V I Comnenus of Trebizond, 302 John V I I l Palseologus, 109,185, 242, 244, 246, 287, 288; notes on Pis. I X and X I I Depletions of, 243-244; note on PL I X John, Augustus, 172 John Damascene, St, 174 John of Dalmatia, 298 John the Faster, Patriarch of Constantinople, 162 John the Grammarian, 142 Judges, Byzantine, 120 Julian the Apostate, 211 Julian, Cardinal-Legate, 288 Julius Caesar, 46 Juno of Samos, statue, 257 Justice, Byzantine, 115, uS, 120, 300 Justin I, 80 Justinian, 20, 74» 8o - 83. l l 6 > 12I < 159, r8S, 190,199, 211, 246. 247, 250, 273, 298 Body of, n 7

339

INDEX J ustiniaa —continued Empire of, 80-82, 8r map Portrait of, 189 Statue of, 117; note on PI. I l l KAHKI£ Mosque, Constantinople, 193,216,217; note on PL V Kalo-Joannes, see John V I of Trebizond Kiev, 94, 133, 187, 309 Koeck van Aaist, P., note on PI. XIV Kossovo-Pol— First Battle of, iog, 286 Second Battle of, log, 288 Koum Kapoussi Harbour, 241 Kremlin, 310 Kroum King of Bulgaria, 143 Krumbacher, K., 208 Kusejr 'Amra, 234 LABARUM, 24 J

Lament for the past, 311 Land-owning class, Byzantine, 88, 95, 104, 115, 123, 129, 158, 229234. 263 Palaces of, 231, 233 Land-tenure, Byzantine, 49,126, 230 Lascaris, John, 306 Latin Conquest, sec Constantinople Latin Empire, 102-106, 103 map, 148, 184, 259-261 Latin life in Levant, 259-260 Latin Principalities iu Levant, 100, 103 map, 104 Latins, 129, 148, 276; see also Crusaders, Italians, Genoese, Venetians Greek hatred for, 101, 105, 107, 149, 185, 255 Massacred in Constantinople, 101, 149 Lausanne Conference, 44 Law— Canon, Byzantine, n g , 159 English, 118, r22 Roman, 38, 50-51, 82, 88, 116-122, 1 3 1 ; Basilica, 119; Ecloga, 88; Institutes, 117, 121 ; Pandects, 117, I2i ; Pravda, n g , 309 Syrian, 119

Leo H I the Isaurian, 86, 122-123, 127, 174. 204, 269 Leo IV, 175 Leo V, 175 Leo V I the Sage, 165 Leo I X , Pope, 98, 181 Leo the Great, Pope, 79 Leo the Mathematician, 205, 226 Leonard. Archbishop, 292, 296 Lepanto, 104 Lethaby and Swainson, 201 Libraries, Byzantine, 298, 305 Of Photius, 93 Imperial travelling, 277 Licinius, Etnp., 68 Literature, Byzantine, 62, 100, 127, 207-209 Language, 207-208 Liutprand, Bishop of Cremona, 136, 223, 251 Llaudulph Church, 306 Logothetes, note on PI. V ; see also Bureaucracy Lollards, 176 Lombards, 80, 84, 88, 180 London,109 Brothels of, 238 Lorichs, M., note on PI. I l l Louis V I I of France, 100 Louis I X of France, St, 259 Louis X I I of France, 306 Lucullus, 46 Luke, l i . C., 170 Luther, 176 Lycia, 85 Lycus Valley, 290 Lysippus— Four horses of, 72 Helen of, 257 Hercules of, 72 MACEDONIA, 97, 1 0 7 , 2 8 5

Macedonian Emperors, 75, 90-94, 139, 181, 230, 270, 273, 309; note on Pi. I V Magi, Persian, 170 Magian High-Priest. 51 Magic, study of, 206, 214 Magnavra, 224, 226 Malatesta, Sigisinondo, 306 Manuel I Conmenus, 97, 100, 142, '49. 273

368

INDEX Manuel I I Palaeologus, 84, 109, 243, 286-287, 300, 305 Embassy of, 263-266, 286 Manzikert, Bu.t.Ue of, 96, 128-129, zo#, 215, 233, 27r, 273 ; note on PI. I V Marcus Aurelius, 48 Maria Coranena, Empress, 246, 287 Marmora, Sea of, 8, 68, 70, 222, 226, 289 Marseilles, 174 Martel, Charles, 87, 269 Mary of Antioch, Empress-Regent, lor, 149 Mathematics, Study of, 127, 206 Maurice, Emp., 83 Maurice, St, painted by E l Greco, 219 Maxentius, Emp., 68 Mazdaism, 65 Mecca, 268 Medicine, Study of, 93, 206 ; see also Hospitals Medina, 85, 268 Mercenaries, Byzantine employ of, 95» *Y3. 280, 284 Methodius, Apostle to Slavs, 205, 308 Metochites, Theodore, note on PI. V Metropolitans, of the Orthodox Church, 164-165, 203 Michael I Rhangab6, 207 Michael I I I the Drunkard, 88, 90, 93' 2 5 ° Michael V I I I Palaeologus, 106, 107, 108, 142, 151, 166, 242, 261 Michael Cerularius, Patriarch of Constantinople, 98, 181 Middle Ages, 39, m , 158 Milan, 142 Millet, G., 229 Minoan civilisation, 10 Miracles among the Byzantines, 155, I5S> '74 Missionaries, Byzantine, 90, 204-205, 308 Mistra, town and despotat, 1 ro map, i i i , 119, 193-194, 216-218, 260, 264, 288, 300, 305 Mithras, cult of, 57-5S Modon, 103 map, 104 Moesia, 68

Mohammed, Prophet, 85, r70, 173, 268 Mohammed I, 286 Mohammed I I , 109, 186, 288-290, 293-295. 299, 300. 302, 306, 307 ; notes on Pis. X V and X V I Mohammedanism, see Islam Moldovita, frescoes of, note on PL III Monasticism and monks, 89-90, 157161, 165, 174-175, 262 Mongols, 105, 108, 134, 271-272 Empire of, 271-272 Monophysites, 79, T63, 169 Persecution of, 80, 84 Monotbelitism, 84-86 Monreale, 192 Montenegrins, 242 Montesquieu, 35 Morosini, Latin Patriarch, 184 Mosaic, see Art Moscow, 185, 310, 311 Patriarchate of, 309 Murad I, 108, 282, 285-286 Murad I I , 109, 185. 283, 287-288 Muratori, 292 Music, Byzantine, 206-207 Musil, A., 234 Myriocephalon, Battle of, 97 Mystic phiale, 227 Mysticism— Byzantine, 179, 210 Egyptian, 163 Neoplatonic, 56 NAMES, Byzantine, 22 209, 249; note on PI. V ; see also Great Palace Crowns, 240 In field, 277-278 Oriental, 30, 51, 270 Roman, i z i Spain and Spaniards, 78. 80, 84, 129, 188, 269 Spina, 72 ; note 011 PI. X I V Works of Art on, 72-73, 102, 257-258 Stephen Dushan, King of Serbia, 108 Sterilisation, 120 Stoics, 55 Strzygowski, J., 197 Studite Party in Orthodox Church, 89, 175 Sultan Ahmet Mosque, 252 ; notes on Pis. I I and X I V Sunium, 64 Svatioslav, Prince of Kiev, 92 Symeon, Tsar of Bulgaria, 92 Symonds, J. A., 304 Syria, 80, 84, 97, 134. i5 8 . 190, 268-269

Theodora, Empress- Regent, 176, 181, 204 Theodora, Empress, Macedonian, 95 Theodore I LascarLs, 104, 105 Theodore I I Lascaris, 106 Theodore of Mopsuestia, 169 Theodore of Studiura, 89, 160, 165, 235 Theodoric, 78 Theodosius I, 72 Theodosius I I , 78, 135, 204 Theodosius I I I , 83 Theodota, 236-237 Theophano, Holy Roman Empress, 245 Theophano, Empress, note on PI. I V Theophilus, Emp., 127, 139, 141, 142. 175, 205, 227 Throne-room of, 205, 224-22J Thcophylact, Patriarch of Constantinople, 251, PI. X l l l Theotocopoulos, D., see E l Greco Thessaly, 99, 285 Thotbraes I I I , obelisk of, 72 ; note on PI. I I Thrace, 44, 107, 108, 284 Tibet, 33 Tibetan Lamaism, 170 Tigris, River, 92 T A H J R . P . , 242, 287 Tamerlane, 44, 109, 184, 225, 265, Tintoretto, 216 Titles, Byzantine, 229, 263 286 Borrowed by Russia, 310-311 Empire of, 272 Tartary and Tartars, 170, 225, 281, Toghril Beg, 96 Toledo, 210, 242 309-310 Tours, Battle of, 270 Taxation— Trade, Byzantine, 70, 94, 95, 104, Arab, 269 107,132-152, 255, 292 Byzantine, 84, 133, 138, 147, 149, Commodities, 134 151, 269, 300; Italian imTrade Guilds of Constantinople, 135 munities from, 104, 106 Traders, Foreign, see Constantinople Roman, 48, 49 Trebizond, 94, 103 map, 119, 133, Turkish, 284. 286 206, 241, 302 Thebes, 136 Empire of, 78, 103 map, 104, 110 Themes, 86, 88, 91, 124-126, 125 map, m , 301-303 map, 233 Tribonian, 117 Administration of, 124-126 Generals of. 126; salaries com- Triclinos of the Nineteen Settees, 224 Triumphs, 222, 249 pared with British, 143-144 Turks, 20. 39, 44, 66. 94. 96, 100, Troops of, 126, 274 105, 106, 107, l o S - i n , 129.147, Theoctista, 235-236 150, 244, 262, 263, 267, 270-272, Theodora, Empress of Justinian, 80, 281-303 82, 245 Character, 283 Portrait of. 189

345

INDEX Economic effect, 231 Fanaticism, 108, 281-282, 285 Seljuk Empire, 97, 271 Sultanates in Asia Minor, 271-272, 281 Tyler, R., 232 Tzycanistirion, 250 Byzantine, 277 ; see ALSO Silks Union of the Churchcs — a.D. i2r5, 184 A.d. 1274, 107, 184 A.D. 1439, 109; 123, 164, 185-186, 287, 297 Universities oi Constantinople, 90, 126-128, 144, 193, 204, 211 Magna vra, 127 Octagon, 127, 204 Professorships, 127- 12S Urban the Hungarian, 290 Usan Hassan, 302 UNIFORMS,

Valencia, 26* Vaten«., Frop . 173 Van, Lake, 96 Varangian Guard, 146 Tombstones of, 147 Varna, Battle of, 109, 288 Vasari, 216 Velasquez, 38, 220 Venice and Venetians, 104, 106, 147, I48, I50, 151, 185, 216, ' 17, 221, 245. 255, 258, 286, 297, ; jr. 302 Acquisitions in Levant, -104, J03 map Painting in, 2x6 Venizelos, 20

Vienna, Turkish sieges of, 37, 97, 106, 267 Villehardouin, family of. 260 Geoßrey de, 150, 292 Virgin cult, 89, 174, 175 Virgil, necromancer, 226 Vladimir, Prince of Kiev, 308; note on PI- I l l WALLACHS,

286

Wallis Budge, K. A., 170 Walsingham, Thomas, 265 Wealth, Byzantine, 82, 94, 100, 113, 129,132-152,191.255.280; see also Taxation Gold coinage, 137-144 ; debasement of, 138, 300; purchasing power of, 139-140 William I I of Germany, 73 ; note on PI. I I Windmills, note on PI. H I Women, Byzantine, status of, 118, 228-229, 235 Convents for, 159 Toilets of, 235, 245, 24C Wyclif, John, 38, 176 Yeomen— Absorption by Land-owning Class, 88, 139. 230 Yolande, sister of Baldwin I, 105 York, 68 Zante, ro3 map Zara, sack of, 256 Zoe, Empress, 128, 245 Zoe Palaeologina, see Sophia Zoroastrianism, 268