The Byzantine Empire: history, culture, literature

Timetable

FRIDAY, 13.30-15.00; Collegium Maius, Fredry 10 Street, room 328.

Module aim (aims)

Medieval Europe can be understood as a history of two separate, although interconnected pillars of civilization, two offshoots of Antiquity: the Latin in the West and the Byzantine in the East, both of which spread its ideas among so-called “barbarians” and both of whom contended with their younger, vigorous and powerful counterpart of Islam. This course is dedicated to the latter – the Byzantine Empire, the only legitimate successor of the Roman Empire, the universal Christian superpower of the Middle Ages, and the direct continuator and promoter of the Greek culture.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Syllabus

The Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium): terminology, periodization, territory, spheres of influence

 

The state, the court, the City: the Byzantine state and its heart

 

Orthodoxy

 

Monks, mysticism and hesychasm

 

Men, women and eunuchs

 

The Byzantine art

 

The Byzantine Commonwealth: Byzantium and the cultures that were born under its shadow and care

 

(Eastern) Romans and the rise of Islam. The Roman and Islam civilizations: rivalry and coexistence

 

Between Rome and Constantinople: a history of relationships between the two main Christian patriarchates

 

The Roman Empire and the West

 

Day-to-day life of the imperial subjects

 

 

Reading list

Obligatory

The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire c. 500–1492, ed. J. Shepard, Cambridge 2008.

Optional

Various source materials (e.g. John of Damascus, Concerning Heresy; Anna Komenne, The Alexiad et al.).