:: wikimiki.org ::

Digenis Acritas

Digenis Acritas

Digenis Acritas (Διγενής Ακρίτας) is the most famous epic poem that emerged out of the 12th century Byzantine Empire, following the Acritic songs tradition. The Arab incursions into Byzantine territory are the context within which the first part of the tale unfolds, the events in the part of the narrative concerning the family history of the central hero seem to be located beyond a climate of conflict. The reconciliation of the two peoples through the marriage of the leading figures of the tale and the triumph of Christianity over Islam, achieved through the conversion and reception of the emir and his people into Byzantine society, is the key theme of the first part. The rest of the story unfolds against a background of peaceful coexistence of the two peoples. Written in Medieval Greek by an anonymus author, it marks together with the other acritic poems the beginnings of Greek vernacular literature.

Manuscript

The Digenis Acritas is an extensive narrative text, although it is not in a pure epic-heroic style. It survives in many manuscripts and versions, the oldest two being the Escorial (=E, 1867 lines) and Grottaferrata versions (=G, 3749 lines), from the names of the libraries in which the respective manuscripts are held. While it should be noted that the form (or forms) in which it has survived is not the product of oral composition, it has nevertheless retained a considerable number of features of its oral origins. The common core of the two versions preserved in the E and G manuscripts goes back to the twelfth century. The text of E appears to be closer to the original composition while G represents a version that is heavily marked by learned reworking. Both texts give enchanting descriptions of the life of the martial societies of the border regions of the empire, while in the figure of Digenis are concentrated the legends that had accumulated around local heroes. The Escorial version is the superior of the two in respect of the power and immediacy of the battle scenes and austerity of style. The epic descriptions of the mounted knights and battles are marked by drama, a swift pace and lively visual detail.

Storyline

The Byzantine - Arab conflicts that lasted from the 7th century to the early 11th century provide the context for Byzantine heroic poetry written in the vernacular Greek language. The acrites of the Byzantine Empire of this period were a military class responsible for safeguarding the frontier regions of the imperial territory from external enemies and freebooting adventurers who operated on the fringes of the empire. The work is comprised of two parts. In the first, the "Lay of the Emir", which bears more obviously the characteristics of epic poetry, an Arab emir invades Cappadocia and carries off the daughter of a Byzantine general. The emir agrees to convert to Christianity for the sake of the daughter and resettle in Romania (Byzantine, Roman lands) together with his people. The issue of their union is a son, Digenis Acritas. The second part of the work relates the development of the young hero and his superhuman feats of bravery and strength: like his father, he carries off the daughter of another Byzantine general and then marries her; he kills a dragon; he takes on the so-called apelates, a group of bandits, and then defeats their three leaders in single combat. No one, not even the amazingly strong female warrior Maximu, with whom he commits the sin of adultery, can match him. Having defeated all his enemies Digenis builds a luxurious palace by the Euphrates, where he ends his days peacefully. Cypriot legend has it that he grabbed hold of the Pentadaktylos (Five Fingers) mountain range in Arab occupied Cyprus in order to leap to Asia Minor (Present day Turkey), the mountain range, as the name suggests, resembles five knuckles sprouting from the ground. Digenis continued to be read and enjoyed in later centuries, as the text survives in various versions dating to as late as the 17th century. The epic tale of Digenis Acritas gave rise also to a cycle of Acritic songs, some of which survived today. In the later tradition Digenis is eventually defeated only by Death, in the figure of Thanatos/Charos, after fierce single combat on "the marble threshing floors". Thanatos had reportedly already wrestled with Heracles.

Form

Digenis Acritas is written in the demotic medieval Greek and is composed in fifteen syllable blank verse. Rhyming occurs rarely. The poem does not diverge from the standard political verse of popular Byzantine literature. Each line holds its own and every hemistich is carefully balanced. The poem flows, is cadential, with no cacophonies with very scarce sound repetitions. Below is an excerpt from the translation of the Escorial manuscript, lines 32-54, by Elizabeth Jeffreys (Digenis Akrites, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 241-2):

References

- Émilie Legrand, Recueil de chansons populaires Grecques, Paris, 1904, pp.23
- D. C. Hesseling, Le roman de Digenis Akritas d'après le manuscrit de Madrid, 1911-1912, pp.537
- John Mavrogordato, Digenis Akrites, Oxford, 1956 Category:Epics Category:Medieval legends

Epic poem

:For other meanings of epic, see epic (disambiguation). The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. It retells in a continuous narrative the life and works of a heroic or mythological person or group of persons. In the West, the Iliad, Odyssey, and the Nibelungenlied; and in the East, the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Shahnama are often cited as examples of the epic genre.

Oral epics or world folk epics

The first epics are associated strongly with preliterate societies and oral poetic traditions. In these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means. World folk epics are those epics which are not just literary masterpieces but also an integral part of the world view of a people. They were originally oral literatures, which were later written down by either single author or several writers. Studies of living oral epic traditions in the Balkans by Milman Parry and Albert Lord demonstrated the paratactic model used for composing these poems. What they demonstrated was that oral epics tend to be constructed in short episodes, each of equal status, interest and importance. This facilitates memorisation, as the poet is recalling each episode and using them to recreate the entire epic as they perform it. Parry and Lord also showed that the most likely source for written texts of the epics of Homer was dictation from an oral performance. See also list of world folk-epics.

Epics in literate societies

Literate societies have often copied the epic format, and the earliest known European example is Virgil's Aeneid, which follows both the style and subject matter of Homer. Other obvious examples are Tulsidas' Sri Ramacharit Manas, following the style and subject matter of Valmiki's Ramayana,. and the Persian epic Shahnama by Ferdowsi. Classical epic conventions include: Invocatio (pray to the muse [of the epic]), Prepositio (introduction of the epic's theme), Enumeratio (counting the fighting armys / heroes), In medias res (start from the middle of an event), Deus ex machina (interruption / miracle from a god), Anticipatio (prediction), and Ephiteton ornans (permanent attributives of the hero[es])

Notable epic poems

- 20th century BC: The Epic of Gilgamesh (Sumerian mythology)
- 19th century BC: The Ramayana (Hindu mythology)
- 1316 BC: Traditional date for the Mahabharata (Hindu mythology).
- 8th century BC:
- The Iliad by Homer (Greek mythology)
- The Odyssey by Homer (Greek mythology)
- 1st century BC:
- Aeneid by Virgil
- Táin Bó Cúailnge (Irish mythology)
- c.3rd century: Cilappatikaram, a South Indian epic written by prince Ilango Adigal
- Sometime in the period 8th to the 10th century: Beowulf (Anglo-Saxon mythology)
- 10th century:
- Shahnameh
- Bhagavata Purana (Sanskrit "Stories of the Lord")
- 11th century:
- Digenis Acritas (Byzantine epic poem)
- La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland)
- Epic of King Gesar (Tibetan; compiled in 11th century from earlier sources)
- 12th century: The Knight in the Panther Skin by Shota Rustaveli
- 13th century:
- Poetic Edda (Norse mythology)
- Hervarar saga (Norse mythology)
- Völsunga saga (Norse mythology)
- Nibelungenlied (Germanic mythology)
- Brut by Layamon
- c.1300: Cursor Mundi by an anonymous cleric
- early 14th century: Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy) by Dante Alighieri
- 1516: Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto
- c.1555: Lusiadas by Luis de Camões
- 1575 La Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso
- 16th century:
- Ramacharitmanas (based on the Ramayana) by Goswami Tulsidas
- The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
- 17th century:
- Paradise Lost by John Milton
- Obsidio Szigetianae ("Szigeti veszedelem"; Hungarian) by Miklós Zrínyi
- 19th century:
- Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- The Prelude by William Wordsworth
- Don Juan by George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
- Clarel by Herman Melville
- Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner
- Canigó by Jacint Verdaguer
- Venezuela Heroica, by Eduardo Blanco (1881)
- Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot (Finnish mythology)
- 20th century:
- Savitri by Aurobindo Ghose
- The Cantos by Ezra Pound
- The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis
- The Anathemata by David Jones
- Maximus by Charles Olson
- Paterson by William Carlos Williams
- The Changing Light at Sandover by James Merrill

References

- Heroic Song and Heroic Legend by Jan de Vries ISBN 0405105665

External links

- [http://WorldChronicle.net WorldChronicle.net] Category:Epics Category:Poetic form ja:叙事詩

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. In certain specific contexts, usually referring to the time before the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it is also often referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire. There is no consensus on the starting date of the Byzantine period. Some place it during the reign of Diocletian (284-305) due to the administrative reforms he introduced, dividing the empire into a pars Orientis and a pars Occidentis. Others place it during the reign of Theodosius I (379-395) and Christendom's victory over paganism, or, following his death in 395, with the division of the empire into western and eastern halves. Others place it yet further in 476, when the last western emperor, Romulus Augustus, was forced to abdicate, thus leaving to the emperor in the Greek East sole imperial authority. In any case, the changeover was gradual and by 330, when Constantine I inaugurated his new capital, the process of Hellenization and Christianization was well underway.

The term "Byzantine Empire"

Main article: Names of the Greeks The name Byzantine Empire is derived from the original Greek name for Constantinople; Byzantium. The name is a modern term and would have been alien to its contemporaries. The Empire's native Greek name was Romanía or Basileía Romaíon, a direct translation of the Latin name of the Roman Empire, Imperium Romanorum. The term Byzantine Empire was invented in 1557, about a century after the fall of Constantinople by German historian Hieronymus Wolf, who introduced a system of Byzantine historiography in his work Corpus Historiae Byzantinae in order to distinguish ancient Roman from medieval Greek history without drawing attention to their ancient predecessors. Standardization of the term did not occur until the 18th century, when French authors such as Montesquieu began to popularize it. Hieronymus himself was influenced by the rift caused by the 9th century dispute between Romans (Byzantines as we render them today) and Franks, who, under Charlemagne's newly formed empire, and in concert with the Pope, attempted to legitimize their conquests by claiming inheritance of Roman rights in Italy thereby renouncing their eastern neighbours as true Romans. The Donation of Constantine, one of the most famous forged documents in history, played a crucial role in this. Henceforth, it was fixed policy in the West to refer to the emperor in Constantinople not by the usual "Imperator Romanorum" (Emperor of the Romans) which was now reserved for the Frankish monarch, but as "Imperator Graecorum" (Emperor of the Greeks) and the land as "Imperium Graecorum", "Graecia", "Terra Graecorum" or even "Imperium Constantinopolitanus". This served as a precedent for Wolf who was motivated, at least partly, to re-interpret Roman history in different terms. Nevertheless, this was not intended in a demeaning manner since he ascribed his changes to historiography and not history itself. Later, a derogatory use of 'Byzantine' was developed.

Identity

"Byzantium may be defined as a multi-ethnic empire that emerged as a Christian empire, soon comprised the Hellenized empire of the East and ended its thousand year history, in 1453, as a Greek Orthodox state: An empire that became a nation, almost by the modern meaning of the word".¹ In the centuries following the Arab and Lombard conquests in the 7th century, its multi-ethnic (albeit not multi-national) nature remained even though its constituent parts in the Balkans and Asia Minor contained an overwhelmingly large Greek population. Ethnic minorities and sizeable communities of religious heretics often lived on or near the borderlands, the Armenians being the only sizeable one. Byzantines identified themselves as Romans (Ρωμαιοί - Romans) which had already become a synonym for a Hellene (Έλλην - Greek). Also, the Byzantines were developing a national consciousness as residents of Ρωμανία (Romania, as the Byzantine state and its world were called). This nationalist awareness is reflected in literature, particularly in the acritic songs, where frontiersmen (ακρίτες) are praised for defending their country against invaders, of which most famous is the heroic or epic poem Digenis Acritas. The official dissolution of the Byzantine state in the 15th century did not immediately undo Byzantine society. During the Ottoman occupation Greeks continued to identify themselves as both Ρωμαιοί (Romans) and Έλληνες (Hellenes), a trait that survived into the early 20th century and still persists today in modern Greece, albeit the former has now retreated to a secondary folkish name rather than a national synonym as in the past.

Origin

Greece, Illyricum and Oriens, roughly analogous to the four Tetrarchs' zones of influence after Diocletian's reforms.]] Caracalla's decree in 212, the Constitutio Antoniniana, extended citizenship outside of Italy to all free adult males in the entire Roman Empire, effectively raising provincial populations to equal status with the city of Rome itself. The importance of this decree is historical rather than political. It set the basis for integration where the economic and judicial mechanisms of the state could be applied around the entire Mediterranean as was once done from Latium into all of Italy. Of course, integration did not take place uniformly. Societies already integrated with Rome such as Greece were favored by this decree, compared with those far away, too poor or just too alien such as Britain, Palestine or Egypt. The division of the Empire began with the Tetrarchy (quadrumvirate) in the late 3rd century with Emperor Diocletian, as an institution intended to more efficiently control the vast Roman Empire. He split the Empire in half, with two emperors (Augusti) ruling from Italy and Greece, each having as co-emperor a younger colleague of their own (Caesares). After Diocletian's voluntary abandonment of the throne, the Tetrarchic system began soon to crumble: the division continued in some form into the 4th century until 324 when Constantine the Great killed his last rival and became the sole emperor. Constantine decided to found a new capital for himself and chose Byzantium for that purpose. The rebuilding process was completed in 330. 330 Constantine renamed the city Nova Roma, but the populace would commonly call it Constantinople (in Greek, Κωνσταντινούπολις, Constantinoúpolis, meaning Constantine's City). This new capital became the centre of his administration. Constantine deprived the single preatorian prefect of his civil functions, introducing regional prefects with civil authority. During the 4th century, four great "regional prefectures" were also created. Constantine was also probably the first Christian emperor. The religion which had been persecuted under Diocletian became a "permitted religion", and steadily increased his power as years passed, apart from a short-lived return to pagan predominance with emperor Julian. Although the empire was not yet "Byzantine" under Constantine, Christianity would become one of the defining characteristics of the Byzantine Empire, as opposed to the pagan Roman Empire. Constantine also introduced a new stable gold coin, the solidus, which was to become the standard coin for centuries, not only in Byzantine Empire. Another defining moment in the history of the Roman/Byzantine Empire was the Battle of Adrianople in 378 in which the Emperor Valens and the best of the remaining Roman legions were killed by the Visigoths. This defeat has been proposed by some authorities as one possible date for dividing the ancient and medieval worlds. The Roman Empire was divided further by Valens' successor Theodosius I (also called "the Great"), who had ruled both parts since 392: following the dynastic principle well established by Constantine, in 395 Theodosius gave the two halves to his two sons Arcadius and Honorius; Arcadius became ruler of the eastern half, with his capital in Constantinople, and Honorius became ruler of the western half, with his capital in Ravenna. Theodosius was the last Roman emperor whose authority covered the entire traditional extent of the Roman Empire. At this point, it is common to refer to the empire as "Eastern Roman" rather than "Byzantine."

Early history

The Eastern Roman Empire was largely spared the difficulties of the west in the 3rd and 4th centuries (see Crisis of the Third Century) in part because urban culture was better established there and the initial invasions were attracted to the wealth of Rome. Throughout the 5th century, various invasions conquered the western half of the Roman Empire and at best only demanded tribute from the eastern half. Theodosius II fortified the walls of Constantinople, leaving the city impenetrable to attacks: it was to be preserved from foreign conquest until 1204. To spare the Eastern Roman Empire from the invasion of the Huns of Attila, Theodosius gave them subsidies of gold. Moreover, he favored merchants living in Constantinople who traded with the barbarians. His successor, Marcian, refused to continue to pay the great sum. However, Attila had already diverted his attention from the Western Roman Empire and died in 453 after the Battle of Chalons. The Hunnic Empire collapsed and Constantinople was free from the menace of Attila. This started a profitable relationship between the Eastern Roman Empire and the remaining Huns. The Huns would eventually fight as mercenaries in Byzantine armies during the following centuries. At the time since the fall of Attila, the true chief in Constantinople was the Alan general Aspar. Leo I managed to free himself from the influence of the barbarian chief favouring the rise of the Isauri, a crude semi-barbarian tribe living in Roman territory, in southern Anatolia. Aspar and his son Ardabur were murdered in a riot in 471, and henceforth, Constantinople became free from foreign influences for centuries. Leo was also the first emperor to receive the crown not from a general or an officer, as evident in the Roman tradition, but from the hands of the patriarch of Constantinople. This habit became mandatory as time passed, and in the Middle Ages, the religious characteristic of the coronation had totally substituted the old form. The first Isaurian emperor was Tarasicodissa, who was married to Leo's daughter Ariadne in 466, and ruled as Zeno I after the death of Leo I's son, Leo II (autumn of 474). Zeno was the emperor when the Western Roman Empire finally collapsed in 476 and the barbarian general Odoacer deposed Emperor Romulus Augustus without replacing him with another puppet. In 468, an attempt was made by Leo I to conquer North Africa again from the Vandals had failed. This showed that the Eastern Roman Empire had feeble military capabilities. At that time, the Western Roman Empire was already restricted to Italy (Britain had fallen to Angles and Saxons, Spain fell to the Visigoths, Africa fell to the Vandals and Gaul fell to the Franks). To recover Italy, Zeno could only negotiate with the Ostrogoths of Theodoric who had been settled in Moesia. He sent the barbarian king in Italy as magister militum per Italiam ("chief of staff for Italy"). Since the fall of Odoacer in 493, Theodoric, who had lived in Constantinople during his youth, ruled over Italy on his own while maintaining a mere formal obedience to Zeno. He revealed himself as the most powerful Germanic king of that age, but his successors were greatly inferior to him and their kingdom of Italy started to decline in the 530s. In 475, Zeno was deposed by a plot to elevate Basiliscus (the general defeated in 468) to the throne. However, Zeno was again emperor twenty months later. Yet, Zeno had to face the threat coming from his Isaurian former official Illo and the other Isaurian, Leontius, who was also elected rival emperor. Isaurian prominence ended when an aged civil officer of Roman origin, Anastasius I, became emperor in 491 and after a long war defeated them in 498. Anastasius revealed himself to be an energetic reformer and an able administrator. He perfected Constantine I's coin system by definitively setting the weight of the copper follis, the coin used in most everyday transactions. He also reformed the tax system in which the State Treasury contained the enormous sum of 320,000 pounds of gold when he died.

The age of Justinian I

The reign of Justinian I, which began in 527, saw a period of extensive imperial conquests of former Roman territories (indicated in green on the map below). The 6th century also saw the beginning of a long series of conflicts with the Byzantine Empire's traditional early enemies, such as the Persians, Slavs and Bulgars. Theological crises, such as the question of Monophysitism, also dominated the empire. Justinian I had perhaps already exerted effective control during the reign of his predecessor, Justin I (518-527). Justin I was a former officer in the imperial army who had been chief of the guards to Anastasius I, and had been proclaimed emperor (when almost 70) after Anastasius' death. Justinian was the son of a peasant from Illyricum, but was also a nephew of Justin. Justinian was later adopted as Justin's son. Justinian would become one of the most refined people of his century, inspired by the dream to re-establish Roman rule over all the Mediterranean world. He reformed the administration and the law, and with the help of brilliant generals such as Belisarius and Narses, he temporarily regained some of the lost Roman provinces in the west, conquering much of Italy, North Africa, and a small area in southern Spain. In 532, Justinian secured for the Eastern Roman Empire peace on the eastern frontier by signing an "eternal peace" treaty with the Sassanid Persian king Khosrau I. However, this required in exchange a payment of a huge annual tribute of gold. Justinian's conquests in the west began in 533 when Belisarius was sent to reclaim the former province of North Africa with a small army of 18,000 men who were mainly mercenaries. Whereas an earlier expedition in 468 had been a failure, this new venture was successful. The kingdom of the Vandals at Carthage lacked the strength of former times under King Gaiseric and the Vandals surrendered after a couple of battles against Belisarius' forces. General Belisarius returned to a Roman triumph in Constantinople with the last Vandal king, Gelimer, as his prisoner. However, the reconquest of North Africa would take a few more years to stabilize. It was not until 548 that the main local independent tribes were entirely subdued. 548 In 535, Justinian I launched his most ambitious campaign, the reconquest of Italy. At the time, Italy was still ruled by the Ostrogoths. He dispatched an army to march overland from Dalmatia while the main contingent, transported on ships and again under the command of General Belisarius, disembarked in Sicily and conquered the island without much difficulty. The marches on the Italian mainland were initially victorious and the major cities, including Naples, Rome and the capital Ravenna, fell one after the other. The Goths were seemingly defeated and Belisarius was recalled to Constantinople in 541 by Justinian. Belisarius brought with him to Constantinople the Ostrogoth king Witiges as a prisoner in chains. However, the Ostrogoths and their supporters were soon reunited under the energetic command of Totila. The ensuing Gothic Wars were an exhausting series of sieges, battles and retreats which consumed almost all the Byzantine and Italian fiscal resources, impoverishing much of the countryside. Belisarius was recalled by Justinian, who had lost trust in his preferred commander. At a certain point, the Byzantines seemed to be on the verge of losing all the positions they had gained. After having neglected to provide sufficient financial and logistical support to the desperate troops under Belisarius' former command, in the summer of 552 Justinian gathered a massive army of 35,000 men (mostly Asian and Germanic mercenaries) to contribute to the war effort. The astute and diplomatic eunuch Narses was chosen for the command. Totila was crushed and killed at the Busta Gallorum. Totila's successor, Teias, was likewise defeated at the Battle of Mons Lactarius (central Italy, October 552). Despite continuing resistance from a few Goth garrisons, and two subsequent invasions by the Franks and Alamanni, the war for the reconquest of the Italian peninsula came to an end. Justinian's program of conquest was further extended in 554 when a Byzantine army managed to seize a small part of Spain from the Visigoths. All the main Mediterranean islands were also now under Byzantine control. Aside from these conquests, Justinian updated the ancient Roman legal code in the new Corpus Juris Civilis. Even though the laws were still written in Latin, the language itself was becoming archaic and poorly understood even by those who wrote the new code. Under Justinian's reign, the Church of Hagia Sofia ("Holy Wisdom") was constructed in the 530s. This church would become the center of Byzantine religious life and the center of the Eastern Orthodox form of Christianity. The 6th century was also a time of flourishing culture and even though Justinian closed the university at Athens, the Eastern Roman Empire produced notable people such as the epic poet Nonnus, the lyric poet Paul the Silentiary, the historian Procopius, the natural philosopher John Philoponos and others. The conquests in the west meant that the other parts of the Eastern Roman Empire were left almost unguarded even though Justinian was a great builder of fortifications in Byzantine territories throughout his reign. Khosrau I of Persia had, as early as 540, broken the pact previously signed with Justinian and destroyed Antiochia and Armenia. The only way Justinian could forestall him was to increase the sum he paid to Khosrau I every year. The Balkans were subjected to repeated incursions where Slavs had first crossed the imperial frontiers during the reign of Justin I. The Slavs took advantage of the sparsely-deployed Byzantine troops and pressed on as far as the Gulf of Corinth. The Kutrigur Bulgars had also attacked in 540. The Slavs invaded Thrace in 545 and in 548 assaulted Dyrrachium, an important port on the Adriatic Sea. In 550, the Sclaveni pushed on as far to reach within 65 kilometers of Constantinople itself. In 559, the Eastern Roman Empire found itself unable to repel a great invasion of Kutrigurs and Sclaveni. Divided in three columns, the invaders reached Thermopylae, the Gallipoli peninsula and the suburbs of Constantinople. The Slavs feared the intact power of the Danube Roman fleet and of the Utigurs (paid by the Romans themselves) more than the resistance of the ill-prepared Byzantine imperial army. This time the Eastern Roman Empire was safe, but in the following years the Roman suzerainty in the Balkans was to be almost totally overwhelmed. Soon after the death of Justinian in 565, the Germanic Lombards, a former imperial foederati tribe, invaded and conquered much of Italy. The Visigoths conquered Cordoba, the main Byzantine city in Spain, first in 572 and then definitively in 584. The last Byzantine strongholds in Spain were swept away twenty years later. The Turks emerged in the Crimea, and in 577, a horde of some 100,000 Slavs had invaded Thrace and Illyricum. Sirmium, the most important Roman city on the Danube, was lost in 582, but the Eastern Roman Empire managed to mantain control of the river for several more years even though it increasingly lost control of the inner provinces. Justinian's successor, Justin II, refused to pay the tribute to the Persians. This resulted in a long and harsh war which lasted until the reign of his successors Tiberius II and Maurice, and focused on the control over Armenia. Fortunately for the Byzantines, a civil war broke out in the Persian Empire. Maurice was able to take advantage of his friendship with the new king Khosrau II (whose disputed accession to the Persian throne had been assisted by Maurice) in order to sign a favorable peace treaty in 591. This treaty gave the Eastern Roman Empire control over much of Persian Armenia. Maurice reorganized the remaining Byzantine possessions in the west into two Exarchates, the Ravenna and the Carthage. Maurice increased the Exarchates' self-defense capabilities and delegated them to civil authorities. The Avars and later the Bulgars overwhelmed much of the Balkans, and in the early 7th century the Persians invaded and conquered Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Armenia. The Persians were eventually defeated and the territories were recovered by Emperor Heraclius in 627. However, the unexpected appearance of the newly-converted and united Muslim Arabs took the territories by surprise from an empire exhausted from fighting against Persia, and the southern provinces were overrun. The Eastern Roman Empire's most catastrophic defeat of this period was the Battle of Yarmuk, fought in Syria. Heraclius and the military governors of Syria were slow to respond to the new threat, and Byzantine Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, and the Exarchate of Africa were permanently incorporated into the Muslim Empire in the 7th century, a process which was completed with the fall of Carthage to the Caliphate in 698. The Lombards continued to expand in northern Italy, taking Liguria in 640 and conquering most of the Exarchate of Ravenna in 751, leaving the Byzantines with control of only small areas around the toe and heel of Italy, plus some semi-independent coastal cities like Venice, Naples, Amalfi and Gaeta.

The fight for survival

The Eastern Roman Empire's loss of territory was offset to a degree by consolidation and an increased uniformity of rule. Emperor Heraclius fully Hellenized the Eastern Roman Empire by making Greek the official language, thus ending the last remnants of Latin and ancient Roman tradition within the empire. The use of Latin in government records, (Latin titles such as Augustus and the concept of the Eastern Roman Empire being one with Rome) fell into abeyance, which allowed the empire to pursue its own identity. Many historians mark the sweeping reforms made during the reign of Heraclius as the breaking-point with Byzantium's ancient Roman past. It is common to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire as "Byzantine" instead of as "East Roman" from this point onwards. Religious rites and religious expression within the empire were now also noticeably different from the practices upheld in the former imperial lands of western Europe. Within the empire, the southern Byzantine provinces differed significantly in culture and practice from those in the north, observing Monophysite Christianity rather than Chalcedonian Orthodox. The loss of the southern territories to the Arabs further strengthened Orthodox practices in the remaining provinces. Constans II (reigned 641 - 668) subdivided the empire into a system of military provinces called thémata (themes) in an attempt to improve local responses to the threat of constant assaults. Outside of the capital, urban life declined while Constantinople grew to become the largest city in the Christian world. Several attempts to conquer Constantinople by the Arabs failed in the face of the Byzantines' superior navy, the Byzantines' monopoly over the still-mysterious incendiary weapon (Greek fire), their strong city walls, and the skill of Byzantine generals and warrior-emperors such as Leo III the Isaurian (reign 717 - 741). Once the assaults were repelled, the empire's recovery resumed. In his landmark work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the 18th century historian Edward Gibbon depicted the Byzantine Empire of this time as effete and decadent. However, an alternate examination of the Byzantine Empire shows instead that the empire was a military superpower during the early Middle Ages. Factors contributing to this view entail the empire's heavy cavalry (the cataphracts), its subsidization (albeit inconsistent) of a free and well-to-do peasant class forming the basis for cavalry recruitment, its extraordinarily in-depth defense systems (the themes), and its use of subsidies in order to make Byzantium's enemies fight against one another. Other factores include the empire's prowess at intelligence-gathering, a communications and logistics system based on mule trains, a superior navy (although often under-funded), and rational military strategies and doctrines (not dissimilar to those of Sun Tzu) that emphasized stealth, surprise, swift maneuvering and the marshalling of overwhelming force at the time and place of the Byzantine commander's choosing. After the siege of 717 in which the Arabs suffered horrific casualties, the Caliphate was no longer a serious threat to the Byzantine heartland. It would take a different civilization, that of the Seljuk Turks, to finally drive the imperial forces out of eastern and central Anatolia. The 8th century was dominated by controversy and religious division over iconoclasm. Icons were banned by Emperor Leo III, leading to revolts by iconophiles throughout the empire. After the efforts of Empress Irene, the Second Council of Nicaea met in 787 and affirmed that icons could be venerated but not worshipped. Irene also attempted a marriage alliance with Charlemagne. This alliance would have united the two empires and thus would have recreated the Roman Empire (the two European empires both claimed the title). Moreover the alliance would have created a European superpower comparable to the strength of ancient Rome. However, these plans were destroyed when Irene was deposed. The iconoclast controversy returned in the early 9th century, only to be resolved once more in 843 during the regency of Empress Theodora (9th century). These controversies further contributed to the disintegrating relations with the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire, both of which continued to increase their independence and power.

Golden era

Holy Roman Empire The Eastern Roman Empire reached its height under the Macedonian emperors of the late 9th, 10th and early 11th centuries. During these years the Empire held out against pressure from the Roman church to remove Patriarch Photios, and gained control over the Adriatic Sea, parts of Italy, and much of the land held by the Bulgarians. The Bulgarians were completely defeated by Basil II in 1014. The empire also gained a new ally (yet sometimes also an enemy) in the new Varangian state in Kiev, from which the empire received an important mercenary force, the Varangian Guard. In 1054, relations between Greek-speaking Eastern and Latin-speaking Western traditions within the Christian Church reached a terminal crisis. There was never a formal declaration of institutional separation, and the so-called Great Schism actually was the culmination of centuries of gradual separation. From this split, the modern (Roman) Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches arose. Like Rome before it, Byzantium soon fell into a period of difficulties caused to a large extent by the growth of aristocracy, which undermined the theme system. Facing its old enemies (the Holy Roman Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate), the Eastern Roman Empire might have recovered, but around the same time new invaders appeared on the scene who had little reason to respect its reputation. The Normans finally completed the expulsion of the Byzantines from Italy in 1071 due to an ostensible lack of Byzantine interest in sending any support to Italy. Also, the Seljuk Turks, who were mainly interested in defeating Egypt under the Fatimids, continued their military campaigns into Asia Minor, which was the main recruiting ground for Byzantine armies. With the surprise defeat of Emperor Romanus IV by Alp Arslan (sultan of the Seljuk Turks) at Manzikert in 1071, most of that province was lost.

The end of Byzantium

1071 After Manzikert, a partial recovery was made possible from the contributions of the Comnenian dynasty. The first emperor of this royal line, Alexius Comnenus (whose life and policies would be described by his daughter Anna Comnena in the Alexiad) began to reestablish the army on the basis of feudal grants (próniai) and made significant advances against the Seljuk Turks. His plea for western aid against the Seljuk advance brought about the First Crusade, which helped him reclaim Nicaea. However, the emperor soon distanced himself from western imperial aid. Later crusades grew increasingly antagonistic. Although Alexius' grandson Manuel I Comnenus was a friend of the Crusaders, neither side could forget that the other had excommunicated them, and the Byzantines were very suspicious of the intentions of the Roman Catholic Crusaders who continually passed through their territory. Although the three competent Comnenan emperors had the power to expel the severely outnumbered Seljuks, it was never in their interest to do so, as the expansion back into Anatolia would have meant sharing more power with the feudal lords, thus weaking their power. Ironically, re-conquering Anatolia may have saved the Eastern Roman Empire in the long run. The Germans of the Holy Roman Empire and the Normans of Sicily and southern Italy continued to attack the empire in the 11t and 12th centuries. The Italian city-states, who had been granted trading rights in Constantinople by Alexius, became the targets of anti-Western sentiments as the most visible example of western "Franks" or "Latins." The Venetians were especially disliked, even though their ships were the basis of the Byzantine navy. To add to the empire's concerns, the Seljuks remained a threat, defeating Manuel at the Myriokephalon in 1176. 1176 Frederick Barbarossa attempted to conquer the Eastern Roman Empire during the Third Crusade, but it was the Fourth Crusade that had the most devastating effect on the empire. Although the stated intent of the crusade was to conquer Egypt, the Venetians took control of the expedition when their chieftains could not pay the transport of the troops, and under their influence the Crusaders captured Constantinople in 1204. As a result, a short-lived feudal kingdom was founded (the Latin Empire), and Byzantine power was permanently weakened. At this time, the Serbian Kingdom under the Nemanjic dynasty grew stronger with the collapse of Byzantium, forming a Serbian Empire in 1346. 1346 and the Despotate of Epirus.]] After the sacking of Constantinople in 1204, three successor states were established. These states included the Empire of Nicaea, the Empire of Trebizond, and the Despotate of Epirus. The first state, controlled by the Palaeologan dynasty, managed to reclaim Constantinople in 1261 and defeated Epirus. This led to the reviving of the Eastern Roman Empire, but the empire's attention was more focused on Europe than on the Asian provinces that were the primary concern. For a while, the empire survived simply because the Muslims were too divided to attack. However, the Ottomans eventually overran many Byzantine territories except for a handful of port cities. Ottomans).]] Ottomans The Eastern Roman Empire appealed to the west for help, but they would only consider sending aid in return for reuniting the churches. Church unity was considered, and occasionally accomplished by law, but the Orthodox citizens would not accept Roman Catholicism. Some western mercenaries arrived to help, but many preferred to let the empire die, and did nothing as the Ottomans picked apart the remaining territories. Constantinople was initially not considered worth the effort of conquest, but with the advent of cannons, the walls (which had been impenetrable for over 1000 years except by the Fourth Crusade) no longer offered adequate protection against the Ottomans. The Fall of Constantinople finally came after a two-month siege by Mehmed II on May 29, 1453. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Paleologus, was last seen entering deep into the fighting of an overwhelmingly outnumbered civilian army, against the invading Ottomans on the ramparts of Constantinople. Mehmed II also conquered Mistra in 1460 and Trebizond in 1461. 1461 Mehmed and his successors continued to consider themselves proper heirs to the Byzantine Empire until the demise of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. By the end of the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire had established its firm rule over Asia Minor and parts of the Balkan peninsula. Meanwhile, the role of the emperor as a patron of Eastern Orthodoxy was now claimed by the Grand Dukes of Muscovy starting with Ivan III. His grandson, Ivan IV, would become the first Tsar of Russia (tsar, also spelled czar, is a term derived from the Latin word caesar). Their successors supported the idea that Moscow was the proper heir to Rome and Constantinople and the idea of a Third Rome was carried throughout the Russian Empire until its demise in the early 20th century.

Legacy and importance

20th century It is said history is written by the winners, and no better example of this statement is shown in the treatment of the Byzantine Empire in history. It is an empire resented by Western Europe, as shown by the sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade. A popular American university textbook⁴ on medieval history that circulated in the 1960s and 1970s, has this to say in the only paragraph in the book devoted to "Byzantium": :The history of Byzantium is a study in disappointment. The empire centering on Constantinople had begun with all the advantages obtained from the inheritance of the political, economic, and intellectual life of the 4th century Roman Empire ... Byzantium added scarcely anything to this superb foundation. The Eastern Roman Empire of the Middle Ages made no important contributions to philosophy, theology, science or literature. Its political institutions remained fundamentally unchanged from those which existed ... at the end of the 4th century; while the Byzantines continued to enjoy an active urban and commercial life they made no substantial advance in the technology of industry and trade as developed by the cities of the ancient world. Modern historians of the medieval Eastern Roman empire have strongly criticized the tendency of 19th-century scholars to write off Byzantium as the example of an atrophied civilization. Yet it is hard to find ... any contribution by way of either original ideas or institutions which the medieval Greek-speaking peoples made to civilization (pp. 248-9). The 20th century has seen an increased interest by historians to understand the empire, and its impact on European civilization is only recently being recognised. Why should the West be able to perceive its continuity from Antiquity and thus its intrinsic meaning in the modern world - in so lurid a manner, only to deny this to the "Byzantines"?⁵ Called with justification "The City," the rich and turbulent metropolis of Constantinople was to the early Middle Ages what Athens and Rome had been to classical times. Byzantine civilization itself constitutes a major world culture. Because of its unique position as the medieval continuation of the Roman State, it has tended to be dismissed by classicists and ignored by Western medievalists. And yet, the development and late history of Western European, Slavic and Islamic cultures are not comprehensible without taking it into consideration. A study of medieval history requires a thorough understanding of the Byzantine world. In fact, the Middle Ages are often traditionally defined as beginning with the fall of Rome in 476 (and hence the Ancient Period), and ending with the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Byzantium was arguably the only stable state in Europe during the Middle Ages. Its expert military and diplomatic power ensured inadvertently that Western Europe remained safe from many of the more devastating invasions from eastern peoples, at a time when the Western Christian kingdoms might have had difficulty containing it. Constantly under attack during its entire existence, the Byzantines shielded Western Europe from the Persians, Arabs, Seljuk Turks, and for a time, the Ottomans. In commerce, Byzantium was one of the most important western terminals of the Silk Road. It was also the single most important commercial center of Europe for much, if not all, of the Medieval era. The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 closed the land route from Europe to Asia and marked the downfall of the Silk Road. This prompted a change in the commercial dynamic, and the expansion of the Islamic Ottoman Empire not only motivated European powers to seek new trade routes, but created the sense that Christendom was under siege and fostered an eschatological mood that influenced how Columbus and others interpreted the discovery of the New World.⁶ Byzantium played an important role in the transmission of classical knowledge to the Islamic world and to Renaissance Italy. Its rich historiographical tradition preserved ancient knowledge upon which splendid art, architecture, literature and technological achievements were built. It is not an altogether unfounded assumption that the Renaissance could not have flourished were it not for the groundwork laid in Byzantium, and the flock of Greek scholars to the West after the fall of the Empire. The influence of its theologians on medieval Western thought (especially on Thomas Aquinas) was profound, and their removal from the "canon" of Western thought in subsequent centuries has, in the minds of many, only served to impoverish the canon. The Byzantine Empire was the empire that brought widespread adoption of Christianity to Europe - arguably one of the central aspects of a modern Europe’s identity. This is embodied in the Byzantine version of Christianity, which spread Orthodoxy that eventually led to the creation of the so-called "Byzantine commonwealth" (a term coined by 20th century historians) throughtout Eastern Europe. Early Byzantine missionary work spread Orthodox Christianity to various Slavic peoples, and it is still predominant among the Russians, Ukrainians, Serbians, Bulgarians, people of the Republic of Macedonia, as well as among the Greeks. Less well known is the influence of the Byzantine religious sensibility on the millions of Christians in Ethiopia, the Coptic Christians of Egypt, and the Christians of Georgia and Armenia,though they all belong to the Orthodox Faith. Robert Byron, one of the first great 20th century Philhellenes, maintained that the greatness of Byzantium lay in what he described as "the Triple Fusion": that of a Roman body, a Greek mind and an oriental, mystical soul. The Roman Empire of the East was founded on Monday 11 May 330; it came to an end on Tuesday 29 May 1453 - although it had already come into being when Diocletian split the Roman Empire in 286, and it was still alive when Trebizond finally fell in 1461. It was an empire that dominated the world in all spheres of life, for most of its 1,123 years and 18 days. Yet although it has been shunned and almost forgotten in the history of the world up until now, the spirit of Byzantium still resonates in the world. By preserving the ancient world, and forging the medieval, the Byzantine Empire's influence is hard to truly grasp. However, to deny history the chance to acknowledge its existence, is to deny the origins of Western civilization as we know it.

External links

- [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/byzantium/ Byzantium: Byzantine studies on the Internet] <

Acritic songs

The acritic songs, ακριτικά τραγούδια or frontiersmen songs, is the heroic or epic poetry that emerged out of 10th century Byzantium and was inspired by the almost continuous state of warfare with the Arabs in eastern Asia Minor. It gave birth to several Byzantine romances, most famous of all being the Digenis Acritas, setting up what is considered to be the beginnings of modern Greek literature.

Subject

Written in Medieval Greek, the acritic songs deal with the ανδραγαθίες (heroic deeds) of ακρίτες (frontiersmen), warriors that lived near the Arab frontiers and fought against the enemy. The constant state of war in the region and the repeated confrontations with the Arabs inspired poets to write down tales of chivalry as a response to society that wished to be informed or hear details, whether factual or imaginary, for the adventures caused by enemy invasions or the martial valor of their countrymen who drove them out. The fate of the inhabitants who after each invasion often had to face the loss of family members as well as their own pain is also a major theme. The invasion and reposte, the hatred for the invader, the desire for revenge, the fate of female prisoners and the endeavours undertaken to their rescue, all inspire the poet who, based on direct narrations by eyewitnesses, organizes and develops this pool of information and emotions into a live language with an easily rememberable verse. The poet too narrates in recitation, or in a simple, recurring and easily taught pace the enslavement, duels, massacres, escapements, the release of captives and often the bonds of affection between kidnappers and women that lead to marriage and reconciliation.

Origins

The majority of academics trace the origins of Byzantine acritic romance in the oral epic poetry of the 9th - 10th century. Greek scholar Socrates Kougeas (Σωκράτης Κουγέας) dates the earliest reference to oral epics of the 10th century, in a speech given by bishop Arethas of Caesaria condemning the local αγύρται (agyrtae - the Greek counterpart of French troubadors) of Paphlagonia for gloryfying violent acts instead of the saints and god. Kougeas amptly observed that Arethas suggest a tradition developed at that time exactly in central Asia Minor which was the craddle of acritic literature. The preservation of such important oral songs in Asia Minor up to 1922 when the entire region was depopulated of Greeks prooves that Kougeas' assumption is valid. These folkish singers may have been professionals, or semi-professionals that temporarily abandoned their jobs to sing their songs by pay. This tradition remains today in Cyprus with the ποιηταράδες (chanters) that sing regularly in festivals and holidays. It is certain that starting with the 12th century the various oral epics began to be written down and copied.

Background

With the Arab expansion in the late 7th century came a life of warfare for the residents of easternmost territories. Syria was occupied in 640 and from then on, every year, Saracens attempted invasions in Asia Minor carying captives on their way back. Cities were usually retaken by the Byzantine army, with the exception of Tarsus and Adana that remained under occupaton until the 10th century, but each year after the invadors left the pain and suffering of the inhabitants remained along with their despair for their beloved ones that were missing. This continuous state of warfare set the stage for acritic poetry. The hero of these poems, Ακρίτης (Acrites), is the personification of all Byzantine soldiers that guarded those territories. As early as emperor Alexander Severus soldiers were vested with land that would pass on to their sons in exchange for their service in the army. Justinian consolidated these lands as tax-free, the owners of whom Procopius names as λιμιτανέους (limitanei). With the creation of the Byzantine theme system the landowners were given further privileges, that also excluded lakes from taxes. During the reign of Constantine Porphyrogenitus acritic lands were not allowed to be sold, even with the consent of the owner. This was necessary for the preservation of cavalry which was important for dealing with thieves (απελάτες). Following Byzantine successes against the Arabs after the 10th century, the borderlands were stabilized, tensions between them settled down and attention was diverted away from foreign afairs towards internal dangers.

Poems

Most poems did not survive the Ottoman occupation of Greece, and only a fraction remains of the original number of works, yet the ones we do hold today were famous enough to have existed in enough copies to survive. The most well known oral songs were written down and copied in great numbers, the most exceptional case being the Digenis Acrites which was well known even in western Europe outside the Byzantine empire. The most important acritic romances are:
- Digenis Acritas (Διγενής Ακρίτας).
- Andronicus' Steed (Ο Ανδρόνικος και ο Μαύρος του).
- Son of Andronicus (Ο υιός του Ανδρόνικου).
- Song of Armoures (Το άσμα οτυ Αρμούρη).

Legacy

Acritis, as a representation of acritic poetry is greatly influential in modern Greek literature. Besides its prose of popular idiom which went on to influence and shape modern Greek, the poems themselves were nationalistic enough in character that they became a symbol of Greek continuity. Byzantine nationalism during the formation of the Greek state and in the age of the utopic new Greek Great Idea was widened and intensified. Costas Palamas, among the greatest of Greek poets, was preparing his own version of Digenis Acrites before his death. Byzantine history as part of Greece's wider history derives from historian Constantine Paparregopoulus and it is that which inspired Palamas in one of his poems (Αναπαίστους) to praise the hero of Digenis Acrites as the connecting link between Greece of the Persian Wars and Greece of 1821: Ο Ακρίτας είμαι, Χάροντα,
δέν παιρνώ μέ τά χρόνια,
Είμ' εγώ η ακατάλυτη ψυχή τών Σαλαμίνων,
στήν Εφτάλοφην έφερα το σπαθί τών Ελλήνων. It is I, Death, Acritas,
years wont fade me away,
I'm the indestructable soul of Salamis,
bringing to you in Sevenhill, the sword of the Greeks.
With the defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) signaling the death of the Greek Great Idea, and along with the complete depopulation of Asia Minor of Greeks, the legend of Acritas was weakened, although not completely erased. The myth was resurged after the Second World War by Nikos Kazantzakis, who planned on writing his own poem centered on Acritas, who this time would not be the personification of a nation but of the higher and continuous spiritual fight of man. Its historical context would not be Byzantine. Category:Epics Category:Byzantine Empire Category:Medieval literature Category:Medieval legends

ChristianIty

Christianity

Medieval Greek

Medieval Greek (Μεσαιωνική Ελληνική) is a linguistic term that describes the third period in the history of the Greek language. Its symbolic boundaries start with the transfer of the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Constantinople in 330 AD, and end with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD (although linguistically it had not evolved from the Koine dialect of Ancient Greek until at least the 7th Century AD). As Medieval Greek co-exists with the history of the Byzantine Empire, another term often used to describe the period is Byzantine Greek.

History

When the capital of the Roman Empire was transferred to Constantinople in the 4th century AD, the official language of the state continued to be the Latin, yet the literary and spoken language of the entire Eastern part of the Empire continued to be the Greek. Greek was also the language of the church and education, while the university preserved a diglossia between the two. Even though this new Greco-Latin diglossia lasted more than two centuries, the Byzantine emperors had been favouring the official use of Greek over Latin since the beginning. Latin was preserved on inscriptions and coinage until the 11th c. AD. The separation of the mixed or non Greek-speaking populations of the Western part of the Empire, accelerated the Hellenisation of the Eastern one. Later when Greek dynasties of emperors establish themselves on the Byzantine throne and change the official language of the public services, Greek displaces Latin completely. Eventually, the Greeks of the Eastern Roman Empire adopt the Roman name and Romans (Ρωμαίοι) itself becomes a synonym for a Greek (Έλλην), while the official name of the Byzantine state "ΡΩΜΑΝΙΑ", ends up referring to the medieval Greek state of Byzantium. The name "Ρωμαίοι" (Romans) is used as a title of prestige, which symbolises the awe of the old Roman Empire, and typically declares the land claims of the Byzantine state.

Evolution from Hellenistic to Medieval Koine

The cultural and linguistic center of the Greek World during the Byzantine era, as it had once been Athens, it becomes Constantinople. The capital acts as a linguistic center on Byzantine Hellenism, for both literary (Atticist) and popular (spoken) forms of speech. The diglossy in Byzantium is defined by the medieval literary Koine, which has elements of archaism (equivalent to the Hellenistic Atticism), and the spoken or popular Koine which is the authentic successor of Koine Greek. In the way that the Western scholars use Classical Latin for their literary work, the Byzantines tend to use archaisms with elements of Atticism. Paulus Silentiarius (Paul the Silentiary) writes at the time of Justinian I his "Description of Hagia Sophia" (Έκφρασιν του Ναού της Αγίας Σοφίας) with iambs and Homeric hexameters that were characterised as a dark and poetic language. The historians Procopius and Critobulus imitate Thucydides while Anna Comnena has a general Atticist literary style. The members of the Church up until the 4th c. AD follow the example of the Apostols and use the Medieval Koine. However from the 4th century and forth, the language of the church becomes Atticistic due to the intervention of the Cappadocian Fathers who had been educated in Greek schools of rhetoric. In that respect, the Church is using the older language of the Greeks in order to fight off their older pagan religion. By that time most of the popular masses had already been converted to Christianity, however the introduction of the Atticistic language attracts also rich Greek pagans of higher social status. Thus the Atticist rhetoric helped the Byzantine state to fight off the heresies, and the vernacular Koine enhanced the literary speech with elements from the spoken language. Evolution in vocabulary: Due to the long-term diglossy between Latin and Greek, Medieval Greek borrowed various linguistic elements from the Latin language, part of which survived in Modern Greek. A number of Latin words and popular phrases can be traced in Medieval Greek are the following (bold marking signifies assimilation to the language and survival to Modern Greek): Common phrases:
- άνω φηλικίσιμε! < Annos Felicissimos!
- βαίνε < Bene (Venisti!)
- του βίκας! < tu vincas!
- ιν μούλτος άννος! < in multos annos! Everyday words: Αύγουστος (August), Καίσαρ (Cesar), πρίγκιψ (Prince), κόμης (Count), μάγιστρος (magician), κοιέστωρ, σιλεντιάριος, παλάτιον (palace), κουροπαλάτης, ακτουάριος, καγκελλάριος (chancellor), Μαγναύρα, λάβαρον, βούλλα, τίτλος (title), αντιμήνσιον, κανδήλιον (candle), μανουάλιον (manual), φαιλόνιον, σακελλάριος, τιτουλάριος, καλένδαι, βίσεκτος, etc. Nouns: Αξούγγιον, βερίκοκον, βίγλα, βούκα, γούλα, εξέμπλιον, καλαμάριον, καλλίγιον, κάγκελον, κάρβουνον, κουβούκλιον, στέρνα, λουκάνικον, λωρίον, μάγκιψ, μάγουλον, μακελλάρης, μανίκιον, μαρούλιον, μενσάλιον, μίλλιον, μουλλάριον, οσπίτιον, παλούκιον, πανάριον, πέδικλον, πούγγιον, σέλλα, σέρβουλον, σκαμνίον, σκουτέλλιον, στάβλος, ταβέρνα, τάβλα, φλάσκα, φόρος, φούρκα, φούρνος etc. Adjectives: Βαρβάτος, βένετος, μπλάβος etc. Verbs: Ακκομβίζω, βουλλώνω, καβαλικεύω, κανακεύω, μισσεύω, πλουμίζω, φουρνίζω etc. Terminations:
- -aton: Μαγιστράτον, μανδάτον, δουκάτον etc.
- -atos: Αμυγδαλάτος, καρυδάτος, κυδωνάτος, πιπεράτος etc.
- -arios: Νοτάριος, σχολάριος etc.
- -poullos/poullon: Κομητόπουλλος, Τουρκόπουλλος, Αρχοντόπουλλον, Φραγκόπουλλον etc.
- -isios: Καστρήσιος, κολονήσιος, βουνήσιος etc.
- -anos: Δέκανος, Πάγανος etc.
- -alion: Μανουάλλιον, Μενσάλλιον, τριβουνάλιον etc. Evolution in phonology: In phonology, both rare and common innovations described in Koine Greek become more generalised.
- The vowel η has already been merged with ι, except in Pontus and Cappadocia, where it preserved its ancient accent (νύφε, κεπίν, τίμεσον, Ελλένικος, θελυκό, πεγάιδι).
- The vowel υ and the diphtong οι, which during Hellenistic Koine had taken the sound of the French 'u', also merge with ι in the 10th century, except some local dialects such as the ones of Aegina, Megara and Cumae (κιούτομαι, χιούρος, τσιουλία, Κούμη).
- The vowel ω is in restricted cases converted into ου (ζουμιν, κλουβίν, κουνούπιν, κουπίν, αλωπού, μαιμού, Γιλλού).
- The vowel ε is occasionally converted to ι when it is succeeded by α and ο, and during the 13th century it loses its accent (μηλέα>μυλιά, λεοντάριν>λιοντάριν), everywhere except in Pontus, Cappadocia, the Ionian Islands and Southern Italy.
- The vowel ο is gradually neglected from the termination -ιον, -ιος (καλαμάριν, κουβάριν, σακκίν, χαρτίν, κύρις).
- The phonetic combination of ου-ε is occasionally pronounced as ο (μόδωκε, οπόχουν, πόναι, οπόκαμεν, πόλειπες).
- Consonants κ and π are occasionally converted to χ and φ when succeeded by τ (νύχτα, προσεχτικά, σουδαχτικά, εκλεχτοί, εφτά, λεφτός, φτωχός, βαφτίζω).
- Consonants θ is occasionally converted to τ when preceded by φ and χ (εγεύτη, φτοράν, φτόνος, παρευτύς, εταράχτησαν, να συναχτούν, να δεχτούμε, μάχεστε, επιάστη).
- The vowel υ from diphthongs αυ and ευ, which from the time of Koine Greek had already acquired the sound of φ and β, now they're occasionally silenced when succeeded by μ (θάμα, ψέμα), and are converted to π when succeeded by σ (απεζέψασιν, επλέψασιν, ωδήγεψαν, να θεραπέψουν, ανάπαψη).
- The vowel υ in the combination υν is converted to μ (εύνοστος>έμνοστος, χαύνος>χάμνος, ελαύνω>λάμνω).
- The nasal consonants μ and ν stop being pronounced when succeeded by voiceless fricatives (νύφη, άθος, πεθερός).
- The terminating -ν continues to be pronounced (καλαμάριν, κουβάριν, σακκίν, χαρτίν) and in several occasions appears equivalently (γάλαν, οξύγαλαν, πράμαν, εγίνοτον, επνίγην, εκτίστην). Category:Hellenic languages and dialects Greek, Medieval

Vernacular literature

Vernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular - the speech of the "common people". In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin. In this context, vernacular literature appeared during the Middle Ages; among the earliest European vernacular literature include Irish literature, Anglo-Saxon literature and Gothic literature. The Italian poet Dante Alighieri, in his De vulgari eloquentia, was possibly the first European writer to argue cogently for the promotion of literature in the vernacular. Important early vernacular works include Dante's Divine Comedy, Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (both written in Italian) and Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (written in English). Indeed Dante's work actually created in part the Italian language. By extension, the term is also used to describe, for example, Chinese literature not written in classical Chinese and Indian literature after Sanskrit. It is applied to works not written in the standard and/or prestige language of their time and place. For example, many authors in Scotland, such as James Kelman and Edwin Morgan have written in the Scots language, even though English is now the prestige language of publishing in Scotland. Ngugi wa Thiongo writes in his native Gikuyu language though he previously wrote in English.

Escorial

:San Lorenzo de El Escorial redirects here. For the municipalities, see San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid and El Escorial, Madrid. The Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (in Spanish, Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial) is an immense palace, monastery, museum, and library complex located at San Lorenzo de El Escorial (also San Lorenzo del Escorial), a town 45 kilometres (28 miles) northwest of Madrid in the autonomous community of Madrid in Spain. Spain Spain At the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range, the complex was commanded by King Philip II of Spain as a necropolis for the Spanish monarchs and the seat of studies in aid of the Counter-Reformation. It was designed by the architects Juan Bautista de Toledo, Giambattista Castello, and Juan de Herrera in an austere classical style, and built from 1563 to 1584. It is shaped as a grid in memory of the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence. It is said that during the battle of Saint Quentin (1557), the Spanish troops destroyed a small hermitage devoted to Lawrence. The King decided to dedicate the monastery to the saint in thanks for his victory. hermitage The complex has an enormous store of art, including masterworks by Titian, Tintoretto, El Greco, Velázquez, Roger van der Weyden, Paolo Veronese, Alonso Cano, José de Ribera, Claudio Coello and others. Also at the complex is a library containing thousands of priceless ancient manuscripts. It is the burial site for most Spanish kings in the last five centuries, from the houses of Habsburg and Bourbon. The Royal Pantheon contains the tombs of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (King Charles I of Spain), Philip II, Philip III, Philip IV, Charles II, Louis I, Charles III, Charles IV, Ferdinand VII, Isabel II, Alfonso XII and Alfonso XIII. The two first Bourbon kings, Philip V and Ferdinand VI, as well as King Amadeo de Saboya (1870-1873), are not buried in the Monastery. The complex is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is an extremely popular tourist attraction, often visited as a day trip from Madrid. The surrounding town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Madrid) is also home for the popular summer courses of Universidad Complutense. A downhill neighbour town also named El Escorial has a likenamed RENFE station. Near El Escorial there is the Monumento Nacional de Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caidos with the tallest memorial cross in the world. See also: List of World Heritage Sites in Spain

External link

[http://www.pbase.com/ngruev/elescorial El Escorial - picturesain]] Category:World Heritage Sites in Spain Category:Palaces in Spain Category:Royal residences Category:Monasteries

Grottaferrata

Grottaferrata is a Basilian monastery near Rome, sometimes said to occupy the site of Cicero's Tusculanum and situated on the lower slopes of the Alban hills, in the Diocese of Frascati, two and a half miles from the town itself (). The monastery was founded in 1004 by Saint Nilus the Younger. This abbot, a Calabrian Greek, and hence a subject of the Byzantine Empire, had left Rossano in 980 to avoid the inroads of the Saracens and with his community had spent the intervening years in various monasteries without finding a permanent home. The legend narrates that, at the spot where the abbey now stands, Our Lady appeared and bade him found a church in her honour. From Gregory, the powerful Count of Tusculum, father of Popes Benedict VIII and John XIX, Nilus obtained the site, but died soon afterwards (26 December 1005). The building was carried out by his successors, especially the 4th abbot, Saint Bartholomew, who, is usually accounted the second founder. The abbey has had a troubled history. The high repute of the monks attracted many gifts; its possessions were numerous and widespread, and in 1131 King Roger of Sicily made the abbot Baron of Rossano with an extensive fief. Between the 12-15th centuries, the monastery suffered from the continual strife of warring factions: Romans and Tusculans, Guelphs and Ghibellines, pope and antipope, Colonna and Orsini. From 1163 till the destruction of Tusculum, in 1191, the greater part of the community sought refuge in a dependency of the Benedictine protocaenobium of Subiaco. In the middle of the 13th century the Emperor Frederick II made the abbey his headquarters during the siege of Rome, in 1378 Breton and Gascon mercenaries held it for the antipope Clement VII; and the 15th century saw the bloody feuds of the Colonnas and the Orsini raging round tile walls. Hence in 1432 the humanist Ambrogio Traversari tells us that it bore the appearance of a barrack rather than of a monastery. In 1462 began a line of commendatory abbots, fifteen in number, of whom all but one were cardinals. The most distinguished were the Greek Bessarion, Giulio della Rovere (afterwards Julius II, and the last of the line, Cardinal Consalvi, secretary of state to Pius VII. Bessarion, himself a Basilian monk, increased the scanty and impoverished community and restored the church; Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, from more selfish motives, erected the Castello and surrounded the whole monastery with the imposing fortifications that still exist. Till 1608 the community was ruled by priors dependent on the commendatories, but in that year Grottaferrata became a member of the Basilian congregation founded by Gregory XIII, the revenues of the community were separated from those of the commendatories, and the first of a series of triennial regular abbots was appointed. The triennial system survived the suppression of the Commendam and lasted till the end of last century, with one break from 1834 to 1870, when priors were appointed by the Holy See. In 1901 new constitutions came into force and Arsenio Pellegrini was installed as the first perpetual regular abbot since 1462. The Greek Rite which was brought to Grottaferrata by St. Nilus had lost its native character by the end of the 12th century, and gradually became more and more latinized, but was restored by order of Leo XIII in 1881. The Basilian abbey has always been a home of Greek learning, and Greek hymnography flourished there long after the art had died out within the Byzantine Empire. Monastic studies were revived under Cardinal Bessarion and again in 1608. The best known of modern Basilian writers is the late Abbot Cozza Luzi (d. 1905), the continuator of Cardinal Mai's "Nova Bibliotheca Patrum". Of the church consecrated by John XIX, in 1024, little can be seen except the mosaics in the narthex and over the triumphal arch, the medieval structures having been covered or destroyed during the "restorations" of various commendatory abbots. Domenichino's famous frescoes, due to Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, are still to be seen in the chapel of St. Nilus. In 1904 the ninth centenary of the foundation of the abbey was marked by a judicious but partial restoration, the discovery of some fragmentary thirteenth century frescoes and an exhibition of Byzantine art. The monastery has been exempt from episcopal jurisdiction since the days of Calixtus II, but its claims to the dignity of an abbey nullius were disallowed by Benedict. In 1874 the building was declared a national monument and in 1903 the church received the rank of a Roman basilica. ja:グロッタフェッラータ

7th century

Overview

Events

- Islam starts in Arabia, the Qur'an is documented, and Syria, Iraq, Persia, North Africa and Central Asia convert to Islam.
- Sutton Hoo ship burial, East Anglia (mod