Explore the vast range of titles available.

This book offers a new approach to the late 10th- and early 11th-century state of Samuel. Mitko B. Panov deconstructs the Byzantine distorted image of the Samuel's polity that was recycled by the Balkan elites of the medieval and modern periods and exploited for their political agendas and territorial aspirations.

Unrivalled Influence explores the exceptional roles that women played in the vibrant cultural and political life of medieval Byzantium. Written by one of the world's foremost historians of the Byzantine millennium, this landmark book evokes the complex and exotic world of Byzantium's women, from empresses and saints to uneducated rural widows. Drawing on a diverse range of sources, Judith Herrin sheds light on the importance of marriage in imperial statecraft, the tense coexistence of empresses in the imperial court, and the critical relationships of mothers and daughters. She looks at women's interactions with eunuchs, the in-between gender in Byzantine society, and shows how women defended their rights to hold land. Herrin describes how they controlled their inheritances, participated in urban crowds demanding the dismissal of corrupt officials, followed the processions of holy icons and relics, and marked religious feasts with liturgical celebrations, market activity, and holiday pleasures. The vivid portraits that emerge here reveal how women exerted an unrivalled influence on the patriarchal society of Byzantium, and remained active participants in the many changes that occurred throughout the empire's millennial history. Unrivalled Influence brings together Herrin's finest essays on women and gender written throughout the long span of her esteemed career. This volume includes three new essays published here for the very first time and a new general introduction by Herrin. She also provides a concise introduction to each essay that describes how it came to be written and how it fits into her broader views about women and Byzantium.

The article is devoted to the study of the Byzantine theme system in the 10th - 11th centuries. The author believes that the reign of Basil II (976-1025) was marked by the mikra themata in Balkans and on Aegean Sea islands. They were in need of effective border defense. Theme of Chios was one of the mikra militaryadministrative districts, which were created in this period. The author detected five leaders of the theme in accordance with the historical sources: protospatharios and strategos Theodoros Beriboes; protospatharios, tagmatophylax and strategos Leon Karikes; protospatharios, tagmatophylax and strategos Bardas Mersiniotes; vestarches and strategos Ioannes Aristenos; vestes and strategos Michael Maurikas. The analysis of the sigillographic data led to the conclusion that the regular tagmata were the base of the military force of theme of Chios. Moreover, the fortress of Volissos was located in the northwest of Chios. The area around the fortress was inhabited by representatives of one ethnic group. They were under the leadership of doux, which was subordinate to the strategos of the theme. The famous officials of the civil administration of Chios included fiscal clerks – dioiketes, horreiarios and judicial clerks – krites of the velon. Theme of Chios had existed for about one hundred years. It was liquidated during the war between Byzantine and Tzachas, Turkish amir of Smyrna.

One thousand years ago, the Byzantine Empire was reaching the height of its revival as a medieval state. The ten contributions to this volume by scholars from six European countries re-assess key aspects of the empire's politics and culture in the long reign of the emperor Basil II, whose name has come to symbolise the greatness of Byzantium in the age before the crusades.

The reign of Basil II is considered by historians to be the time of the highest military and political power of Byzantium in modern historiography. Despite this fact, many issues connected with the period of 976-1025 remains poorly studied. The article is devoted to viewpoints on war, army, imperial service, presented in the Nikephoros Ouranos’s works. Nikephoros Ouranos was a confidant of Basil II. The historical sources of the present research include the Tactics, hagiographical essay Theodorus tiro Vita et martyrium (BHG 1762m), as well as Nikephoros Ouranos’s correspondence. The author of these works had been one of the inner circle members of Basil II for a long time. He occupied the highest positions in civil and military authorities of the empire: kanikleios, domestikos of the scholai of the West, doux of Antioch. According to the author of article, military and theoretical views of Nikephoros Ouranos corresponded to the basic principles of the Byzantine polemological tradition. He thought that the outcome of military operations depended on ability and experience of the military commander. In the Tactics the author insisted on the commanders’ responsibility for complex training of soldiers and their adaptation to various military situations. His interest to individual training of soldiers, to their weapon possession, is confirmed by the detailed description of a duel in the Theodore Tyron’s Life. In personal correspondence magistros Nikephoros Ouranos seldom addressed to military subject. However in some letters he wrote about burdens of military campaigns and used various stylistic figures and examples from antique mythology. According to the author, viewpoints of Nikephoros Ouranos on war and military service allow to claim that immediate environment of Basil II exerted impact on formation of military policy of Byzantium.

This chapter contains sections titled: Historiography Hagiography Extended Fiction Further Reading

1014BC Byzantine Emperor [Basil II] releases 15,000 Bulgarian prisoners, blinding most but leaving a one-eyed man for every 100, to lead them to their tsar. 1989 Bette Davis, the actor acclaimed for portrayals of strong- willed women, dies aged 81. She wins Oscars for Jezebel, Dangerous and All About Eve.

The study of how Byzantine Orthodox Christians in the Middle Ages define themselves in relation to the many faiths, ethnic groups, friends, and enemies who surround and live within the Byzantine Empire is as fascinating as the history of any group’s self-definition and its ramifications, with some added twists.¹ Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Constantinople and called themselves Romans necessarily challenge such multivalent concepts as “the West” and “medieval Christendom.” Textbooks on “Western civilization” tend to begin with the heritage of classical Greek philosophy, Roman law and government, and Christian faith, and then survey only the western and northwestern European

Angold reviews The legend of Basil the Bulgar-slayer, by Paul Stephenson.

One factor shared by the Byzantine Empire and the various Islamic regimes of the Middle East was their penchant for foreign soldiers. Among the most elite – and famous – of these foreign forces during the time of Basil II were Byzantium’s Varangian Guard and the Fatimids’ Mamluks.