Byzantium in the seventh century [electronic resource] : the transformation of a culture

This book presents the first analytical account in English of the major developments within Byzantine culture, society and the state in the crucial formative period from c. 610 to 717. Since its original publication in 1990, the text has been revised throughout to take account of the latest research. The seventh century saw the final collapse of ancient urban civilisation and municipal culture, the rise of Islam, the evolution of patterns of thought and social structure which made imperial iconoclasm possible, and the development of state apparatuses - military, civil and fiscal - typical of the middle Byzantine state. Conflicting ideas of how these changes and developments are to be understood have proliferated in the last fifty years. This book is the first serious attempt to provide a comprehensive, detailed survey of all the major changes in this period. Frontmatter List of plates (page x) List of maps (page xii) Preface and acknowledgements (page xiii) Preface to the revised edition (page xv) List of abbreviations (page xvii) The sources (page xxi) Introduction (page 1) 1 The background: state and society before Heraclius (page 9) 2 The East Roman world c. 610-717: the politics of survival (page 41) 3 Social relations and the economy: the cities and the land (page 92) 4 Social relations and the economy: rural society (page 125) 5 The state and its apparatus: fiscal administration (page 173) 6 The state and its apparatus: military administration (page 208) 7 Society, state and law (page 254) 8 The imperial church and the politics of authority (page 281) 9 Religion and belief (page 324) 10 Forms of social and cultural organisation: infrastructures and hierarchies (page 376) 11 Forms of representation: language, literature and the icon (page 403) Conclusion The transformation of a culture (page 436) Addendum: Further observations on the question of the late ancient city (page 459) Bibliography (page 462) Index (page 482) This book presents the first analytical account in English of major developments within Byzantine culture, society and the state in the crucial formative period from c.610-717. The seventh century saw the final collapse of ancient urban civilization and municipal culture, the rise of Islam, the evolution of patterns of thought and social structure that made imperial iconoclasm possible, and the development of state apparatuses--military, civil and fiscal--typical of the middle Byzantine state. Also, during this period, orthodox Christianity finally became the unquestioned dominant culture and a religious framework of belief (to the exclusion of alternative systems, which were henceforth marginalized or proscribed). It is all too easy to forget that every human society, whatever its achievements and the ways in which it impresses itself upon its natural context, is closely bound to its geographical and climatic conditions of existence in ways which may at first seem insignificant, or so obvious as to need no further consideration. J.f. Haldon. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 459-475) And Index.