Social Change in Town and Country in Eleventh-Century Byzantium (Oxford Studies in Byzantium)

The history of Byzantium pivots around the eleventh century, during which it reached its apogee in terms of power, prestige, and territorial extension, only then to plunge into steep political decline following serious military defeats and extensive territorial losses. The political, economic, and intellectual history of the period is reasonably well understood, but not so what was happening in that crucial intermediary sphere, the social order, which both shaped and was shaped by contemporary ideas and brute economic developments. This volume aims to deepen understanding of Byzantine society by examining material evidence for settlements and production in different regions and by sifting through the far from plentiful literary and documentary sources in order to track what was happening in town and country. There is evidence of significant change: the pattern of landownership continued to shift in favour of those with power and wealth, but there was sustained and effective resistance from peasant villages. Provincial towns prospered in what was an era of sustained economic growth, and, through newly emboldened local elites, took a more active part in public affairs. In the capital the middling classes, comprising much of officialdom and leading traders, gained in importance, while the twin military and civilian elites were merging to form a single governing class. However, despite this social upheaval, careful analysis of these various factors by a range of leading Byzantine historians and archaeologists leads to the overarching conclusion that it was not so much internal structural changes which contributed to the vertiginous decline suffered by Byzantium in the late eleventh century, as the unprecedented combination of dangerous adversaries on different fronts, in the east, north, and west. Cover Social Changein Town and Countryin Eleventh-CenturyByzantium Copyright Contents List of Figures List of Abbreviations List of Contributors Introduction 1 Transformations in Byzantine Society in the Eleventh Century, Particularly in Constantinople CURRENT VIEWS WHAT WAS SOCIETY LIKE IN CONSTANTINOPLE? BASIL II AND THE PULL OF CONSTANTINOPLE OVER THE GREAT PROVINCIAL FAMILIES THE EXAMPLE OF THE KOMNENOI, DOUKAI, AND SKLEROI THE ‘MACEDONIAN’ FAMILIES THE POLICIES OF BASIL II’S SUCCESSORS THE SITUATION IN THE PROVINCES THE RAPPROCHEMENT BETWEEN THE CIVILIANS AND THE MILITARY ENLARGEMENT OF THE SENATE FROM CONSTANTINE MONOMACHOS ONWARDS0 THE POSITION OF MICHAEL PSELLOS POPULAR INTERVENTION IN THE POWER GAME A VERY HETEROGENEOUS POPULATION ECONOMIC ISSUES THE BENEFICIARIES OF THE NEW POSTS THE ECONOMIC INTERESTS OF THE MANAGERS THE STRENGTHENING OF THE LINKS BETWEEN THE ARMY AND THE BUREAUCRACY CONSTANTINOPLE, THE CENTRE OF POWER STRUGGLES A RENEWED POLITICAL CLASS? THE ‘NEW MEN’ INDIVIDUAL DESTINIES AND COLLECTIVE FATE THE ‘PEOPLE OF THE AGORA’ CIVIL SERVANTS AND MERCHANTS DEVELOPMENTS UNDER THE KOMNENOI THE NEW ROLE OF THE MERCHANTS AND CRAFTSMEN IN THE FISCAL AND COMMERCIAL CIRCUITS 2 The Social Views of Michael Attaleiates A SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ECONOMIC AGENT AND POLITICAL THINKER ROUSELIOS AND THE CHANGING NATURE OF BYZANTINE ROMANITAS UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL 3 Social Change in the Countryside of Eleventh-Century Byzantium LANDOWNERSHIP AND THE STATE LANDOWNERS BASED IN CONSTANTINOPLE THE PROVINCIAL ELITE THE PEASANTRY CONCLUSION 4 Before and After the Eleventh Century AD in the Territory of Sagalassos: Settlement Evolution INTRODUCTION BYZANTINE REMAINS IN THE TERRITORY OF SAGALASSOS BEFORE 2000 NEW RESULTS AND CHANG INGINTERPRETATIONS REMAINS FROM THE BYZANTINE DARK AGE AT SAGALASSOS BYZANTINE DARK AGE SETTLEMENTS IN THE TERRITORY OF SAGALASSOS MIDDLE BYZANTINE SETTLEMENT PATTERN MIDDLE BYZANTINE REMAINS AT SAGALASSOS CONCLUSION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5 What Went Wrong? Decline and Ruralization in Eleventh-Century Anatolia: The Archaeological Record CHURCHES TEMPLON EPISTYLES FORTIFICATIONS WHAT WENT WRONG? 6 Greece in the Eleventh Century EVIDENCE OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEYS HOUSING AND CHURCHES URBAN GROWTH INTERACTION BETWEEN TOWN AND COUNTRY CONCLUSIONS 7 New Light on the Society of Byzantine Italy INTRODUCTION THREATS TO BYZANTIUM’S POSSESSIONS IN ITALY INVESTMENT BY THE CENTRE IN LOCAL DEFENCE STRATEGY OF DEFENCE IN CALABRIA SETTLEMENT PATTERN AND DEFENCE IN APULIA AND LUCANIA LATE TENTH- AND ELEVENTH-CENTURY TROUBLES LOCAL NOTABLES AND THE COMING OF THE NORMANS CONCLUSION 8 Social Change in Eleventh-Century Armenia: The Evidence from Tarōn 9 Byzantium in the Eleventh Century: General Reflections LEARNING AND THE ARTS ECONOMIC GROWTH AND TOWN LIFE LAND OWNERSHIP DEFENCE POLICY Bibliography Seals Modern Works Index "The history of Byzantium pivots around the eleventh century. For it was then that it reached its apogee, in terms of power, prestige and territorial extension, only to plunge into steep political decline in the second half of the century. It is therefore well worth taking a thorough look at the social order in this age of change, to see how it was affected by economic growth and political expansion, and what were the consequences of the social changes which occurred. The approaches of individual contributors vary according to their subject-matter. The social order is surveyed from the bottom-up in four archaeologically founded papers which examine three regions of the Byzantine world (Asia Minor, in general [Niewoehner] and with respect to the Sagalassos area [Kaptijn and Waelkens], Greece [Armstrong] and Southern Italy [Noye]). The top-down view, drawing on textual evidence, documentary and literary, is presented by four contributors, who again focus on different places - the metropolis (Cheynet), the country in the core regions of Asia Minor and Greece (Smyrlis), and two peripheral regions, Taron in south-west Armenia (Greenwood) and southern Italy (Noye). These detailed studies are complemented by a venture into the sphere of political ideas, as manifest in the thinking of one high-flying servant of the state (Krallis), and an overview of eleventh century developments (Howard-Johnston)"-- Provided by publisher The eleventh century saw both the heyday of Byzantium and its almost immediate subsequent decline following serious military defeats and heavy territorial losses. The papers in this volume view the social order as a prime determinant of change, tracking it through archaeological and documentary evidence to deepen our understanding of the period.