Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition (Greek Culture in the Roman World)

482 Pages·2008·1.98 MB·English

by  Anthony Kaldellis

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HELLENISM IN BYZANTIUM
This is the first systematic study of what it meant to be ‘‘Greek’’ in late
antiquity and Byzantium, an identity that could alternately become
national, religious, philosophical, or cultural. Through close readings
of the sources – including figures such as Julian, Psellos, and the
Komnenian scholars – Professor Kaldellis surveys the space that
Hellenism occupied in each period; the broader debates in which it
was caught up; and the historical causes of its successive transforma-
tions. The first part (100–400) shows how Romanization and
Christianization led to the abandonment of Hellenism as a national
label and its restriction to a negative religious sense and a positive,
albeit rarefied, cultural one. The second (1000–1300) shows how
Hellenismwas revived in Byzantium and contributed to the evolution
of its culture. The discussion looks closely at the reception of the
classical tradition, which was the reason why Hellenism was always
desirable and dangerous in Christian society, and presents a new
model for understanding Byzantine civilization.
ANTHONY KALDELL I S is Professor of Greek and Latin at The Ohio
State University. He has published many articles and monographs on
late antiquity and Byzantium, and is currently completing a related
book on the subject of the Christian Parthenon. His most recent titles
are Mothers and Sons, Fathers and Daughters: The Byzantine Family of
Michael Psellos (2006) and Procopius of Caesarea: Tyranny, History and
Philosophy at the End of Antiquity (2004).
GREEK CULTURE IN THE ROMAN WORLD
Editors
SUSAN E. ALCOCK, University of Michigan
´
JAS ELSNER, Corpus Christi College, Oxford
SIMON GOLDHILL, University of Cambridge
The Greek culture of the Roman Empire offers a rich field of study. Extraordinary
insights can be gained into processes of multicultural contact and exchange,
political and ideological conflict, and the creativity of a changing, polyglot empire.
During this period, many fundamental elements of Western society were being set
in place: from the rise of Christianity, to an influential system of education, to
long-lived artistic canons. This series is the first to focus on the response of Greek
culture to its Roman imperial setting as a significant phenomenon in its own right.
To this end, it will publish original and innovative research in the art, archaeology,
epigraphy, history, philosophy, religion, and literature of the empire, with an
emphasis on Greek material.
Titles in series:
Athletics and Literature in the Roman Empire
Jason Ko¨nig
Describing Greece: Landscape and Literature in the Periegesis of Pausanias
William Hutton
The Making of Roman India
Grant Parker
Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of
the Classical Tradition
Anthony Kaldellis
Religious Identity in Late Antiquity: Greeks, Jews and Christians in Antioch
Isabella Sandwell
HELLENISM IN BYZANTIUM
The Transformations of Greek Identity and the
Reception of the Classical Tradition
ANTHONY KALDELLIS
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521876889
© Anthony Kaldellis 2007
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2008
ISBN-13 978-0-511-37861-4 eBook (NetLibrary)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-87688-9 hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls
for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
I dedicate this book to my uncle Christophoros,
in gratitude and admiration.
Contents
Preface page ix
Introduction 1
P A R T I G R E E K S , R OMAN S , A ND CH R I S T I A N S
I N L A T E AN T I QU I T Y 11
1 ‘‘We too are Greeks!’’: the legacies of Hellenism 13
Classical Greece 14
The Hellenistic world 21
The Second Sophistic 30
2 ‘‘The world a city’’: Romans of the East 42
Becoming Roman 45
The translation of Romania 61
Byzantium as a nation-state 74
The myth of the ‘‘multi-ethnic empire’’ 82
The fictions of ecumenical ideology 100
Where did all the Greeks go? 111
3 ‘‘Nibbling on Greek learning’’: the Christian
predicament 120
Between Greeks and Barbarians, within Hellenism 121
The challenge of Hellenism 131
The legacy of Julian 143
Ours or theirs? The uneasy patristic settlement 154
Conclusion: the end of ancient Hellenism 166
Interlude. Hellenism in limbo: the middle years (400–1040) 173
vii
viii Contents
P A R T I I H E L L E N I C R E V I V A L S I N B Y Z AN T I UM 189
4 Michael Psellos and the instauration of philosophy 191
‘‘Unblocking the streams of philosophy’’ 193
Science and dissimulation 202
Between body and soul: a new humanism 209
Hellenes in the eleventh century? 219
5 The Third Sophistic: the performance of Hellenism
under the Komnenoi 225
Anathema upon philosophy 225
Emperors and sophists 233
Hellenism as an expansion of moral and aesthetic
categories 241
Hellenic fantasy worlds: the new Romance novels 256
A philosopher’s novel: Prodromos on religion and war 270
Hellenic afterworlds: the Timarion 276
Toward a new Hellenic identity 283
Anti-Latin Hellenism 295
Ioannes Tzetzes: professional classicism 301
Eustathios of Thessalonike: scholar, bishop, humanist 307
6 Imperial failure and the emergence of national Hellenism 317
Michael Choniates and the ‘‘blessed’’ Greeks 317
Athens: a Christian city and its classicist bishop 323
East and West: negotiating labels in 1204 334
Moderni Graeci or Romans? Byzantines under Latin
occupation 345
Roman nationalism in the successor states 360
Imperial Hellenism: Ioannes III Batatzes and
Theodoros II Laskaris 368
The intellectuals of Nikaia 379
General conclusions 389
Bibliography 398
Index 453