Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T19:35:49.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

21 - Byzantium

from Part V - State formations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
Jean-Claude Cheynet
Edited by
Benjamin Z. Kedar  and
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Benjamin Z. Kedar
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Get access

Summary

Contrary to the image of stability emanating from official discourse, the structures of the Byzantine Empire were constantly being transformed. Over its long history, Byzantium faced three primary challenges, including enemies on the borders, instability in the succession to the emperorship, and challenges by local elites, that led the Empire to collapse. Toward 500, the Western Empire had dissolved, to the benefit of the great Germanic kingdoms that considered themselves the successors to Rome and therefore shared values with the Roman East that had remained intact. Struggles for imperial power lessened when Alexis I Komnenos, a member of a prominent noble family who had married into the ruling Doukas dynasty, took power. He found a different Empire than had been the case under Basil II half a century earlier, and he adapted his administration to the new circumstances.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History , pp. 559 - 585
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Further reading

Angold, Michael, ed. The Byzantine Aristocracy, ix to xiii Centuries. Oxford: BAR, 1984.Google Scholar
Ahrweiler, Hélène. Byzance et la mer. La marine de guerre, la politique et les institutions maritimes de Byzance aux viie–xve siècles. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1966.Google Scholar
Bartousis, Mark C. The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society, 1204–1453. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Blanchet, Marie-Hélène. Georges-Gennadios Scholarios (vers 1400–vers 1472): un intellectuel orthodoxe face à la disparition de l'Empire byzantin. Paris: Institut Français d’Études Byzantines, 2008.Google Scholar
Brandes, Wolfram. Finanzverwaltung in Krisenzeiten: Untersuchungen zur byzantinischen Verwaltungsgeschichte. Frankfurt am Main: Löwenklau, 2002.Google Scholar
Cheynet, Jean-Claude. The Byzantine Aristocracy and its Military Function. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.Google Scholar
Cheynet, Jean-Claude Pouvoir et contestations à Byzance (963–1210). Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1990.Google Scholar
Cheynet, Jean-Claude, Laiou, Angeliki, and Morrisson, Cécile, eds. Monde byzantin, 3 vols. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2004–11.Google Scholar
Foss, Clive. Cities, Fortresses and Villages of Byzantine Asia Minor. Aldershot: Variorum, 1996.Google Scholar
Dagron, Gilbert. “Byzance et le modèle islamique au xe siècle: à propos des Constitutions tactiques de l'empereur Léon VI,” Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 2 (1983): 219–43.Google Scholar
Haldon, John F. Byzantine Praetorians: An Administrative, Institutional, and Social Survey of the Opsikion and Tagmata, c. 580–900. Bonn: Habelt, 1984.Google Scholar
Haldon, John F. State, Army and Society in Byzantium. Aldershot: Variorum, 1995.Google Scholar
Haldon, John F. Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World 565–1204. London: UCLA Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Jacoby, David, ed. Latins, Greeks and Muslims: Encounters in the Eastern Mediterranean, 10th–15th centuries. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009.Google Scholar
Janin, Raymond. Constantinople byzantine: Développement urbain et répertoire topographique. Paris: Institut Français d’Études Byzantines, 1964.Google Scholar
Jeffreys, Elizabeth M. and Pryor, John H.. The Age of the Dromon: The Byzantine Navy ca 500–1204. Boston: Brill, 2006.Google Scholar
Jeffreys, Elizabeth M., Haldon, John and Cormack, Robin, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Lemerle, Paul. Le monde de Byzance: Histoire et institutions. Aldershot: Variorum, 1978.Google Scholar
Madden, Thomas F., ed. The Fourth Crusade: Event, Aftermath, and Perceptions: Papers from the Sixth Conference of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East, Istanbul, Turkey, 25–29 August 2004. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008.Google Scholar
Magdalino, Paul. Constantinople médiévale: Études sur l’évolution des structures urbaines. Paris: De Boccard, 1996.Google Scholar
Mango, Cyril. Le développement urbain de Constantinople (ive–viie siècles). Paris: De Boccard, 1990.Google Scholar
Nicol, Donald MacGillivray. The Last Centuries of Byzantium: 1261–1453. Cambridge University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Oikonomidès, Nikolaos Antōniu. Fiscalité et exemption fiscale à Byzance (ixe–xie s.). Athens: Institut de Recherches Byzantines, 1996.Google Scholar
Oikonomidès, Nikolaos Antōniu “L’évolution de l'organisation administrative de l'empire byzantin au xie siècle (1025–1118),” Travaux et Mémoires 6 (1976): 125–52.Google Scholar
Oikonomidès, Nikolaos Antōniu Les listes de préséance byzantines des ixe et xe siècles. Paris: Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1972.Google Scholar
Treadgold, Warren T. A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, Constantin. “Learning from the Enemy and More: Studies in ʻDark Centuriesʼ Byzantium,” Millennium: Jahrbuch zur Kultur und Geschichte des ersten Jahrtausends n. Chr. 2 (2005): 79–135.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×