I - Approaches to the history of Byzantine civilization: from Krause to Beck and Mango

Summary

Earlier generations of scholars have sought to understand the Byzantine empire primarily by turning to its political history. But the modern world has grown lukewarm to the history of events. It is surprising to note that the standard work on Byzantine political history, George Ostrogorsky's History of the Byzantine State (‘the best handbook on Byzantine history’, as Cyril Mango rightly calls it) was first issued in 1940, albeit with adjustments in 1952 and 1963. Ostrogorsky's book has survived for over forty years not because it is flawless: many aspects of his concept of Byzantium have since been challenged. The book's longevity is due, first and foremost, to the fact that our generation does not relish the history of wars, upheavals and religious disputes. We no longer believe that the core of the past can be reached through even the finest analysis of political events. Instead, the fashion is for the history of civilization, the history of man in a broader perspective. It is no accident that the first part of Alain Ducellier's Le drame de Byzance (Paris, 1976) is entitled ‘A la recherche de l'homme quotidien’.

The first book specifically devoted to Byzantine culture was produced more than a century ago, by J. H. Krause. As one would expect, Krause's sources are pitifully meagre by comparison with what is available today. For example, he writes about Byzantine trades without any knowledge of the Book of the Eparch;, he discusses taxation unaided by the publications of Ashburner and Karayannopulos; in 1869 very few items of Byzantine art were known or studied; and Krause's description of the administrative system piles error upon error.