#Christian Byzantine Empire

[themanfrommensa]

Open-access databases of the National Hellenic Research Foundation

The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) of the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF) provides open access to 16 databases concerning Byzantine History and especially Byzantine Greece: https://anavathmis.eu/?lang=en. Based on the scrutiny of a large body of primary and secondary sources by members of the Section of Byzantine Research of the IHR/NHRF and associated scholars, the…

[illustratus]

The Emperor of Byzantium Basil II during the Georgian campaign, 1020 by Giuseppe Rava

[lionofchaeronea]

Sardonyx cameo by an unknown Byzantine artist of the 14th century, depicting St. Theodore Stratelates ("Army Commander"). Theodore (281-319) was a Roman soldier, said to have been martyred during the persecution of Christians by the emperor Licinius. Here, Theodore is shown in full military dress, a spear in his right hand and a round shield on his left shoulder. The accompanying inscription invokes him and his namesake, Theodore "the Recruit," as protectors; the cameo would likely have been suspended from a chain and wore around the neck as a protective amulet.

Now in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Photo credit: Walters Art Museum.

[whereserpentswalk]

I find it so weird that people try to deny that queerphobia as it exists in the west is rooted in Christianity. Like, people are literally more focused on not offended the pope than they are protecting queer life.

Remember that there was no queerphobia in the western world before the Christianization of Rome. Caesar being made fun of for being a bottom isn't the same as the queerphobia we see spanning from the late Roman empire to the present day. The first person on earth to outlaw gay male relationships was the byzantine emperor Justinian. The first writing to circulate in the west to talk against homosexuality was the Bible. The systemic cultural and legal marginalization of queer identities is directly tied to Christianity and still is, from Rome, to northern Europe, to Africa (it should be mentioned that the most queerphobic nation on the planet right now had a openly bi king before colonialism) and the Americas, we see that the introduction of queerphobia and the introduction of Christianity are one and the same.

Also when you try to deny that queerphobia comes from Christianity you basically have to claim that people are just naturally queerphobic, which is not only something not back up by history but implies the oppression queer people face is inevitable.

[byzantiumcyber]

Jesus Christ on a Byzantine Coin.

[religious-extremist]

Thalerhof was the first concentration camp in Europe, active from 1914 to 1917 and its primary victims were Eastern Christians. This camp preceded even Dachau which is considered to be the prototype of concentration camps built by Nazi Germany.

It is the place where Austrians interned 30,000 “Russo-philes” which meant that those who identified as Rusyns (or Ruthenian), including Orthodox and Greek Catholics, were interned in either Thalerhof or Terezin.

Rusyns are a little known population who originated in the northern Carpathian mountains, along the modern borders of Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine. To this day, their identities as Rusyns are not acknowledged and they’re often underrepresented in censuses, especially in Ukraine, where they are merely listed as Ukrainian highlanders.

There are countless efforts to erase this part of Eastern European history and today, Thalerhof has been razed to the ground and an airport is built where it once stood. Carpatho-Rusyns, in their attempt to escape genocide, are responsible for bringing Orthodox Christianity to America.

[gemsofgreece]

TIL from a podcast featuring historian and Byzantine archaeologist Yannis Theoharis:

Athens was one of the most religiously conservative cities of the Byzantine Empire. It adhered to the ancient Greek religion for longer than most other areas. Contrary to popular belief, its eventual conversion to Christianity did not happen violently. Christianity was getting more and more ground amongst the believers progressively. Meanwhile, the ancient temples and shrines were progressively emptying but as long as there were believers they were functioning properly and had guards and went through restoration works and all, as stated by Neoplatonic philosopher Proklos (with the exception of nude sculptures which had been destroyed already by proto-Christians). The historian also claims the conversion of the temples to churches happened later than what was previously believed, around the 7th-9th centuries. As the vast majority of the population had eventually converted to Christianity, the temples were left abandoned. The empire ordered their conversion to churches so that funding their preservation could be justified. Furthermore, there wasn’t as much of violent banning of ancient schools as it was thought. Justinian did not ban the function of the Neoplatonic school in Athens but ceased the state funding unless the school accepted to add Christian theology to its curriculum. The Neoplatonic school refused but it was not banned. It kept functioning using its own private funds until this wasn’t enough and the school had to close. Evidence for this is that it is documented that the school functioned for several decades or more than a century (don’t remember exactly) after Justinian’s imperial command, which was previously viewed as an immediate or violent shutdown. Meanwhile, the Neoplatonic school in Alexandria (in Egypt) agreed to add Christian theology to its curriculum and it kept functioning undisturbed until the 7th century and the Arab conquest.

Also, he has more insight into the similarities observed between Eastern / Greek and even all Orthodoxy and the Ancient Greek religion, such as idol / icon worship, lesser deity / saint worship, virgin female deity / super saint worship, patron gods / saints etc He says there was an interesting cycle of Christianised Hellenism followed by Hellenized Christianity. Some of these elements of Christian Orthodoxy were emphasized more than in the early years of Proto-Christianity or even exaggerated by the Byzantine Greek Christians in order to attract the pagan Greeks and make them understand more easily the philosophy of the new religion and find common ground between them. It worked.

Lastly, he disputed the dated assumptions that the Visigoth king Alaric I was assisted by monks to destroy Athens during his invasion in 396. This was falsely concluded because in documents it was found that Alaric was accompanied by men clad in black. Theoharis says these were actually Thracian soldiers (Alaric indeed fared long in Thrace and the Thracians were by large mercenaries) and supports it is very unlikely based on historical evidence of the time that Athenian or Greek Christians would collaborate with a Visigoth invader to help him destroy historical areas of Athens, even if they were pagan.

These are the most important bits from memory, I am linking the podcast here, it is in Greek.

[sane-human]

Missed drawing the Franks

[lactodebillus-bulgaricus]

new hetalia art challenge: draw a ship like this

I'll start

that's how the christianisation of bulgaria went trust me :DDDD

[dreamconsumer]

Emperor David of Trebizond (1408-1463) and some of his sons (including Basil and Manuel).

David's surrender on 15 August 1461 marks the end of the Empire of Trebizond and of the Byzantine imperial tradition.

[little-cereal-draws]

Does anyone know if there were any ancient connections between Hermes/Mercury and Jesus?

I know when Christianity was gaining popularity in ancient Rome, conflating Zeus/Jupiter and Jesus was popular because they’re both kings of Heaven and it was easy to explain this new god to people who had only known the Roman pantheon. And there were lots of sculptures and drawings of Jesus and other Christian religious figures modeled after Roman Emperor equestrian portraits because it showed power and leadership.

But to me it would make sense to combine Hermes/Mercury and Jesus.

Both are messengers for their heavenly, king of Heaven dad. Both spend a lot of time with mortals and assist in daily life. Both assure souls to the afterlife (although in different ways). Both have connections/epithets about shepherding (tho Hermes’ is more literal). This was more in the Middle Ages rather than Christian Rome, but they both have ties with intersex bodies. (A part of European alchemy was intersex Jesus and Hermes’ kid was Hermaphrodite.) I’m sure there are other things I can’t think of at the moment.

Does anyone know if there was a connection either visually or culturally between them?

[themanfrommensa]

New Scientifc Journal: Analekta Stagōn kai Meteōrōn - Analecta Stagorum et Meteororum

Dear Scholars of Byzantium, My colleagues and I would like to bring to your attention the publication of the first issue of Analekta Stagōn kai Meteōrōn – Analecta Stagorum et Meteororum. It is a new biennial scientific journal dedicated to the history and heritage of the monastic community of Meteora, published by the Academy of the Metropolis of Stagoi and Meteora. Its first, celebratory issue…

[illustratus]

The Massacre of Antioch by Gustave Doré

[lionofchaeronea]

Byzantine icon of the Madonna (Theotokos) and Child, of the type known as Hodegetria (Our Lady of the Way): Mary gestures toward the infant Christ, who in turn raises his hand in a sign of blessing. The type originated in a now lost icon from the Monastery of the Panagia Hodegetria in Constantinople that was said to have been painted by St. Luke. This example, by an unknown artist, dates to the 14th century and is in the MUZA, Valletta, Malta.

[alpaca-clouds]

How "Europe" was made

You know what? Based on this rant from yesterday about the typical "boohoo, Black people in my medieval fantasy are unrealistic" assholes, let me talk about the history of Europe a bit. This is gonna be a bit unstructured, but I also know that even people who like their diversity often do not understand the history of Europe. How could they? It is not taught.

If you even do early European history of Europe (which is a big if and very dependent on where you are and what school you visit) it tends to go a bit like this: Greece, Rome, then Rome fell and we had the middle ages happening.

One way to describe this narrative would be: Dumbed down. Another way to describe this would be: Plain wrong.

I talked before how the entire "oh, the Roman gods are just the Greek gods" narrative is wrong (i cannot find that blog again, because tumblr's search remains shit), but... here is the thing: Rome didn't actually fall. Not really. It just... changed.

Because here is the thing: The Byzantine Empire was Rome. And the Roman influence was very clear for a very long time. If anything, it kinda just slowly evolved into something else. But you cannot really point to any given time and say: "This was the end of Rome!" Well, at least not before the fall of the Byzantine Empire.

And the Byzantine Empire played a massive role into how Europe was made.

See, behind the entire idea of those folks speaking about a "white race" and "white culture" is, that there is a uniform white culture - or at least a European culture. Which is something that is very clear if you live in central and western Europe, too. Sure, if you ask people about it a bit more, enough people will still be fucking racist about Slavic people... But in general there is this idea. The idea of a European culture.

But... You have to realize that this culture was created. And it was created through what was basically colonialism.

Now, we all know that Rome had a lot of colonies - at some point throughout most of Europe. And the usual narrative goes something like this: "Rome had its religion, the colonies had theirs. Rome was accepting of this." Which is at once true and false. Yes, they just let local religions be - but they also considered their own religion as superior and folks from the European indigenous cultures would often gain acceptance through converting to the Roman religion or integrating the Roman gods into their religious practice at least. But yes, for the most part the Romans did leave the indigenous tribes alone.

And make no mistake. There were many, many indigenous cultures living all over Europe. Most people kinda have the once again simplified idea of "there were the norse, the germans, the celts and the slavs", but those were also still names given to groups of cultures that were related but differed to some degree. And there were also some cultures that did not fit any of those cultures - cultures, incidentally, about which we still lack a lot of information.

The usual depiction then goes: "Constantine converted to Christianity and then all the people saw how awesome Christianity was. There were missionaries and they spread the religion throughout Europe." But... That is not what happened.

See, in the late 4th century, the policy within the Byzantine Empire towards the old and indigenous religions of Europe shifted from "they are pagans, but who cares" to "they are pagans, we do not want pagans in our empire". And so, under Emperor Theodosius I the Byzantine Empire started to burn down religious sides throughout the Empire and hunt down the pagans, at times pushing them out of the empire or forcing them to convert to Christianity. This was not a peaceful process, like it is so often depicted, it was violence. It was colonialism. It employed many of the same strategies that were later used to forcefully convert people in the colonies a whole millennium later.

And those hunts and the burning of religious sites, religious artefacts and at times religious texts is in fact one of the reasons why we do not have a full understanding of any of the ancient religions. This shows of course most in our lack of understanding for Celtic and Norse religion (where it was made worse by the fact that the cultures themselves did not write things down) and of course our very, very lacking understanding of the smaller indigenous cultures within Europe - but it even shows in our understanding of Ancient Roman, Greek and Egyptian culture. Because while we do have a lot more records on these that were preserved, there are gaps in our understanding of how the religious practice throughout those ancient cultures developed, because certain places that held this information were partially or completely destroyed.

This entire idea of the "European Culture" was created from this. From a culture that was in the end a result of early colonialism and violence. Because originally Europe was maybe not quite as diverse as the other continents (given how small Europe is), but so much more diverse in terms of cultures, than the usual narratives tries to make you believe.

[byzantiumcyber]

Mosaic of Jesus in the Pammakaristos Church in Istanbul or Constantinople.