booklet of abstracts - Oxford University Byzantine Society

The 2011 International Graduate ConferenceBetweenConstantinesrepresentations and manifestations of an empire•4–5 March 2011The History FacultyUniversity of Oxford

Between Constantinesrepresentations and manifestations of an empirewas conceived and organised byEleni Karafotia, Sean Leatherbury, Prerona Prasad and Jesse Simonon behalf of the Oxford Byzantine Society•The 2011 International Graduate Conferencewas made possible through the generous support of:The Oxford Centre for Byzantine Researchwww.ocbr.ox.ac.ukThe Oxford Centre for Medieval Historywww.history.ox.ac.uk/medievalThe Sub-Faculty of Byzantine and Modern Greekgrad.mml.ox.ac.ukThe Oxford Centre for Late Antiquitywww.ocla.ox.ac.ukThe Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studieswww.byzantium.ac.uk•The organising committee wishes to extend their gratitude to the following people,without whom this conference would not have been possible:Peter FrankopanNeil McLynnCatherine HolmesRosemary MorrisLiz JamesBryan Ward-PerkinsJames Howard-JohnsonClive WatsonMarc LauxtermannJohn WattsFront cover photo: Bust of Constantine The Great at the Capitoline Museum, Rome, by Jean-Christophe Benoist.Back cover photo: Statue of Constantine XI Palaiologos, by Tilemahos Efthimiadis.Photos used under the terms of the Creative Commons licence: www.creativecommons.org

A message fromthe committeeIt is our great pleasure to welcome you to the Oxford Byzantine Society’s 2011International Graduate Conference. This year’s conference promises to be very specialindeed, featuring thirty-nine papers from graduate students based in no less than elevendifferent countries.The remit for the OBS conference has always been to host an inclusive event at whichgraduate-level scholars working in various disciplines related to the late antique andByzantine world can come together to present their research in an informed and constructiveenvironment. While remaining true to that remit, the conference has grown steadilyover the last several years. In 2009 we welcomed our first speakers from universitiesoutside the UK. Then, in 2010, we officially became an international event, welcomingspeakers from throughout Europe.We are delighted to say that the conference continues to evolve and expand. Theresponse to the call for papers this year was unprecedented and, as a result, a greater numberof countries and institutions are represented than ever before. Furthermore, for the firsttime, we are pleased to offer papers presented in French as well as English, emphasising thetruly international character of the Byzantinist community.The conference has always been about the exchange of scholarly ideas, but also aboutthe development of academic contacts. We are immensely pleased to be able to bringtogether such a diverse group of young scholars and we hope that the collegial friendshipsforged here between participants in the coming days will last for years to come. Even abrief look through the following schedule should convince you that, at the beginning of thetwenty-first century, some five-and-a-half centuries after the fall of Constantinople, the fieldof late antique and Byzantine studies has never looked healthier.Eleni KarafotiaSean LeatherburyPrerona PrasadJesse SimonThe OBS 2011 Conference Committee4 | Between Constantines

friday 4 march 2011All Friday sessions will be held in the lecture theatre10:00 Opening Remarks 2:30 Session 3Prerona PrasadPresident, Oxford Byzantine Society10:15 Session 1Representing the Self: Understanding LateRoman Mausolea in Pannonia and DalmatiaZsolt R. MagyarCentral European University, BudapestThe Architecture of the Episcopal Churchin Doclea (Montenegro)Tatjana KoprivicaHistory Institute of Montenegro, PodgoricaByzantine Fortifications in the IberianPeninsulaDanielle DonaldsonTrinity College, Cambridge12:00 Session 2Journey to the East: Beyond Space andTime (The Life of St. Macarius the Roman)Z. D. AinalisUniversity of Paris I–Panthéon-SorbonneSinging Your Praises: Depictions ofEmperors and Imperial Rule in theHymnic Collection of James of EdessaSimon FordExeter College, OxfordRural existences of early MedievalByzantium in Niketas’s Life of St PhilaretosAdam IzdebskiUniversity of WarsawA tale of two castles: Katsamon, Ras andthe grand strategy of John II KomnenosMaximilian C G LauOriel College, OxfordThe imperial cult of saints in theMacedonian DynastyMiroslav PopovicUniversity of BelgradeLabelling the Local: The ArchangelMichael of ChonaiAlex Rodriguez SuarezUniversity of London – King’s College4:15 Session 4Mantzikert reversed? The last campaignof Alexios I Komnenos in the Alexiad ofAnna KomneneRoman ShlyakhtinCentral European University, Budapest‘The Land of the Beautiful Horses’:The archaeology of medieval stables inCappadociaFiliz Tütüncü-ÇağlarUniversity of Victoria, Canada‘In the world but not of it’: thecontribution of the monastic economy tothe functioning of trading networks in theeleventh to the thirteenth centuriesGary PittsUniversity of London – Royal HollowayThe 2011 International Graduate Conference | 5

saturday 5 march 20119:45 Session 5The movements of manuscripts betweenByzantium and the Arabic world andthe hypothesis of the role of the Graeco-Arabic translation movement in the revivalof literary production in ByzantiumJakub SypiańskiUniversity of Paris I–Panthéon-SorbonnePsaltika and Asmatika in the liturgicalhistory of the Byzantine EmpireOlga GrinchenkoBrasenose College, OxfordEustathios of Thessaloniki: The Parekbolaion the Iliad. The Christian modificationsmade by Eustathios to pagan elements andpolytheistic expressions in the Homeric textGeorgia KolovouUniversity of Paris IV–Sorbonne11:30 Session 7Byzance et l’Égypte: influence ou confrontation,l’exemple des icônes médiévales del’église Saint-Mercure du Vieux-CaireJulien Auber de LapierreÉcole pratique des Hautes Études, ParisThe painted decoration in the Churchof Holy Anargyroi at Sangri, Naxos:observations on the monumental art ofNaxos during the middle and late ByzantineperiodsTheodora KonstantellouUniversity of AthensThe Representation of Stefan Dušan asNew Constantine in the Church of St.George at Pološko in MacedoniaAna RistovskaÉcole pratique des Hautes Études, Paris6 | Between ConstantinesLecture Theatre2:00 Session 9Magical Remedies in Late Antique MedicalHandbooksPetros Bouras-VallianatosKellogg College, OxfordThe Dream of Caesar BardasJonas J.H. ChristensenUniversity of CopenhagenBetween Aries and Orion: stars, planetsand signs in the Alexander RomanceCaterina FranchiExeter College, OxfordThe Prophecy of the Last Roman Emperor:Transformation and Influence of an Anti-Muslim ToposAndras KraftCentral European University. Budapest4:15 Session 11Roger de Flor’s Campaign of 1304 inWestern Anatolia: A ReinterpretationWiktor OstaszSt. Peter’s College, OxfordNo Triumphs, Just Words: CompetingPolitical Discourses in Early FifteenthCentury ByzantiumFlorin LeonteCentral European University, BudapestThe end is nearing – omens of the Fall ofConstantinopleAnnika AspExeter College, Oxford5:45 Closing RemarksProfessor Marc LauxtermannBywater and Sotheby Professor of Byzantine andModern Greek Language and Literature, Oxford

saturday 5 march 20119:45 Session 6From Roman to Byzantine Law: TheChange in Testamentary Deeds from LateAntique EgyptMaria NowakUniversity of WarsawThe imitatio Constantinopolitanae urbisas a means of legitimacy and politicalpropaganda in Late AntiquityCarmen Eguiluz MéndezUniversity of Cantabria, SantanderThe effects of the Slav invasions in theBalkans in the sixth centuryAgata KoziejNicolas Copernicus University, Torun11:30 Session 8The Politics of Memory and Visual Politics:Comparing the Self-representation ofConstantine and AugustusMariana BodnarukCentral European University, BudapestCities of God: Space and Memory in Victorof Vita’s History of the Vandal PersecutionLuke GardinerCorpus Christi College, CambridgeLes inventions de reliques dans l’EmpirebyzantinEstelle CronnierUniversity of Paris I–Panthéon-SorbonneRees Davies Room2:00 Session 10Jerusalem, Jerash, and Caesarea: lateantique urban contexts in the LevantMorgan DirodiSt. Cross College, OxfordAcross the Desert Sands: The ShiftingRoutes of Southern Palestine andTransjordan in Late AntiquityMarlena WhitingLincoln College, OxfordBetween Empires: Early Christianarchitecture in southern Mesopotamia andPersian Gulf regionAgnieszka LicJagiellonian University, KrakówHalabiya Zenobia: boire, manger, stockerau VIIème siècleNairusz Haidar-VelaUniversity of Paris I–Panthéon-Sorbonne4:15 Session 12Signs in the shape of Greek letters onfrescos in Roman catacombs: commentson interpretations of so-called ‘gammadia’Maciej SzymaszekPontifical University of John Paul II, KrakowThe wreathed cross or stephanostaurionon sixth-century marble chancel screens inthe Mediterranean regionBernard MulhollandQueens University, BelfastThe Problematic of Iconoclasm inByzantine Art Historical PeriodisationAdam LevineCorpus Christi College, OxfordThe 2011 International Graduate Conference | 7

polygonal on the exterior, and a schola cantorumin front of the apse, along with adiaconicon and a prothesis. The synthronon(built-in seats with space for the episcopalchair) was arranged along the apse. BasilicaA also had a narthex, as well as the remains,most likely, of an episcopal palace, and thusthe church is probably the Episcopal Churchof Doclea.Tatjana Koprivica is working on aPhD thesis entitled The City of Doclea in theLate Antique and Early Medieval Period. Shehas been employed as a senior researcherat the History Institute of Montenegro inPodgorica since 2001. Since 2006, she hasbeen an associate of the Montenegran institutefor textbooks and teaching aids and isthe author of three textbooks and manualsfor the art history teaching program in primaryschools. She is interested in Medievalart and architecture in Montenegro and thewider Mediterranean.Byzantine Fortifications in theIberian PeninsulaDanielle DonaldsonTrinity College, CambridgeThis paper will discuss problems surroundingthe identification of a Byzantine presence inthe Iberian Peninsula during the sixth century.It will focus upon the scholarly debate onthe exact locations of Byzantine fortifications,using the textual and archaeological evidence.Recent attempts to identify the Byzantinepresence in the Iberian Peninsula througharchaeology have revealed little conclusiveevidence of Byzantine defensive constructions.This paper will argue that, in order tounderstand this apparent lack of fortifications,the imperial invasion of Spain mustbe reconsidered within the wider contextof Justinianic foreign policy during the mid- tolate-sixth century.The Byzantine conquest of the IberianPeninsula, begun by Justinian in 551/552resulted in the creation of a Byzantine provincein Spain that lasted until 625. This episodeof Byzantine occupation had a profound effectin the shaping of the future Spanish nation,influencing Visigothic law, religion and politicalideology. As the Mediterranean becamea sphere of Byzantine influence for almosta century, Spain also formed close contactswith Italy and North Africa. My research willaddress key issues regarding the diplomatic,political and cultural consequences of contactsbetween the Visigothic kingdom andthe Byzantine province in Spain.Danielle Donaldson is a third-yearPhD Candidate working on a thesis entitledByzantine Hispania and the Visigothic Kingdomof Spain. She is interested in addressing keyissues concerning the diplomatic, political andmilitary consequences of the newly establishedByzantine military presence in the IberianPeninsula and the western Mediterranean onthe Visigothic kingdom of Spain.The 2011 International Graduate Conference | 9

Session Three2:30 | Friday 4 March 2011ChairOlga GrinchenkoBrasenose CollegeThe fortresses of Kastamon andRas – cornerstones of John II’sGrand Strategy?Maximilian C G LauOriel College, OxfordJohn II Komnenos has recently been called themost successful of the Komnenian emperorsfor his prudent strategy of reconquest in AsiaMinor, based around short campaigns whoseobjective was the seizure of a castle. An essentialpart of understanding this strategy is tounderstand the system of fortresses that Johnerected, and in this paper I intend to focuson the role of two of these fortresses in thatsystem and their relation to each other. Theseare Kastamon, once the family seat of theKomnenoi, in Paphlagonia, and Ras in modernSerbia. John’s recapture of Kastamon wasimmediately followed by his campaign againstthe rebelling Serbs and the rebuilding of Ras.In this paper I will argue that John’s retakingof Kastamon caused him to build a differentsort of fortress at Ras, one that can tell us moreabout his grand strategy for both Anatolia andthe Balkans in the first part of his reign.This paper will use both the archaeologicalinvestigations undertaken at Ras by Popovic andat Kastamon by Crow, and then link them withthe chroniclers and secondary literature to showa holistic picture of John’s fortresses, somethingthat has so far not been attempted. This then canstart to shed some light upon this important, butmuch neglected, reign and its priorities.Maximilian C G Lau’s research interestis currently the reign of John II Komnenosand his role during what was the turning pointfor Byzantine History.The imperial cult of saints in theMacedonian DynastyMiroslav PopovicUniversity of BelgradeThe Macedonian dynasty organised itselfunder the sign of the triumphant orthodoxy,after the repudiation of iconoclasm. Iteven had its holy protectors in the heavenlyworld, that had followed and protected BasilI during his usurpation and helped him inroyal policies, and whose cults were graduallyestablished through a system of feastsand processions. There was an obvious needfor an elevation to sainthood or a saintlypatron in the reigns of the early Macedonianemperors, Basil I and Leo VI, by means ofwhich the whole ancestry could be sanctified,given a legacy and a parallel to anOld-Testament ideal.This work strives to illustrate and characterisethe importance that Basil I and LeoVI attributed to certain saints. It shall analysethe process through which some membersof the ruling dynasty were sanctified (theempress Theophano, Patriarch Stephen andConstantine) and try to find some correlationbetween the saint-protector dynastic cult,the evolution of the legacy model (based onOld- and New-Testamental forms), and therationalisation of imperial ideology. Everysaint had their own clear role and meaning inthe mosaic of imperial ideology and the ‘holy,God-chosen’ imperial ancestry.The reigns of the first two Macedonianemperors are characterised by a struggle forthe foundation of an imperial legacy, by thereworking of the basileus’ ideology and by12 | Between Constantines

an attempt of creating cult. All of this was inorder to sanctify the imperial ancestry.Miroslav Popovic’s main interestsare the cultural history of the Macedonianperiod, Byzantine hagiography, the relationshipbetween hagiographic and historio graphicgenres in the tenth to twelfth centuries andthe spiritual and theological background ofeveryday life in Byzantium.Labelling the Local: TheArchangel Michael of ChonaiAlex Rodriguez SuarezUniversity of London – King’s CollegeThis paper deals with an epithet that makesreference to the Archangel Michael. The adjective,Choniates, describes the archangel as theone from Chonai. The city of Chonai housedthe most important sanctuary dedicated to theArchangel Michael in the Byzantine Empire,and consequently it was one of the most significantpilgrimage sites in Asia Minor. As oftoday, the nickname can be found in differentmedia, among them, a fresco from Cappadocia,a famous manuscript in Paris and several seals.These examples will be used in order to explainthe emergence of this phenomenon, whichseems to have lasted very briefly, probablyless than one century. Most of the inscriptionsare dated to the eleventh century. Therefore,the aim is to understand the reasons thatmay have led to the creation of such a geographiclabel. Although its existence may notappear extraordinary due to the significanceof the shrine at Chonai, the brevity of thephenomenon points to the opposite. The circumstancesin Anatolia during the second halfof the eleventh century could partly explainits invention. Furthermore, there is a politicalfigure with connections near Chonai who mayhave played a central role in the diffusion ofsuch a label and, moreover, the iconographictype attached to it. I will therefore argue thatwhat probably started as an image of provincialadvertisement was finally used as a meansof imperial propaganda.Alex Rodriguez Suarez’s researchinterests span the middle Byzantine Periodwith particular emphasis on the eleventhand twelfth centuries. The topic of his PhDis the Western presence and its effects onthe Byzantine society and culture during thereigns of Alexios I and John II Komnenos. Inaddition, he is particularly interested in subjectsrelated to art and iconography, such as theimage of the Archangel Michael accompaniedby the Choniates label, imperial representationsthereof and its evolution through time.The 2011 International Graduate Conference | 13

Session four4:15 | Friday 4 March 2011ChairAnnika AspExeter College‘The Land of the Beautiful Horses’:The archaeology of medievalstables in CappadociaFiliz Tütüncü-ÇağlarUniversity of Victoria, CanadaRenowned since antiquity as the legendary‘Land of the Beautiful Horses,’ Cappadociahas been an important horse-breeding centrethroughout its history. The present work isa study on horses and horse breeding in thisregion in the tenth and eleventh centuries, withspecial attention being paid to the architecturalevidence, namely, the rock‐cut stables. The timeperiod under question is marked by changeand revival in Byzantine history, in whichCappadocia played a vital role for the defenseand expansion of Byzantium in the east.The point of departure for the presentwork is a hypothesis suggested by V.G. Kalasthat the landowner families living in monumentalrock-cut mansions of Cappadociaduring the middle Byzantine period bredhorses in their large stables to supply their owntroops, as well as those of the imperial army.In order to evaluate this theory further andshed light on the history of horse breeding inByzantine Cappadocia, this paper investigatesthe stables of the elite residences within theirbroader archaeological, ethno-archaeologicaland historical context.Although there is no question about thepresence of other types of domestic livestock,as also represented in architectural evidence,the present study proposes that the stables ofthe elite mainly functioned to house horsesand, perhaps, mules, probably bred for militarypurposes. Analysing the architecture ofthe stables in the light of literary evidence,this paper aims to draw attention to the valueof horse breeding for the study of social andeconomic history of Byzantine Cappadocia.Filiz Tütüncü-Çağlar is a third-yearPhD candidate at the University of Victoria inCanada specialising in Islamic ceramics. Herresearch interests include cross-cultural interactionson the Byzantine and Islamic frontier, artand archaeology of Medieval Anatolia andNorth Syria, and underwater archaeology.Mantzikert reversed? The lastcampaign of Alexios I Komnenosin the Alexiad of Anna KomneneRoman ShlyakhtinCentral European University, BudapestThe battle of Mantzikert (1071) is a referencepoint for all historiographers of the Komnenianera. Anna Komnene is not an exception.She starts her work with a short mentioningof the military disaster. Anna places anothermentioning of Mantzikert at the very end ofthe Alexiad. According to her, in 1116 AlexiosI Komnenos (1081-1118) won a battle againstthe sultan of Ikonion, Shahanshah (1107-1116), near the city of Philomelion. After thedescription of the peace ceremony Anna narratesa story about this sultan. He became anally of Alexios Komnenos after the battle, butlater was betrayed and blinded during internecinewar the by one of his amirs.Shahanshah’s fate reminds me ofByzantine emperor Romanos IV Diogenes,who was also defeated, captured andblinded. In the battle of Mantzikert, theByzantines were defeated by the Seljuks; in14 | Between Constantines

the battle of Polybotes, Seljuks were defeatedby Byzantines. Romanos Diogenes lost thebattle and was blinded. In the Alexiad, therole of the blinded loser is given to sultanShahanshah.In my presentation I intend to show thatone can interpret the last campaign of AlexiosKomnenos in Anatolia as a ‘mirror’ of the battleof Mantzikert. By inserting this episode intoher narrative, Anna Komnene built a circularnarrative structure: the biography of her fatherstarted with Mantzikert, and finished with it. In1071, Alexios was too young to fight; in 1116,Anna Komnene made her father defeat theSeljuks and ‘reverse’ the battle of 1071.Roman Shlyakhtin is writing his dissertationon the image of the Seljuk Turks inByzantine historiography of the eleventh andtwelfth centuries. He is interested in the historyof Byzantine literature and the history ofimages in general. He is also working on severalsmall projects in the area of military history;his dream is to write a book about the battleat Myriokephalon (1176), which he tried toreconstruct in his MA Thesis. He also takesinterest in the history of Byzantine diplomacy,with special attention to the relations betweenByzantine Empire and Crusader States.‘In the world but not of it’: thecontribution of the monasticeconomy to the functioning oftrading networks in the eleventhto the thirteenth centuriesGary PittsUniversity of London – Royal HollowayThe great monasteries of the Byzantine Empirewere often as well-resourced as the dynatoi andhad significant territorial and administrativereach, coupled with a robust infrastructure andtax privileges. They also had an internationaldimension involving some of the ‘diaspora’trading communities (e.g. the Amalfitans andthe Armenians). This paper examines the rolethat the trading infrastructure of the greatByzantine monasteries played in the broaderweb of trading networks. These networkslinked local and international trading networksand were a powerful force for commerce withinthe Empire and beyond. By examining thecases of key monastic communities and theirtrading activities, this paper aims to identifywhether there are any conclusions which canbe applied to less well-documented normalcommercial activity. The paper will use bothtextual and archaeological evidence.Gary Pitts is a part-time MPhil/PhD studentat Royal Holloway, University of London,working on a thesis on the functioning andinteraction of trading networks in the EasternMediterranean in the tenth to the thirteenthcenturies. He is interested in diaspora networksand the economic life of objects. Garyis Head of Compliance for Europe, Mid-Eastand Africa of an investment bank.The 2011 International Graduate Conference | 15

Session five9:45 | Saturday 5 March 2011 | Lecture TheatreChairPrerona Prasadkeble CollegeThe movements of manuscriptsbetween Byzantium and theArabic world and the hypothesisof the role of the Graeco-Arabictranslation movement in therevival of literary production inByzantiumJakub SypiańskiUniversity of Paris I–Panthéon-SorbonneBetween the ninth and tenth centuries, interestin Greek manuscripts increased both inByzantium and in Muslim countries. Both phenomenahave much in common, but despitethe geographical proximity, their appearance atalmost the same time is sometimes consideredincidental. Paul Lemerle, author of classic studiesof the Macedonian Renaissance (Le premierhumanisme byzantin) rejects any connectionbetween them. His view has been recentlyreviewed by Dimitri Gutas, a specialist in theGraeco-Arabic translation movement in theAbbasid caliphate. According to him, thesetranslations could have possibly given impetusto the resumption of literary production inByzantium after the ‘Dark Ages’. In addition,revived demand in the caliphate for the Greekmanuscripts of texts needed for translationactivity could have resumed the activity ofcopying manuscripts in Byzantium.In this light, an almost complete correlationbetween the list of works translated intoArabic in Baghdad and a list of manuscriptsfirst copied in Byzantium in ninth century, areparticularly interesting. In my paper I intendto focus specifically on one aspect of thistheory. I want to explore the Byzantine andArab narratives of manuscripts deriving fromthe other side of the border. Some of these storiescan be considered as contrived, thereforein addition to exploring the ways by which themanuscripts moved around, I would like toexamine how we can explain the appearanceof fictional stories on this topic.Jakub Sypiański’s research interests arethe intellectual relations between Byzantiumand the Arab world until the tenth century. Inbroad terms, they include all areas of culturalcontacts between Byzantium, the Arab worldand the Latin West in the middle ages.Psaltika and Asmatika inthe liturgical history of theByzantine EmpireOlga GrinchenkoBrasenose College, OxfordThe Byzantine Rite is known for its magnificentservices, beautiful music, and meaningfulpoetry. Despite the large number of the liturgicalmanuscripts which have come down tous, the history of the Byzantine office is yetto be written. My paper will be dealing witha particular type of the Byzantine liturgicalmanuscripts – Asmatika and Psaltika. Theseare collections of hymns (mostly kontakia)to be sung by a choir (Asmatika) and a soloist(Psaltika) in the Orthodox Office datingfrom the late tenth to fourteenth centuries.At first glance all manuscripts resemble eachother and have a similar tripartite structure;however, each copy is absolutely unique.In my paper I will provide a comparativeanalysis of the content of the manuscripts,describe their liturgical and calendrical features,and bring attention to the enigmatic16 | Between Constantines

notation contained in these collections. Itwill help to shed some light on the historyof one of the central genres of the Byzantineliturgical poetry such as kontakion, as well asthe historical development of the Asmatikaand Psaltika, which will give us a betterunderstanding of the liturgical and musicaltraditions in the Byzantine empire and allowus to put them in a broader context of theByzantine civilisation.Olga Grinchenko is in the third yearof a DPhil in Medieval Slavonic Studies. Sheis interested in a comparative analysis of theByzantine and Slavonic collections of hymns;musical, textual and historical aspects of theliturgical poetry of Byzantium and pre-MongolRussia, along with the development of theEastern liturgical tradition in general and thehistory of European hymnographic books.Eustathios of Thessaloniki: TheParekbolai on the Iliad. TheChristian modifications made byEustathios to pagan elementsand polytheistic expressions inthe Homeric textGeorgia KolovouUniversity of Paris IV–SorbonneEustathios of Thessaloniki, the most importantscholar of the 12th century, wrote aparticular commentary on the Iliad. Theparticularity of this commentary is revealedby the title itself of his work: Parekbolai arethe extracts of the commentaries on Homerwhich compose an autonomous, continuous,and independent commentary onthe Iliad. Eustathios selects and compiles theancient scholia, the notes, the citations andthe extracts of other authors in order to explicateHomer. Evidently, the Homeric citationsconstitute the starting point of his analysisand his compiled commentary on Homer.The present paper demonstrates the wayin which Eustathios treats and integrates inhis commentary the Homeric citations; andparticularly, our interest is to show how theChristian commentator treats the pagan elementsand the polytheistic expressions of theHomeric text. Through a comparative readingbetween the Homeric citations of known editionsand the Homeric citations in Eustathios,our aim is to demonstrate the Christian modificationsof Eustathios to the Homeric text, theanti-pagan commentary that he invents, thereplacement of the polytheistic expressionsof the Homeric text by a monotheistic versionand the method of the scholar to christianise,in a certain way, the interpretation of someHomeric verses.Georgia Kolovou is a third-year DPhilCandidate working on a thesis entitled: The conceptionof Homer in Eustathius Thessalonicensis.Translation and Analysis of the Commentaryof Eustathius on the rhapsody VI of Iliad.Her research interests are: Homeric scholia,commentaries, lexica and grammatical treatisesof the Byzantine period and Byzantineliterature of twelfth century.The 2011 International Graduate Conference | 17

Session six9:45 | Saturday 5 March 2011 | Rees Davies RoomChairMichael Stawpertst. John’s CollegeFrom Roman to Byzantine Law:The Change in TestamentaryDeeds from Late Antique EgyptMaria NowakUniversity of WarsawThis paper will study the interaction betweenstatutory law and legal practice in LateAntiquity, and will focus on the externalform of late Roman wills, known thanks tolegal papyri and sources of statutory law,especially the Theodosian and JustinianicCodes. Through the investigation of testamentarydeeds, I intend to illustrate how lawand legal concepts evolved in Late Antiquity,as well as whether these changes were productsof intentional legislative politics or weremore accidental in nature.A comparison between testaments preservedon papyrus and parchment and sourcesof statutory law illustrates both the level of legalknowledge and its application in the provinces.This paper aims to present the origins of solutionsconcerning the external form of wills asdescribed in the codes of Late Antiquity. Byconfronting both documents of legal practiceand the legal sources, I attempt to reconstructrelations between the development of theform of wills at the level of legal practice andthe content of laws. As any single concordancebetween law and practice may be a misleadingcoincidence, one must follow whether changesin law corresponded with changes in practice inorder to determine their relationship.Maria Nowak is a doctoral candidate atthe Department of Roman and Antique Law(University of Warsaw). Her research interestsare papyrology and legal history.The imitatio Constantinopolitanaeurbis as a means of legitimacyand political propaganda in LateAntiquityCarmen Eguiluz MéndezUniversity of Cantabria, SantanderConstantinople, founded by Constantine inthe fourth century on the site of the ancientByzantium, became the nerve centre of theRoman empire, Rome having become amere symbolic capital long before. Foundednot as an antithesis to the Roma senior, butin order to unify the Greek and Romanworld, the πόλις was transformed – thanksto ideological and energetic policies of civicrestoration (anakaínesis or renovatio) – intoa New Rome, successor and advocate of theimperial political unity.A century later, the new Germanicleaders, in an attempt to assimilate theirown political structures with Romanones, adapted or built their capitals basedon the model embodied by Constantinople,the only legitimate heiress of the firstcapital. This is what Cassiodorus definedas imitatio imperii or exemplar unici imperii.Thus Theoderic, in his Ostrogothic reign,and later Leovigild, in the Visigothic reign,tried to turn the cities of Ravenna andToledo, respectively, into urbes regiae,through a program of ideological and urbanimitation, a way also, at the same time,to consolidate and legitimate their power.Carmen Eguiluz Méndez is a doctoralstudent working on the study ofurban evolution of the sedes regiae in Italyand Spain between Late Antiquity and the18 | Between Constantines

early middle ages, focusing on OstrogothicRavenna and Visigothic Toledo, since bothused the model of Constantinople in order todevelop themselves from an urban and ideologicalpoint of view. This doctorate receiveda Marie Curie Fellowship to fund a researchstay for ten months at Ca’Foscari University ofVenice (September 2008–June 2009).The effects of the Slavinvasions in the Balkans in thesixth centuryAgata KoziejNicolas Copernicus University, TorunMy paper will deal with the results of theSlavic invasions in the Balkan Peninsuladuring the sixth century. I will describe theself-development process of this barbarictribe, who settled near the borders of theByzantine empire at the turn of the sixthcentury and who have remained at the sameplace to the present day.To begin, there will be a short chronologyof the Slavic attacks on the Byzantineempire from the beginning of the reignof Justinian I up to the counteroffensiveof Maurice. This will be followed by adescription of the consequences of theseinvasions, dealing with the influence onthe politics and international relations ofthe Empire, as well as economy, trade anddemographic structure. It will be shownhow these factors resulted in a decline ofurban civilisation and an economic crisisin the northern provinces of the Empire.I will also examine how the appearance ofthe Slavs in the Balkan Peninsula changedthe ethnic structure of the Byzantine empireand caused the great migrations of autochthonsto the north by land or by sea.Agata Kociej is a graduate studentof History and Balkan studies inNicolas Copernicus University in Torun.Her interests concern the history of theBalkan Peninsula during the Byzantine empire,especially the cultural exchange between Slavictribes and Byzantium and the consequencesof their cooperation. She is interested in theMedieval history of Albania and the formationof an Albanian national consciousness, but alsoin the process of ethnic changes caused by thearrival of the Slavs in the Balkan Peninsula.The 2011 International Graduate Conference | 19

Session seven11:30 | Saturday 5 March 2011 | Lecture TheatreChairSean Leatherburycorpus christi CollegeByzance et l’Égypte – influenceou confrontation, l’exemple desicônes médiévales de l’égliseSaint-Mercure du Vieux-Caire.Julien Auber de LapierreÉcole pratique des Hautes Études, ParisSummary: On the basis of medieval icons inthe Church of Saint Mercurius of Old Cairo, thispaper seeks to evaluate the influence of Byzantineart on the Christian art of Egypt and to examinethe usefulness of the notion of ‘Coptic art’.L’icône, objet de dévotion par excellencechez les chrétiens orientaux, est avant toutliée à un sens théologique profond avant depouvoir être identifiée comme une œuvred’art. Pourtant, bien que systématiquementassimilée au monde byzantin, l’icône est toutautant présente dans le Levant et en Égyptedans le culte des Coptes orthodoxes.Tandis que l’art chrétien sur ce territoires’est toujours revendiqué comme un «artcopte», les dernières études effectuées ontendance à remettre systématiquement cettenotion en question. Longtemps considérécomme inexistant en Égypte, un témoignagede l’art byzantin est ainsi largement visibledans le domaine des icônes.Les panneaux médiévaux ont la triste particularitéd’être peu nombreux en Égypte, cequi n’a jamais facilité leur étude. Ce manque, dûnotamment à des dispersions, des destructionsou des réutilisations, n’empêche pourtant en riende se pencher sur cet art si singulier et tellementdifférent des peintures murales que l’on peutobserver dans la plupart des monastères coptes.Ainsi, en se basant sur les icônes médiévalesprésentes dans l’église Saint-Mercure duVieux-Caire, nous tenterons d’évaluer l’impactque l’art byzantin a pu avoir sur l’art chrétiend’Égypte et quelle est alors la véritable valeurde la notion d’«art copte».Julien Auber de Lapierre is a doctoralcandidate in the History of Art and is workingon a thesis concerning an icon painterof Armenian origin, Yuhanna al-Armani al-Qudsi, who was active in Ottoman Egypt.His interests include the Egyptian art andarchaeology, especially religious art of theeighteenth century.The painted decoration in theChurch of Holy Anargyroi atSangri, Naxos: observations onthe monumental art of Naxosduring the middle and lateByzantine periodsTheodora KonstantellouUniversity of AthensThe island of Naxos, situated in the heart ofAegean Sea, occupies a significant positionin Byzantine art due to the large number ofchurches, many with wall paintings, whichdate from the early and middle Byzantineperiods, as well as from the period betweenthe thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, whenNaxos was under the rule of the Venetians.The existence of such a large number of wallpainting layers is an authentic testimony to theartistic vitality and furthermore, to the socialand financial history of the island at that time.The Second Ephorate of ByzantineAntiquities for the Cyclades (HellenicMinistry of Culture and Tourism) hasrecently conducted a rescue operation for20 | Between Constantines

the Church of Holy Anargyroi in the regionof Sangri, from which two layers of significantpainted surfaces were discovered andconserved. This paper will concentrate onthe analysis of the programme and style ofthe wall paintings in an attempt to draw conclusionson the dating, the patronage and themonumental function.I also intend to shed light on related subjectslike the role of the Naxians in the artisticoutput during the period under Venetianoccupation, the probable existence of westerninfluences in the art of Naxian wall paintingsof this period, and in general, the process ofthe artistic confrontation and integrationbetween the two cultures. In this way, I willattempt to envisage the cultural setting withinwhich the monumental painting of this periodwas produced.Theodora Konstantellou comesfrom the University of Athens. Her researchinterests include painting in the peripheryof the Byzantine world, especially Greece,and the study of artistic production within abroader art-historical context.The Representation of StefanDušan as New Constantine inthe Church of St. George atPološko in MacedoniaAna RistovskaÉcole pratique des Hautes Études, ParisConstantine the Great was venerated for theexample he had set for the succeeding rulers,at first Byzantine but later Serbian, Bulgarianand even Russian. In Medieval Serbia, thedevelopment of this ideology is attested fromthe earliest days of the Nemanjić dynasty.On the façade of the church of St. George atPološko, a very impressive image of the Serbianking Stefan Dušan and his family is depicted.This image represents the most explicit examplein Medieval art, where iconography makesa direct analogy between a Serbian ruler andConstantine the Great. The aim of the presentpaper is to examine, through this representation,the desire of Dušan to present himselfas a New Constantine in light of the politicalchanges in the fourth decade of the fourteenthcentury, such as the rise of the Serbian kingdomand the proclamation of the Serbian empire.Ana Ristovska recently defended herPhD dissertation, entitled The Church of St.George at Pološko, Research of the Monumentand its Wall Paintings, at the École pratique desHautes Études, Paris. Her research examines anumber of aspects related to fourteenth-centuryByzantine iconography, through the study of St.George Church at Pološko in Macedonia.The 2011 International Graduate Conference | 21

Session Eight11:30 | Saturday 5 March 2011 | Rees Davies RoomChairCaterina Franchiexeter CollegeThe Politics of Memory andVisual Politics: Comparingthe Self-representation ofConstantine and AugustusMariana BodnarukCentral European University, BudapestExamining the imperial politics of memoryhelps elucidate the social, cultural and politicalchanges which occurred in the Roman world inLate Antiquity. The crisis of the third centuryAD accelerated processes of transformation thathad begun in the late Roman period, particularlyin the urban spaces of Rome. Especially inthe early fourth century, the conversion of theemperor Constantine to Christianity, as well asthe structural transformations of the Romanempire, which are revealed through an analysisof the politics of memory together withvisual politics, forced Roman society to cometo terms with the religious and political consequencesof the newly-Christian empire. TheEusebian model of emperor, state, and churchwhich emerged from the fourth century eventuallywon out and, though it was questionedin Late Antiquity, became the basic politicalmodel for Byzantium.This paper will focus on the followingquestion: What were the similaritiesand differences between Constantine’s andAugustus’ modes of self-representation?Structural analogies between Augustan andConstantinian exploitation of visual language,as well as Constantine’s own appropriationof a pre-existing imperial visual repertoirefor self-representation, explicate the waysin which emperors engaged in a politics ofmemory to relate to the past. Did Constantinerelate to the imperial past, the Tetrarchy inparticular, as Augustus did to the Republicanpast? Thus, a fundamental formulation follows:the study of the imperial politics ofmemory helps explain the massive changesto the Roman empire in Late Antiquity. Thispaper will specify necessary limits on this critiqueof political ideology.Mariana Bodnaruk is an MA studentspecialising in late antique, Byzantine, andEarly Ottoman Studies in the Medieval StudiesDepartment, Central European University.Her research interests cover Late Antiquity,early Byzantium and cultural and memorystudies. Her previous topics of focus wereissues of memory and forgetting, particularlymemory in imperial culture, which led her tothe broader field of late antique and Byzantinecultural and art history.Cities of God: Space and Memoryin Victor of Vita’s History of theVandal PersecutionLuke GardinerCorpus Christi College, CambridgeBeyond the Vandals’ conquest of Carthage,their progressive co-option of manyRomano- Africans profoundly shook theconfidence of certain leading Catholic clerics.This paper will show how one cleric,Victor of Vita, contested factors he perceivedas crucial to this co-option (and thewider project of the legitimation of Vandalrule), from Vandal appropriation of thesecular and religious loci, landscapes, andideology on which much North African(and) Catholic identity was predicated, to22 | Between Constantines

the more independent, spontaneous creationof a literary ‘shared secular space’, commonto many Romano-Africans and Vandals andemblematised in the poems of the AnthologiaLatina by the glittering imagined landscapeof a new Carthage. Such valourised associationsof Vandal rule with a new flourishing ofsecular culture are, for instance, underminedin Victor’s depictions of their destruction ofmany landmarks of Carthage.Elsewhere in his History, Victor showsVandals appropriating ancestral martyrialbasilicas, depriving Victor’s Catholics of theirpublic religious spaces and their martyrialheritage, only to create, through their persecutions,new martyrs – new links to the NorthAfrican past - and to transform the private,marginalised spaces to which Catholics hadbeen relegated into new loci of public religiouslife as they become martyr shrines.Above all, Victor re-imagines Carthage, tothe exclusion of the secular ‘collaborationist’or the Arian Vandal, through his use of thetypological models (frequently conceptualisedspatially) of Biblical Zion and the ‘City ofMartyrs’ – martyrs whose bloodied bodies areliterally integrated into the urban fabric. Suchmodels, derived from those rhetorical toolsfashioned during the earlier, Donatist schismby both Catholics and Donatists, as well asVictor’s wider reclamation of North Africanspace and history serve to prevent the marginalisationof Catholic identity, the developmentof widespread apostasy, and to forestall thefeared emergence of that perennial legacy ofpersecution and apostasy: schism.Luke Gardiner is a PhD student atCambridge, working on Church History,heresiology, and the theorisation of (problemsof) knowledge in the fifth century.Les inventions de reliques dansl’Empire byzantinEstelle CronnierUniversity of Paris I–Panthéon-SorbonneSummary: This paper will discuss the drivefor the collection of relics in the Eastern Romanempire from the fourth to the seventh centuries. Itwill try to explain this phenomenon in light of itsJewish and Pagan antecedents and also to examineit in relation to religious funerary monumentsof the time.Le phénomène de l’invention ou découvertede reliques, corporelles ou non, quidevait voir le jour dès les premiers siècles duchristianisme, dans l’Empire romain, n’a paslaissé que d’intriguer. Où, comment, et peutêtresurtout pourquoi devait-il éclore et sedévelopper à ce point ? – telles sont les questionsqui viennent immédiatement à l’esprit.Les réponses, des réponses existent, sansdoute; elles sont complexes, comme tout cequi engage à la fois l’homme et son milieu, sestraditions, ses croyances.Au nombre des premières inventions,celle de la Vraie Croix, fait figure de modèle;elle a suscité de nombreux débats et de fortriches études. D’autres exemples, d’autres‘dossiers’ non moins fourmillants et ardus ontà leur tour retenu l’attention des historiens;mais aucune étude d’ensemble n’existe encoreà ce jour.Je propose, dans le cadre de la conférenceannuelle des doctorants, de présenterquelques réflexions sur le culte des reliquesThe 2011 International Graduate Conference | 23

Session eight continueddans ces premiers siècles de l’Empire chrétienet byzantin. Il semble en effet que le christianismeait d’abord eu du mal à admettre ce culte.Pourquoi alors tout à coup ces découvertesou redécouvertes à intervalles réguliers quin’allaient plus cesser? Pour obtenir des élémentsde réponse, il est nécessaire de revenirsur la question des origines, et de s’interrogersur la place qu’y occupent les divers héritages(juifs ou païens). D’autre part, je voudraism’interroger sur le caractère mémoriel de lasépulture, et tenter d’analyser comment unetraditio ressurgit de ce monument même dela mémoire qu’est la tombe sainte, le tombeau(memoria).Estelle Cronnier is a doctoral candidateand is working on a thesis concerningthe invention and ‘discovery’ of relics in theeastern provinces of the Roman empire. Herresearch involves the close reading of art,architecture, historiography and hagiographyof the fourth to seventh centuries.24 | Between Constantines

Session Nine2:00 | Saturday 5 March 2011 | Lecture TheatreChairEleni Karafotiawolfson CollegeMagical Remedies in LateAntique Medical HandbooksPetros Bouras-VallianatosKellogg College, OxfordThe paper discusses the magical remediesin the Therapeutics of Alexander of Tralles,in light of his construction of a multifariousmedical compendium. Writing in thelate sixth century, Alexander of Tralles combinedhis own rich practical knowledge withGalenic theories. He refers not only to theetymology, forms and symptomatologyof diseases, but also to therapies includingseparate mention for dietetics and pharmacology.Additionally, he does not hesitate to referto a variety of mysterious substances suchas parts of animals or amulets in connectionwith magical remedies.His work provides us with informationabout popular magical practices from variousplaces and shows the sociocultural standardsof the period. Even though Alexander recommendsthe use of every possible kind ofhealing, he differentiates his approach when itcomes to using magic and does not try to explainthose remedies in scientific terms. Alexanderwas influenced by the socially versatile contextof the sixth-century milieu and clearly depictsthe competition between rational and irrationalmedical practices. As a physician with a rationalapproach, the inclusion of such remedies makeshim an extraordinary case.Petros Bouras-Vallianatos hasre search interests in late antique and Byzantinemedicine and pharmacy, the history of epilepsyin Byzantium and female imagery inPsellos’ Chronographia.The Dream of Caesar BardasJonas J.H. ChristensenUniversity of CopenhagenThe Vita Ignatii of Nicetas David Paphlagonis an important source for the events that leadto the rise of Basil I to the throne and to thepartisan factions active in the years after thefinal abolition of Iconoclasm in 843. The textis, partly, a long harangue against Photius andthe persons associated with him, most prominentlythe caesar Bardas, Michael III’s uncleand, according to tradition, de facto ruler ofthe Byzantine Empire in the years before theadvent of Basil I. An intriguing episode inthe Vita Ignatii is the story of Bardas’ dream,in which Bardas narrates his dream of hisown and Michael III’s condemnation by St.Peter. Nicetas makes explicit mention of thebiblical precedents of dreams sent to rulersand the whole episode invites interpretationand comparison from within the narrativeframework of the Vita Ignatii, as well as othertexts. Remarks on dream interpretation scatteredthroughout the text make it possible toadd further meaning to this otherwise selfcontainedepisode and thus to see it as a partof the narrative as a whole. I will suggest somereadings and implications of such a contextualreading of the episode and make some cursoryremarks on the consequences of the re-use ofsuch an episode in later historiography.Jonas J. H. Christensen’s researchinterests include the impact of Iconoclasm andthe immediate aftermath of the Triumph ofOrthodoxy on the literature of the ninth andtenth centuries, as well as the philosophicalproduction of the middle Byzantine period.The 2011 International Graduate Conference | 25

topos which, most notably, comprised anti-Muslim prophecies that were designed tocounteract Islamic religious aspirations.My investigation will show how the hardlinepolemical attitude of the Last RomanEmperor was reused and adapted in subsequentpolemics, but also how it was, at times,de-emphasized in order to accommodatea less aggressive opposition and instead tomake a more subtle argumentation as seen,for example, in John of Damascus’ writingson Islam. In addition, it becomes clear howthis originally Christian theme influenced theMuslim concept of the Mahdī, which eventuallycame to be incorporated into Christianeschatological considerations as seen, forinstance, in the Bahira Legend.Andras Kraft’s current researchfocuses on early Christian reactions to Islam(seventh through ninth centuries). He haspreviously dealt with the theology of Origenof Alexandria, and with Origenism and its relationshipto the Desert Fathers. More recently,he has extensively studied Aristotelianism inthe Muslim East, focusing on the philosophyof al-Ghazālī.The 2011 International Graduate Conference | 27

Session ten2:00 | Saturday 5 March 2011 | Rees Davies RoomChairJesse SimonUniversity CollegeJerusalem, Jerash, andCaesarea: late antique urbancontexts in the LevantMorgan DirodiSt. Cross College, OxfordThe late antique cities of the EasternMediterranean were flourishing centres ofwealth and culture. Nowhere is this more truethan in the case of Jerusalem, a city that wastransformed, almost overnight, from a minorprovincial city to a centre of major religious,economic and cultural importance thanks tothe actions of Constantine and his successors.The objective of this paper will be to contextualisethe process of urban developmentby means of a comparison with two othermajor urban centres of the region: CaesareaMaritima and Jerash.It is my intention to show how the processesthat affected Jerusalem have parallelsin these other two cities. In particular, Iwill concentrate on exploring and comparingthe alterations in the urban contexts ofthese three cities. It is my belief that theseprocesses are results of the economic andideological pressures resulting from therise of Jerusalem as a religious and pilgrimagepowerhouse of global proportions. Thisresulted in a transformation of the localeconomy and also in the way that urbanspace was viewed in Jerusalem. As a resultof these changes, the cities of the regionexperienced similar transformations of theirtopography for economic (Caesarea) or religious( Jerash) reasons.Morgan Dirodi is doing a DPhil inHistory on urban development in the easternmediterranean from the fourth to the seventhcentury. His research interests are, inparticular, the impact that Christianity andChristianisation had on the urban environment,the transformation of street plans andurban topography, and the transition betweenByzantine and early Umayyad cities.Across the Desert Sands: TheShifting Routes of SouthernPalestine and Transjordan inLate AntiquityMarlena WhitingLincoln College, OxfordThe region of Southern Palestine andTransjordan reflects the confluence of differentsocial and political phenomena – themilitary, trade and pilgrimage – that all hadan impact on the shape of the road networkin this region, which took on a differentappearance from the fourth through seventhcenturies. This paper will examine,through a mixture of archaeological andtextual evidence, the changes wrought onthe road system of Southern Palestine andTransjordan, from the fragmentation of thesecond century Via Nova Traiana and theimpact of long distance and local trade tothe increase in traffic through central Sinai asa result of the desire of pilgrims to visit theholy places.Marlena Whiting graduated with aBA from Wellesley College and an MPhil inByzantine Studies from Oxford. She is currentlyworking on a DPhil entitled Traveland Accommodation in the Late Antique EastMediterranean.28 | Between Constantines

Session Ten continuedLes niveaux de transition byzantino-omeyyade,bien qu’essentiels à lacompréhension des sites, demeurent peuconnus car peu publiés. Les changements politiquesne se reflètent pas systématiquementsur les céramiques. La longue tradition potièreprotobyzantine a laissé son empreinte dans lesproductions omeyyades et il n’est pas toujoursaisé de distinguer les caractéristiques de la finde l’empire protobyzantin de celles propres auxdébuts de l’Islam. De plus, les changementss’opèrent lentement dans cette région où lesproductions, tout en restant tributaires descaractéristiques locales, s’imprègnent d’autresinfluences de par ses nombreuses zonesd’approvisionnement. Le matériel étudié,tout en gardant les traces propres à l’époqueprotobyzantine tels que les tituli picti en grecet les motifs de croix, se voit doté de nouvellesformes et décors que nous retrouverons toutau long de l’époque omeyyade.Nairusz Haidar-Vela has been workingon a doctoral thesis on the proto-Byzantineceramics of Northern Syria since 2006. Herwork deals with material from three sites:Halabiya Zenobiya, the monastery of SaintSymeon and El Bara. She is also working onthe ceramics of Tyre in Lebanon in order tohave a broader view of material culture in theeast during the Byzantine period.30 | Between Constantines

Session Eleven4:15 | Saturday 5 March 2011 | Lecture TheatreChairPrerona Prasadkeble CollegeRoger de Flor’s Campaign of1304 in Western Anatolia: AReinterpretationWiktor OstaszSt. Peter’s College, OxfordThe hiring of the Catalan Company was anevent of central importance in the long reignof Andronikos II. After a textbook combat performanceagainst the Turkomans in Anatolia,the mercenary army almost bled the empire todeath. As most scholars have approached theCatalan episode with regard to its traumaticoutcome, the first phase from the arrival of theCompany in 1303 to the assassination of Rogerde Flor in 1305, has too often been dismissed asa mere herald of the strife to come. While theaims and policies of the emperor and his Latingambros have often been misrepresented asclashing, a close reading of the sources revealsa degree of understanding between the two.Although Roger was quick to enter the roleof an imperial official, his methods shouldbe carefully distinguished from those of hisrecruits. Andronikos had sound reasons to trustthe Company and solid precedents on which tobuild his approach to the eastern problem.It is the political and military activities ofRoger de Flor on his mission to the Anatolianborderland that require reconsideration, asthey offer an extraordinary glimpse of theprovincial society deeply discontented withthe Palaeologan rule and ready to follow localleaders. The Genoese connection of Rogerand the curious possibility of some Catalanssubsequently joining the ‘plundering confederacy’of Karası Turks add more complexity tothe interplay of various political forces in earlyfourteenth century Anatolia.Wiktor Ostasz is a graduate studentof St. Peter’s College, Oxford. His researchinterests include the history, archaeology andhistorical geography of Byzantine and MedievalTurkish Anatolia, society and culture in theChristian–Muslim frontier zones, realities ofprovincial life in the Medieval Mediterranean,navigation, piracy and business enterprises inthe Medieval Mediterranean and the historyof the Medieval Crown of Aragon.No Triumphs, Just Words:Competing Political Discoursesin Early Fifteenth CenturyByzantiumFlorin LeonteCentral European University, BudapestThis paper aims to indicate the major typesof political discourse as they developed inthe last decades of Byzantine history. Firstly,one can identify a discourse cultivated bythe members of Byzantine clergy who downplayedthe emperor’s role and denied thevery existence of an Empire of the Romans.These ideas, often combined with an antiaristocraticstance, can be found in texts ofauthors like Joseph Bryennios, Symeon ofThessalonike and Makarios, Metropolitan ofAnkara. Secondly, in several of his rhetoricalwritings, Emperor Manuel II Palaeologos(1391-1425) attempted to re-evaluate the ideaof imperial authority. Accordingly, he eitherrepresented himself as an emperor-didaskalos(The Foundations of an Imperial Education andThe Seven-Ethico Political Orations), or playedthe role of an emperor-preacher by performinghis homilies in the imperial palace. Thirdly, thetexts of the early fifteenth-century panegyristsThe 2011 International Graduate Conference | 31

Session twelve4:15 | Saturday 5 March 2011 | Rees Davies RoomChairSean Leatherburycorpus christi CollegeSigns in the shape of Greek letterson frescos in Roman catacombs:comments on interpretations ofso-called ‘gammadia’Maciej SzymaszekPontifical University of John Paul II, KrakowThe term gammadia refers to characteristicmarkings in Christian art of the first millenniumwhich appear on the mantles of figuresdepicted in catacomb paintings, mosaics,pages of illuminated manuscripts and on goldglass. Previous studies have interpreted thesesymbols as Greek letters which have particularnumerical values and thus have viewed gammadiaas a category of symbols contemporaryto each period, conveying meanings knownto everyone. This paper offers a new look atthe problem and focuses on the earliest worksdecorated by gammadia, created in Romearound the time of Constantine the Great.This paper will perform iconographicand statistical analyses of catacomb frescosin which these symbols appear for the firsttime. These analyses will help determine thefrequency of gammadia, their patterns in variousrepresentations as well as the evolution ofthe shapes of particular signs, which are thefirst components of wider research regardingthe problem of gammadia in relation to historicalsources and surviving textiles from LateAntiquity. Cataloguing the catacomb frecoes inRome which feature gammadia is fundamentalfor the analysis of the other examples scatteredacross the Byzantine Empire, from Greece,Italy and Croatia to Cyprus and Egypt.Maciej Szymaszek is a second-yearMA student working on a thesis entitledSigns in the shape of Greek letters on frescosin Roman catacombs. He is interested in thematerial culture of the Mediterranean fromLate Antiquity until the end of Iconoclasm,Syriac Christianity, art and architecture ofthe region of Tur ‘Abdin and Gertrude Bell’sresearch in the Middle East.The wreathed cross orstephano staurion on sixthcenturymarble chancel screensin the Mediterranean regionBernard MulhollandQueens University, BelfastWhile excavating at the monastery ofBeth-Shan, Fitzgerald noted that ‘betweenthese stones and the apse, we found abroken slab of marble [...] with a cross surroundedby a wreath carved on one side [...].This suggested a clue to the meaning of theword στεφανοσταυρίον (wreathed cross)which is found in both the inscriptions inthe chapel floor.’ There are examples of thewreathed cross or stephanostaurion foundon sixth-century marble chancel screensthroughout the Mediterranean region, andin many cases they are flanked by a pair ofLatin crosses.These stephanostauria exhibit some variationsin composition. For example, thefour-armed cross within the wreath canbe replaced by a six- or eight-armed cross.There are also instances where the four armsof the cross are replaced by fleurs-de-lis, orwhere fleurs-de-lis are interspersed amongthe four arms of the cross. Some piercedchancel screens have intricately interlinkedThe 2011 International Graduate Conference | 33

PARKS ROADHIGH STREETST. GILESBROAD STREETTURL STREETMITREBEAUMONT STREETGEORGE STREETCORNMARKET ST. ALDATESNEW INN HALL ROAD*HISTORYFACULTY(see inset)* KEBLECOLLEGEHYTHE BRIDGE ROADTHAMES or ISIS*TRAINSTATIONGLOUCESTERGREEN BUSSTATION*,KING’SARMSBODLEIANLIBRARYRAD-CLIFFESQUARETo Iffley Road†BEAR,,THEBANBURY ROAD, ,LAMB &EAGLE FLAG& CHILDHORSE,WHITE†THE CASTLE *COMPLEXBUSSTOPSto NorthOxford◆BUSSTOPSto IffleyRoadTHE,TURFQUEEN ST.◆Map of OxfordNNEW ROADNEW INN HALL ROADGEORGE STREETHISTORY FACULTYBUILDINGThe 2011 International Graduate Conference | 35

General ScheduleFriday9:00 Registration and Coffee10:00 Opening RemarksPrerona Prasad10:15 Session 111:45 Coffee12:00 Session 21:30 Lunch2:30 Session 34:00 Coffee4:15 Session 45:45 Wine ReceptionSaturday9:00 Coffee9:45 Sessions 5 and 611:15 Coffee11:30 Sessions 7 and 81:00 Lunch2:00 Sessions 9 and 104:00 Coffee4:15 Sessions 11 and 125:45 Closing RemarksProf. Marc Lauxtermann6:00 Wine Reception36 | Between Constantines