booklet of abstracts - Oxford University Byzantine Society

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