booklet of abstracts - Oxford University Byzantine Society

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