Byzantine Diplomacy

Variorum
edited by Jonathan Shepard and Simon Franklin
ISBN: 0860783383
price: $99.95   hardcover

In the popular imagination the word 'Byzantine' is synonymous with deviousness and diplomatic intrigue. It is therefore astonishing that no general survey of Byzantine diplomacy exists in any language except Bulgarian. In an attempt to fill this gap, in 1990 an international group of scholars assembled in Cambridge at the 24th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies. The aim was to conduct a comprehensive investigation of Byzantine diplomacy from beginning to end: from the emergence of the empire in late antiquity to its final convulsions as it fell to the Ottoman Turks.
The result is the present book. This is not just a narrow study of political relations, but a panoramic sweep from Italy to the steppes of Central Asia, from the imperial court to the marriage bed, from the scriptorium to the barracks. There is also a unique and mysterious communication from a long-dead emperor.
Byzantine Diplomacy is Volume 1 in the series published by Variorum for the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies.
Contents: Preface; The notion of Byzantine diplomacy, A Kazhdan; Byzantine diplomacy AD 300-800: means and ends, E Chrysos; Byzantine diplomacy AD 800-1204: means and ends, J Shepard; Byzantine diplomacy AD 1204-1453: means and ends, N Oikonomides; Constantinople, Rome and the Franks in the 7th and 8th centuries, J Herrin; Byzantium and the Khazars: a special relationship?, T Noonan; Byzantine-Islamic diplomacy in the Near East from the Arab conquests to the mid-11th century, H Kennedy; Diplomacy and ideology: Byzantium and the Russian Church in the mid-12th century, S Franklin; Byzantine diplomacy and the Seljuk Turks: Osman in Bithynia, K Hopwood; Diplomacy in the 6th century: the evidence of John Malalas, R Scott; Re-reading Constantine Porphyrogenitus, IS"evc"enko; Liudprand of Cremona: a diplomat?, C Schummer; The language of diplomacy, M Mullett; But is it art?, R Cormack; Silken diplomacy, A Muthesius; The luxury book as diplomatic gift, J Lowden; Dynastic marriages and political kinship, R Macrides; 'Blood and ink': some observations on Byzantine attitudes towards warfare and diplomacy, J Haldon; From frontier to palace: the personal role of the emperor in diplomacy, M Whitby; Why to barbarians stand round the emperor at diplomatic receptions?, D Smythe; The less obvious ends of Byzantine diplomacy, P Antonopoulos; Index.