Changing Cultures in Early Byzantium

Variorum
Averil Cameron
ISBN: 0860785874
price: $122.95   hardcover

In these essays the author builds a framework for understanding the many changes that took place in the societies of the Eastern Mediterranean in the period either side of the Arab conquests. In Constantinople itself, in North Africa, and in the eastern provinces, the culture of late antiquity continued to flourish and develop; Hellenism remained a vital factor in Syria, Palestine and Egypt, while the Byzantine reconquest of the 6th century brought Greek and eastern influences to North Africa. Several papers show also how these developments continued in the 7th century, and how the ideas then established in the East provide the context for later Byzantine iconoclasm.
Contents: Preface; Acknowledgements; Eustratius's Life of the Patriarch Eutychius and the Fifth Ecumenical Council; Models of the past in the late 6th century: The life of the Patriarch Eutychius; Disputations, polemical literature and the formation of opinion in the early Byzantine period; The eastern provinces in the 7th century AD: Hellenism and the emergence of Islam; Byzantium and the past in the 7th century: The search for redefinition; Cyprus at the time of the Arab conquests; Byzantine Africa: The literary evidence; Gelimer's laughter: The case of Byzantine Africa; Corippus's Iohannis: Epic of Byzantine Africa; The Byzantine reconquest of North Africa and the impact of Greek culture; The history of the Image of Edessa: The telling of a story; The language of images: The rise of icons and Christian representation; The use and abuse of Byzantium; Addenda et corrigenda; Index