Arguing it out

Discussion in Twelfth-Century Byzantium
ISBN: 
9789633861110
paperback
$27.95 / €23.95 / £19.95
Kindle edition is available through Amazon
Publication date: 
2015
254 pages

The long twelfth century, from the seizure of the throne by Alexius I Comnenus in 1081, to the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, is a period recognized as fostering the most brilliant cultural development in Byzantine history, especially in its literary production. It was a time of intense creativity as well as of rising tensions, and one for which literary approaches are a lively area in current scholarship. This study focuses on the prose dialogues in Greek from this period—of very varying kinds—and on what they can tell us about the society and culture of an era when western Europe was itself developing a new culture of schools, universities, and scholars. Yet it was also the period in which Byzantium felt the fateful impact of the Crusades, which ended with the momentous sack of Constantinople in 1204. Despite revisionist attempts to play down the extent of this disaster, it was a blow from which, arguably, the Byzantines never fully recovered.

Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1. Inside Byzantium 
Chapter 2. Latins and Greeks 
Chapter 3. Jews and Muslims 
Conclusions. Bringing it Together 
Notes 
Bibliography 
Index