Late Assessment Penalty

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – two (2) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7) days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests.

Marks are indicative until final review/moderation after the exam period is finished.

ASSESSMENT TASK 1 WEEKLY ONLINE DISCUSSION

All students will be expected to post at least one (1) response to the Online Discussion forum each week. This posting should be between 100-300 words and it should be in response to the questions posted for that week. These questions will relate to the primary texts in your Book of Readings each week.

The assessment criteria for this task is based on participation and the quality of your postings. Grading criteria includes clarity of expression and argument, evidence of independent thought, and the relevance of your response to the questions set by the tutor.

These posts are due at midnight of the Sunday of each tutorial week (i.e. Week 2 is from Monday 2nd - Sunday 8th March, and the online discussion should be made by midnight on Sunday 8th March). You are welcome to continue posting to the weekly discussion forum after this due date, but any postings made after midnight on Sunday will not be counted for assessment purposes. You are also welcome to start new discussions each week on topics of interest, but these will not be counted towards this assessment task.

The Online Discussion component is worth 15% of your overall assessment. You will need to post a response to at least 9 of the weekly forums from Weeks 2 to 4 and Weeks 6 to 12 (inclusive). Note that any postings that you make for Week 1, 5 and 13 will not count towards these 9 weekly posts.

 

ASSESSMENT 2 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Students will submit an annotated bibliography of 15 (fifteen) references that will be used for the Major Essay (Assessment 3). In a maximum of 1500 words, these references should include brief commentaries which summarise the work and its relevance to the major essay question. Primary and secondary sources should be included. See weekly bibliographies and the general references in the Delivery and Resources folder below for ideas as to where to start.

ASSESSMENT TASK 3 MAJOR ESSAY

Major Essay Questions

 1. Discuss the factors that led to Constantine's foundation of the city of Constantinople. Why are there differing versions of the city's foundation and inauguration in the sources?

2. Analyse the evidence of Justinian's policy of military and territorial reconquest, and discuss the reasons why he would have adopted such a policy.

3. What do you consider to be the main contributing factors to both periods of iconoclasm (726-787CE and 813-843CE)?

4. How did the Fourth Crusaders justify their attack on fellow Christians and their looting of churches in Constantinople? Examine both Western and Byzantine accounts of the Fourth Crusade and compare their responses to the removal of holy relics and works of art from the city.

5. Discuss the strategies employed by the Fourth Crusaders to besiege Constantinople in 1204CE. Why did the Crusaders attack Constantinople, and how and why were they successful?      

6. Discuss the relationship between the church and state in Byzantium with particular reference to the reign of two emperors. How do you think the Byzantines themselves perceived the relationship between the church and emperor?

7. Discuss the distinctive features of Byzantine art and/or architecture. How was Byzantine art and/or architecture different from Western or early Islamic art of the same period?

  8. Choose two aspects of everyday life in Byzantium and consider the extant evidence to determine what it can tell us about the everyday lives of the Byzantines. Are there any issues with using these sources, and why is the evidence of everyday life less prominent than that of the lives of emperors and saints?  

9. Based on the extant sources, what do you consider to be the main contributing factors to the fall of Constantinople in 1453CE? Was the fall of Constantinople inevitable?

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY   City of Constantine

Reference works

(**) - available online via MQ library

**Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire c.500-1492 ed. J. Shepard (2008).

Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 3 vols ed. A. Kazhdan (1991)

Oxford History of Byzantium ed. C. Mango (2002)

**James, E. (ed.) A Companion to Byzantium. (Chichester, U.K. ; Malden, MA, 2010).

The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies ed. E. Jeffreys (2009)

The Byzantine World ed. P. Stephenson (2010)

A Chronology of the Byzantine Empire ed. T. Venning (2005)

Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire ed. J. R. Martindale (2001-)

Dumbarton Oaks Bibliographies (1973-)

**The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity, ed. Ken Parry (2007).

The Palgrave Atlas of Byzantine History ed. J. Haldon (2006)

Some relevant journals:

Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies

Byzantinische Zeitschrift

Byzantion

Dumbarton Oaks Papers

Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies

Journal of Hellenic Studies

Revue des Etudes Byzantines

Travaux et Mémoires

 

General Reading:

*Bassett, S. The Urban Image of Late Antique Constantinople (Cambridge, 2007).

*Byrd, K.M. Pierre Gilles' Constantinople: A Modern English Translation (Italica Press, 2008).

*Cameron, A. The Byzantines (Oxford, 2006). 

*Gregory, T. A History of Byzantium (Oxford, 2010).

**Grig, L. and Kelly, G. Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity (Oxford, 2012).

*Harris, J. Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium (London, 2007).

*Hatlie, P. The monks and monasteries of Constantinople, ca. 350-850 (Cambridge, UK; New York, 2007).

*Magdalino, P. Studies on the history and topography of Byzantine Constantinople (Aldershot, 2007).

*Mango, C. ed. Studies on Constantinople (Aldershot, 1993).

Mango, C. & Dagron, G. eds. Constantinople and its Hinterland (Aldershot, 1995).

*Necipoglu, N. ed. Byzantine Constantinople: Monuments, Topography and Everyday Life (Leiden, 2001). 

Week 1 – Byzantium before Constantine

(*) Only physical copy available (**) Available online through the MQ library

**Brown, A. and Neil, B., eds. Byzantine Culture in Translation, (Leiden, 2017).

*Brown, P., The World of Late Antiquity, (London, 1971).

**Cameron, A., The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity, AD 395-600, (London, 1993).

**Haldon, J.F., Jeffreys, E. and Cormack, R., The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies, (Oxford, 2008).

**Johnson, S.F., The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity, (Oxford, 2012).

**Marciniak, P. and Smythe, D.C., The Reception of Byzantium in European Culture Since 1500, (Burlington, VT, 2015).

**Marincola, J. Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography. (Cambridge, 1997).

 

Week 2 – The Age of Constantine: 4^th Century

*Barnes, T.D., Constantine and Eusebius, (Cambridge, MA, 1981).

*Barnes, T.D., Constantine: Dynasty, religion and power in the later Roman Empire, (Chichester, 2011).

**Casiday, A. and Norris, F.W., eds. Constantine to c.600, (Cambridge, 2007).

*Drake, H.A., In praise of Constantine: a historical study and new translation of Eusebius’ Tricennial Orations, (Berkeley, 1976).

**Grig, L. and Kelly, G., eds. Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity,  (Oxford, 2012).

**Hollerich, M.J., ‘Religion and Politics in the Writings of Eusebius: Reassessing the First "Court Theologian"’, Church History 59 (1990), 309-325.

**Ledegang, F., ‘Eusebius’ View on Constantine and his Policy’ in A. Geljon and R. Roukema, eds. Violence in Ancient Christianity: Victims and Perpetrators, (Leiden, 2014, 56-75).

**Lenski, N., Constantine and the cities: Imperial authority and civil politics, (Philadelphia, 2016).

**Lieu, S., ‘Constantine Byzantinus: The anonymous Life of Constantine’ (BHG 364)’ in S.N.C. Lieu and D. Montserrat, eds. From Constantine to Julian: Pagan and Byzantine Views, (London and New York, 1996, 97-105).

**Lieu, S., ‘Constantine in Legendary Literature’ in N. Lenski, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine, (Cambridge, 2005, 298-322).

*Papacostas, T. and Parani, M., eds. Discipuli dona ferentes: Glimpses of Byzantium in Honour of Marlia Mundell Mango, (Turnhout, 2017).

**Van Dam, R. ‘The Afterlife of Constantine’ in R. Van Dam, ed. Remembering Constantine at the Milvian Bridge, (Cambridge, 2011, 19-32).

*Williams, M.S., 'Constantine, The Authorised Life' in Authorised Lives in Early Christian Biography: Between Eusebius and Augustine (Cambridge, 2008).

 

Week 3 – The Age of Justinian: 6^th Century **Cameron, A., Procopius and the sixth century, (London, 1996).

*Cameron, A., Ward-Perkins, B., and Whitby, M., eds. Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, AD 425-600, (Cambridge, 2000).

**Casiday, A. and Norris, F.W., eds. Constantine to c.600, (Cambridge, 2007).

**Evans, J.A., The Empress Theodora: Partner of Justinian, (Austin, 2010).

**Garland, L., Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium, AD 527-1204, (London and New York, 1999).

**Heather, P., Rome Resurgent: War and Empire in the Age of Justinian, (Oxford, 2018).

*Herrin, J., Unrivalled influence: Women and Empire in Byzantium, (Princeton, 2013).

**Humphreys, M.T.G., ‘Roman law and imperial ideology from Justinian to Heraclius’, in M.T.G. Humphreys, ed. Law, Power, and Imperial Ideology in the Iconoclast Era: c.680-850, (Oxford, 2014, 1-36).

*Kaldellis, A., Procopius of Caesarea: Classical Historian and Political Thinker, (Philadelphia, 2004).

**Kaldellis, A., Procopius of Caesarea: Tyranny, History and Philosophy at the end of Antiquity, (Philadelphia, 2004).

**Maas, M., John Lydus and the Roman Past: Antiquarianism and Politics in the Age of Justinian, (London, 1992).

**Maas, M., ed. Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian, (Cambridge, 2005).

Potter, D., Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint, (New York, 2015).

*Metzger, E., A Companion to Justinian’s Institutes, (Ithaca, NY, 1998).

**Sarris, P., Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian, (Cambridge, 2006).

**Sviatoslav, D., ‘John Lydus’ political message and the Byzantine idea of imperial rule’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 39 (2015), 1-24. 

*Teteriatnikov, N.B., Justinian Mosaics of the Hagia Sophia and their Aftermath, (Washington D.C., 2017).

**Tóth, A.J., ‘John Lydus – Pagan and Christian’ in M. Saghy and E.M. Schoolman, eds. Pagans and Christians in the Late Roman Empire, (Budapest, 2018, 59-67).

 

Week 4 – The Age of Iconoclasm

 

**Baranov, V., ‘The Iconophile Fathers’ in K. Parry, ed. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Patristics, (Chichester, 2015).

*Brubaker, L., Inventing Byzantine Iconoclasm, (Bristol, 2012).

**Brubaker, L. and Cunningham, M.B., The Cult of the Mother of God in Byzantium: Texts and Images, (Farnham, 2016).

*Brubaker, L. and Haldon, J., Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era (ca 680-850): A History, (Cambridge and New York, 2010).

**Brubaker, L. and Haldon, J., Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era (ca 680-850): The Sources. An Annotated Survey, (Aldershot, 2016).

**Cameron, A., 'Images of Authority: Elites and Icons in Late Sixth-Century Byzantium', Past & Present 84 (1979), 3-35.

*Cholij, R., Theodore the Studite: The Ordering of Holiness, (Oxford, 2002).

*Codoñer, J.S., The Emperor Theophilos and the East, 829-842: Court and Frontier in Byzantium During the Last Phase of Iconoclasm, (Farnham and Burlington, 2014).

**Efthymiadis, S., The Life of the Patriarch Tarasios by Ignatios the Deacon, (Aldershot, 1998).

**Gwynn, D., ‘From Iconoclasm to Arianism: The Construction of Christian Tradition in the Iconoclast Controversy’, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 47 (2010), 225-251.

**Humphreys, M.T.G., Law, power, and imperial ideology in the Iconoclast era, c. 680-850, (Oxford, 2015).

*James, L., ‘Seeing is believing but words tell no lies: captions versus images in the Libri Carolini and Byzantine Iconoclasm’ in J. Johnson, ed. Negating the Image: Case Studies in Iconoclasm, (London and New York, 2005, 97-112).

*Mango, C., The Homilies of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople (Cambridge, MA, 1958).

*Mondzain, M.J., Image, Icon, Economy: The Byzantine Origins of the Contemporary Imaginary, (Stanford, 2005).

*Parry, K., Depicting the Word: Byzantine Iconophile Thought of the Eighth and Ninth Centuries, (Leiden, 1996).

*Parry, K., 'Origen and Image-making' in J.A. McGuckin, ed. The Westminster Handbook to Origen, (Louisville, KY, 2004, 128-131).

*Pelikan, J., Imago Dei. The Byzantine Apologia for Icons, (Princeton, 2011).

*Sahas, D. J., Icon and Logos: Sources in Eighth-Century Iconoclasm, (Toronto, 1986).

*Talbot, A.-M., ed. Byzantine Defenders of Images: Eight Saints Lives in English Translation, (Washington, 1998).

**Treadgold, W., The Byzantine Revival 780-842, (Stanford, 1988).

 

Week 6 – The Age of Crusades: 11^th – 13^th Centuries

 

**Allen, S.J. and Amt, E., The Crusades: A Reader, (North York, 2014).

**Andrea, A.J., Contemporary Sources for the Fourth Crusade, (Leiden and Boston, 2008).

**Andrea, A.J., The Capture of Constantinople: The Hystoria Constantinopolitana of Gunther of Pairis, (Philadelphia, 1997).

**Angold, M. Church and Society in Byzantium under the Comneni 1081-1261, (Cambridge, 1995).

*Anna Comnene, The Alexiad, trans. P. Buckley, (Cambridge, 2014).

**Boas, A., ed. The Crusader World, (London and New York, 2016).

*Ciggaar, K.N., Western Travellers to Constantinople. The West and Byzantium, 962-1204: Cultural and Political Relations, (Leiden, 1996).

**Gaggero, M., ‘Western Eyes on the Latin East: The Chronique D’Ernoul et De Bernard Le Trésorier and Robert of Clari’s Conquête de Constantinople’ in L. Morreale and N.L. Paul, eds. The French of Outreamer: Communities and Communication in the Crusading Mediterranean, (New York, 2018,  86-109).

**Harris, J., Byzantium and the Crusades, (London, 2014).

*Hillenbrand, C., The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives, (Edinburgh, 1999).

*Kostick, C., The Crusades and the Near East: Cultural Histories, (London, 2011).

**Laiou, A., ed. Byzantium and the Other: Relations and Exchanges, (Ashgate, 2012).

**Laiou, A., ‘The Just War of Eastern Christians and the Holy War of the Crusaders’ in R. Sorabji and D. Rodin, eds. The Ethics of War: Shared Problems in Different Traditions, (Aldershot, 2006, 30-43).

**Laiou, A. and R. P. Mottahedeh, The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World, (Washington, 2001).

**Lilie, R.J., Byzantium and the Crusader States, 1096-1204, trans. J.C. Morris and J.E. Ridings, (Oxford, 1993).  

**Neville, L., Anna Komnene: The Life and Work of a Medieval Historian, (Oxford, 2016).

**Page, G., ‘Niketas Choniates’ in G. Page, ed. Being Byzantine: Greek Identity Before the Ottomans, 1200-1420, (Cambridge, 2008, 72-93).

*Richard, J., The Crusades, c1071-c1291, trans. J. Birrell, (Cambridge, 1999).

**Riley-Smith, J., ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades, (Oxford, 1995).

**Simpson, A., Niketas Choniates: A Historiographical Study, (Oxford, 2013).

**Van Tricht, F., ‘Literature and Sciences in Latin-Byzantine Constantinople’ in F. Van Tricht, ed. The Horoscope of Emperor Baldwin II, (Leiden and Boston, 2018, 131-185).

*Whitby, M., ed. Byzantines and crusaders in non-Greek sources, 1025-1204, (Oxford, 2007).

 

Week 7 – Humanism

**Antonopoulou, A., Kotzabassi, S. and Loukaki, M., eds. Myriobiblos: Essays on Byzantine Literature and Culture, (Boston and Berlin, 2015).

*Bydén, B., Theodore Metochites on Ancient Authors and Philosophy, (Göteborg, 2002).

**Bydén, B., ‘Theodore Metochites’ in H. Lagerlund, ed. Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy, (Dordrecht, 2011, 1266-1269).

*Bydén, B., Theodore Metochites on the Human Condition and the Decline of Rome, (Göteborg, 2016).

*Bydén, B. and Ierodiakonou, K., eds. The Many Faces of Byzantine Philosophy, (Athens, 2012).

**Croke, B. ‘Tradition and Originality in Photius’ Historical Reading’ in J. Burke, U. Betka, P. Buckley, K. Hay, R. Scott and A. Stephenson, eds. Byzantine Narrative: Papers in Honour of Roger Scott, (Leiden and Boston, 2017, 59-70).

*El Cheikh, N.M., Byzantium Viewed by the Arabs, (Cambridge, MA., 2004).

**Gerson, L., ed. The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity, (Cambridge, 2010).

*Gutas, D., Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early Abbasid Society, (London, 1998).

**Hall, H.A., ‘The Cappadocian Fathers’ in K. Parry, ed. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Patristics, (Chichester, 2015, 309-325).

*Ierodiakonou, K., ed. Byzantine Philosophy and its Ancient Sources, (Oxford, 2002).

**Jenkins, A., ‘Michael Psellos’ in A. Kaldellis and N. Siniossoglou, eds. The Cambridge Intellectual History of Byzantium, (Cambridge, 2017, 447-461).

*Kaldellis, A., ed. and trans. Mothers and Sons, Fathers and Daughters: The Byzantine Family of Michael Psellos, (Notre Dame, 2006).

**Kaldellis, A., Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition, (Cambridge, 2008).

**Lemerle, P., Byzantine Humanism: the First Phase: Notes and Remarks on Education and Culture in Byzantium from its origins to the 10^th century, trans. H. Lindsay and A. Moffat, (Leiden and Boston, 2017).

**Menelaou, I. ‘Byzantine Satire: The Background in the Timarion’, Hiperboreea 4 (2017), 53-66.

**Papaioannou, S., Michael Psellos: Rhetoric and Authorship in Byzantium, (Cambridge, 2013).

*Tatakis, B., Byzantine Philosophy, (Indianapolis and Cambridge, 2003).

**Wilson, N. G., From Byzantium to Italy: Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance, (London, 2017).

**Wilson, N. G., Scholars of Byzantium, (London, 1996).

 

Week 8 – The Byzantine Church

**Brown, P., The Body and Society: Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity, (1988).

*Cameron, A. and Hoyland, R., eds. Doctrine and Debate in the East Christian World, 300-1500, (Farnham, 2011).

*Demacopoulos, G.E. and Papanikolaou, A., eds. Orthodox Constructions of the West, (New York, 2013).

*Gallagher, C., Church Law and Church Order in Rome and Byzantium: A Comparative Study, (Aldershot and Burlington, 2002).

**Hussey, J. M., The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire, (Oxford, 1986).

**Kaldellis, A. and Siniossoglou, N., eds. The Cambridge Intellectual History of Byzantium, (Cambridge, 2017)

*Krueger, D., ed. Byzantine Christianity, (Minneapolis, 2006).

*Krueger, D., Liturgical Subjects: Christian Ritual, Biblical Narrative, and the Formation of the Self in Byzantium, (Philadelphia, 2014).

**Noble, T.F.X. and Smith, J.M.H., eds. Early Medieval Christianities, c.600-1100, (Cambridge, 2008).

**Parry, K. and Melling, D.J., et al., eds. The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity, (Oxford and Malden, 2001). **Parry, K., ed. The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity, (Malden and Chichester, 2007).

**Shepard, J., ‘The Byzantine Commonwealth 1000-1550’ in M. Angold, ed. The Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol. 5, (Cambridge, 2006, 1-52).

*Taft, R., Through Their own Eyes: Liturgy as the Byzantines Saw it, (Berkeley, 2006).

*Talbot, A.M., ed. Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints' Lives in English Translation,  (Washington DC, 1996).

**Whittow, M., The Making of Orthodox Byzantium 600-1025, (MacMillan, 1996).

Week 9

*Cunningham, M. Faith in the Byzantine World (Oxford, 2002).

Hackel, S. ed. The Byzantine Saint (London, 1981).

**Hamilton, J. and Hamilton, B. Christian Dualist Heresies in the Byzantine World c. 650-c.1405 (Manchester, 1998).

*Hatlie, P. The monks and monasteries of Constantinople, ca. 350-850 (Cambridge, 2007).

Krueger, D. (ed.) Byzantine Christianity. A People’s History of Byzantium, vol. 3 (2006).

**Meyendorff, J. Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes (New York, 1983).

*Morris, R. Monks and Laymen in Byzantium 843-1118 (Cambridge, 1996).

Nichol, D. Church and Society in the Last Centuries of Byzantium (Cambridge, 1979).

Obolensky, D. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500-1453 (London, 1974).

Papadakis, A. The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy (New York, 1994).

Runciman, S. The Byzantine Theocracy (Cambridge, 1977).

Thomas, J. P. Private Religious Foundations in the Byzantine Empire (Washington DC, 1987).

Wybrew, H. The Orthodox Liturgy: The Development of the Eucharistic Liturgy in the Byzantine Rite (New York, 1996).