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OverviewThe eleventh century marked a turning point in the history of the Byzantine Empire. At its start Byzantium was the paramount power in the Mediterranean world, by turns feared, respected and admired. By the century’s close the empire had lost half of its territory and had managed only a partial recovery under the leadership of the Komnenos family. How did a powerful and famously wealthy empire collapse so quickly? The contemporary accounts of this turbulent ‘long’ century (taken here as c. 950–1100) attribute the empire’s decline to the emperors’ reckless and self-serving favouring of civilian bureaucrats and, while these sources are today widely acknowledged as biased and unreliable, modern assessments of the century have hitherto failed to suggest any tangible alternatives. To circumvent this dearth of archival material, Jonathan Shea has meticulously analysed 2,200 unpublished seals from the period (more than a third of the known total extant today) to uncover exactly whom the emperors were favouring and promoting, as well as developing a nuanced and revealing picture of the makeup of the much-chastised civilian bureaucracy. The sigillographic evidence is throughout measured against the written material to give a fresh account of this key transitional century and a rare insight into Byzantine politics. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Jonathan Shea (The George Washington University, USA)Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Imprint: I.B. Tauris Weight: 0.558kg ISBN: 9780755601936ISBN 10: 0755601939 Pages: 272 Publication Date: 14 May 2020 Audience: College/higher education , Tertiary & Higher Education Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Manufactured on demand  We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier. Table of ContentsPart 1 Byzantium at the Turning Point · Part 1.2 Byzantium in the Eleventh Century · Part 1.2 Seals, Coins, and Lists Part 2 The Byzantine Bureaucrat Part 3 The Rise of the Civilians · Part 3.1 Changing with the Times: The Logothesia and the Treasuries · Part 3.2 Slipping Backwards: The Imperial Chancery · Part 3.3 Governing the Capital · Part 3.4 A New Bureucratic Elite: The Judiciary Part 4 The Collapse of Civilian Government · Reform and Consolidation: The Logothesia and the Treasuries p. 116 · The Chancery: A Part of the Imperial Household? · The Administration of Constantinople: A Steady Decline · Falling From Grace: The Judiciary · The End of Civilian Government Part 5 Changing Priorities and an Evolving Government Appendix Chartoularioi, Notarioi, and Logariastai BibliographyReviewsThis is a useful and refreshing contribution to the complex history of eleventh-century Byzantium and offers an approach that differs from those that place emphasis chiefly on fiscal problems on the one hand or military collapse on the other. * Speculum * This is a useful and refreshing contribution to the complex history of eleventh-century Byzantium and offers an approach that differs from those that place emphasis chiefly on fiscal problems on the one hand or military collapse on the other. * Speculum * [A]n important contribution to the study of Byzantine government and society. Given its rich and sometimes complex detail it will serve as a useful reference work. Further, in conjunction with other recent studies of Byzantium in the tenth and eleventh centuries...it will enable greater understanding of this crucial period of Byzantine history. * Early Medieval Europe * Author InformationJonathan Shea is Associate Curator of Coins and Seals at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, and Dean’s Distinguished Lecturer in the Humanities at The George Washington University. He received his PhD from the University of Birmingham and has published in peer-reviewed articles and edited collections Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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