Hellenism in Byzantium
The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition

This text examines what it meant to be 'Greek' in late antiquity and Byzantium.

Anthony Kaldellis (Author)

9780521876889, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 January 2008

482 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm, 0.87 kg

'Kaldellis's book brings many provocative points to an area of Byzantine studies that had stagnated for several decades. The contention that 'Hellenism' in Byzantium was synonymous with 'paganism' has always been unconvincing, but Kaldellis is the fist modern scholar to devote a book-length study to the topic.' The Journal of Speculum

This text was the first systematic study of what it meant to be 'Greek' in late antiquity and Byzantium, an identity that could alternatively become national, religious, philosophical, or cultural. Through close readings of the sources, Professor Kaldellis surveys the space that Hellenism occupied in each period; the broader debates in which it was caught up; and the historical causes of its successive transformations. The first section (100–400) shows how Romanisation and Christianisation led to the abandonment of Hellenism as a national label and its restriction to a negative religious sense and a positive, albeit rarefied, cultural one. The second (1000–1300) shows how Hellenism was revived in Byzantium and contributed to the evolution of its culture. The discussion looks closely at the reception of the classical tradition, which was the reason why Hellenism was always desirable and dangerous in Christian society, and presents a new model for understanding Byzantine civilisation.

Introduction
Part I. Greeks, Romans, and Christians in Late Antiquity: 1. 'We too are Greeks!': the legacies of Hellenism
2. 'The world a city': Romans of the east
3. 'Nibbling on Greek learning': the Christian predicament
Interlude. Hellenism in limbo: the middle years (400–1040)
Part II. Hellenic Revivals in Byzantium: 4. Michael Psellos and the instauration of philosophy
5. The third sophistic: the performance of Hellenism under the Komnenoi
6. Imperial failure and the emergence of national Hellenism
General conclusions.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD]