Heroes and Romans in Twelfth-Century Byzantium
The Material for History of Nikephoros Bryennios

This book reveals how cultural memories of classical Roman honor informed Nikephoros Bryennios' history of the eleventh century and his political choices.

Leonora Neville (Author)

9781107009455, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 October 2012

258 pages, 2 b/w illus. 2 tables
23.5 x 15.9 x 2 cm, 0.52 kg

'… dazzling and insightful …' Mike Markowitz, The NYMAS Review

Nikephoros Bryennios' history of the Byzantine Empire in the 1070s is a story of civil war and aristocratic rebellion in the midst of the Turkish conquest of Anatolia. Commonly remembered as the passive and unambitious husband of Princess Anna Komnene (author of the Alexiad), Bryennios is revealed as a skilled author whose history draws on cultural memories of classical Roman honor and proper masculinity to evaluate the politicians of the 1070s and implicitly to exhort his twelfth-century contemporaries to honorable behavior. Bryennios' story valorizes the memory of his grandfather and other honorable, but failed, generals of the eleventh century while subtly portraying the victorious Alexios Komnenos as un-Roman. This reading of the Material for History sheds new light on twelfth-century Byzantine culture and politics, especially the contested accession of John Komnenos, the relationship between Bryennios' history and the Alexiad and the function of cultural memories of Roman honor in Byzantium.

Introduction
Part I. Contexts: 1. Twelfth-century politics and the House of Komnenos
2. Writing history in twelfth-century Constantinople
3. Nikephoros' reading
4. Sources for the Material for History
Part II. Reading in the Material for History: 5. Problems of the Empire: civil war and mercenaries
6. The rise of Alexios
7. Romans and their enemies
8. Military virtue
9. Roman family politics
10. Religion and providence
11. Roman heroes
12. A Roman mother
13. A bold young man
Part III. The Material for History in Twelfth-Century Politics and Culture: 14. The Material for History and imperial politics of the twelfth century
15. Nikephoros and Anna
16. Roman ideals and twelfth-century Constantinopolitan culture
Conclusions
Appendix 1
Appendix 2. Vocabulary of virtue.

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