John Haldon

The social history of Byzantium

Notes on Contributors. Foreword. List of Abbreviations. Maps. 1. Towards a Social History of Byzantium ( John Haldon, Princeton University ). 2. Men, Women, Eunuchs: Gender, Sex and Power ( Liz James, University of Sussex ). 3. Family Structure and the Transmission of Property ( Angeliki Laiou, University of Harvard ). 4. The Social Function of the Law ( Bernard Stolte, University of Groningen ). 5. Social Relations and the Land: The Early Period ( Peter Sarris, University of Cambridge ). 6. Land and Power in the Middle and Later Period ( Peter Frankopan, University of Oxford ). 7. The Producing Population ( Michel Kaplan, University of Paris 1 ). 8. Social Elites, Wealth and Power ( John Haldon, Princeton University ). 9. Court Society and Aristocracy ( Paul Magdalino, University of St Andrews ). 10. The Church and Society ( Michael Angold, University of Edinburgh ). 11. A Monastic World ( Alice-Mary Talbot, Dumbarton Oaks ). Glossary of Byzantine/Medieval Terms. Index.

Military Service, Military Lands, and the Status of Soldiers: Current Problems and Interpretations

Approche administrative et sociale de larmee byzantine, en vue de montrer son role crucial dans lorganisation politique et sociale du monde byzantin: -origine du systeme des themata et recrutement des soldats -armee, autorite imperiale et controle politique et fiscal -origine des terres miltaires, strateia et leur evolution depuis le 10eme siecle -armee et societe -statut des soldats.

Comes Horreorum – Komēs tēs Lamias

AbstractIt is a fact that very little is known of the organisation of the storage and distribution of grain at Constantinople by the imperial government after the later sixth/early seventh century. Until this time, the supply was assured through the bureau of the praetorian prefect of the East and his subordinate, the comes horreorum, along with the latters staff of humerarii and chartularii, who had charge of the public (state) granaries; and through an independent bureau called the sitōnikon, originally under the authority of the City Prefect, but after Justinians time transferred to the competence of the praetorian prefect of the East. The granaries where the grain was stored are named in the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae as the horrea Troadensia, Valentiaca, Constantiaca, Alexandrina and the horreum Theodosianum – two presumably named after the sources of supply (the Troad and Egypt), three after the emperors during whose reigns they were constructed. A sixth-century ceremony preserved in the D...

Book Review: The Age of thePryorJohn H. and JeffreysElizabeth M., The Age of the ΔPOMΩN: The Byzantine Navy ca 500–1204. “The Medieval Mediterranean. Peoples, Economies and Cultures, 400–1500,”, Vol. 62; Leiden and Boston: Brill [www.brill.nl], 2006. lxxvii + 754 pp., maps, tables, figures, illustrations, photographs, appendices, bibliography, indices. €152, US

criminals were involved in this as were, for a time, Chinese local authorities, but this has been stopped and hijackings are now rare. Eklof demonstrates very clearly that most piracy in Southeast Asia today ispetty and opportunistic. To be sure, there have been an average of some seven hundred attacks each year in the region, yet the economic impact is very minor. As he notes, the total worldwide cost ofpiracy is US

198, cloth; ISBN 90-04-15197-4.

70-200 million a year: in other words, in terms of overall world maritime activity, it is both negligible and bearable. Hence shipowners do not bother with expensive counter-pirate precautions. Similarly, the states affected Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines have many more pressing problems to solve than piracy. Even if one leaves out terrestrial matters, in purely maritime terms there is poaching, illegal fishing, smuggling, and trade in people, all of which are of more concern. In short, piracy is not a major problem either worldwide or in Southeast Asia. We are used to doomsday scenarios being put forward, often by interested parties, which involve, for example, an oil tanker being hijacked and then exploded in Singapore harbour. This however is terrorism at sea, not piracy. Again Eklof is sensible here. Piracy essentially is theft at sea; the attack on a ship must have an economic motive. Maritime terrorism, such as the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, is a different phenomenon. The analysis in this book ofthe Abu Sayyaf group in the southern Philippines makes the distinction clear. While at one time they may have had a political motive, that is they held people to ransom in order to raise money for their struggle against the state, more recently they seem to have become pure pirates, aiming only to gain booty by force or blackmail, with apparently no political aim at all. Eklof also provides a sober assessment ofthe offer in 2004 by the US to intervene to help the littoral states control piracy. This clearly had little to do with piracy, which was no threat to US interests, but rather was part of the so-called War on Terror. In any case, the littoral states had the good sense to say Thanks, but no thanks, and promised to increase their own efforts.

Book Review: Medieval Naval Warfare, 1000–1500

t-shirts, mouse pads and neckties. It is typical of Morris Rosenfelds work a dramatic black-and-white composition, with the spinnakers billowing edges making clean curves against the sky, full of light and motion, rendering a factual moment into art. A five-dollar prize won as a teenager in a photographic contest launched Rosenfeld on his career, and his timing was propitious. Living in New York, he was surrounded by both the mighty beating heart of maritime commerce and some of the greatest talents in yachting. The family lived for a time on City Island, and as his son Stanley says in the books introduction, a virtual parade of yachts and shipping passing in front of our eyes. At the time, my father thought that City Island was the most logical place for a maritime photographer to bring up his family. [6] A Century Under Sail begins with a warm and evocative foreword by Stanley, wherein he reminisces about growing up afloat with his father as they pursued their trade. He also talks revealingly about how his work differs from his fathers, due in part to technical changes in film and cameras, in part to the nature of the boats being photographed, and in part to his own aesthetic. The pages that follow are divided into five chronological chapters, beginning in the 1880s: Gaff-Riggers and Schooners, 1884-1929; The Magnificent Js, 1930-1937; Flying Spinnakers, 1938-1964; On the Wind, 1965-1983 and Strong Winds Down Under, 1984-1987. Each is introduced by Stanley, who also wrote substantial captions for the photographs. First published in 1984, this new edition brings us up to 1987 so that the Rosenfelds longstanding coverage of the AmericasCup could include Dennis Connors recapture of the trophy. So many subjects are covered in this splendid book from thundering J-boats to packed one-design fleets, from great yachting figures such as Rod and Olin Stephens to Harold Vanderbilt, from Reliance to Courageous, the story ofAmerican yachting is here. The reproduction quality of the photos is excellent, and Stanley Rosenfelds first-hand captions add greatly to the pleasure of viewing them. Fortunately for all concerned with the history of yachting and boating, the Rosenfeld collection was donated to Mystic Seaport Museum in 1984. The work of many other photographers from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was not so fortunate. Thousands of glass plate negatives by the great New England photographer Nathanial Stebbins, for instance, were stripped of their emulsions and recycled as glass panes in greenhouses. This book is a splendid introduction to the work of these great photographers and can only prompt more people to enjoy their outstanding work.

Invisible cities, hidden agendas

The Invisible City. Monetary, Administrative and Popular Infrastures in Asia and Europe, 1500–1900, by Frank Perlin. Aldershot: Variorum, 1993. Pp.xii + 366. £49.50. ISBN 086 078 342 1 This review article examines briefly the recent publication by Frank Perlin of a series of revised articles dealing with theoretical and methodological issues in South Asian history, in particular the period from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Perlins approach to the problems he perceives is to analyse the ways in which the process of state formation is based on concentric and intersecting sets of social and economic relationships, which both establish the space for the evolution of state‐like political power and which can at the same time be themselves destroyed, transformed, constituted or reproduced by the existence of such powers. This approach also underlies his interest in the patterns and functions of local, inter‐local and international exchange of money‐media for roughly the same period. His purpose is at ...

Everyday Life in Byzantium: Some Problems of Aproach

AbstractGeneral interest in the ‘everyday’ life of past societies and cultures, particularly when they are felt to be relevant to our own civilisation and its history, is a widespread and usually taken-for-granted phenomenon of our times. Books on subjects such as ‘Everyday life in Greece and Rome’ or ‘Daily life in Carthage’, consisting of popularised (and often, perhaps inevitably, rather oversimplified, and even muddled) renderings of more esoteric scholarly research, are regular additions to the vast amount of ‘serious’ and ‘non-fictional’ literature printed each year and produced by the worlds (and more particularly European and North American) publishing houses. But how useful are such books? Clearly, they must fulfil some cultural function. Do they present, in however dilute a form, the results of valuable scholarship? Or can they be dismissed by the scholarly world (which is, however, closely bound up with their production) as misguided misrepresentations intended to exploit a commercial market a...