Eutropius as an oriental Tomasz Babnis
Classica Cracoviensia,
08/2020, Volume:
23
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Eutropius, eunuch who became the consul of the Roman Empire in 399 AD under Arcadius, is a villain of Claudius Claudian’s invective In Eutropium. Argumentation in this piece is based on many negative ...topoi employed in the earlier Roman poetry. In doing this, the poet makes a particular use of stereotypes connected with the East, by dint of which he can attribute these features to the Eastern Roman Empire (epitomised by Eutropius) and – at the same time – to show that the right Roman virtues are fostered in the Western Roman Empire, controlled by the poet’s patron, Stilicho.
Главной целью исследования было выяснение обстоятельств организации правящими кругами Константинополя покушения на гуннского вождя Харатона. Ввиду данных письменных и археологических источников, ...главной и, пожалуй, единственной причиной этого предприятия могли быть частые набеги на имперские территории со стороны «царских» гуннов, усилившихся в Барбарикуме. Однако, согласно греко-латинской традиции, в интервале 408—412 гг. существенных столкновений между гуннами и константинопольскими войсками не было. Следовательно, причина обострения взаимоотношений между «царскими» гуннами и Восточной Римской империей была в другом. Исходя из анализа археологических источников Восточного Крыма, яблоком раздора в указанное время могло стать Боспорское царство, которое с конца IV в. находилось под защитой гуннов-акациров, восточной ветви кочевников, усилившихся в Северном Причерноморье после падения королевства Германариха. Вероятнее всего именно в начале V в. под предводительством Дуптуна акациры смогли отстоять в союзе с Константинополем свою независимость и сдержать натиск «царских» гуннов в Северном Причерноморье, тем самым отсрочив разорение Боспора.
The present volume collects most of the contributions to the plenary sessions held at the 24th International Congress of Byzantine Studies, and incisively reflects the ever increasing broadening of ...the very concept of ‘Byzantine Studies’. Indeed, a particularly salient characteristic of the papers presented here is their strong focus on interdisciplinarity and their breadth of scope, both in terms of methodology and content. The cross-pollination between different fields of Byzantine Studies is also a major point of the volume. Archaeology and art history have pride of place; it is especially in archaeological papers that one can grasp the vital importance of the interaction with the so-called hard sciences and with new technologies for contemporary research. This relevance of science and technology for archaeology, however, also applies to, and have significant repercussions in, historical studies, where – for example – the study of climate change or the application of specific software to network studies are producing a major renewal of knowledge. In more traditional subject fields, like literary, political, and intellectual history, the contributions to the present volume offer some important reflections on the connection between Byzantium and other cultures and peoples through the intermediary of texts, stories, diplomacy, trade, and war.
One of the subjects that draw attention to in both art history and archeology iconography is the double-headed eagle motif. This motif, especially handled by art history researchers without ...questioning enough, is directly attributed to the Seljuks. However, the double-headed eagle motif, which was known to be used especially in Anatolia in the previous centuries, was handled as a repeat, not the first time, by the Seljuks. It is also not true that the double-headed eagle motif is a motif originally brought by Turks from Central Asia. In the studies conducted to date, the origin of the double-headed eagle has not been emphasized. In addition, it is not adequately explained why a double headed eagle is needed instead of a single eagle. In this study, the use of the double-headed eagle motif from the first appearance to the present has been discussed. The interaction of the nation’s using the double-headed eagle figure in their culture and artwork was questioned, so it was possible to determine how this motif spread since its first appearance. In addition, the meaning and propaganda of the double-headed eagle motif in connection with political events were also emphasized. It is evident that the double-headed eagle motif has been a well-known emblem of Anatolia since the 2nd millennium BC and this motif has been adopted and lived throughout Asia and Europe as a fashion. This motif, interpreted as a royal insignia in the Hittites, was found to have become widespread in the time of Tuthalia IV, and considering the political events of the period, the idea that it symbolizes the Great King Tuthalia IV and Kurunta, the king of the Land of Tarhuntassa. The double-headed eagle in Russia symbolizes the solidarity, unity and integrity of the Tsar and the Church. It is believed that this motif, which is applied frequently in Europe, especially in Vienna, expresses the Great Kingdom administration, which includes the combination of power and might of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The double-headed eagle was applied in the Anatolian Seljuks only in the 13th century AD, mostly in the famous structures of the Alaeddin Keykubad I period and in the wall decoration of the palaces, or rather in the art of tiles. This motif also expresses the support of the caliph in the Seljuks, and thus the unity of religion and state.
The article concerns the issue of Byzantine architects, builders, and stone masons in Latin Europe in the tenth to twelfth centuries. The heart of the conducted analysis is the participation of ...builders from the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) in erecting particular
buildings in the countries of Latin Europe. The authors referred to Byzantine builders' activities in Reich (Paderborn and probably in Cologne), Italy (Venice, Monte Cassino), and Hungary.It is worth to notice that the topic is analysed in view of written sources from the epoch,
which are often disregarded in similar studies.
The purpose of the article is to prove the presence of a deep (archaic) ideological foundation in the Roman-Persian political and legal complementarity of the times of late antiquity.
Methods. The ...author uses the «panoramic approach», сomparative analysis of primary historical sources and the structural-functional method.
Results. The author’s attention is devoted to the antique community in the legal content of imperial titles, the correlation of temporary and spatial understanding of the power of the Roman emperors and the power of the Persian Šâhanšâh’s. The main author’s thesis: 1) the provision on the Hellenization of Persia during the time of Khosrow Anushirvan; 2) the thesis on the principle of extraterritoriality of imperial power, formulated by the Romans in the era of dominatus and transfered from the Eastern Roman Empire into the Sassanian Eranshahr; 3) the author’s definition of the imperial form of government, based on the principle of «over-sovereignty» common to Iran and Byzantium.
Discussion. Firstly, the spaces of Eranshahr and the Roman Empire were considered by ancient intellectuals as the «common heritage» of the Hellenistic Asian kingdom of Alexander the Great. Secondly, the roots and semantic content of the titles of the higher sovereigns of Persia and Rome (emperors) had common cultural and political origins and military-administrative premises. Thirdly, if at the initial stage of the interaction between the Persians and the Romans there was a strong influence of Persia on the everyday life of the population of the East Roman provinces, then in the 6th century the East Roman ethnocultural pattern «Christian Oecumene» became decisive in the Sassanian Mesopotamia.
Photographs of a group of pilaster capitals of a unique design have been identified in the archive (ATQ 64/6: Shivta) of Harris D. Colt (1901-1973), the first excavator of Shivta. The marble ...capitals, which are presented and discussed here for the first time, were found during excavations at the North Church at Shivta (1933-1935) and can be dated to the second half of the 5th and mid-6th century ce. The pilaster capitals which are presented here are an evidence for marble imported to the Negev and the prosperity of Shivta during the Byzantine period, emphasizing the investment in the interior architectural decoration of the North Church and its religious significance.
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