Prosopography and Social Networksin Byzantium

Specific Foundation / Core

The course is also offered to exchange programme students.

Students who attend the course are expected to • familiarize themselves with methodological tool of Byzantine prosopography, which collects and studies the surviving information regarding Byzantine individuals, families and human groups. • study the sources and modern bibliography and use the relevant electronic databases, in order to comprehend the personal interactions and broader social networks, which developed within the boundaries of Byzantium. • familiarize themselves with the methodology of prosopographical research and the issues usually arising from the researcher’s involvement within the specific field of study. • compare the social and cultural patterns of Byzantium with those of its predecessors and neighbors. • compare the intra-Byzantine human relations and links that shaped community life and also the personal and collective identities within the Byzantine world. • understand the so-called “social network analysis”, which basically maps the relationships and transactions between people and human groups. • practice their skills in finding and exploiting the relevant scientific modern bibliography as well as to present orally and in written their ideas and arguments.

IBY 703: "Prosopography and social networks in Byzantium" Τhe course focus primarily on the important research and methodological tool of Byzantine Prosopography; the latter collects and studies all the surviving information regarding Byzantine individuals / persons, families and human groups, their legal, economic and hierarchical social status and their individual and ethnic characteristics. The course also explores, through the study of sources and relating bibliography (i.e. biographical dictionaries and other prosopographical works) and also the help of modern technology (such as sophisticated and searchable electronic databases), the varied personal interactions and broader social networks, which developed at different times within the changing geographical and political boundaries of Byzantine state (“Romania”) and society (between the 4th and the 15th c. AD). Secondary, the course also compares the social and cultural patterns of Byzantium with those of its predecessors and neighbors; the reason for it, is that Byzantium owed partly its own identity and its distinction from the latter (besides the important influence of the Orthodox Christian faith and other doctrines) to the Greek and (mainly) Roman historical, cultural and institutional past and also to the links that developed beyond the limits of the Eastern Roman empire. The extremely various and complex intra-Byzantine human relations and links (i.e. intermarriages, kinship, friendships, patronage ties, loyalties, administrative, economic, ideological, ethnic / racial, religious, linguistic, personal and other type of contacts between civil and military elites, clergy and laity, landlords and peasants, merchants and bureaucrats, ethnic and religious groups) conducted through various cultural categories and modes of communication. They shaped Byzantine community life as long as personal and collective identities, combined of course with the effect of various formal institutions (or even deeply than the latter, according to some researchers). The so-called “social network analysis” basically maps the relationships and transactions between people and human groups. As it has already been noted by Margaret E. Mullett though, recent research attempts to apply the network theory to interactive texts in premodern worlds, states and societies have had varying results. Moreover, it is difficult to perceive the Byzantine networks through our rather limited textual and other surviving information in medieval narrative works (i.e. histories, chronicles, saint’s lives) and other written and material residues (i.e. letters, legal and other documents, papyri, inscriptions, seals). The last lessons will be devoted to presentations and to clarifying questions by the post-graduate students. The tutorial analysis and clarification of the above information, research tools and methods, terminology, conditions and restrictions, as well as the preparation of relevant written assignments and presentations by the post-graduate students are the main goals of the course.

Byzantium, Byzantine empire, Byzantine world, prosopography, society, social, classes, groups, communities, neighbors, cities, villages, civic, civil, centers, rural, aristocracy, folk, peasants, people, farmers, merchants, soldiers, artisans, workers, bureaucrats, landlords, elites, servants, slaves, free, dependent, patronage, protection, men, women, children, officials, hierarchy, State, Church, networks, network theory, connections, ties, friendships, kinship, institutions, titles, dignities, benefits, rewards, communications, relations, contacts, links, families, members, offspring, marriages, intermarriages, ancestors, descendants, populations, individuals, private, public, life, persons, personals, identities, religion, beliefs, clergy, laity, professionals, links, catalogues, lists, charts, diagrams, sources, concepts, patterns, methods, tools, texts, narrative works, letters, documents, papyri, inscriptions, seals.

20-09-2018