-- Cyril Mango, verbatim from Byzantium: The Empire of New Rome:
"Was Hellenization, for example, a conscious aim of the imperial government, and if so, how was it implemented and with what success? And if it succeeded in the Middle Ages, why had it not done so in Antiquity under conditions of a more settled life and a higher civilization?
When we look at our scanty sources, we realize that the formulation of the above questions does not correspond to the Byzantine way of thinking. First of all, the very designation 'Greek', which we use so freely today to describe those Byzantines who did not belong to any alien group, is entirely absent from the literature of the period. An inhabitant of Greece south of Thessaly would have referred to himself as a Helladikos (a name already current in the sixth century AD), but he could have been a Slav as well as a 'Greek'. The same holds true of other regions whose dwellers called themselves by the names of their respective provinces, for example Paphlagonians or Thrakesians (after the Thrakesian 'theme' in western Asia Minor). Since, therefore, there was no notion of 'Greekness', it is hard to see how there could have been one of 'hellenization'.
The only passage, to my knowledge, that may imply something of the kind says that the Emperor Basil I converted the Slavonic tribes from their old religion and, 'having grecized them (graikosas), subjected them to governors according to Roman custom, honoured them with baptism, and delivered them from the oppression of their own rulers'. It has long been, however, a matter of dispute what the term 'grecized' may mean in the present context. What we do hear about, again and again, is the conversion of various peoples to Orthodox Christianity, be they Slavs or Muslim Cretans, and the setting up of an ecclesiastical organization. Here is how the Chronicle of Monembasia describes the activity of the Emperor Nicephorus I in the Peloponnese:
'He built de novo the town of Lacedaemon and settled in it a mixed population, namely Kafirs, Thrakesians, Armenians and others, gathered from different places and towns, and made it into a bishopric.'
Surely, neither the Kafirs (possibly a generic term for converts from Islam) nor the Armenians would have contributed to the hellenization of Laconia. The emperor's purpose was simply to implant a Christian population and set up a bishopric.
Equally telling is the case of the Slavs in Bithynia. We have seen that these were transplanted in very considerable numbers at the end of the seventh century and towards the middle of the eighth. Some two hundred years later, the Byzantine armament assembled in an effort to conquer Crete in 949 included a contingent of 'Slavonians who are established in Opsikion' (this being the administrative name of a part of Bithynia) placed under their own commanders. Clearly, these Slavonians still formed a distinct group. In the next century Anna Comnena refers to a village in Bithynia 'locally called Sagoudaous', presumably after the tribe of the Sagoudatai, attested in Macedonia in the seventh century. A little later the Slavonic element in Bithynia was augmented by the Emperor John II Comnenus who settled near Nicomedia a throng of Serbian captives. Serbian villages are still mentioned in those parts in the thirteenth century.
In other words, it is quite possible that the Slavs in Bithynia, or at any rate part of them, were assimilated by the Ottoman Turks, without having even become 'Greek'."
-- The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, c. 500 to 1500, by Florin Curta --> Page 288 and Page 289 quotes/summaries:
i) 'Kapheroi, Thrakesians, Armenians, and others from different places and cities' settled in Peloponnesos in the early ninth century, while Armenians 'and other rabble' came to Crete in the aftermath of the island's conquest in 961.
ii) The Kapheroi may well have been converted Arabs from the eastern frontier of the Empire.
PS:
Slavs in Tzaconia, per below.
Page 221, Footnote 124.
French:
"Philippson admettent que des installations slaves existaient a Vatika aussi, c'est-a-dire au sud de la fortresse de Tzaconie et pres de Monemvasie. Quelques noms de lieu slaves renforcent cette supposition."
English:
"Philippson admits that Slavic colonies existed in Vatika also, that is to say south of the fortress of Tzaconia and close to Monemvasia. Some Slavic place names reinforce this supposition."
URL:
https://books.google.ca/books?id=i_...ions slaves existaient a Vatika aussi&f=false
There is also the following testimony, which states: Ad partes Zachoniae vel Sclavoniae de Romania -- Maggior Consiglio, Deliberazioni. Zaneta, Pilosus 1287-1299, c. 361 Archives de Venise.
The Venetian Chancery continued to call the department of Monemvasia or Tzaconia Sclavonia until the fifteenth century. This denomination could have been a loan though - but we have seen that it was already circulating in the time of Saint Willibald.
Saint Willibald (723 AD) assigned to the department of Tzaconia the denomination of terra Slavinia, and this was centuries before the terms Tzaconia and Tzaconians even existed. We also have a testimony which calls Saccania sive Romania Minor (= Tzaconia OR Romania Minor).
"Was Hellenization, for example, a conscious aim of the imperial government, and if so, how was it implemented and with what success? And if it succeeded in the Middle Ages, why had it not done so in Antiquity under conditions of a more settled life and a higher civilization?
When we look at our scanty sources, we realize that the formulation of the above questions does not correspond to the Byzantine way of thinking. First of all, the very designation 'Greek', which we use so freely today to describe those Byzantines who did not belong to any alien group, is entirely absent from the literature of the period. An inhabitant of Greece south of Thessaly would have referred to himself as a Helladikos (a name already current in the sixth century AD), but he could have been a Slav as well as a 'Greek'. The same holds true of other regions whose dwellers called themselves by the names of their respective provinces, for example Paphlagonians or Thrakesians (after the Thrakesian 'theme' in western Asia Minor). Since, therefore, there was no notion of 'Greekness', it is hard to see how there could have been one of 'hellenization'.
The only passage, to my knowledge, that may imply something of the kind says that the Emperor Basil I converted the Slavonic tribes from their old religion and, 'having grecized them (graikosas), subjected them to governors according to Roman custom, honoured them with baptism, and delivered them from the oppression of their own rulers'. It has long been, however, a matter of dispute what the term 'grecized' may mean in the present context. What we do hear about, again and again, is the conversion of various peoples to Orthodox Christianity, be they Slavs or Muslim Cretans, and the setting up of an ecclesiastical organization. Here is how the Chronicle of Monembasia describes the activity of the Emperor Nicephorus I in the Peloponnese:
'He built de novo the town of Lacedaemon and settled in it a mixed population, namely Kafirs, Thrakesians, Armenians and others, gathered from different places and towns, and made it into a bishopric.'
Surely, neither the Kafirs (possibly a generic term for converts from Islam) nor the Armenians would have contributed to the hellenization of Laconia. The emperor's purpose was simply to implant a Christian population and set up a bishopric.
Equally telling is the case of the Slavs in Bithynia. We have seen that these were transplanted in very considerable numbers at the end of the seventh century and towards the middle of the eighth. Some two hundred years later, the Byzantine armament assembled in an effort to conquer Crete in 949 included a contingent of 'Slavonians who are established in Opsikion' (this being the administrative name of a part of Bithynia) placed under their own commanders. Clearly, these Slavonians still formed a distinct group. In the next century Anna Comnena refers to a village in Bithynia 'locally called Sagoudaous', presumably after the tribe of the Sagoudatai, attested in Macedonia in the seventh century. A little later the Slavonic element in Bithynia was augmented by the Emperor John II Comnenus who settled near Nicomedia a throng of Serbian captives. Serbian villages are still mentioned in those parts in the thirteenth century.
In other words, it is quite possible that the Slavs in Bithynia, or at any rate part of them, were assimilated by the Ottoman Turks, without having even become 'Greek'."
-- The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, c. 500 to 1500, by Florin Curta --> Page 288 and Page 289 quotes/summaries:
i) 'Kapheroi, Thrakesians, Armenians, and others from different places and cities' settled in Peloponnesos in the early ninth century, while Armenians 'and other rabble' came to Crete in the aftermath of the island's conquest in 961.
ii) The Kapheroi may well have been converted Arabs from the eastern frontier of the Empire.
PS:
Slavs in Tzaconia, per below.
Page 221, Footnote 124.
French:
"Philippson admettent que des installations slaves existaient a Vatika aussi, c'est-a-dire au sud de la fortresse de Tzaconie et pres de Monemvasie. Quelques noms de lieu slaves renforcent cette supposition."
English:
"Philippson admits that Slavic colonies existed in Vatika also, that is to say south of the fortress of Tzaconia and close to Monemvasia. Some Slavic place names reinforce this supposition."
URL:
https://books.google.ca/books?id=i_...ions slaves existaient a Vatika aussi&f=false
There is also the following testimony, which states: Ad partes Zachoniae vel Sclavoniae de Romania -- Maggior Consiglio, Deliberazioni. Zaneta, Pilosus 1287-1299, c. 361 Archives de Venise.
The Venetian Chancery continued to call the department of Monemvasia or Tzaconia Sclavonia until the fifteenth century. This denomination could have been a loan though - but we have seen that it was already circulating in the time of Saint Willibald.
Saint Willibald (723 AD) assigned to the department of Tzaconia the denomination of terra Slavinia, and this was centuries before the terms Tzaconia and Tzaconians even existed. We also have a testimony which calls Saccania sive Romania Minor (= Tzaconia OR Romania Minor).
Poslednja izmena:
