Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Gold solidus of Leo III (left), and his son and heir, Constantine V (right)

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Rus’ under the walls of Constantinople (860)

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

The embassy of John the Grammarian in 829, between the emperor Theophilos and the Abbasid caliph Al-Ma’mun

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Greek fire was first used by the Byzantine Navyduring the Byzantine–Arab Wars (from the Madrid Skylitzes, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid).

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

The seizure of Edessa (1031) by the Byzantines under George Maniakes and the counterattack by the Seljuk Turks

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025)

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

The siege of Constantinople in 1453, depicted in a 15th-century French miniature

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Interior panorama of the Hagia Sophia, the patriarchal basilica in Constantinople designed 537 CE by Isidore of Miletus, the first compiler of Archimedes’ various works. The influence of Archimedes’ principles of solid geometry is evident.

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Empress Theodora and attendants (mosaic from Basilica of San Vitale, 6th century).

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Constantine IV and his retinue, mosaic in Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe.

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Emperor Justinian and general Belisarius.

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

‘The Lamentation of Christ’ (1164), a fresco from the church of Saint Panteleimon in Nerezi near Skopje; it is considered a superb example of 12th-century Komnenian art

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

A mosaic from the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople(modern Istanbul), depicting Mary and Jesus, flanked by John II Komnenos (left) and his wife Irene of Hungary (right), 12th century

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Triumphal arch mosaics of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. In Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy.

Basilica of San Vitale (built A.D. 547). Detail of the great triumphal arch with fifteen mosaic medallions, depicting Jesus Christ, the twelve Apostles and Saint Gervasius and Saint Protasius, the sons of Saint Vitale. Ravenna, Italy. UNESCO World heritage site.

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Constantinople became the largest and wealthiest city in Europe between the 5th and 7th centuries, and between the 9th and the beginning of 13th centuries.

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Miniatures of the 6th-century Rabula Gospel display the more abstract and symbolic nature of Byzantine art.

 

395–1453b
Solidus with the image of Heraclius (r. 610-641), with his son Heraclius Constantine. (see Byzantine insignia) Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire
The empire in AD 555 under Justinian the Great, at its greatest extent since the fall of the Western Roman Empire (its vassals in pink)
Capital	Constantinoplec (330–1204, 1261–1453)
Common languages	Late Latin, Koine Greek (395–610) Medieval Greek(610–1453)
Religion	Christianity (Eastern Orthodox) (tolerated after the Edict of Milan in 313; state religion after 380)
Government	Republican monarchy[1]Absolute monarchy
Notable emperors
• 395–408	Arcadius
• 527–565	Justinian I
• 610–641	Heraclius
• 717–741	Leo III
• 976–1025	Basil II
• 1081–1118	Alexios I Komnenos
• 1259–1282	Michael VIII Palaiologos
• 1449–1453	Constantine XI
Historical era	Late Antiquity to Late Middle Ages
• First division of the Roman Empire(diarchy)	1 April 286
• Founding of Constantinople	11 May 330
• Final East–West division after the death of Theodosius I	17 January 395
• Nominal end of the Western Roman Empire	25 April 480
• Fourth Crusade; establishment of the Latin Empire	12 April 1204
• Reconquest of Constantinople by Palaiologos	25 July 1261
• Fall of Constantinople	29 May 1453
• Fall of Trebizond	15 August 1461
Population
• 457 AD	16,000,000d
• 565 AD	19,000,000
• 775 AD	7,000,000
• 1025 AD	12,000,000
• 1320 AD	2,000,000
Currency	Solidus, histamenonand hyperpyron
Preceded by Succeeded by Roman Empire Ottoman Empire
^ Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων may be transliterated in Latin as Basileia Rhōmaiōn, meaning Roman Empire. ^ Between 1204 and 1261 there was an interregnum when the Empire was divided into the Empire of Nicaea, the Empire of Trebizondand the Despotate of Epirus, which were all contenders for rule of the Empire. The Empire of Nicaea is considered the legitimate continuation of the Byzantine Empire because they managed to re-take Constantinople. ^ Constantinople became the capital of the (united) empire in 330. Theodosius I was the last emperor to rule over both the Eastern and Western Roman Empire. He died in 395 AD, dividing the empire in western and eastern halves. ^ See Population of the Byzantine Empire for more detailed figures taken provided by McEvedy and Jones, Atlas of World Population History, 1978, as well as Angeliki E. Laiou, The Economic History of Byzantium, 2002.

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The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empireand Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, which had been founded as Byzantium). It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.^[2] During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Both « Byzantine Empire » and « Eastern Roman Empire » are historiographical terms created after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire simply as the Roman Empire(Greek: Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων, tr. Basileia Rhōmaiōn; Latin: Imperium Romanum),^[3]or Romania (Ῥωμανία), and to themselves as « Romans ».^[4]

Several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empire’s Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I (r. 324–337) reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, and legalised Christianity. Under Theodosius I (r. 379–395), Christianity became the Empire’s official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius (r. 610–641), the Empire’s military and administration were restructured and adopted Greek for official use instead of Latin.^[5] Thus, although the Roman state continued and its traditions were maintained, modern historians distinguish Byzantium from ancient Rome insofar as it was centred on Constantinople, oriented towards Greek rather than Latin culture, and characterised by Orthodox Christianity.^[4]

The borders of the empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Justinian I (r. 527–565), the Empire reached its greatest extent after reconquering much of the historically Roman western Mediterranean coast, including North Africa, Italy, and Rome itself, which it held for two more centuries. During the reign of Maurice (r. 582–602), the Empire’s eastern frontier was expanded and the north stabilised. However, his assassination caused the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, which exhausted the empire’s resources and contributed to major territorial losses during the Early Muslim conquests of the seventh century. In a matter of years the empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs.^[6] During the Macedonian dynasty (10th–11th centuries), the empire again expanded and experienced the two-century long Macedonian Renaissance, which came to an end with the loss of much of Asia Minor to the Seljuk Turks after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia.

The empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city.^[7] However, it was delivered a mortal blow during the Fourth Crusade, when Constantinople was sacked in 1204 and the territories that the empire formerly governed were divided into competing Byzantine Greek and Latin realms. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small rival states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were progressively annexed by the Ottomans over the 14th and 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire.^[8] The last of the imperial Byzantine successor states, the Empire of Trebizond, would be conquered by the Ottomans eight years later in the 1461 Siege of Trebizond.^[9]

Nomenclature

See also: Names of the Greeks

The first use of the term « Byzantine » to label the later years of the Roman Empire was in 1557, when the German historian Hieronymus Wolf published his work Corpus Historiæ Byzantinæ, a collection of historical sources. The term comes from « Byzantium », the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantine’s capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre (Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae), and in 1680 of Du Cange‘s Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of « Byzantine » among French authors, such as Montesquieu.^[10]However, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world.^[11]

The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the « Roman Empire », the « Empire of the Romans » (Latin: Imperium Romanum, Imperium Romanorum; Greek: Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων Basileia tōn Rhōmaiōn, Ἀρχὴ τῶν Ῥωμαίων Archē tōn Rhōmaiōn), « Romania » (Latin: Romania; Greek: Ῥωμανία Rhōmania),^{[n 1]} the « Roman Republic » (Latin: Res Publica Romana; Greek: Πολιτεία τῶν ῬωμαίωνPoliteia tōn Rhōmaiōn), and also as « Rhōmais » (Greek: Ῥωμαΐς).^[14]The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to Modern Greek as Romaiika« Romaic. »^[15][16] and followers of the Apostles.^[17] After 1204 when the Byzantine Empire was mostly confined to its purely Greek provinces the term ‘Hellenes’ was used instead.^[18]

Although the Byzantine Empire had a multi-ethnic character during most of its history^[19] and preserved Romano-Hellenistic traditions,^[20]it became identified by its western and northern contemporaries with its increasingly predominant Greek element.^[21] The occasional use of the term « Empire of the Greeks » (Latin: Imperium Graecorum) in the West to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire and of the Byzantine Emperor as Imperator Graecorum (Emperor of the Greeks)^[22] were also used to separate it from the prestige of the Roman Empire within the new kingdoms of the West.^[23] Due to the heartland of the Byzantine Empire being in Greek-speaking areas, Greek was the official language.^[24] However, it would be wrong to see Byzantium solely as a Greek empire: other languages, such as Armenian and various Slavic languages, were also widely spoken, especially in the frontier districts.^[24]

The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. Needing Charlemagne’s support in his struggle against his enemies in Rome, Leo used the lack of a male occupant of the throne of the Roman Empire at the time to claim that it was vacant and that he could therefore crown a new Emperor himself.^[25]

No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more straightforwardly seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm.^[26] The name millet-i Rûm, or « Roman nation, » was used by the Ottomans through the 20th century to refer to the former subjects of the Byzantine Empire, that is, the Orthodox Christiancommunity within Ottoman realms.

History

Main article: History of the Byzantine Empire

Early history

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

The Baptism of Constantine painted by Raphael‘s pupils (1520–1524, fresco, Vatican City, Apostolic Palace); Eusebius of Caesarea records that (as was common among converts of early Christianity) Constantine delayed receiving baptism until shortly before his death^[27]

The Roman armysucceeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to many different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. Generally speaking, the eastern Mediterranean provinces were more urbanised than the western, having previously been united under the Macedonian Empire and Hellenised by the influence of Greek culture.^[28]

The West also suffered more heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD. This distinction between the established Hellenised East and the younger Latinised West persisted and became increasingly important in later centuries, leading to a gradual estrangement of the two worlds.^[28]

Decentralization of power

See also: Byzantium under the Constantinian and Valentinian dynasties

To maintain control and improve administration, various schemes to divide the work of the Roman Emperor by sharing it between individuals were tried between 285 and 324, from 337 to 350, from 364 to 392, and again between 395 and 480. Although the administrative subdivisions varied, they generally involved a division of labour between East and West. Each division was a form of power-sharing (or even job-sharing), for the ultimate imperium was not divisible and therefore the empire remained legally one state – although the co-emperors often saw each other as rivals or enemies.

In 293, emperor Diocletian created a new administrative system (the tetrarchy), to guarantee security in all endangered regions of his Empire. He associated himself with a co-emperor (Augustus), and each co-emperor then adopted a young colleague given the title of Caesar, to share in their rule and eventually to succeed the senior partner. The tetrarchy collapsed, however, in 313 and a few years later Constantine I reunited the two administrative divisions of the Empire as sole Augustus.^[29]

Recentralisation

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

After the death of Theodosius I in 395 the empire was divided. The western part collapsed in the 400s while the eastern part ended with the capture of Constantinople 1453.

  The Western Roman Empire

  The Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire

Restored section of the Theodosian Walls

In 330, Constantinemoved the seat of the Empire to Constantinople, which he founded as a second Rome on the site of Byzantium, a city strategically located on the trade routes between Europe and Asia and between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Constantine introduced important changes into the Empire’s military, monetary, civil and religious institutions. As regards his economic policies in particular, he has been accused by certain scholars of « reckless fiscality », but the gold solidus he introduced became a stable currency that transformed the economy and promoted development.^[30]

Under Constantine, Christianity did not become the exclusive religion of the state, but enjoyed imperial preference, because the emperor supported it with generous privileges. Constantine established the principle that emperors could not settle questions of doctrine on their own, but should summon instead general ecclesiastical councils for that purpose. His convening of both the Synod of Arles and the First Council of Nicaea indicated his interest in the unity of the Church, and showcased his claim to be its head.^[31] The rise of Christianity was briefly interrupted on the accession of the emperor Julian in 361, who made a determined effort to restore polytheism throughout the empire and was thus dubbed « Julian the Apostate » by the Church.^[32]However this was reversed when Julian was killed in battle in 363.^[33]

Theodosius I (379–395) was the last Emperor to rule both the Eastern and Western halves of the Empire. In 391 and 392 he issued a series of edicts essentially banning pagan religion. Pagan festivals and sacrifices were banned, as was access to all pagan temples and places of worship.^[34] The last Olympic Games are believed to have been held in 393.^[35] In 395, Theodosius I bequeathed the imperial office jointly to his sons: Arcadius in the East and Honorius in the West, once again dividing Imperial administration. In the 5th century the Eastern part of the empire was largely spared the difficulties faced by the West – due in part to a more established urban culture and greater financial resources, which allowed it to placate invaders with tribute and pay foreign mercenaries. This success allowed Theodosius II to focus on the codification of Roman law and further fortification of the walls of Constantinople, which left the city impervious to most attacks until 1204.^[36] Large portions of the Theodosian Walls are preserved to the present day.

To fend off the Huns, Theodosius had to pay an enormous annual tribute to Attila. His successor, Marcian, refused to continue to pay the tribute, but Attila had already diverted his attention to the West. After Attila’s death in 453, the Hun Empire collapsed, and many of the remaining Huns were often hired as mercenaries by Constantinople.^[37]

Loss of the Western Roman Empire

The Western and Eastern Roman Empires by 476

After the fall of Attila, the Eastern Empire enjoyed a period of peace, while the Western Empiredeteriorated due to continuing migration and expansion by the Germanic nations (its end is usually dated in 476 when the Germanic Roman general Odoacer deposed the usurper Western Emperor Romulus Augustulus^[38]).

In 480 with the death of the Western Emperor Julius Nepos, Eastern Emperor Zeno became sole Emperor of the empire. Odoacer, now ruler of Italy, was nominally Zeno’s subordinate but acted with complete autonomy, eventually providing support to a rebellion against the Emperor.^[39]

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Coins minted during the reign of Anastasius: here a 40 nummi (M) and 5 nummi (E)

Zeno negotiated with the invading Ostrogoths, who had settled in Moesia, convincing the Gothic king Theodoric to depart for Italy as magister militum per Italiam (« commander in chief for Italy ») with the aim of deposing Odoacer. By urging Theodoric to conquer Italy, Zeno rid the Eastern Empire of an unruly subordinate (Odoacer) and moved another (Theodoric) further from the heart of the Empire. After Odoacer’s defeat in 493, Theodoric ruled Italy de facto, although he was never recognised by the eastern emperors as « king » (rex).^[39]

In 491, Anastasius I, an aged civil officer of Roman origin, became Emperor, but it was not until 497 that the forces of the new emperor effectively took the measure of Isaurian resistance.^[40] Anastasius revealed himself as an energetic reformer and an able administrator. He introduced a new coinage system of the copper follis, the coin used in most everyday transactions.^[41] He also reformed the tax system and permanently abolished the chrysargyron tax. The State Treasury contained the enormous sum of 320,000 lb (150,000 kg) of gold when Anastasius died in 518.^[42]

Justinian dynasty

Byzantine Empire under the Justinian dynasty

Emperor Justinian and general Belisarius.

The Justinian dynasty was founded by Justin I, who though illiterate, rose through the ranks of the military to become Emperor in 518.^[43] He was succeeded by his nephew Justinian I in 527, who may already have exerted effective control during Justin’s reign.^[44] One of the most important figures of late antiquity and possibly the last Roman emperor to speak Latin as a first language,^[45] Justinian’s rule constitutes a distinct epoch, marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii, or « restoration of the Empire ».^[46] His wife Theodora was particularly influential.^[47]

In 529, Justinian appointed a ten-man commission chaired by John the Cappadocian to revise Roman law and create a new codification of laws and jurists’ extracts, known as the « Corpus Juris Civilis« or the Justinian Code. In 534, the Corpus was updated and, along with the enactments promulgated by Justinian after 534, formed the system of law used for most of the rest of the Byzantine era.^[48] The Corpusforms the basis of civil law of many modern states.^[49]

The enlargement of the Byzantine Empire’s possessions between the rise to power of Justinian (red, 527) and his and Belisarius’s death (orange, 565). Belisarius contributed immensely to the expansion of the empire.

In 532, attempting to secure his eastern frontier, Justinian signed a peace treaty with Khosrau I of Persia, agreeing to pay a large annual tribute to the Sassanids. In the same year, he survived a revolt in Constantinople (the Nika riots), which solidified his power but ended with the deaths of a reported 30,000 to 35,000 rioters on his orders.^[50] The western conquests began in 533, as Justinian sent his general Belisarius to reclaim the former province of Africa from the Vandals, who had been in control since 429 with their capital at Carthage.^[51] Their success came with surprising ease, but it was not until 548 that the major local tribes were subdued.^[52] In Ostrogothic Italy, the deaths of Theodoric, his nephew and heir Athalaric, and his daughter Amalasuntha had left her murderer, Theodahad (r. 534–536), on the throne despite his weakened authority.^[53]

In 535, a small Byzantine expedition to Sicily met with easy success, but the Goths soon stiffened their resistance, and victory did not come until 540, when Belisarius captured Ravenna, after successful sieges of Naples and Rome.^[53] In 535–536, Theodahad sent Pope Agapetus I to Constantinople to request the removal of Byzantine forces from Sicily, Dalmatia, and Italy. Although Agapetus failed in his mission to sign a peace with Justinian, he succeeded in having the MonophysitePatriarch Anthimus I of Constantinople denounced, despite empress Theodora‘s support and protection.^[54]

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Empress Theodora and attendants (mosaic from Basilica of San Vitale, 6th century).

The Ostrogoths were soon reunited under the command of King Totila and captured Rome in 546. Belisarius, who had been sent back to Italy in 544, was eventually recalled to Constantinople in 549.^[55] The arrival of the Armenian eunuch Narses in Italy (late 551) with an army of 35,000 men marked another shift in Gothic fortunes. Totila was defeated at the Battle of Taginae and his successor, Teia, was defeated at the Battle of Mons Lactarius (October 552). Despite continuing resistance from a few Gothic garrisons and two subsequent invasions by the Franks and Alemanni, the war for the Italian peninsula was at an end.^[56] In 551, Athanagild, a noble from Visigothic Hispania, sought Justinian’s help in a rebellion against the king, and the emperor dispatched a force under Liberius, a successful military commander. The empire held on to a small slice of the Iberian Peninsula coast until the reign of Heraclius.^[57]

In the east, the Roman–Persian Wars continued until 561 when the envoys of Justinian and Khosrau agreed on a 50-year peace.^[58] By the mid-550s, Justinian had won victories in most theatres of operation, with the notable exception of the Balkans, which were subjected to repeated incursions from the Slavs and the Gepids. Tribes of Serbs and Croats were later resettled in the northwestern Balkans, during the reign of Heraclius.^[59] Justinian called Belisarius out of retirement and defeated the new Hunnish threat. The strengthening of the Danube fleet caused the Kutrigur Huns to withdraw and they agreed to a treaty that allowed safe passage back across the Danube.^[60]

Although polytheism had been suppressed by the state since at least the time of Constantine in the 4th century, traditional Greco-Roman culture was still influential in the Eastern empire in the 6th century.^[61]Hellenistic philosophy began to be gradually amalgamated into newer Christian philosophy. Philosophers such as John Philoponus drew on neoplatonic ideas in addition to Christian thought and empiricism. Because of active paganism of its professors Justinian closed down the Neoplatonic Academy in 529. Other schools continued in Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria which were the centers of Justinian’s empire.^[62] Hymns written by Romanos the Melodistmarked the development of the Divine Liturgy, while the architects Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles worked to complete the new Church of the Holy Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, which was designed to replace an older church destroyed during the Nika Revolt. Completed in 537, the Hagia Sophia stands today as one of the major monuments of Byzantine architectural history.^[63] During the 6th and 7th centuries, the Empire was struck by a series of epidemics, which greatly devastated the population and contributed to a significant economic decline and a weakening of the Empire.^[64]

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

Follis with Maurice in consular uniform.

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire in 600 AD during the reign of Emperor Maurice. Half of the Italian peninsula and some part af Spain were lost, but the borders were pushed eastward where Byzantines received some land from the Persians.

After Justinian died in 565, his successor, Justin II, refused to pay the large tribute to the Persians. Meanwhile, the Germanic Lombards invaded Italy; by the end of the century, only a third of Italy was in Byzantine hands. Justin’s successor, Tiberius II, choosing between his enemies, awarded subsidies to the Avars while taking military action against the Persians. Although Tiberius’ general, Maurice, led an effective campaign on the eastern frontier, subsidies failed to restrain the Avars. They captured the Balkan fortress of Sirmium in 582, while the Slavs began to make inroads across the Danube.^[65]

Maurice, who meanwhile succeeded Tiberius, intervened in a Persian civil war, placed the legitimate Khosrau II back on the throne, and married his daughter to him. Maurice’s treaty with his new brother-in-law enlarged the territories of the Empire to the East and allowed the energetic Emperor to focus on the Balkans. By 602, a series of successful Byzantine campaigns had pushed the Avars and Slavs back across the Danube.^[65] However, Maurice’s refusal to ransom several thousand captives taken by the Avars, and his order to the troops to winter in the Danube, caused his popularity to plummet. A revolt broke out under an officer named Phocas, who marched the troops back to Constantinople; Maurice and his family were murdered while trying to escape.^[66]

Shrinking borders

Early Heraclian dynasty

Byzantine Empire under the Heraclian dynasty

Battle between Heraclius and the Persians. Fresco by Piero della Francesca, c. 1452

After Maurice’s murder by Phocas, Khosrau used the pretext to reconquer the Roman province of Mesopotamia.^[67]Phocas, an unpopular ruler invariably described in Byzantine sources as a « tyrant », was the target of a number of Senate-led plots. He was eventually deposed in 610 by Heraclius, who sailed to Constantinople from Carthage with an icon affixed to the prow of his ship.^[68]

Following the accession of Heraclius, the Sassanid advance pushed deep into the Levant, occupying Damascus and Jerusalem and removing the True Cross to Ctesiphon.^[69] The counter-attack launched by Heraclius took on the character of a holy war, and an acheiropoietos image of Christ was carried as a military standard^[70](similarly, when Constantinople was saved from a combined Avar–Sassanid–Slavic siege in 626, the victory was attributed to the icons of the Virgin that were led in procession by Patriarch Sergius about the walls of the city).^[71] In this very siege of Constantinople of the year 626, amidst the climactic Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, the combined Avar, Sassanid, and Slavic forces unsuccessfully besieged the Byzantine capital between June and July. After this, the Sassanid army was forced to withdraw to Anatolia. The loss came just after news had reached them of yet another Byzantine victory, where Heraclius’s brother Theodore scored well against the Persian general Shahin.^[72] Following this, Heraclius led an invasion into Sassanid Mesopotamia once again.

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire in 650 – Because of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 both Byzantines and Persians exhausted themselves and made them vulnerable for the expansion of the Caliphate. In 650 the Byzantine Empire had lost all of its southern provinces except the Exarchate of Africa to the Caliphate. At the same time the Slavs laid pressure and settled in the Balkans.

The main Sassanid force was destroyed at Nineveh in 627, and in 629 Heraclius restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in a majestic ceremony,^[73] as he marched into the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon, where anarchy and civil war reigned as a result of the enduring war. Eventually, the Persians were obliged to withdraw all armed forces and return Sassanid-ruled Egypt, the Levant and whatever imperial territories of Mesopotamia and Armenia were in Roman hands at the time of an earlier peace treaty in c. 595. The war had exhausted both the Byzantines and Sassanids, however, and left them extremely vulnerable to the Muslim forces that emerged in the following years.^[74]The Byzantines suffered a crushing defeat by the Arabs at the Battle of Yarmouk in 636, while Ctesiphon fell in 637.^[75]

The First Arab Siege of Constantinople (674–678) and the theme system

Greek fire was first used by the Byzantine Navy during the Byzantine–Arab Wars (from the Madrid Skylitzes, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid).

The Arabs, now firmly in control of Syria and the Levant, sent frequent raiding parties deep into Asia Minor, and in 674–678 laid siege to Constantinople itself. The Arab fleet was finally repulsed through the use of Greek fire, and a thirty-years’ truce was signed between the Empire and the Umayyad Caliphate.^[76] However, the Anatolian raids continued unabated, and accelerated the demise of classical urban culture, with the inhabitants of many cities either refortifying much smaller areas within the old city walls, or relocating entirely to nearby fortresses.^[77] Constantinople itself dropped substantially in size, from 500,000 inhabitants to just 40,000–70,000, and, like other urban centres, it was partly ruralised. The city also lost the free grain shipments in 618, after Egypt fell first to the Persians and then to the Arabs, and public wheat distribution ceased.^[78]

The void left by the disappearance of the old semi-autonomous civic institutions was filled by the system called theme, which entailed dividing Asia Minor into « provinces » occupied by distinct armies that assumed civil authority and answered directly to the imperial administration. This system may have had its roots in certain ad hocmeasures taken by Heraclius, but over the course of the 7th century it developed into an entirely new system of imperial governance.^[79] The massive cultural and institutional restructuring of the Empire consequent on the loss of territory in the 7th century has been said to have caused a decisive break in east Mediterranean Romanness and that the Byzantine state is subsequently best understood as another successor state rather than a real continuation of the Roman Empire.^[80]

Late Heraclian dynasty

See also: Twenty Years’ Anarchy

The withdrawal of large numbers of troops from the Balkans to combat the Persians and then the Arabs in the east opened the door for the gradual southward expansion of Slavic peoples into the peninsula, and, as in Asia Minor, many cities shrank to small fortified settlements.^[81] In the 670s, the Bulgars were pushed south of the Danube by the arrival of the Khazars. In 680, Byzantine forces sent to disperse these new settlements were defeated.^[82]

Constantine IV and his retinue, mosaic in Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe.

In 681, Constantine IV signed a treaty with the Bulgar khan Asparukh, and the new Bulgarian state assumed sovereignty over a number of Slavic tribes that had previously, at least in name, recognised Byzantine rule.^[82]In 687–688, the final Heraclian emperor, Justinian II, led an expedition against the Slavs and Bulgarians, and made significant gains, although the fact that he had to fight his way from Thrace to Macedoniademonstrates the degree to which Byzantine power in the north Balkans had declined.^[83]

Justinian II attempted to break the power of the urban aristocracy through severe taxation and the appointment of « outsiders » to administrative posts. He was driven from power in 695, and took shelter first with the Khazars and then with the Bulgarians. In 705, he returned to Constantinople with the armies of the Bulgarian khan Tervel, retook the throne, and instituted a reign of terror against his enemies. With his final overthrow in 711, supported once more by the urban aristocracy, the Heraclian dynasty came to an end.^[84]

The Second Arab Siege of Constantinople (717–718) and the Isaurian dynasty

Further information: Byzantine Empire under the Isaurian dynasty

The Byzantine Empire at the accession of Leo III, c. 717. Striped area indicates land raided by the Arabs.

Gold solidus of Leo III (left), and his son and heir, Constantine V (right).

In 717 the Umayyad Caliphate launched the Siege of Constantinople (717–718) which lasted for one year. However, the combination of Leo III the Isaurian‘s military genius, the Byzantines’ use of Greek Fire, a cold winter in 717–718, and Byzantine diplomacy with the Khan Tervel of Bulgaria resulted in a Byzantine victory. The Umayyads lost prestige and their best fighters as well which eventually resulted in unrest. After Leo III turned back the Muslim assault in 718, he addressed himself to the task of reorganising and consolidating the themes in Asia Minor. In 740 a major Byzantine victory took place at the Battle of Akroinon where the Byzantines destroyed the Umayyad army once again.

Leo III the Isaurian’s son and successor, Constantine V, won noteworthy victories in northern Syria and also thoroughly undermined Bulgarian strength.^[85] In 746, profiting by the unstable conditions in the Umayyad Caliphate, which was falling apart under Marwan II, Constantine V invaded Syria and captured Germanikeia. Coupled with military defeats on the other fronts of the overextended Caliphate and internal instability, the age of Arab expansion came to an end, and the Muslim world was divided, not to be united again.

Religious dispute over iconoclasm

Main article: Byzantine iconoclasm

The 8th and early 9th centuries were also dominated by controversy and religious division over Iconoclasm, which was the main political issue in the Empire for over a century. Icons (here meaning all forms of religious imagery) were banned by Leo and Constantine from around 730, leading to revolts by iconodules (supporters of icons) throughout the empire. After the efforts of empress Irene, the Second Council of Nicaea met in 787 and affirmed that icons could be venerated but not worshiped. Irene is said to have endeavoured to negotiate a marriage between herself and Charlemagne, but, according to Theophanes the Confessor, the scheme was frustrated by Aetios, one of her favourites.^[86]

In the early 9th century, Leo V reintroduced the policy of iconoclasm, but in 843 empress Theodora restored the veneration of icons with the help of Patriarch Methodios.^[87] Iconoclasm played a part in the further alienation of East from West, which worsened during the so-called Photian schism, when Pope Nicholas I challenged the elevation of Photios to the patriarchate.^[88]

Macedonian dynasty and resurgence (867–1025)

See also: Byzantine Empire under the Macedonian dynasty

The Byzantine Empire, c. 867

The accession of Basil I to the throne in 867 marks the beginning of the Macedonian dynasty, which would rule for the next two and a half centuries. This dynasty included some of the most able emperors in Byzantium’s history, and the period is one of revival and resurgence. The Empire moved from defending against external enemies to reconquest of territories formerly lost.^[89]

In addition to a reassertion of Byzantine military power and political authority, the period under the Macedonian dynasty is characterised by a cultural revival in spheres such as philosophy and the arts. There was a conscious effort to restore the brilliance of the period before the Slavic and subsequent Arab invasions, and the Macedonian era has been dubbed the « Golden Age » of Byzantium.^[89] Although the Empire was significantly smaller than during the reign of Justinian, it had regained significant strength, as the remaining territories were less geographically dispersed and more politically, economically, and culturally integrated.

Wars against the Arabs

Main article: Arab–Byzantine wars

The general Leo Phokas defeats the Hamdanid Emirate of Aleppo at Andrassosin 960, from the Madrid Skylitzes.

Taking advantage of the Empire’s weakness after the Revolt of Thomas the Slav in the early 820s, the Arabs re-emerged and captured Crete. They also successfully attacked Sicily, but in 863 general Petronas gained a decisive victory against Umar al-Aqta, the emir of Melitene (Malatya). Under the leadership of emperor Krum, the Bulgarian threat also re-emerged, but in 815–816 Krum’s son, Omurtag, signed a peace treaty with Leo V.^[90]

During the reign of Theophilos, the empire created the Byzantine beacon system.

In the 830s Abbasid Caliphate started military excursions culminating with a victory in the Sack of Amorium. The Byzantines then attacked back and sacked Damietta in Egypt. Later the Abbasid Caliphate responded by sending their troops into Anatolia again, sacking and marauding until they were eventually annihilated by the Byzantines in 863.

In the early years of Basil I’s reign, Arab raids on the coasts of Dalmatia were successfully repelled, and the region once again came under secure Byzantine control. This enabled Byzantine missionaries to penetrate to the interior and convert the Serbs and the principalities of modern-day Herzegovina and Montenegro to Orthodox Christianity.^[91] An attempt to retake Malta ended disastrously, however, when the local population sided with the Arabs and massacred the Byzantine garrison.^[92]

By contrast, the Byzantine position in Southern Italy was gradually consolidated so that by 873 Bari was once again under Byzantine rule,^[91] and most of Southern Italy would remain in the Empire for the next 200 years.^[92] On the more important eastern front, the Empire rebuilt its defences and went on the offensive. The Paulicians were defeated and their capital of Tephrike (Divrigi) taken, while the offensive against the Abbasid Caliphate began with the recapture of Samosata.^[91]

Giacobbe Giusti, Byzantine Empire

The military successes of the 10th century were coupled with a major cultural revival, the so-called Macedonian Renaissance. Miniature from the Paris Psalter, an example of Hellenistic-influenced art.

Under Basil’s son and successor, Leo VI the Wise, the gains in the east against the now-weak Abbasid Caliphate continued. However, Sicily was lost to the Arabs in 902, and in 904 Thessaloniki, the Empire’s second city, was sacked by an Arab fleet. The naval weakness of the Empire was rectified. Despite this revenge the Byzantines were still unable to strike a decisive blow against the Muslims, who inflicted a crushing defeat on the imperial forces when they attempted to regain Crete in 911.^[93]

The death of the Bulgarian tsar Simeon I in 927 severely weakened the Bulgarians, allowing the Byzantines to concentrate on the eastern front.^[94] Melitene was permanently recaptured in 934, and in 943 the famous general John Kourkouas continued the offensive in Mesopotamia with some noteworthy victories, culminating in the reconquest of Edessa. Kourkouas was especially celebrated for returning to Constantinople the venerated Mandylion, a relic purportedly imprinted with a portrait of Christ.^[95]

The soldier-emperors Nikephoros II Phokas (reigned 963–969) and John I Tzimiskes (969–976) expanded the empire well into Syria, defeating the emirs of north-west Iraq. The great city of Aleppo was taken by Nikephoros in 962 and the Arabs were decisively expelled from Crete in 963. The recapture of Crete put an end to Arab raids in the Aegean allowing mainland Greece to flourish once again. Cypruswas permanently retaken in 965 and the successes of Nikephoros culminated in 969 with the recapture of Antioch, which he incorporated as a province of the Empire.^[96] His successor John Tzimiskes recaptured Damascus, Beirut, Acre, Sidon, Caesarea, and Tiberias, putting Byzantine armies within striking distance of Jerusalem, although the Muslim power centres in Iraq and Egypt were left untouched.^[97] After much campaigning in the north, the last Arab threat to Byzantium, the rich province of Sicily, was targeted in 1025 by Basil II, who died before the expedition could be completed. Nevertheless, by that time the Empire stretched from the straits of Messina to the Euphrates and from the Danube to Syria.^[98]

Wars against the Bulgarian Empire

Byzantine–Bulgarian wars

Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025)

The traditional struggle with the See of Rome continued through the Macedonian period, spurred by the question of religious supremacy over the newly Christianised state of Bulgaria.^[89]Ending eighty years of peace between the two states, the powerful Bulgarian tsar Simeon Iinvaded in 894 but was pushed back by the Byzantines, who used their fleet to sail up the Black Sea to attack the Bulgarian rear, enlisting the support of the Hungarians.^[99] The Byzantines were defeated at the Battle of Boulgarophygon in 896, however, and agreed to pay annual subsidies to the Bulgarians.^[93]

Leo the Wise died in 912, and hostilities soon resumed as Simeon marched to Constantinople at the head of a large army.^[100] Although the walls of the city were impregnable, the Byzantine administration was in disarray and Simeon was invited into the city, where he was granted the crown of basileus (emperor) of Bulgaria and had the young emperor Constantine VII marry one of his daughters. When a revolt in Constantinople halted his dynastic project, he again invaded Thrace and conquered Adrianople.^[101] The Empire now faced the problem of a powerful Christian state within a few days’ marching distance from Constantinople,^[89] as well as having to fight on two fronts.^[93]

The extent of the Empire under Basil II

A great imperial expedition under Leo Phocas and Romanos I Lekapenos ended with another crushing Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Achelous in 917, and the following year the Bulgarians were free to ravage northern Greece. Adrianople was plundered again in 923, and a Bulgarian army laid siege to Constantinople in 924. Simeon died suddenly in 927, however, and Bulgarian power collapsed with him. Bulgaria and Byzantium entered a long period of peaceful relations, and the Empire was now free to concentrate on the eastern front against the Muslims.^[102] In 968, Bulgaria was overrun by the Rus’ under Sviatoslav I of Kiev, but three years later, John I Tzimiskes defeatedthe Rus’ and re-incorporated Eastern Bulgaria into the Byzantine Empire.^[103]

Bulgarian resistance revived under the rule of the Cometopuli dynasty, but the new Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025) made the submission of the Bulgarians his primary goal.^[104] Basil’s first expedition against Bulgaria, however, resulted in a humiliating defeat at the Gates of Trajan. For the next few years, the emperor would be preoccupied with internal revolts in Anatolia, while the Bulgarians expanded their realm in the Balkans. The war dragged on for nearly twenty years. The Byzantine victories of Spercheios and Skopje decisively weakened the Bulgarian army, and in annual campaigns, Basil methodically reduced the Bulgarian strongholds.^[104] At the Battle of Kleidion in 1014 the Bulgarians were annihilated: their army was captured, and it is said that 99 out of every 100 men were blinded, with the hundredth man left with one eye so he could lead his compatriots home. When Tsar Samuil saw the broken remains of his once formidable army, he died of shock. By 1018, the last Bulgarian strongholds had surrendered, and the country became part of the Empire.^[104] This victory restored the Danube frontier, which had not been held since the days of the Emperor Heraclius.^[98]

Relations with the Kievan Rus’

Rus’ under the walls of Constantinople (860)

Between 850 and 1100, the Empire developed a mixed relationship with the new state of the Kievan Rus’, which had emerged to the north across the Black Sea.^[105] This relationship would have long-lasting repercussions in the history of the East Slavs, and the Empire quickly became the main trading and cultural partner for Kiev. The Rus’ launched their first attack against Constantinople in 860, pillaging the suburbs of the city. In 941, they appeared on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, but this time they were crushed, an indication of the improvements in the Byzantine military position after 907, when only diplomacy had been able to push back the invaders. Basil II could not ignore the emerging power of the Rus’, and, following the example of his predecessors, he used religion as a means for the achievement of political purposes.^[106] Rus’–Byzantine relations became closer following the marriage of Anna Porphyrogeneta to Vladimir the Great in 988, and the subsequent Christianisation of the Rus’.^[105] Byzantine priests, architects, and artists were invited to work on numerous cathedrals and churches around Rus’, expanding Byzantine cultural influence even further, while numerous Rus’ served in the Byzantine army as mercenaries, most notably as the famous Varangian Guard.^[105]

Even after the Christianisation of the Rus’, however, relations were not always friendly. The most serious conflict between the two powers was the war of 968–971 in Bulgaria, but several Rus’ raiding expeditions against the Byzantine cities of the Black Sea coast and Constantinople itself are also recorded. Although most were repulsed, they were often followed by treaties that were generally favourable to the Rus’, such as the one concluded at the end of the war of 1043, during which the Rus’ gave an indication of their ambitions to compete with the Byzantines as an independent power.^[106]

Campaigns against Georgia

Main article: Byzantine–Georgian wars

The integrity of the Byzantine empire itself was under serious threat after a full-scale rebellion, led by Bardas Skleros, broke out in 976. Following a series of successful battles the rebels swept across Asia Minor. In the urgency of the situation, Georgian prince David Kuropalate aided Basil II and after a decisive loyalist victory at the Battle of Pankaleia, he was rewarded by lifetime rule of key imperial territories in eastern Asia Minor. However, David’s rebuff of Basil in Bardas Phocas’ revolt of 987 evoked Constantinople’s distrust of the Georgian rulers. After the failure of the revolt, David was forced to make Basil II the legatee of his extensive possessions. This agreement destroyed a previous arrangement by which David had made his adopted son, Bagrat III of Georgia, his heir. Basil gathered his inheritance upon David’s death in 1000 and reorganized provinces of Tao, Theodosiopolis, Phasiane and the Lake Van region (Apahunik) with the city of Manzikert – to the theme of Iberia.

The following year, the Georgian prince Gurgen, natural father of Bagrat III, marched to take David’s inheritance, but was thwarted by the Byzantine general Nikephoros Ouranos, dux of Antioch, forcing the successor Georgian Bagratids to recognize the new rearrangement. Bagrat’s son, George I, however, inherited a longstanding claim to David’s succession. Young and ambitious, George launched a campaign to restore the Kuropalates’ succession to Georgia and occupied Tao in 1015–1016. He also entered in an alliance with the Fatimid Caliph of Egypt, Al-Hakim (c.996–1021), that put Basil in a difficult situation, forcing him to refrain from an acute response to George’s offensive.

A miniature depicting the defeat of the Georgian king George I (« Georgios of Abasgia ») by the Byzantine emperor Basil. Skylitzes Matritensis, fol. 195v. George is shown as fleeing on horseback on the right and Basil holding a shield and lance on the left.

Beyond that, the Byzantines were at that time involved in a relentless war with the Bulgar Empire, limiting their actions to the west. But as soon as Bulgaria was conquered in 1018, and Al-Hakim was no longer alive, Basil led his army against Georgia. preparations for a larger-scale campaign against the Kingdom of Georgia were set in train, beginning with the re-fortification of Theodosiopolis. In the autumn of 1021, Basil, ahead of a large army, reinforced by the Varangian Guards, attacked the Georgians and their Armenian allies, recovering Phasiane and pushing on beyond the frontiers of Tao into inner Georgia. King George burned the city of Oltisi to keep it out of the enemy’s hands and retreated to Kola. A bloody battle was fought near the village of Shirimni on Lake Palakazio (now Çildir, Turkey) on 11 September and the emperor won a costly victory, forcing George I to retreat northwards into his kingdom. Plundering the country on his way, Basil withdrew to winter at Trebizond.

Several attempts to negotiate the conflict went in vain and, in the meantime, George received reinforcements from the Kakhetians, and allied himself with the Byzantine commanders Nicephorus Phocas and Nicephorus Xiphias in their abortive insurrection in the emperor’s rear. In December, George’s ally, the Armenian King Senekerim of Vaspurakan, being harassed by the Seljuk Turks, surrendered his kingdom to the emperor. During the spring of 1022, Basil launched a final offensive, winning a crushing victory over the Georgians at Svindax. Menaced both by land and sea, King George handed over Tao, Phasiane, Kola, Artaan and Javakheti, and left his infant son Bagrat a hostage in Basil’s hands.

Apex

Constantinople became the largest and wealthiest city in Europe between the 5th and 7th centuries, and between the 9th and the beginning of 13th centuries.

Basil II is considered among the most capable Byzantine emperors and his reign as the apex of the empire in the Middle Ages. By 1025, the date of Basil II’s death, the Byzantine Empire stretched from Armenia in the east to Calabria in Southern Italy in the west.^[98] Many successes had been achieved, ranging from the conquest of Bulgaria to the annexation of parts of Georgia and Armenia, and the reconquest of Crete, Cyprus, and the important city of Antioch. These were not temporary tactical gains but long-term reconquests.^[91]

Leo VI achieved the complete codification of Byzantine law in Greek. This monumental work of 60 volumes became the foundation of all subsequent Byzantine law and is still studied today.^[107] Leo also reformed the administration of the Empire, redrawing the borders of the administrative subdivisions (the Themata, or « Themes ») and tidying up the system of ranks and privileges, as well as regulating the behaviour of the various trade guilds in Constantinople. Leo’s reform did much to reduce the previous fragmentation of the Empire, which henceforth had one center of power, Constantinople.^[108] However, the increasing military success of the Empire greatly enriched and empowered the provincial nobility with respect to the peasantry, who were essentially reduced to a state of serfdom.^[109]

Under the Macedonian emperors, the city of Constantinople flourished, becoming the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, with a population of approximately 400,000 in the 9th and 10th centuries.^[110] During this period, the Byzantine Empire employed a strong civil service staffed by competent aristocrats that oversaw the collection of taxes, domestic administration, and foreign policy. The Macedonian emperors also increased the Empire’s wealth by fostering trade with Western Europe, particularly through the sale of silk and metalwork.^[111]

Split between Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism (1054)

Further information: East–West Schism

Mural of Saints Cyril and Methodius, 19th century, Troyan Monastery, Bulgaria

The Macedonian period also included events of momentous religious significance. The conversion of the Bulgarians, Serbs and Rus’ to Orthodox Christianity permanently changed the religious map of Europe and still resonates today. Cyril and Methodius, two Byzantine Greek brothers from Thessaloniki, contributed significantly to the Christianization of the Slavs and in the process devised the Glagolitic alphabet, ancestor to the Cyrillic script.^[112]

In 1054, relations between the Eastern and Western traditions within the Christian Church reached a terminal crisis, known as the East–West Schism. Although there was a formal declaration of institutional separation, on 16 July, when three papal legates entered the Hagia Sophia during Divine Liturgy on a Saturday afternoon and placed a bull of excommunication on the altar,^[113] the so-called Great Schism was actually the culmination of centuries of gradual separation.^[114] Unfortunately the legates did not know that the Pope had died, an event that made the excommunication void and the excommunication only applied to the Patriarch who responded by excommunicating the legates.

Crisis and fragmentation

The Empire soon fell into a period of difficulties, caused to a large extent by the undermining of the theme system and the neglect of the military. Nikephoros II, John Tzimiskes, and Basil II changed the military divisions (τάγματα, tagmata) from a rapid response, primarily defensive, citizen army into a professional, campaigning army, increasingly manned by mercenaries. Mercenaries were expensive, however, and as the threat of invasion receded in the 10th century, so did the need for maintaining large garrisons and expensive fortifications.^[115] Basil II left a burgeoning treasury upon his death, but he neglected to plan for his succession. None of his immediate successors had any particular military or political talent and the administration of the Empire increasingly fell into the hands of the civil service. Efforts to revive the Byzantine economy only resulted in inflation and a debased gold coinage. The army was now seen as both an unnecessary expense and a political threat. Native troops were therefore cashiered and replaced by foreign mercenaries on specific contract.^[116]

The seizure of Edessa (1031) by the Byzantines under George Maniakes and the counterattack by the Seljuk Turks

At the same time, the Empire was faced with new enemies. Provinces in southern Italy faced the Normans, who arrived in Italy at the beginning of the 11th century. During a period of strife between Constantinople and Rome culminating in the East-West Schism of 1054, the Normans began to advance, slowly but steadily, into Byzantine Italy.^[117] Reggio, the capital of the tagma of Calabria, was captured in 1060 by Robert Guiscard, followed by Otranto in 1068. Bari, the main Byzantine stronghold in Apulia, was besieged in August 1068 and fell in April 1071.^[118] The Byzantines also lost their influence over the Dalmatian coastal cities to Peter Krešimir IV of Croatia (r. 1058–1074/1075) in 1069.^[119]

In 1048-9, the Seljuk Turks under Ibrahim Yinal made their first incursion into the Byzantine frontier region of Iberia and clashed with a combined Byzantine-Georgian army of 50,000 at the Battle of Kapetrou on 10 September 1048. The devastation left behind by the Seljuq raid was so fearful that the Byzantine magnate Eustathios Boilas described, in 1051/52, those lands as « foul and unmanageable… inhabited by snakes, scorpions, and wild beasts. » The Arab chronicler Ibn al-Athir reports that Ibrahim brought back 100,000 captives and a vast booty loaded on the backs of ten thousand camels.^[120]

About 1053 Constantine IX disbanded what the historian John Skylitzes calls the « Iberian Army », which consisted of 50,000 men and it was turned into a contemporary Drungary of the Watch. Two other knowledgeable contemporaries, the former officials Michael Attaleiatesand Kekaumenos, agree with Skylitzes that by demobilizing these soldiers Constantine did catastrophic harm to the Empire’s eastern defenses.

The emergency lent weight to the military aristocracy in Anatolia, who in 1068 secured the election of one of their own, Romanos Diogenes, as emperor. In the summer of 1071, Romanos undertook a massive eastern campaign to draw the Seljuks into a general engagement with the Byzantine army. At the Battle of Manzikert, Romanos suffered a surprise defeat by Sultan Alp Arslan, and he was captured. Alp Arslan treated him with respect and imposed no harsh terms on the Byzantines.^[116] In Constantinople, however, a coup put in power Michael Doukas, who soon faced the opposition of Nikephoros Bryennios and Nikephoros Botaneiates. By 1081, the Seljuks had expanded their rule over virtually the entire Anatolian plateau from Armenia in the east to Bithynia in the west, and they had founded their capital at Nicaea, just 90 kilometres (56 miles) from Constantinople.^[121]

Komnenian dynasty and the crusaders

 Byzantine Empire under the Komnenos dynasty and Komnenian restoration

Alexios I, founder of the Komnenos dynasty

During the Komnenian, or Comnenian, period from about 1081 to about 1185, the five emperors of the Komnenos dynasty (Alexios I, John II, Manuel I, Alexios II, and Andronikos I) presided over a sustained, though ultimately incomplete, restoration of the military, territorial, economic, and political position of the Byzantine Empire.^[122]Although the Seljuk Turks occupied the heartland of the Empire in Anatolia, most Byzantine military efforts during this period were directed against Western powers, particularly the Normans.^[122]

The Empire under the Komnenoi played a key role in the history of the Crusades in the Holy Land, which Alexios I had helped bring about, while also exerting enormous cultural and political influence in Europe, the Near East, and the lands around the Mediterranean Sea under John and Manuel. Contact between Byzantium and the « Latin » West, including the Crusader states, increased significantly during the Komnenian period. Venetian and other Italian traders became resident in large numbers in Constantinople and the empire (there were an estimated 60,000 Latins in Constantinople alone, out of a population of three to four hundred thousand), and their presence together with the numerous Latin mercenaries who were employed by Manuel helped to spread Byzantine technology, art, literature and culture throughout the Latin West, while also leading to a flow of Western ideas and customs into the Empire.^[123]

In terms of prosperity and cultural life, the Komnenian period was one of the peaks in Byzantine history,^[124] and Constantinople remained the leading city of the Christian world in size, wealth, and culture.^[125]There was a renewed interest in classical Greek philosophy, as well as an increase in literary output in vernacular Greek.^[126] Byzantine art and literature held a pre-eminent place in Europe, and the cultural impact of Byzantine art on the west during this period was enormous and of long lasting significance.^[127]

Alexios I and the First Crusade

Further information: Alexios I Komnenos

See also: First Crusade

Province (theme) of the Byzantine Empire c. 1045

After Manzikert, a partial recovery (referred to as the Komnenian restoration) was made possible by the Komnenian dynasty.^[128] The first Komnenian emperor was Isaac I (1057–1059), after which the Doukas dynastyheld power (1059–81). The Komnenoi attained power again under Alexios I in 1081. From the outset of his reign, Alexios faced a formidable attack by the Normans under Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemund of Taranto, who captured Dyrrhachium and Corfu, and laid siege to Larissa in Thessaly. Robert Guiscard’s death in 1085 temporarily eased the Norman problem. The following year, the Seljuq sultan died, and the sultanate was split by internal rivalries. By his own efforts, Alexios defeated the Pechenegs; they were caught by surprise and annihilated at the Battle of Levounion on 28 April 1091.^[129]

The Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm before the First Crusade(1095–1099)

Having achieved stability in the West, Alexios could turn his attention to the severe economic difficulties and the disintegration of the Empire’s traditional defences.^[130] However, he still did not have enough manpower to recover the lost territories in Asia Minor and to advance against the Seljuks. At the Council of Piacenza in 1095, envoys from Alexios spoke to Pope Urban II about the suffering of the Christians of the East, and underscored that without help from the West they would continue to suffer under Muslim rule.^[131]

Urban saw Alexios’s request as a dual opportunity to cement Western Europe and reunite the Eastern Orthodox Church with the Roman Catholic Church under his rule.^[131] On 27 November 1095, Pope Urban II called together the Council of Clermont, and urged all those present to take up arms under the sign of the Cross and launch an armed pilgrimage to recover Jerusalem and the East from the Muslims. The response in Western Europe was overwhelming.^[129]

The brief first coinage of the Thessalonikimint, opened by Alexios in September 1081, on his way to confront the invading Normans under Robert Guiscard

Alexios had anticipated help in the form of mercenary forces from the West, but he was totally unprepared for the immense and undisciplined force that soon arrived in Byzantine territory. It was no comfort to Alexios to learn that four of the eight leaders of the main body of the Crusade were Normans, among them Bohemund. Since the crusade had to pass through Constantinople, however, the Emperor had some control over it. He required its leaders to swear to restore to the empire any towns or territories they might reconquer from the Turks on their way to the Holy Land. In return, he gave them guides and a military escort.^[132]

Alexios was able to recover a number of important cities and islands, and in fact much of western Asia Minor. Nevertheless, the Catholic/Latin crusaders believed their oaths were invalidated when Alexios did not help them during the siege of Antioch (he had in fact set out on the road to Antioch but had been persuaded to turn back by Stephen of Blois, who assured him that all was lost and that the expedition had already failed).^[133] Bohemund, who had set himself up as Prince of Antioch, briefly went to war with the Byzantines, but he agreed to become Alexios’ vassal under the Treaty of Devol in 1108, which marked the end of the Norman threat during Alexios’ reign.^[134]

John II, Manuel I and the Second Crusade

 John II Komnenos and Manuel I Komnenos

Medieval manuscript depicting the Capture of Jerusalem during the First Crusade

Alexios’s son John II Komnenossucceeded him in 1118 and ruled until 1143. John was a pious and dedicated Emperor who was determined to undo the damage to the empire suffered at the Battle of Manzikert, half a century earlier.^[135] Famed for his piety and his remarkably mild and just reign, John was an exceptional example of a moral ruler at a time when cruelty was the norm.^[136] For this reason, he has been called the Byzantine Marcus Aurelius.

During his twenty-five year reign, John made alliances with the Holy Roman Empire in the West and decisively defeated the Pechenegs at the Battle of Beroia.^[137] He thwarted Hungarian and Serbian threats during the 1120s, and in 1130 he allied himself with the German emperor Lothair III against the Norman king Roger II of Sicily.^[138]

In the later part of his reign, John focused his activities on the East, personally leading numerous campaigns against the Turks in Asia Minor. His campaigns fundamentally altered the balance of power in the East, forcing the Turks onto the defensive, while restoring many towns, fortresses, and cities across the peninsula to the Byzantines. He defeated the Danishmend Emirate of Melitene and reconquered all of Cilicia, while forcing Raymond of Poitiers, Prince of Antioch, to recognise Byzantine suzerainty. In an effort to demonstrate the Emperor’s role as the leader of the Christian world, John marched into the Holy Land at the head of the combined forces of the Empire and the Crusader states; yet despite his great vigour pressing the campaign, his hopes were disappointed by the treachery of his Crusader allies.^[139] In 1142, John returned to press his claims to Antioch, but he died in the spring of 1143 following a hunting accident. Raymond was emboldened to invade Cilicia, but he was defeated and forced to go to Constantinople to beg mercy from the new Emperor.^[140]

Byzantine Empire in orange, c. 1180, at the end of the Komnenian period

John’s chosen heir was his fourth son, Manuel I Komnenos, who campaigned aggressively against his neighbours both in the west and in the east. In Palestine, Manuel allied with the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and sent a large fleet to participate in a combined invasion of Fatimid Egypt. Manuel reinforced his position as overlord of the Crusader states, with his hegemony over Antioch and Jerusalem secured by agreement with Raynald, Prince of Antioch, and Amalric, King of Jerusalem.^[141] In an effort to restore Byzantine control over the ports of southern Italy, he sent an expedition to Italy in 1155, but disputes within the coalition led to the eventual failure of the campaign. Despite this military setback, Manuel’s armies successfully invaded the Southern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1167, defeating the Hungarians at the Battle of Sirmium. By 1168, nearly the whole of the eastern Adriatic coast lay in Manuel’s hands.^[142] Manuel made several alliances with the Pope and Western Christian kingdoms, and he successfully handled the passage of the Second Crusade through his empire.^[143]

In the east, however, Manuel suffered a major defeat in 1176 at the Battle of Myriokephalon, against the Turks. Yet the losses were quickly recovered, and in the following year Manuel’s forces inflicted a defeat upon a force of « picked Turks ».^[144] The Byzantine commander John Vatatzes, who destroyed the Turkish invaders at the Battle of Hyelion and Leimocheir, not only brought troops from the capital but also was able to gather an army along the way, a sign that the Byzantine army remained strong and that the defensive program of western Asia Minor was still successful.^[145]

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• Nicol, Donald M. (1993) [1972]. The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521439916.
• Nicol, Donald M. (1996). The Reluctant Emperor: A Biography of John Cantacuzene, Byzantine Emperor and Monk, c. 1295–1383. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521522014.
• Norwich, John Julius (1998). A Short History of Byzantium. Ringwood, Vic.: Penguin. ISBN 978-0140259605.
• Norwich, John Julius (1982). A History of Venice. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc. ISBN 0394524101.
• Nystazopoulou-Pelekidou, Maria (1970). « Συμβολή εις την χρονολόγησιν των Αβαρικών και Σλαβικών επιδρομών επί Μαυρικίου (582–602) (μετ’ επιμέτρου περί των Περσικών πολέμων) [=Contribution to the chronology of Avar and Slav raids during the reign of Maurice (582–602), with an excursus about the Persian Wars »] ». Byzantina Symmeikta (in Greek). 2: 145–206. ISSN 1105-1639. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
• Obolensky, Dimitri (1974) [1971]. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500–1453. London: Cardinal. ISBN 978-0351176449.
• Obolensky, Dimitri (1994). Byzantium and the Slavs. Yonkers: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press. ISBN 088141008X.
• Oikonomides, Nikos (1999). « L᾽ »Unilinguisme » Officiel de Constantinople Byzantine ». Byzantina Symmeikta. 13: 9–22. ISSN 1105-1639. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
• Ostrogorsky, George (1969). History of the Byzantine State. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813511984.
• Ostrogorsky, George (1959). « The Byzantine Empire in the World of the Seventh Century ». Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 13: 1–21. doi:10.2307/1291127. JSTOR 1291126.
• Paparrigopoulos, Constantine; Karolidis, Pavlos (1925). Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους [« History of the Greek Nation »], vol. 4 (in Greek). Eleftheroudakis.
• Parry, Kenneth (1996). Depicting the Word: Byzantine Iconophile Thought of the Eighth and Ninth Centuries. Leiden and New York: Brill. ISBN 9004105026.
• Patterson, Gordon M. (1995) [1990]. The Essentials of Medieval History: 500 to 1450 AD, the Middle Ages. Piscataway: Research and Education Association. ISBN 978-0878917051.
• Perrottet, Tony (2004). The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games. Random House. ISBN 978-1588363824.
• Postan, Michael Moïssey; Miller, Edward; Postan, Cynthia (1987). The Cambridge Economic History of Europe (Volume 2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521087090.
• Pounds, Norman John Greville (1979). An Historical Geography of Europe, 1500–1840. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521223792.
• Read, Piers Paul (2000) [1999]. The Templars: The Dramatic History of the Knights Templar, The Most Powerful Military Order of the Crusades. New York: St. Martin’s Press. ISBN 0312266588.
• Reinert, Stephen W. (2002). « Fragmentation (1204–1453) ». In Cyril Mango. The Oxford History of Byzantium. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 248–83. ISBN 0198140983.
• Rice, David Talbot (1968). Byzantine Art (3rd Edition). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Limited.
• Robins, Robert Henry (1993). The Byzantine Grammarians: Their Place in History. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3110135744.
• Rosser, John H. (2011). « Introduction ». Historical Dictionary of Byzantium. Lanham, MA: Scarecrow. ISBN 0810875675.
• Runciman, Steven (1990). The Fall of Constantinople, 1453. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521398320.
• Runciman, Steven (2004). The Byzantine Theocracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521545914.
• Salaman, Rena (1986). « The Case of the Missing Fish, or DolmathonProlegomena ». In Jaine, Tom. Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery 1984 & 1985: Cookery: Science, Lore & Books: Proceedings (Introduction by Alan Davidson). London: Prospect Books Limited. pp. 184–87. ISBN 9780907325161.
• Sarantis, Alexander (2009). « War and Diplomacy in Pannonia and the Northwest Balkans during the Reign of Justinian: The Gepid Threat and Imperial Responses ». Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 63: 15–40. JSTOR 41219761.
• Sedlar, Jean W. (1994). East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000–1500. III. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0295972904.
• Seton-Watson, Hugh (1967). The Russian Empire, 1801–1917. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198221525.
• Šišić, Ferdo (1990). Povijest Hrvata u vrijeme narodnih vladara: sa 280 slika i 3 karte u bojama. Zagreb: Nakladni zavod Matice hrvatske. ISBN 8640100802.
• Sotinel, Claire (2005). « Emperors and Popes in the Sixth Century: The Western View ». In Maas, Michael. The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 267–90. ISBN 0521817463.
• Speck, Paul (1984). « Ikonoklasmus und die Anfänge der Makedonischen Renaissance ». Poikila Byzantina. 4: 175–210.
• Stephenson, Paul (2000). Byzantium’s Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900–1204. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521770173.
• Tarasov, Oleg; Milner-Gulland, R.R. (2004). Icon and Devotion: Sacred Spaces in Imperial Russia. London: Reaktion. ISBN 1861891180.
• Tatakes, Vasileios N.; Moutafakis, Nicholas J. (2003). Byzantine Philosophy. Indianapolis: Hackett. ISBN 0872205630.
• Teall, John L. (1967). « The Age of Constantine Change and Continuity in Administration and Economy ». Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 21: 11–36. JSTOR 1291256.
• Timberlake, Alan (2004). A Reference Grammar of Russian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521772921.
• Treadgold, Warren (1995). Byzantium and Its Army, 284–1081. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804724202.
• Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804726302.
• Troianos, Spyros; Velissaropoulou-Karakosta, Julia (1997). Ιστορία δικαίου από την αρχαία στην νεώτερη Ελλάδα [« History of law from ancient to modern Greece »]. Athens: Sakkoulas. ISBN 9602325941.
• Vasiliev, Alexander Alexandrovich (1928–1935). History of the Byzantine Empire. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0299809250.
• Versteegh, Cornelis H.M. (1977). Greek Elements in Arabic Linguistic Thinking. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9004048553.
• Vryonis, Speros (1971). The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520015975.
• Watson, Bruce (1993). Sieges: A Comparative Study. Westport: Praeger. ISBN 0275940349.
• Weitzmann, Kurt (1982). The Icon. London: Evans Brothers. ISBN 0237456451.
• Wells, Herbert George (1922). A Short History of the World. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 0064926745.
• Whittow, Mark (1996). The Making of Byzantium, 600–1025. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0520204964.
• Wickham, Chris (2009). The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000. New York: Viking. ISBN 0670020982.
• Wolff, Robert Lee (1948). « Romania: The Latin Empire of Constantinople ». Speculum. 23 (1): 1–34. doi:10.2307/2853672. JSTOR 2853672.
• Wroth, Warwick (1908). Catalogue of the Imperial Byzantine Coins in the British Museum. British Museum Dept. of Coins and Medals. ISBN 1402189540.

Further reading

• Ahrweiler, Hélène; Aymard, Maurice (2000). Les Européens. Paris: Hermann. ISBN 2705664092.
• Angelov, Dimiter (2007). Imperial Ideology and Political Thought in Byzantium (1204–1330). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521857031.
• Baboula, Evanthia, Byzantium, in Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God (2 vols.), Edited by C. Fitzpatrick and A. Walker, Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, 2014. ISBN 1610691776
• Evans, Helen C. & Wixom, William D (1997). The glory of Byzantium: art and culture of the Middle Byzantine era, A.D. 843–1261. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0810965072.
• Cameron, Averil (2014). Byzantine Matters. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1400850099.
• Haldon, John (2001). The Byzantine Wars: Battles and Campaigns of the Byzantine Era. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0752417959.
• Haldon, John (2002). Byzantium: A History. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 140513240X.
• Haldon, John (2016). The Empire That Would Not Die: The Paradox of Eastern Roman Survival, 640–740. Harvard University. ISBN 978-0674088771.
• Harris, Jonathan (2015). The Lost World of Byzantium. New Haven CT and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300178579.
• Hussey, J.M. (1966). The Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. IV: The Byzantine Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Runciman, Steven (1966). Byzantine Civilisation. London: Edward ArnoldLimited. ISBN 1566195748.
• Runciman, Steven (1990) [1929]. The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus and his Reign. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521061644.
• Stanković, Vlada, ed. (2016). The Balkans and the Byzantine World before and after the Captures of Constantinople, 1204 and 1453. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-1498513265.
• Stathakopoulos, Dionysios (2014). A Short History of the Byzantine Empire. London: I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1780761947.
• Thomas, John P. (1987). Private Religious Foundations in the Byzantine Empire. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks. ISBN 978-0884021643.
• Toynbee, Arnold Joseph (1972). Constantine Porphyrogenitus and His World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019215253X.

Library resources about Byzantine Empire

Online books Resources in your library Resources in other libraries

• Byzantine Empire on In Our Time at the BBC
• De Imperatoribus Romanis. Scholarly biographies of many Byzantine emperors.
• 12 Byzantine Rulers by Lars Brownworth of The Stony Brook School; audio lectures. NYTimes review.
• 18 centuries of Roman Empire by Howard Wiseman (Maps of the Roman/Byzantine Empire throughout its lifetime).
• Byzantine & Christian Museum

Byzantine studies, resources and bibliography

• Fox, Clinton R. « What, If Anything, Is a Byzantine? » (Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors)
• Byzantine studies homepage at Dumbarton Oaks. Includes links to numerous electronic texts.
• Byzantium: Byzantine studies on the Internet. Links to various online resources.
• Translations from Byzantine Sources: The Imperial Centuries, c. 700–1204. Online sourcebook.
• De Re Militari. Resources for medieval history, including numerous translated sources on the Byzantine wars.
• Medieval Sourcebook: Byzantium. Numerous primary sources on Byzantine history.
• Bibliography on Byzantine Material Culture and Daily Life. Hosted by the University of Vienna; in English.
• Constantinople Home Page. Links to texts, images and videos on Byzantium.
• Byzantium in Crimea: Political History, Art and Culture.
• Institute for Byzantine Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (with further resources and a repository with papers on various aspects of the Byzantine Empire)

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Mycènes

Giacobbe Giusti, Mycènes

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Mycènes

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Mycènes

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Mycènes

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Mycènes

 

Sites archéologiques de Mycènes et de Tirynthe *  Patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO Giacobbe Giusti, Mycènes
La porte des Lionnes à Mycènes.
Coordonnées	37° 43′ 51″ nord, 22° 45′ 22″ est
Pays	Grèce
Subdivision	Péloponnèse, Argolide
Type	Culturel
Critères	(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (vi) [archive]
Numéro d’identification	941 [archive]
Zone géographique	Europe et Amérique du Nord **
Année d’inscription	1999 (23e session)
* Descriptif officiel UNESCO ** Classification géographique UNESCO

Mycènes (Voir la carte topographique) Localisation de Mycènes en Grèce.

Mycènes (en grec ancien Μυκῆναι / Mukễnai) est une cité antique préhellénique située sur une colline au nord-est de la plaine d’Argos, dans le Péloponnèse, et entourée de murs cyclopéens (assemblage de blocs énormes).

Mythe

Selon la mythologie grecque, Mycènes est fondée par Persée à la suite de l’homicide accidentel d’Acrisios, roi d’Argos¹. Alors que la ville lui revient légitimement, Persée préfère céder cette royauté à Mégapenthès, neveu du défunt, et part fonder une nouvelle ville, qu’il baptise « Mycènes » soit en allusion au pommeau de son épée, soit en allusion au champignon qu’il trouve sur place^1,2. Des traditions concurrentes évoquent une Mycène³, fille d’Inachos⁴ ou encore un Mycénée, petit-fils de Phoronée⁵.

Mycènes est le royaume du héros homérique Agamemnon, chef des Achéens lors de la guerre de Troie⁶. Homère la décrit comme chère à Héra⁷ et « riche en or »⁸. La richesse de la ville est en effet proverbiale dès l’Antiquité⁹.

Histoire

Giacobbe Giusti, Mycènes

Vue d’ensemble de la cité

Giacobbe Giusti, Mycènes

Une tablette en langue mycénienne(linéaire B), avec figure masculine gravée au revers.

Mycènes donne son nom à la civilisation mycénienne¹⁰, qui se développe à partir de 1700 av. J.-C. en Grèce continentale. Ainsi, on a retrouvé des vases en céramique et en métal précieux, des perles d’ambre et un masque funéraire en électrum dans le cercle B des tombes à fosse situées près de l’acropole, daté de 1650-1600 av. J.-C.¹¹. Il témoigne de la transition entre les premières tombes, au matériel relativement modeste, et le cercle A (1600-1500 av. J.-C.), qui a livré une impressionnante quantité d’or et d’objets précieux¹².

L’habitat de l’époque n’ayant pas été préservé, l’origine d’une telle affluence de richesses ne peut faire l’objet que de conjectures. Sir Arthur John Evans, découvreur de Cnossos, évoque l’installation d’une dynastie crétoise à Mycènes ; on a suggéré, à l’inverse, un pillage mycénien en Crète ou le retour de mercenaires partis combattre les pharaons Hyksôs en Égypte¹¹. Il semble que la richesse des Mycéniens de l’époque soit endogène, et non due à l’extérieur, et qu’elle se soit constituée progressivement, et non à la suite d’un événement particulier.

Le matériel et l’iconographie des tombes montrent que Mycènes est alors dominée par une aristocratie guerrière, dont les représentants affichent une taille et une force physique supérieures à la moyenne, sans doute grâce à une meilleure alimentation¹³. Elle se distingue par son goût pour les objets de luxe et par l’importance accordée aux monuments funéraires : la tombe à tholos dite « d’Égisthe » a nécessité l’équivalent du travail de 20 hommes pendant 240 jours, puis une phase de maçonnerie d’une année entière¹⁴.

La cité est gouvernée par un monarque appelé « wa-na-ka » dans la langue mycénienne des tablettes en linéaire B, correspondant au mot (ϝ)άναξ / (w)ánax (« roi ») de la langue homérique.

La disparition de cette civilisation n’est pas expliquée précisément. Les causes sont à la fois externes (tremblements de terre à l’origine du déplacement de sources d’eau, raids de nouvelles populations) et internes (administration trop centralisée et trop rigide, incapable de surmonter de nouvelles crises). L’hypothèse de la cause interne est renforcée par le fait que, dans les tablettes mycéniennes, le nom du magistrat chargé de l’administration des villages est une forme ancienne dont aurait pu dériver le titre d’archonte (roi-prêtre de la Grèce archaïque). Ce qui signifierait que l’administration mycénienne se désintégra au point que les citoyens ne reconnurent plus que les magistrats locaux comme autorité suprême. Selon la théorie de Jared Diamond, l’exploitation sans vergogne des ressources naturelles aurait pu être à l’origine de la chute de la Grèce mycénienne¹⁵.

Ces ruines considérables furent visitées par Pausanias, au ii^e siècle, qui commente les tombeaux, les remparts massifs et la porte des Lionnes, encore visibles aujourd’hui. Toute connaissance sur ceux qui avaient construit cette remarquable cité avait disparu bien avant l’époque classique, et les Mycéniens ne furent connus des Grecs que de la manière la plus vague, à travers mythes et légendes.

Fouilles archéologiques

La cité de Mycènes est connue depuis l’expédition française de 1822, mais c’est à l’archéologue allemand Heinrich Schliemann que l’on doit les premières connaissances précises de la citadelle et des tombes, fouillées à partir de 1876. De nombreuses campagnes archéologiques ont été menées depuis lors.

Après Schliemann, d’autres découvertes ont révélé que Mycènes était habitée dès le troisième millénaire par une population préhellénique proche de celle de la Crète minoenne contemporaine. Une vaste ville s’étendait au pied de la citadelle, mais elle n’a été que très peu explorée.

Giacobbe Giusti, Mycènes

• 

  Wilhelm Dörpfeld (en haut, à gauche) et Heinrich Schliemann (en haut, à droite), à la porte des Lionnes, vers 1885.

   

• 

  Masque d’or dit « d’Agamemnon », (xvi^e siècle av. J.-C., cercle A des tombes).

  Giacobbe Giusti, Mycènes

   

• 

  Balances d’or, xvi^e siècle av. J.-C., pour la pesée des âmes, figurées par des rosaces ou des papillons.

  Giacobbe Giusti, Mycènes

• 

  Glaives de bronze incrustés d’or.

   

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Mycènes

• 

  Glaives de bronze incrustés d’or.

La citadelle

Les vestiges de la citadelle de Mycènes ont été entièrement fouillés, et on peut voir aujourd’hui le palais mycénien entouré de son enceinte cyclopéenne et d’un grand nombre de tombes à fosse ou à coupole.

La porte des Lions et l’enceinte cyclopéenne

Bas-relief de la porte des Lions

Poterne nord

L’enceinte cyclopéenne est percée de deux accès, tout comme à Tirynthe. La porte des Lions constitue l’entrée principale : elle est formée d’un trilithe au linteau énorme surmonté d’un triangle de décharge à encorbellement obturé par une plaque sculptée représentant deux lionnes dressées de part et d’autre d’une colonne à chapiteau. L’ensemble est datable de -1250. Une seconde porte ou « poterne » s’ouvre au nord de l’enceinte, elle aussi constituée d’un trilithe, mais plus petite et sans décor sculpté.

Le mur a été construit en trois phases : la première date d’environ -1350. Puis au milieu du xiii^e siècle av. J.-C., la défense est étendue vers le sud et l’ouest. Vers -1200 se situe le renforcement et l’extension de la citerne et des entrepôts.

Le palais royal

Le palais royal, accessible par un chemin très raide, est situé au point le plus élevé de la citadelle. Il en reste peu de vestiges, car il a été détruit dans un incendie et presque entièrement modifié. Le palais royal s’élève en terrasse au cœur de l’enceinte, selon un plan tripartite composé de trois pièces successives, deux vestibules, et d’un mégaron, qui caractérise les palais mycéniens. Cette grande salle presque carrée d’environ 120 mètres carrés, (plus vaste que celle de Pylos) est éclairée par un lanterneau soutenu par quatre colonnes. Elle possède un toit à double pente qui abrite un foyer central fixe et circulaire ainsi qu’un trône. Le palais royal domine d’autres édifices de dimension un peu plus modeste : grandes maisons dont la longueur pouvait atteindre 35 mètres que l’on retrouve des deux côtés du rempart, ainsi que des unités ordinaires d’habitation à l’architecture inchangée au cours des siècles.

Les cercles de tombes

Giacobbe Giusti, Mycènes

Cercle A des tombes

De nombreuses sépultures royales ont été découvertes à l’intérieur de deux cercles situés dans l’acropole. Les deux grands cercles A et B, situés à l’Ouest de la cité, renferment de nombreuses tombes à fosse surmontées d’une dalle ou d’une stèle sculptée en bas-relief ou en méplat et qui recèlent un matériel funéraire extrêmement riche composé de figurines de terre cuite, céramique, masques, vases et bijoux en or. Les masques mycéniens, dont le fameux masque d’Agamemnon, étaient destinés à conserver dans un moulage en feuille d’or, les traits et le souvenir des grands morts héroïsés. Cinq de ces tombes ont livré 17 os de membres inférieurs, essentiellement masculins.

Le cercle A, découvert par Schliemann, s’étend à l’intérieur de l’enceinte. Le cercle B, plus ancien, n’a été dégagé qu’après 1950 : on y a trouvé des tombes encore plus anciennes que celles du cercle A, remontant, pour certaines d’entre elles, au xvii^e ou xvi^e siècle av. J.-C., c’est-à-dire au tout début de la civilisation mycénienne.

• La tombe V du cercle A :

La tombe la plus célèbre est la tombe V du cercle A. L’un des hommes avait le visage recouvert du « masque d’Agamemnon ». C’est une feuille d’or travaillée au repoussé et par incision. Les yeux sont fermés et traités en grain de café, les oreilles sont stylisées et traitées en double-volutes, tandis que la moustache et la barbe, encadrant une bouche rectiligne, sont incisées avec précision. Un pectoral, en forme de trapèze marqué par deux cercles pointés figurant les aréoles mammaires, recouvrait la poitrine. Un motif de spirales enchaînées emprunté à l’art cyclado-minoen marque le pectoral. Le matériau, pérenne, a la volonté de protéger en même temps la dépouille du défunt. L’art cyclado-minoen se retrouve également sur un vase de la tombe. À la période où la civilisation mycénienne émerge en tant que puissance locale, les mœurs de ses populations sont assez rustiques et influencées tant par l’Orient que par Cnossos.

Les tombes à coupole

On a découvert à l’extérieur de l’enceinte neuf grandes tombes monumentales à coupole, dites « tombes à tholos » en forme de ruche, construites selon la technique de l’encorbellement. Il leur a été donné des noms de fantaisie évoquant les héros homériques : trésors d’Atrée, d’Agamemnon, de Clytemnestre, d’Égisthe, etc.

Ces tombes, précédées d’un long corridor à ciel ouvert (dromos), étaient accessibles par une porte monumentale.

Celle de la tombe dite « Trésor d’Atrée », accessible par un corridor (dromos) de 36 m de long et de 6 m de large, est surmontée d’un énorme linteau, mesurant 9,50 × 1,20 m et pesant 120 t¹⁶, constitué de deux blocs. Il était déchargé par un triangle en encorbellement, obturé par une plaque décorée¹⁷, analogue au dispositif encore en place sur la porte des Lionnes. La coupole de la chambre funéraire s’élève à 14 m.

• 

  « Trésor d’Atrée » : tombe à coupole

• 

  Coupole en rucher de la tombe dite de Clytemnestre

Musée

Un musée a ouvert ses portes à proximité en 2007.

Musée archéologique de Mycènes

Notes et références

1. ↑ ^a et b Pausanias, Description de la Grèce [détail des éditions] [lire en ligne [archive]], II, 16.
2. ↑ De μὐκης / múkês, le champignon, puis toute excroissance en forme de champignon. Cette étymologie populaire ne repose sur rien, cf. Pierre Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, Paris, Klincksieck, 1999 (édition mise à jour), 1447 p. (ISBN 978-2-25203-277-0) à l’article Μυκῆναι.
3. ↑ Homère, Odyssée [détail des éditions] [lire en ligne [archive]], II, 120.
4. ↑ Pausanias, Description de la Grèce [détail des éditions] [lire en ligne [archive]], II, 16, 4, citant le Catalogue des femmes.
5. ↑ Pausanias, II, 16, 4, qui met en doute la tradition. Voir aussi Eustathe de Thessalonique, commentaire du vers II, 569 de l’Iliade, la scholie au vers 1239 de l’Oreste d’Euripide et Étienne de Byzance à l’article Μυκῆναι.
6. ↑ Homère, Iliade [détail des éditions] [lire en ligne [archive]], 569-576.
7. ↑ Iliade, IV, 51-52.
8. ↑ « πολυχρὐσοιο », Odyssée, III, 305 ; voir aussi Iliade, VII, 180 et XI, 46.
9. ↑ (en) Bryan Hainsworth (éd.), The Iliad: a Commentary, vol. III : Chants IX-XII, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993(ISBN 0-521-28173-3), commentaire du vers XI, 46.
10. ↑ Le terme est forgé par Heinrich Schliemann, découvreur de Mycènes. Claude Mossé et Annie Schnapp-Gourbeillon, Précis d’histoire grecque, Armand Colin, 1990, p. 40.
11. ↑ ^a et b Jean-Claude Poursat, La Grèce préclassique, des origines à la fin du VI^e siècle, Paris, Seuil, coll. « Points Histoire / Nouvelle histoire de l’Antiquité », 1995 (ISBN 2-02-013127-7), p. 45.
12. ↑ Mossé et Schnapp-Gourbeillon, p. 41.
13. ↑ Poursat, p. 47.
14. ↑ Mossé et Schnapp-Gourbeillon, p. 61.
15. ↑ Jared Diamond, Effondrement. Comment les sociétés décident de leur disparition ou de leur survie., Gallimard, 2006.
16. ↑ S. E. Iakovidis, Guide des musées et des sites archéologiques d’Argolide, p. 21-53
17. ↑ actuellement au British Museum : Treasury of Atreus [archive]

• Certains passages de cet article ont été traduits ou adaptés de l’article en allemand « Mykene ».

• Mycènes, sur Wikimedia Commons

Bibliographie

• (fr) S. E. Iakovidis, Guide des musées et des sites archéologiques d’Argolide, Ekdotike Athenon, 1978, p. 21-53

• Civilisation mycénienne
• Achéens
• Linéaire B

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myc%C3%A8nes

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, SANDRO BOTTICELLI: La Calomnie d’Apelle, Galerie des Offices, Florence

Giacobbe Giusti, SANDRO BOTTICELLI: La Calomnie d’Apelle, Galerie des Offices, Florence

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, SANDRO BOTTICELLI: La Calomnie d’Apelle, Galerie des Offices, Florence

La Calomnie d’Apelle (La Calunnia di Apelle) à la Galerie des Offices de Florence

Artiste	Sandro Botticelli
Date	vers 1495
Type	Tempera sur bois
Dimensions (H × L)	62 × 91 cm
Mouvement	Première Renaissance
Localisation	Galerie des Offices, Florence ( Italie)

La Calomnie ou la Calomnie d’Apelle (en italien : La Calunnia di Apelle) est un tableau de Sandro Botticellipeint aux alentours de 1495pour Antonio Segni, un banquier florentin. Cette œuvre d’art, réservée à un public d’esthètes initiés lors de sa conception, est conservée à Florence, dans la Galerie des Offices.

Cette peinture dont le sujet est la calomnie, est une allégorie. Les allusions mythologiques sont nombreuses : sur les frises dorées, sur les statues antiques, et bien sûr, par les personnages eux-mêmes. Contrairement à ce que l’on pourrait croire le personnage ici calomnié n’est pas Apelle de Cos (le peintre grec auteur de La Calomnie) mais est comme tous les autres personnages une allégorie.

Description des personnages

De gauche à droite, on observe :

• En retrait :
  • Une jeune femme nue, pointant le doigt au ciel ;
  • Une vieille femme en toge noire, la toisant, et avançant ses deux poignets croisés vers l’homme à terre.

• Dans la cour de justice :
  • Un homme à terre vêtu seulement d’un pagne, les mains en prière ;
  • Une femme richement vêtue, tenant une torche et tirant le précédent par les cheveux ;
  • Deux femmes la coiffant ;
  • Un homme en guenilles, raidi, son bras tout droit vers le visage de l’homme de l’autel, son autre bras tenant le poignet de la femme richement vêtue.

• Sur l’autel :
  • Un homme au visage accablé, les yeux fermés, assis sur le trône ; en observant bien le détail, ses oreilles d’âneapparaissent : c’est un mauvais juge ;
  • Deux femmes lui susurrant des mots aux oreilles, de part et d’autre.

• 

  Détail du juge influencé

• 

  Détail de La Calomnie

• 

  Détail des personnages en retrait

Analyse du tableau

Son titre provient de la description d’un tableau d’Apelle de Cos qui a vécu au iv^e siècle av. J.-C. qui est perdu mais dont il subsiste une description faite par Lucien de Samosate¹.

Identification des personnages

La peinture comprend neuf figures allégoriques parmi les personnages de l’avant-scène. Leur identification reste du domaine de l’interprétation, les allégories étant toutes des abstractions personnifiées renvoyant à des idées.

• En retrait :
  • Une jeune femme : la Vénus invoque la Vérité céleste ;
  • Une vieille femme en toge : représente la Pénitence, ou le Remords².

• Dans la cour de justice :
  • Un homme à terre : Le Calomnié
  • Une femme richement vêtue : la Calomnie ;
  • Deux femmes la coiffant :
    • La Séduction et la Fourberie, maquillent la Calomnie pour l’apprêter ;
    • Autre interprétation : le Piège et la Fraude²
  • Un homme en guenilles : la Haine vindicatrice, ou l’Envie²

• Sur l’autel :
  • Un homme au visage accablé : le roi Midas influencé ;
  • Deux femmes lui susurrant des mots :
    • Le Soupçon
    • La Duperie ou l’Ignorance²

Identification des statues

En arrière-plan figurent des statues posées dans des alcôves.

• Statue à l’extrême droite, derrière Midas : Judith avec la tête d’Holopherne, tranchée à ses pieds (thème : Judith et Holopherne) ;
• Statue au-dessus de la Calomnie : David, ou Thésée ;
• Autres statues : Jupiter et Antiope ; Minerve et la tête de Méduse².

Identification des frises dorées

Les murs de la cour de Justice sont couverts de bas reliefs de métal précieux.

• Frise au-dessus de la Vérité : combats de centaures ou centauromachie ;
• Frise au-dessus de la Pénitence : rencontre d’Ariane et de Bacchus ;
• Frise en dessous de Midas : la famille des centaures².

Évolution de la Vénus de Botticelli

Apelle, peintre de l’Antiquité, attira Sandro Botticelli par ses œuvres sur le thème de la Vénus sortie des eaux, étudié énormément par le peintre de la Renaissance. On retrouve d’ailleurs Vénus en tant que personnage le plus à gauche de la Calomnie, sous la forme de la Vérité nue, invoquant le jugement du Ciel par son doigt levé.

Botticelli en vient donc à conter un épisode supposé de la vie d’Apelle, l’histoire d’un rejet de la part de ses pairs. Il est fortement probable que le message qu’il voulut donner s’adressait à ses contemporains, et s’appliquait à son époque.

Illustrant cette dureté, la Vénus a perdu ses formes et belles rondeurs dont Sandro l’avait dotée lors de sa naissance. Cette évolution, peut-être indépendante du reste du tableau, est vraisemblablement le résultat de l’influence de Savonarole sur le peintre, qui alla jusque mettre au pilori certaines peintures de sa période précédente pour mieux se mettre en accord avec ses nouveaux crédos.

Notes et références

1. ↑ Lucien de Samosate, Portraits du sophiste en amateur d’art, texte édité par Sandrine Dubel, p. 86-90, : Qu’il ne faut pas croire légèrement à la délation, Editions d’Ulm
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e et f} Site avec analyse du tableau [archive]

• Les œuvres de Botticelli aux Offices de Florence

• Apelle, le peintre antique, dont le tableau est une reprise de son œuvre La Calomnie
• Sandro Botticelli

• La Calomnie d’Apèles, 1495 [archive] – Web Gallery of Art
• Analyse de La Calomnie d’Apèles [archive] – Institut provincial des Arts et Métiers de Nivelles (Belgique)

Livres

• DUVERNE Marie-Paule, Galerie de Poche : Botticelli, Paris, Gründ, 2002 (version originale : CARVALHO DE MAGALHAES Roberto) Pages 34-35
• TOSONE Augusta, Galerie des Offices : Guide Officiel, toutes les œuvres, Florence, Giunti, 2009 (traduction : ASTE Henri (lexique), CAREDDA Valeria et CHEVALLIER Delphine) Pages 7
• Auteur anonyme, Botticelli, Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), Scala, 2010, Pages 73-74

[masquer] v · m Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)
Entourage et mécènes	Fra Filippo Lippi • Filippino Lippi • Michel Marulle • Julien de Médicis • Laurent de Médicis • Laurent II de Médicis • Michel-Ange • Flavius Mithridate • Pic de la Mirandole • Ange Politien • Savonarole • Sixte IV • Simonetta Vespucci • Léonard de Vinci
Portraits	Jeune homme (Florence) (1470) • Homme avec médaille (1474) • Esmeralda Brandini (1475) • Catherine Sforza (1475) • Simonetta Vespucci (1476-1480) • Julien de Médicis (Washington) (1478-1480) • Jeune homme (Washington) (1482-1485) • Jeune homme (Londres) (1483) • Jeune homme (Paris) (1475-1500) • Jeune femme (Francfort) (1480-1485) • Jeune femme (Florence) (1485) • Lorenzo Lorenzi (1490-1495) • Dante (1495)  • Michel Marulle (1497)
Œuvres profanes	Pallas et le Centaure (1482) • Le Printemps (1482) • Vénus et Mars (1483) • Nastagio degli Onesti (I), (II), (III), (IV) (1483) • La Naissance de Vénus (1485) • Fresques de la villa Tornabuoni (1483-1486) • La Calomnie d’Apelle (1495) • Virginie Romana (1498) • La Tragédie de Lucrèce (1498)
Scènes bibliques	Le Retour de Judith à Béthulie (1470) • La Découverte du cadavre d’Holopherne (1470) • Retable de Saint-Ambroise (1470) • L’Adoration des mages (Florence) (1475) • Scènes de l’histoire d’Esther (1475) • L’Annonciation de San Martino alla Scala (1481) • Les Épreuves de Moïse (1481-1482) • La Punition des rebelles (1481-1482) • La Tentation du Christ (1481-1482) • L’Adoration des mages (Washington) (1482) • L’Annonciation du Cestello (1489-1490) • La Nativité (1488-1490) • Retable de San Marco (1488-1492) • La Lamentation sur le Christ mort (Munich) (1490-1495) • La Lamentation sur le Christ mort (Milan) (1490-1495) • La Nativité mystique (1500-1501)
Madones	La Vierge à l’Enfant (1467) • La Vierge de la loggia (1467) • La Vierge à l’Enfant avec deux anges (1468-1469) • La Vierge à l’Enfant avec deux anges et Jean-Baptiste (1468-1470) • La Vierge à la roseraie (1469-1470) • La Vierge et l’Enfant avec le jeune saint Jean-Baptiste (1470-1475) • La Madone de l’Eucharistie (1470) • La Madone Bardi (1480) • La Madone du livre (1480) • La Madone du Magnificat (1481) • La Vierge à la grenade (1487) • La Madone du pavillon (1493)
Autres œuvres religieuses	La Force (1470) • Saint Sébastien (1474) • Saint Augustin (Ognissanti) (1480) • Saint Augustin (Offices) (1490-1494) • Divine Comédie (1485-1490) • La Dernière Communion de saint Jérôme (1494-1495) • Saint Jérôme (v. 1500) • Scènes de la vie de saint Zénobe (1500-1505)
Auteurs (xxe et xxie siècles)	Cristina Acidini Luchinat • Daniel Arasse • Giulio Carlo Argan • Umberto Baldini • Chiara Basta • Bernard Berenson • Horst Bredekamp • Marcel Brion • André Chastel • Sophie Chauveau • John Pope-Hennessy • Aby Warburg • Frank Zöllner

• 

• Tableau de Sandro Botticelli
• Tableau des années 1490
• Représentation allégorique dans l’art
• Mythologie gréco-romaine dans la peinture
• Œuvre conservée à la Galerie des Offices

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Calomnie_d%27Apelle_(Botticelli)

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Baïes

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Baïes

Testa di Apollo dell’Omphalos, di Calamide, da Baia. Museo archeologico di Napoli

Giacobbe Giusti, Baïes

Thermal baths of the sector of Sosandra

Giacobbe Giusti, Baïes

The « Tempio di Mercurio » at Baiae was the frigidarium swimming pool of a large bath. It is believed to be the oldest example of a large dome in history.

Giacobbe Giusti, Baïes

Mosaic in the baths of Venus

Giacobbe Giusti, Baïes

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Baïes

William Turner, La Baie de Baïes avec Apollon et la Sibylle(1821), Londres, Tate Britain.

Géographie

Pays	Italie
Région	Campanie
Cité métropolitaine	Ville métropolitaine de Naples
Commune	Bacoli
Coordonnées	40° 49′ 00″ N, 14° 04′ 11″ E

Fonctionnement

Statut	Source chaude, frazione

Identifiants

Code postal	80070
Indicatif téléphonique	081

Baïes (prononcer [ba.i]) est une station balnéaire de l’antiquité romaine, célèbre pour son ambiance sulfureuse, au propre comme au figuré. Aujourd’hui, c’est la cité italienne de Baia, une frazione de la commune de Bacoli, en Campanie.

Le site

Baïes est située au nord du golfe de Naples, dans une anse sur la rive est du cap Misène, entre la pointe de la Lanterne au sud et la pointe de l’Épitaphe au nord. Elle est à proximité de la base navale romaine de Misène, et fait face à Pouzzoles, de l’autre côté de la baie de Pouzzoles.

Ensemble de villae de villégiature étagées sur la pente intérieure d’un ancien cratère en partie submergé par la mer, Baïes doit son succès à la douceur de son climat et à la présence de sources thermales engendrées par le volcanisme actif des Champs Phlégréens. Ces sources chaudes, sulfureuses ou salines, sont vantées comme les plus curatives et les plus abondantes d’Italie par Pline l’Ancien¹, Strabon², Florus³, Fronton⁴ et même Flavius Josèphe⁵.

Le site antique est de nos jours en partie submergé, en raison de l’affaissement du terrain causé par des phénomènes bradysismiques⁶.

Histoire

Selon la légende rapportée par Strabon, Baïes tirerait son nom de la présence de la sépulture de Baios, compagnon d’Ulysse. Silius Italicusconfirme cette tradition, et indique que Hannibal Barca visite ce site après la reddition de Capoue⁷. Tite-Live nous donne la mention la plus ancienne que nous ayons de la réputation curative des bains de la région, avec la vaine tentative de traiter la paralysie partielle du consul Cnaeus Cornelius Scipio Hispallus à Cumes en 176 av. J.-C⁸.

De nombreux notables romains à la fin de la République se font construire des résidences d’été, créant un climat de lieu de plaisirs qu’évoque Cicéron : « les accusateurs répètent avec affectation les mots de libertinage, d’amours, d’adultères, de Baïes, de rivages, de festins, de repas nocturnes, de chants de musique, de promenades sur l’eau⁹ », ou Properce¹⁰. Caius Marius, l’orateur Lucius Licinius Crassus, Pompée, Jules César, Cicéron, Varron, Hortensius¹¹ y ont leur villa¹². Le littoral est aménagé et exploité, les premiers parcs à huîtres sont construits peu avant la guerre des Marses¹¹, puis des viviers alimentés en eau de mer. Vitruve et ultérieurement Pline l’Anciensignalent les intéressantes propriétés de la terre pulvérulente du lieu (il s’agit ici de cendres volcaniques). Mêlée à la chaux et aux moellons, elle forme un béton résistant à l’eau, et permet de construire des môles et des piscines d’eau de mer^13,14. Se régaler de poisson frais et d’huîtres devient un luxe ordinaire, posséder voire apprivoiser des murènes un loisir remarqué¹¹.

Le thermalisme se perfectionne, on capte les vapeurs chaudes qui montent du sol dans un bâtiment qui forme une étuve naturelle¹⁵. L’abondance de sources chaudes n’empêche pas le médecin d’Auguste, Antonius Musa, de préconiser des bains de mer glacés, traitements dont il dégoûta Horace¹⁶et qui ne purent sauver le neveu d’Auguste, Marcellus, mort à Baïes en 23 av. J.-C.¹⁷.

Le succès de Baïes continue sous l’Empire, et l’Art d’aimer d’Ovide fait de Baïes, de ses plages et de sa station thermale l’autre endroit après Rome où chercher des conquêtes féminines¹⁸. Auguste et ses successeurs y aménagent un vaste et luxueux palais⁵.

En 39, c’est dans ce palais que Hérode Antipas, tétrarque de Galiléeet de Pérée, vient solliciter Caligula, en vain car celui-ci l’exile en Gaule⁵. Parmi ses extravagances, Caligula réquisitionne tout ce qui flotte et jette un pont de bateaux de Baïes à Pouzzoles, sur une longueur de trois mille six cents pas, sur lequel il parade pendant plusieurs jours¹⁹. Néron réside à Baïes, tandis que Agrippine a sa villa à proximité, à Baule, où elle est assassinée en 59²⁰. Sénèque, contemporain de cet événement, exprime le mépris du sage pour ce lieu : « Baïes est devenu le lieu de plaisance de tous les vices. Là, le plaisir se permet plus de choses qu’ailleurs ; là, comme si c’était une convenance même du lieu, il se met plus à l’aise. […] Avoir le spectacle de l’ivresse errante sur ces rivages, de l’orgie qui passe en gondoles, des concerts de voix qui résonnent sur le lac, et de tous les excès d’une débauche comme affranchie de toute loi, qui fait le mal et le fait avec ostentation, est-ce là une nécessité ²¹? ».

Plus plaisamment, Juvénal qui caricature les prodigues endettés, fait de Baïes le refuge où ils se régalent d’huitres loin de leurs créanciers²², huîtres dont Martialvante la qualité²³. L’empereur Hadrien vient à Baïes soulager ses douleurs et y termine ses jours en 138^24,25. Alexandre Sévère embellit le palais impérial de Baïes de bâtiments dédiés à ses parents et de lacs artificiels alimentés en eau de mer²⁶. Tacite est désigné empereur par le Sénat en 275 alors qu’il séjourne dans sa villa de Baïes²⁷.

À la fin de l’Empire, le lent affaissement des terrains causé par le bradyséisme provoque la submersion du rivage, dans un premier temps entre le iii^e et le v^e siècle, puis du vii^e au viii^e siècle. Les terres les plus basses, entre la pointe Castello et la pointe Epitaffio, se sont donc trouvées immergées. Aujourd’hui, entre trois et huit mètres de fond, gisent la via Herculanea, le complexe thermal de la villa dei Pisoni, les mosaïques de la villa Protir. L’éruption du Monte Nuovo à 2 km au nord de Baïes en 1538 recouvre des sites romains d’un cône de scories de 800 mètres à la base et provoqua d’importantes variations de niveau marin (gonflement de 6 mètres suivi d’un tassement de 4 mètres observé à Pouzzoles)⁶.

Les parties englouties sont désormais protégés en tant que réserve marine²⁸.

Vestiges archéologiques

Intérieur du temple de Mercure.

Article détaillé : Parc archéologique de Baïes.

Les importants vestiges archéologiques, dégagés à partir de 1923 par Amedeo Maiuri^29,12, puis lors d’une intense campagne de fouilles en 1941, ont révélé une stratification des constructions, de villas et de complexes thermaux, appartenant à une période historique allant de la fin de l’époque républicaine à l’époque d’Auguste, d’Hadrien et des Sévères. La découverte en 1969 près de la pointe de l’Épitaphe de statues de marbre représentant Ulysse et son compagnon Baios a été suivie d’une campagne de fouilles sous-marines, qui ont fait découvrir un nymphée daté de l’époque de Claude.

Le musée archéologique

Sérapis, marbre blanc, musée archéologique de Bacoli. La statue romaine a été retrouvée dans le golfe de Pouzzoles.

Sur un promontoire qui surplombe la mer se trouve le Castello Aragonese (château aragonais), construit en 1495 sur les ruines du palais impérial romain. On a découvert dans son donjon des vestiges de peinture antique en trompe-l’œil du II^e style pompéien et un sol en mosaïque au décor de lignes entrelacées, tracées en cubes blancs et insérées dans un fond de tuileau rose. Le château héberge le musée archéologique des champs Phlégréens, inauguré en 1993. En 2009, il totalise 57 salles qui sont rarement toutes ouvertes simultanément. Le musée expose des objets grecs, samnites et romains trouvés à Baïes même et sur les sites voisins³⁰.

Objets grecs, samnites, romains

Le nymphée découvert lors des campagnes de fouilles sous-marines de 1980-1982 sous les eaux de la pointe de l’Épitaphe a été reconstitué au musée dans une grotte artificielle. Il figure l’épisode de l’Odyssée dans lequel Ulysse, aidé d’un de ses compagnons, identifié ici à Baios, apporte un récipient plein de vin au CyclopePolyphème, dont la statue n’a pas été retrouvée. Les niches sur les côtés du nymphée représentaient des statues de membres de la famille impériale à l’époque de Claude.

La statue équestre de bronze trouvée en 1968 dans le sacellumdes augustales de Misène a d’abord figuré les traits de Domitien, mais après la damnatio memoriae de cet empereur, son visage a été scié et remplacé par celui de Nerva.

Une tombe samnite datée de 300-290 av. J.-C., dont les parois intérieures sont décorées de fresques, représente le banquet funèbre du couple défunt.

Dans la cour, le portique du forumde Pouzzoles a été reconstitué à l’aide de fragments antiques et de moulages de caryatides.

Baïes dans la culture

Le lieu est cité par le poète Valery Larbaud dans son poème Carpe Diem.

Le lieu est également cité dans Les tablettes de buis d’Apronenia Avitiade Pascal Quignard (Gallimard, 1984).

Notes et références

1. ↑ Pline l’Ancien, Histoire naturelle[détail des éditions] [lire en ligne [archive]], XXXI, 2.
2. ↑ Strabon, Géographie [détail des éditions] [lire en ligne [archive]], V, 9.
3. ↑ Florus, Abrégé de l’Histoire Romaine [détail des éditions] [lire en ligne [archive]], I, 16.
4. ↑ Fronton, Lettres de Fronton à César, lettre V.
5. ↑ ^a, b et c Flavius Josèphe, Antiquités Judaïques [lire en ligne [archive]], XVIII, 7-2.
6. ↑ ^a et b Maurice Krafft, Guide des volcans d’Europe et des Canaries, 1991 (ISBN 2603008137).
7. ↑ Silius Italicus, Punica, XII.
8. ↑ Tite-Live, Histoire romaine [détail des éditions] [lire en ligne [archive]], XLI, 16.
9. ↑ Cicéron, Pro Caelio, XV.
10. ↑ Properce, Élégies [détail des éditions] [lire en ligne [archive]], I, 11.
11. ↑ ^a, b et c Pline l’Ancien, IX, 79.
12. ↑ ^a et b Bernard Andreae, L’Art de l’ancienne Rome, Mazenod, 1973 (rééd. 1988) (ISBN 2850880043), p. 530.
13. ↑ Vitruve, De l’architecture [lire en ligne [archive]], II, 6-1.
14. ↑ Pline l’Ancien, XXXV, 47.
15. ↑ Celse, Traité de la médecine, III, 17.
16. ↑ Horace, Épitres, XV.
17. ↑ Properce, III, 18.
18. ↑ Ovide, Art d’aimer [détail des éditions] [lire en ligne [archive]], I, 255.
19. ↑ Suétone, Vie des douze Césars, « Caligula », 19.
20. ↑ Tacite, Annales [lire en ligne [archive]], XIV, 4-8.
21. ↑ Sénèque, Lettres à Lucilius, lettre 51.
22. ↑ Juvénal, Satires XI, v 49
23. ↑ Martial, Épigrammes [détail des éditions] [lire en ligne [archive]], X, 37.
24. ↑ Histoire Auguste, Vie d’Hadrien, 25 et Vie d’Antonin le Pieux, 5.
25. ↑ Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus, XIV.
26. ↑ Histoire Auguste, Alexandre Sévère, 26.
27. ↑ Histoire Auguste, Tacite, 7.
28. ↑ GEO, n°398, avril 2012, p. 94.
29. ↑ Amedeo Maiuri, Die Altertümer der phlegräischen Felder. Vom Grab des Vergil bis zur Höhle von Cumae., 1938.
30. ↑ Alix Barbet, « Baïes, splendeurs romaines du golfe de Naples », Archéologia, n^o 469, septembre 2009.

Giacobbe Giusti, BOTTICELLI: Vénus et Mars

Giacobbe Giusti, BOTTICELLI: Vénus et Mars

 

Giacobbe Giusti, BOTTICELLI: Vénus et Mars

Vénus et Mars

Giacobbe Giusti, BOTTICELLI: Vénus et Mars

Vénus et Mars (Botticelli)

Artiste	Sandro Botticelli
Date	Env. 1483
Technique	Tempera sur bois
Dimensions (H × L)	69 × 173 cm
Mouvement	Première Renaissance
Localisation	National Gallery, Londres(Grande-Bretagne)
Numéro d’inventaire	NG915

Giacobbe Giusti, BOTTICELLI: Vénus et Mars

 

Détail

Le Vénus et Mars (en italien : Venere e Marte) est une peinture de Sandro Botticelli, une tempera et sur bois (69 × 173 cm) datant de 1483environ, conservée à la National Gallery à Londres.

Histoire

La provenance de l’œuvre est inconnue. L’œuvre est généralement datée postérieurement au retour du séjour romain de Botticelli (1482), par le côté classique que l’auteur a probablement étudié à partir des sarcophages antiques vus à Rome. Le tableau est comparable aux autres peintures de la série mythologique et allégorique comprenant le Printemps, la Naissance de Vénus et Pallas et le Centaure.

Par ses dimensions, le tableau est cité comme celui d’un panneau de coffre de mariage (cassone) ou encore celui de la spalliera d’un lit.

La présence de guêpes (vespe » en italien), en haut à droite, suggèrent un lien avec la famille Vespucci qui l’auraient commandée à l’occasion d’un mariage, ou encore le symbole de la « piqûre » de l’amour.

Description

L’ouvrage montre le dieu de guerre romain Mars et la déesse de l’amour Vénus dans une allégorie de la beauté et de la vaillance. Vénus regarde Mars allongé et endormi, tandis que trois satyres enfants jouent avec sa lance et un quatrième avec sa cuirasse (sous son bras). Un quatrième souffle dans une conque à son oreille afin de le réveiller.

La scène se déroule dans une forêt, avec, en arrière-plan, la mer où Vénus est née. Un bosquet de myrte, l’arbre de Vénus, forme la toile de fond aux deux dieux qui sont situés l’en face à l’autre, dans un pré. Des guêpes issu d’un nid volent autour de la tête de Mars, peut-être comme un rappel que l’amour est souvent accompagné de douleur¹.

La déesse de l’amour, entièrement habillée et soigneusement peignée, habillée d’un fin habit blanc finement plissé, regarde fixement Mars qui dort dans une représentation sculpturale de la beauté idéale du nu masculin, vêtu uniquement d’un fin drapé blanc posé sur ses parties intimes. Le Dieu de la guerre a retiré son armure et est allongé sur son manteau rouge alors que de petits faunes jouent avec ses attributs guerriers, casque, armes et lance.

Analyse

Mars, Dieu de la guerre, a été l’un des amants de Vénus, la déesse de l’amour. Ici Mars est endormi et non armé, tandis que Vénus est éveillée et en alerte.

Outre la figuration de « la petite mort » suivant l’orgasme (Mars est endormi et désarmé de « sa lance » dont les faunes s’emparent), le sens allégorique de l’œuvre manque d’évidence, comme pour la plupart des œuvres de la Renaissance. Il peut traiter, selon le principe du Néoplatonisme médicéen, de la question du pouvoir de l’amour (Vénus-Humanitas), c’est-à-dire le plus haut degré de l’évolution humaine, battant la force du guerrier (Mars, Dieu de la guerre et de la force destructrice).

L’œuvre est l’un des premiers exemples de la peinture de la Renaissance représentant ces êtres hybrides malicieux et vivants.

Les guêpes peuvent être une référence au client qui a commandé à la peinture. Elles font en effet partie des armoiries de la famille Vespucci, dont le nom vient de la l’italien «  vespa ». La famille Vespucci était apparentée aux Médicis, mécènes de Botticelli, par le mariage en 1482 entre Pierfrancesco Medici et Semiramide Vespucci. Ici, le peintre s’est vraisemblablement inspiré de Simonetta Vespucci pour représenter Vénus. Les guêpes peuvent également avoir une signification symbolique, se référant à celui qui, dans les plaisirs de l’amour, peut être « piqué » par la douleur.

La composition comporte diverses particularités stylistiques : d’une part, les figures de Vénus et Mars se trouvent dans une position symétrique formant avec les trois faunes tenant la lance un triangle inversé. Les personnages principaux sont immobiles, Mars est passif, il dort, tandis que Vénus, vigilante, est éveillée ; la diagonale qui retrace le corps de Vénus, du haut depuis la gauche vers le bas, invite au repos, tandis que la ligne oblique de Mars, montant du bas gauche jusqu’en en haut du tableau à droite, peut être lue plus active.

Notes et références

1. ↑Potterton, 36

Sources

• (it) Cet article est partiellement ou en totalité issu de l’article de Wikipédia en italien intitulé « Venere e Marte » (voir la liste des auteurs).

Bibliographie

• Homan Potterton, The National Gallery Londres, Thames and Hudson, 1977.
• Gail S. Weinberg. D.G. Rossetti’s ownership of Botticelli’s ‘Smeralda Brandini’ in The Burlington Magazine, janvier 2004.
• L’opera completa del Botticelli, collana Classici dell’arte Rizzoli, Rizzoli, Milan, 1978.
• Bruno Santi, Botticelli, in I protagonisti dell’arte italiana, Scala Group, Florence, 2001 (ISBN8881170914)
• Pierluigi De Vecchi, Elda Cerchiari, I tempi dell’arte, volume 2, Bompiani, Milan, 1999 (ISBN88-451-7212-0)
• Gloria Fossi, Uffizi, Giunti, Florence, 2004 (ISBN88-09-03675-1)

Articles connexes

• Liste d’œuvres de Sandro Botticelli

• Fiche sur le site Nationalgallery.org.uk [archive]
• Vénus et Mars sur Commons

[masquer] v · m Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)
Entourage et mécènes	Fra Filippo Lippi • Filippino Lippi • Michel Marulle • Julien de Médicis • Laurent de Médicis • Laurent II de Médicis • Michel-Ange • Flavius Mithridate • Pic de la Mirandole • Ange Politien • Savonarole • Sixte IV • Simonetta Vespucci • Léonard de Vinci
Portraits	Jeune homme (Florence)(1470) • Homme avec médaille(1474) • Esmeralda Brandini(1475) • Catherine Sforza(1475) • Simonetta Vespucci(1476-1480) • Julien de Médicis (Washington)(1478-1480) • Jeune homme (Washington)(1482-1485) • Jeune homme (Londres)(1483) • Jeune homme (Paris)(1475-1500) • Jeune femme (Francfort)(1480-1485) • Jeune femme (Florence)(1485) • Lorenzo Lorenzi(1490-1495) • Dante(1495)  • Michel Marulle(1497)
Œuvres profanes	Pallas et le Centaure(1482) • Le Printemps(1482) • Vénus et Mars(1483) • Nastagio degli Onesti (I), (II), (III), (IV)(1483) • La Naissance de Vénus(1485) • Fresques de la villa Tornabuoni(1483-1486) • La Calomnie d’Apelle(1495) • Virginie Romana(1498) • La Tragédie de Lucrèce(1498)
Scènes bibliques	Le Retour de Judith à Béthulie(1470) • La Découverte du cadavre d’Holopherne(1470) • Retable de Saint-Ambroise(1470) • L’Adoration des mages (Florence)(1475) • Scènes de l’histoire d’Esther(1475) • L’Annonciation de San Martino alla Scala(1481) • Les Épreuves de Moïse(1481-1482) • La Punition des rebelles(1481-1482) • La Tentation du Christ(1481-1482) • L’Adoration des mages (Washington)(1482) • L’Annonciation du Cestello(1489-1490) • La Nativité(1488-1490) • Retable de San Marco(1488-1492) • La Lamentation sur le Christ mort (Munich)(1490-1495) • La Lamentation sur le Christ mort (Milan)(1490-1495) • La Nativité mystique(1500-1501)
Madones	La Vierge à l’Enfant(1467) • La Vierge de la loggia(1467) • La Vierge à l’Enfant avec deux anges(1468-1469) • La Vierge à l’Enfant avec deux anges et Jean-Baptiste(1468-1470) • La Vierge à la roseraie(1469-1470) • La Vierge et l’Enfant avec le jeune saint Jean-Baptiste(1470-1475) • La Madone de l’Eucharistie(1470) • La Madone Bardi(1480) • La Madone du livre(1480) • La Madone du Magnificat(1481) • La Vierge à la grenade(1487) • La Madone du pavillon(1493)
Autres œuvres religieuses	La Force(1470) • Saint Sébastien(1474) • Saint Augustin (Ognissanti)(1480) • Saint Augustin (Offices)(1490-1494) • Divine Comédie(1485-1490) • La Dernière Communion de saint Jérôme(1494-1495) • Saint Jérôme(v. 1500) • Scènes de la vie de saint Zénobe(1500-1505)
Auteurs (xxe et xxie siècles)	Cristina Acidini Luchinat • Daniel Arasse • Giulio Carlo Argan • Umberto Baldini • Chiara Basta • Bernard Berenson • Horst Bredekamp • Marcel Brion • André Chastel • Sophie Chauveau • John Pope-Hennessy • Aby Warburg • Frank Zöllner

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9nus_et_Mars

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Brixia

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Brixia

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Brixia

Giacobbe Giusti, Brixia

La Vittoria Alata di Brescia

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Capitolium of Brixia

Il colonnato del tempio con, sul frontone, la dedica all’imperatore Vespasiano

 

(Cristian Lorini)

Tempio Capitolino

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Capitolium of Brixia

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Capitolium of Brixia

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Capitolium of Brixia

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Capitolium of Brixia

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Capitolium of Brixia

:Brescia Capitoline Temple

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti,

Domus dell’Ortaglia

La raffigurazione musiva che ha dato il nome alla domus di Dioniso

Giacobbe Giusti, Domus dell’Ortaglia

Un ramo con frutto. Dettaglio del pavimento romano a mosaico, del secolo II d.C., nella Domus dell’Ortaglia a Brescia. Versione ritoccata di Stefano

Bolognini

 

Capitolium of Brixia

UNESCO World Heritage Site Giacobbe Giusti, Capitolium of Brixia
Capitolium of Brixia Giacobbe Giusti, Capitolium of Brixia
Official name	The monumental area with the monastic complex of San Salvatore-Santa Giulia
Location	Brescia, Italy
Part of	Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power (568–774 A.D.)
Criteria	Cultural: (ii), (iii), (vi)
Reference	1318-002
Inscription	2011 (35th Session)
Location of Capitolium of Brixia in Italy.

The Capitolium of Brixia or the Temple of the Capitoline Triad in Brescia was the main temple in the center of the Roman town of Brixia (Brescia). It is represented at present by fragmentary ruins, but is part of an archeological site, including a Roman amphitheatre and museum in central Brescia.

History

The temple was built in 73 AD during the rule of emperor Vespasian. The prominent elevated location and the three identifiable cellae, each with their own polychrome marble floor, all help confirm that this temple would have represented the capitolium of the town, that is the temple dedicated to the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The Capitolium replaced an earlier set of temples, a « Republican Sanctuary », consisting apparently of four discrete temples that had been erected around 75-90 BC, and refurbished during the reign of Augustus.^[1]

The three cellae of the capitolium have been rebuilt, and the walls of the left cella are used as a lapidarium to display local epigraphs found during the 19th centuries. In front of the cellae, are the partially reconstructed remains of a portico, which was composed of Corinthian columns that supported a pediment with a dedication to the Emperor Vespasian.

The complex, and other Roman ruins are located at one end of Via dei Museii, once the original Decumanus Maximus of Brixia, which coursed some 5 meters below the present street level, and along the route of the . Broad stairs rose up to portico from the Decumanus.

Almost entirely buried by a landslide of the Cidneo Hill, the temple was rediscovered in 1823. Reconstruction was performed soon after by Rodolfo Vantini. During excavation in 1826, a splendid bronze statue of a winged Victory was found inside it, likely hidden in late antiquity to preserve it from pillage.^[2]

 

References

1. Jump up^ Brescian Parco Archeologico, official website.
2. Jump up^ Brescia Museums, entry on Capitolium.

 

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brixia_(archeologia)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Capitoline_temple_(Brescia)

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Pierres levées de Stenness

Giacobbe Giusti, Pierres levées de Stenness

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Pierres levées de Stenness
Localisation
Pays	Écosse
Coordonnées	58° 59′ 38″ nord, 3° 12′ 28″ ouest
Géolocalisation sur la carte : Écosse Pierres levées de Stenness

Les pierres levées de Stenness (Stenness Standing Stones) sont un monument mégalithiquecomposé d’un cercle de douze pierres dressées vers 3000 av. J.-C. sur un site de cérémonie. Il n’en subsiste que quatre, la plus grande culminant à 6 m. Inscrites depuis 1999 sur la liste du patrimoine mondial au sein du bien intitulé « Cœur néolithique des Orcades », elles sont situées dans la partie sud–ouest de Mainland, île principale des Orcades, près de Maeshowe. C’est peut être le plus ancien henge situé dans les îles britanniques. Plusieurs autres monuments néolithiques résident également dans le voisinage, ce qui suggère que cette région avait une importance particulière.

Sur les autres projets Wikimedia :

• Pierres levées de Stenness, sur Wikimedia Commons

• 
• 
• 

Notes et références

Voir aussi

Bibliographie

• La Saga des Orcadiens, traduite par Jean Renaud, Éditions Aubier, 1990 (ISBN 2-7007-1642-6).

Documentaire

• Orcades, un pèlerinage néolithique, dans la série Enquêtes archéologiques. France, 2016, 27 min. Réalisation : Agnès Molia, Raphaël Licandro . Coproduction : ARTE France, diffusé sur arte [présentation en ligne [archive]].

Мегалиты Стеннеса

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Материал из Википедии — свободной энциклопедии

Кромлех
Мегалиты Стеннеса
Страна	Великобритания
Местоположение	Оркнейские острова
Объект всемирного наследия
Heart of Neolithic Orkney (Памятники неолита на Оркнейских островах)
Ссылка	№ 514 в списке объектов всемирного наследия (en)
Критерии	i, ii, iii, iv
Регион	Европа и Северная Америка
Включение	1999  (23-я сессия)

Мегалиты Стеннеса (англ. Standing Stones of Stenness) — кромлех эпохи неолита на Мейнленде, самом большом острове в архипелаге Оркнейских островов, Шотландия. Расположен на юго-западном мысу между озерами Лох-оф-Стеннес и Лох-оф-Харрей. Памятник включён в список Всемирного наследия ЮНЕСКО как один из четырех в объекте Памятники неолита на Оркнейских островах^[1]. В 1,2 км к северо-западу находится Круг Бродгара, чуть восточнее — памятники Мейсхау и Барнхауз, в 3 км к западу — гробница Анстен, а в 10 километрах к северо-западу — Скара-Брей.

Название Стеннес происходит из древненорвежского языка и означает «каменная межа (поля)».

«Наблюдательный камень» (Watch Stone) находится за пределами круга, рядом с современным мостом, ведущм к Кругу Бродгара.

Зарисовка Камня Одина.

Описание

Камни представляют собой тонкие плиты толщиной около 300 мм. Четыре из них, высотой до 5 метров, первоначально являлись элементами эллиптического кромлеха из 12 камней диаметром около 32 метров, сооружённого на ровном участке диаметром 44 метра, окружённой рвом. Ров углубляется в скалистую почву на глубину 2 метра, ширина его составляет 7 метров, он был окружён земляной насыпью с одним проходом с северной стороны. Вход обращён к неолитическому поселению Барнхауз, обнаруженному невдалеке от озера Лох-оф-Харрей. Камень Уотч-Стоун (Watch Stone) расположен вне круга, к северо-западу. Его высота составляет 5,6 метров. Другие, меньшие, камни включают квадратную каменную конструкцию в центре круглой платформы, где были обнаружены кремированные останки костей, уголь и керамика, а во рву вокруг были обнаружены кости животных. Обнаруженная здесь же керамика обладает сходством с керамикой, найденной в Скара-Брей и Мейсхау, таким образом, мегалиты Стеннеса датируются как минимум 3000 г. до н. э.

Мегалиты и местные традиции

Даже в 18 в. с памятником были связаны местные традиции и ритуалы. Жители ошибочно связывали памятники с культами скандинавских богов. В 1814 г. памятник посетил Вальтер Скотт. Помимо него, многие историки зарисовывали памятник и записывали связанные с ним местные предания. В одном из камней, известном как «Камень Одина», было пробито круглое отверстие; камень использовали местные жители для своеобразного обряда обручения, когда обручённые брали друг друга за руки через это отверстие. Камень использовался и в других церемониях.^[2]

В декабре 1814 г. капитан У. Маккей, незадолго до того переехавший на Оркнейские острова и владевший фермой вблизи камней, решил снести их, поскольку был недоволен тем, что местные жители часто ходили по его земле с целью участия в ритуалах вокруг камней. Он начал с того, что разбил камень Одина. Это вызвало скандал и власти остановили его после того, как он успел разрушить один камень и опрокинуть ещё один.

Опрокинутый камень был поднят в 1906 г., и в то же время была проведена реконструкция памятника — как оказалось впоследствии, неточная.^[3]

Примечания

1. ↑ Является одним из 4 объектов Всемирного наследия в Шотландии, вместе с такими, как Старый город (Эдинбург) и Новый город (Эдинбург), Нью-Ланарк и Сент-Килда на Гебридских островах.
2. ↑ Orkneyjar — The Odin Stone
3. ↑ Orkneyjar — The Standing Stones of Stenness

The Standing Stones of Stenness is a Neolithicmonument five miles northeast of Stromness on the mainland of Orkney, Scotland. This may be the oldest henge site in the British Isles. Various traditions associated with the stones survived into the modern era and they form part of the Heart of Neolithic OrkneyWorld Heritage Site. They are looked after by Historic Scotlandas a scheduled monument. ^[1]

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierres_lev%C3%A9es_de_Stenness

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com