Byzantium in the Eleventh Century ― Being in Between

The eleventh century in Byzantium is all about being in between, whether this is between Basil II and Alexios Komnenos, between the forces of the Normans, the Pechenegs and the Turks, or between different social groupings, cultural identities and religious persuasions. It is a period of fundamental changes and transformations, both internal and external, but also a period rife with clichés and dominated by the towering presence of Michael Psellos whose usually self-contradictory accounts continue to loom large in the field of Byzantine studies. The essays collected here, which were delivered at the 45th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, explore new avenues of research and offer new perspectives on this transitional period. The book is divided into four thematic clusters: The Age of Psellos studies this crucial figure and seeks to situate him in his time; Social Structures is concerned with the ways in which the deep structures of Byzantine society and economy responded to change; State and Church offers a set of studies of various political developments in eleventh-century Byzantium; and The Age of Spirituality offers the voices of those for whom Psellos had little time and little use: monks, religious thinkers, and pious laymen.

Marc Lauxtermann is Bywater and Sotheby Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature and Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford University. He hails from Amsterdam. He has written extensively on Byzantine poetry and metre, and is the co-editor of a recent book on the letters of Psellos. Further research interests include translations of oriental tales in Byzantium, the earliest grammars and dictionaries of vernacular Greek, and the development of the Greek language in the eighteenth century.

Mark Whittow is the University Lecturer in Byzantine studies at the University of Oxford. Recent or forthcoming publications include "Byzantium’s Eurasian Policy in the Age of the Turk Empire", in M. Maas, N. Di Cosmo eds. Entangled Empires: Rome, Iran, China, and the Eurasian Steppe in Late Antiquity, ca 250-750 CE (2017), "Byzantium and the Feudal Revolution" in J. Howard-Johnston, M. Whittow, eds., The Transformation of Byzantium (2017), “The End of Antiquity in the Lykos Valley: Setting a New Agenda” in C. Simsek, ed., The Lykos Valley and Neighbourhood in Late Antiquity (2016).