John Kaminiates - The Capture of Thessaloniki
John Kaminiates - The Capture of Thessaloniki

Author: John Kaminiates

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2000-01-01

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 9004344721

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

During the ninth century the Saracen Arabs, who had been expelled from the caliphate of Spain, became an increasing threat to the Byzantine empire, particularly after they established themselves on the island of Crete. In 904 a Saracen force led by Leo of Tripoli sailed to the northern Aegean, captured Abydos and prepared to assault Constantinople, but then in a sudden change of plan sailed westward and captured Thessaloniki after a brief siege. The defences of the city had been neglected and the last-minute attempts which were made to improve them had little effect. The victors sacked the city for ten days, then departed taking as many prisoners as they could hold on board their ships. One of these prisoners was Kaminiates, who was later set free in an exchange of prisoners. He subsequently wrote a detailed account of the siege. This book presents the Greek text (as established by Gertrud Böhlig, reprinted by permission of the publisher, W. De Gruyter), together with the first English translation, made by David Frendo, and an introduction and notes by David Frendo and Thanos Fotiou.

Reading Eustathios of Thessalonike
Reading Eustathios of Thessalonike

Author: Filippomaria Pontani

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2017-02-20

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 3110524902

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Despite the relevance of Eustathios to both Classical and Byzantine studies, no monograph and no collective volume in English has yet been devoted to his figure. This book attempts to fill in this gap by addressing the various facets of his output - above all his commentaries on Homer, Dionysius the Periegete, Pindar, and the Iambic Canon on the Pentecost; but also his historiographical work, his speeches and his theological production receive due attention. The book also tackles several aspects of Eustathios‘ style (proverbs, allusions, etc.), and the meaning of his work in the context of his historical moment. Addressed at specialists but also at graduate students with an interest in the reception of Classical antiquity and in Byzantine civilisation, the volume gathers papers by leading scholars from various countries, and it opens up new paths of research in several areas of philology and history, above all by interweaving and juxtaposing Eustathios‘ dimension as an Homerist and an immensely learned classical scholar with his capacities as an orator, a highly praised teacher, a rhetorically refined writer of Greek prose, an historian of his own turbulent times, and an archbishop who had to fulfil his everyday duties.

Reading Eustathios of Thessalonike
Reading Eustathios of Thessalonike

Author: Filippomaria Pontani

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2017-02-20

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 3110523205

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Despite the relevance of Eustathios to both Classical and Byzantine studies, no monograph and no collective volume in English has yet been devoted to his figure. This book attempts to fill in this gap by addressing the various facets of his output - above all his commentaries on Homer, Dionysius the Periegete, Pindar, and the Iambic Canon on the Pentecost; but also his historiographical work, his speeches and his theological production receive due attention. The book also tackles several aspects of Eustathios‘ style (proverbs, allusions, etc.), and the meaning of his work in the context of his historical moment. Addressed at specialists but also at graduate students with an interest in the reception of Classical antiquity and in Byzantine civilisation, the volume gathers papers by leading scholars from various countries, and it opens up new paths of research in several areas of philology and history, above all by interweaving and juxtaposing Eustathios‘ dimension as an Homerist and an immensely learned classical scholar with his capacities as an orator, a highly praised teacher, a rhetorically refined writer of Greek prose, an historian of his own turbulent times, and an archbishop who had to fulfil his everyday duties.

Witness Literature in Byzantium
Witness Literature in Byzantium

Author: Adam J. Goldwyn

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-08-06

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 3030788571

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book analyzes Byzantine examples of witness literature, a genre that focuses on eyewitness accounts written by slaves, prisoners, refugees, and other victims of historical atrocity. It focuses on such episodes in three nonfictional texts – John Kaminiates’ Capture of Thessaloniki (904), Eustathios of Thessaloniki’s Capture of Thessaloniki (1186), and Niketas Choniates’ History (ca. 1204–17) – and the three extant twelfth-century Komnenian novels to consider how the authors’ positions as both eyewitness and victim require an interpretive method that distinguishes witness literature from other kinds of writing about the past. Drawing on theoretical developments in the fields of Holocaust and Genocide Studies (such as Giorgio Agamben’s homo sacer and Michel Foucault’s biopolitics) and comparisons with modern examples (Elie Wiesel’s Night and Primo Levi’s If This is a Man), Witness Literature emphasizes the affective, subjective, and experiential in medieval Greek historical writing.