Table Of ContentImperial Lineages and Legacies in
the Eastern Mediterranean
The comparative study of empires has traditionally been addressed in the widest
possible global historical perspective with comparison of New World empires such
as the Aztecs and Incas side by side with the history of imperial Rome and the
empires of China and Russia in the medieval and modern periods. Surprisingly
little work has been carried out focusing on the evolution of state control and
imperial administration in the same territory; approached in a rigorous and histori-
cally grounded fashion over a wide extent of historical time from late antiquity to
the twentieth century. The empires of Rome, Byzantium, the Ottomans and the
latter-day imperialists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, all inherited
or seized and sought to develop overlapping parts of a common territorial base in
the Eastern Mediterranean and all struggled to contain, control or otherwise alter
the political, cultural and spiritual allegiances of the same indigenous population
groups that were brought under their rule and administration.
The task undertaken in Imperial Lineages and Legacies in the Eastern Mediterranean
is to investigate the balance between continuity and change adopted at vari-
ous historical conjunctures when new imperial regimes were established and to
expose common features and shared approaches to the challenge of imperial rule
that united otherwise divergent societies and imperial administrations. The work
incorporates the contributions by twelve scholars, each leading practitioners in
their respective fi elds and each contributing their particular insights on the shared
theme of imperial identity and legacy in the Mediterranean World of the pagan,
Christian and Muslim eras.
Rhoads Murphey was Reader in Ottoman Studies at the Centre for Byzantine,
Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham, UK, and is now
Professor of History at Ipek University (Ankara), Turkey.
Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies
General Editors
Leslie Brubaker
A.A.M. Bryer
Rhoads Murphey
John Haldon
Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies is devoted to the history, culture
and archaeology of the Byzantine and Ottoman worlds of the East Mediterra-
nean region from the fi fth to the twentieth century. It provides a forum for the
publication of research completed by scholars from the Centre for Byzantine,
Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Birmingham, and those
with similar research interests.
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit https://www.routledge.com/series/BBOS
Sylvester Syropoulos on Politics and Culture in the Fifteenth-
Century Mediterranean
Themes and problems in the memoirs, section IV
Vera Andriopoulou, Mary B. Cunningham
Edited by Fotini Kondyli
The Emperor Theophilos and the East, 829–842
Court and frontier in Byzantium during the last phase of iconoclasm
Juan Signes Codoñer
Rebuilding Anatolia after the Mongol Conquest
Islamic architecture in the lands of rum, 1240–1330
Patricia Blessing
Imperial Lineages and Legacies in the Eastern Mediterranean
Recording the imprint of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman rule
Edited by Rhoads Murphey
Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies
University of Birmingham
Imperial Lineages and
Legacies in the Eastern
Mediterranean
Recording the imprint of Roman,
Byzantine and Ottoman rule
Edited by Rhoads Murphey
First published 2017
by Routledge
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© 2017 selection and editorial matter, Rhoads Murphey; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Rhoads Murphey to be identifi ed as the author of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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without intent to infringe.
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ISBN: 978-1-315-58796-7 (ebk)
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Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies Volume 18
Contents
List of fi gures vii
Notes on contributors ix
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction: recording the imprint of Roman, Byzantine
and Ottoman rule 1
JOHN HALDON AND RHOADS MURPHEY
PART I
Law and empire 15
1 Byzantine courts and their Roman antecedents 17
ROSEMARY MORRIS
2 Hybridity in Ottoman legal tradition as a source of
fl exibility in governing the empire: an overview with
particular reference to the application of the ruler’s
executive judicial or örfi powers 35
RHOADS MURPHEY
3 Custom, tradition and ‘law’ in the post-medieval Cyclades 49
AGLAIA KASDAGLI
PART II
Assertion and disputation of imperial identity in art 61
4 Refl ections on the infl uence of Imperial art on Christian art 63
BEAT BRENK
vi Contents
5 God or emperor? Imperial legacies in Byzantine
Christian visual culture 82
LESLIE BRUBAKER
PART III
Individual, group and corporate identity in an
imperial context 99
6 Religious pluralism in the Balkans during the late
Ottoman imperial era: towards a dynamic model 101
NATHALIE CLAYER
7 Language and power in the late Ottoman Empire 115
JOHANN STRAUSS
8 The Ottoman legacy to post-Ottoman states 143
FREDERICK ANSCOMBE
PART IV
Empire and region / region and empire 157
9 Regional impact of the Ottoman empire in Greece:
archaeological perspectives 159
JOHN BINTLIFF
10 Imperial impacts, regional diversities and local
responses: island identities as refl ected on Byzantine
Naxos 165
ATHANASIOS K. VIONIS
11 Legacies in the landscape: the Vostizza district,
c. 1460–1715 197
MALCOLM WAGSTAFF
Index 211
Figures
1.1 Map showing geographical distribution of court cases and
legal disputes in Macedonia (tenth–eleventh centuries) 21
4.1 Left: Benevento, arch of Trajan, a.114, Alimenta-scene.
Right: Aries, archaeological museum, late fourth-century
sarcophagus, Passage of the Red Sea 64
4.2 Left: Thessaloniki, arch of emperor Galerius a.303,
co-emperors, Diocletian and Maximian. Right: Rome, ex
St. Peter’s, sarcophagus of Junius Bassus a.359 66
4.3 Rome, Museo Pio-Clementina, lid of early fourth-century
sarcophagus, adoration of the magi 67
4.4 Left: Praeneste, Museo archeologico, relief representing the
triumph of emperor Trajan. Right: Rome, Museo
Pio-Clementina, second half of the fourth century
sarcophagus, Jesus Christ crowned with a laurel wreath 68
4.5 Rome. S. Maria Maggiore 432–440. Wedding of Moses and
Sephora 69
4.6 Rome. S. Saba, late third- early fourth-century sarcophagus
with dextrarum iunctio scene 70
4.7 Rome. S. Maria Maggiore 432–440. Moses presented to the
daughter of Pharaoh 71
4.8 Rome. S. Maria Maggiore 432–440. Aphrodisius of Sotinen
in Egypt receives the Holy Family 72
4.9 Left: Tetrarchic imperial porphyry statues in Alexandria and
Sarkamen (Serbia). Rome. Right: S. Pudenziana c. 400/410,
apse mosaic 73
4.10 Left: Geneva, museum, Sarapis, second century. Right:
S.Pudenziana, c. 400/410. Christ 74
4.11 Milan. Museo del Duomo. Silver reliquary from S. Nazaro
(after Volbach 1959) 74
4.12 Paphos. Villa of Theseus (after Daszewsky) 76
5.1 Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (359): detail, Christ Enthroned
(Vatican City, Museo Sacra) 83
viii Figures
5.2 Thessaloniki, Arch of Galerius (c. 300): detail, enthroned
emperors 84
5.3 Rome, St Peter’s necropolis: mosaic of Christ Helios?
(third or fourth century) 85
5.4 Coin of Constantine I as Helios 86
5.5 Rome, Sta Pudenziana, apse mosaic (early fi fth century) 87
5.6 Missorium of Theodosios II (388) 87
5.7 Marble relief, Entry into Jerusalem (fi fth century)
(Istanbul, Archaeological Museum) 88
5.8 Paris.gr.510,f.264v: Moses and the burning bush, conversion
of Saul/Paul, ascension of Elijah, crossing of the Red Sea
(Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France) 90
10.1 Map of the Cyclades and the Aegean Sea with place-names
mentioned in the text 166
10.2 The Deisis and Virgin Nikopoios, northern conch of the
church of Panagia Drosiani, Naxos 171
10.3 The churches of Taxiarchis Rachis and Agios Isidoros on
Naxos as ‘boundary churches’ between rough grazing ground
and agricultural zones 172
10.4 Distribution of Early (fi fth–mid seventh c.), Middle (late
seventh–late twelfth c.) and Late (early thirteenth–fourteenth c.)
Byzantine churches on Naxos 173
10.5 Map of the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean showing
the distribution of eighth-century pottery- and coin-fi nds 175
10.6 Graph showing the number of churches built per period on
Naxos and the number of dated and published frescoes 177
10.7 Constantinopolitan ‘White Ware’ dish with polychrome-
painted decoration found at Corinth 179
10.8 Map of the ‘territory’ of Apano Kastro in inland Naxos with
its satellite rural settlements and the distribution of
Early-Middle and Late Byzantine churches throughout
the region 181
10.9 Fresco from the church of Hagios Georgios at Melanes on
Naxos, depicting Saint George on horseback spearing a human
fi gure in white, in the presence of a standing ‘imperial fi gure’
to the right 183
10.10 Detail of the fresco from the church of Hagios Georgios
at Melanes 184
11.1 The location of the T erritorio di Vostizza 198
11.2 Changes in the course of the Selinous River, c. 1700–c. 1830 201
11.3 The location of places mentioned in the text: Crocoua,
Taxiarkhi, Melissi and Vostizza 202
11.4 Vostizza Terra 1700: Distribution of Terreni and Vigne 206
