Travel in the Byzantine World: Papers from the Thirty-Fourth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Birmingham, April 2000 (Publications for the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, 10)

314 Pages·2002·5.71 MB·English

by  Ruth J. Macrides (ed)

Society for the Promotion
of Byzantine Studies
Publications
10
""RAVEL IN THE
BYZANTINE WORLD
Papers from the Thirty-fourth Spring Symposium
of Byzantine Studies, Birmingham, April 2000
edited by
Ruth Macrides
ASHGATE
VARIORUM
Copyright © 2002 by the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, Hon.
Secretary,
James Crow, Dept of Archaeology, The University,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne NEl 7RU
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise without the prior
permission of the publisher.
Published by Variorum for the Society for thePromotion of Byzantine Studies
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Aldershot, Hants Burlington
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Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Travel in the Byzantine world. - (Publications for the
Society for the Promotion of Byzantine studies)
I. Travel, Medieval-Congresses 2. Byzantine Empire-
Civilization-Congresses 3. Byzantine Empire-Description
and travel-Congresses
1. Macrides, R.J. II. Society for the Promotion ofByzantine
Studies
914.9'5'042
Library of Congress Control Number: 2001099935
ISBN 0 7546 0788 7
This volume is printed on acid freepaper.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF BYZANTINE
STUDIES - PUBLICATION 10
Contents
Editor's Preface vii
List of Abbreviations ix
List of Figures and Tables xi
Introduction
1. M. McCormick Byzantium on the move: imagining a
communications history 3
Section I: Going there - the technicalities of travel
2. J. H. Pryor Types of ships and their performance
capabilities 33
3. P. Gautier Dalche Portulans and the Byzantine world 59
4. K. Belke Roads and travel in Macedonia and
Thrace in the middle and late
Byzantine period 73
5. A. McCabe Horses and horse-doctors on the road 91
6. D. Ch. Stathakopoulos Travelling with the plague 99
Section II: Getting around - the purposes of travel
7. J. Koder Maritime trade and the food supply for
Constantinople in the middle ages 109
8. N. Gunsenin Medieval trade in the Sea of Marmara:
the evidence of shipwrecks 125
9. F. van Doorninck, jr The Byzantine ship at Serce Limani: an
example of small-scale maritime
commerce with Fatimid Syria in the
early eleventh century 137
10. A. Kuelzer Byzantine and early post-Byzantine
pilgrimage to the Holy Land and to
Mount Sinai 149
v
vi CONTENTS
Section III: Being there
11. K. Ciggaar
Bilingual word lists and phrase lists:
for teaching or for travelling? 165
12. A. Berger Sightseeing in Constantinople: Arab
travellers, c. 900-1300 179
13. R. Macrides Constantinople: the crusaders' gaze 193
14. M. Angold The decline of Byzantium seen through
the eyes of western travellers
213
Section IV: Going over it- representations of travel and space
15. L. Brubaker The conquest of space 235
16. M. E. Mullett In peril on the sea: travel genres and
the unexpected
259
Index
285
Editor's Preface
The contributions to this book derive from papers presented to the 34th
Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, on 'Travel in the Byzantine
World', held in Birmingham, 1-4 April 2000. Symposiasts from three
continents travelled in a spring of wintry conditions to see the customary
miracle of the blooming daffodils and to discuss a subject which has
recently been attracting greater interest but has never been treated as a
whole for Byzantium.
Interest in individual travellers has often been expressed and the
symposium was no exception in this respect. Three papers were
concerned with travellers to Constantinople. But the papers covered also
technical aspects, the ways and means of travelling, with sea travel
dominating this discussion. A heated debate arose concerning the
number of amphoras a dromon could hold and how much water a ship
would have to carry for the needs of its crew. Or was it wine? Purposes
of travel, especially trade and pilgrimage, were examined. Attitudes to
travel as reflected in images and in texts constituted another area of
investigation. The examination of several shipwrecks and the lively
descriptions of the perils of travel in letters, romances, and hagiography
left no room for imagining that travel was enjoyable for the Byzantines
except, that is, when they were recollecting and recording the experience,
'going over it'. This volume preserves the thematic structure of the
symposium and, it is hoped, recaptures the occasion both for those who
were there and for those who were not.
The publication of these papers owes a great deal to those who made
the symposium possible: Bryer, for his muse-like inspiration and
generous sharing of vast experience; the postgraduates of the Centre for
Byzantine, Ottoman and Modem Greek Studies who devoted themselves
from morning until night to make things run smoothly; the symposiasts
for their essential participation and for their warm expression of
-
appreciation; the sponsors, the many charitable trusts, foundations, and
individuals The British Academy, The British Institute of Archaeology
at Ankara, The Hellenic Foundation, The A. G. Leventis Foundation, The
Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust, Mr. R. K. Swan and Swan Hellenic,
Ashgate Publishing. Their generous and enthusiastic support enabled
vii
Viii PREFACE
our speakers to travel, our map to be scrutinised,
our refreshments at
stopping-off places to flow.
Thanks are due also to Elizabeth
Jeffreys, the editor of the series, for
advice and encouragement, Angus
Stewart who magically transformed
these papers into camera-ready
copy and to Ece Turnator for preparing
the index.
Ruth Macrides
Birmingham, November 2001
List of Abbreviations
AASS Acta Sanctorum
ACO Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum
AJA American Journal of Archaeology
AnBoll Analecta Bollandiana
BAR British Archaeological Reports
BBA Berliner Byzantinische Arbeiten
BBOM Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs
BBTT Belfast Byzantine Texts and Translations
BCH Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique
BF Byzantinische Forschungen
BHG Biblioteca Hagiographica Graeca
BMGS Byzantine and Modem Greek Studies
BSI Byzantinoslavica
Byz Byzantina
BZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift
CahArch Cahiers Archeologiques
CCCont Med Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis
CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
CFHB Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae
DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers
GRBS Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies
Hell
EXX-qVWKa
INA Institute of Nautical Archaeology
JOB Jahrbuch der Osterreichischen Byzantinistik
JRSt Journal of Roman Studies
LexMA Lexikon des Mittelalters
Lexikon fiir Theologie and Kirche
LT12K
MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica
OCP Orientalia Christiana Periodica
ODB Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
PG Patrologia Graeca
PL Patrologia Latina
PLP Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit
PO Patrologia Orientalis
ix
ABBREVIATIONS
PPS Pravoslavnyj Palestinskij Sbornik
(St. Petersburg, 1883-1913)
RAC Reallexikon fur Antike and Christentum
RE Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen
Altertumswissenschaft
REB Revue des Etudes Byzantines
REG Revue des Etudes Grecques
RSBN Rivista di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici
SC Sources Chretiennes
PSPBS Publications for the Society for the Promotion of
Byzantine Studies
StT Studi e Testi
Theoph.
Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor, 2 vols.
(Leipzig, 1883-1885)
TIB Tabula Imperii Byzantini
TM Travaux et Memoires
WBS Wiener Byzantinistische Studien
ZDPV Zeitschrift des deutschen Palastinavereins
ZPE Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie and Epigraphik
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
Communications microzones and local ceramic distribution:
1.1
Byzantine Galilee and Judaea 15
2.1 Longitudinal section of a tenth-century bireme dromon 39
2.2 Oarage system of a tenth-century bireme dromon 42
2.3 Tenth-century bireme dromon heeling under sail to ten
degrees 44
2.4 Oars of a tenth-century bireme dromon drawn in the middle
of the return stroke at 67° to the centre line 52
2.5 Stowage of barrels or amphorae 56
4.1 Map of the Balkan peninsula showing the main roads and
cities mentioned (adapted from John V.A. Fine, jr., The
Early Medieval Balkans. Ann Arbor, 1983, map 3 and 4) 75
5.1 A horse suffering from exhaustion (Parisinus graecus 2244, f.
f. 3v) 93
8.1 Map showing the sites mentioned in the text 126
8.2 Discoveries to date around the Marmara Islands 130
15.1 Madaba, mosaic map 250
15.2 Christian Topography, the journey of Saul from Jerusalem to
Damascus (Sinai. gr. 1186, f. 126v) 251
15.3 Madaba, mosaic detail: Jerusalem 251
15.4 Madaba, mosaic detail: Nile delta 252
15.5 Umm al-Rasas, Church of the Lions, mosaic detail: Kastron
Mefaa 253
15.6 Umm al-Rasas, St. Stephen, mosaic detail: Kastron Mefaa 253
15.7 Umm al-Rasas, St. Stephen, mosaic detail: Jerusalem 254
15.8 Damascus, Great Mosque, mosaic detail: Barada landscape 254
15.9 Christian topography: the world in the shape of the ark of the
covenant (Sinai. gr. 1186, f. 69r) 255
xi