“In a Desolate and Foreign Land:” Byzantine Cross-Cultural Attitudes on the Road to Nemanjić Serbia (Thirteenth – Fourteenth Centuries)
“In a Desolate and Foreign Land:” Byzantine Cross-Cultural Attitudes on the Road to Nemanjić Serbia (Thirteenth – Fourteenth Centuries)

Summary/Abstract: This article examines a sample of Byzantine travelers journeying in the Balkans to the Serbian court during the later Middle Ages, namely, the Byzantine diplomats John Bekkos, Theodore Metochites, and Nikephoros Gregoras. Through an analysis of the environmental trials these travelers faced en route such as climate and terrain, as well as the perceptions they held for the locals they encountered, this study will argue that Byzantines often formulated their attitudes toward Serbia and Serbians through certain well-worn tropes and stereotypes in addition to their own preconceived notions of their civilization. To contextualize the origins of such perceptions of Serbians and eastern Europeans more generally, we must first trace the development of these stereotypes in Greek literature from the Classical era to the later Middle Ages. This approach will effectively illustrate the underlying reasons for the various Byzantine attitudes towards Serbians in the later Middle Ages and how they often established their understanding of Serbian culture through geographic cultural determinism with origins rooted in classical Greek literature.

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