The role of Empress Verina in the events of 475/476 – revisited

Author(s): Mirosław J. Leszka / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2017

The article is devoted to the activity of Verina, the widow of Emperor Leo I, during the years 475–476. It responds to arguments put forward in Kamilla Twardowska’s article Empress Verina and the Events of 475–476, BSl 72, 2014, 9–22, while also elaborating views previously expressed by the Author (in the article Empress-Widow Verina’s Political Activity during the Reign of Emperor Zeno, in: Mélanges d’histoire byzantine off erts à Oktawiusz Jurewicz à l’occasion de son soixante-dixième anniversaire, (=Byzantina Lodziensia, III) ed. W. Ceran, Łódź 1998, 128–136), and presenting supplementary arguments. Several basic questions are addressed. Was Verina the initiator of the plot against Zeno? What did she want to accomplish by taking action against her son-in-law? Did she inform him of the plot? Did Verina crown Basiliscus (this question hinges on credibility of John Malalas, XV, 13)? Why did she start a confl ict against her brother and supported Zeno? It is argued that Verina did not inspire the plot against Zeno, but merely joined it. The price for her participation in the rebellion was elevation of Patricius, her political ally and potential candidate for a husband, to co-rule with Basiliscus. Verina informed Zeno about the plot in the hope that he would abandon any plans to resist and leave Constantinople. The main or possibly even sole reason for this course of action may have been her desire to protect Ariadne from the danger that would result from clashes. Malalas’s account of Verina’s participation in Basiliscus’ crowning ceremony should be treated with considerable wariness. Verina went on to become Basiliscus’ enemy as he did not fulfi l his promises to her, and because her own position became much weaker than it had been even in Zeno’s reign. Zeno’s return to power provided the only opportunity to change this situation.

Empresses and Augustae as wives, paramours and mistresses (5th – 11th centuries)

Author(s): Katerina Nikolaou / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2017

The authors who documented the lives of emperors –with very few exceptions, such as Procopius and Michael Psellos– were not particularly interested in their private or romantic aff airs. Occasionally they might mention imperial wives by name, but they would make extensive references to empresses only when their actions infl uenced political developments. What they neglected to do, however, was to approach those illicit incidents from a feminine point of view as well; as a result, certain questions emerge, revolving around the central reference point of the women concerned, both as parts of the regularity of marital relations and as agents leading to the disruption or circumvention. The aim of this study is to present, with the use of telling references from the above-mentioned sources, the distinct and/or interlocked “love” parts played by Byzantium’s crowned women, to attempt their categorization and to draw certain broad conclusions conerning their roles as wives, paramours and mistressess.

Strategies of Pottery Acquisition in the Mycenaean Palace at Pylos

Author(s): Piotr Zeman / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

This paper focuses on pottery acquisition strategies at the Mycenaean palace at Pylos, analysing mostly the final period of its existence. By the 13th century BC the palace at Pylos, after 300 years of development, was a complex, bureaucratic, administrative, and industrialized institution. The strategy of the pottery acquisi‑ tion by the palace is demonstrated to be a network of co‑dependence between the palace, the ‘royal’ potter and other contracted manufacturers. They were specialized craftsmen who cooperated with the palace under different conditions. The pottery industry was affected by a hierarchy of producers directed by the palace, as the ‘royal’ potter supported the king in fulfilling his duties and enjoyed special privileges. Underlying the model is the use of the theory of entanglement. Outlining the wide web of dependences between things and humans involved in the Pylian pottery industry reflects the internal complexity and gradual evolution of the system.

The Cyrillo-Methodian Mission in the Work of Francis Dvorník

Author(s): Marcello Garzaniti / Language(s): English Issue: 3 - Suppl./2018

The Cyrillo-Methodian mission is a key issue in the research of Fr. Dvorník His first monograph, which collected the results of his doctoral thesis, was devoted to the Slavs between Rome and Byzantium in the 9th century and formed the basis of his subsequent monograph. Dvorník committed himself, in fact, to the lengthy task of analyzing the so-called Pannonian Legends, published in French as Les Légendes de Constantin et de Méthode vues de Byzance (Prague 1933), a masterpiece in the field of Slavic Studies and Medieval history. Capitalizing on his extensive preparation in the field of history (Bidlo) and archaeology (Niederle) in Prague and his training in Paris in Byzantine (Diehl) and Slavic Studies (Mazon), Dvorník meticulously examined historical sources and archaeological data in order to check whether the scenarios offered by the Lives of the Thessalonian brothers were compatible with our historical knowledge. This approach enabled him to compare the research results in various disciplines with scientific accuracy, critically examining a bibliography, which even then had reached very large dimensions. The Czech scholar aimed to offer a comprehensive and detailed historical and geopolitical view in which to place the beginning of the process of acculturation of the Slavs and the first written Slavic culture. During his subsequent research, the Cyrillo-Methodian issue did not disappear from his attention and Dvorník frequently returned to study, point out certain scenarios, and offer new perspectives for research, which should be better valued. Although the results achieved in the 1930s have obviously needed updating in the light of new data, the general approach offered by Fr. Dvorník remains fully valid.

A catalaunumi csata. Attila, a hun és a Nyugatrómai Birodalom bukása

Author(s): Ádám Majorosi / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2022

In this study I would like to examine the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. In the first part of this, I will talk about the causes of the campaign of 451; the treachery of Honoria, the Frank succession, and the Ostrogotich immigrants in the Visigothic court. Then I will move forward to the campaign, and I will show how the opponent forces manoeuvred, what were their plans, and how they arrived at the place of the battle. Then I will examine the order of the battle, the battle plans, and fight of the forces, which continued through the night. Then I will talk about the next couple of days, the sieges of the camps, and the reason why the Romans left the battlefield. Finally, I will finish my presentation with my conclusion, the examination of the performance of the military leaders, the losses of the opposing forces, and I will claim the winner at the end of my presentation.

LA VIDA DE HIGINIO DE LA LUZ EN MURCIA (SURESTE DE ESPAÑA): UNA POSIBLE IMITACIÓN DE MODELOS HAGIOGRÁFICOS TARDO-ROMANOS

Author(s): José Antonio Molina Gómez / Language(s): Spanish Issue: 1/2022

Nineteenth-century Scholar Javier Fuentes y Ponte affirmed he could read in an now dissapeared manuscript the story of an anachorete named Hyginus who was disciple of Saint Genesius (Spanish San Ginés) and came from the monastery of his master placed in San Ginés de la Jara (Cartagena Fields) to South Murcia in the 9th century and founded there the rock monasteries and eremitories in the mountains of La Luz. This Information has been considered just a fake by Fuentes himself and therefore it was regarded as very doubtful by the majority of later historians. Even if the lost manuscript was written in modern times it remains still unclear why the anonymous writer knew that there was a late roman chapel placed in a cementery where Saint Hyginus was supposed to to pray and whose existence was fully unknown by Archaeologists until recent times.Besides Hyginus’ story has many topics of traditional hagiographies, we hypothesize the Hyginus’ lost Life was written in Saint Genesius Monastery and was part of a some late accounts about Saint Ginés Life and his disciples that they still existed in the 16th century and were read and explained to incoming pilgrims.

'I HAD A DREAM...' - THE DEDICATION OF AN EQUES OF THE ALA I DARDANORUM IN THE SURROUNDINGS OF TROESMIS AND THE PROBLEM OF RURAL SETTLEMENTS IN NORTHERN MOESIA INFERIOR

Author(s): Cristina-Georgeta Alexandrescu / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

Within the framework of multidisciplinary investigations, under the ongoing Troesmis-project the basic topographic features of the Roman, Late Roman and Byzantine settlement of Troesmis (Turcoaia, Tulcea County, RO) were clarified. The decisive result was the localisation of the approximately 16 ha legionary camp and the approximately 30-35 ha civilian settlement around it. It was possible not only to postulate the boundaries of the ancient settlement, but also to register for the first time numerous new sites in the surroundings. The central settlement of Troesmis is embedded in a dense network of roads and rural settlement sites of different types. Additionally, for older accidental finds of stone monuments (inscriptions, sculpture etc.) it was possible to recover, at least at hypothetical level, the initial context of display and to correlate the archaeological data with the epigraphical evidence. This paper presents the case of the votive altar ISM V 218, dedicated, following a dream, to the divine power of Liber Pater by M. Antistius Caecina, eques of ala I Dardanorum Antoniniana. Its provenance also provides the opportunity for short comments on the Roman rural estates and settlements in the Northern Moesia Inferior.

ROMANS 1 BY 1. AUGUSTA TRAIANA ET TERRITORIUM

Author(s): Annamária – Izabella Pázsint / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

The author presents the results of a research on the population of Augusta Traiana. More precisely, it continues the larger collective project Romans 1 by 1, by collecting and interpreting the data for the above-mentioned Roman city. As such, the paper will focus on the epigraphically attested quantitative data on the population of Augusta Traiana, and on the qualitative data, covering the period between the first epigraphic attestations and up to the 3rd century AD. The work includes a prosopographical catalogue with the epigraphically attested population.

Zwyczajne życie Jezusa

Author(s): Kalina Wojciechowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 810/2022

WĘGRZY A LUDY TURECKIE PRZED OSMANAMI

Author(s): Ryszard Grzesik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 29/2022

The Finno-Ugric Hungarians made contact with people from the Turkish language group not later as in present-day Bashkiria. It was their original homeland, which was mentioned as the Great or Eastern Hungary by the medieval chroniclers. The Turkic people lived on the Great Steppe in that time, therefore the name of the Turks was a synonym of the nomads. However, in the Byzantine sources it were the Hungarians who were called The Turks. They settled in the region of the Azov Sea together with a branch of the Bulgarian Onogurs, noted in the Arabian sources as s.k.l, and later known as the Szeklers. They got under the political dependency of the Khazars. The Slavic name of the Hungarians *Ągri, from which the Latin name of the Hungari and the Polish Węgrzy was derived, descended from the name of the Onogurs. It seems that the Hungarian tribal commonwealth, which originally wandered to the Maeotidian Steppes and afterwards migrated to the Carpathian Basin, was multiethnical, with great participation of the Turkic population (such as the Szeklers and the Kabars). This people was Magyarized, but left elements of the own historical consciousness to the Hungarians, such as the memory of Attila, which was the basis of the eruditional story of the Hunnic-Hungarian identity by Simon of Kéza. Nevertheless, the Hungarian state preserved its multiethnical character, which generated problems only in the 19th century, a period of growth of the modern nationalisms, which resulted in the disintegration of the state in 1918.

A perzsa király látomása a Chronicon Paschaléban

Author(s): Erika Juhász / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2023

The siege of Nisibis, which took place in 350 AD, is mentioned in various ways in Greek sources. Dependencies can also be established between the texts, but based on the differences, we sometimes have to assume other (now lost) intermediary sources. This paper examines the passages about the siege in the Chronicon Paschale and Theophanes’ Chronicle and tries to explain the similarities and differences in the two texts.

Platón: Phaidón

Author(s): Zsigmond Ritoók / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2023

Platón: Phaidón. Helikon Zsebkönyvek. Fordította és a bevezetést írta: Hamvas Endre Ádám. Budapest, Helikon, 2022.

Nagy Sándor uralkodása. Diodóros Történeti könyvtárának 17. könyve

Author(s): Márta Munding / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2023

Nagy Sándor uralkodása. Diodóros Történeti könyvtárának 17. könyve. Fordította, a bevezetőt és a jegyzeteket írta Illés Imre Áron. Szeged–Budapest, Martin Opitz Kiadó [é. n.]

Ioan Piso – Péter Forisek (edd.): Defending the Polis – Defending the Empire. The Ancient Greek and Military Strategy and Insciptions

Author(s): Levente Takács,Gábor Berecz / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2023

Piso, Ioan – Forisek, Péter (edd.): Defending the Polis – Defending the Empire. The Ancient Greek and Military Strategy and Insciptions. Studia Epigraphica Pannonica. Supplementum I. Budapest 2022.

Some notes on the date of Attila's death

Author(s): Péter Kovács / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

In his paper the author deals with the date of Attila's death. Several scholarly works dealt already with Attila's death and the written sources. The antique source dates his death to the year 453 shortly before Attila's planned campaign against Marcian. On the other hand, Leo the Great's letters has not been examined regarding this issue. In one of his letters written 11 March 451, the pope mentions the still existing dangers (flagella) where obviously refer to Attila and the Huns. This means nothing was known about Attila's death in the middle of March of 453 in Rome, so the Hun king must have died a little bit later.

On the construction of a bridle with cheek-pieces of an early type, spread from Mycenae to China in the second millennium BCE

Author(s): Petr I. Shulga,Daniil Shulga / Language(s): Russian Issue: 1/2023

Reconstruction of the device of the earliest bridle of the period of domestication of the horse in IV-III millennium BCE in the territory of steppe and forest steppe Eurasia is still a special problem. We have only horn (bone) cheek-pieces in the steppes of the early stage, and in Greece, Anterior Asia, Egypt and the Caucasus – bronze cheek-pieces and bit, on which it is impossible to establish the arrangement of the bridle reliably. In our view, the appearance on the cheek-pieces of the frame for fastening the «sub-directional» belt is connected with the use of bit. Thanks to it, the cheek-pieces together with the bit were attracted down to the toothless part of the jaw. This device did not allow the horse to eat and bite the belt bit. It acted like the North American Indians' simple belt loop device, which covered the toothless portion of the horse’s mandible. Such an assignment could have characteristic frames on bronze discus cheek-pieces from Mycenae and Anterior Asia, or oblong side openings on horny shield cheek-pieces from steppe Eurasia.

Kronika dziejów dobrej wróżki

Author(s): Jerzy Sosnowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 692/2023

Prezenty dostawała wróżka Zenobia od wszystkich, ale dość szybko stało się jasne, że wyróżnia jednego z kandydatów na króla. Filemon podkreślał na każdym kroku jej zasługi i biegłość w sztuce magicznej. Wkrótce dostojnik okazał się jednak okrutnikiem, a zdobywszy na rok pełnię władzy, wprowadził nawet znowu podatek od mioteł.

Kapłani i ich funkcje w Egipcie Ptolemejskim w świetle archiwum świątyni w Soknopaiou Nesos

Author(s): Joanna Wilimowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 7/2022

Little is known about priests and how temples functioned in Ptolemaic Egypt. This paper provides an in- sight into the organisation and hierarchy of temples under the Ptolemies. The main aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the titles and functions of temple personnel by analysing documents from the archive of the temple of Soknopaios and Isis Nepherses in the village of Soknopaiou Nesos (Dimeh).

Dunhuang – geneza powstania i strategiczne znaczenie miasta za czasów Cesarza Wudi z Dynastii Han

Author(s): Daniel Morek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 7/2022

Dunhuang was arguably one of the most important cities on the so-called Silk Road. Its establishment was made possible due to Han emperor Wudi’s war against the nomadic tribes of the Xiongnu, who posed a major threat to the Chinese during the early years of the Han dynasty. The city was estab- lished as a strategic military settlement that was part of the regional tuntian system, and its role was to help secure the western borders of the empire. Due to the discovery of potential trading partners in the west during the reign of emperor Wudi, as well as the war which resulted in the vassalization of city states in the Takla Makan desert, Dunhuang became a trading hub from where caravans from the Chinese interior travelled west, which only in- creased its strategic value. This article will discuss what caused the evolution of Dunhaung from a frontier tuntian settlement into a major trading hub and strategically important city.

Świat pełen bogów: pogaństwo czy politeizm?

Author(s): Danuta Musiał / Language(s): Polish Issue: 7/2022

Terminology is one of the more difficult issues facing academics investigating ancient religious imaginations. The history of the terms "paganism" and "polythe- ism," as well as the primary caveats associated with their use, are outlined in this article. Although both names are artificial inventions with added meaning, "polytheism" is thought to be less reliant on Christian beliefs.