BMCR 2004.10.26, Rowena Loverance, Byzantium

Rowena Loverance, Byzantium. British Museum Paperbacks.  Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 2004.  Pp. 96; color ills. 64, halftones 40,
maps 2.  ISBN 0-674-01389-1.  $17.95 (pb).

Reviewed by
Paul Stephenson, University of Wisconsin, Madison and Dumbarton Oaks
(pstephenson@xxxxxxxx)
Word count:  1143 words
-------------------------------

This marvellous little book would serve as an excellent supplementary
textbook for students engaged in a survey of medieval Europe,
particularly when the instructor has selected a more traditional
narrative. Even if one is using, as I do, a more recent synthesis which
seeks to incorporate Byzantium and the Islamicate, for example that by
B. Rosenwein, Loverance's focus on Byzantine culture would enrich the
political outline. The elegant narrative, which would occupy fewer than
fifty pages without the rich illustrations, can be read effortlessly in
a couple of hours.

Loverance works for the Education and Information Department of the
British Museum, whose press produced the first version of her book in
1988. A second, revised edition followed in 1994, in preparation for a
major Byzantine exhibition in London. This third edition, now in an
American imprint, coincided nicely with the third Byzantine blockbuster
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, "Byzantium: Faith and
Power, 1261-1557." Consequently, the prose is punctuated by delightful
art historical vignettes which describe artefacts housed in the BM and
elsewhere. A description in the first chapter of two fourth-century
silver-gilt furniture ornaments, part of the Esquiline Treasure
discovered in 1793, serves as an example. These are cast in the forms
of Tyches, or Fortunes, of the cities of Rome and Constantinople. "Rome
is an embattled figure, resting on her shield, her lance in hand, but
Constantinople holds a cornucopia, a horn overflowing with fruit and
grain, the Roman symbol of plenty." They are the perfect illustration
of Loverance's narrative presentation of the fate of the old and new
Romes. A later but equally compelling vignette concerns an ivory panel
depicting the Vision of Ezekiel, generally dated to the tenth century
(as are most Byzantine ivory carvings, although not without some
skepticism). "The Byzantines had a deep attachment to the concept of
God existing in three persons and kept a keen sense of the separate
character of each ... [This] scene ... refers to Ezekiel's vision in
the valley of dry bones. The text [which accompanies it] speaks of
Ezekiel raising the bones, but the figure shown here is Christ; the
rainbow and mandorla which supports Christ's footstool emphasise that
He is shown out of time."

If used in a survey class, an instructor would have a rich source of
issues to raise in discussion sections, for Loverance makes a number of
bold statements which deserve close scrutiny or have received it in
recent scholarship. Thus Constantine is converted to Christianity in
312, and his new city of Constantinople is founded as a Christian city.
These facts, baldly stated, may be questioned in the light of
Loverance's nuanced view of the interaction of Christianity and
paganism well into the sixth century. Similarly, the Roman Empire is
still subjected to waves of barbarian invasions, without those hordes
being scrutinized for signs of ongoing "ethnogenesis." Not only
adherents of the Vienna School will be shocked to learn that a
Bulgarian "nation-state" was installed within the empire after 680. The
Blues and Greens return to the status they enjoyed before Alan Cameron
revoked their credentials as representatives of social and religious
factions. The use of the Virgin's robe in the defense of the city in
626 seems odd given Loverance's observation that the veneration of
relics and icons was rare at that time. As B. Pentcheva has
demonstrated, the story of its role in the Avar Siege was likely
created after the defeat of Iconoclasm. Tenth-century legislation is
invoked as evidence for imperial defense of the poor against the
powerful rather than as an attempt to maintain the integrity of the tax
base.

Several sentences would make excellent midterm questions, inviting
contrary responses from engaged undergraduates. For example, one might
question both aspects of the following statement "It is not surprising
that Byzantium, a society that defined itself in religious terms,
should have undergone a religious crisis" in the form of Iconoclasm.
One might equally challenge the following: "On 13 April 1204 the
Crusaders entered Constantinople again, this time to sack it. They
stripped the city and partitioned the empire. Byzantium had ceased to
exist." One could make this argument politically, since thereafter one
can scarcely consider Byzantium to be an empire. But, as Loverance's
book demonstrates so very clearly, not least its final chapter,
Byzantium was a cultural entity, and this continued well past 1204.

These are issues where one can offer alternative interpretations, and
one finds only a few mistakes of fact. I was particularly struck by
several relating to the tenth and eleventh centuries. The Macedonian
dynasty did not perpetuate itself by careful marriages with warlords
and generals. Rather, it was remarkable that it endured forced
betrothals and usurpations by powerful families like the Lekapenoi and
Phokades. Basil II was not hailed as "Bulgar-slayer" after his final
victory over the Bulgars, which was not a consequence of his blinding
all his prisoners. The latter took place in 1014, the victory came in
1018, and the epithet was not used until after 1185. Loverance seems
most comfortable when dealing with the period before Iconoclasm, to
which four hundred years she devotes more than half the book, thus
giving slightly short shrift to the remaining eight centuries.

The book is, for the most part, well produced, and flaws are few. The
most egregious comes on pages 26-28, where a typesetting error has
resulted in the omission of a sentence at the top of p. 26, and the
duplication of another at the top of p. 27, with a knock-on omission at
the top of p.28. A glance at the first edition supplies the following
lost words (1988, p. 120, add to top of 2004, p. 26): "One of the most
successful prostitutes in history is another star character of
Justinian's reign, his wife Theodora. Her life, both in its ...";
(1988, p. 21, add to top of 2004, p. 28) " ... to hold the elements of
the Eucharist, but may nevertheless feature the same lolling shepherds,
complete with pipes and cymbals to divert their flocks. And on the
mosaic floors of the Great palace in Constantinople, the only parts of
this elusive building to have survived, the pastoral theme apparently
appealed ..." Typographical errors include: on p. 78, Mitytene for
Mitylene; on p. 83, a bold dot above the terminal i of Tekfur Sarayi,
which in fact takes no dot at all; on p. 89, TamerIaine, with a capital
I, for Tamerla[i]ne.

This book is produced in the best tradition of British scholarship, in
crisp prose with a host of allusions only natives and Anglophiles will
understand, for example the reference to the motto one might find in "a
modern cracker." I loved it and think undergraduates would too, if one
took the time to explain the allusions, and if Harvard University Press
would reduce the price by five dollars.