Byzantinists have a tendency, implicitly or explicitly, to adopt the analytical perspective of the central state and its imperial class. We ask what helped the empire survive and/or expand, and we judge the success of a given ruler, official, or policy according to this criterion. I term this tendency methodological imperialism.

More detailed Discussions on J. van Waarden: Leafing through Pliny with Sidonius. Sidon. Ep. 1.1, Plin. Ep. 1.1, 1.2, and 1.5, and Satire, Mnemosyne 75/6, 2022, 1021–1043 (62–64) and G. Wöhrle: Fragmente im
Überfluss. Zur Problematik eines philologischen Begriffs, Hermes 150/4, 2022, 385-404 (64–67).

This article argues for a critical evaluation of Gerard Lukken’s concept of inculturation, which he tried to adapt to culturation, but still returned to inculturation asdominant concept. Further it will be argued that Lukkens’ model is obsolete and sould therefore be adapted into a new concept: the Lukken-Hoondert model.

This article examines the Greek goddess Hygieia by looking at her identity, cult status in the ancient world and subsequent scholarly reception. Should she be viewed as a goddess or a personification? By studying Hygieia primarily as a concept of health within ancient medicine, as well as a personification and a goddess, it will be argued that…[Read more]

This article examines the Greek goddess Hygieia by looking at her identity, cult status in the ancient world and subsequent scholarly reception. Should she be viewed as a goddess or a personification? By studying Hygieia primarily as a concept of health within ancient medicine, as well as a personification and a goddess, it will be argued that…[Read more]

In this paper, I argue that Hygieia has to be viewed as a full goddess in Greek religion and medicine, with a special focus on her position within the Asklepios cult. I will examine her identity, to which scholars attribute several labels like goddess, abstraction and personification. I further argue that Hygieia’s role in performing incubation r…[Read more]

In this paper, I argue that Hygieia has to be viewed as a full goddess in Greek religion and medicine, with a special focus on her position within the Asklepios cult. I will examine her identity, to which scholars attribute several labels like goddess, abstraction and personification. I further argue that Hygieia’s role in performing incubation r…[Read more]

The present paper aims to investigate the role of anthropology in the development of Ritual Studies as an inter-disciplinary platform, with a focus on ritual dynamics by using a historiographic description, focusing on thetransition of Greco-Roman to Christian culture. This study attempts to shed light not only on the contributionof anthropology…[Read more]

The present paper aims to investigate the role of anthropology in the development of Ritual Studies as an inter-disciplinary platform, with a focus on ritual dynamics by using a historiographic description, focusing on thetransition of Greco-Roman to Christian culture. This study attempts to shed light not only on the contributionof anthropology…[Read more]

The present paper aims to investigate the role of anthropology in the development of Ritual Studies as an inter-disciplinary platform, with a focus on ritual dynamics by using a historiographic description, focusing on thetransition of Greco-Roman to Christian culture. This study attempts to shed light not only on the contributionof anthropology…[Read more]

The Companion assembles a total of twenty chapters in English throughout, which – as explained in more detail in the Introduction by the two editors – are thematically divided into three sections (“parts”): “Isidore’s Contexts” (chapters 1-4, including the “Introduction”), “Themes in Isidore’s Works” (chapters 5-13), and “Transmission andReception…[Read more]

A work-in-progress, this is an extended bibliography on Messene covering the period from 1831 and up to today. It includes the excavation reports and archaeological/historical publications of ancient and byzantine Messene in Messenia, SW Peloponnese. Please send via mail or message any corrections, suggestions and additions.

The article focuses on one of the most famous accounts of the events of 1204: the De Signis by Niketas Choniates. It demonstrates how Choniates constructed a (semi)fictional account of the assaults against the Byzantine culture and identity through a constellation of symbols and passages drawn from the Greek Classics. The article comprises three…[Read more]

This article analyzes narratives of a single series of eleventh-century events, the trial of Syrian Miaphysite (Jacobite) patriarch John bar ʿAbdun.

Review of Katell Berthelot, Jews and Their Roman Rivals: Pagan Rome’s Challenge to Israel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021. Pp. 552. ISBN 9780691199290. $45.00.

It is my modest goal in this essay to trace how Nock uses conversion to produce religion(s) and then to explore its similarities to and differences from an analogous construction of religion-through-conversion in late antiquity.

Benjamin Porat’s Justice for the Poor differs from these books not only in that it is written in Hebrew (from the list above, only Wilfand’s 2014 book has been translated into Hebrew), but also because it envisions rabbinic charity as a branch of “law.” Porat is a law professor, and his book is jointly published by a law school, a think tank an…[Read more]

This chapter analyses Global Byzantium by situating the medieval empire of New Rome in the history of statehood’s generalisation worldwide. Arguing that statehood remains the implicit mental furniture of History at a macro-civilizational scale, and so more or less at the micro too, the chapter proposes the dual concepts of hegemony and c…[Read more]

In gewissem Sinne ist der Befehl zur allgemeinen Zwangstaufe im Codex Justinianus Abschluss einer beinahe 200-jährigen Entwicklung. Im Folgenden werden einzelne Stränge der kaiserlichen Gesetzgebung zwischen Konstantin I. und Theodosius I. besprochen. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf dem westlichen Reichsteil. Allein die schiere Menge kaiserlicher B…[Read more]

Scientific diagrams could and did appear in unexpected places. This essay discusses such an example: the diagrams that the thirteenth- to fourteenth-century scholar George-Gregory Chioniades added to a manuscript of John of Damascus’s Fountain of Knowledge as part of his commentary on the text. I argue that the diagrams were a very important, if…[Read more]