The long-term perspective for Byzantium clearly challenges us to set this civilization as it saw itself, as a thousand-year empire which was “Part II” of the preceding thousand-year Roman Empire. In many respects there were important continuities. The emperor aspired to absolute power over remodeled provinces in the Eastern Mediterranean; the economy was of “ancient economy” type, resting at least initially on the tax of free town and village populations, which in turn relied essentially on agricultural surpluses primarily consumed regionally; at least initially, the
The Town of Mistra (Figure 18.3)
After 1204, Greece was divided into Frankish feudal realms, with just three major pockets of Byzantine resistance in Epirus and Anatolia. But by 1261 the Byzantines had driven the Crusaders out of the capital, and over the following two centuries they nibbled away at the Frankish dukedoms and baronies with considerable success. Mistra (Runciman 1980, Avramea et al. 2001, Chatzidakis 2003, Sigalos 2004a, Gregory 2006) had been founded in 1248 as a castle dominating the Vale of Sparta in the Southeastern Peloponnese, by the Frankish Prince ofAchaia William IlVillehardouin, but had to be surrendered to the revived Byzantine state in 1262. The citizens of the nearby regional town of Sparta migrated to this safer walled town, which became the seat of a semi-independent statelet or Despotate ruled by junior members of the imperial family, whose wealth and importance grew continually to the fifteenth century, as Mistra expanded its power over most of the Peloponnese. The enlightened patronage of the city’s secular and ecclesiastical elite encouraged a circle of philosophers, writers, and artists to reside there, making it a vibrant center for a late flourishing of Byzantine culture.
The town has four parts (Figure 18.3). Initially the Frankish settlement focused on the uppermost, walled citadel (16), and below it the Upper Town (Kastro) with the first stages of the Palace (17) and some of the oldest houses. After the Byzantine takeover important monasteries developed below the walled Upper Town and these were subsequently incorporated inside a Lower Town (Mesokhorion) wall, within which gradually many additional houses were built, especially mansions of the leading families, as well as the Cathedral. Finally an extramural settlement developed beyond the Lower Town (Katochorion).
A series of impressive churches and monasteries scattered amongst the often expansive private mansions of the wealthy and powerful document a town that seems more prosperous than the capital itself, despite its far smaller scale. Nonetheless the impact of Frankish and especially Italian architecture is visible, in the foreign introduction of bell-towers, and design aspects in the homes of the elite and the Palace of the Despots (17). Second-story balconies supported with arcades, Gothic windows, towers, and large reception-halls seem to reflect Western influences in the town’s mansions.
The houses, smaller and larger, follow however typical provincial town plans elsewhere on the Mainland, with a basic rectangle aligned across the slope, which is here steep enough usually to allow an extra story downslope (usually for stores), onto which additional units can be added longwise or at a right-angle, and in grander mansions also upwards. The austere stonework is relieved by large windows and doors, and the decorative use of brick and tile. Houses are often separated by open space and do not form coherent planned geometric blocks. Grander mansions have towers and many houses have a first-floor veranda with a view over the Sparta Valley (Figure 18.4). A large room on the first or second floor was the main domestic space, used for eating, socializing, and sleeping (triklinion), and can have spacious windows; wooden partitions may have offered privacy. The Palace of the Despots possesses a giant throne room on its second floor with Gothic features.
The streets were steep and narrow and not suited for carriages, thus used for foot, horse, and mule transport. Before the Palace was a large square for administrative and economic activities, although much marketing took place outside the Upper Town gate. Exceptionally a new aqueduct was built for import of clean water into the city, probably linked to cisterns and terracotta distribution-pipes.
Mistra i
Marmara, 2 Church of St Christopher, 3 Lascaris mansion, 4 well, 5 passage,
6 fortification, 7 Metropolitan Church, 8 Church of the Evanghelistria, 9 Church of the Sts Theodore, 10 Hodeghetria Church, 11 Monemvasia Gate, 12 Palace of the Despots, 13 Chapel, 14 Nauplia Gate, 15 Church of St Sophia, 16 Castle, 17 Palataki, 18 Church of St Nicholas, 19 Pantanassa, 20 Phrangopoulos mansion, 21 Church of the Peribleptos, 22 Church of St George
Figure 18.3 Mistra: general town plan. Citadel = 16, Upper Town = Kastro, Lower Town = Mesokhorion, Extramural Settlement = Katochorion.
S. Runciman, Mistra: Byzantine Capital of the Peloponnese. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd 1980, 94. Drawn by Hanni Bailey.
Figure 18.4 The “Laskaris House,” an aristocratic mansion at Mistra.
N. V. Georgiades, Mistra, 2nd edn. Athens 1973, Figure 6. Drawn by A. K. Orlandos. The Archaeological Society at Athens.
Army rested on peasant conscripts; art and ceremonial show strong continuities with the Roman world, especially the former in periods of conscious “Classical revival.” But the differences are as great: the total dominance of Christian belief being the chief novelty, not only in the balance between Church and State, but at times in open rivalry with the State. If we note the changes over time toward a dependent peasantry and mercenary armies, these were also features of the Late Roman Empire, but the lack of a strong regional urban identity with powerful, largely self-governing elites to whom provincial rule could be delegated strikes one as a fundamental contrast to the city-based world of Greek and Roman antiquity. Indeed apart from Thessaloniki, Byzantine towns were small and irregular.
In the medium term the rise and fall of Byzantium appears to follow many other cultural examples, and as so often internal decay and external aggressors can be invoked, although the novelty here in a World
History perspective is the aggressive intrusion of the North Italian capitalist economy into that of the Byzantine world. For the short term both the success and failure of individual emperors or dynasties are relevant, as are certain events: such as the defeat of the imperial army by the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert in 1071 (leading to the loss of most of Anatolia), and the temporary destruction of the latter’s successor, the rising Ottoman state, by the Mongol Khan, Tamerlane the Great, in 1402 (giving the Byzantine Empire another half century of life).
The overall mentality of the Byzantine world shows powerful strands of a central continuity, giving its citizens and elites a confidence in their superiority over other cultures and the will to survive. The focal belief in the state and the emperor as God’s representatives on Earth further assisted in the reproduction of a significant military and cultural power in the Old World.
World History
