There are many forms of short-cut to the study of Byzantium, literally so by
way of atlases. Most aspects of its historical geography are authoritatively
covered by JohnHaldon in The Palgrave atlas of Byzantine history,68 and the
early phases of the empire and of the Christian church are charted in detail
in The Barrington atlas and The atlas of the early Christian world.69 Detailed
historical atlases of neighbouring peoples and regions are also available in
English;70 likewise with the religious and other movements from outside
that had some bearing on the empire’s fate.71 Online guides are likely to
extend horizons further, in terms not only of geography but also of art and
visual culture.72
TheOxford dictionary of Byzantium covers virtually every aspect of Byzantium
across the ages, from the spiritual to the archaeological, while a broad
canvas is presented in The Oxford handbook of Byzantine studies.73 Several
other introductory multi-authored works or broad synopses appeared early
in the twenty-first century.74 The main papers and abstracts of the Twentyfirst
International Congress of Byzantine Studies (2006), together with
other proceedings published shortly afterwards, summed up the scholarly
state of play across the field, the greater part of these papers having been
presented in English.75
The economic history of Byzantium, covering the Byzantine world from
the seventh to the fifteenth centuries, has already been mentioned (see
above, pp. 36–7). So have the many accessible introductions to the art and
archaeology of Byzantium, the introduction to alternative forms of imagery
by Maguire and Maguire (2007) among them (see above, n. 19 on p. 79).
Entries on all forms of Byzantine art history (in German) are supplied by
the Reallexikon zur byzantinischen Kunst,76 while studies in English as well
as other western languages on virtually every aspect of late antique history
and culture are published in the compendious Aufstieg und Niedergang der
r¨omischen Welt.77 A pithier synopsis emerges from the thematic essays and
articles in Bowersock et al. (eds.) (1999), covering the antique Christian and
Islamic worlds from the mid-third century until the end of the eighth. A
chronology of salient political, military and ecclesiastical events year by year
from 330 until 1461 is provided by A chronology of the Byzantine empire.78
These works can be supplemented in highly flexible ways by the online
Prosopography of the Byzantine world.79 This offers a full, reliable chronology
for most of the eleventh and twelfth centuries and gives details about
individuals eminent or obscure. Its gateways also open up to the enquirer
a range of thematic topics: for example, ‘murder’ will bring up a list of all
those persons said to have been murdered during that period. Traditional
reference works for the cultures and religions most closely linked with
Byzantium remain of value as introductions and suppliers of background
information, notably The Oxford classical dictionary, The Oxford dictionary
of the Christian church and The early Christian world.80 The revised edition
of The encyclopedia of Islam contains many entries on places within
the Byzantine empire, encompassing the period before they came permanently
under Muslim rule.81 The Dictionnaire d’histoire et de g´eographie
eccl´esiastiques contains entries on places, rites and persons of significance
treatment in depth of Byzantium as well as the west.82
Those wishing to follow the short-cuts through to the point of learning
something of the language as written and spoken by the Byzantines have
a number of choices. They may start with the classical Attic Greek to
which members of the elite aspired, or with New Testament Greek, which
is not so far removed from the everyday language of the earlier medieval
Byzantines. Standard grammars and self-help courses offer instruction in
these forms of Greek. Good introductions are also available for persons
wanting to trace the historical connections between Byzantine Greek and
theGreek in use today, or to learn something of the grammar of the modern
language.83 The Greek script is explained in detail for newcomers as well
as specialists by contributions to Greek scripts, while the new lexicon of
Byzantine Greek, supplementing the classical dictionary of Liddell and
Scott, is nearing completion.84
Finally, those who embark on systematic self-tuition or who contemplate
offering a lecture or two or even a course on Byzantine history may turn to
offerings in the online ‘overnight expert’ series.One of these is dedicated to
the teaching of Byzantium by non-specialists. It provides some suggestions
for essay questions or coursework, together with reading lists, and it points
out where a Byzantine dimension can usefully be added to standard western
medieval teaching topics. The closely related history of the Armenians is
also covered in this series.85
The short-cuts mentioned in this section should help make basic facts
and historical issues reasonably clear and communicable to and by nonspecialist
teachers. They and their students have online access to sources
in English translation and to guides to those sources (see above, pp. 77–8
and nn. 14, 15), while Byzantine landscapes, buildings and imagery can be
accessed cheaply and accurately. In that sense, the many roads to Byzantium
are wide open to travellers as never before.
World History
