Everyday Life in Byzantium

by Tamara Talbot Rice

  89 A piper

  Important though these hymns proved to the West, the greatest contribution which the Byzantines made to European church music resulted from the re-introduction of the organ into Europe in 757, when Emperor Constantine V sent one as a gift to King Pepin of France. Although it was the first wind organ to reach Europe it was by no means the first of its kind, not even the first to be heard in the Western world. Hydraulic organs had probably been made from as far back as the third century BC. Their invention is ascribed to Steribius of Alexandria. The instrument became known in Rome during the first century AD. It was much admired there and remained in favour as late as the time of Augustine. Then it fell out of use and was soon forgotten in Rome, though not in the East, where the Byzantines replaced the earlier hydraulic type by one in which wind was blown through pipes of differing lengths. By the eighth century, when the more up-to-date version was re-introduced into Europe, the Byzantines were producing organs of several types. Most were very large, but some must have been easy to transport, for Emperor Constantine VI (780-97) and his mother Irene were able to take one with them when they visited the army stationed in Thrace. In Byzantium the instrument was probably reserved for secular purposes, but in the West it must have been considered as better suited to church requirements for it was widely used in the monastery of St Gall, where other forms of Byzantine music were also adapted to western tastes. In 873 the pope did much to establish its popularity by commissioning an organ, as well as a man able to play it, from Bishop Anno of Freisig.

  Martyrdoms, or Lives of Saints, were widely read in Byzantium. The first collection to appear in book form was compiled in the sixth century by Cyril of Skythopolis and was written in Syriac. Its appearance may well be linked with Palladius’ Book of the Paradise, as his enquiry into the truth of the miracles and experiences ascribed to the hermits and holy men of the Egyptian desert is called (see page 77). By the end of the sixth century another volume of lives, written this time by John Moschus, had also appeared. From then onwards the number multiplied and included stories written in the form of edifying romances. Both the real and the fictional accounts became extremely popular among all classes of society, the fictional accounts quickly coming to stand in the same relationship to the true ones as does the Apocrypha to the Gospels.

  90 A sixth-century bard

  The Byzantines had the same satirical turn of mind and lively interest in politics as the Greeks of today, but fewer outlets for these tastes. Nevertheless, political pamphlets were written, and they enjoyed a wide circulation. In the drawing-rooms of the great, epigrams were extremely popular and a young man who was able to produce a neatly turned phrase was much admired. Though many of these epigrams were based on classical themes, the majority were very pertinent. Theodore II Lascaris was the author of many a barbed witticism. Successful verses were collected into anthologies which also included anagrams and word games. Professional writers spent much of their time composing imperial panegyrics, funeral orations, homilies based on the principles laid down by rhetoricians, all of which abounded in mythological references, for the Greek classics were a source of universal delight. Much pleasure was also derived from memoirs. Letters were not only written to entertain friends but also as literary exercises; these were therefore addressed to imaginary people. Readers who delighted in letters as a literary form also took pleasure in novels and romances. The novel, to use the word in its original sense (meaning a tale), became known to the Byzantines when John of Damascus translated into Greek the story of Baarlam and Josephus, which was very popular at the court of the Omayyad Caliphs. The story’s title is somewhat misleading for in its original form it consisted of the Indian version of the life of Buddha, Buddha appearing as Josephus in the Greek version. Many romances followed the appearance of this first novel. A particularly popular one told of the love of Theagene and Chariclea. Stories such as these were so numerous and so much enjoyed in Constantinople that they travelled westward, and diverted Racine among others.

  91 Musician playing a stringed instrument

  Even though the bulk of the country people were less well educated than most of the town dwellers, it is thought that many of the men were literate. However, few books came within their reach and their intellectual activities were largely confined to reading tracts on magic and oracular pronouncements, to watching an occasional Passion play performed in their local church with, from the ninth century, clerics acting all the parts, or to listening to the songs and tales told by singers and wandering storytellers.

  The working class, whether living in towns or villages, took particular delight in burlesques and rough satires. These played much the same part in their lives as did epigrams in those of their masters. Some drolleries had come down to them from classical sources, but some were the outcome of Eastern influence. By the ninth century the more popular of these skits had been collected into anthologies; they appeared under such titles as The Industrious and Clever Advocate, The Miser, The Swindlers, Dunces, and so on. Epics were, however, the best-loved type of song. One that gave unfailing delight to all classes of people and which has survived because it remained so popular is the Epic of Basil Digenis Akritas (meaning: a frontier guardsman of twin birth). It was largely inspired by Byzantium’s fight against Islam in the ninth and tenth centuries, a fight which was mainly waged by members of the themes or frontier guards. The hero personifies Byzantium’s resistance to the Saracens, but the epic reveals that the contestants felt considerable respect and liking for each other. This attitude is also reflected in history, for the mutual regard which Saladin and his Christian opponents experienced for each other enabled prisoners to be regularly exchanged and other humanitarian measures to be carried out. It has been suggested that the epic is based on the life of a real character, Panterius, a man of mixed parentage, his mother a member of the renowned Byzantine family of Ducas, his father an Arabian Emir who accepted Christianity for love of her. Panterius became a civil servant under Romanus Lecapenus and in 941 helped to repel the dangerous attack launched on Byzantium by the Kievan Russians. In the epic Digenis Akritas is described as the son of no less a person than the Muslim Emir of Edessa, who either kidnapped or eloped with and then married the daughter of the Greek strategos Andronicus Ducas. The first section of the epic deals with that incident; the second and older part of the story is concerned with Digenis’ early life. With various digressions, it tells of his childhood and education, of the deeds of chivalry which he performed in his youth, of his valour, and of his love for the beautiful Eudoxia, the daughter of a Christian chieftain who killed anyone who attempted to woo her. Digenis contrived to elope with her, but the lovers were pursued by the angry father and his retainers. They escaped from many perilous situations and, finally, their courage won her father’s respect. He agreed to their marriage, which was celebrated with great pomp and gaiety. Digenis then had many more adventures, all of which are recorded in a racy and picturesque style. They include Eudoxia’s encounter with a dragon, which follows a course similar to that of St George’s princess, and Digenis’ contest with Maximo, an Indian descendant of Alexander the Great. This section of the epic reflects the love of adventure and delight in daring feats of arms, glitter and courage associated with European chivalry, together with something of Roland’s gallantry and the dash of Robin Hood, all expressed with Chaucerian pungency. In the last section of the epic Digenis and his wife are found living in luxury in a splendid palace situated on the banks of the Euphrates. Their life had become more peaceful, but Digenis, who was fond of bathing in the river, died after swimming in its icy water.

  In the eleventh century many great landowners abandoned their estates and moved to Constantinople. Accustomed as they were to the type of life lived in Asia Minor, they found themselves so much out of sympathy with the Neo-Platonist tendencies gaining ground in the capital that they took little part in its intellectual life. They formed a community of their own where, withdrawn from the main stream, they divert
ed themselves with the tales, burlesques and satires with which wandering actors had amused them when they lived in the country, and listened with undiminished delight to the tale of Basil Digenis Akritas.

  92 Digenis Akritas and his dragon

  10 - ARTISTS AND ARCHITECTS

  A nation’s tastes and mentality are nowhere more clearly preserved than in its arts. These embody its loftiest ambitions and most telling achievements. Byzantium’s arts clearly reflect the national genius, for the sharp division between religious and secular art did not hamper Byzantine artists; since both flourished side by side, artists had ample opportunity for self-expression. Though there was no place for humour or fantasy in the religious arts, the mosaic floor of the Great Palace proves that both elements found expression in the secular. The scene showing a recalcitrant mule throwing its rider and administering a sharp kick on his posterior as he does so records the incident with delightful malice, whilst the architectural features which appear in the same floor, whether in the form of tempiettas or fountains, reveal an architectural imagination as keen as that which existed at Pompeii. That sumptuous secular arts abounded cannot be doubted. Written records contain many references that testify to the luxury of the imperial apartments in the Great Palace, but these do not deal with isolated cases, for the description of Digenis Akritas’ house and garden proves that private individuals devoted as much thought and care to the settings in which they spent their days as did the emperors.

  According to surviving records the empress’s winter apartments in the Great Palace at Constantinople were built of Carian marble, the floors were of white Proconesus marble and the walls adorned with mural paintings of a religious character. In contrast the Pearl Pavilion, designed for use in summer, had a marble mosaic floor which, in the words of a contemporary, resembled ‘a field carpeted with flowers’; its bedroom walls were faced with slabs of porphyry, green marble from Thessaly and Carian white, while those in the other rooms displayed hunting scenes executed in glass mosaic. The result was so successful that the room came to be called the Chamber of Mousikos, meaning harmony.

  93 A typical rural scene. Note the boy’s falcon

  The mosaic floor of the Great Palace is the finest known to us, but future excavations may well reveal further examples of comparable beauty and serenity. Serenity is surely the key which unlocks the door to the magic world of Byzantine art. Byzantine art is not dramatic—even the immense dome of Constantinople’s Haghia Sophia is not at first sight overpowering yet it overwhelms gradually because the art is majestic. Even on the minute scale required for book illuminations, portative mosaics—where each cube is often scarcely larger than a pin’s head—or cloisonné enamel plaques, many of them little more than an inch in size, it retains a monumental quality. Nor is the art when seen at its purest (that is to say, with least Syrian or Eastern influence) emotional. Instead it is transfused with profound yet restrained feeling. In addition Byzantine art is seldom pretty, yet it is with but few exceptions truly beautiful and admirably suited to its main purpose. Furthermore, it is astonishingly distinctive and could never be mistaken for anything other than itself.

  Not the least achievement of Byzantine artists was their ability to develop tentative innovations or minor forms of art into something wholly new and so significant that they became not only major forms of art, but styles which profoundly affected European art of the future. Thus, in architecture, they were responsible for the acceptance of the domed church; in religious painting for the creation of a style, more particularly in icons, which not only greatly influenced the work of the Italian Primitives but also formed the basis of the religious art which came to characterise the Orthodox world; finally, in interior decoration they established the glass mosaic panel as the finest, most opulent form of wall decoration and the opus sectile, or coarser stone or marble geometric mosaic as the most enchanting floor.

  The Byzantines built their first churches according to the forms and techniques which they had inherited, first from the classical world, and second, from their Eastern neighbours. They roofed the Greek temple in the basilical form in which the Romans had transmitted it to them, with wooden beams, and they retained the apse which the Romans had added at one end to hold the throne of their judex or judge in order to set up their altar there. They also made use of the circular buildings which the Romans had evolved to serve as mausolea for their dignitaries and which, like the Pantheon, they had roofed with a dome made of masonry. Till about the sixth century, even though neither of these forms was wholly suited to the Christian ritual, the need for churches was so great that it was simpler and cheaper to build them on these lines. Of the two the basilical type proved the easier to adapt to Christian needs, for the altar could be placed in the central apse and the interior could easily be divided into aisles, the piers or columns which formed the divisions serving also to support the galleries designed for women worshippers. Three aisles quickly became customary, though in exceptional cases five were used; with the sixth century the central aisle became wider than the others. A magnificent example of the style is the cathedral of St Demetrius in Salonica, built in the fifth century and restored in the seventh. It was extensively damaged by fire in 1917, but although it lost most of the sumptuous decorations of its original interior it has now been faithfully rebuilt.

  By the sixth century architects were placing impost blocks on the column capitals to support the galleries, but before long sculptors devised a capital which combined the two functions in a single block of stone. It was also in the sixth century that the habit of adding a transverse chamber at the west end was adopted; it was known as an exo-narthex. However, it was not until the thirteenth century that churches were provided with porches or detached bell towers; this was largely a result of Western influence, for church bells were not originally used in the Byzantine world. Instead, as is still the case in a number of monasteries in Greece and the Balkans, the faithful were summoned to prayer by a simantron, a wooden bar beaten with a wooden mallet.

  Though the basilical plan suited the needs of the early Christian Church, the Byzantine conception of the universe made a domed church particularly desirable. The Byzantines visualised the universe as a sort of inverted cone which was divided into clearly defined sections, like their own society. Thus, soaring at the top of the celestial sphere were God the Father, Christ His Son, the Holy Ghost and the Virgin; St John accompanied by the archangels, seraphs, cherubim and angels came next; beneath them were assembled the evangelists, the prophets, the fathers of the Church and the ranks of saintly and holy men and women. Separated from these by the ether, the emperor stood at the summit of the terrestrial sphere, accompanied by the patriarch, his family and courtiers, and so down the social scale. However, buildings circular in plan, though roofed by the dome which, to the Byzantines, seemed best to symbolise heaven, were ill-suited to the Christian ritual which required a focal point, such as an apse, for the altar. On the other hand the transition from a square to a rectangular ground plan and a circular roof was difficult to accomplish. Experiments were made using columns to create a central, octagonal core within a square building, enabling at any rate the central portion to be roofed with a dome, but the result was inclined to seem crowded. The solution appears simple today, but when it was reached it represented a revolution in architecture, enabling even the less skilled architects to erect domed buildings.

  One answer lay in inserting in the corners of a square building a triangular shaped section of masonry with curved sides, which is called a pendentive, its broad ends being placed at the top of the wall and slightly inclined inwards so as to transform the roof opening into a circle; a similar result could be obtained by building out over the square corners of the building a small overhanging arch known as a squinch. It is unlikely that the Byzantines invented either of these devices for, by their day, the pendentive was already being used in Syria and the squinch in Persia, but the Byzantines were the first to realise the full potentialities of bot
h forms and to exploit them by extending the walls of a square or rectangular structure to achieve a cruciform plan. The resulting building was superbly suited for use as a church, for its plan helped to remind the faithful of Christ’s suffering on the cross whilst the dome at its centre symbolised the heavenly sphere.

  Excavations which are at present being carried out in Constantinople suggest that a domed church of the new type existed there before Justinian built the four splendid churches associated with his name. The destruction wrought in Constantinople during the Nika riots spurred Justinian to experiment in this new style. For St Irene, begun in 532, immediately after the riots had been quelled, he chose a three-aisled basilical plan, with a dome over the main square, supported in this instance by brick piers. Indeed, in the hands of all future architects the use of marble columns or of piers built either of brick or stone and covered with plaster served not only to support the galleries but also to help the squinches or pendentives to carry the weight of the heavier domes. When columns were used to support these arches, imposts were introduced above the capitals, but where piers were substituted the arches sprang directly from these, this form of support probably being the earlier of the two.