Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire

by Judith Herrin

  was by descent of the family of the great Charles, a man much celebrated in song and story and author of heroic deeds in war. This Charles was sole ruler over all the kingdoms and reigned as emperor in great Francia… Bertha, who came up to Constantinople and was joined in marriage to Romanos, the son born in the purple of Constantine the Christ-loving sovereign, was named after her grandmother, I mean the great Bertha, and she the young Bertha changed her name to Eudokia after that of the grandmother and sister of Constantine, the Christ-loving sovereign.

  Eudokia, however, died soon after, and Romanos II (959–63) then chose a wife who was said to be the daughter of an innkeeper.

  In spite of the title, many porphyrogennetoi were fated to suffer in the same way as Constantine VII. His grandson, Basil II, also inherited power as a young boy in 963 and gained imperial authority in 976. During the first decades of his reign, the Phokas and Skleros families challenged it, while Basil Lekapenos, the parakoimomenos – his chief eunuch and chamberlain – exercised a manipulative influence. In 987, when Basil was struggling to defeat a revolt, he secured military aid from Vladimir of Kiev, but it came at a price. The young emperor was forced to pledge that his own sister Anna would marry Vladimir. In return, the Russian ruler promised to accept baptism and make his subjects Christian. The sequence of events is much disputed but the result is clear: Anna the porphyrogennetos became the wife of Vladimir and presided with him over his court in Kiev, which imported Byzantine habits. The numerous Byzantine clerics who accompanied her from Constantinople also imposed orthodox practices, encouraged monasticism and promoted Byzantine culture. Despite Constantine VII’s warnings against allowing porphyrogennetoi princesses to be married to foreigners, they could be, and were, used in diplomatic alliances, while numerous princes were married to western brides.

  The most striking examples of porphyrogennetoi overcoming difficulties to make good their claims to imperial authority, however, must be Zoe and Theodora, two nieces of Basil II. As Basil himself never married, these sisters became the last remaining heirs of the Macedonian dynasty founded by Basil I. It seems extraordinary that neither Basil II nor his brother Constantine VIII, their father, managed to ensure the family’s continuity by getting them married. Zoe, who was said to be a great beauty, had been betrothed to the young half-Byzantine prince Otto III, but she arrived in Italy to learn of his death in 1002. In 1028, when her father Constantine VIII realized that he was dying, he arranged for Zoe to marry an elderly general Romanos III Argyros (1028–34), but they had no children. After the death of her first husband, Zoe raised three other men of her choice to the throne: Michael IV (1034–41), Michael V (the nephew of a powerful eunuch courtier, whom she adopted as her son and who ruled briefly, 1041–2), and Constantine IX Monomachos (1042–55) (plate 17). Michael IV retired into a monastery; Michael V tried to usurp imperial power by exiling Zoe to a nunnery, which provoked the people of Constantinople to riot. He was then blinded and the two porphyrogennetoi sisters were reinstated. This incident reflects the understanding within the capital that Zoe and Theodora were the only legitimate heirs of the Macedonian dynasty.

  With Zoe’s agreement, Constantine IX installed his mistress Maria Skleraina in the Great Palace, in a room on the other side of the imperial bedroom. He raised her to an honorary position but was prevented by popular opposition from calling her empress. Despite her three marriages, none of Zoe’s husbands gave her the much-desired child and she died in 1050 leaving Constantine IX in power. He promoted another mistress to a position of great honour and privately addressed her as empress. In public, however, Theodora porphyrogennetos remained the only woman permitted to use the title. When she learned that Constantine IX was dying, Theodora returned to the city to claim the throne and won over the imperial guard. The eleventh-century historian Psellos writes that

  there were certain factors that made her influence with them all-powerful: the fact that she had been ‘born in the purple’; her gentle character; the sad circumstances of her former life.

  Despite her long period of enforced seclusion, she ‘assumed the responsibilities of a man’, and ruled alone as if she had finally realized her imperial vocation.

  Although the porphyrogennetoi sisters successfully asserted their right to rule, the Macedonian dynasty came to an end with the death of Theodora in 1056. The Doukas family tried to use the porphyra to establish its dynasty, but was only successful in coalition with the Komnenos clan, which seized power in 1081. Alexios I Komnenos and his wife Irene Doukaina produced nine children, all born in the porphyra, and their eldest, Anna Komnene, derived an elevated conception of her own authority from this fact. Although she thought that being the first-born she had a claim on the imperial inheritance, her younger brother John II became emperor at their father’s death; in turn his son Manuel inherited the position. But the last of the Komnenos dynasty of porphyrogennetoi to be acclaimed as ruler, Alexios II (1180–82), was ousted by his uncle Andronikos I (1182–5) and murdered. So although the porphyra had helped to establish the Komnenos family dynasty, it could not ensure the succession of a young prince.

  As we have seen, whenever the porphyrogennetos was not old enough to rule alone, others might usurp the power attached to the name. Empress-mothers, such as Theodora in 843 and Zoe Karbounopsina in 913, acted as regents for their sons, following the example of Irene. In contested circumstances, ambitious eunuchs like Basil Lekapenos or John the Orphanotrophos, uncle of Michael V, pronounced themselves protectors of the porphyrogennetos. But the people of Constantinople and probably further afield sustained great loyalty to those who carried the epithet ‘born in the purple’, and intervened on several occasions to support them against rivals. The lasting prestige of the term is shown by the fact that, after 1204, members of the Laskaris family who ruled in Nicaea claimed it, although they could not have been born in the porphyra. Porphyrogennetos thus became yet another title distinguishing the emperor and was used by the Palaiologos dynasty until 1453. The simple innovation of a purple birthing chamber to guarantee legitimate imperial authority persisted for seven hundred years and benefited four distinct ruling dynasties of Byzantium. No other empire devised such a neat and compelling device.

  18

  Mount Athos

  I have found by experience that it is right and beneficial… for all the brothers to live in common. All together they are to look to the same goal of salvation… They form one heart in their common life, one will, one desire, and one body, as the apostle prescribes.

  the typikon of St Athanasios, 973–5

  The promontory of Athos is the eastern branch of the Chalkidike peninsula, joined to mainland Greece by a narrow isthmus. It projects 45km into the northern Aegean, rising sharply from the sea, wooded and relatively inaccessible, culminating in the mountain cone over 2,000m high (plate 1). Long before the first monasteries were set up, this narrow strip of land was chosen by individual holy men seeking a remote, uninhabited refuge from the world. Like other inhospitable mountain areas, such as Bithynia in western Asia Minor, it was considered an equivalent to the barren deserts to which the earliest monks retired. Nourished by the writings and brief sayings (apophthegmata) of the original Desert Fathers, the hermits of Mount Athos adapted fourth- and fifth-century instructions to a new environment. In this process, the iconophile monks’ experience of exile may have created opportunities: after the resumption of iconoclasm in 815, when St Theodore of the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople was banished, he and several disciples spent some time in Thessalonike, near the Athonite peninsula.

  Mount Athos became a famous holy mountain, inhabited by monks who refuse to admit anything female to their secluded existence. Their renown is based on inherited traditions of spiritual life dating back to the earliest days of Christianity. From the first monastic centres in Egypt, Palestine and Syria, which generated writings about monastic life, guides to spiritual development, records of ascetic achievement, prayers and hymns, Byzantine monks gained a wealth of
inspiration. Every generation added commentaries on this material and developed new texts on monastic discipline and new ways of organizing monasteries. Several types of monastic arrangement were represented by isolated holy men, hermits living in loose associations (lavra), as well as those groups who had chosen the life in common (koinos bios, whence koinobion, one of the names for monastery). This was the arrangement that became dominant on Mount Athos in the Middle Ages.

  The communities of Mount Athos were inspired by the early Christian traditions of the Near East, but they gradually came to form a different type of holy mountain, with its own constitution. From its earliest beginnings, possibly during the iconoclast controversy, it sustained self-sufficient communities living according to rules laid down by their founders. Byzantine emperors patronized Mount Athos; some became monks there. Even after the fall of Byzantium in 1453, it continued to nourish monastic life under Ottoman occupation, assisted by orthodox states, including the Russian Empire. In 1924, the Holy Mountain’s independence within the modern state of Greece was recognized by the Mount Athos Charter.

  While the earliest records of Christian monastic life contained many regulations, ranging from the rule attributed to Pachom, instructions in the Life of Antony, to the answers provided by St Basil to questions put to him (in the so-called Long and Short Rules), no single document dominated the monasteries of the eastern Mediterranean. In contrast to the Rule of St Benedict, which inspired a particular order of monks in the West, each eastern monastery established its own regulations, and individual holy men continued to pursue the eremitic life in their own way. The striking traditions of the fifth- and sixth-century stylites (column saints) inspired followers until the eleventh century at Mount Galesion in Asia Minor and in central Greece (though not on Mount Athos). Scattered groups of hermits might meet on Sundays to participate in the liturgy and then return to their isolated cells, extending the model of the Syrian and Palestinian lavra. Although the Islamic conquests of the seventh century forced many monks to flee from their original homes, they found more supportive environments in Byzantium, Italy (particularly Rome) and Asia Minor (the mountains of Cappadocia and Bithynia). Studying the same texts, which taught bodily self-discipline through spiritual exercises, they attracted new recruits by their example.

  For those monks and nuns who cherished icons, the iconoclast persecution was not just another disruption: it encouraged the private veneration of icons which had to be hidden. For those who agreed with the spiritual reform of worship, support for iconoclasm brought rewards, including the use of buildings from which iconophiles had been removed. The period of active persecution thereby generated considerable mobility, which reinforced an ancient principle of wandering, when monks who had adopted a life of total poverty travelled from one centre to another, relying on Christian charity. This remained another feature of Byzantine monasticism and permitted monks to make pilgrimages to particularly holy monasteries and visit spiritual leaders. The western principle of remaining in one place was more often applied to nuns than monks in Byzantium.

  Although monks from Athos are credited with playing a major role in the Triumph of Orthodoxy in 843, it is not clear who they were. Members of the Stoudios community, and other groups, took a more prominent part in Theodora’s reversal of iconoclasm. Monastic life on Athos developed slowly, from individual hermits dispersed over particular areas to settled communities living in specially built quarters. The coenobitic principle of life in common emerged only gradually and was promoted by founders such as Euthymios the Younger, who first visited Athos in about 859. Eleven years later the same saint transformed a ruined church at Peristerai near Thessalonike into a monastery dedicated to St Andrew. By 883, another community had been established at Kolobou, near the episcopal see of Hierissos, rather than on the peninsula itself. Although many legendary figures dot the early history of monasticism on the Holy Mountain, the monk Eustathios, named in a document dating from 894, certainly existed. He acted as the spiritual father of a widowed lady, Gregoria, who decided to sell her property to his monastic community. With her children’s approval, she retained only the land promised to her slave who was to be freed on her death. As a condition of this arrangement, the monks were to say prayers for her soul. The record of this sale thus reveals one of the most common ways in which monasteries on the Holy Mountain began to flourish.

  To create a monastery, hermits had to start by building a church where they could perform the liturgy. Normally, the founder took a major role in this activity. Later he added cells for the monks, a refectory where they could eat together, outhouses for kitchen, laundry, medical supplies (largely produced from the herb garden) and storerooms. The founder regulated his new monastery by a charter (typikon), often based on existing documents, such as that written for the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople by St Theodore at the end of the eighth century, which was widely copied. It might also quote from early Christian texts, particularly the Long and Short Rules of St Basil, collections of ecclesiastical canons and the advice of holy men. These charters represent a systematization of the Christian theology of monasticism. Each one specifies the routine to be followed: at what hours the monks are to perform the liturgy, when they work in the grounds, when they are allowed to borrow books from the library, as well as what they eat and what they wear. Since the charters have many similar features, monastic routine is fairly common. Mention of an infirmary where sick and older monks could be looked after, a sort of prison where those guilty of serious sins might be detained on a bread and water diet, and outlying cells inhabited by those monks who wished to perform solitary devotions, reflect an individual founder’s emphasis. There could also be a charnel house for the relics of past monks, which were transferred from cemeteries with due reverence. This was introduced at St Catherine’s monastery on Mount Sinai, where visitors today are shown the skulls and bones of hundreds of past members of the community (plate 2). Whatever the variations between monasteries, all monks took the same fundamental vows of perpetual chastity, poverty and obedience to their abbot. The formal ceremony of admission included a symbolic cutting of hair, but subsequently orthodox monks normally let their hair grow and did not cut it. Although they can always be identified by their black garments, there is no circular tonsure as in the West.

  Because the peninsula of Athos is mountainous and not suitable for cereal cultivation, the monks there needed gifts of nearby land and property which could supply them with foodstuffs. Hence the close relationship with local lay people, who received spiritual guidance and assistance and in turn supported the monasteries with donations. The dynamics of recruitment developed from this local integration, which in turn spread the fame of new monasteries and attracted men from farther away. As the monasteries grew in resources, they created a way for large, wealthy families to invest in the spiritual life: one son would be dedicated to the monastic life, another to the military, the youngest might be made a eunuch and together with a daughter could be sent to the imperial court.

  Secular patrons also wished to be commemorated by prayers for the salvation of their souls. From the earliest history of Mount Athos, emperors sought an association with the monks, for the same reason. In 883, Basil I issued an imperial decree protecting them from local shepherds who tried to pasture their flocks on the peninsula. Romanos I Lekapenos allotted the Athonite monks an annual pension and fixed the boundary at Hierissos in 941/2. About fourteen years later, the first named monastery, Xeropotamou (literally, dry river), was in existence. Its foundation is attributed to Paul Xeropotamites, to whom a layman named John made a donation in 956. As soon as he became emperor in 963, Nikephoros Phokas made major donations to the Lavra monastery; an annual grant of 244 gold coins and supplies of wheat ensured its rapid growth.

  The history of this monastery, which became known as the Great Lavra, is recorded in two versions of the Life of St Athanasios. He was born in Trebizond on the Black Sea in about 925 and became a teacher in Constantinople before em
bracing monasticism. Like all novices, he sought advice from an experienced ascetic, Michael Maleinos, who directed a group of hermits on Mount Kyminas in Bithynia. One of his companions in this spiritual training was Nikephoros Phokas, later to become emperor. From Bithynia, Athanasios went to Athos seeking a retreat from the world. Long-distance travel on this scale, from Trebizond to Athos, is not uncommon in the stories of medieval monks, who often undertook pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Rome and Sinai. Despite Athanasios’ efforts to remain unknown, his fame attracted followers and imperial support made possible the foundation of the monastery in 963/4. As abbot, Athanasios wrote its charter and several other documents to guide the monks under his care. Over the next thirty years, the numbers increased so fast that substantial new buildings were necessary. A large-scale walled monastery came into existence. Athanasios died in about 1001 when he fell from a ladder which he had climbed to inspect the construction of a new church.

  Monastic expansion was not limited to Athos: in all parts of the empire, including cities, dedicated Christians and lay patrons supported new foundations. In Cappadocia, startling discoveries in the tufa valleys of Göreme and Peristremon have revealed rock-cut structures, both civilian and ecclesiastical, some decorated with high-quality frescoes (plate 13). But no texts survive to document the builders, who may have been monks, of these tenth-and eleventh-century cave churches. At Steiris in central Greece, however, the Life of Holy Luke, composed by his disciples, describes how he made his garden into ‘a beautiful paradise’ but hid his cell ‘in a thicket so that it would not easily be noticed by most people. His purpose was always to prune back the impulses of vainglory… and to be more like a dead person than a living one’ (plate 31). Similarly, the monk John Xenos wrote an account of his efforts to build churches, plant trees and crops, set up beehives and train and install monks at numerous mountain sites in Crete, some of which are identified. For over thirty years, he moved from one to another, recruiting local people to help in the excavation and construction of buildings, and in 1082 he travelled to the capital to obtain patriarchal protection for them.