by Cyril Mango
Left: Iconoclastic cross in the apse of the church of St Irene, Constantinople. The church, which belonged to the episcopal complex, collapsed in the earthquake of740 and was rebuilt in c.760.
The first gold coins struck after the restoration of images have the empress Theodora on the obverse and, on the reverse, figures of the young Michael III and his older sister Thekla. A bust of Christ, copied from that of Justinian II, was introduced a few years later.
The first major figural mosaic to have been put up in St Sophia after the restoration of images was the Virgin and Child in the apse (ad 867).
The most direct consequence of the iconoclast affair concerned the development of Byzantine art. If Iconoclasm had won, church decoration would have been limited to the depiction of gardens and swirls of vegetation as in contemporary Umayyad mosques. Secular art would have gone on—indeed, Con-stantine V is censured for commissioning ‘satanic’ hippodrome scenes. The Umayyad caliphs likewise allowed and probably enjoyed non-religious pictures in their palaces and bath buildings. There was thus in the first half of the eighth century a temporary artistic convergence between the Byzantine and Arab realms, soon to be followed among Muslims by a complete ban on the depiction of all living creatures. Whether an iconoclast Byzantium would have gone down the same road is perhaps unlikely.
What happened in Byzantium as distinct from what might have happened is that Nicaea II not only ‘restored’ the cult of icons, but made it obligatory. The faithful were ordered to adore them. That was an infringement of individual conscience. It also forced artists to follow established, time-honoured formulas without deviation, for otherwise the icons they produced would not be ‘true’ icons.
Commerce
MARLIA MUNDELL MANGO
Merchants, bankers, and money-changers were generally held in low esteem and are sometimes represented suffering the torments of hell. To combat fraud the state kept a tight control of weights and measures, as stated in laws and in the tenth-century Book of the Prefect. Two types of weighing devices were used, the steelyard for relatively bulky items of low value, and the balance for lighter items, usually of high value (coin, spices). Steelyards had pendant weights often fashioned as an imperial bust, or as a bust of Athena/Minerva, a form inherited from the Roman period. Balances used copper-alloy flat weights marked either in pounds or ounces or in the equivalent number of gold coins indicated in Greek (nomismata) or Latin (solidi). Coin weights (exagia) are also made of glass and give the name of the Urban Prefect of Constantinople.
Shops and workshops in use in the early or medieval period have been excavated at Apamea, Ephesus, Justiniana Prima, Sardis, and Corinth (see Chapter 2). Most long-distance trade was conducted by ship. Navigation, confined to the fine season (April to October), was considered dangerous and did not lead to substantial profits. In Late Antiquity a major part of it, including the provisioning of the capital cities, was in the hands of the state, operating through hereditary guilds of subsidized shippers (navicularii) who were exempt from tolls or paid very low ones.
Even if private initiative was restricted, a lively interregional trade may be deduced from finds of transport amphorae. These were containers of commodities ranging from honey to fish-sauce, but were used especially for bulk transport of oil and wine by sea. Six main types of amphorae originated in the eastern Mediterranean. Their contents may be identified by stamps or inscriptions on the outside of the amphorae, or by carbonized remains within them. Early Byzantine amphorae have been found throughout the Mediterranean, in Britain, and along the Black, Red, and Arabian Seas. Their discovery on an archaeological site indicates trade with a particular area. Amphorae continued to be used in the medieval period. Specimens attributed to the eighth-tenth centuries have been found at Constantinople and in the Black Sea area more than around the Mediterranean. From the eleventh century Byzantine amphorae are again found in large numbers throughout both seas. By the fourteenth century the use of clay amphorae had declined in favour of wooden barrels, due perhaps to the Italian monopoly of trade.
The dishonest merchant who cheated customers is shown suspended upside-down in a wall painting of the Last Judgement. His falsified weights and balance hang from his neck. Beside him dangle a usurer with a heavy purse and a false accuser. Thirteenth/fourteenth century.
Wooden boxes having compartments to hold a balance scale and a variety of weights have been found in Egypt. Sixth/seventh century.
Left: Inscription of c.492 from Abydos on the Hellespont. The text which dates to the reign of Anastasius I refers to commodities (oil, wine, dry vegetables, bacon, wheat) shipped to Constantinople for distribution by the annona system. Ships from Cilicia are mentioned twice.
Below, top: The main types of transport amphorae from the late antique eastern Mediterranean probably originated in (1) northern Syria, (2) the Aegean, (3) western Asia Minor, (4) Gaza, (5) northern Palestine, and (6) Egypt. Type 1 is often said to have contained olive oil and Type 4, the well-known wine of Gaza.
Below, bottom: Several types of medieval transport amphorae have been identified. Types 1–3 of the ninth–eleventh centuries continue Types 1–3 of the earlier period. New types of amphorae with large handles appeared in the tenth/eleventh centuries (Type 4) and the twelfth/thirteenth (Type 5). Type 6 is a later version (twelfth–fourteenth centuries) of Type 2, and Type 7 dates to the thirteenth–fourteenth.
Table pottery was another staple of long-distance trade. Slipped red-bodied ceramic finewares with stamped or applied decoration were manufactured until the seventh century in North Africa, western Asia Minor, Cyprus, and Egypt, and enjoyed varying circulation in some cases throughout the Mediterranean. By the ninth century a dramatic technical shift occurred with the introduction of lead-glazed, white-bodied and then red-bodied finewares with painted, impressed, scratched, and excavated ornamentation. The white-bodied wares (ninth—eleventh centuries) may have been made at Constantinople, while at least some of the red-bodied wares (eleventh century onwards) were produced in factories excavated at Corinth. The later wares, of orientalizing decoration, enjoyed a wide circulation and have been recovered as cargoes from shipwrecks.
Marble likewise enjoyed a wide circulation in Byzantium. Marbles and other decorative stones were highly valued for statues, important monuments and in buildings, for columns, wall revetments, pavements, and furniture. Some of these marbles were quarried in Greece and Asia Minor (Bithynia, Phrygia). The island of Proconnesus in the Sea of Marmara produced much of the empire’s standard architectural grey-white marble and was well placed for cheaper transportation by sea. A ship carrying marble from Proconnesus and quarries in Thessaly sank off the coast of Sicily in c.530. Its cargo included twenty-eight columns, bases, and capitals, slabs ornamented with crosses, and twelve colonnettes—all destined to serve as chancel screen, ambo, and altar in a church, perhaps in North Africa. Further documentation of the circulation of Byzantine Proconnesian marble has been established on the basis of several distinctive types of capital found dispersed around the Mediterranean.
When the Proconnesian quarries went out of production by the seventh century, they were eventually replaced by the abandoned ancient monuments in coastal cities which were quarried for their marble. In the medieval period, the ancient city of Cyzicus, situated on the Sea of Marmara, became a source of marble, both of pieces reused intact in nearby eighth-century monastery buildings and recarved as new sculpture for buildings in Constantinople, such as the Lips monastery built in 907. Coloured marbles were also recycled as small pieces and as disks sliced from marble columns, both used in opus sectile pavements.
Above: Marble capital with decorated cornucopias above a row of acanthus leaves. The tabula in the centre bears an inscription mentioning the emperor Heraclius, added during his reign. Similar capitals were used in the cathedral of Amorium and elsewhere. Sixth century.
Below: Marble cornice block decorated with a frieze of upright palmettes, carved in 907 for the church of Constantine Lips (today
Fenari Isa Camii), Constantinople. The block is a reused funerary stele from Cyzicus.
Other materials that were the object of international trade, as exports and/or imports, included metal, ivory, and silk. The empire produced high-quality silver plate in both the early period and the medieval. Its cloisonné enamels formed an important part of medieval ornament. Both silver and enamels were exported abroad (in trade, for diplomacy) or taken there by looting. Baser metal products formed the basis of a broader, more systematic export. These included bronze vessels in the early period and brass doors in the medieval.
Byzantine bronze basin with drop-handles and openwork base, excavated in an Anglo-Saxon tomb at Faversham in Kent, together with amethysts drilled in the Byzantine manner.
In the sixth—seventh centuries copper alloy objects produced in Byzantium were exported to western Europe, where about 120 have been found in burials. They include household items such as cast bronze drop-handle basins, washing sets, and hammered brass buckets, some decorated with hunting scenes and inscribed in Greek. The latter have been found in Britain, Spain, the Levant, and Turkey. Comparable objects totalling 170 were found in burials in Nubia, south of Egypt. Fewer have been recovered within the empire, probably because they were not used as grave goods.
Panel of brass door at St Paul’s Outside the Walls, Rome, made in 1070 at Constantinople. Between Christ and St Paul, the prostrate figure of the donor Pantaleon begs for mercy. The figures had silver inlaid faces, hands, and feet, now missing, while the inscriptions were inlaid with niello.
Another export industry is known in the eleventh century. Brass doors decorated with figures and scenes inlaid in niello and silver were manufactured in Constantinople for export to Italy. Their place of manufacture is clearly stated in inscriptions on the doors themselves which were acquired for churches in Amalfi, Venice, Rome, Monte Cassino, Salerno, and Monte S. Angelo, between 1060 and 1080 and in the twelfth century. None survives at Constantinople itself. The doors were imported into Italy by an Amalfitan family whose principal members, Pantaleon and Mauro, resided at Constantinople, had Byzantine honorific titles, and maintained commercial interests in Syria and Palestine. A bilingual Greek and Latin inscription on the Amalfi doors gives the name of the master craftsman as Symeon, while doors in St Paul’s in Rome have bilingual Greek and Syriac inscriptions naming a Theodore and a Stavrakios. The Syriac inscription suggests an oriental link for this new industry at Constantinople.
Silk, spices, and ivory were important imports of international trade with the East, documented in part by Cosmas Indicopleustes, a merchant of Alexandria, scholar, astronomer, and theologian. His Christian Topography (536–47) included references to his trading experiences in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and Sri Lanka. Byzantine commercial agents, kommerkiarioi, collected duty on imported goods; their lead seals give their names and locations. The medieval Book of the Prefect regulated foreign trade in Constantinople.
Ivory was imported from both Africa and India. The larger African tusks were probably used for plaques which measure up to 42 cm in height, while sections of the smaller Indian tusks could have been sliced for cylindrical caskets which are 8–10 cm in diameter. In contrast to these earlier caskets, most medieval oblong caskets had a wooden core to which thin plaques and strips were attached by pegs. As with the early plaques used for diptychs and the cylindrical caskets, there are signs of serial manufacture. Borders carved with rosettes were produced in long strips and cut as needed, while figural plaques appear repeatedly on different caskets. Medieval ivory was supplemented by bone and some caskets were made entirely of bone, often skilfully carved.
A map of the world illustrates the Christian Topography written in 536–47 by Cosmas Indocopleustes, a merchant of Alexandria. The ocean surrounds the earth and forms the Roman (Mediterranean) Sea, the Arab (Red) Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Caspian Sea. Paradise lies along the right side. Eleventh-century manuscript. Mount Sinai, St Catherine’s Monastery Library, cod. 1186.
Most numerous among early Byzantine ivories to survive are diptychs issued by the western and eastern consuls of the empire who changed every year, until 540 when the consulship was abolished. Although the surviving diptych plaques indicate mass production, their carving could be intricate and refined. The codicils of office, presented by the emperor, and tabellae shown in the Notitia Dignitatum were also of ivory. See p. 62.
Most medieval ivories are attributed to the tenth and eleventh centuries. Imperial plaques commemorate the coronations of the emperors Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and Romanus II (pp. 222, 228). Religious ivory carvings include triptychs and caskets. Other caskets decorated with mythological, hunting, bucolic, or military subjects, constitute a relatively large body of secular art from the period. An outstanding example is the Veroli casket with mythological scenes (see p.228).
The ivory consular diptych of Areobindus (506) shows him seated on the consular lion-headed chair. Below are scenes of entertainments which he provided to the public during his year in office. The tabulae ansatae at the top of the leaves give his name (on the right) and titles (on the left) in Latin.
During the Byzantine period, silk was both imported and exported. Of the silk, flax, and wool textiles produced in Byzantium, silk was the most important commercially, and the Byzantine industry was renowned. Until the mid-sixth century raw silk was imported from the Far East into the Byzantine empire where it was woven into cloth. According to Procopius, Berytus and Tyre were the most important centres of the silk industry which was partly state monopoly, partly in the private sector. Imperial silk, reserved for the emperor, was tinted purple with murex shellfish dye at Tyre and Sidon. In 552 silkworms were brought into Byzantium, and by 568 mulberry plantations were established, apparently in Phoenicia. Although these factories were lost to the Arabs in the seventh century, Byzantium remained a major producer of silks. An imperial silk factory operated in the former Zeuxippos Baths in Constantinople and five silk guilds were regulated by the Book of the Prefect. Silkworms were cultivated in Byzantine south Italy, and both Thebes and Corinth in Greece were important centres of production. Two series of silks, with lions and with elephants, bear inscriptions stating that they were manufactured in the reigns of Leo VI (886—912), Romanus and Christopher (921— 3), Constantine VIII and Basil II (976—1025). Elaborate silks are depicted in imperial and other portraits. European churches preserve prestigious Byzantine silks woven from the eighth century on, for example in the tombs of Charlemagne at Aachen and S. Germain at Auxerre. Textiles in general formed an important part of domestic furnishings. Documents of the tenth—twelfth centuries preserved in the Cairo Geniza attest to the demand for Byzantine mandils (veils) and upholstery by brides in the Arab world.
The Islamic conquests of the seventh century diminished but did not completely disrupt the Mediterranean trade of Late Antiquity. Other factors at work were the decline of cities, now reduced to a level of self-sufficiency, the discontinuation of the state-sponsored provisioning of Constantinople, and the privatization of shipping. Conditions were beginning to improve by the tenth century, but the Byzantines, with their traditional anti-business ethos, did not profit greatly from the situation. Initiative passed instead to the Italian cities which gained trading concessions in the capital.
Silk compound twill decorated with roundels enclosing confronted elephants. An inscription woven into the silk states that it was made ‘under Michael, koitonites and eidikos, and Peter, archon of the Zeuxippos’, probably during the reign of Constantine VIII and Basil II. It was introduced into the tomb of Charlemagne by Otto III in 1000. Late tenth century.
7
The Medieval Empire (780—1204)
PAUL MAGDALINO
Byzantium in the Medieval World
The Byzantine empire in 780 was a territorial rump of its former self, confined to Asia Minor, the coastal fringe of the Balkans and the Crimea, the Greek islands, Sicily and the southern extremities of the Italian penins
ula. In terms of Christian geography, it was co-terminous with only one of the five ancient patriarchates of the Church. The three eastern sees of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria had been under Arab domination for more than a century, along with the rich lands of Syria, Egypt, and Palestine which had been the economic and cultural power-house of the empire in the fourth to sixth centuries. The large Christian communities over which they had presided were diminished by conversion to Islam, and increasingly detached from Constantinople as Arabic replaced Greek in administration and intellectual discourse. In the West, much imperial territory in Europe—Sicily and those parts of mainland Italy and Greece which remained under imperial control—had formerly come under the see of Rome, but it was entirely characteristic of the new situation that ecclesiastical jurisdiction had been brought in line with political reality. The greater part of Latin Christendom had long fallen outside imperial control; from the mid-eighth century, Rome itself and the lands of the Roman Church in central Italy ceased effectively to belong to the empire of Constantinople. As a result of papal opposition to imperial Iconoclasm, but more particularly of the imperial failure to protect the papacy against the encroachment of a newly aggressive Lombard kingdom, the popes had invited the new Carolingian rulers of the Franks, Pepin and his son Charlemagne, to intervene in Italy. The papacy in theory resisted the substitution of one empire for another—it was at this time that the Roman Church invented the Donation of Constantine to claim that Constantine, in founding Constantinople, had relinquished imperial responsibility in Italy to the Pope. However, the practical outcome was that Charlemagne took over the Lombard kingdom of Italy as well as the emperor’s role as protector of the Church.