Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition

Greek Culture in the Roman World

by Anthony Kaldellis

This text was the first systematic study of what it meant to be 'Greek' in late antiquity and Byzantium, an identity that could alternatively become national, religious, philosophical, or cultural. Through close readings of the sources, Professor Kaldellis surveys the space that Hellenism occupied in each period; the broader debates in which it was caught up; and the historical causes of its successive transformations. The first section (100–400) shows how Romanisation and Christianisation led to the abandonment of Hellenism as a national label and its restriction to a negative religious sense and a positive, albeit rarefied, cultural one. The second (1000–1300) shows how Hellenism was revived in Byzantium and contributed to the evolution of its culture. The discussion looks closely at the reception of the classical tradition, which was the reason why Hellenism was always desirable and dangerous in Christian society, and presents a new model for understanding Byzantine civilisation.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Greece, Roman History, Ancient History, Academic

482 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Ph.D. University of Michigan, Department of History (2001)
Anthony Kaldellis’ research explores the history, culture, and literature of the east Roman empire from antiquity to the fifteenth century. An earlier phase of it focused on the reception of ancient Hellenic culture, for example on how authors conceived their projects in relation to classical models (Procopius of Caesarea, 2004), as well as the history of identities (Hellenism in Byzantium, 2007), monuments (The Christian Parthenon, 2009), and genres (Ethnography after Antiquity, 2013). A second phase brought to light the enduring Roman matrices of Byzantine life and thought, focusing on its political sphere (The Byzantine Republic, 2015) and ethnic identities (Romanland: Ethnicity and Empire in Byzantium, 2019). He has translated into English the works of many medieval Greek writers, such as Prokopios, Genesios, Psellos, Attaleiates, and Laonikos Chalkokondyles. His own monographs have been translated into other modern languages, including Turkish, French, Romanian, Russian, and Greek. In 2019, he created the first academic podcast for his field, Byzantium & Friends. He has just published a new, comprehensive history of Byzantium, The New Roman Empire (2023), which embeds social, economic, religious, and demographic developments within a lively narrative framework.

Reviews

[José Luís Fernandes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good and comprehensive study on Hellenism in the medieval Roman Empire until the reconquest of Constantinople in 1261. It debunks all the mythology around a "Greekness of Byzantium" and clearly reestablishes the Roman identity of the so-called "Byzantines", thereby helping to repair the old historical distortions done due to the West's desire to sole inheritance of the Roman legacy and cultural prejudices, as Kaldellis rightly points out at the beginning of the book. It's a major reference if someone wants to understand topics like the Romanization of the Roman East, medieval Roman identity, Psellos, the rise of cultural Hellenism during the Third Sophistic and the reactions of the Roman elites to the Fourth Crusade and the rise of the "Latinokratia".

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another one of those 'scanning the shelves for something else entirely' discoveries. What caught my attention, after my reading in the spring and summer on the Second Sophistic, was the expression the 'Third Sophistic' for the revival of Attic language and rhetoric from the 11th to 13th centuries. Nor does this book disappoint. It has an excellent discussion of Hellenism in the Roman Empire including the 2nd Sophistic which gives a good background to what happened among the Byzantines. I'm particularly gratified by the concentration on identity and, particularly, the Roman identity of the Byzantines. That is a major part of the point of the book, mind you, because Kaldellis focuses on his argument that Hellenism as a national identity is suppressed by late antiquity, so Roman-ness become the dominant identity in the early to middle Byzantine period. Then, in the shock of the sack of Constantinople and attempts at church unity, a new Hellenism is nurtured in opposition to western Latin influence.

I found the stress on the Byzantines as Romaioi helpful, although I still question the degree to which we can talk about the concept of nationhood in the ancient and mediaeval worlds. Kaldelis is consciously reacting against Obolensky's Byzantine Commonwealth which has ruled the ground in relation to the Byzantine identity. And that is fair enough. Yet, I worry that Kaldelis' approach makes Byzantium seem rather too much like us in its sense of nationhood. Byzantium was distinctive from the Latins in the West, so I worry about the blurring of the distinction.

Still, this is an excellent book which is well worth reading, especially for fans of the Byzantine Empire. Even if it occasionally over-corrects, this book is founded on excellent scholarship and consideration of the sometimes hard to find sources. Well worth hunting down and reading.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kaldellis' work is an exemplary case of how to read and critically analyse primary sources within the specific cultural and personal contexts of their creation.

In this massive study he demonstrates the complexity of Hellenic/Roman/Greek identity that constantly changed, adapted, and yet was ultimately suprisingly continuous (especially linguistically).

This book does not answer all the questions, its study ends in the late 1200's, but it does show that Byzantium experienced a "renaissance" in Hellenic thought from the 1000's to the 1200's that ultimately influenced the course of Greece's modern nation-building revolution after 1821.

It is therefore a study that has many present-day implications and leaves one wanting to read more about the 1300-1900s where the conquered Romans became the freedom-fighting Hellenes of 1821.

[k · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book with a lot of new research. Kaldellis' other works are great too, and are related. Though substantial parts of this book are heavy (it is an academic book), it is well structured and not difficult to understand.