Byzantine war ideology between Roman imperial concept and Christian religion
Subtitle: Akten des Internationalen Symposiums (Wien, 19.-21. Mai 2011)
By: edited by = herausgegeben von Johannes Koder und Ioannis Stouraitis
Series: Denkschriften -- 452. Bd. -- Veröffentlichungen zur Byzanzforschung -- Band XXX; Denkschriften (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse) -- 452. Bd.; Denkschriften (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse) -- Bd. 30.
Publisher: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften; Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Wien
Language: eng
Number of pages: 137
ISBN-13: 9783700173076
Subjects: Congresses; Military History; War; Christianity
Description: "Holy war and just war are unfortunately not only keywords for recondite excursions into the past, but equally for problems of the present. This applies as well for the attempts of rulers to justify war through state or ruling ideology but also on religious grounds, whether from conviction or in order to cloak economic and political interests. The present volume summarizes the results of a conference held in Vienna, which the editors, Johannes Koder and Ioannis Stouraitis, hosted in May of 2011. The symposium was held in the context of a research project with the topic "Holy War? A study on Byzantine perceptions and concepts of war and peace in the period from the late 11th to the early 13th century." This project was housed at the Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Vienna. The arc of the presentation topics spanned chronologically from seventh to the fifteenth century and thematically from the Christian and Islamic legitimation of war ("crusade", "holy war") to late antique and medieval imperial ideology to the motivations which were offered or imposed upon soldiers and civilian populations in order to make them amenable to the sorrow, sacrifices and privations which are the accompaniments of war: the promises of worldly rewards were complemented by the expectation of recompense in the afterlife. The results--many are new, some surprising--at one level reference the medieval period and its late antique intellectual foundations and are yet, in their critical evaluation of the ideological basis of war, of astonishing contemporary relevance."--Publisher's website.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Ioannis Stouraitis, byzantine approaches to warfare (6th-12th centuries) / Johannes Kuder; title: The heraclians and holy war / Walter E. Kaegi; title: Emperor Constans II's intervention in Italy and its ideological significance / Panagiotis Antonopoulos; title: Opposition to iconoclasm as grounds for Civil War / Warren Treadgold; title: The holiness of the warrior: physical and spiritual power in the borderland between Byzantium and Islam / Olof Heilo; title: The ideology of war in the military harangues of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos / Athanasios Markopoulos; title: War and nation-building in Widukind of Corvey's Deeds of the Saxons / Stergios Laitsos; title: Conceptions of war and peace in Anna Comnena's Alexiad / Ioannis Stouraitis; title: 1176; title: A Byzantine crusade? Evangelos Chrysos; title: Niketas Choniates and the image of the enemy after the Latin capture of Constantinople / Theodora Papadopoulou; title: Reflections on Byzantine War ideology in late Byzantium / Efstratia Synkellou; title: Civilians as combatants in Byzantium: ideological versus practical considerations / Christos G. Makrypoulias; title: "Holy War" in Byzantium twenty years later: A question of term definition and interpretation / Athina Kolia-Dermitzaki.