Table of Contents

List of Illustrations 
Abbreviations 
Acknowledgments 
Introduction 
I. BACKGROUND: FROM LATE ANTIQUITY TO THE MIDDLE AGES 
Restructuring the Empire: The Seventh Century 
Reconsolidation: The Ninth and Tenth Centuries 
II. DECENTRALIZATION AND "FEUDALIZATION" OF THE BYZANTINE STATE 
Decentralization 
Urban Evolution in the Provinces: Archaeological and Literary Evidence 
Urban Evolution in the Provinces: Arts and Crafts 
Urban Economy and Institutions 
"Feudalization" of the Byzantine Social Structure 
The Nature of the Byzantine Estate 
The Nature of the Byzantine Nobility 
Changes in the Social Character of the Byzantine Aristocracy 
Changes in the Bureaucracy 
III. POPULAR AND ARISTOCRATIC CULTURAL TRENDS 
Popular Tendencies in Byzantine Society 
Changes in the Daily Regime: Dress, Diet, and Diversion 
Popular Elements in Literature 
Popular Features in Religious Life 
The "Aristocratization" of Culture 
The Byzantine Family 
Search for Legitimacy: The Importance of Lineage 
The Creation of an Aristocratic Ideal 
Image of the Ideal Ruler 
Epitome of Aristocracy: Digenis Akritas 
IV. THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE 
The Educational System 
Academic Institutions 
Academic Politics 
Intellectuals in Society 
The Assimilation of the Classical Tradition 
Byzantium and the Authors of Antiquity 
The Byzantine Reading of Classical Literature 
Art and Antiquity 
Law 
Byzantine Science 
Intimations of Rationalism: Theology and Ideology 
Rationalism and the Imperial Ideal 
v. BYZANTIUM AND ALIEN CULTURES 
Traditional Attitudes Toward "Barbarians" 
Contact with Alien Cultures: The Frontier Zone 
Contact with Alien Cultures: The Center 
Breakdown of Some of the Traditional Barriers 
Effects of Foreign Influence 
Unbreachable Barriers 
VI. MAN IN LITERATURE AND ART 
Artist, Audience, and Object 
From the Ideal to the Ordinary 
Abstraction to Naturalism 
Impersonal to Personal 
Conclusion 
Appendix: Texts 
Index 

About the Author

A. P. Kazhdan, the distinguished Russian Byzantinist, is Senior Research Associate at Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies. Ann Wharton Epstein, past President of the Byzantine Studies Conference, is Associate Professor of Art History at Duke University.

Reviews

"The authors explore the culture of the period in greater detail than has been done--at least to my knowledge--for any other period of Byzantine history. Nor do they treat Byzantine culture in isolation, but as a part of the social, economic, and intellectual fabric of Byzantium."--M. Angold, "Byzantinische Zeitschrift