Table of Contents

Preface


Figures


Introduction

 1 Rethinking the Paulicians


 2 One Heresy or Two? Paulicians in Armenia and Asia Minor


 3 What Is the Paulician Heresy? Traditional Approaches




1 Polemics, Punishment, and Forgery: Paulicians in Greek Sources 54

 1 Peter of Sicily’s History of the Paulicians


 2 The History and the Persecutions of Theodora


 3 The Brief History of the Manichaeans


 4 The Letter of Theophylaktos Lekapenos to Peter of Bulgaria


 5 The Treatise against the Paulicians




2 Reinventing Paulicians in the 10th Century 99

 1 Byzantine Understandings of Paulicians c.810–940


 2 Reinventing the Paulicians in Macedonian History Writing


 3 Reinventing through Forgery i: The History of the Paulicians


 4 Reinventing through Forgery ii: The Brief History


 5 Forgery, Authority, and Authenticity in the 10th Century




3 The Didaskalie, the Letters of Sergios, and Paulician Belief c.800–835 140

 1 The Didaskalie


 2 Schism and the Legitimacy of the Didaskalos


 3 Dualism and “the Grace of the Spirit”


 4 Paulician Customs, Worship, and Organisation


 5 Paulician Hamartocentricism and Apocalyptic


 6 Historical Implications




4 Paulicians in the 8th Century: The Genesis of a Heresy c.750–800 187

 1 Paulicians and the Iconomachy


 2 The Armenian Connection


 3 The Byzantine-Islamic Frontier in the Long 8th Century


 4 Paulicians and Pastoralism


 5 Labelling the Paulicians of Asia Minor




5 Paulicians in the Face of Persecution c.800–845 232

 1 Nikephoros i and the Paulicians


 2 The Persecutions of Michael i and Leo v


 3 The Paulician Response: Early Resistance and the Revolt of Thomas the Slav


 4 Paulicians in the Reign of Theophilos


 5 The Persecutions of Theodora




6 Paulicians at Arms: The Islamic Alliance and Warfare against the Byzantines c.845–880 278

 1 The Battle of Mauropotamos and the Paulician-Islamic Alliance


 2 Paulician Settlement and Raiding under Karbeas


 3 An Emperor in the East?: Basil, Chrysocheir, and the Road to War


 4 The Last Raids of Chrysocheir and the Eclipse of Tephrikē




Epilogue


Appendix 1 The Dating Frameworks of the History of the Paulicians


Appendix 2 The Career of Sergios in the History of the Paulicians


Bibliography


Index

About the Author

Carl Dixon, Ph.D. (2018), University of Nottingham, has published articles on Byzantine-Armenian diplomacy and identity formation in heretical movements.