Download PDF | Social And Political Thought In Byzantium. From Justinian I To Last Palaeologus
258 Pages
PREFACE
Byzantium is guarded by so small a number of reliable troops that even puerile inroads into its territory may often attain success for a time. There is no monopoly in the world of leaning; but some sort of equipment may justly be required of any man who would explore a thorny and obscure region with any measure of success.
‘Turss are the words of the learned historian of Byzantine literature Karl Krumbacher. They are words of wisdom and warning; and one who is not a Byzantinist, and who comes as a tiro into the field of Byzantine studies, may well ask himself, as he attempts to give some account of Byzantine social and political thought, whether his ‘inroad’ into the territory of Byzantium is justified, and whether he has the sort of equipment which may justly be required of a writer who attempts to handle the matter of Byzantium.
I can plead only two justifications—or perhaps I should rather say excuses. The first is that I have long been a student of the history of political thought, if not in Byzantium, at any rate in ancient Greece and in Western Europe; and perhaps such study is some sort of equipment for an account of Byzantine political thought, which, after all, does not differ in kind (though it may differ in detail and emphasis) from other forms and examples of political speculation.
The second excuse which I would plead is also personal, and even more personal. I recently finished a work on the history of social and political ideas (largely couched in the form of translations from original texts) during the six and a half centuries from Alexander to Constantine; and being blessed (or vexed) by a desire to go on working, I was naturally led to lengthen my cords and strengthen my stakes by a study of social and political ideas after the age of Constantine, as they developed in the Greek lands of the Eastern Mediterranean on the basis, and under the influence, of the ancient Greek inheritance.
To these justifications, or excuses, I would add two other pleas, One is that I have, for some years past, studied Byzantine history and thought in such literature as I could find—the works of Krumbacher and Ostrogorsky: the works of English Byzantinists such as J. B. Bury, N. H. Baynes (the master of those who seek to know matters Byzantine), and J. C. S. Runciman;! and also (if only in translations) the works of Russian scholars such as A. A. Vasiliev.
I also owe a debt to Basile Tatakis’s La Philosophie Byzantine, a work by a Greek scholar (given to me, if I may mention the fact, by a Greek friend) which guided me to many of the sources from which I have drawn my illustrations of Byzantine thought. The other plea which 1 would add—but it is an acknowledgement and a confession of gratitude rather than a plea—is that in the later stages of my work I have enjoyed the help and profited by the suggestions of Father Gervase Mathew, O.P., lecturer in Byzantine Studies in the University of Oxford, He is a member of an order (the Dominican Order) which has a tradition of centuries of scholarship, and to which (as in private duty bound, having once been the teacher and friend of one of its members, himself a historian and scholar, Father Bede Jarrett) I cannot but render homage and acknowledge the debt that I owe.
To have had a Dominican at my side, and a Dominican who was also a Byzantinist, as I brought this work to an end, was to be reminded vividly of a line in Homer: “When two men go together, one sees in advance of the other.’ Sometimes, it is true, we saw the same thing at the same time, independently of one another, and such times were times of particular comfort; some-~ times my companion saw something first, and then told me— and there was sovereign comfort also in that.
I have drawn on legal documents and administrative records, as well as on literary works, in the selection of the passages here translated. More, perhaps, might have been drawn from such documents and records; but as I was concerned with the history of political thought rather than the history of political institutions, Ihave used these sources only for such passages as served my purpose. Some of the literary writings which I have used are curious rather than profound (the dialogue De Politica Scientia which comes early in the book is an example); and I confess that generally the Byzantine writers here represented have not the origin-ality or the incision of the ancient writers whom they followed in time and sought to follow (as far as they could) in spirit.
But I would commend to the reader’s attention most of the matter in Part V, which deals with the last centuries of Byzantium (when the flame of thought burned highest just before it expired), and especially the extracts from the writings of Gemistus Plethon and (if in a less degree) the passages from the two treatises of Thomas Magister. The extracts from the writings of Photius and Psellus in Part [V may also be of interest; but it was not easy to find in their writings passages which were worthy of their ability and their vigour.
Perhaps I ought to apologize for using the romance Barlaam and Josaphat and the collection of animal fables called Stephanites and Ichnelates as examples and evidences of Byzantine political thought, the more as they are both derivatives from the East and not the original products of Byzantine thought; but it seemed to me that the views of kingship which they expressed deserved to be recorded, and I had to reflect that both of them had a considerable vogue (in a variety of translations) in the Latin West as well as in the Byzantine East.
As I end this preface, I cannot but remember that I had said ‘Farewell’ to my readers in the preface to a previous book; and I feelt hat I ought to apologize for appearing again on the stageafter I had announced a last appearance. All I can say is that another bud appeared on the tree which I had thought was barren, and the bud has grown into a book. I commend it, for what it is worth, to the judgement and mercy of the reader.
I dedicate this last fruit of my studies to the memory of my friend Professor Photiades, with whom I served in the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education from 1943 to 1945, and who turned my mind to the study of Greek thought in the long Byzantine epoch of its history. It was he who gave me the book I have mentioned, which became my first guide in the study of this theme; and I owe to his lively mind and ready generosity (he had a rapid Hellenic intelligence and the Byzantine gift of philanthrépia) many other debts which I shall always remember.
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