Download PDF | Romilly J. H. Jenkins - Studies on Byzantine History of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries, London 1970.
381 Pages
Romilly James Heald Jenkins was a scholar distinguished by his con- tribution to three separate, though related, fields: the archaeology of classical Greece; modern Greek poetry; and the study of medieval Byzantium. He was born in 1907 at Hitchin in England, and was educated at the Leys School and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, graduating in 1929 as the Chancellor's Classical Medallist. From 1930 to 1934 he was a student at the British School of Archaelogy in Athens, and took part in the excavations carried out under the School's auspices at Isthmia and Perachora. His interest in modern Greek literature resulted in his appointment in 1936 as Lewis Gibson Lecturer in Modern Greek at Cambridge University, a position he held for ten years.
After serving in the Foreign Office during the war, he was elected in 1946 Koraës Professor of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature at King's College, London University. He combined his professor- ial duties with those of honorary Lecturer in Classical Archaeology, chairman of the Managing Committee of the British School at Athens, and president of the British National Committee for Byzantine Studies. In 1960 Jenkins and his wife moved to the United States, where he became Professor of Byzantine History and Literature at the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzan- tine Studies (Harvard University) in Washington, D.C. He held this position until his death on 30 September 1969, serving also since 1967 as Director of Studies. Jenkins' scholarly output falls roughly into three phases.
During the 1930s he published a number of archaeological works, including a book on Dorian plastic art of the seventh century B.C., and a study of the terracottas of Perachora. Greek archaeology and ancient literature remained his principal love, even when owing partly to the dearth of University posts in the archaeological field in Britain at that time he turned to more recent periods of Greek culture and history. He had a deep appreciation of poetry, and wrote, mainly in the 1940s, a series of studies on two leading poets of modern Greece, Dionysios Solomos (1798-1857) and Kostis Palamas (1859. 1943). He was particularly interested in the art of translation, and his linguistic acumen, coupled with a gift for literary expression (both no doubt partly acquired from the study of the classics) enabled him to produce, with great enjoyment to himself, memorable English versions of several of their poems. It was in the prime of his life that Jenkins turned to the study of the Byzantine world, a field in which he was to make his most notable con- tribution to scholarship. As a Byzantinist he was remarkable for his mastery of the technique of textual criticism, for the sense of detection which he displayed in unravelling complex problems of chronology and authorship, and for his powers of historical synthesis.
The first of these qualities is evident in his translation of Constantine Porphyrogenitus' treatise De administrando imperio (1949) and in the commentary on this text which he edited in 1962. A similar work nearly completed before his death - was the edition and translation of another important tenth-century document, the letters of the Patriarch Nicholas Mysticus. His numerous articles, published between 1948 and 1967, where his critical insight and his delight in grappling with intricate puzzles were afforded full scope, are also mainly concerned with the history of tenth-century Byzantium, on which he came to be recognized as one of the foremost living authorities. His willingness to incorporate the results of his research in works intended for the general public is instanced in his book Byzantium: the Imperial Centuries, A.D. 610 to 1071 (1966), which displays several of his characteristics as a scholar and writer: a power of lucid compression, a vigour in controversy, a gift for the telling phrase, the use of mordant irony, an impatience with theological con- troversies, and a delightful vividness of style.
Though he became increasingly absorbed in the study of the Byzantine world, Jenkins retained a keen interest in modern and contemporary Greece. In view of the range of his scholarship, which comprehended the development of Hellenic civilisation from antiquity to the present day, and because he was a man of strong intellectual passions, he could hardly fail to become involved in the controversy, which has raged for the last century and a half, over the ethnic origin of the modern Greeks. His knowledge of Byzantine civilisation, his shrewd and never uncritical observation of the contemporary Greek scene, and his profound dislike of all forms of national vanity and racial mythology led him to reject the view that the Greeks of today are lineal descendants of the ancient Hellenes.
This theory, espoused enthusiastically by Greeks and many West European philhellenes in the nineteenth century, and which is by no means dead today, Jenkins pilloried with savage irony in his book The Dilessi Murders (1961) and in his brilliant Cincinnati lectures, published under the title Byzantium and Byzantinism (1963). His mirthful exposure of the more absurd delusions of what he termed 'ethnic truth' or 'ancestoritis' may have led him on occasion to overstate his case; but most readers of these works will probably agree that their value is not diminished by the author's emotional, though always clear-sighted, commitment to his theme, which reflects his complex and ambivalent attitude to modern Greece. The articles republished in this volume represent only a portion of Jenkins' specialized writings on Byzantine history. They have been selected to form a coherent group.
They cover the central period of what is often termed the Middle-Byzantine Empire', a period which opens with the accession of Michael III in 842 and closes with the death of Constantine VII in 959. In the history of Byzantium this was a crucial epoch. It witnessed a powerful revival of the Empire's foreign policy and missionary activity abroad; a prolonged and ultimately successful struggle with its aggressive northern neighbours; the opening phases of the military offensive against Islam; the beginnings of a social and economic crisis, caused by the conflict between the central govern- ment and the landowning aristocracy; the chequered relations between the Churches of Constantinople and Rome; and, at home, the further develop- ment of imperial legislation, together with a remarkable renaissance of Leo VI (886-912).
The studies here assembled will provide valuable material to the medievalist seeking to reconstruct the still partially obscure events of Byzantine history during one of its most significant periods. Special thanks are due to Professor Ivan Dujcev, who suggested the pub- lication of this volume, and to Professor Cyril Mango, who selected the articles and gave valuable advice on editorial matters. The writer of the Preface wishes to express his warm gratitude to Mrs. Céline Jenkins for supplying him with information about her husband's life and work. Grateful acknowledgment is also made to the original publishers of the studies for permission to reprint them in this volume. DIMITRI OBOLENSKY
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