Skip to main content

IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 142: Fame: Patrons and Memories in Byzantium, I

Monday 2 July 2018, 11.15-12.45

Organisers:Francisco Lopez-Santos Kornberger, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies, Department of Classics, Ancient History & Archaeology, University of Birmingham
Jessica Varsallona, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham
Moderator/Chair:Rebecca Darley, Department of History, Classics & Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London
Paper 142-a'Our pious, just and great Emperors': Echoes of the Imperial Past in Heresiological Texts of the 10th Century
(Language: English)
Carl Dixon, Department of History, University of Nottingham
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Historiography - Medieval
Paper 142-bThe Founder's Memory in the Architecture of Late Antique Ravenna: Strategies of Visualisation and Communication Codes
(Language: English)
Maria Cristina Carile, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna
Index terms: Architecture - General, Art History - General, Byzantine Studies
Paper 142-cDara in Mesopotamia: Memories of a Byzantine Town from the Emperors to Facebook
(Language: English)
Alessandro Carabia, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham
Index terms: Archaeology - General, Architecture - General, Byzantine Studies
Abstract

The evocation of the past in Byzantium, far from being restricted to a purely individual sphere, constituted a collective process. It was used by groups of individuals to shape their identities, explain the current state of affairs, and legitimise future policies. When memories from the past are evoked, ongoing narratives, symbols, and conventions are reshaped and acquire new meanings, often as a way to legitimise a vision of the world and to make a point about the present. The aim of this panel is to explore, through a multidisciplinary approach, how Byzantines perceived, transmitted, and used the past. The extent to the patrons' agency is key to memory (re)formation of the Byzantine past.