| Paper 523-a | Sardinia as a Byzantine Border: Power, Society, and (Dis)Connectivity
(Language: English)
Marco Muresu, Dipartimento di Storia, Beni culturali e Territorio, Università degli Studi di Cagliari
Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Byzantine Studies, Numismatics, Politics and Diplomacy |
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| Abstract | Paper -a:
How Sardinia developed its own peculiarities as a border? From the 7th century, as a component of the western domains of the Byzantine Empire, the island became the western frontier during the 8th century, with the ignition of a progressive process of formation of a peculiar political and social context destined to be the future Giudicale society. The proposal will try to delineate the main by its principal archaeological, numismatic and sphragistic evidences.
Paper -b:
The Russian-Ukrainian antagonism over the recent years has demarcated not only political, but also symbolic boundaries in the space of both countries. Kievan prince Svyatoslav (945-972) is one of the joint boundary-setting figures in the medieval past of Russia and Ukraine, and a paradoxical symbol of the right-wing nationalists of the two countries. Russian and Ukrainian nationalists appeal to the medieval narratives of Byzantium and Kievan Rus', which represent the contradictory image of Svyatoslav. Through his reign, Rus' and Byzantium were fighting against each other, and the image of the prince was largely dependent on the author's belonging to one of the parties. When the Old Russian chronicler gave the victory to Svyatoslav, then Byzantine historians portrayed the emperor John Tzimiskes as a triumpher. The present paper aims to explore the ways in which premodern authors defined their own 'national' borders and created rhetorical in-group identities by means of discourses on patriotism and collective pride.
Paper -c:
This presentation aims to discuss songs of the troubadour Gil Pérez Conde in the context of the civil war and the deposition of D. Sancho II of the kingdom of Portugal, succeeded by his brother, Afonso III. The songs are part of the anthology of manuscripts that reconstitute the flight of nobles - supporters of D. Sancho - who sought exile in foreign courts, beyond the borders of a reign that was still being politically and territorially constituted. This study highlights the political, personal and ideological conflicts of noble troubadours in this geographical, social, and historical landscape during the Reconquista. References of territories in Iberian Peninsula (e.g. Olmedo, Badajoz, and Toledo) help to reconstitute timelines and provide insights of important battles that helped to expand Christian borders in al-Andalus. Moreover, these songs are one of the first monuments of the Portuguese patriotic spirit. Clashes and displeasures with a foreign king (D. Afonso de Castile) are analyzed from the Appraisal framework, concerned with meanings by which writers/ speakers express positive or negative assessment, negotiate, and naturalise particular inter-subjective and ideological positions. Results identify Conde's persuasive strategies to attack D. Afonso and firm a testament of the national identity of Portugal.
Paper -d:
Cyprus is one of the places where people from different areas of the Mediterranean world and various kinds of faiths have encountered. This paper will examine the reception of the Florentine decree of the 'Union' in Cyprus during the last decades of Lusignan rule. During the period of Latin rule under the Lusignans (1192-1473) and the Venetians (1473-1571), Catholics ruled over a predominantly Orthodox Greek population. The Orthodox church of the island seemed just like the Uniate church as early as the 13th century, long before the Council of Florence. This paper aims to analyze how the Greek clerics of Cyprus reacted to it and whether it changed the situation of them or not. It seems to assume some aspects of the religious and political interactions in the borderland society.
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