Byzantina Symmeikta, volume 33 (2023).
CONTENTS INCLUDE
Three remarkable Byzantine lead seals from a private collection
Pantelis CHARALAMPAKIS
This study focuses on the publication of - and commentary on - three Byzantine lead seals that are part of a larger registered private collection. The first two are remarkable because of their owners' names, rarely attested in Late Antiquity and the Middle Byzantine period: Βιάτωρ / Viator (droungarios, date: ca. 650-700) and Genethlios (stratelates, date: ca. 750-825). The third, which belonged to a certain Ioannes, taboullarios (date: ca. 650-725), demonstrates a mixture of Greek and Latin symbols in a Greek inscription and, perhaps, is among the latest of this kind.
Λογοπαίγνια με κύρια ονόματα στις επιστολογραφικές συλλογές της μεσοβυζαντινής και υστεροβυζαντινής περιόδου (12ος-14ος αι.)
Γεώργιος ΓΟΥΣΓΟΥΡΙΩΤΗΣ
This article discusses the puns on proper nouns in ten different letter collections of the middle and late Byzantine period (12th–14th centuries). Specifically, our main aim is not only to showcase the content, the extent and the purpose of these wordplays, but also to offer an insight into their function in the contemporary letter collections and into their own special features.
Wörtliche Zitate und Anspielungen in der Alexias Anna Komnenes: Deuteros Plous
Maria TZIATZI-PAPAGIANNI
The paper presents and analyzes some passages from Anna Komnene’s «Alexiad», which are either verbatim quotations from or echoes of earlier texts. These were identified neither by Reinsch – Kambylis in the most recent critical edition, nor by myself in my detailed review of their edition, nor in my own relevant paper “Über Zitate und Anspielungen in der Alexias Anna Komnene’s sowie Anklänge derselben in den späteren Geschichtsschreibern”. Thus, the passages discussed in the paper contribute to the already existing research on the sources of the “Alexiad” and further clarify its intertextuality by providing new and rich material, which helps to better appreciate both the text and Anna Komnene herself within the field of Byzantine literature, historiography in particular.
Constructing the image of a city-state 'at the mid-point of Asia'. Bessarion's encomium on Trebizond
Ioannis SMARNAKIS
Το άρθρο διερευνά την εικόνα της Τραπεζούντας όπως παρουσιάζεται στην έκφραση του Βησσαρίωνα για την πόλη, εστιάζοντας κυρίως στην πολιτική λειτουργία του κειμένου. Τα δύο πρώτα μέρη επικεντρώνονται στην παρουσίαση της Τραπεζούντας ως πόλης-κράτους και στην αφήγηση του ιστορικού της παρελθόντος. Οι δύο επόμενες ενότητες ασχολούνται αντίστοιχα με την ανάλυση από τον συγγραφέα των σχέσεων της πόλης με τον υπόλοιπο κόσμο και την αφηγηματική αναπαράσταση του αστικού χώρου και των σημείων αναφοράς του. Τέλος, αναδεικνύονται τα χαρακτηριστικά της πολιτικής και χωρικής ταυτότητας που ο Βησσαρίων έχει αναδείξει στο κείμενο.
Η ρητορική υπέρ της θρησκευτικής ανεκτικότητας: ο Λόγος 30 «πρὸς Θεοδόσιον τὸν βασιλέα ὑπὲρ τῶν ἱερῶν» του Λιβανίου.
Σωτήριος Σ. ΠΟΛΥΖΟΣ
The present article discusses how the Antiochean orator Libanius endeavors to create through his rhetoric a more tolerant stance towards the already persecuted paganism and its cults in the later 4th century during the reign of emperor Theodosius I. By tracing and interpreting the rhetorical techniques which the orator uses in the Oration 30 (Pro Templis) so as to achieve his goal, the article also presents the religious unrest that broke out in the broader area of Coele Syria due to the gradual criminalization of the pagan cults and the plundering of pagan shrines and temples by highranking Christian officers and fervent monks. Libanius tends to become not only a pagan apologist, but he also seems to assume a role of defender of the social stability and order, by calling for religious neutrality (and subsequently tolerance) in the public sphere, which was dominated by the Nicene Christianity.