Selecting the Generals: Byzantine Senior Military Commanders in the Late 11th and 12th Centuries, lecture by Tristan Schmidt (Boğaziçi University), Boğaziçi University via Zoom, May 20, 2021, 5:00 pm 

For several decades the so-called “long” 12th century (c. 1081–1204) has been an object of Byzantine studies. Yet, our knowledge of the Byzantine military during that period, its organization, maintenance, and combat history is still rather fragmentary. A particular concern that has not yet been thoroughly investigated is the selection, composition, and internal functioning of the senior military commanders who led the empire’s armies. Through several case studies, this lecture will show an approach to investigate this socially, economically, and ethnically diverse group of individuals, not only in their role as military leaders, but within their social and political environment, at court and among their kin and clients, in Constantinople and the provinces. A three-fold focus combines the search for structures that facilitated or hindered individual and family access to high command positions, formal and informal practices of selection and hierarchization as well as communication and self-representation among candidates and decision makers. The aim is to reach a better understanding of the circumstances under which senior positions in the military were claimed, reached, lost, or transmitted during the social, political, and military developments that took place in Byzantium in the age of the Komnenoi and the Angeloi.

Tristan Schmidt is a researcher in Byzantine history and culture. Currently, he is an A. W. Mellon Fellow in Byzantine Studies at the Boğaziçi University Byzantine Studies Research Center, Istanbul. Since April 2021, he has been appointed as an assistant professor at the Silesian University in Katowice, Poland, to work in the project “Towards Byzantine Zoopoetics: Humans and Non-Human Animals in Byzantium (10th-12th Centuries)”.

Advance registration required. To register, please send an e-mail to byzantinestudies@boun.edu.tr.