Late Byzantine Thessalonike: A second city's challenges and responses

Dumbarton Oaks Papers

Volumn 57, Issue , 2003, Pages 5-33

  Barker, John W ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 67649962991     PISSN: 00707546     EISSN: 00707546     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: 10.2307/1291874     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (151)

1. Demetrii Cydonii occisorum Thessalonicae monodia, PG 109 (1863): 639-52, at 641B-644B.
2. The translation given is slightly adapted from pp. 292-93 of the rendering of the full text (pp. 291-300) by J. W. Barker, "The 'Monody' of Demetrios Kydones on the Zealot Rising of 1345 in Thessaloniki," in Essays in Memory of Basil Laourdas (Thessalonike, 1975), 285-300.
3. Other panegyrical comments on the city by an earlier Byzantine writer, John Kameniates, are cited by A. Laiou at the beginning of her essay, "Thessaloniki and Macedonia in the Byzantine Period," in Byzantine Macedonia: Identity, Image, and History, ed. J. Burk and R. Scott, ByzAus 13 (Melbourne, 2000), 1-11.
4. For a comprehensive collection of descriptions of, and writings on, the city through the Byzantine era in general, see H. Hunger, Laudes Thessalonicenses (Thessalonike, 1992).
5. Barker, "Monody," 288-89.
6. The work of the dedicated Rumanian scholar O. Tafrali, Topographie de Thessalonique (Paris, 1913) remains the standard overview, despite its age.
7. For the agriculture of Thessalonike and its hinterland, there is now A. Laiou, "The Economy of Byzantine Macedonia in the Palaiologan Period," in Burk and Scott, eds., Byzantine Macedonia (as in note 1 above), 199-211, esp. 200-203;
8. also her, ed. T. Pentzopoulou-Valala (Thessalonike, 1995), 183-94;
9. and, on rural conditions, her Peasant Society in the Late Byzantine Empire: A Social and Demographic Study (Princeton, N.J., 1977).
10. F. O'Sullivan, The Egnatian Way (Newton Abbot-Harrisburg, Pa., 1972);
11. Ch. I. Makaronas, "Via Egnatia and Thessalonike," in Studies Presented to David Moore Robinson, vol. 1 (St. Louis, Mo., 1951), 380-88;
12. see also Laiou, "Thessaloniki and Macedonia in the Byzantine Period," 7.
13. Laiou, "Economy of Byzantine Macedonia," 203;
14. Angold, The Byzantine Empire, 1025-1204: A Political History, 2d ed. (London-New York, 1997), 283-84;
15. W. Heyd, Histoire du commerce du Levant au moyen âge, trans. F. Raynaud (Leipzig, 1923), 1: 244-45.
16. Timarione, ed. R. Romano (Naples, 1974), 3-6;
17. trans. B. Baldwin, Timarion (Detroit, 1984), 43-45.
18. For discussion of this passage, see S. P. Vryonis Jr., "The Panegyris of the Byzantine Saint: A Study of the Nature of a Medieval Institution, Its Origins, and Fate," in The Byzantine Saint, ed. S. Hackel (London, 1981), 196-228, at 202-4.
19. On the economic dimension, see Laiou, "Thessaloniki and Macedonia," 7-8.
20. On the early history of the city's fortifications, see G. M. Velenis, (with Eng. summary) (Thessalonike, 1998);
21. also J.-M. Spieser, "Les remparts de Thessalonique. À propos d'un livre récent," BSl 60 (1999): 557-74.
22. There are important short studies by M. Vickers, esp. "The Byzantine Sea Walls of Thessaloniki," BalkSt 11 (1970): 261-78,
23. and "Further Observations on the Chronology of the Walls of Thessaloniki," 11 (1971): 228-33.
24. Not fully reliable is the booklet by G. Gounaris, (Thessalonike, 1976), in English as The Walls of Thessaloniki (Thessalonike, 1982).
25. Among comprehensive studies, the pioneering one by C. Diehl, M. Le Tourneau, and H. Saladin, Les monuments chrétiens de Salonique (Paris, 1918)
26. is now quite dated; more recent material may be found in R. Janin's Les églises et les monastères des grands centres byzantins (Paris, 1976).
27. Good general treatment of the city's churches can be found in such guidebooks as: A. Papagiannopoulos, Monuments of Thessaloniki (Thessalonike, n.d.);
28. Chr. Mavropoulou-Tsioumi, Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Monuments of Thessaloniki (Thessalonike, 1997);
29. and E. Kourkoutidou-Nikolaidou and A. Tourta, Wandering in Byzantine Thessaloniki (Athens, 1997);
30. all with bibliographies, the last of them particularly good. There are too many studies of individual churches to cite here, but mention should be made of J.-M. Spieser, Thessalonique et ses monuments du IVe au Vie siècle. Contribution à l'étude d'une ville paléochrétienne (Paris, 1984);
31. and P. Vokotopoulos, "Church Architecture in Thessaloniki in the 14th Century. Remarks on the Typology," in L'art de Thessalonique et des pays balkaniques et les courants spirituels au XIVe siècle. Recueil des rapports du IVe colloque serbo-grec, Belgrade 1985 (Belgrade, 1987), 107-16.
32. For a specific example of indigenous Thessalonian liturgy, see O. Strunk, "The Byzantine Office in Hagia Sophia," DOP 9-10 (1956): 175-202.
33. This is the purview of F. Tinnefeld later in this volume. In general, see D. M. Nicol, "Thessalonica as a Cultural Centre in the Fourteenth Century," in (Thessalonike, 1982), 121-31,
34. reprinted as no. X in Nicol, Studies in Late Byzantine History and Prosopography (London, 1986);
35. also, E. Fryde, The Early Palaeologan Renaissance (1261-c. 1360) (Leiden, 2000), 169-71;
36. and A. E. Vakalopoulos, A History of Thessaloniki, trans. T. F. Carney (Thessalonike, 1972), 50-51;
37. or a little more fully in his earlier Origins of the Greek Nation, 1204-1461, trans. I. Moles (New Brunswick, N.J., 1970), 46 ff, esp. 49-54;
38. also B. Laourdas, (Thessalonike, 1960).
39. The place of Thessalonike in Palaiologan cultural life is noted throughout S. Runciman's The Last Byzantine Renaissance (Cambridge, 1970);
40. cf. The comments of R. Browning, "Byzantine Thessaloniki: A Unique City?" Dialogos: Hellenic Studies Review 2 (1995): 91-104, at 99-101.
41. O. Tafrali, Thessalonique des origines au XIVe siècle (Paris, 1919)
42. effectively expanding the very cursory survey previously published in his Thessalonique au quatorzième siècle (Paris, 1913), 1-13.
43. See also Browning, "Byzantine Thessaloniki: A Unique City?" for a range of interesting observations.
44. J. Barker, "The Problem of Appanages in Byzantium," Byzantina 3 (1971): 105-22, esp. 116-22.
45. Niketas Choniates simply reports the marriage: ed. J.-L. van Dieten (Berlin, 1975), 171 and 200;
46. trans. H. J. Magoulias, O City of Byzantium (Detroit, 1984), 97, 114.
47. On the date of the marriage, Magoulias, 383 note 478. For Western sources that identify the couple with Thessalonike, see the accounts by R. W. Wolff, "The Fourth Crusade," in A History of the Crusades, ed. K. M. Setton, vol. 2, 2d ed. (Madison, Wisc., 1969), 165 and notes 34-36;
48. and by S. Runciman, "Thessalonica and the Montferrat Inheritance," 42 (1959): 27-35: 28 note 3.
49. More recently, C. Brand, Byzantium Confronts the West, 1180-1204 (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), 19, and 319 note 12.
50. On Conrad, see the account of Niketas Choniates, ed. van Dieten, 382-87, 394-95, trans. Magoulias, 210-15, 217 (see also 397 note 1116).
51. For a critical account, see Brand, Byzantium, 80-84.
52. Boniface of Montferrat's role in the Fourth Crusade and its aftermath are well represented in standard accounts: Wolff, "The Fourth Crusade"
53. and Runciman, "Montferrat Inheritance";
54. E. Queller and T. F. Madden, The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople, 2d ed. (Philadelphia, 1997).
55. For an older account of the Montferrat regime in the city, see Tafrali, Thessalonique des origines, 192-211.
56. But now see T. F. Madden, Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice (Baltimore, 2003), 184-90.
57. D. M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453, 2d ed. (Cambridge, 1993), 61-64.
58. D. M. Nicol, The Byzantine Lady: Ten Portraits, 1250-1500 (Cambridge, 1994), 48-49;
59. A. Laiou, Constantinople and the Latins: The Foreign Policy of Andronicus II, 1282-1328 (Cambridge, Mass., 1972), 44-48;
60. Nikephoros Gregoras, ed. L. Schopen, vol. 1 (Bonn, 1829), 233-36;
61. key passages trans. Barker, "Appanages," 105-6;
62. cf. Nicol, Byzantine Lady, 49 ff;
63. and Tafrali, Thessalonique au quatorzième siècle, 205-6.
64. A. Laiou, "A Byzantine Prince Latinized: Theodore Palaeologus, Marquis of Montferrat," Byzantion 38 (1968): 386-410,
65. and Constantinople and the Latins, 173-74;
66. Laiou, Constantinople and the Latins, 95-100.
67. Barker, "Appanages," 122.
68. Gregoras, 1: 186-91.
69. D. M. Nicol, The Despotate of Epiros (Oxford, 1957), 63-67;
70. Nicol, Despotate of Epiros, 146-48,
71. and Last Centuries, 20-21;
72. Wolff, "The Latin Empire of Constantinople," in Setton, ed., A History of the Crusades, 2: 187-233, at 214-15;
73. M. Angold, A Byzantine Government in Exile: Government and Society under the Laskarids of Nicaea, 1204-1261 (Oxford, 1975), 286 ff;
74. George Pachymeres, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1835), 2: 586-87;
75. On this point, cf. Browning, "Byzantine Thessaloniki: A Unique City?" 97.
76. U. V. Bosch, Andronikos III Palaiologos: Versuch einer Darstellung der byzantinischen Geschichte in den Jahren 1321-1341 (Amsterdam, 1965), 39-41;
77. Nicol, Last Centuries, 119;
78. Allusions to these tensions and outbursts in writings by Thomas Magistros are cited by I. Ševčenko in his important study "Nicolas Cabasilas' 'Anti-Zealot' Discourse: A Reinterpretation," DOP 11 (1957): 84 and notes 12-13;
79. and by G. Weiss, Johannes Kantakouzenos - Aristokrat, Staatsmann, Kaiser und Mönch - in der Gesellschaftsentwicklung von Byzanz im 14. Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden, 1969), 91-92.
80. Another possible reference, if more generalized, may be found in the letter (Loenertz 77; Cammelli 160) of Demetrios Kydones to Phakrases (1372), ed. R. J. Loenertz, Démétrius Cydonès, Correspondance, vol. 1, ST 186 (Vatican City, 1956), 109-10.
81. D. M. Nicol, The Reluctant Emperor: A Biography of John Cantacuzenus, Byzantine Emperor and Monk, c. 1295-1383 (Cambridge, 1996), 26,
82. and idem, Last Centuries, 160;
83. Studies on the Black Death in Byzantium are as scanty as our sources of information on the subject, and mainly concentrate on analyzing the stylized, classicizing accounts of Gregoras and Kantakouzenos: C. S. Bartsocas, "Two Fourteenth Century Greek Descriptions of the Black Death," Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 21 (1966): 394-400;
84. T. S. Miller, "The Plague in John VI Cantacuzenus and Thucydides," GRBS 17 (1976): 385-95;
85. H. Hunger, "Thukydides bei Johannes Kantakuzenos. Beobeachtungen zur Mimesis," JÖB 25 (1976): 181-93.
86. Beyond passing reference to these two writers (pp. 50-51), there is unfortunately no treatment of the Byzantine scene in M. W. Dols, The Black Death in the Middle East (Princeton, N.J., 1977).
87. and Reluctant Emperor, 58, 62-63, 67-68, 74, 107-9.
88. Still useful, if dated, is P. Charanis, "Internal Strife in Byzantium during the Fourteenth Century," Byzantion 15 (1940-41 ): 208-30,
89. repr. as no. VI in Charanis, Social, Economic, and Political Life in the Byzantine Empire (London, 1973);
90. see also idem, "The Monastic Properties and the State in the Byzantine Empire," DOP 4 (1948): 51-118, esp. 112-14;
91. likewise, Vakalopoulos, History, 56-59;
92. more recently, A. Laiou, "The Byzantine Empire in the Fourteenth Century," chap. 24 in The New Cambridge Medieval History, VI; c. 1300-c. 1415, ed. M. Jones (Cambridge, 2000), 795-824, esp. 813-17.
93. An outstanding survey of events and of the literature on them may be found in Ševčenko, "Nicholas Cabasilas' Anti-Zealot' Discourse," 81 ff; and a subsequent one in D. M. Nicol, Church and Society in the Last Centuries of Byzantium: The Birkbeck Lectures, 1977 (Cambridge, 1979), 20-28.
94. Gregoras, 2: 795-96
95. a portion translated by Ernest Barker in his Social and Political Thought in Byzantium, From Justinian I to the Last Palaeologus: Passages from Byzantine Writers and Documents, Translated with an Introduction and Notes (Oxford, 1957), 192-93;
96. Kantakouzenos, ed. L. Schopen, vol. 2 (Bonn, 1831), 233-35
97. a portion translated by D. J. Geanakoplos in his Byzantium: Church, Society, and Civilization Seen through Contemporary Eyes (Chicago, 1984), 271-72.
98. Given the removal of the Kabasilas Discourse from viability as a source for the Zealots, these statements by our two historians are the only contemporaneous suggestions remaining to us of supposedly radical intents and innovation on the part of the dissidents. In view of the stylized and partisan character of their accusations, however, these passages are suspect, and hardly decisive or accurate evidence in themselves. On the political terminology that they and other Byzantine writers used, see G. L. Brǎtianu's "Empire et 'démocratie' à Byzance," BZ 37 (1937): 86-111,
99. and "'Démocratie' dans la lexique byzantine à l'époque des Paléologues," in Mémorial Louis Petit (Bucharest, 1948), 32-40.
100. For an extended survey of the varying interpretations and extensive literature on these issues of the Zealot episode, see Appendix 2.
101. Published by I. Ševčenko, "Alexios Makrembolites and His 'Dialogue between the Rich and the Poor,'" ZRVI 6 (1960): 187-228
102. and repr. as no. VII in idem, Society and Intellectual Life in Late Byzantium (London, 1981).
103. For a sympathetic portrait of Makrembolites (in an otherwise rather negative book), see E. de Vries-van der Velden, L'élite byzantine devant l'avance turque à l'époque de la guerre civile de 1341 à 1354 (Amsterdam, 1989), 251-67, plus a previously unedited text by this Byzantine author, 269-89.
104. Tafrali, Thessalonique au quatorzième siècle, 201-3, 269.
105. Kantakouzenos, 2: 234.
106. cf. Nicol, Church and Society, 27 and note 53.
107. Philotheos, Life of St. Sava the Younger, ed. A. Papadapoulos-Kerameus, vol. 5 (St. Petersburg, 1888), 190-359, at 327-30.
108. But see the discussion of Palamas' involvement with the Zealots by J. Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas, trans. G. Lawrence (London, 1964), 89-93.
109. As to Barlaam and his impact on the city's intellectual scene, see G. Schirò's brief study, (Thessalonike, 1959).
110. E.g., by A. Th. Papadopulos, Versuch einer Genealogie der Palaiologen, 1259-1453 (Munich, 1938), 29 and 75;
111. more neutrally in PLP 21527, 21425.
112. G. L. Brǎtianu, in his classic little volume, Privilèges et franchises municipales dans l'Empire byzantin (Paris, 1936), argued that there was a resurgence of urban institutions and eagerness to return municipal privileges in the late Byzantine era; he stresses the case of Thessalonike in general and its Zealot movement in particular (pp. 108-9, 115-23); also, as noted, making comparisons to contemporaneous Western events.
113. For Tafrali's analysis of 14th-century civil institutions in the city, see Thessalonique au quatorzième siècle, 66-84.
114. See also Vakalopoulos, History, 52-53.
115. Gregoras, 2: 796, lines 12-14:.
116. This point had already been somewhat anticipated by Tafrali himself: Thessalonique des origines, 247-49, stressing the strong currents of separatism that had been building up before the Zealot episode.
117. Nicol, Reluctant Emperor, 106-7, 110-11, 115-17, 118 ff;
118. and Byzantine Lady, 92.
119. See D.M. Nicol and S. Bendall, "Anna of Savoy and Thessalonica: The Numismatic Evidence," RN 19 (1977): 90-102;
120. On institutional implications, see pp. 91-127 of A. Christophilopoulou, vol. 2 (Athens, 1970), 1-144.
121. For further literature on her, see PLP 21347.
122. See J.-M. Spieser, "Les inscriptions byzantines de Thessalonique," TM 5 (1973): 175-76.
123. The basic study is G. T. Dennis, The Reign of Manuel II Palaeologus in Thessalonica, 1382-1387, OCA 159 (Rome, 1960);
124. more cursorily, J. W. Barker, Manuel II Palaeologus (1391-1425): A Study in Late Byzantine Statesmanship (New Brunswick, N.J., 1969), 42-50, 52-60.
125. Manuel poured out his bitter feelings in his "Discourse in Epistolary Form to Kabasilas," written in the summer of 1387: ed. R.-J. Loenertz, "Manuel Paléologue, épitreà Cabasilas," 4 (1956): 38-46;
126. see Dennis, Reign of Manuel II, 87-88;
127. Barker, Manuel II, 59-60.
128. Manuel had complained earlier about the difficulty of leading the contentious and recalcitrant Thessalonians, in a letter written in 1383 to Demetrios Kydones: The Letters of Manuel Palaeologus, ed. and trans. G. T. Dennis (Washington, D.C., 1977), 12-15, letter 4.
129. Manuel's efforts to guide the populace during the Turkish siege survive in a highly inflated adaptation of his speech to a popular assembly held in the autumn of 1383: his or "Discourse of Counsel to the Thessalonians," ed. B. Laourdas, in 3 (1955): 290-307;
130. but this interpretation was meanwhile rejected by George T. Dennis, "The Second Turkish Capture of Thessalonica, 1391, 1394, or 1430?" BZ 57 (1964): 53-61,
131. repr. as no. V in idem, Byzantium and the Franks, 1350-1420 (London, 1982).
132. See also A. Vakalopoulos, "Zur Frage der zweiten Einnahme Thessalonikis durch die Türken, 1391-1394," BZ 61 (1968): 285-90.
133. See also B. Laourdas, (1955-60): 20-34;
134. and S. P. Vryonis, "Isidore Glabas and the Turkish 'devshirme'," Speculum 31 (1956): 438-42.
135. On this see G. T. Dennis, "The Byzantine-Turkish Treaty of 1403," OCP 33 (1967): 72-88,
136. repr. as no. VI in idem, Byzantium and the Franks.
137. G. T. Dennis, "An Unknown Byzantine Emperor, Andronicus V Palaeologus (1400-1407?)," JÖBG 16 (1967): 175-87,
138. repr. as no. II in idem, Byzantium and the Franks.
139. and idem, Byzantium and Venice: A Study in Diplomatic and Cultural Relations (Cambridge, 1988), 360-63, 367-71;
140. K. M. Setton, The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571), vol. 2 (Philadelphia, 1978), 19-30;
141. P. Lemerle, "La domination vénitienne à Thessalonique," in Miscellanea Giovanni Galbiali (= Fontes Ambrosiani 27, 1951), 219-25;
142. also C. Manfroni, "La marina veneziana alla difesa di Salonicco," NAVen n.s. 10 (1910): 20:1, pp. 5-68.
143. On the sources for the siege and fall of the city, see S. P. Vryonis, Jr., "The Ottoman Conquest of Thessaloniki in 1430," in Continuity and Change in Late Byzantine and Early Ottoman Society, ed. A. Bryer and H. Lowry (Birmingham-Washington, D.C., 1986), 281-321.
144. Valuable reflections in Greek sources of the attitudes of the city's population toward the Venetians and their regime are being explored by M. Dobre, foreshadowed in her report, "Les Vénitiens dans les sources de Thessalonique du XVe siècle," in XXe Congrès International des Études Byzantines: Pré-Actes, I: Séances plénières (Paris, 2001), 271-78.
145. N. K. Moutsopoulos, Thessaloniki 1900-1917 (Thessalonike, 1981) [based on annotated Greek edition of 1980], 15-39 (in English), 48-75 (in French);
146. Laskaris, Salonique à la fin du XVIIIe siècle (Athens, 1939).
147. Specifically on the Jewish population, see I. S. Emmanuel, Histoire des Israélites de Salonique (Thonon, 1936);
148. R. Attal, Les juifs de Grèce, De l'expulsion d'Espagne à nos jours: Bibliographie (Leiden, 1973).
149. See also the article by Jacoby in this volume, below, 85-131.
150. Lord Kinross, Atatürk: A Biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey (New York, 1965), esp. 11-12, 65-66;
151. H. C. Armstrong, Grey Wolf: The Life of Kamal Atatürk (1933), rev. E. Lengyel (New York, 1961), 3-4, 35-36.