Bibliographical Essay

For some general introductions to Byzantine history, see P. Stephenson (ed.), The Byzantine World (London: Routledge, 2010); T. Gregory, A History of Byzantium (Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005); J.

Few works have been dedicated specifically to the question of Byzantine attitudes to warfare, and none has been devoted to the question of Byzantine attitudes to violence, although a number pay passing reference to the former. For some general reflections see D. Baraz, Medieval Cruelty: Changing Perceptions, Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Period (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003); and from the extensive literature on late antique and medieval violence the essays in C. Dietl and T. Knapper (eds.), Rules and Violence: On the Cultural History of Collective Violence from Late Antiquity to the Confessional Age (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014); H. A. Drake, Violence in Late Antiquity: Perceptions and Practices (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006); M. Carlson, Performing Bodies in Pain: Medieval and Post-modern Martyrs, Mystics, and Artists (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2010); T. Sizgorich, Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity: Militant Devotion in Christianity and Islam (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).

The major works on East Roman attitudes to warfare are I. Stouraitis, Krieg und Frieden in der politischen und ideologischen Wahrnehmung in Byzanz (7.-11. Jahrhundert) (Vienna: Fassbaender, 2009), which presents a detailed account of the evolution of Christian attitudes to warfare and to the state, in the context of a careful analysis of how these attitudes were represented in actual warfare and combat as well as in literary and ideological contexts.

More challenging for scholarship has been the question of whether the Byzantines evolved a notion of ‘holy war' or ‘crusade'. The chief protagonist of the argument that they did has been Athena Kolia-Dermitzaki, in her book Byzantine ‘Holy War': The Concept and Evolution of Religious Warfare in Byzantium (Athens: Basilopoulos, 1991), written in Greek, but with a recapitulation and restatement of the arguments in a later article that took up some of the critical views on the book: ‘“Holy War” in Byzantium Twenty Years Later: A Question of Term Definition and Interpretation', in J. Koder and I. Stouraitis (eds.), Byzantine War Ideology between Roman Imperial Concept and Christian Religion (Vienna: Austrian Academy, 2012), pp. 121-32. On the whole, however, scholars view the notion of a Byzantine concept of holy war with considerable doubt, as can be seen from the survey of the literature and discussion of the sources in Stouraitis, Krieg und Frieden.

In a different, art-historical context, N. Oikonomides likewise challenged the idea of a Byzantine concept of holy war and pointed out that for the eastern Roman state and its population all warfare was, in a sense, ‘holy'. See ‘The Concept of “Holy War” and Two Tenth-Century Ivories', in Miller and Nesbitt (eds.), Peace and War in Byzantium, pp. 62-86. In Byzantine political theology the emperor was appointed or chosen by God to lead the Romans who had inherited the role of the Chosen People, forfeited by the Jews when they failed to recognise Christ as the Messiah.

In the context of Islamic notions of jihad, scholars have likewise noted the substantial theological and philosophical differences between Byzantine and Islamic approaches to the question, even though it is clear that some Byzantines were quite familiar with the notion: see, for example, the important short article by D. Krausmüller, ‘Killing at God's Command: Niketas Byzantios' Polemic against Islam and the Christian Tradition of Divinely-Sanctioned Murder', Al-Masaq 16 (2004), 163-76, and the more detailed analysis of East Roman texts relevant to this in G. Dagron, ‘Byzance et le modele islamique au Xe siecle, a propos des Constitutions tactiques de l'empereur Leon VI', Comptes rendus des seances de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (Paris: Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1983), pp. 219-43.

Finally, there has been an effort to demonstrate the important differences in attitudes to warfare among Byzantines themselves in respect of their social and cultural context. Frontier and provincial warlords and military leaders had a different approach, for example, from that seen in the metropolitan culture of the imperial capital, Constantinople, or again from those held by provincial or metropolitan churchmen, as is shown by P. Magdalino, ‘Honour among Rhomaioi: The Framework of Social Values in the World of Digenes Akrites and Kekaumenos', Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 13 (1989), 183-218.