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isit to these islands by a roman emperor since emperor constans arrived in britannia in ad 343 more than 1 000 years before emperor manuel had been urging the rulers of western europe to send men or money to the aid of constantinople against the ottoman turks who were close to a final conquest of the byzantine empire and it was eventually decided that the emperor should travel to the west himself to put his case personally which he did in 1400 arriving initially in italy and france the emperor brought with him a large retinue of his own priests and dignitaries alongside a collection of relics and treasures to offer as gifts to his hosts as he sought to enlist their aide in his cause read more on dr green s website here share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email more share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading posted in academic papers tagged manuel ii palaiologos leave a comment ravenna capital of empire crucible of europe posted on november 16 2020 by proverbs6to10 a further review of ravenna capital of empire crucible of europe byjudith herrin by ian thomson in the spectator when we refer to someone as byzantine we usually mean guileful or too complicated and labyrinthine in manner or speech perhaps the term is ill applied byzantium the medieval greek city on the bosporus which the roman emperor constantine i renamed constantinople was not in essence an unfathomable over hierarchical or manipulative sort of place it flourished for more than 1 000 years until the ottoman turkish onslaught in the 15th century by dint of its extraordinary resilience and self confidence says judith herrin a leading byzantinist the northern italian city of ravenna with its wondrous mosaicked churches and gilded mausolea that miraculously survived the aerial bombardments of the second world war was manifestly also a byzantine city herrin shows how this was so in her scrupulously researched history of the city in its imperial heyday through the period edward gibbon chose to call the dark ages while barbarians vandals and pestilential black boils undermined the achievements of centuries ravenna served as the headquarters of byzantine rule in the west and through a threefold combination of roman military prowess greek culture and christian belief became the place where european christianity was forged herrin argues today by contrast ravenna is something of a backwater situated in po valley marshland the british tuscanites who descend on the hills round florence over the summer holidays to enact their toujours tuscany dreams tend to ignore the adriatic city 100 miles to their east oscar wilde visiting in 1877 mused on ravenna s fallen greatness and the gloomy looking tomb on via alighieri where dante lies buried dantis poetae sepulchrum in ravenna wilde found no sound of life or joy though inevitably he was aware of past glories the roman empire had collapsed in 476 but wonderfully a part of it had survived and flourished the eastern half with its great capital at constantinople and the italic outpost of ravenna as its gateway into northern adriatic coastlands and beyond into present day sicily for more than 400 years according to herrin ravenna was the very crucible of europe her book impeccably researched chronicles the city s life from 402 when it became the capital of the roman empire in the west to 751 when the germanic longobardi long beards later lombards invaded northern italy herrin s is not a story of decline she insists but one of rebirth situated at the strategic midway between the western latin speaking world and the eastern greek speaking world ravenna was where past met future and where classical rome was transformed into medieval christendom the roman emperor justinian i and his empress wife theodora sought to restore the roman empire to its old glory and maintain ravenna as the fulcrum of energies that connected goths ostrogoths franks and romans to the byzantine peoples and the roman popes in rome to the roman emperors in constantinople in ravenna s octagonal church of san vitale we can marvel today at stupendous mosaic depictions of justinian and theodora arrayed in jewels amid their entourage the imperial couple radiate an image of constantinopolitan power that was intended to awe the ravennati throughout the 6th century the emperor and empress had dominated the mediterranean world yet they never visited ravenna they preferred to stay put in their glittering eastern imperial polis on the bosporus the mosaic makers surely were familiar with the togas and martial regalia of classical rome but they chose to dress justinian and his wife in tyrian purple raiments as the representatives of the new christian order known as eastern orthodoxy herrin an emerita professor at king s college london devoted nine years to researching her history of three and a half centuries of ravenna s glory days she views byzantine ravenna even with its defects as very much a civilisation though the contemporary sources are so exiguous that she has had to rely on surviving papyri and other fragmentary registers of the period for her argument a lucid explicator she usefully clarifies the bewildering byzantine wholesale destruction of graven images that occurred in the early middle period of byzantium much of christian constantinople was whitewashed or plastered over on the orders of the iconoclast byzantine emperor leo iii who espoused an old testament intolerance of images ravenna however had begun to look religiously to rome where the pope was opposed to any such visual purifications so icons and paintings of holy people were left untouched herrin s book though dense with mention of theodores theodosiuses theodoras and theoderics is eminently worth reading the colour plates are so sumptuous that the ravenna mosaics fairly glow on the page history teaches us that it is on the margins that the greatest change often occurs ravenna was on such a margin now perhaps for the first time the city emerges triumphant from the shadow of the so called dark ages buy ravenna capital of empire crucible of europe here share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email more share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading posted in history modern books tagged judith herrin ravenna 1 comment requiem for a cosmopolitan dream posted on october 15 2020 by proverbs6to10 attila did not seem surprised when i told him i was greek we were at the entrance of the hagia sophia museum on a rainy cold december morning and for the next hour he would guide me through the most popular tourist attraction in istanbul by katerina sokou what i did not tell him was that i had studied the basilica in a byzantine archaeology course during my time at university the engineering complexity of the dome making it appear as if it were hovering the expensive decorative materials and marbles from around the empire and the exquisite gold tiles which give historians a unique window into the byzantine ideology however nothing could prepare me for the awe which i felt on first entering hagia sophia it can only be compared with a hike to the acropolis and a viewing of the parthenon but with drastically different results the light on the acropolis is captivating while the dim light in hagia sophia feels mystical it was like the history of the byzantine empire came alive in a way that no picture could ever transmit attila did not stop talking about the history of the building its conversion into a mosque and efforts to restore the mosaics since it became a museum he spent almost half of the tour showing the changes made for the mosque conversion and explaining why they were needed i was listening with patience i preferred it for him speak of all that i already knew i remembered that during the justinian era the parthenon was transformed into a church with the addition of byzantine mosaics and a bell tower is it the fate of every past religion to feed those that follow with inspiration the blue mosque was made as a copy of hagia sophia with the goal of being more opulent but instead of the golden dome it was given six minarets toward the end of the tour my turkish guide showed me the area from which the women watched the sermon and specifically the spot from which byzantine empresses watched to the left and right there were shields with passages from the quran in the background you could discern the virgin mary in the famous mosaic of the apse i was haunted by the cries of history these were cries that the conversion of the mosque into a museum had mostly silenced coming out into the plaza i found a spot from which using a trick i managed to take some pictures of hagia sophia without the minarets in the frame immediately the result felt sweet and harmony returned even though the building was unveiled to me for its primary use the reality around me had evolved into what unesco protects as a monument of global heritage and westerners love in istanbul the outcome of centuries of history which create a mosaic of different cultures and religions the vision of president recep tayyip erdogan is different his vision for the city is one where conservative islam returns as a political ideology the islamization in which erdogan has indulged as a new reincarnation of the conqueror is taking aim at the secular state of kemal ataturk and the conversion of hagia sophia into a mosque is the symbolic arrow to the heart of ataturk s secular vision part of which was the conversion of hagia sophia into a museum in 1934 for the nobel laureate orhan pamuk it is a statement to the world that we are no longer a secular state for christianity and the religious and ethnic minorities of turkey however erdogan s decision brings back the worst memories of the persecutions that gave birth to the turkish nation state even those who do not care whether hagia sophia is a mosque or museum those who do not feel the insult toward orthodox christians or the fear of the minorities will sense the change during their next visit this decision buries the multicultural character of istanbul as this becomes reduced to a distorted empty shell what remains is what marwa maziad and jake sotiriadis describe in their article that kathimerini republished on may 11 a vision of pan islamism a culturally hegemonic type of political islam which seeks to revitalize a greater turkey the blow to the international image of the country as described by the director of the turkish research program at the washington institute soner cagaptay is the smallest of problems this article was originally published in kathimerini share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email more share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading posted in istanbul tagged hagia sophia istanbul 1 comment dr foster went to gloucester posted on october 8 2020 by proverbs6to10 hello all it s that time of year when i have holiday remaining the leaves are turning and i need to get a few miles under my feet before winter arrives so i m off walking again and raising money for combat stress and abf the soldiers charity i m also dedicating this walk to the late ray washer re who died suddenly last weekend i m walking around 110 miles from winchester to gloucester over six days my route will be the roman road north west out of winchester past andover icknield way then to the kennet avon canal turn west for two days then north towards stroud around bradford on avon passing through laurie lee s home village of slad before i drop downhill into gloucester i have no idea where i shall sleep but the lord will provide if you live along this route maybe say hello i hope that you might give generously to encourage me in the past readers of the blog have raised many thousands of pounds for these charities and shelter my thanks for that and in anticipation of your generosity this time around the link to the just giving page is here https www justgiving com team winchester gloucester all the best tom share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email more share on reddit opens in new window reddit like loading posted in uncategorized leave a comment older posts search for email subscription enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email email address sign me up join 1 679 other subscribers donate to help blog running costs rss posts top posts the final hours and last eucharist the music of saint kassiani or kassia the nun 1 400 year old wine press discovered in southern israel byzantine herbs and drugs the poison aconite or wolfsbane the wonder that is ohrid byzantine 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