Book Description

This edited volume is a contribution to the study of society and the various social groups in Byzantium. As Byzantine society is now a major field of research, this volume brings together some of the studies presented at the conference entitled “‘Social’ Profiles and ‘Social’ Groups: Perceptions of Social Position in Byzantium”, held at the Institute of Historical Research of the National Hellenic Research Foundation in 2014. The researchers contributing to the volume present aspects of society and the representation of different social groups in Byzantium (upper classes, merchants, monks, peasants, the ‘demos’ of the cities) in the sources. There is also an analysis of the social theory of the Church as it appears in philosophical-theological sources of the late Byzantine period, as well as two studies on the projection, or general representation of social position in art. The aim of this volume is to stimulate reflection on the way in which the Byzantines themselves viewed their society and perceived the ‘social position’ of people, and to provide a starting point for reconciling or even correlating contemporary conceptions of ‘society’ with Byzantine society as it appears vividly in the source material from the Byzantine era.