The Continued Prominence of the Learned Elite in Komnenian Byzantium

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University is pleased to present Ethan Schmidt, PhD Candidate, SFU.

Join us November 22nd at 2:30pm in person at the Bennett Library, SFU Burnaby, Room 7200, or online (https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84272998004), for his talk "The Continued Prominence of the Learned Elite in Komnenian Byzantium".

This talk will be moderated by Dr. Dimitris Krallis, Director of the SNF Centre at SFU.

Attendance is free. The event is open to the public and will be recorded.

This programming is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

ABSTRACT

The historiography of Byzantium has traditionally viewed the late-eleventh and early-twelfth century as one in which a learned, bureaucratic ‘elite of service’ was marginalized by a coalition of aristocratic families headed by the Komnenoi. This project sets out to radically qualify this approach. Capable representatives of the literati of relatively modest origin, such as Theodoros Styppeiotes, Ioannes Poutzes, Niketas Choniates, and numerous members of the Kamateros family attained extremely high office, and some married into the imperial family itself. By examining the intellectual ferment of the period, the relative centralization of educational institutions, and the fact that medieval Romans considered classicizing learning to be an equally sure path to wealth and power, this paper proposes that there was a greater degree of continuity in institutional, social, and cultural life than has traditionally been admitted to between the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

SPEAKER BIO

I am interested in Byzantium writ large, particularly the ways in which the literati chose to express themselves and describe the world around them. I am focused on what might be termed the “long Komnenian period” (c. 1050-1220), an era when the ancient empire confronted a world in which it struggled to retain imperial status, and waves of crisis compelled educated Byzantines to interrogate the foundations of their identity. These conditions arguably led to a reinvigoration of literary Hellenism in Byzantium and a cultural flowering in a time of political uncertainty, tenuous recovery, and ultimate tragedy. A major preoccupation of my work is the secular literature and rhetoric of this tumultuous period. Furthermore, I am interested in authorial self-presentation, collective memory, and the dynamic and connective role played by classicizing learning in Byzantine society, as well as urbanity and urban culture in Byzantium. My doctoral research is concerned with Ekphrasis as World-Making in Komnenian Literature and Historiography, particularly the ways in which ekphrasis was utilized both to construct imaginary worlds, and to evoke lost worlds.

MODERATOR BIO

I was born in Athens where I lived during my childhood, teenage and college years. At the University of Athens I studied political theory and, inspired by my professors of history, decided to risk all by applying for a graduate degree in Byzantine Studies. This took me to the University of Oxford where I studied Byzantine social and political history. After an interruption of four years dedicated to military service and to teaching at the American College of Greece in Athens I moved to the US and the University of Michigan for my doctorate. Upon graduation I joined the faculty at Simon Fraser University where I work at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies.

Host or Publisher SFU Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies