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In this book, Georgios Kardaras offers a global view of the contacts between the Byzantine Empire and the Avar Khaganate, emphasizing the reconstruction of these contacts after 626 (when, in contrast to archaeological evidence, written sources are very few) and the definition of the possible channels of communication between the two powers. The author scrutinizes the political and diplomatic framework, and critically examines issues such as mutual influence on material culture and on warfare, reaching the conclusion that significant contact between Byzantium and the Avars can be proved up until 775.
Battlefield Emotions in Late Antiquity is the first work to offer a comprehensive analysis of morale and fear. Różycki examines Roman military treatises to illustrate the methods of manipulating the human psyche.
"Though the book was first published in German in 1988, this English version includes many revisions and updates and will be the definitive English-language study of the Avar empire for years to come. It will be invaluable for those interested in medieval history or in the impact of nomadic steppe empires on sedentary civilizations." ― Choice The Avars arrived in Europe from the Central Asian steppes in the mid-sixth century CE and dominated much of Central and Eastern Europe for almost 250 years. Fierce warriors and canny power brokers, the Avars were more influential and durable than Attila's Huns, yet have remained hidden in history. Walter Pohl's epic narrative, translated into English...
This volume examines interdisciplinary boundaries and includes texts focusing on material culture, philological analysis, and historical research. What they all have in common are zones that lie in between, treated not as mere barriers but also as places of exchange in the early Middle Ages. Focusing on borderlands, Continuation or Change uncovers the changing political and military organisations at the time and the significance of the functioning of former borderland areas. The chapters answer how the fiscal and military apparatus were organised, identify the turning points in the division of dynastic power, and assign meaning to the assimilation of certain symbolic and ideological elements...
The memory of the living and the dead was part of the functioning of monastic and secular communities, dynasties and aristocratic families. The relationship of debitores and fundatores is key to understanding the “mentality” of the era of the formation of Imperium Christianum. The donations made “pro remedio animae nostre et genitoris nostris” indicate the memorial function of transferring the prayer duties of the power elites (or whole groups and communities) to the clergy and illustrate the belief of medieval people in the importance of intercessory prayer. This volume is a memoir of the Piasts and Boleslaw the Brave on the 1000th anniversary of his coronation. It symbolically closes the study of the millennium of the baptism of Poland (966–1966) and opens the study of the early Middle Ages in Poland and Central Europe.
This Handbook provides the first comprehensive and global analysis of medieval military strategy, covering the period from the sixth to the seventeenth century. Challenging the widely held notion in modern strategic studies that medieval strategy was non-existent, the Handbook brings together leading scholars to explore a range of literatures, campaigns, laws, and contexts that highlight medieval warfare’s multifaceted contours. The scope of the work is ambitious, with over 30 chapters dedicated to analyzing strategy across six continents. From Charlemagne to Henry V and Scandinavia to Florence; southbound to Morocco then across the Sahara to Kongo; past the Adriatic to Byzantium and Georg...
This groundbreaking comparative history of the early centuries of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland sets the development of each polity in the context of the central European region as a whole. Focusing on the origins of the realms and their development in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the book concludes with the thirteenth century when significant changes in social and economic structures occurred. The book presents a series of thematic chapters on every aspect of the early history of the region covering political, religious, economic, social and cultural developments, including an investigation of origin myths that questions traditional national narratives. It also explores the ways in which west European patterns were appropriated and adapted through the local initiatives of rulers, nobles and ecclesiastics in central Europe. An ideal introduction to the essential themes in medieval central European history, the book sheds important new light on regional similarities and differences.
What do the mysterious Roman author Vegetius, the Byzantine emperor Leo VI, and the Chinese general Li Jing all have in common? They are three of the dozens of authors across the medieval Mediterranean world and beyond who wrote works of military literature, sometimes called military handbooks, manuals, or treatises. This book brings together a multidisciplinary international team of scholars who present cutting edge essays on diverse aspects of medieval military literature. While some chapters offer novel approaches to familiar authors like Vegetius, some present research on under-valued topics like Byzantine military illustrations, and others provide holistic studies on subjects like early modern treatises, they all move the discussion of medieval military literature forward. Contributors are Michael B. Charles, Georgios Chatzelis, Pierre Cosme, Maxime Emion, Immacolata Eramo, Michael Fulton, David Graff, John Haldon, Catherine Hof, John Hosler, Savvas Kyriakidis, Łukasz Różycki, Katharina Schoneveld, Georgios Theotokis, Conor Whately, Michael Whitby, and Nadya Williams.
In The Long Sixth Century in Eastern Europe, Florin Curta offers a social and economic history of East Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe during the 6th and 7th centuries.
Although the distant origins of medieval Central Europe have enjoyed constant interest among historians, only marginal attention has been paid to the power and political prerequisites for the first Westernization, i.e. the gradual adoption of the values, norms and patterns of behavior of the Latin West by the communities (gentes) around the eastern edge of the Carolingian and subsequently Holy Roman Empires. Such a gap in knowledge, long overlooked, is now being filled by The Making of Medieval Central Europe: Power and Political Prerequisites for the First Westernization, 791-1122. While respecting the state of research and based on an original analysis of the sources, this book offers an informed reflection of a complex dialogue that was initiated after the collapse of the Avar Khaganate at the end of the 8th century and that, by the beginning of the 12th century, gave rise to a Central Europe that was Westernized (i.e. turned toward the West) yet in many ways distinctive. Another and no less important added value of this book is the author's conscious effort to overcome the narrow interpretive matrices defined by the national interests of the time.