TO The picture of Byzantine life would be incomplete if we, having examined the main problems facing the government of the empire, did not determine the essence of Byzantine culture, the influence of which Byzantium sought to establish throughout the world. We have already shown the material side of this culture - the prosperity of Byzantine industry, the activity of its trade, the splendor of Constantinople and the deep impression this capital made on all who visited it. It remains to show what this culture was in the field of ideas and art and what its historical significance was.
I. Spiritual life of Byzantium
This is not the place to describe in detail the history of Byzantine literature. Nevertheless, it is very important to show its origins and the character it has acquired.
Maintaining a close connection with Greek antiquity is a feature of Byzantine literature, in which it differs from all other literature of the Middle Ages. Greek was the national language of the Byzantine Empire. Therefore, the works of the great writers of Greece were accessible and understandable to everyone and aroused universal admiration. They were kept in large libraries of the capital in numerous lists; we (148) can get an idea of the wealth of these collections from the information that has reached us about some private libraries. Thus, Patriarch Photius in his Myriobiblion analyzed 280 manuscripts of classical authors, which is only part of his library. Of the 500 manuscripts in Cardinal Vissarion's library, there were at least 300 Greek. Monastic libraries, such as in the monastery of Patmos or in the Greco-Italian monastery of St. Nicholas in Casole, along with religious works, also had works of classical Greece. How familiar all these writers were to the Byzantines can be judged by the data that has reached us about their popularity in Byzantine society. Svida in the 10th century, Psellus in the 11th century, Tsetses in the 12th century, Theodore Metochites in the 14th century. read all Greek literature, orators and poets, historians and philosophers, Homer and Pindar, tragedians and Aristophanes, Demosthenes and Isocrates, Thucydides and Polybius, Aristotle and Plato, Plutarch and Lucian, Apollonius of Rhodes and Lycophron. Women were no less educated. Anna Comnenus read all the great classical writers of Greece, she knew Greek history and mythology, and was proud of having penetrated “to the very depths of Hellenism.” Immediately upon arrival in Byzantium, the first concern of the wife of Manuel Comnenus, who came from Germany, was to ask Tsetzes to comment on the Iliad and Odyssey for her; she earned the praise of this great grammarian, who called her "the woman in love with Homer." In Byzantine schools, the educational system, along with the writings of the church fathers, was based on the works of classical Greek writers. Homer was reference book, the favorite reading of all students. It is enough to look at what Psellus read for twenty years to get an idea of the spiritual interests of that (149) era. Finally, the University of Constantinople, founded by Theodosius II and restored in the 9th century. Caesar Varda, carefully guarded by Constantine Porphyrogenitus and flourishing even in the era of the Palaiologans, was a wonderful nursery ancient culture. The professors of this university, “consuls of philosophers” and “heads of rhetoricians,” as they were called, taught philosophy, especially Platonic, grammar, which meant everything that we now call philology, that is, not only grammar, metrics, lexicography, but also commenting on, and often criticizing, ancient texts. Some of these teachers left behind glorious and lasting memories. In the 11th century Psellus, who had boundless admiration for Athens, again raised the study of Plato's philosophy to a height and interpreted the classical authors with great enthusiasm. In the 12th century. Eustathius of Thessaloniki commented on Homer and Pindar, and the teachers of the 14th and 15th centuries, great scholars, educated critics, great experts in Greek literature, were the true predecessors of the humanists of the Renaissance.
Therefore, naturally, Byzantine literature had to experience the powerful influence of antiquity. Byzantine writers often took classical authors as models and sought to imitate them: Procopius imitates Herodotus and Thucydides, Agathius, more inclined to rhetoric, imitates poets. The sophisticated Theophylact looks for his models in Alexandrian literature. Later, Xenophon serves as a model for Nikephoros Bryennius; Anna Komnenos competes with Thucydides and Polybius. Back in the 15th century. in the works of Chalcocondylus and Critobulus, an affinity with Herodotus and Thucydides is manifested. In contact with the classics, they create a learned language, somewhat artificial, sometimes fanciful, very different from the everyday speech of that time; they were proud of the knowledge that they were reproducing the strict grace of Atticism. Just as in their style they imitate the ancient form, so in their thinking they imitate classical ideas. They are influenced by Greek history and mythology; mentioning the barbarian peoples - Bulgarians, Russians, Hungarians - they call them by ancient names. This almost superstitious admiration for the Greek classical tradition led to very important consequences for the development of literature.
On the other hand, Christianity left a strong imprint on literature. It is known how important a place religion occupied in Byzantium, how solemn church ceremonies were, and what influence the church had on the minds of the Byzantines. It is known what interest theological discussions aroused, what passion aroused by dogmatic disputes, what respect the monks were surrounded by, how generously donations were poured in favor of churches and monasteries. The writings of the church fathers - Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianza, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom (Chrysostom) aroused universal admiration. They were studied in Byzantine schools, and writers willingly took them as a model. Theology makes up half of everything that Byzantine literature produced, and in Byzantium there are few writers, even Soviet ones, who would not in one way or another come into contact with theology. This respect for Christian tradition and the authority of the church fathers were also important for literature.
Under this double influence, Byzantine literature developed, which gave it a character of diversity. The Byzantines have always been very fond of history, and from the 6th to the 15th centuries, starting from Procopius, Agathias and Menander to Franzi, Dukas and Kritovul, the literature of Byzantium is rich in the names of outstanding historians. In their mental development and often in their talent, they were significantly superior to the Western authors of their time; some of them could take pride of place in any literature. For example, Psellus, in terms of his talent, observation, the picturesque accuracy of the pictures of everyday life he depicts, the subtle psychology of portraits, wit and humor, can be put on a par with the greatest historians, and he is not the only one who deserves such an assessment.
This taste for history is also manifested in historical chronicles of monastic or folk origin, less significant in their level, with the exception of such authors as, for example, Skylitzes or Zonara. These chronicles are often characterized by an insufficiently critical attitude to the material, but they also had a great influence on their contemporaries. The love for historical storytelling in Byzantium was so great that many willingly compiled written narratives about major events they witnessed. Thus, Kameniat wrote about the capture of Thessalonica by the Arabs in 904, Eustathius - about the capture of the same city by the Normans in 1185. There is nothing more lively and attractive than the episodes with which Kekavmen filled his little colorful book of memories.
Along with history and science, theology was of deep interest to Byzantine thought. It is remarkable that until the 12th century. Byzantine theological literature was far superior to anything that the West produced in this area. From Leontius the Byzantine, Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus and Theodore the Studite between the 6th and 8th centuries. to Palamas in the 14th century, George Scholarius and Vissarion in the 15th century. The Orthodox religion and love of religious debate inspired many authors. This (152) includes extensive commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, mystical literature created in monasteries, especially on Mount Athos, works of religious eloquence, hagiographic literature, the best examples of which were described in the 10th century. Simeon Metaphrastus in his extensive work.
But besides history and theology, the development of Byzantine ideology was distinguished by amazing diversity. Philosophy, especially Platonic philosophy, put forward to a place of honor by Psellus and his followers, occupies a significant place in Byzantine literature. A large role is also played by the most diverse forms of oratory, such as laudatory and funeral speeches, solemn speeches pronounced on holidays in the imperial palace and in the patriarchate, small passages devoted to the description of landscapes or works of art. Among the speakers inspired by the ancient tradition, some, such as Photius, Eustathius, Michael Acominatus, occupy an important place in literature. There are also poets in Byzantium. We find here small works: “Philopatris” in the 10th century, “Timarion” in the 12th century, “Mazaris” in the 14th century - and the last two are imitations of Lucian - talented sketches of Theodore Metochites and Manuel Palaiologos. But in Byzantine literature two phenomena of an original, creative nature are especially prominent. This is, first of all, religious poetry, in which at the dawn of the 6th century. Roman Sladkopevets, the “king of melodies,” became famous. Religious hymns, with their passionate inspiration, sincere feeling, and deep dramatic power, represent one of the most outstanding phenomena of Byzantine literature. Further, this is a Byzantine epic, reminiscent in many respects of French heroic poems (chansons de geste) and created in the 11th century. a great poem about the national (153) hero Digenis Akritos. In this epic, as in religious poetry, there are no longer traces of ancient influence. As rightly noted, they feel the flesh and blood of Christian Byzantium; this is precisely that part of Byzantine literature in which the depths of the people's spirit found their expression.
But let's turn to other types of literature. In theology, after a period of creative activity, very early, already from the 9th century, all original creativity begins to disappear, and it lives only by tradition and the authority of the church fathers. Discussions are usually based on quotes, the positions put forward are based on well-known texts, and John of Damascus already wrote: “I will not say anything that would come from myself.” Thus theology loses all originality; the same phenomenon, in a somewhat milder form, is observed in secular literature. The Byzantines have a boundless interest in the past. They jealously guard the legends and traditions of antiquity. The 10th century is the century of historical, military, agricultural, medical, hagiographic encyclopedias compiled by order of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. These encyclopedias contain everything from the past that could serve teaching or practical purposes. The Byzantines are educated compilers and scientists; a typical example is Constantine Porphyrogenitus; his “Book of Ceremonies” and his treatise “On the Administration of an Empire” are built on rich documentation and bear the stamp of tireless curiosity. Following the emperor, many writers compiled treatises on a wide variety of subjects - tactics, state law, diplomacy, agriculture, education. In these treatises, writers seek to resolve many difficult issues through careful study of old authors. The practical, utilitarian character of many of the works that have come down to us is a characteristic (154) feature of Byzantine literature. Of course, in Byzantium there are also truly original thinkers, such as Photius, Psellus, and we have already seen that in its two sections, in religious and epic poetry, Byzantine literature is truly original and creative. But it must be said that in general, Byzantine literature, no matter how interesting it was for the study and understanding of Byzantine social thought, no matter what outstanding writers it put forward, often lacked originality, novelty and freshness.
This literature has other shortcomings. These include pretentiousness and mannerisms, a love of ringing, empty phrases, and the search for an intricate form that replaces the original thought and eliminates the need to think. But the language used by the majority of Byzantine writers created especially significant difficulties for literature. This is a learned, artificial, conventional language, which many understood with difficulty, and therefore works written in it were not read, so this literature was intended for a select circle of people of great culture. Along with this language, there was a colloquial, folk language, which was spoken but not written. Starting from the 6th century. Of course, attempts were made to use it in literature, but works in this language appeared only in the 11th and 12th centuries. These are the poems of Glyka and Theodore Prodromus, of which the latter is distinguished by a somewhat vulgar, although amusing, wit, historical works, for example, the chronicle of Morea and novels, especially the epic of Digenis Akritos, which has come down to us only in this language. Hence, in Byzantine literature there arises a harmful dualism, a gap between purely literary works and works written in the popular language, which did not become the language of literature. The latter, however, are of great interest; they show that the spiritual life of Byzantium was not alien to inspiration, freshness of thought and feeling.
Despite the above shortcomings, Byzantine literature had a great influence on the literature of other peoples. While Byzantium, together with religion, brought the principles of a new social organization to the peoples of Eastern Europe, its literature brought them elements of a new spiritual culture. Many works, especially historical chronicles and works of the church fathers, were translated into Bulgarian, Serbian, Russian, Georgian, Armenian: the chronicles of Malala, George Amartol, Constantine Manasseh, Zonara. The fame of these chroniclers was so great that Theophanes was translated into Latin. In Bulgaria, Tsar Simeon, creating a court modeled on the imperial one, ordered the chronicle of Malala and the works of the church fathers - Basil, Athanasius, and John of Damascus - to be translated into Bulgarian. He himself set an example by compiling a collection of extracts from John Chrysostom (Chrysostom), and court flatterers compared him to “a hardworking bee that collects honey from flowers.” In Russia, in the schools of Kyiv, similar work was carried out; Thus, throughout Eastern Europe, national literatures arose under the influence of Byzantium.
Byzantine literature in the second half of the 14th century. and throughout the 15th century. left its mark on the West. Gemist Plithon and Vissarion cultivated a taste for Greek antiquity there and resurrected the glory of Plato's philosophy. Following the example of the University of Constantinople, ancient literature was taught in Venice and Florence, and Renaissance humanists became acquainted with the famous writers of Greece. Thus, Byzantine literature contributed to the spread of Byzantine influence throughout the world. (156)
Period from IV to VI centuries. n. e. was the time during which the eastern part of the Roman Empire turned into the Byzantine Empire. This process went in three directions: the development of elements of feudal relations in the economy, the strengthening of absolute imperial power in politics and the growing influence of Christianity in ideology. All these moments are clearly visible already in the reign of Constantine I (306–337 AD).
The name of Constantine is associated with two major events of the era - the founding of the new capital of the Roman Empire and the legalization of Christianity. The first event was caused by the fact that Rome already by the 3rd century. lost its former significance: it was open to barbarians approaching from the north, its trade ties weakened. The emperors began to choose Milan, Trier, and Nicomedia as their residence. Constantine managed to find the most favorable place for the new capital - it was the Greek city of Byzantium, located on the trade route from Europe to Asia, between the eastern and western halves of the empire.
The foundation of the new capital took place in 324, consecration - on May 11, 330. Both those and other celebrations took place in the presence of colleges of pagan priests and Christian clergy. The new capital received official name“New Rome” - this is what was said about it in the edict carved on a marble column on the day of consecration. Somewhat later, a second name was added to this name, named after the founder of the city - Constantinople (Κωνσταντίνου πόλις), which remained for subsequent centuries.
In a short time, the city achieved external splendor and splendor. A luxurious imperial palace was built, decorated antique statues a building for meetings of the Senate, baths, a library, a large hippodrome; The best works of ancient sculpture were brought from all over the empire to decorate Constantinople.
The second event was caused by those changes in ideology that became most noticeable at the turn of the 3rd–4th centuries. Originated in Palestine in the 1st century. n. e. , despite more than two hundred years of semi-legal existence and periodic persecution, by the beginning of the 4th century. has strengthened significantly. Crowds of townspeople of various classes flocked to listen to Christian sermons, which spoke about the origin of the world, and about the duty of a person during life, and about the bliss that everyone can achieve after death, if only his life was righteous. The ethics of Christianity also found numerous supporters - disregard for property and class differences, calls to console the poor and suffering. The logical application of the basic principle of Christianity - monotheism - to human society affirmed the need for the existence of a single ruler in the state - the deputy of God on earth. This historically led to the recognition of Christianity by Roman emperors. Even Constantine’s predecessors, Maxentius and Galerius, understood that religious strife only weakened the state, which was on the verge of collapse; They owned the first decrees prohibiting the persecution of Christians and the free construction of Christian churches. In 313, Constantine and his co-ruler Licinius jointly issued a decree on the equality of Christianity with pagan religions in the empire - the so-called “Edict of Milan”.
“Recognizing that God is the source of all the blessings sent down by him,” writes the Christian historiographer of the 3rd–4th centuries. Eusebius, both of them unanimously and unanimously published the most perfect and most thorough law in favor of Christians” (“Church History”, X, 86). Constantine himself remained a pagan for a long time - all his life he bore the priestly title of “Great Pontiff” - and yet in every possible way contributed to the transformation of Christianity into state religion. He took part in meetings of the clergy, and sometimes he himself proposed church laws. On his initiative, in 321 the rite of freeing slaves before the bishop was established, and in 323 it was forbidden to force Christians to participate in pagan festivities. The Ecumenical Council, that is, the general congress of the clergy of the empire, from the time of the council convened by Constantine in Nicaea (325) received the rights of an all-empire institution and the highest legislative body of the church.
After the death of Constantine, power over the empire passed to his three sons, internecine wars which lasted until 351, when one of the brothers, Constantius, managed to concentrate all power in his hands. The reign of Constantius is followed by a short but striking episode of the two-year reign of the pagan emperor Julian (361–363). For his attempt to revive the ancient Hellenic cults (albeit in conjunction with some ethical principles of Christians), Julian was nicknamed the Apostate by the church. Christians were not subjected to direct persecution under him; they were only removed from senior positions and teaching in schools. A widely educated man, an adherent of Neoplatonism, Julian enjoyed the support of the educated pagan nobility, but was not popular either in the lower classes or in the army. After his death during the campaign against the Persians, his work found no successors. Jovian, who replaced him on the throne, canceled his orders to limit the rights of Christians, and so, after a short break, the victorious march of the new religion resumed.
Under the last emperor of the Constantine dynasty, Valens, who ruled in the second half of the 4th century. together with Valentinian, who set up his residence in Milan, the separation of the western and eastern parts of the empire became obvious; There was a process of formation of two independent cultures. Seventeen years after Valens, the founder of the next dynasty, Theodosius I, dying (395), left in his will to his sons an empire divided into two parts: Arcadius received the eastern half, Honorius received the western half. Thus, by the end of the 4th century. the scale and limits of the Byzantine state are clearly defined: it occupied the Balkan Peninsula, the islands of the Aegean Sea, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Armenia, Cyrenaica, Egypt and owned colonies on the Black Sea (Chersonese, etc.); this vast territory was inhabited by Greeks, Macedonians, Thracians, Goths, Copts, Syrians, Armenians, Slavic tribes. The composition of the empire in terms of diversity was not inferior to the national one. Large landowners - descendants of the Roman slave-owning aristocracy - together with the court nobility, imperial officials and high ranks of the clergy constituted the upper class. The middle and lower classes included ordinary clergy, merchants, a heterogeneous urban population united in a curia, peasants, and rural tenants - colons. Despite the known progress of feudal relations, slave labor continued to be used in some areas of the Byzantine economy.
An important role was played by the army, which consisted of representatives of a wide variety of social groups; The fickle mass of mercenaries, subject to moods, more than once started and carried out coups d'etat. Special social groups were the urban pagan intelligentsia and monasticism. The first gradually died out, the second was in the ascendant stage. Monasticism arose at the end of the 3rd century. based on the ascetic tendencies of that part of Christians who were dissatisfied with the growth of church wealth and the participation of the clergy in secular life. Using the traditions of ancient hermit communities at the temples of Serapis in Egypt, Christian monasticism created two types of its way of life: one (introduced by Anthony) was based on the complete solitude of each person; the other (associated with the name Pachomius) - on life in a community (cenovia) with centralized power, where the strictest implementation of the monastic charter was required.
The life of Byzantine society as a whole was determined by two characteristic features. The first of them is a combination of absolutism with very strong democratic elements. Social life in large cities was centered on racetracks. Horse racing has long been one of the most common spectacles, but they gained particular popularity after the ban on gladiator fights under Christian emperors. According to ancient tradition, drivers competing at hippodromes and their “fans” dressed in clothes of different colors: white, red, green, blue. The origin of this division in Byzantine scientific literature was traced back to the mythical times of Romulus, and the four colors were explained as symbols of the four elements: air, fire, water and earth. Under the name of dimovs (or factions), these parties are also known in the cities of the Byzantine Empire. The “blues” were called Veneti, the “greens” were called Prasins, the “whites” were called Levkas, and the “reds” were called Russians. The social composition of each party was quite diverse. The “blues” and “greens” enjoyed the greatest authority and weight: the former consisted mainly of the clientele of large estates, colons, and peasants, the latter - of artisans, sailors, and merchants. Each party had its own patrons from the nobility.
The activities of the Dims went far beyond disputes and clashes over public games and competitions: by the 5th century. they become a genuine representation of the people, and the hippodrome becomes a place of public meetings, where emperors and nobles not only received greetings, but also met open expressions of discontent, listened to claims and complaints, which often turned into serious unrest among the plebs.
The other side of the social life of the empire is represented by religious polemics, which went far beyond the boundaries of the educated clergy, where its origins were located, and captured the entire Byzantine society. The beginning of disagreements on theoretical questions about the essence of Christianity dates back to the first centuries of the new era. Their emergence was caused by the dangers that threatened the new religion at the very beginning of its spread: excessive enthusiasm for the traditions of Gnosticism threatened to turn it into a secret teaching, accessible only to a select few, and tear it away from the people; Following the Donatists, who preached the omnipotence of God's grace and the prophetic powers hidden in every person, would inevitably lead to a weakening of the authority of the church. The need for a mass religion, accepted by everyone and acceptable to everyone, a need equally inherent in everyone, from the ruling elite to the plebs, dictated the need for a clear formulation of the orthodox line of the Christian worldview.
This line was found at the first Ecumenical (Nicene) Council, in 325, where the creed was approved - a reduction of the main dogmas to a short formula, the acceptance and assimilation of which was mandatory for every Christian.
“We believe in one God the Father, Almighty, Creator of all things visible and invisible,” read the text of the symbol, “and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God from God, Light from Light, Life from Life, the Only Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit” ( Eusebius. Ecclesiastical History, VI, 135). In the Divinity, the unity of three Hypostases (Entities) was recognized, one of which was Christ, incarnated as a man and sent to people to atone for their sins. Thus, to the defenders of the orthodox movement, the nature of Christ seemed consubstantial with the Divine principle. The immediate reason for the convening of the Council of Nicea was the spread of Arianism - the theory of the Alexandrian preacher Arius (d. 336), who argued that the birth of Christ on earth contradicts the concept of consubstantiality. Arius called Christ only like God. This thesis of the Arians imparted anthropomorphic features to the image of Christ. Christ resembled the ancient gods, and this made it easier for many to transition from paganism to Christianity. Arianism was readily accepted by the urban intelligentsia, wealthy townspeople, and soldiers, because its sermons sounded affirmation and approval of worldly life. However, this carried with it the possibility of weakening church authority, which is why violent disputes flared up. The Orthodox party at the Council of Nicea was led by an outstanding church orator and publicist. Arianism was declared heresy. But the controversy with him did not end. In the following decades, Antioch became the center of activity for Arius' disciples and supporters. There arose a movement related to Arianism, led by the Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius (Nestorians), which was rejected by orthodox Christianity at the Council of Ephesus (431).
How deeply the Arian disputes worried the entire society of that time, Gregory of Nyssa tells in one of his sermons: “Everything is full of people who talk about incomprehensible objects - streets, markets, squares, crossroads; if you ask how many obols you need to pay, they philosophize about the born and the unborn; if you want to know about the price of bread, they answer: “The Father is greater than the Son”; If you find out if the bathhouse is ready, they say: “The son came from nothing.”
After the Council of Nicea, the final development of the doctrine of the trinity of the Godhead and the theory of hypostases was carried out by the Cappadocians Basil of Caesarea (“the Great”), Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. This period of religious controversy is usually called the period of trinitarian disputes.
In the 5th century the main attention of those disputing is no longer directed to the relationship of the Hypostases, but only to the nature of Christ - Trinitarian disputes are transformed into Christological ones. So, in the middle of the 5th century. Monophysitism arises, the first preacher of which was the poorly educated, but popular among the ordinary clergy, Archimandrite Eutyches of Constantinople. The main position of Monophysitism was the complete denial of human nature in Christ and the recognition of only spiritual nature. Monophysite preaching found ardent supporters in Egyptian and Syrian monasteries, where ascetic tendencies excluded the acceptance of Hellenic culture, putting in first place harsh ascetic morality, the fight against secular pleasures, luxury and education. Monophysitism also found supporters among the disenfranchised masses. It became so popular that it prevailed at the so-called Council of Robbers in Ephesus (449). The head of the Orthodox party, Bishop Flavian, was beaten and sent into exile.
Theological disputes worried not only the lower strata of the Byzantine population; they had a significant influence on the policies of the emperors and merged with the struggle in court circles.
In the 5th century The reign of the Theodosian dynasty dates back to the 6th century. - Justinian dynasty. The history of these two centuries is marked by the struggle for territorial and state monolithicity.
During the 5th century. The empire was subjected to raids by the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Huns. However, the strategically advantageous position of Constantinople and the timely conclusion of peace with Persia played their role: all these events affected the center of the empire only to a small extent. A different fate befell the Western capital. Despite repeated attempts by the Byzantine emperors to help Rome, in 476 it was captured by the mixed-tribal troops of Odoacer, which marked the beginning of the formation of medieval states on the Apennine Peninsula. From now on, the Eastern Empire, which turned out to be more viable, acts as the sole guardian of the state and cultural structure of antiquity. The internal history of the Byzantine state at this time represents a continuous chain of court intrigues, coups d'état, riots and uprisings at the bottom. In fact, power remains in the hands of the nobility. History has preserved the names of temporary regents, such as Eutropius, who ruled instead of the weak-willed emperor Arcadius (395–408), Anthimius and Aurelian, who administered the affairs of the empire under Theodosius II Calligrapher, whose main activity was the copying of manuscripts.
The administration of the empire was built on the Roman model and was carried out by a large bureaucratic apparatus with a strict bureaucratic hierarchy. The masterfully developed fiscal system, which was a burden not for the plebs, and the struggle for power at the top caused a series of uprisings of different social nature among the Goths, the semi-wild tribe of the Isaurians, the imperial army, and the Monophysites of Mesopotamia and Egypt.
At this time, the struggle between Christianity and paganism and the internal strife of Christians took on acute forms. In 414, the sister of Theodosius II, Pulcheria, became the ruler of the empire, who, according to contemporaries, turned the imperial palace into a monastery.
The pagans were expelled from civil service, the rights of all those who disagreed with the Orthodox Church were limited. Pagan culture was mercilessly destroyed: in 391 the Serapeum temple with a large library was burned, and in 415 Hypatia, a philosopher and mathematician who taught in Alexandria, was killed by a crowd of angry fanatics, monks and townspeople. Nevertheless, imperial power acquires external imposingness. In 450, Marcian was solemnly enthroned during the rite of coronation and confirmation. Secular and church rituals were combined: anointing, borrowed from the Jewish religion, meant the blessing of the church for those ascending the throne. And from that time on, the church became a permanent participant in the royal wedding.
Marcian was the last emperor of the Theodosian dynasty. His death was followed by several decades of brutal struggle for the throne between various factions of the nobility. The empire was ruled either by the military tribune Leo (457–474), chosen by the army, or by the Isaurian Zeno (474–491), by the “born Roman” appointed by the aristocracy, Anastasius (491–518), or by the head of the imperial guard, Justin.
The founder of the new dynasty was Justinian, a Macedonian by birth, the nephew of Justin, under whom he was already a regent - the de facto ruler (518–527). The next twenty-eight years of his autocratic rule constituted the heyday of Byzantine statehood, certain features of which are expressed in the culture of that time. Justinian managed to concentrate secular power in his hands as much as possible and subordinate all religious policy in the state to his influence. He sought, like the Roman emperors, to become the sole ruler of East and West. This defined him foreign policy: Justinian undertook a series of aggressive campaigns in the West, which were generally unsuccessful, but on them he wasted the main forces of the empire. Historiographers of the 6th century, speaking about Justinian, always pay due attention to his wife, the treacherous and cruel Theodora, life path which began with the role of a mimic actress and who until her death had a significant influence on the emperor.
Christianity received a patron of the orthodox direction in the person of the new emperor. Not only paganism was persecuted, but also any deviations from the general line of the church. In 529, the Athenian Academy, the last refuge of pagan culture, was closed.
Justinian's reign is also known for brutal reprisals against the lower classes of the Byzantine population. In 532, one of the largest uprisings of the Constantinople plebs took place, the so-called Nika uprising, which ended in massacres and a massacre at the hippodrome. These features of Justinian's time were combined with the external splendor and splendor of the palace, the brilliant rituals of court festivities, the theatricality of which attracted crowds of townspeople.
Justinian's concerns for the political unity of the state earned him the reputation of a “great legislator” - on his initiative, a universal code of Roman laws was created. The classical Roman law in force in the empire required changes in relation to the absolute imperial power and to dominant Christianity. The large bureaucratic apparatus also needed legal guidance. These tasks were only partially fulfilled in their time by the Code of Theodosius (438), a collection of decrees of Roman and Byzantine emperors since the time of Constantine I.
To edit the new collection, Justinian convened a special commission of 16 lawyers, headed by Trebonian. This is how the Latin “Corpus juris civilis” appeared, consisting of the “Digest” (or “Pandects”) in 50 books containing the works of all Roman lawyers, the “Institutions” in 4 books (a guide to Roman law) and the collection of laws itself - the code. On the one hand, Justinian’s despotism and wastefulness brought the empire to the brink of destruction, although this affected mainly in the 7th–8th centuries, and on the other hand, they caused a well-known rise in culture in its specifically Byzantine forms, which was the result of the previous two-century transition period.
The victory of Christianity left its mark on all sections of Byzantine culture. In science, in architecture, in the fine arts, in literature, in music, the theme of the relationship between earthly life and the afterlife dominates. Art no longer aims to show the greatness and significance of man, as it was in antiquity. The tasks of depicting the insignificance and insignificance of everything worldly, the task of revealing sinful human nature, calls for repentance and spiritual purification in anticipation of eternal bliss after death are brought to the fore.
In external terms, Byzantine culture is a mixture of strong traditions of classical Greek antiquity and Hellenism, Christian ideology and Eastern influences that have invariably operated since the formation of the Hellenistic states. The transfer of the capital from Rome to Byzantium, the need for constant defense against barbarians, on the one hand, and the development of trade, on the other, caused a rise in urban planning. Cities such as Constantinople, Alexandria, Caesarea, Antioch, Beirut, and Gaza were famous for their magnificent architecture. In every city, in addition to libraries, hippodromes, pagan temples - the heritage of ancient times - since the 4th century. Christian church architecture began to develop intensively. Ancient basilicas served as models for early Christian churches - public buildings for court and trade, common in classical antiquity. This building, unpretentious in architectural design and neutral in purpose, which did not in any way resemble pagan rites, most satisfied the requirements of supporters of the new religion. The basilica consisted of three galleries separated by columns (naves, from the Latin navis), of which the middle one - a place for worship - ended in a round niche (apse) where the altar was located. In front of a Christian basilica there was usually a courtyard with a well or a fountain - a symbol of the appeal to everyone entering the temple to wash not only their face and hands, but also their soul. In the early period of Christianity, basilicas were often built over the graves of martyrs. The material was usually obtained from the ruins of ancient buildings, and well-preserved ancient basilicas were used for Christian rites without modification.
In the 5th century was gradually created new type buildings closer to Christianity in spirit. The unity of the divine principle and its correspondence to the centralized state power find their expression in monumental forms of architecture: a dome appears above the middle part of the temple. This detail was already known in antiquity; however, the dome was placed directly on quadrangular base. Such buildings did not have focus and lightness, that takeoff that is the specificity of Christian architecture. The task of connecting the lower part of the building with the dome through various vaults and arches (the so-called sails, or pandatives) was finally solved by the architects Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Thrall, who completed the construction of the Church of St. Sophia in Constantinople in 537. This building combined the plan of the ancient basilica with the centralizing force of the main dome. The luxurious interior decoration of the temple, the polychrome frescoes and mosaics, the diversity of ornaments, where oriental motifs were also used, reflected both the external splendor of the way of life of the Byzantine elite, and the entire process of the formation of Byzantine painting, which, like architecture, used ancient traditions.
Christian fine arts was formed under the influence of two trends: the need to find a secret language due to the semi-legal existence in the 1st–3rd centuries. and the desire to save the image on eternal times. The first trend gave rise to a series symbolic images, in most cases borrowed from antiquity. For example, a wreath and a palm tree even in the classical era meant victory, but the image of a palm tree was reduced to victory over earthly temptations and to the victory of resurrection over death. The ship meant the Christian community, the anchor - hope, the dove with an olive branch in its beak - peace, Cupid and Psyche - the immortality of the soul. Character of Christian fresco painting, which begins with the paintings of the catacombs, is close to the art of Pompeian frescoes.
In a number of cases, ordinary details of ancient scenes (winged cupids, dolphins, fishermen, garlands of flowers) were used to depict scenes from the Old Testament. The second trend was reflected in the development of monumental mosaic art, which has become especially widespread since the time of Constantine, when legalized art strives for the external effect of rituals performed in basilicas, baptismal centers, and churches. The ascetic worldview of the monastic environment left its mark on the art of portraiture, which reflected the traditions of the Fayum masters. But over time, realistic elements in portrait images are replaced by stable techniques of Christian iconography: dry, devoid of dynamism figures, humble poses, elongated faces in dark, yellowish tones.
The art of miniature, a painstaking work that especially flourished in monasteries, gained particular popularity in Byzantium. Many drawings by unknown masters have been preserved in the manuscripts - evidence of the high level of Byzantine painting technique and the inheritance of the best traditions of Hellenistic era artists.
The art of sculpture, so high and significant in the Hellenic world, due to the changed approach to the human personality, did not have special significance. Byzantine sculpture exists mainly in the genres of relief on sarcophagi, tombstones and external walls of temples, using basically the same subjects as painting. At the turn of the 5th–6th centuries. a cross appears as a detail on reliefs and frescoes and as an independent image, which for a long time reminded Christians of persecution and therefore they avoided depicting it.
The collision of ancient traditions and the needs dictated by Christianized culture took a unique form in the field of theatrical art of Byzantium. Christian liturgy, having adopted much of the stage design and dramatic techniques of Greek tragedy, gradually (around the 9th century) turned into a monumental dramatic performance, a phenomenon similar to the medieval mysteries of the West. The altar with a three-leaf door resembled the triple door of an ancient skene. During the service, monologue recitations alternated with exclamations and chants of the choir, divided into two semi-choirs. Some musical parts of the liturgy were hymns-dialogues between the soloist and the choir. However, the development of new aesthetic principles and the demand from art for abstraction and contemplation led to a weakening of the dynamics of the dramatic plot.
Episodes from the Gospel, which were usually subject to dramatic alterations, were performed with a deliberate slowdown and, in their static nature, were reminiscent of the early Christian literary genre of “visions”.
Existed special kind theatrical church eloquence: to enliven and illustrate, sermons were interrupted by dialogic scenes or antiphonal singing. The first monument of this genre dates back to the 5th century. This is an encomium (eulogy) to the Virgin Mary, written by the Bishop of Constantinople, Proclus. After a lengthy introduction - a sublimely rhetorical hymn to virginity - there is a lively scene - a dialogue between Mary and Joseph, who suspects his wife of adultery and does not immediately comprehend the divine essence of the events. This is followed by a dialogue between Mary and the Archangel Gabriel, a theme often reproduced in mosaics; in this case, it is this part that has internal slowness. Encomius concludes two monologues. The first of them is pronounced by God: the divine purpose of Mary is revealed and future events are explained. The second monologue is pronounced by the devil, who wants to interfere with the incarnation and action of God's grace.
Such encomia were the main part of large church celebrations, called πανήγυρις, and were performed in persons.
In other cases, church festivities adopted certain details of ancient everyday life. For example, the traditional Easter dance was reminiscent of the pyrrhic dance that once arose in Sparta; during the grape harvest back in the 7th century. called on Dionysus. Outside the church sphere, the holidays of Kalends, Neomenia, Dionysius, and others with carnival processions, when participants put on tragic and comic masks, were very popular.
Along with the church theater in Byzantium, there was also a secular stage, on which even in the 6th century. was put Greek tragedy. The main secular repertoire of the Byzantine theater were mimes and pantomimes - the most viable of the genres inherited from antiquity. Pantomimes, combined with acrobatic acts and performances of trained animals, were apparently included in the general program of games at the hippodrome.
The ancient classification of mimes according to their themes indicates two groups: everyday mimes and mythological travesties. The Byzantine stage adopted only the first of them. The content of the mimes was reduced mainly to crude eroticism, and this caused a sharply hostile attitude towards them from those at the head of Christian enlightenment. It is mimes that Basil of Caesarea (IV century) has in mind when he speaks with contempt of “actors”; John Chrysostom condemns secular music, which, in his opinion, only spoils morals, and calls theaters “the buildings of the devil,” and theatrical performances “the marketplace of demons.”
The “Speech in Defense of the Mimes” by the rhetorician Horikius of Gaza (5th–6th centuries) was a response to these constant attacks. Gaza was a brilliant cultural center, where the traditions of Hellenic education were maintained almost until iconoclastic times; there was a famous school of rhetoric, a school of mime actors and a theater of Dionysus, where Khorikiy delivered his speech.
In subsequent centuries, the persecution of mimes by the ruling clergy and the emperor took on more severe forms. However, individual plot details and stage techniques of mimes penetrate into the church, which contributes to the formation of a new specifically Byzantine genre of “Christological” mime, examples of which date back to the 7th–8th centuries. – the period of increasing Christianization of Byzantine culture.
The first centuries of the existence of the Byzantine state were also marked by the struggle between two educational systems - ancient and Christian.
Primary Christian education was given at home or in monasteries; then, to acquire literary and oratorical skills, Christians resorted to the help of pagan, rhetorical and philosophical schools; The highest level of education was theology. Theological schools developed from schools for converts (the so-called catechetical schools), where people of different ages it was necessary to assimilate Christian dogmas. By the 4th century. The school in Alexandria, which became famous back in the 1st century, acquired the reputation of being the largest theological school. n. e., - the first theoreticians of Christianity taught there - Clement and Origen. There is an extensive system of theological disciplines here (for example, polemical apologetics, dogmatic theology, exegesis). The main method of Alexandrian exegesis was allegory - searching for mysterious, hidden meaning in the Holy Scriptures.
Somewhat later, at the turn of the 3rd–4th centuries, a theological school arose in Antioch with a different method - a historical, logical and grammatical approach to the Holy Scriptures; the Antiochian theologians viewed the Old and New Testaments as real history, which requires revelation through improved methods of historical exegesis. There were schools of the same type in Edessa and Nizibia. Christian education triumphed as a result of competition with paganism, which lasted five centuries. In the 3rd century. In contrast to Christianity, paganism puts forward a universal philosophical system of Neoplatonism, which embraces all currents and shades of ancient idealistic philosophy and touches all areas of life. After the “classical age” of Neoplatonism during the life of its founder Plotinus in the 4th century. The Syrian and Pergamon schools, led by Iamblichus and Aedesius, flourished. These schools are characterized by a tendency towards mysticism, from which in the 1st century. Representatives of the Athenian school, Proclus and Marinus, departed, turning to a logical systematization of their positions. Withstanding repeated attacks and criticism from the Neoplatonists (for example, in the lost works of Proclus), at the same time it borrowed a lot from them.
So, in the IV–V centuries. rhetorical and philosophical pagan education was concentrated in Athens, medicine and philosophy flourished in Alexandria, and the rhetorical schools of Antioch, Caesarea, and Gaza were also famous; center legal education was Beirut. Numerous pagan schools existed in Constantinople, Nicaea, and Trebizond. In contrast to the schools of Constantinople, even under Theodosius II, a higher Christian school was opened in the capital (425); in the second half of the 6th century. it was transformed into a school of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, headed by an ecumenical teacher. The time of the final victory of Christian education and Christian ideology is considered to be 529, when the Athenian Academy was closed by Justinian. The dying of pagan culture also affected the state of science in these centuries. Despite the well-known progress of the exact sciences, in particular mechanics, in general science is in decline. Ancient medicine and natural science are being replaced by conspiracies and belief in miracles, legends about which were given in abundance by the monastic and ascetic environment. did not strive for accurate ideas about the universe. The popularization of Christian cosmogonic theories found its expression in the genres of Shestodnev - spiritual sermons on topics about God’s creation of the world. Scientific Christian literature has produced a number of works, similar to the “Christian Topography” of Cosmas Indicopleus (VI century), where familiarity with the achievements of Hellenistic science does not interfere with the construction of a fantastic diagram of the universe that is most consistent with the Christian worldview.
However, in the ancient heritage there was an area unconditionally accepted by the new culture - the Greek language. Remaining the language of literature, it penetrated into all areas of state and cultural life. They studied on it, they conducted theological discussions on it. This determined the most significant feature that distinguishes Eastern culture from Western culture, namely: its monolingualism. Period IV–VI centuries. was a time of gradual displacement of the Latin language by Greek, which by the 7th century. took a dominant position. Thus, from the once united Roman Empire, two states with different cultures are formed. The reinterpreted word “Romei”, which the Byzantines called themselves, meant precisely this ethnic and spiritual isolation, which was reflected even in the nature of the victorious ideology: the Christianity of the East, appealing to human feelings, was alien to the rationalism and voluntaristic tendencies of the West.
II
In the IV–VI centuries. on the territory of the eastern part of the Roman Empire there were five main cultural centers: Athens with its famous Platonic Academy, Constantinople, Asia Minor Cappadocia (Caesarea, Nysa, Nazians), Syria (Antioch, Gaza), Egypt (Alexandria, Panopolis). The main trends in the spiritual life of that time are clearly manifested in the cultural, educational and creative activities of the representatives of these centers.
Thus, Athens turns out to be the main repository and stronghold of ancient Hellenic culture and education. In the 4th century. the famous pagan rhetoricians Himerius and Proeresius teach there; Future famous figures of the Christian Church studied with them - Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus. In the 5th century Athenaida, the future wife of Emperor Theodosius II, studies with her father Leontius, a teacher of philosophy and rhetoric. At this time, the Athenian Academy was headed by one of the last luminaries of pagan philosophical thought - the Neoplatonist Proclus. But by the 6th century, especially after Justinian closed the Athenian Academy, the ancient center of paganism lost its leading role in the cultural education of the era. The main threads of the country's spiritual life now stretch to Constantinople: in the 6th century. he receives such prominent poets as Roman the Sweet Singer, who arrived from Syria, Agathius from the Asia Minor city of Myrina, Paul the Silentiary, historiographers Procopius from Caesarea, Menander the Protiktor, and others.
If Athens IV–V centuries. were the main focus of the pagan culture that was receding into the past, then at the same time a new ideology, a new culture crystallized in the works of representatives of the so-called Cappadocian circle in the works of Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. However, this philosophical literature, new in content, does not break with ancient traditions, but, on the contrary, assimilates them and continues them in its own way. For example, in the theological works of the Cappadocians, the main provisions of orthodox Christianity are substantiated by means of Neoplatonic dialectics. The poems of Gregory Nazianzus reveal the author's deepest attachment to the traditions of ancient poetry. The application of the rules of ancient versification to the Greek language, which changed the phonetic nature, is carried out by the poet Nonnus from Panopolis.
The connection between the new culture and the old is also noticeable in the activities of representatives of the Alexandrian and Antiochian schools - Athanasius of Alexandria and John Chrysostom.
The literary heritage of authors of the 5th–6th centuries, educated at the Gaz school, is very indicative of the era of the transition period from antiquity to the Middle Ages. It clearly distinguishes three types of works: 1) purely Christian in spirit (exegetical works of Procopius, hagiography of Theodore); 2) purely pagan (the poetry of John); 3) Christian works that borrowed form from pagan poetry. This is explained by the fact that in Gaza, like in no other center of Hellenic culture, pagan beliefs were preserved for an unusually long time and firmly. It is no coincidence that Jerome, whose conscious life spanned the second half of the 4th century and the first two decades of the 5th century, called Gaza a city of pagans (“Life of Hilarion”, Chapter 14). Some philosophers, pupils of this school, even tried to bring them closer to the teachings of Plato (dialogues of Aeneas), and the poets of the Gaz school, the only ones in the entire Greco-Roman society of that time, created direct imitations of ancient pagan poets: Anacreon was imitated by John (5th century), tragedians – Timothy (end of the 5th – beginning of the 6th century). Christian rhetoricians and sophists tried to build on the ruins of paganism a culture that was new in content but old in form. In the Gaz school of this time, the same genres that were successfully developed in the pagan schools of rhetoricians and sophists flourish. Thus, one of Horikias’s recitations is devoted to the question of what words Aphrodite would utter if she went in search of Adonis. Even when creating Christian works, the Gaz school of rhetoricians filled them with comparisons with heroes ancient greek mythology and with historical figures of pagan times (“Encomius Procopius” Horikius).
The process of the initial assimilation by Christian literature of the forms and methods of genre and verbal expression developed by pagan literature, and the gradual break with it, is especially clear in Christian poetry of the 4th–6th centuries. It is precisely this feature - following the patterns of pagan literature or deviating from them - that divides Christian poetry of the 4th–6th centuries. on traditional and new poetry. In traditional poetry, not only the genres themselves, borrowed from pagan literature, remain unchanged (hymn, epigram, epitaph, didactic poem, gnomes, poem, ekphrasis), but also the same metric principles of versification, although the Greek language has ceased to feel the difference between long and short syllables. in all his 408 poems he strictly adheres to the principle of metrical versification. The genres of his poems are varied: epigrams, friendly or angry (“On Maxim”, “On those who love wealth”, “On hypocritical monks”), short, apt gnomes (sayings) originating from Homer and Hesiod, long poems (“On your life”, “The dispute between spiritual life and worldly life”, “From Nicobulus the father to the son”), hymns (for example, “Hymn to Christ”). However, Gregory’s poetic work is characterized by a new worldview, which powerfully breaks through the old traditional form. It is expressed primarily in the combination of two components: an extremely personal feeling with a universal human feeling. Thus, the basic principle of genuine lyric poetry is realized, on which the ancient Greek lyric poetry of its heyday grew (the early work of Ibycus, Solon, Pindar); in the era of Hellenism and the “Silver Age” of Roman literature, this principle was violated by the loss of the second component.
Grigory knew how to speak about his own, personal things in such a way that his words acquired a public resonance: they were full of universal significance. That is why the lines of his two “Complaints” (382 and after 383) sound so heartfelt, expressing the full power of human suffering, and the angry invective against his personal enemy Maximus grows into a general political satire on secular and spiritual society, in which “the victorious Ignorance barely opens its mouth, it takes over with insolence alone,” and valor and abilities are erased.
In the V-VI centuries. In Christian poetry, the genre of ekphrasis (description), which came from ancient rhetoric, was popular. Such poets of the 6th century paid tribute to him as Christodore of Coptic, who described 88 statues of gods, heroes, poets, philosophers and statesmen of Greece and Rome, Julian of Egypt in the epigrams “On the copper statue of Icarus”, “On the “cow” of Myron”, Leontius Scholastic (“On the statue of a dancer”), Agathius of Myrinea (“On the statue of Plutarch”, “On the image of the Archangel Michael”) and, finally, Paul the Silentiary (“Illumination of the dome of Hagia Sophia”). Of these poems, the last two deserve special attention. Agathia's ekphrasis is remarkable because in poetic form, it very briefly and clearly expresses a completely new, medieval understanding of the main task of art: it should help a person to be transported to another, more sublime world, that is, to serve religion.
To the invisible angeliarch, spirit devoid of flesh,
The wax-embodier dared to give a physical form.
And the image is not without charm; contemplating it, is able
Mortal for the thoughts of the saints it is better to tune your mind.
His feeling is no longer pointless; taking on the image
The heart trembles before him, as if before the face of a deity.
The sight excites the soul to the core. This is what art can do
Express with colors what arises in the mind.
The ekphrasis of Paul the Silentiary, written in hexameter, testifies to a new quality that developed by the 6th century. in this ancient genre ancient literature: a poem of almost a thousand verses turns into a poem with a propaganda goal, where the author connects the religious feelings awakened by the splendor of the new temple with the main goals of the political life of the Byzantine state. The temple turns here, as it were, into the personification of a new powerful empire: night lighting in the temple not only helps the soul of the person in it to join the divine principle - it turns the temple into a saving beacon, which sailors sailing in the Black and Aegean seas look at with hope. In other words, the cathedral is a symbol of hope and salvation for the barbarians approaching Constantinople; salvation can come to them only from the Byzantine state.
Examples of expressing new content in the old form could be multiplied. Particularly interesting are the attempts of some poets to convey gospel stories using epic hexameter. This is the poetic treatment of the Gospel stories by Gregory of Nazianzus, Anastasius the tongue-tied, and Patriarch Sophronius, given among the Byzantine epigrams in the Palatine Anthology. The translation of the biblical traditions of the Old and New Testaments into hexameters is carried out by the Empress Eudokia, in paganism Athenaidas (5th century). She decided to use the hexameter size in the hagiographic poem “About Saint Cyprian”, which in some ways resembles the later legend of Faust. Although the text of the poem has not been fully preserved, it still gives an idea of the image of Cyprian, a former magician, defeated by the power of moral purity and firmness of the Christian girl Justina. The verbal fabric of the poem, although to an insignificant extent, still conveys the changes that have occurred in the language; They are evidenced by the grammatical and phraseological deviations sometimes found in the poem from classical norms, the mixing of long and short syllables.
Athenaida's contemporary Nonnus, setting out the Gospel of John in hexameters, already strives to take into account new linguistic norms to one degree or another. The author constructs the verse in such a way that the musical stress in it coincides with the expiratory stress of colloquial speech. Thus, a gradual transition begins from the metric principle of versification to the tonic one. Such attempts were made back in the 4th century: among the meager fragments of the famous heresiarch Arius, two poetic fragments were preserved; from them one can judge that the poems were intended for singing and in many ways deviated from the norms of ancient metrics; one can even assume the presence of rhyme in them. This is what the passage sounds like in an approximate Russian translation:
Wasn't always the Father
But there was time
When I was alone
And he was not yet a Father.
The Son was not always there,
And the time was
When he wasn't there.
Over time, such attempts to break with the norms of ancient metrics apparently became more frequent, since we see a complete break with them already in the 6th century. in the works of the wonderful poet Roman Sladkopevets. His name is associated with the emergence of new poetry in Byzantine literature - new both in content and in form, and in genre and metrical characteristics. Roman Sladkopevets is the author of more than a thousand church chants, which give the right to call him a true reformer of Byzantine versification: he was the first of the Christian poets to write according to the tonic principle and thereby brought church chants closer to a living spoken language, made them understandable and close to all his contemporaries. Roman Sladkopevets is the creator of two new poetic genres, which he called kontakion and ikos. Kontakion (from the Greek word κοντάκιον - small scroll) is a liturgical poem dedicated to the description of any church holiday or episode from the life of both the legendary heroes of the Old Testament and Christian saints. Ikos (from the Greek word οίκος - house) - detailed explanation, often with a moralizing purpose, accompanying the kontakion. Thus, the kontakion and the ikos form a single whole: the kontakion (always one) precedes the ikos, the number of which ranges from eleven to twenty-eight. The impression of unity is achieved by the fact that the final words of the kontakion are repeated at the end of each ikos. This combination of kontakion with ikos gave a highly flexible poetic form that opened up great possibilities for the expression of emotions. Roman’s chants are often full of drama, and this drama sometimes unfolds on a psychological level (“On Betrayal by Judas,” “Joseph and the Egyptian,” “The Wise and Foolish Virgins”). Tonic meters added variety to the external, musical side of poetic speech. The tone of Roman’s chants is simple and majestic, strict and gentle, solemn and soulfully lyrical. For this constant depth of feeling and beauty of syllable, Roman was called the Sweet Singer.
Byzantine prose was formed under the influence of the need to defend and substantiate the main provisions of orthodox Christianity in disputes with pagans and heretics. This gave rise to such genres as polemical philosophical and theological speeches, exegesis (interpretation), and homilies (sermons). The strengthening of the role of the church in the political and spiritual life of the empire affected the development of eloquence, which is now becoming the property of the church (comforting speeches, epitaphs, panegyrics to saints). A specifically medieval genre of hagiography also emerged. Historiography and epistolary prose remain less susceptible to clerical ideology.
The genre of polemical speeches is represented in the works of Christian writers of the 4th century. Gregory of Nazianzus, Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, Ephraim the Syrian. The polemics are conducted by these authors in two directions: against pagans and against heretics. Its method in both cases is extremely different. Pagans, as a rule, are denounced by Christian writers without providing them with a word of justification or defense: such, for example, are the speeches of Gregory of Nazianzus against Emperor Julian in the form of an invective.
In anti-heretical works, the views of the enemy receive more or less spatial expression; This is facilitated by the form of diatribe (conversation, conversation). These are the five speeches of Gregory of Nazianzus in defense of Nicene Orthodoxy against the Arians. The Alexandrian Bishop Athanasius, the main opponent of the Arian doctrine, devotes more than half of his writings to the defense of Orthodox teaching. His polemical speeches, written mainly in the form of a diatribe, are sometimes developed in philosophical terms. For example, “Speech on the incarnation of God the Word and his coming to us in the flesh” begins with cosmogonic excursions. Athanasius briefly outlines various pagan theories, accompanying them with his own assessment; The tone in these judgments is calm and impartial; Athanasius avoids quoting the writings of pagans: “Many explained the creation of the world and the creation of the universe in different ways, and each one came up with the same concept about it that he wanted. Some said that everything happened naturally and by accident. Such are the Epicureans... Others, and among them the great Plato of the Hellenes, argued that God created the universe from ready and uncreated matter” (“We are talking about the incarnation of God the Word and his coming to us in the flesh,” § 2).
However, when presenting the views of the Arians, Athanasius’s method of polemic changes: he often and abundantly quotes his ideological enemies, contrasting his beliefs with them.
In the same way, Basil of Caesarea quotes at great length from his opponent and compatriot Eunomius, a student of the Arian Aetius. His five books “Against Eunomius” are structured in this way: the author cites one after another more or less lengthy sayings of Eunomius and after that develops his refutation. On the contrary, his younger brother Gregory of Nyssa in “The Twelve Books of Refutations of Eunomius” resorts to quotations extremely rarely, trying in most cases to convey the meaning of the disputed provisions in his own words. In this regard, Gregory sets out his own views in detail. This is predetermined by the history of the emergence of the Arian teaching, where the curious characteristics of the “father of heresy” are Arius, his student Aetius, who surpassed his teacher with “new inventions,” and, finally, Eunomius himself, “the true competitor of Aetius.” The language of the theological works of Gregory of Nyssa is quite complex and difficult to understand.
The presentation of the same issues by John Chrysostom, on the contrary, is easy and accessible thanks to vivid and figurative comparisons, the absence of excessive rhetoric and simple syntax: “There is nothing strange or unexpected in the fact that madmen laugh at great objects. Such people cannot be convinced by human wisdom; and if you begin to convince them in this way, you will achieve the opposite; for that which is above reason, faith alone is needed. In fact, if we, through the judgments of reason, want to explain to the pagans how God became man by moving into the womb of a virgin, and do not recognize this as an object of faith, they will only laugh. And those who want to comprehend this are defeated” (“Fourth Discourse on the First Epistle to the Corinthians,” § 1).
Equally clear are the arguments on these topics by a contemporary of the Cappadocians, the Syrian preacher Ephraim the Syrian, whose works were translated into Greek during his lifetime. He knows how to find his own, unique means of expressing thoughts. Noteworthy, for example, is the comparison of the incarnation of Christ into man with the formation of pearls in shells: “... I will give an example that will help me explain nature... Pearl is a stone formed from the flesh, for it is obtained from shells. And therefore, who will not believe that God is born from the body as a man? Pearls are obtained not from the communication of shells, but from the collision of lightning and water. So Christ was conceived by a virgin without carnal pleasure” (“Word on Heretics”).
In another essay, Ephraim the Syrian is indignant at anyone who dares to explore the nature of Christ, “the universal savior, or Physician,” since it is incomprehensible. Ephraim fills his essay “Against Investigators of the Nature of the Son of God” with admonitions not to deal with such issues. This work begins with a kind of solemn hymn to Christ: “The heavenly king, the immortal ruler, the only begotten son, beloved of the father, who, by the sole goodness of his power, created man from the earth, conquered by the bounty of his divine essence, for the sake of that very man whom his most pure hands created, came down from heaven to save and heal all those who suffer. For through the action of the evil one, everyone became weak in evil: the illness became serious and incurable; neither the prophets nor the priests were able to completely heal the ulcers. Therefore, the holy, only-begotten son, seeing that all things were weakened by evil, by the will of his father, came down from heaven and was incarnated in the womb of the holy virgin, and by his good pleasure, having been born of her, came to heal those possessed by various infirmities and with his word with grace and generosity. heal all diseases. He delivered everyone from the stench of their own ulcers. But the sick, having been healed, instead of giving thanks to the Doctor for the healing, began to investigate the essence of the Doctor, which is incomprehensible ... "
The next genre, widespread in Christian prose of the 4th–6th centuries, is the genre of exegesis; All prominent Christian writers paid tribute to him. This genre also has its roots in the area of pagan literature, in which the interpretation of the works of Homer, Pindar, Plato, Aristotle and other famous authors of antiquity had a long and continuous tradition.
The Christian exegesis of the Alexandrian school with its allegorical method is represented for us primarily by the works of Athanasius: “Interpretation of the Psalms”, “From Discourses on the Gospel of Matthew”, “From the Interpretation of the Gospel of Luke”, etc. The method of interpretation of Athanasius is extremely complex not only because , that he strives to see an allegory in almost every word of Holy Scripture, but also because he expresses his thoughts in dark language, with deliberate sublimity, resorting to complex syntactic structures.
Gregory of Nyssa also belongs to the same school; Having experienced the enormous influence of Neoplatonism, with his penchant for contemplative and philosophical reflections, Gregory gravitates toward abstract theological discussions about human nature and the order of the universe. So, for example, in “Commentaries on the Inscriptions of Psalms,” he moves from discussions about the meaning of music to cosmogonic and theological questions of the universe. His interpretations are eclectic: they contain the thoughts of the Pythagoreans, Stoics, Peripatetics, Neoplatonists, and this is very indicative of a thinker of the transitional era from antiquity to the Middle Ages.
Exegesis is more rationalistic in the works of representatives of the historical and grammatical Antiochian school - primarily Basil of Caesarea and John Chrysostom; Thus, in the first conversation on the psalms, Vasily touches on approximately the same topic as his younger brother Gregory, but this topic is no longer developed in a sublime philosophical plane, but in a real-ethical plane with a strong didactic bias. When explaining the content of the psalms, Vasily very often uses comparisons taken from real, everyday life- from the field of house building, shipbuilding or from the life of farmers, merchants, wanderers. Such comparisons made Vasily’s exegesis extremely popular, accessible to people of any social status.
Also in his explanations of the texts of the Old Testament, Basil is more “realistic”, simpler and more accessible than Gregory of Nyssa. His “Conversations on the Six Days” (a series of sermons about God’s creation of the world over six days) are detailed answers to clearly posed questions, where the presentation is accompanied by witty comparisons and antitheses. Sometimes, to be convincing, Vasily resorts to the method of proof by contradiction.
Finally, in the works of John Chrysostom, who also belonged to the Antiochian school, exegesis takes on its classical form, the signs of which are the extraordinary simplicity of presentation, clarity of thought and brevity in the way of its expression. At the same time, John did not at all avoid complex theological topics. He willingly accompanied his presentation and proof of the propositions put forward with examples from pagan literature, which he contrasted with examples from the life of Christians. At the same time, John always foresaw the possibility of objections from opponents - pagans or Christian heretics. Often he proceeds precisely from such objections. For example, in the “Fourth Discourse on the First Epistle to the Corinthians” about the execution of Christ, John writes: “If I say: Christ was crucified, then the pagans will object: how is this consistent with reason? He did not deliver himself when they crucified and tortured him on the cross; How then did he rise again and deliver others? If he had such power, he should have shown it before he died (this is what the Jews actually said); if he did not deliver himself, how could he deliver others? The pagan will say that this does not agree with reason. And it’s true, it’s beyond reason; indescribable power appeared in the cross. To be tormented and to be above torment, to be bound and to conquer—this requires boundless strength” (§ 1).
Often John turns to the listener, posing the question for him: “But, you say, even among the pagans many despised death. Who, tell me? Is it the one who drank the poison from the hemlock? But I can imagine, if you like, whole thousands like him in our church; If during persecution it was allowed to die by taking poison, then all those persecuted would turn out to be more glorious than him. Moreover, he drank poison without having the power to drink or not drink; whether he wanted it or not, he had to undergo it, and, therefore, it was not a matter of courage, but of necessity; both robbers and murderers, according to the sentence of the judges, suffered even greater suffering” (§ 4). This lively form of explanation, which turned into a conversation with those to whom John addressed, brought his exegesis closer to the genre of preaching (homily), which also received brilliant development in his work. The fame of his eloquence over time reaches the new capital - Constantinople, where he is invited to take the bishop's chair. The charm of John's eloquence lay in the simple, relaxed form of his conversations, in apt images and comparisons, in a large number of witticisms and sayings, which brought his speech closer to living folk speech. But John’s enormous popularity as a rhetorician was ensured not by these external techniques of oratory, which can also be found among pagan rhetoricians of that time, but by the content that he put into this form. John spoke about human suffering and needs, denounced vices, ambition, greed, envy, drunkenness, debauchery, anger (“Two speeches to a young widow”, “Three speeches to the ascetic Stagirios”). At the same time, John did not distinguish between emperor and slave, layman and monk, rich and poor, for which he acquired numerous enemies, starting from Emperor Arcadius and his wife Eudoxia, who twice sent him into exile, and ending with the rich people of Antioch, who attempted to assassinate him. life.
Another genre of ancient Greek eloquence - the genre of laudatory speech - from the 4th century. is also becoming very common in Christian literature. In its genre characteristics, it does not undergo any significant changes compared to later examples of pagan rhetoric - the works of Themistius, Himeria, Libanius. Christian panegyrics are characterized by the sincerity of human feeling - this is noticeable in the consoling speeches of Gregory of Nyssa and Basil of Caesarea, in speeches glorifying Christian holidays, and in the consoling and funeral speeches of Gregory of Nazianzus. Particularly remarkable in emotionally“Funeral oration for Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia” is the swan song of Gregory of Nazianzus. The speaker talks simply, but with great and touching love, about his close friend from his youth. This panegyric is enlivened by Gregory's memories of the years spent with Basil in Athens, of the atmosphere that surrounded Christians living in a city pagan in spirit. Gregory subtly and skillfully recreates the images of the people around them, details of everyday life and, most importantly, some features of the spiritual life of that time, for example, the strong passion of the Athenian youth for rhetorical education.
The biographies of famous people constitute an independent, intensively developing genre in Byzantine literature, which also has its roots in pagan literature. Over time, this genre became one of the leading in Byzantine literature, and hagiographic literature became one of the types of “mass” reading. The main reasons for this are, firstly, that works of the hagiographic genre, telling in a simple form, sometimes equipped with entertaining stories, about the pious life of a saint, were very convenient for disseminating a new ideology in wide public circles; secondly, in the fact that growing from the very beginning of the 4th century. the passion for asceticism found fertile soil in hagiographic literature, the hero of which becomes an ascetic hermit. Starting from the 4th century. this genre is developing extremely intensively, taking various forms and by the 7th–8th centuries. results in distinctly different directions of hagiographic literature.
The forms of narration in this genre were different even over the course of one century, which was determined by the goals pursued by one or another hagiographer. Thus, Athanasius of Alexandria, wanting to teach the monks the ideal of an ascetic hermit, compiles, from his own impressions and from the stories of people who knew the first guide of monastic communities, Anthony of Egypt, his life in a form close to the biographical encomium, and at the same time not alien to Christian preaching.
Palladius, a younger contemporary of Athanasius, originally from Asia Minor, devotes his work to the life of not one, but many hermits. At the end of the 80s of the 4th century. he settles for a whole decade in the Egyptian desert, observes the life of the monks there, the result of which is the “Lavsian History” (“Lavsaik”), written by him at the end of his life, a work surprising in its spontaneity, extremely entertaining presentation of even the most ordinary facts from the life of hermits , a work whose intonation is close to Byzantine folklore. Palladius's book helped familiarize Christians with the lifestyle and characters of the Egyptian ascetics.
The same goal is pursued by Palladius, who was born twenty-three years later in Euphrates Syria. He tells about the life of thirty ascetics of the Euphrates land, devoting to each of them a separate chapter of the work, which bears a double title - “The Tale of Those Who Love God, or About Ascetics.” The author writes mainly about his contemporaries, whom he knew personally, or, in extreme cases, about persons who lived a little earlier before him, but were known to him from eyewitness accounts; his narration, like Palladius’ narration, is distinguished by the concreteness of his observations, the persuasiveness of the story, and the liveliness in the conveyance of what he saw. Theodorit lacks a sense of good-natured humor in relation to the events he describes, which is an individual trait of Palladius, and therefore Theodorit’s narrative is somewhat drier and more monotonous. But nevertheless, it also captivates with some measured flow of a leisurely story, in which, again, thanks to the great specificity, one might even say - the realism of the descriptions, not only the very images of the people of that time, but also the most characteristic details of their everyday life stand before us as if alive. Such attention to the smallest details of everyday life, the desire to accurately recreate the atmosphere in which hermits lived, should be considered a positive quality of new literature: it is very important that such a method serves as one of the means of characterizing a person.
In later times, the methods of biography became more and more monotonous and ultimately led to a stereotyped composition, epithets, metaphors, and a stereotyped image of the person being described, which was completely absent in the first hagiographic works, as evidenced, for example, by the life of Anthony of Egypt. In the composition of this life, what primarily attracts attention is the complex form, which allows the author to use a variety of means to express his thoughts.
The entire life is a message from Athanasius “to the monks who are in foreign countries,” and this message itself consists not only of the author’s narrative, but also of Anthony’s direct speeches and messages (one speech is a lesson to the monks about devilish obsessions - chapter 16– 43, the other is Anthony’s answer to the pagan philosophers - ch. 74–80, etc.). In Palladius and Theodoret, the composition of the Lives is incomparably simpler; they do not tell about the entire life of the hermit, but only about one, or at best, several episodes from his life. These authors use only two narration techniques: the first is a story on behalf of the author, sometimes on behalf of another person, usually an eyewitness, and the second is the direct speech of the hermit himself. In depicting the main character, hagiographers have not yet resorted to constant traditional epithets, which sometimes bore the stamp of deliberate glorification; their story is always spontaneous and original, bright and expressive.
Only in the VI century. The hagiographic genre loses its spontaneity and originality, acquiring cliché features. This can be seen in the examples of lives compiled by the famous hagiographer of the 6th century. Cyril of Scythopolis (who lived in the Galilean city of Scythopolis). We know five of his lives: Euthymius, Sava, John the Silent, Cyriacus and Theognius. In all these biographies, the scheme of the hagiographic genre is clearly visible, which has become traditional since that time. Initially in general form praise is given to the saint, such as: “The all-glorified Theognius, the great beauty of all Palestine, the brightest lamp of the desert and the clearest luminary of the bishopric.” Next, it tells about the place of birth of the saint, his parents (as a rule, these are the most pious Christians), how he becomes a monk, then moves further along the steps of the clergy or retires to the desert and founds a monk there. The presentation is very simple, there are almost no stylistic embellishments. This calm narrative tone of the story about the pious labors of the ascetic is disrupted by individual episodes from his life, which give the story some entertainment; as a rule, these are stories about miracles performed by saints (for example, about the taming of the raging sea by Theognius or how a lion repelled the onslaught of Saracen barbarians, how a lion ran away from strangers through the prayer of John, etc.).
In the VI century. examples of life stories that are more sophisticated in language and style with a large number of stylistic embellishments are being created, some of which acquire the character of a stamp (the epithets “light”, “luminary”, “honest pearl”, “beauty”, etc.). This is clear from the biography of the same Theognius, compiled at the beginning of the 6th century. Paul of Greece. His desire for complex ornate descriptions is constantly felt: “Thus the king of glory, Christ, commanded his disciples. Therefore, they zealously accepted the divine commandment, abundantly illuminated the entire sunflower with the lightning of their miracles, and flawlessly fulfilled the ministry entrusted to them, and their precious bodies, those God-created instruments, which the ancient law called “rams' skins scarlet,” leaving on earth, as they once left that same fiery prophet Elijah, their flesh on earth, went with joy to the creator of all works and boldly appeared before the royal throne not made by hands.”
Thus, we see that in terms of forms of expression of thought, the hagiographic genre is experiencing a descending evolution. This could not but affect the content of the works themselves. If from the life of Anthony we learn about the social origin of the hero (chapter 1) and about the historical events of that time - about the persecution of Christians under Maximin (chapters 46–47), about the hostile actions of the Arians and pagans (chapter 82), then nothing We will not find anything like this in subsequent authors. They are occupied only by the deeds of the ascetic, the miracles and feats he performed; at best, these will be brief references to external events only insofar as they relate to the hermit, for example, Cyril’s message about the Saracen invasion of the monastery where John the Silent lived (chapter 13). If the life of Anthony is polemically sharpened, because it clearly expresses an anti-pagan and anti-heretical orientation, then in the works of subsequent hagiographers it is either absent or, again, barely perceptible. Athanasius allows direct denunciations of the Meletians, Manichaeans (chap. 68), Arians (chap. 68, 69); his reasoning about the advantages of the Christian faith over pagan “proofs from reason” is directed not only against the pagans, but in its hidden side also against the Arians (chap. 73, 77, 80). We will not find anything similar in the hagiography of at least the same Cyril of Scythopolis. If the lives of Palladius somehow reflected the life of that time, mainly in its moral manifestations, then again we will look in vain for the same thing in Cyril or in the even later hagiographer Ignatius. In fact, “Lavsaik” by Palladium is not only the ascetic life of hermits, but also the simple life itself ordinary people with their vices and passions: this is the story of a money-loving girl (chapter 6), the slave Potamiena, pursued by her dissolute master (chapter 3), this is the story of a rich Egyptian who fell madly in love with a married woman of free origin (chapter 19, 20 about Macarius of Egypt). Often in Palladius we come across special transformation stories that apparently existed in the folklore of the peoples of the East - for example, an episode with an Egyptian who could not seduce his intended victim and turned to the help of a magician who turned this woman into a mare; Macarius of Egypt returns her to her former human appearance by sprinkling her with holy water.
Theodoret’s “Tale of Those Who Love God” also tells us interesting information about local customs and morals of the Syrians of that time. On the contrary, from the lives of Cyril we learn only what concerned a narrow circle of people who stood primarily at the highest levels of the church hierarchy.
The next two rather productive genres of Christian literature of the 4th–6th centuries, also rooted in pagan literature, stand, as already indicated, apart from the philosophical and theological direction. These are epistolary and historiographic genres. From a formal point of view, Christian epistolography does not undergo any significant changes: it retains the same formulas for addressing the addressee that were in the epistolary work of the pagans, the same formulas for the final lines of the message. Some rules of epistolary art taught by Gregory of Nazianzus in letter 51 to his son-in-law Nicobulus are interesting: they relate to three main features, the observance of which, in the author’s opinion, will help to compose a letter that is impeccable in terms of style and content. The first sign is size, the second is clarity of speech, the third is the pleasantness of the syllable. Gregory’s reasoning is as follows: “Some of the epistolographers write longer than they should, others write too briefly; both the first and the second sin against the measure, like archers... The measure of writing is necessity: there is no need to write long if there are not many objects, and briefly if there are many... In order to maintain the measure, one should avoid immoderation in both cases. Here's what I know about brevity.
Regarding clarity, it is known that one should, as far as possible, avoid the bookish style, but lean more towards the colloquial one. In short, such writing is the best and most beautiful, which convinces both the uneducated and the educated; the first because it was compiled in accordance with the concepts of ordinary people, the second because it is above such concepts... After all, both a solved riddle and a letter to be explained are equally inappropriate.
Thirdly, the letter should be pleasant. We will achieve this if we write it not in a completely dry, unpleasant or inelegant way, ugly, as they say, without decoration; that is, if we write it, introducing gnomes, proverbs, sayings, as well as jokes and riddles, thanks to which the speech becomes more pleasant; but they should not be used excessively, for the first is rude, and the second is pompous. They should be used to the same extent as red threads are used in fabrics. We allow trails, but in small numbers and in a decent way. We leave antitheses, parallelisms and isocolonies to the sophists; if we use them anywhere, we will do it more as if in jest than seriously. Above all, one should strive for moderate beauty in writing, so that it seems more natural.”
Of course, the letters are now filled with new content: they reflect new ideas, views, beliefs, new life phenomena. Thus, some letters of the same Gregory of Nazianzus (243 of them have survived) contain Christian instructions and advice; others, written during the period of polemics with the heretic Apollinaris, are of dogmatic interest (letters to the presbyter Kledonius, Patriarch Nektarios). The correspondence of Basil the Great and John Chrysostom covers a very wide circle persons, Christians and pagans. Their messages perfectly convey the author’s worldview: for example, the subtle poetic nature of Basil of Caesarea, who knew how to perfectly feel and convey the beauty of nature (letter 14 to Gregory of Nazianzus); or the strong willpower and good spirits of the elderly John Chrysostom, traveling under the scorching sun on the road of exile to a foreign land (letters 6 and 9 to Olympias).
More than 150 letters of the most varied content have been preserved from the epistolary work of Synesius; among them there are intimate ones (letters from Hypatia, from whom Sinesius studied philosophy, to his brother Evoptius, friend Olympius), as well as full of tension and severity (telling about disasters in Pentapolis, where Sinesius lived in recent years - letter 69 to Bishop Theophilus, 89, 107 brother). From the point of view of external decoration, many of Sinesius’s letters are marked by extraordinary grace, sometimes combined with a witty play of thought and feeling. Letter 1 to Nikandr is especially remarkable: “My books are my children,” this is how he begins this letter.
The epistolary work of the representative of the Gaz school of the sophist Aeneas (25 letters have survived) testifies to the enormous power of ancient traditions that dominated the mind of a Christian educated in a pagan rhetorical school: almost every letter of Aeneas is filled with a large number of names and images taken from ancient Greek literature or history (for example, letter II Cassus, XV presbyter Stephen, XXI presbyter Dorotheus, XXIII sophist Epiphanius). In terms of volume, general style and composition, these letters have much in common with the fictitious fictional letters of the famous figures of the second sophistry Alkiphron and Aelian.
Like the epistolary genre, which, as we have seen, did not undergo significant changes in the formal techniques developed by the ancient tradition, the genre of historiography is also basically free from innovations. Although the works of Byzantine historiographers differ in the scale of the narration, in the quality of the psychological characteristics of the historical figures depicted, in the criteria in the selection of facts, not to mention the individual awareness and talent of the author, the technique of historical narration and its tasks remain the same as they were in historiography antique.
The historiographic genre first received its most significant expression in Christian literature in the 6th century, developing mainly in two directions: world chronicle and history in the proper sense of the word. The world chronicles were compiled in most cases by monks; in chronological order they described events “from the creation of the world” until approximately the time of which they were eyewitnesses. As a rule, the authors sought only to simply list important, from their point of view, events, sometimes even of a legendary nature. From chronographs of the 6th century. the most famous are Hesychius of Miletus, John of Antioch and John of Malala. Malala is the most significant author among those who wrote in the world chronicle genre. His “Chronicle” enjoyed great success among his contemporaries and had a significant influence on subsequent chroniclers, serving them as a wonderful model for works of this kind; it was translated into Old Russian. The popularity of Malala's work was mainly due to its simple and artless style, reminiscent of folk tales.
Authors working in the field of historiography proper described not so great chronological periods like chronographs. For the most part, this was contemporary history or a period close to it. They most often took the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Polybius as examples of historical narration. This is reflected in the desire for a wide coverage of events, in a clearly expressed free manner of narration, in the use of mythological images, in the compilation of direct speeches of some characters. Among the representatives of historiography of the 6th century. the most interesting are Procopius of Caesarea, the author of “The History of Justinian’s Wars with the Persians, Vandals and Goths” and “The Secret History”, Agathius of Myrinea, the author of the work “On the Reign of Justinian” and his successor Menander the Protector. The focus of all these authors is on Justinian’s wars, but their assessments are different: the assessment of Procopius in his “Secret History,” published probably after Justinian’s death, is the assessment of an oppositionist in relation to the emperor; it is extremely opposed to the spirit and direction of the historical works of Agathias and Menander. A distinctive feature of the works of Procopius and Agathias is their versatility: it allows the authors to cover many events in the socio-economic and spiritual life of people of that time, to provide important information of an ethnographic and geographical nature; at the same time, these authors manage to give lively portraits and characteristic sketches of some remarkable persons (for example, the energetic, prudent commander Belisarius in military actions in “The History of Justinian’s Wars with the Persians, Vandals and Goths” or the treacherous and cruel Justinian in “The Secret History” , eloquent Ayet, originally from Colchis, true patriot- in the work of Agathias “On the reign of Justinian”).
Brief description of the literature of the Eastern Roman Empire of the 4th–6th centuries. allows us to draw the following main conclusions: during this period, literature, new in its ideological orientation and content, on the one hand, widely uses the traditions of ancient culture and literature and thereby carries out not only aesthetic continuity in the cultural development of the Greek people, but also contributes to the cultural education of others peoples that were part of the Eastern Roman Empire. At the same time, in the literature of this time, not in all, but in some part of it, significant shifts are outlined in bringing it closer to folk art, which affects the use vernacular, folk melodic and rhythmic; this leads to the emergence of some new genres and to the enrichment of old ones, changing in internal and external features and conveying to us the peculiar flavor of their era,
Byzantine literature
BYZANTINE LITERATURE - literature of the Byzantine Empire, Central Greek in language. She had a great influence on European literature, including Slavic literature, with her monuments, mainly until the 13th century. Byzantine literature penetrated into Russia in most cases through South Slavic translations in the pre-Mongol period and was rarely translated directly by Russians. The presence of Byzantine books is determined as follows. arr. not only by Greek manuscripts, but also by Slavic translations, which sometimes preserved works now unknown in the original. Beginning of V. l. refers to the VI-VII centuries, when the Greek language. becomes dominant in Byzantium. History of V. l. represents one of the least developed areas in world literature. The reason for this has to be sought. arr. is that the very complex socio-economic factors that characterize the history of Byzantium, formed from the eastern provinces and regions of the Roman Empire, after the western part of the latter was during the 4th-5th centuries, still remain unexplored. captured by Germanic tribes. Monuments folk art The Byzantines did not reach us at all. Ch. preserved arr. literature created by the church, which played a very large economic and political role in the state life of Byzantium (church councils limited the power of the emperor, and by the 8th century one third of all lands were concentrated in monasteries). Modern researchers have to take into account that Western scientists - enemies of the Eastern Church - approached V. l. with great passion. They did not recognize its original character, considered it an “archive of Hellenism” (Voigt) or identified its history with the period of decline of ancient literature. In the V-IX centuries. Byzantium was a powerful centralized monarchy, based on large secular and church landownership and, to a certain extent, on loan, trade and partly industrial capital. She created her own unique culture and literature. And if we have to talk about Hellenism in Byzantium, then only as a literary influence, which must be placed next to the influences of Arabic, Syrian and other literatures, with which Byzantium was in close contact. The Hellenic influence was, however, one of the strongest.
Among the church literature that has come down to us, church poetry of hymns stands out. Most major representatives hers are: Roman the Sweet Singer (VI century), a Syrian who wrote about a thousand hymns, Emperor Justinian (527-565), Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople, to whom belongs the akathist to the Mother of God on the occasion of the victory over the Avars in 626, Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and others. Roman's hymns are distinguished by their ascetic character, naive sincerity and depth of feeling. They are written in a free form, intermediate between metrical and prosaic speech, and are closest to the psalms. Both in form and in content, these hymns are related to the Semitic elements of the Old Testament, the motives of which are aligned by the Roman to the New Testament (comparison of events and characters). Of the thousand hymns of the Roman, only 80 have survived. They usually represent a narrative with the introduction of freely composed dialogues. Often in these hymns dogmatic and theological scholarship is manifested, which threatens to strangle the ardent feeling, edification interferes with poetry and artistry. Byzantium inherited a lot from Hellenistic prose. This should include, for example, the Egyptian story about Alexander the Great, full of fabulous episodes, which Byzantium Christianized and processed in different editions. The manner of Hellenism is repeated in many other works: romance novels adventures of Heliodorus (“Ethiopics” about Theogenes and Chariclea) 4th century, Achilles Tatius (about Clitophon and Leucippus) 5th century, Chariton (about Chaereas and Calliroe), Longus (about Daphnis and Chloe), etc. From prosaic types to the first period V. l. history especially flourishes, the authors of which imitated the manner of Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius and their epigones, for example in the 6th century - Procopius, Peter Patrick, Agathia (historian and poet), Menander Protictor, Theophylact Samocatt; John Malala, a monk from Syrian Antioch, dates back to the same time and compiled a world chronicle, vulgar in content and language, close to living speech. The early creativity of Byzantium was especially evident in church eloquence and dogma.
The best church writers, educated in pagan schools in antiquity, in the 4th century. are: Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria (wrote against paganism and Arianism, compiled the life of Anthony of Egypt), Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, nicknamed “The Great” (defender of forms of “secular,” i.e., pagan, literature, imitator of Plutarch, wrote against the monks, about asceticism, compiled the liturgy), Gregory of Nazianzus, bishop, nicknamed “Theologian” (church speaker and poet who filled the forms ancient lyrics Christian content), John, Patriarch of Constantinople, nicknamed “Chrysostom” (church orator, compiled the liturgy).
The colonial, predominantly eastern, element found vivid expression in numerous collections stories V-VI centuries about the hermit-ascetics of the Byzantine outskirts (the so-called “patericon”).
This type of monasticism developed first in Egypt, then in Palestine and Syria, from where it spread throughout the interior regions. Corresponding to the pre-Christian culture of one or another outskirts, their beliefs were reflected in the confession of these monks, and, consequently, in the stories of the patericons. The enchantments and mysteries of Egypt were reflected in the demonology of the Egyptian patericon “Lavsaik” by Palladius, Bishop of Elenopolis; the ancient Israeli cult - in “The God-loving History” about the ascetics of the Euphrates country of Theodoret of Cyprus; Arabic and Jewish elements - in the Palestinian patericon “The Spiritual Meadow” (Limonar) by John Moschus; finally, the beliefs of the Goths - in the Italian “Dialogues” of Gregory Dvoeslov (VI-VII centuries), translated in the VIII century. from Latin to Greek, etc. From the very beginning of V. l. known in it are books that were not recognized by the official church with legendary plots and motifs attached to persons and events of the Old and New Testaments and the Christian cult in general. These books are partly falsely attributed to famous authors and are usually called apocrypha (see).
In the 7th and 8th centuries. Byzantium experienced severe military failures (Avars, Slavs, Arabs), socio-political and religious movements (iconoclasm); hagiographic literature flourishes (the lives of the saints were collected in huge twelve-month collections - Menaions (chetes)). From writers of the 7th-8th centuries. we note: Anastasia Sinaita, disputant with the Jews and Monophysites in Syria and Egypt; Cosmas, Bishop of Mayum, hymnographer; Andrew, Bishop of Crete, preacher and poet, who wrote the “great canon”; John of Damascus, polemicist with iconoclasm and Islam, preacher and author of 55 canons, theologian who based his “Dialectics” on Aristotle.
With the cessation of iconoclasm, that is, from the 9th century, short guides to world history, “chronicles” with a clerical tendency, based partly on both the Alexandrians and church historians, on previous Byzantine historiography in general (George Sinkelya, Theophanes the Confessor, Patriarch Nikifor, Georgy Amartol). For Russian antiquity, the most interesting is the chronicle of the author of the second half of the 9th century, George Amartol, which covers the history of the “world” from Adam to 842 (and if we count its continuation, then until the half of the 10th century). This monastic chronicle is distinguished by fanatical intolerance towards iconoclasts and passion for theology. Here is a review of interesting facts for a monk: secular history before Alexander the Great, biblical history before the Roman era, Roman history from Caesar to Constantine the Great, and Byzantine history. The main sources of Amartol were the chronicles of Theophanes the Confessor and John Malala. Amartol also has extracts from Plato, Plutarch, Josephus (1st century), Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Theodore the Studite, from lives, patericons, etc. The language of monastic chronicles of the 9th century. close to language the Greek Bible and is not alien to the elements of living speech. In this century, about 500 canons were written in honor of saints (Theophanes and Joseph the hymnals), i.e., almost half of all Byzantine canons. Along with the restoration of icon veneration, monasticism energetically began to compile the lives of the defenders of Orthodoxy. Even a special school was created in Constantinople, where hagiographic techniques and templates were taught, based on the examples of classical biographers. The historical element in these lives is very meager, distorted and hidden by the introduction of the obligatory themes of humility and emotion. All lives are compiled according to one glorification program. Second half of the 9th century V. l. called the century of learned encyclopedias; in his collections and revisions precious material of antiquity, borrowed from writers now lost, has been preserved. In the first row of figures of the 9th-10th centuries. should be named Patriarch Photius of Constantinople and Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. Coming from a patrician family, Photius was distinguished by exceptional education in a form typical of Byzantium. A brilliant philologist, not without pedantry, an expert in the Greek language. and literature of all periods, an admirer of Aristotle, a philosopher with the theological overtones common to Byzantium, and a passionate teacher, Photius gathered around him a mass of students, turning his house into a kind of academy, a learned salon, where books were read and discussed, ranging from classical antiquity to latest news. He forced his students to compile a huge Lexicon based on both previous dictionaries and outstanding works of antiquity and V. l. The most outstanding work of Photius is his “Library” or “Polybook” (Myriobiblon), consisting of 280 chapters. It contains information about Greek grammarians, orators (especially Attic), historians, philosophers, naturalists and doctors, novels, hagiographic works, etc. From Photius’s “Library” it is clear how many outstanding works have not reached us; only from here do they become famous.
The grandson of Basil I, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, emperor nominally from 912, in reality from 945 to 959, ordered the compilation at his own expense of extensive collections, encyclopedias of works of old literature that had become rare; Using simple Byzantine speech, he wrote himself and in collaboration. From the works of Constantine we know: the history of the reign of his grandfather Vasily; an essay on government, written for his son, Roman (mainly about relations with the neighbors of Byzantium, whose life is depicted); about the military and administrative division of the empire (detailed geography, as in the previous work, with fantastic stories about the origin of cities and caustic epigrams on their inhabitants); about the ceremonies of the Byzantine court (among the descriptions of court etiquette that amazed the barbarians, the poetic cliques, odes and troparia in honor of the emperor are interesting from a literary point of view, especially the spring song in the folk style and the hymn of the Gothic Christmas game). By order of Constantine, a historical encyclopedia was compiled. This includes almost all of the extracts historical literature Greeks of all periods; there are extracts from literary works(eg novels). Among the scientists surrounding Constantine, one should name the historian of Byzantium of the 9th century. Genesia, amateur folk legends and admirer classical literature, which he however used tastelessly. Later, the Byzantine history of the third quarter of the 10th century was described by Leo the Asiatic, also nicknamed the Deacon, a poor stylist who used high-flown rhetoric and a dictionary of church works. The World Chronicle was compiled at this time by Simeon Magister, or Metaphrastus, so called because he rhetorically reworked a lot of previous lives of saints, weakening the fantastic element in them. Also by the 10th century. or somewhat later there are voluminous collections of sayings (for example, “Melissa”, i.e. “Bee”, “Antonia”). In the middle of the 11th century. The higher school in Constantinople expanded, splitting into two - philosophical (i.e. general education) and legal. People from the West began to come here to study. Europe and from the Baghdad and Egyptian caliphates. The most talented and influential leader of the school was Michael Psellus, a philosopher (Platonist) and rhetorician, teacher of several emperors who themselves became writers, and later the first minister. His literary activity was very extensive. He left many works on philosophy, theology and natural sciences, philology, history, and was a poet and speaker. Strongly influenced by Hellenism, he wrote medical treatises and Christian hymns in poetry; He also studied the style of Homer, retold the Iliad, commented on the comedies of Menander, etc.
In the 12th century. There is a flourishing of literary activity among clergymen who wrote on theology and philosophy, grammar and rhetoric - and not only in the capital center, but also in the territory of ancient Hellas, where for example. Nicholas, Bishop of Mythos (about half XII century), argued with Neoplatonism, grammaticized by Metropolitan Gregory of Corinth; One should also name the commentator on Homer, Eustathius, Archbishop of Thessalonica, and his student, Archbishop of Athos, Michael Acominatus, who studied Homer, Pindar, Demosthenes, Thucydides, and so on, and wrote in iambic and hexameter. The following figures are characteristic of this era: Tsetsas, Prodromus, Glyka, Constantine Manasses, Anna Komnena, Nikita Evgenian. John Tsetsas was at one time a teacher, then a needy professional writer, dependent on the favors of nobles and princes to whom he dedicated his works. He was well-read in ancient poets, orators, and historians, although he did not always use them first-hand and allowed their interpretation to be inaccurate. Tsetsas collected and published his letters to actual recipients - nobles and friends, as well as fictitious epistles, full of mythology and literary-historical wisdom, colored by wayward self-praise. He compiled a huge, versioned commentary on these letters. Also known are his commentaries on Homer (for example, “allegories to the Iliad and Odyssey” take up about 10,000 verses), Hesiod and Aristophanes, treatises on poetry, metrics and grammar, grammatical iambics, where the peasant, the choir and the muses glorify the life of a scientist as happy, and the sage complains about the sad situation of the wise, to whom happiness denies mercy, endowing it with the ignorant. Interesting is Tsetzas’s “stepped” poem on the death of Emperor Manuel Komnenos (1180), where final word each verse is repeated at the beginning of the next. The same professional poet was Fyodor Prodromus, nicknamed “Poor” (Puokhoprodromus), an ever-complaining self-praiser and flatterer, begging handouts from the nobility with songs of praise, speeches, and epistles; He also wrote satires, epigrams and novels (about Rodanthe and Dochiple), imitating the style of Lucian in prose. He was more talented and original than Tsetsas, daring to write comic poems in the vernacular. Of the dramatic works of Prodromus, the best is the parody “The War of Cats and Mouse.” Mikhail Glika is a similar writer, but in addition to poverty, he experienced prison and also execution by blinding. On this occasion, he addressed the imp. Manuel with a petitionary poem in folk language. (like Russian “Prayers of Daniil the Zatochnik”). Glick’s most important work is considered to be the “World Chronicle” (before the death of Alexei Komnenos). Before Glick in the 12th century. They also wrote chronicles: Kedrin, Zonara, Skalitsa and Manasseh, which Glicka used. Constantine Manasseh wrote many works - prose and poetry. His chronicle consists of 6,733 verses. Manasseh is actually a historian-novelist; he tries to impart a poetic lift to his chronicle with the colors of eloquence, mythological allusions and metaphors. The style of his story is vaguely reminiscent of some features of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” Anna Komnena, daughter of the Emperor. Alexei, was exceptionally educated - she read Homer, Thucydides and Aristophanes, Plato and Aristotle, and was knowledgeable in church literature. Soon after her father’s death (1118), she retired to the “Delighted” monastery, where by 1148 she wrote the history of her father’s reign - “Alexiad”. The ideal form for Anna is atticism. In addition to the poetic novel of Prodromus, two more novels of the 12th century are known. The best is the poetic novel by Nikita Evgenian (“8 books about the love of Drosilla and Harikis”), which borrowed a lot from Prodromus. In Evgenian we find pampered eroticism in love letters, sensitivity of outpourings and picturesque descriptions. In places the novel is pornographic. The plot does not bear the features of modernity, being remote into the rather vague past of Hellenic paganism. Eugene borrowed the flowers of his eloquence from bucolic poets, from anthologies and from novels of the 4th-5th centuries. Another 12th-century novel, “On Ismin and Isminia,” was written by Eumathios in prose; he also imitates pagan antiquity. From the 12th to the middle of the 15th century. (1453) in Byzantium the era of feudalism begins, the domination of the so-called. “rulers” - secular feudal lords and spiritual lords - an alarming time when, in the fight against the Turks, Byzantium sought support from the Western knighthood, which temporarily even seized power in Byzantium; not having sufficient internal forces to fight, the empire, after a short period of success in the 12th century. gradually becomes the prey of the Turks and in 1453, with the fall of Constantinople, ceases to exist. This period in the history of the development of V. l. characterized by its complete decline. Bibliography:
I. Uspensky F.I., Essays on the history of Byzantine education, Zhurn. MNP, 1891, No. 1, 4, 9, 10; 1892, Nos. 1, 2 and sec. reprint, St. Petersburg, 1891; Kenoyn Fr. G., The Palaeography of Greek papyri, Oxford. Clarendon Press, 1899; Lietzmann H., Byzantinische Legenden, Jena, 1911; Diehl Gh., Byzance, 1919; Heisenberg A., Aus der Geschichte und Literatur der Palaeologenzeit, Munchen, 1922; Ehrhard A., Beitrage zur Geschichte des christlichen Altertums und der byzantinischen Literatur, Bonn, 1922; Serbisch-byzantinische Urkunden des Meteoronklosters, Berlin, 1923; Istituto per l'Europa Orientale, Studi bizantini, Napoli, 1924; La Piana G., Le rappresentazioni sacre nella letteratura bizantina, 1912.
II. Hertzsch G., De script. rerum. imp. T. Constantini, 1884; Potthast A., Bibliographia historica medii aevi: Wegweiser durch die Geschichtswerke des eurolaischen Mittelalters, 1375-1500, ed. 2nd, 2 vols., Berlin, 1896; Krumbacher C., Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur, Munchen, 1897; Bibliotheca hagiographica orientalis, Ed. Socie. Bollandiani, Bruxelles, 1910.
Literary encyclopedia. - At 11 t.; M.: Publishing House of the Communist Academy, Soviet encyclopedia, Fiction. Edited by V. M. Fritsche, A. V. Lunacharsky. 1929-1939 .
See what “Byzantine literature” is in other dictionaries:
Byzantine culture Art ... Wikipedia
Byzantine literature- Greek liter byzantine era (4th century 1453, before the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks). In V. l. can be distinguished, based on the authors of the works, stylistic. features of the language and readership, mainly two main ones. section: scientific literature,… … Dictionary of Antiquity
Byzantine literature- is divided into three periods. The first, from Constantine V. to the death of Heraclius (323-640), created a whole galaxy of great church writers, St. fathers, teachers and was called the golden age. Theology was developed most of all, then... ... Complete Orthodox Theological Encyclopedic Dictionary
The influence of Byzantine literature on European literature is very great, and its influence on Slavic literature is undeniable. Until the 13th century. in Byzantine libraries one could find not only Greek manuscripts, but also their Slavic translations. Some works have survived only in Slavic translation; the originals have been lost. Byzantine literature proper appears in the 6th-7th centuries, when the Greek language became dominant. Monuments of folk art have hardly survived to this day. According to Western European scholars, Byzantine literature was considered the “archive of Hellenism”, its free nature was underestimated, meanwhile Byzantine literature is original, and one can speak of Hellenism as a literary influence on a par with the influence of Arabic, Syriac, Persian, Coptic literatures, although Hellenism was more clearly manifested . The poetry of the hymns is best known to us: Roman the Sweet Singer (VI century), Emperor Justinian, Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople, Patriarch Sophronius of Jerusalem. The hymns of Roman the Sweet Singer are characterized by closeness to the psalms in musical and semantic terms (themes of the Old Testament, the depth and asceticism of the music). Of the thousand hymns he wrote, about 80 have survived. In form, it is a narrative with elements of dialogue; in style, it is a combination of scholarship and edification with poetry.
Historical storytelling in the style of Herodotus is popular in Byzantine literature. In the VI century. these are Procopius, Peter Patrick, Agathia, Menander. Protiktor and others. The best writers, educated in ancient schools on pagan traditions, are Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom. The influence of the East is observed in the patericons of the V-VI centuries. (stories about hermit-ascetics). During the period of iconoclasm, the lives of saints and their twelve-month collections “Cheti-Minea” appeared.
Starting from the 9th century, after iconoclasm, historical chronicles with a church orientation appeared. Particularly interesting is the chronicle of George Amartol (late 9th century) from Adam to 842 (a monastic chronicle with intolerance for iconoclasm and a predilection for theology).
Among literary figures, it is worth noting Patriarch Photius and Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. Photius was a highly educated man, and his house was a learned salon. His students were compiling a dictionary-lexicon. The most outstanding work of Photius is his “Library” or “Polybook” (880 chapters). They contain information about Greek grammarians, orators, philosophers, naturalists and doctors, novels, hagiographic works (apocrypha, legends, etc.).
Konstantin Porphyrogenitus, at his own expense, published extensive collections and encyclopedias of works of old literature that had become rare. On his orders, a historical encyclopedia was compiled.
Byzantine Literature: Book Treasures of the Monasteries
Byzantine culture - the earliest in the history of medieval Europe - developed on the traditions of the Greco-Roman world, in conditions of confrontation with Asian civilizations (Iran, Palestine, the Arab East), the interpenetration of Western cultures, and the spread of Christianity. Not many fictional forms arose here, and yet Byzantine prose cannot be confined within the framework of religious-didactic issues or the functions of church cult and ascetic preaching of the disembodied spirit. The fumes of lamp oil, the debilitating exhaustion of the body during fasting, the solemn luxury church service they could not stop the gambling noise in the squares, the witty words in the streets, the cheerful voices during the hours of feasting. Byzantium left a legacy of heartfelt frankness in the genre of fictitious writing, the sarcasm of everyday satire, historical epic, and, finally, omitting the entire arsenal of religious writing, the novel in verse and prose.
The collector of ancient classics was the Byzantine patriarch Photius (c. 820-891), thanks to whom expositions of texts and critical interpretations of many prose works of the Ancient world have come down to us - “a total of three hundred books without twenty-one”, included in his huge collection “Myriobiblion” (“ Many Books), also known as the Library. This amazing “bibliographic work of Rubakin” of the Middle Ages outlined the circle of self-educational reading and called for strengthening knowledge: “This book will undoubtedly help you remember and retain in memory what you gleaned from independent reading, find in a ready-made form what you were looking for in books , and it is also easier to perceive what you have not yet comprehended with your mind.”
The work of Photius was continued by his student AREPHAS OF CESAREA (c. 860-932), who showed close attention to the works of Plato, Lucian, and the “Apocalypse” and left a huge literary legacy. A prominent place in it is occupied by the bright pamphlet “Chirosphant, or Hater of Witchcraft,” found in late XIX V. in the library of the current Historical Museum in Moscow. This masterfully executed reproach against the “impudent tenacity” with which his contemporary Leo Hirosphant came out in defense of pagan culture “brought the dust of atheism into the eyes.” However, Arefa, with no less insolence, condemned the Christian churchmen themselves in his “Speech in defense of those who reproduce life in the theater, glorified the god Dionysus, who gives people joy and relaxation, and gave witty people an activity with which they would console those who have fallen spirit."
The origins of a major genre in the artistic prose of Byzantium are already noticeably revealed in the 5th century. The student of the famous, tragically deceased female scientist Hypatia was the writer SINESIUS (370-413/414), born in the North African colony of Cyrene. In 397, he represented the interests of his homeland in Constantinople, defending it from mediocre and unscrupulous governors. There, perhaps, his peculiar political novel “The Egyptians, or About Providence” arose, which depicts intrigues at the Byzantine court under the guise of strife between two Egyptians - the sedate Osiris and the defeated Typhon.
The conflict between the main characters was based on the dangerous delusion of adherents of tyrannical power to believe that “the only occupation of free-born people is to do as they please and do whatever they want.”
One of the most significant works in Byzantine literature is the “Love Letters” of ARISTENETUS (or Aristinitis, 6th century), which posed many mysteries to scientists. One of them is the semantic meaning of the author’s name, which in translation means: “one who praises best” or “deserving preferential praise.” The other is whether there really was such a writer or whether this name was taken from the pages of Lucian. The third mystery concerns the indifference of contemporaries to this outstanding literary monument and the silence of the Byzantines later, in the 11th-12th centuries, when interest in any antiquity increased. The discovery of Aristenet dates back to 1566.
The genre of fictitious writing chosen by Aristenetus goes back in its origins to Alkiphron, Aelian and Philostratus with their repeated appeals to the authority of Homer, Plato, Callimachus, Sappho, Lucian, Xenophon of Ephesus, Achilles Tatius. Borrowing motifs and plots from some of them, extracting individual bright phrases or entire passages in the love letters of the characters form an entertaining plot pattern, where quotes are included in the action itself, and the authors of the quotes sometimes act as characters. The writer strives to introduce unusualness, to psychologically substantiate situations when young men seek love, make street acquaintances, abandon their beloved girls, and when cheerful picnics of lovers are arranged, and hetaeras surrender to a fickle sense of whim.
The artistic epistolary prose of Byzantium also knows other masters of this genre - Aeneas Sophist (end of the 5th century), who gravitates towards aphorism, Theophylact Simokatta (first half of the 6th century), whose fictitious moralizing, rural and love letters receive addressees from real history (Pericles, Plotinus, Plato, Socrates), from mythology (Atlas, Thetis, Eurydice) from fiction.
EUMATIUS MACREMVOLITUS - author of the Byzantine novel about love - “The Tale of Isminia and Ismina” (XII century). Like Aristenet, Eumatius widely refers to antiquity, to quotes from Homer, Hesiod, tragedians, Aristophanes, etc. His story reveals a dependence on the novel by Achilles Tatius “Leucippe and Clitophon” not only in style and language, but also in the construction of situations : meeting of young people in a hospitable house, the emergence of love, secret communication at a feast and dates in the garden, flight, separation, slavery, etc. The lovers extricate themselves from risky situations thanks to their exceptional virtue, sometimes so extravagantly that scientists considered the work a caricature of “Leucippa and Clitophon”, and its author was called Achilles Tatius who had gone mad. However, in this case, the Byzantine author projected pagan themes onto the Middle Ages, which perceived reality in abstract symbols of Reason, Strength, Chastity, Law, Love, etc. This allegoricalism saved the novel from oblivion and at the same time erased specific signs of the time, turning the lovers - Isminia and Isminu - into conventional figures, which is emphasized by the identity of their names.
The edifying, exhorting prose includes the “Strategikon”, the author of which KEKAUMENES (11th century), may have been the same person as the famous commander Katakalon Kekaumenes. This is not so much a treatise on the art of war as a set of moral instructions and rules of life. The book contains advice to be a “homely person and a social person.”
The plot of “The BOOK OF SYNTIP” (12th century) dates back to the lost Sanskrit source, in the Arabic version known as “The Tale of the Prince and the Seven Viziers”, and in the Syriac version called “The Tale of Sinbad and the Philosophers”, in the Persian version - “Sinbad -name." The story is based on the story of the king's son, who studied various sciences with the philosopher Sintipa (or Sinbad), but was doomed to remain silent for seven days due to the unfavorable position of the stars. During this time, the king's wife tries to seduce the young man and then denigrate him in front of his father, but seven court advisers prevent the unjust execution with moralizing stories. “The Book of Sintipa” testified that, along with severe asceticism, there was frivolity and even outright eroticism in literature. It served as a source for “Roman Acts” and “Decameron” by D. Boccaccio.
The tradition coming from Philostratus and Diogenes Laertius, also with a preference for anecdote and aphorism, was continued in Byzantium by the hagiographic genre, that is, literature that provided examples for imitation of moral behavior encouraged by Christian teaching. In search of their heroes on the “sinful” earth, the authors of works of this genre moved away from religious myth to folk tradition, legend and fairy tale, as a result they survived the Middle Ages and did not disappear without a trace. Later, Herzen, A.K. Tolstoy, L. Tolstoy, Leskov, Garshin turned to hagiographic stories. Based on the work of the Byzantine author Athanasius of Alexandria (293-373), who told the story of amazing life and the teachings of Anthony, Flaubert wrote the story “The Temptation of Saint Anthony.” Another Byzantine writer PALLADIUS History of ELENOPOLE (c. 364-430) brought to us information about how monasteries, “monasteries” arose in the deserts of Egypt, where adherents of asceticism showed extraordinary asceticism in order to achieve the victory of the spirit over the flesh. The everyday flavor of that time was colorfully, humorously and fabulously conveyed by Palladium in the book “Lavsaik”.
Consonant with the character of “Lavsaik” was the story of Theodoret of Cyprus (387-457) about the asceticism of his contemporaries - thirty ascetics of the Euphrates land. The fanaticism of asceticism, alien to human nature, was caustically ridiculed many centuries later in A. France’s story “Thais.”
The tendency to “ground” the plot, the rejection of pious ecstasy, and the confidential tone of the narrative are noticeable in NIKITA OF AMNIA (first half of the 9th century). He created the provocative “Tale of the life and deeds, filled with the great edification of Philaret the Merciful.” Its plot, reminiscent of the later fairy tale about Cinderella, inspired A. N. Radishchev to develop a theme for the story, which he intended for his children: “Reading the life of St. Philaret the Merciful, the soul was all the more attached to and listening to the feats that it is more suitable for imitation of our weak addition."
Hagiography also captured real events. The feat of forty-two glorious defenders of the Phrygian city of Amoria in Asia Minor, besieged by Arab troops in 838, formed the basis of the anonymous work “The Torment of the Holy Forty-two Martyrs” (IX century), close in form to a folk epic tale with an emotional story about courage and the strength of the human spirit, with expressive dialogues conveying the drama of the situation. Another anonymous “Life of Stephen of Sourozh” (9th century) reflected the last stage of the iconoclastic movement, which was subjected to repression by the frantic Emperor Leo. At one time, the deacon of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople, Ignatius (VIII-IX centuries), joined the iconoclastic movement, until he went over to the side of the icon-worshipers. In his story about the wonderworker George, he placed a chapter about Rus'.
An attempt to bring hagiography onto the path of entertaining storytelling was made by SIMEON METAPHRASTUS (10th century), not without reason nicknamed the “reteller.” Thanks to his literary talent, he was able to give art form tales of asceticism compiled by unknown authors. Michael Psellus, who lived a century later, noted: “Simeon knew many ways of constructing phrases and used them sufficiently so that both learned men and ordinary people could listen. He satisfied the taste of both... Simeon only remade appearance legends without changing the matter...” In the biography of Galaktion and Epistimia, Simeon deliberately emphasizes literary fiction, calling the parents of his hero after the names of the main characters in the novel Leucippe and Cletophon by Achilles Tatius.
For the manifestation of the originality of human character, the framework of life was narrow. The need for an autobiography arises. It manifests itself in the work of Nikephoros Blemmydes (c. 1197 - c. 1282). He achieved fame as a scientist and refused the rank of ecumenical patriarch, preferring the fate of the abbot of the monastery he founded near Ephesus. But he longed for the glory of a sage, which manifested itself in his “Selected Passages from the Autobiography of the Monk and Presbyter Nicephorus, Ktitor.”
The genre of satirical dialogue followed the tradition of Lucian. As a branch of narrative prose, it did not imply further stage implementation and was devoid of religious overtones and apologetic depiction of the Middle Ages. The main character usually talks in dialogues, and the excited interlocutor asks him again and hurries him on. The dialogues were created on the fantastic plot of going to the other world - either to heaven or to the underworld, continuing the line of mythical visits to the underworld by Orpheus, Odysseus, Hercules, Theseus, the heroes of Aristophanes (“Frogs”), Plato (“Republic”), Plutarch (“ On the late retribution of the gods"), and even earlier - the Assyro-Akkadian epic of Gilgamesh.
The dialogue “PATRIOT, OR TEACHED” (10th century) was considered a pamphlet on Christian beliefs, a rhetorical joke, and an denunciation of paganism. At one time its authorship was attributed either to Psellus or to Lucian. The “hundred-eared” pagan Critias tells the recently baptized Triefont with rude jokes about his visit to a gathering of “men soaring in the sky,” presenting the regulars of the heavenly steeps as carriers of dark forces - villains and deceivers, devoid of any morality.
The authorship of the dialogue “TIMARION” (XII century) is conventionally attributed to the physician and poet Nicholas Callicles (XI-XII centuries). The hero of the dialogue, the philosopher Timarion, who once became a victim of a mistake and paid for it with his life, has no luck even after his resurrection. There are no horrors of afterlife fiction here: the underworld is rather funny, bizarre, illuminated with the author's irony. Having heard a fair amount about the unseemly deeds of past times, Timarion was returned to earthly existence after his judicial complaint about the forced and illegal transfer of his soul to another world was recognized as justified.
The satirical dialogue “MAZARIS” (“The stay of Mazaris in the kingdom of the dead, or Questions of the dead about other of their acquaintances whom they met at court”) (XV century) was created, in all likelihood, by a person close to the emperor. Here the figure of the hero's curious interlocutor is replaced by the reader. Mazaris seems to be undergoing an internship in the underworld, stylized as Greek antiquity, and talks with its inhabitants. The medieval flavor is created by the rudeness of jokes and the predilection for listing the negative qualities of a person. Fantastic paintings parody palace intrigues, scandalous lists of rivalries, insults, cheating, and deceptions. This pettiness of the accusatory theme illustrates the impoverishment of the former cultural greatness of the Peloponnese.
The historical genre of narrative prose in the Byzantine era represents the work of many writers. The historical writer PROCOPIUS OF CESAREA (VI century) was a participant in the campaigns of Emperor Justinian. In his first work, “History in Eight Books,” he reflected the events of which he himself was an eyewitness, described the war with the Persians, Vandals and Ostrogoths, foreign morals and customs. His second work was “The Secret History” - a kind of book of memoirs, exposing the despotism, depravity and treachery of Justinian and his wife Theodora.
The historian and poet AGATHIUS OF MYRINEA (536/537-582) undertook to continue the work of Procopius. In his work “On the Reign of Justinian” (between 570-582), he tried to “combine the Muses with the Charites,” skepticism with the ethics of Epicurus, personal memories with letters and official documents. In an effort to prove that modernity is no less significant than antiquity, that the generals, writers and scientists of his time are no lower than antiquity, Agathias called for the moral improvement of man, to praise useful deeds and condemn bad ones.
The intensity of the rhythm, interest in entertaining details, in action, in human behavior as the mainspring of events are characteristic of the chronicle genre - chronography. They were created by Theophanes the Confessor (c. 760-818) about the period from the time of Diocletian (277) to 805, Simeon the Master and Logothetus (second half of the 10th century) about the Byzantine emperors 813-963.
Mikhail PSELL (1018-c. 1097) distinguished himself with encyclopedic education. In the historical narrative, he paid special attention not to the details of events, listing them or describing military campaigns and battles, but to dramatic clashes of characters, making extensive use of allegories, parallels, and portrait sketches, striving to make the story entertaining. The “Chronography” of Psellus was used almost verbatim by the writers of the subsequent generation - Nicephorus Bryennius and Anna Komnena.
“And in difficult labors he did not neglect literary studies and wrote various works worthy of memory,” - this was, according to his wife Anna Komnena, the commander, diplomat and scientist Nicephorus Bryennius (1062-1136), author of “Historical Notes”, in style and themes reminiscent of Xenophon’s Anabasis with descriptions of battles and soldier’s life in the camp.
Eldest daughter Alexei, founder of the Comneni dynasty, ANNA COMNENA (1083-1153/1155), brought up in a humanistic respect for antiquity, belonged to the brilliant scholars of her time. In the midst of palace intrigue, she unsuccessfully attempted to seize the throne and then retired to a monastery, where she devoted herself to literary pursuits for the rest of her days. She tried to perpetuate the image of her father and his deeds. This is how the heroic epic “Alexiad” arose about a beautiful ruler, a wise ruler: “... when he, with menacingly sparkling eyes, sat on the imperial throne, he was like lightning... his whole heroic appearance instilled delight and amazement in most people.. If he entered into a conversation, it seemed that the fiery orator Demosthenes was speaking through his lips...” At the age of 55, she completed the historical work of her husband. NIKIFOR GRIGORA showed himself in the historical narrative History (1295 - ca. 1360).
He penned the “Roman History,” written in the form of memoirs about everything that glorifies man, containing discussions about the impermanence of human activity and aphorisms that affirmed the idea that there should be “nothing in excess.”
The Byzantine era ends in 1453, when Constantinople was captured by the Seljuk Turks and the last emperor, Constantine Palaiologos, died on the battlefield. The decline of Byzantine literature is accompanied by “cries about the fall of Constantinople,” about the torment and shame of its historical obsolescence.
References
To prepare this work, materials were used from the site http://www.byzantion.narod.ru/
Tutoring
Need help studying a topic?
Our specialists will advise or provide tutoring services on topics that interest you.
Submit your application indicating the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.
Byzantine literature
BYZANTINE LITERATURE - literature of the Byzantine Empire, Central Greek in language. She had a great influence on European literature, including Slavic literature, with her monuments, mainly until the 13th century. Byzantine literature penetrated into Russia in most cases through South Slavic translations in the pre-Mongol period and was rarely translated directly by Russians. The presence of Byzantine books is determined as follows. arr. not only by Greek manuscripts, but also by Slavic translations, which sometimes preserved works now unknown in the original. Beginning of V. l. refers to the VI-VII centuries, when the Greek language. becomes dominant in Byzantium. History of V. l. represents one of the least developed areas in world literature. The reason for this has to be sought. arr. is that the very complex socio-economic factors that characterize the history of Byzantium, formed from the eastern provinces and regions of the Roman Empire, after the western part of the latter was during the 4th-5th centuries, still remain unexplored. captured by Germanic tribes. Monuments of folk art from Byzantium have not reached us at all. Ch. preserved arr. literature created by the church, which played a very large economic and political role in the state life of Byzantium (church councils limited the power of the emperor, and by the 8th century one third of all lands were concentrated in monasteries). Modern researchers have to take into account that Western scientists - enemies of the Eastern Church - approached V. l. with great passion. They did not recognize its original character, considered it an “archive of Hellenism” (Voigt) or identified its history with the period of decline of ancient literature. In the V-IX centuries. Byzantium was a powerful centralized monarchy, based on large secular and church landownership and, to a certain extent, on loan, trade and partly industrial capital. She created her own unique culture and literature. And if we have to talk about Hellenism in Byzantium, then only as a literary influence, which must be placed next to the influences of Arabic, Syrian and other literatures, with which Byzantium was in close contact. The Hellenic influence was, however, one of the strongest.
Among the church literature that has come down to us, church poetry of hymns stands out. Its largest representatives are: Roman the Sweet Singer (VI century), a Syrian who wrote about a thousand hymns, Emperor Justinian (527-565), Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople, to whom belongs the akathist to the Mother of God on the occasion of the victory over the Avars in 626, Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and others. Roman's hymns are distinguished by their ascetic character, naive sincerity and depth of feeling. They are written in a free form, intermediate between metrical and prosaic speech, and are closest to the psalms. Both in form and in content, these hymns are related to the Semitic elements of the Old Testament, the motives of which are aligned by the Roman to the New Testament (comparison of events and characters). Of the thousand hymns of the Roman, only 80 have survived. They usually represent a narrative with the introduction of freely composed dialogues. Often in these hymns dogmatic and theological scholarship is manifested, which threatens to strangle the ardent feeling, edification interferes with poetry and artistry. Byzantium inherited a lot from Hellenistic prose. This should include, for example, the Egyptian story about Alexander the Great, full of fabulous episodes, which Byzantium Christianized and processed in different editions. The manner of Hellenism is repeated by many other works: love stories of the adventures of Heliodorus (“Ethiopics” about Theogenes and Chariclea) of the 4th century, Achilles Tatius (about Clitophon and Leucippus) of the 5th century, Chariton (about Chaereas and Calliroe), Longus (about Daphnis and Chloe) and others. From prose types in the first period of V. l. History especially flourishes, the authors of which imitated the manner of Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius and their epigones, for example in the 6th century - Procopius, Peter Patrick, Agathia (historian and poet), Menander Protictor, Theophylact Samocatt; John Malala, a monk from Syrian Antioch, dates back to the same time, compiling a world chronicle, vulgar in content and language, close to living speech. The early creativity of Byzantium was especially evident in church eloquence and dogma.
The best church writers, educated in pagan schools in antiquity, in the 4th century. are: Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria (wrote against paganism and Arianism, compiled the life of Anthony of Egypt), Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, nicknamed “The Great” (defender of forms of “secular,” i.e., pagan, literature, imitator of Plutarch, wrote against the monks, about asceticism, compiled the liturgy), Gregory of Nazianzus, bishop, nicknamed “Theologian” (church speaker and poet, filling the forms of ancient lyric poetry with Christian content), John, Patriarch of Constantinople, nicknamed “Chrysostom” (church speaker, compiled the liturgy).
The colonial, predominantly eastern, element found vivid expression in numerous collections of stories of the 5th-6th centuries. about the hermit-ascetics of the Byzantine outskirts (the so-called “patericon”).
This type of monasticism developed first in Egypt, then in Palestine and Syria, from where it spread throughout the interior regions. Corresponding to the pre-Christian culture of one or another outskirts, their beliefs were reflected in the confession of these monks, and, consequently, in the stories of the patericons. The enchantments and mysteries of Egypt were reflected in the demonology of the Egyptian patericon “Lavsaik” by Palladius, Bishop of Elenopolis; the ancient Israeli cult - in “The God-loving History” about the ascetics of the Euphrates country of Theodoret of Cyprus; Arabic and Jewish elements - in the Palestinian patericon “The Spiritual Meadow” (Limonar) by John Moschus; finally, the beliefs of the Goths - in the Italian “Dialogues” of Gregory Dvoeslov (VI-VII centuries), translated in the VIII century. from Latin to Greek, etc. From the very beginning of V. l. known in it are books that were not recognized by the official church with legendary plots and motifs attached to persons and events of the Old and New Testaments and the Christian cult in general. These books are partly falsely attributed to famous authors and are usually called apocrypha (see).
In the 7th and 8th centuries. Byzantium experienced severe military failures (Avars, Slavs, Arabs), socio-political and religious movements (iconoclasm); hagiographic literature flourishes (the lives of the saints were collected in huge twelve-month collections - Menaions (chetes)). From writers of the 7th-8th centuries. we note: Anastasia Sinaita, disputant with the Jews and Monophysites in Syria and Egypt; Cosmas, Bishop of Mayum, hymnographer; Andrew, Bishop of Crete, preacher and poet, who wrote the “great canon”; John of Damascus, polemicist with iconoclasm and Islam, preacher and author of 55 canons, theologian who based his “Dialectics” on Aristotle.
With the cessation of iconoclasm, that is, from the 9th century, short guides to world history, “chronicles” with a clerical tendency, based partly on both the Alexandrians and church historians, on previous Byzantine historiography in general (George Sinkelya, Theophanes the Confessor, Patriarch Nikifor, Georgy Amartol). For Russian antiquity, the most interesting is the chronicle of the author of the second half of the 9th century, George Amartol, which covers the history of the “world” from Adam to 842 (and if we count its continuation, then until the half of the 10th century). This monastic chronicle is distinguished by fanatical intolerance towards iconoclasts and passion for theology. Here is a review of interesting facts for a monk: secular history before Alexander the Great, biblical history before the Roman era, Roman history from Caesar to Constantine the Great, and Byzantine history. The main sources of Amartol were the chronicles of Theophanes the Confessor and John Malala. Amartol also has extracts from Plato, Plutarch, Josephus (1st century), Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Theodore the Studite, from lives, patericons, etc. The language of monastic chronicles of the 9th century. close to language the Greek Bible and is not alien to the elements of living speech. In this century, about 500 canons were written in honor of saints (Theophanes and Joseph the hymnals), i.e., almost half of all Byzantine canons. Along with the restoration of icon veneration, monasticism energetically began to compile the lives of the defenders of Orthodoxy. Even a special school was created in Constantinople, where hagiographic techniques and templates were taught, based on the examples of classical biographers. The historical element in these lives is very meager, distorted and hidden by the introduction of the obligatory themes of humility and emotion. All lives are compiled according to one glorification program. Second half of the 9th century V. l. called the century of learned encyclopedias; in his collections and revisions precious material of antiquity, borrowed from writers now lost, has been preserved. In the first row of figures of the 9th-10th centuries. should be named Patriarch Photius of Constantinople and Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. Coming from a patrician family, Photius was distinguished by exceptional education in a form typical of Byzantium. A brilliant philologist, not without pedantry, an expert in the Greek language. and literature of all periods, an admirer of Aristotle, a philosopher with the theological overtones common to Byzantium, and a passionate teacher, Photius gathered around him a mass of students, turning his house into a kind of academy, a learned salon, where books were read and discussed, ranging from classical antiquity to latest news. He forced his students to compile a huge Lexicon based on both previous dictionaries and outstanding works of antiquity and V. l. The most outstanding work of Photius is his “Library” or “Polybook” (Myriobiblon), consisting of 280 chapters. It contains information about Greek grammarians, orators (especially Attic), historians, philosophers, naturalists and doctors, novels, hagiographic works, etc. From Photius’s “Library” it is clear how many outstanding works have not reached us; only from here do they become famous.
The grandson of Basil I, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, emperor nominally from 912, in reality from 945 to 959, ordered the compilation at his own expense of extensive collections, encyclopedias of works of old literature that had become rare; Using simple Byzantine speech, he wrote himself and in collaboration. From the works of Constantine we know: the history of the reign of his grandfather Vasily; an essay on government, written for his son, Roman (mainly about relations with the neighbors of Byzantium, whose life is depicted); about the military and administrative division of the empire (detailed geography, as in the previous work, with fantastic stories about the origin of cities and caustic epigrams on their inhabitants); about the ceremonies of the Byzantine court (among the descriptions of court etiquette that amazed the barbarians, the poetic cliques, odes and troparia in honor of the emperor are interesting from a literary point of view, especially the spring song in the folk style and the hymn of the Gothic Christmas game). By order of Constantine, a historical encyclopedia was compiled. This included, in extracts, almost all the historical literature of the Greeks of all periods; There are also extracts from literary works (for example, novels). Among the scientists surrounding Constantine, one should name the historian of Byzantium of the 9th century. Genesius, a lover of folk legends and an admirer of classical literature, which he however used tastelessly. Later, the Byzantine history of the third quarter of the 10th century was described by Leo the Asiatic, also nicknamed the Deacon, a poor stylist who used high-flown rhetoric and a dictionary of church works. The World Chronicle was compiled at this time by Simeon Magister, or Metaphrastus, so called because he rhetorically reworked a lot of previous lives of saints, weakening the fantastic element in them. Also by the 10th century. or somewhat later there are voluminous collections of sayings (for example, “Melissa”, i.e. “Bee”, “Antonia”). In the half of the 11th century. The higher school in Constantinople expanded, splitting into two - philosophical (i.e. general education) and legal. People from the West began to come here to study. Europe and from the Baghdad and Egyptian caliphates. The most talented and influential leader of the school was Michael Psellus, a philosopher (Platonist) and rhetorician, teacher of several emperors who themselves became writers, and later the first minister. His literary activity was very extensive. He left many works on philosophy, theology and natural sciences, philology, history, and was a poet and speaker. Strongly influenced by Hellenism, he wrote medical treatises and Christian hymns in poetry; He also studied the style of Homer, retold the Iliad, commented on the comedies of Menander, etc. d.
In the 12th century. There is a flourishing of literary activity among clergymen who wrote on theology and philosophy, grammar and rhetoric - and not only in the capital center, but also in the territory of ancient Hellas, where for example. Nicholas, Bishop of Mythos (about half of the 12th century), argued with Neoplatonism, grammaticalized by Metropolitan Gregory of Corinth; One should also name the commentator on Homer, Eustathius, Archbishop of Thessalonica, and his student, Archbishop of Athos, Michael Acominatus, who studied Homer, Pindar, Demosthenes, Thucydides, and so on, and wrote in iambic and hexameter. The following figures are characteristic of this era: Tsetsas, Prodromus, Glyka, Constantine Manasses, Anna Komnena, Nikita Evgenian. John Tsetsas was at one time a teacher, then a needy professional writer, dependent on the favors of nobles and princes, to whom he dedicated his works. He was well-read in ancient poets, orators, and historians, although he did not always use them first-hand and allowed their interpretation to be inaccurate. Tsetsas collected and published his letters to actual recipients - nobles and friends, as well as fictitious epistles, full of mythology and literary-historical wisdom, colored by wayward self-praise. He compiled a huge, versioned commentary on these letters. Also known are his commentaries on Homer (for example, “allegories to the Iliad and Odyssey” take up about 10,000 verses), Hesiod and Aristophanes, treatises on poetry, metrics and grammar, grammatical iambics, where the peasant, the choir and the muses glorify the life of a scientist as happy, and the sage complains about the sad situation of the wise, to whom happiness denies mercy, endowing it with the ignorant. Interesting is Tsetzas's "stepped" poem on the death of Emperor Manuel Komnenos (1180), where the final word of each verse is repeated at the beginning of the next. The same professional poet was Fyodor Prodromus, nicknamed “Poor” (Puokhoprodromus), an ever-complaining self-praiser and flatterer, begging handouts from the nobility with songs of praise, speeches, and epistles; He also wrote satires, epigrams and novels (about Rodanthe and Dochiple), imitating the style of Lucian in prose. He was more talented and original than Tsetsas, daring to write comic poems in the vernacular. Of the dramatic works of Prodromus, the best is the parody “The War of Cats and Mouse.” Mikhail Glika is a similar writer, but in addition to poverty, he experienced prison and also execution by blinding. On this occasion, he addressed the imp. Manuel with a petitionary poem in folk language. (like Russian “Prayers of Daniil the Zatochnik”). Glick’s most important work is considered to be the “World Chronicle” (before the death of Alexei Komnenos). Before Glick in the 12th century. They also wrote chronicles: Kedrin, Zonara, Skalitsa and Manasseh, which Glicka used. Constantine Manasseh wrote many works - prose and poetry. His chronicle consists of 6,733 verses. Manasseh is actually a historian-novelist; he tries to impart a poetic lift to his chronicle with the colors of eloquence, mythological allusions and metaphors. The style of his story is vaguely reminiscent of some features of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” Anna Komnena, daughter of the Emperor. Alexei, was exceptionally educated - she read Homer, Thucydides and Aristophanes, Plato and Aristotle, and was knowledgeable in church literature. Soon after her father’s death (1118), she retired to the “Delighted” monastery, where by 1148 she wrote the history of her father’s reign - “Alexiad”. The ideal form for Anna is atticism. In addition to the poetic novel of Prodromus, two more novels of the 12th century are known. The best is the poetic novel by Nikita Evgenian (“8 books about the love of Drosilla and Harikis”), which borrowed a lot from Prodromus. In Evgenian we find pampered eroticism in love letters, sensitivity of outpourings and picturesque descriptions. In places the novel is pornographic. The plot does not bear the features of modernity, being remote into the rather vague past of Hellenic paganism. Eugene borrowed the flowers of his eloquence from bucolic poets, from anthologies and from novels of the 4th-5th centuries. Another 12th-century novel, “On Ismin and Isminia,” was written by Eumathios in prose; he also imitates pagan antiquity. From the 12th to the middle of the 15th century. (1453) in Byzantium the era of feudalism begins, the domination of the so-called. “rulers” - secular feudal lords and spiritual lords - an alarming time when, in the fight against the Turks, Byzantium sought support from the Western knighthood, which temporarily even seized power in Byzantium; not having sufficient internal forces to fight, the empire, after a short period of success in the 12th century. gradually becomes the prey of the Turks and in 1453, with the fall of Constantinople, ceases to exist. This period in the history of the development of V. l. characterized by its complete decline. Bibliography:
I. Uspensky F.I., Essays on the history of Byzantine education, Zhurn. MNP, 1891, No. 1, 4, 9, 10; 1892, Nos. 1, 2 and sec. reprint, St. Petersburg, 1891; Kenoyn Fr. G., The Palaeography of Greek papyri, Oxford. Clarendon Press, 1899; Lietzmann H., Byzantinische Legenden, Jena, 1911; Diehl Gh., Byzance, 1919; Heisenberg A., Aus der Geschichte und Literatur der Palaeologenzeit, Munchen, 1922; Ehrhard A., Beitrage zur Geschichte des christlichen Altertums und der byzantinischen Literatur, Bonn, 1922; Serbisch-byzantinische Urkunden des Meteoronklosters, Berlin, 1923; Istituto per l'Europa Orientale, Studi bizantini, Napoli, 1924; La Piana G., Le rappresentazioni sacre nella letteratura bizantina, 1912.
II. Hertzsch G., De script. rerum. imp. T. Constantini, 1884; Potthast A., Bibliographia historica medii aevi: Wegweiser durch die Geschichtswerke des eurolaischen Mittelalters, 1375-1500, ed. 2nd, 2 vols., Berlin, 1896; Krumbacher C., Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur, Munchen, 1897; Bibliotheca hagiographica orientalis, Ed. Socie. Bollandiani, Bruxelles, 1910.
- - miraculous icon Holy Mother of God. Appeared in 732. Before this icon, Peter I brought thanksgiving prayers To the Lord after the Battle of Poltava...
Russian Encyclopedia
- - - received the name. from antique The city of Byzantium, on the site of which its capital Constantinople was founded - mid-century. feud. state East Prov. Roman Empire, incl...
Ancient world. Encyclopedic Dictionary
- - , received the name. from the ancient city of Byzantium, on the site of which its capital Constantinople was founded - Middle Ages. feudal state...
Dictionary of Antiquity
- - Greek Catholic music churches based on ancient christ. and the Middle East. traditions, rich in hymns and psalms that have deeper roots than in the Roman Catholic. liturgy...
Dictionary of Antiquity
- - BYZANTINE LITERATURE - literature of the Byzantine Empire, Central Greek in language...
Literary encyclopedia
- - was created in Greek under the conditions of the “Roman” state centered in Constantinople, the identity and forms of which were directly successive in relation to the late Roman Empire...
Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies
- - One of the directions of medieval aesthetics, formed in the Greek-speaking culture of Byzantium...
Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies
- - the first great style of domed architecture in history, which existed in the vast territory under the rule of the Byzantine Empire, as well as in the sphere of its political and cultural influence...
Collier's Encyclopedia
- - the eastern part of the Roman Empire, which survived the fall of Rome and the loss of the western provinces at the beginning of the Middle Ages and existed until the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453...
Collier's Encyclopedia
- - Byzantine culture...
Soviet historical encyclopedia
- - Historical conditions and complex motley ethnicity. The composition of the population was determined by the diversity of intonation. system, genres and forms of V. m. The origins of V. m. go back to Persian, Coptic, Hebrew, Armenian. songfulness...
Music Encyclopedia
- - arose in connection with the establishment of the Byzantine Empire and the spread of Christianity in it...
Philosophical Encyclopedia
- - a famous Byzantine family that emerged in the 11th century. One of D. was the first minister of state during the reign of Isaac Komnenos and then himself became emperor under the name of Constantine X...
- - Byzantine empress, daughter of a noble Frank, wife of Emperor Arcadius...
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron
- - In Byzantine historiography, remarkable for its richness, there were two main types, sharply different from each other in form and content: scientific history and popular world X. Historians writing for...
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron
- - ...
Spelling dictionary of the Russian language
"Byzantine literature" in books
Byzantine game
From the author's bookByzantine game T. Felgenhauer: - Hello, Alexander Andreevich. Glad you're back. A lot has happened here in your absence. But let’s still talk about more recent events, and then about...A. Prokhanov: - About the more rotten ones.T.
Byzantine mosaic
From the author's bookByzantine mosaic Mosaic in the St. Sophia Cathedral of Constantinople In the southern gallery of the Sophia of Constantinople, a mosaic has been preserved, fragments of which have already been encountered throughout the story. Constantine Monomakh and Zoya with the holy gifts, and between them - Jesus Christ. This mosaic
Byzantine era
From the book History of Ancient Greece in 11 cities by Cartledge PaulByzantine era 324 - foundation (November 8) of Constantinople (second foundation of Byzantium) by Emperor Constantine 330 - consecration (May 11) of Constantinople 395 - Emperor Theodosius I orders to stop the veneration of any non-Christian cults and holding
5. Byzantine issues
From the book “The Crash of Idols,” or Overcoming Temptations author Kantor Vladimir Karlovich5. Byzantine problems But he partly blames Byzantium for Russian ignorance: “Byzantium could not resist the pressure of the wild East and took its hereditary real treasures there, to the West, and gave us only surrogates of its own production,
BYZANTINE PHILOSOPHY
From the book Man: Thinkers of the past and present about his life, death and immortality. The ancient world - the era of Enlightenment. author Gurevich Pavel SemenovichBYZANTINE PHILOSOPHY In the writings of Byzantine thinkers, philosophical and, in particular, anthropological problems were usually immersed in theological ones. The attitude towards Greek philosophy could be very different: and respectful, like Psellus or Pletho,
author Averintsev Sergey Sergeevich From the book Literature of the Byzantine region author Averintsev Sergey SergeevichBYZANTINE LITERATURE VII-IX CENTURIES
From the book Literature of the Byzantine region author Averintsev Sergey SergeevichBYZANTINE LITERATURE 7th-9th centuries The 7th century turns out to be a turning point for Byzantium. The world of Byzantine civilization is experiencing dramatic changes in everything, starting with its geographical area and ethnic substratum. Under the pressure of its eastern neighbors - first the Persians, and from 634
BYZANTINE LITERATURE IX-XII CENTURIES.
From the book Literature of the Byzantine region author Averintsev Sergey SergeevichBYZANTINE LITERATURE IX-XII CENTURIES. From the second half of the 9th century. Byzantine society enters a period of stabilization. The new Macedonian dynasty (from 867) establishes a relatively strong centralized regime. Cities rising from decline replace monasteries in function
Byzantine Armada
From the book The Fall of the Roman Empire by Heather PeterThe Byzantine Armada Although Leo was glad to have the opportunity to remove Anthemius, who was so dangerous to him, from Constantinople, the assistance of the Eastern Roman emperor in Anthemius’s reconquest of Africa captured by the Vandals was almost limitless. This was probably one of the
BYZANTINE POWER AND BYZANTINE CULTURE
From the book World History: in 6 volumes. Volume 2: Medieval civilizations of the West and East author Team of authorsTHE BYZANTINE POWER AND BYZANTINE CULTURE The main result of the early Byzantine period can be considered the formation of a special type of power, significantly different from both the ancient tradition and the states surrounding Byzantium. The Emperor was seen as
Byzantine literature
From the book History of the Middle Ages. Volume 1 [In two volumes. Under the general editorship of S. D. Skazkin] author Skazkin Sergey DanilovichByzantine literature In Byzantine literature, two main directions can also be outlined: one was based on the ancient cultural heritage, the second reflected the penetration of the church worldview. There was a fierce struggle between these directions, and although
3. Old Russian literature and Byzantine tradition about Muslim civilization
From the book Russia and Islam. Volume 1 author Batunsky Mark Abramovich3. Old Russian literature and the Byzantine tradition about Muslim civilization The point was not only that the Arabic knowledge of the Greeks and Byzantines never stood high: they were usually limited to information about Islam, most often in a distorted form, and
BYZANTINE LITERATURE of the second half of the 9th–12th centuries.
BYZANTINE LITERATURE of the second half of the 9th–12th centuries. The period of Byzantine history was three and a half centuries from the middle of the 9th to the beginning of the 13th century. historical science defines as the period of the final formation and flourishing of feudalism. This period has sharply defined
BYZANTINE LITERATURE XIII–XV centuries.
From the book Monuments of Byzantine Literature of the 9th-15th centuries by the authorBYZANTINE LITERATURE XIII–XV centuries.