- Title
- Introduction: dissent, subversion and persecutions in Byzantium: state of research
- Creator
- Džino, Danijel; Strickler, Ryan W.
- Relation
- Dissidence and Persecution in Byzantium: From Constantine to Michael Psellos p. 1-12
- Relation
- Byzantina Australiensia 26
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004472952_002
- Publisher
- Brill
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- The Byzantine Empire was a totalitarian state and its foundations were based on a hierarchy of power with the emperor at the top, and Christianity as the dominating ideology binding imperial power structures. For that reason, persecutions and the silencing of subversive and dissident voices from various sections of society were deemed a necessary strategy for the maintenance of social order and the smooth operation of the empire. Byzantium was rarely a stable and harmonious state during its long and eventful history – too often in strife with those outside its borders but also with those within them. With so much power invested in its political and ecclesiastical structures, at times institutional conflict brought the empire to the brink of collapse. The need to maintain order often resulted in persecutions and the silencing of dissident voices from various social strata: intellectuals, soldiers, minorities, the poor, ecclesiastic dignitaries, etc. could, at various times, find themselves the subject of imperial crackdowns. The mechanisms that the authorities had at their disposal to control civil disorder and dissent, as well as discouraging criticism of imperial and religious policies, were on occasions brutal and unforgiving. Maximus the Confessor, for example, a leading intellectual of the 7th century, who had his tongue and right hand cut off in 662 for his public and vocal criticism of the religious policies of emperor Constans II, is just one example of the brutality that could be observed in almost any period of long Byzantine history.
- Subject
- Byzantium Empire; dissent; subversion; persecutions
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1445121
- Identifier
- uon:42505
- Identifier
- ISBN:9789004472921
- Language
- eng
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