Changing circumstances during Late Antiquity and the Early Byzantine Period (4th-9th centuries A.D.) required Byzantine communities to make deliberate adjustments in order to survive, endure, and ultimately flourish again during the Middle Byzantine Period (10th-12th centuries). The role these communities had in decision-making can easily be overlooked, leaving instead hapless victims of insurmountable external pressures such as imperial manipulation, economic recession, Christian acculturation, or a general sense of inexorable decline. Although factors such as these played a role as each community deliberated on a complex and unique set of local concerns, the ultimate decisions each community made should not be assumed but rather investigated on the basis of both textual and archaeological evidence. The stoa is particularly well-suited for the study of reuse and therefore valuable for understanding the adaptive strategies implemented by Byzantine individuals and communities during the transition period from antiquity to the medieval period. The stoa was one of the most ubiquitous buildings of the Greco-Roman city and was highly adaptable for reuse, whether by incorporation into large structures such as churches or fortifications, or by subdivision into smaller units for uses such as housing, storage, or commercial activities. The stoa was commonly found not only in urban contexts, particularly in agorai and fora, but also at many extraurban sanctuaries. By compiling data on the reuse of stoas throughout the Byzantine Empire during the 4th - 10th centuries, four patterns of reuse can be identified: residential, economic, ecclesiastical, and defensive. Abandonment, or a lack of reuse, is a fifth pattern. These patterns of reuse provide insight into the lives of Byzantines outside of the imperial and ecclesiastic elites and inform the excavation of post-classical phases of stoas.

The Sermo antequam iret in exilium and the Sermo cum iret in exsilium are two homilies allegedly pronounced by John Chrysostom in Constantinople at the end of summer 403, some time between the verdict of the Synod of the Oak and the day he left the city for his first exile. The aim of the thesis is to demonstrate that a new critical edition of these texts is needed before any study of their literary and historical value can be conducted. Chapter one sketches the historical background to which the text of the homilies refers and a concise survey about previous scholarship on the homilies on the first exile, from the time of Montfaucon’s edition until our days. The problem of the authenticity occupies the last part of the chapter. Chapter two investigates the history of the texts and takes into account both the direct and indirect traditions. It discusses the existence of double recensions hitherto unknown and provides the prefatory material for the new critical edition of recensio α of Sermo antequam iret in exilium and of the Sermo cum iret in exsilium. Chapter three comprises the Greek editions of the two homilies, as well as a provisional edition of the Latin version of the Sermo antequam iret in exilium. Chapter four is divided into two parts, each presenting a philological commentary on the text of the new editions. Systematic analysis of all the most important variant readings is offered. The final chapter summarizes the new findings and assesses the validity of previous criteria used for discerning the authenticity of the homilies on the exile.

The thesis is divided into three sections. The first section discusses the manuscript Marcianus graecus 524, the second looks at the Greek text of the dedicatory epigrams on works of art from the same manuscript, and the third puts these texts in their context. In the first part, the compilation of the manuscript is analysed. I suggest that the manuscript was copied mainly by one individual scribe living in Constantinople at the end of the thirteenth century. He copied the quires individually, but at some point he put all these quires together, added new quires, and compiled an anthology of poetry. The scribe’s connection to the Planudean School and the Petra monastery in Constantinople is discussed. Although their relationship remains inconclusive, the manuscript provides evidence regarding the literary interests of late-thirteenth-century intellectuals. The second part contains thirty-five unpublished dedicatory epigrams on works of art. New readings are offered for the text of previously published epigrams. The third section analyses the dedicatory epigrams on works of art in their context. The first chapter of this section discusses the epigrams as Gebrauchstexte, i.e. texts with a practical use. The difference between epigrams intended to be inscribed and epigrams intended to be performed is highlighted. In the next chapter of this part, La poésie de l’objet, the composition of the dedicatory epigrams is discussed. The conventional character of the epigrams suggests that the poetics express the ritual aspect of the epigram. The last chapter considers the texts from a more pragmatic angle. After a short discussion of the objects on which the epigrams were written, the mechanisms of the twelfth-century art market are presented based on evidence taken mainly from the epigrams. At the end of this part, conclusions are drawn on the understanding of these texts in the twelfth century.