M.A. / The main purpose of this postgraduate study has been to record and investigate the ways in which Byzantine history is presented in the history textbooks of the Hellenic general education. Our attempt has been to demonstrate the ways in which this part of the Hellenic history is presented within the curriculum and syllabi, in order to investigate the various parameters (social, political, cultural, pedagogic and religious) that affect the historic Donsciouness of the Hellenic Primary and Secondary school learners.For research purposes, we contemplated that the study should be separated into two parts. In the first part we examined the theoretical constituents which define History as a subject under the subheadings of "What is history", "Historical event and its elements", "Historical knowledge and validity" as well as "History in general education". We then attempted to sketch out a rough outline of Byzantium and its history through a timeline of the dynasties. In the beginning of each dynasty, we referred to the ruling emperors and then attempted to identify the main factors which, in our opinion, had shaped each period so that the reader can, at least, conceptualize the long, eventful and diverse history of the Byzantine Empire. In the beginning of the second part, we refer to articles and paragraphs of the Hellenic constitution and Hellenic legislation that form the framework within which are defined: the overall purpose of Hellenic education, the structure and function of Primary and Secondary education, the framework for dealing with cross-cultural issues, as well as the general framework and defming directives that are set to promote the development of the European citizen's awareness but also to sustain the national and cultural identity. We, then, proceeded in dealing exclusively with the aforementioned Hellenic general education textbooks.

Thesis advisor: Dana Sajdi / The British physicians Dr. Alexander Russell M.D., FRS (c.1715 - 1768) and Dr. Patrick Russell M.D., FRS (1726/7 - 1805), both British Levant Company servants, wrote and published two editions in 1756 and 1794, respectively. These brothers resided in Aleppo, Syria, when it was a provincial capital of the Ottoman Empire and recorded their observations and empirical observations in a literary work that would later become the two editions of The Natural History of Aleppo. These editions are vital references for modern scholars concerned with Ottoman Syria, Levantine commercial activity and European presence, and the city of Aleppo. However, these very scholars ignore the significant fact that these two editions were written by two different individuals at two different points in history. Thus, this MA thesis aims to investigate the two editions and illustrate how the variations in these publications were the result of both coexisting and correlated processes that culminated in an eighteenth-century phenomenon of the transformation of British global presence from a commercial power to a modern empire. Various socio-economic, political, and cultural changes related to the Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution, and the growth of Western, especially British, global hegemony, resulted in a particular attitude towards what became constructed as the "Orient". This thesis examines the ways in which the interrelated processes of the rise of modern scientific disciplines, the quest for order, the emergence of the culture of collecting, and the new emphasis on the value of "useful knowledge" rendered the "Orient" a place to be ordered and studied, hence, to be controlled. The eighteenth century witnessed several decisive events that facilitated this phenomenon; with Britain's victory in the Seven Years' War (1756 - 1763), particularly at the Battle of Plassey (1757), Britain deviated from its previous position as a commercial power and emerged victorious as an imperial empire. The project attempts to demonstrate how the Russell Brothers' book on Aleppo represents a movement from the fascination with natural history, that is, the topography and botany of Aleppo (Alexander Russell's edition), to an attempt at a comprehensive study of a people, language, and culture (Patrick Russell's edition). The change in focus and tenor found in Patrick's edition represents a shift from natural history to ethnographic, a shift that is essentially Orientalist. Though the book is about the relatively marginal city of Aleppo, the shift between the two editions reflects not only the change of the character of British global dominance, which was, after the 1857 Indian Mutiny, officially colonial, but also the very national identity of Britain. This thesis, then, is a study of how Aleppo was conceived and reconceived through the prism of the change of British relationship to India from a commercial entanglement to imperial domination. The variations between the two editions, then, were a result of changing circumstances and consequent shifting attitudes. I not only attempt to illustrate Britain's transformation from a mercantile and commercial power to a colonial and imperial empire, but also how the variations of the Russell brothers' two editions, from a collection of observations to a scientific contribution to a body of specialized knowledge, were the direct results of the two authors' transformations from the botanist to the orientalist. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

Thesis advisor: Owen Stanwood / The values of free trade, decentralized governance, and staunch anti-Catholicism that defined the British Empire in the eighteenth century were the result of decades of struggle between the Stuart monarchy and its subjects over the future direction of the empire. At the heart of this struggle were Scottish Presbyterians, who conceived this vision of empire while in exile as religious refugees in colonial North America. They opposed the Crown’s preference for an exclusionary, mercantilist, and avowedly Anglican (even crypto-Catholic) empire and fought to undermine it following the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660. They succeeded thanks to the religious and trade networks they created to connect their various diasporic communities in the Dutch Republic, northeastern America, and the Caribbean. Their networks also connected them to sympathetic colonial allies who provided the credit and patronage they needed to undermine English restrictions on their work and worship. Between 1660 and 1715, their success as smugglers and religious rabble-rousers, combined with the threat posed by the Darien scheme they financed and supplied, persuaded officials in London that embracing Scottish Presbyterians was a better means of advancing England’s imperial interests than continuing to marginalize them. The success of their networks during their period in exile left many Scots well placed to capitalize on their new status as legitimated Britons after 1707. They quickly filled leading commercial, military, political, and religious offices where they could continue to shape the British Empire in North America according to their vision in the eighteenth century. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

How is it that the Roman decadence, a derogatory term during the Enlightenment, became the fundamental aesthetic reference for a nineteenth century literary movement? Focusing on the intersections of literature, politics, religion, science and art history, this dissertation adopts a diachronic approach to decadence, read against a backdrop mobilizing twentieth century philosophers Vladimir Jankelevitch and Michel Serres. Decadence (Latin cadere, to fall) first designated the fall of the Roman Empire and a falling away from its political, moral and aesthetic norms. Drawing on Petronius and Baudelaire, I crystallize three ways in which philosophers, scholars (“érudits”), and poets faced the troubling notion of the fall : they observe its occurrence, restore its ruins, or praise its beauty. With this in mind, the dissertation closely analyzes eighteenth century topoi that conceive decadence as political instability (Montesquieu, Gibbon), moral corruption (Rousseau, de Maistre), and architectural imbalance (Diderot, Seroux d’Agincourt). The principal emphasis is on the semantic and stylistic value assigned to the term “decadence”. These interdiscursive readings disclose the displacement of decadent topoi : shifting from one context to another, they narrate the fall of the Roman Empire and remain inscribed in the literary production of Decadence. Whereas the Enlightenment underlines the edifying dimension of the Roman example, nineteenth century authors, lapsing into original sin and propelled by thermodynamic loss, salute the expression of the fall. Barbey d’Aurevilly’s writings reveal consistent historical, structural and textual references to Roman topoi, caught up in the arrested completion of political and mechanical cycles. Furthermore, his dandyism and ultramontanism conjure up the Roman conflict, while recurring fragments, maculae and lacunae destabilize the architectural balance of his texts. The Literature of Decadence emerges as an artificial intervention that suspends the irreparable fall, enlightening the political, moral and technological turmoil of the Second Empire with those of the Roman Empire. In returning Decadence back to its Roman origins, and tracing their configuration in the age of Enlightenment, this dissertation unravels a formative, yet frequently overlooked component of nineteenth century literature and aesthetics.

Esta pesquisa analisa o sistema de admnistração imperial e provincial do Brasil entre a Regência e o início da expansão ferroviária (1838-1870) através dos relatórios de ministros do Império e presidentes dastrês províncias centrais: Mato Grosso, Goiás e Minas Gerais. Deseja-se demonstrar que as estradas interprovinciais foram um dos meios mais importantes de estabelecer as comunicações durante grande parte do século XIX, enquanto também eram objeto de conflitos entre as três províncias e entre estas e o poder central. Ao mesmo tempo elas serviram de mote à lapidação dos conceitos de representação e interesse nacional dentro da Câmara dos Deputados. No campo do Executivo,o estudo dos orçamentos imperiais permitiu definir o peso destas obras dentro do gasto imperial e sua importância nos projetos de Estado elaborados pelos integrantes da alta política nacional de maneira a desvendar como se deu a construção do Estado Imperial. / This research analises the imperial and provincials sistem of administration in Brasil since Regency until the starts of railroads expansion process.(1838-1870) through the reports that was made by ministers and provincial presidents from Mato Grosso, Goiás e Minas Gerais. We desire to show that interprovincial roads were one of the most important ways tosettle brazilian comunications during most parto the nineteen, while thei also were object of conflicts between the trhee provinces and the imperial Power. At the same time, this Road were subject to the building of some concepts as representation and national interess inside the Parlament. In the Executive Power, to research of the budget permitted to determine the importance of this roads on the Imperial expenses and their importance related to the State projects maden by the man who integrated high mational politics, in a way wich show how the building of Imperial State was performed.

Thesis advisor: Pheme Perkins / The recognition of Rome in the ciphered images of Revelation 13 and 17–18 is a hallmark of historical criticism on the Revelation to John (John’s Apocalypse). This dissertation examines Revelation’s use of scripture to characterize the Roman Empire like the nations God has already defeated. The prophet-seer John spurred his audience, the churches of Asia Minor, to abandon pagan practices of eating meat sacrificed to idols and participation in emperor worship, practices seemingly tolerated by John’s opponents, Jezebel and the Nicolaitans. Unlike the majority of contemporary Jewish and Christian apocalypses, Revelation uses neither ex eventu prophecy nor pseudepigraphic narration to authorize its message to “come out” of Rome. Instead, Revelation alludes to scripture hundreds, if not a thousand, times. When describing Rome in Revelation 13 and 17–18, John alludes some six dozen times to the defeated Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the nations of Babylon, Tyre, Nineveh, and Edom, and the justly punished Judah and Samaria. God showed his servants the prophets the downfall of these powers, and they all fell. Likewise, he has shown John the vision of Rome’s desolation and the things which will happen to it soon. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Thesis advisor: James Cronin / This dissertation argues that British officials attempted to use the legacies of British administrative and imperial structures embedded in twentieth century international institutions to define a new world role for Britain after the Second World War. This role, they determined, would be based in international, administrative, and technical experience and expertise. The concept of an international civil service, loyal to the aims of the international organization they served, was first proposed by British diplomats at the League of Nations and based in the British concept of a politically neutral civil service. After the Second World War, British officials hoped that the legacies of their earlier influence - including administrative structures, ideologies, and a large cadre of officials trained through the British civil service in international administrative and technical affairs - would allow them to remain influential in the administration of the new international organizations despite Britain’s diminished postwar status. They were initially successful in this endeavor, with high rates of representation across the ranks of the United Nations, particularly in social and economic fields. Over time, facing political opposition in the General Assembly over their remaining colonial holdings, British officials hoped that their support for the United Nations – particularly as embodied in their representation in the international civil service – might redeem their international image. However, British interests saw increased competition with those of the United States, Soviet Union, and the global South as the United Nations grew over the course of the 1950s and 1960s. Moreover, principles of equitable geographic representation in the international civil service meant that as membership in the United Nations grew, British representation declined. By the early 1970s, British officials abandoned their earlier hopes of maintaining an outsized role at the United Nations. Examined in this way, the international civil service served as a microcosm for Britain’s own standing in the world as well as one way that British officials actively attempted to manipulate that standing. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

Esta dissertação consiste na seleção, transcrição e edição crítica de documentos do arquivo do Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros do Império do Brasil entre a queda de Pedro I e 1834, com o propósito de desenvolver um instrumento de pesquisa que amplie o acesso a fontes sobre a formação territorial no Estado brasileiro e suas relações exteriores. A dissertação contém um Estudo Introdutório sobre as edições de documentos do Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros e sobre as tensões em torno da \"questão portuguesa\", propostas de secessão territorial do Império e ações movidas pela diplomacia para sua prevenção. Para a elaboração do instrumento de pesquisa foram selecionados 113 documentos, entre ofícios e respectivos anexos, expedidos pela missão diplomática do Império do Brasil no Reino Unido da Grã-Bretanha, centro do capitalismo no período / This dissertation consists of a critical edition of documents from the Foreign Affairs Historical Archive that date between the fall of Pedro I and 1834. Additionally, the dissertation includes a introductory study of the featured documents. The purposes of this dissertation is to make available a number of documents on the territorial formation of the Brazilian state through foreign relations. The introductory study explores documentary editions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the tensions surrounding the \"Portuguese question\", proposals for territorial secession of the Empire, as well as several diplomatic attempts to prevent said secession. This dissertation includes 113 selected letters and their respective annexes, all of which were sent from the Brazilian Empire\'s Embassy in the United Kingdom, which at the time was the center of capitalism

O objetivo desta tese é defender que o afastamento do Imperador Tibério César Augusto em 26 d.C. representou um importante momento de inflexão política em seu governo (14 - 37 d.C.). Augusto, seu antecessor, lhe deixou como legado um novo sistema político que, embora tenha agregado precedentes republicanos, constituiu-se como um conjunto de experimentações processuais sem uma consolidação definitiva. Tibério deu continuidade a este sistema, uma delicada relação de manutenção do prestígio aristocrático, os precedentes de seu antecessor e a ascensão da corte imperial, novo cerne do poder em Roma. Todavia, uma vez que a autonomia e participação do Senado já não possuíam a mesma efervescência republicana, a definição dos limites de atuação e influência entre o Imperador e a instituição senatorial tornou-se cada vez mais complexa e conflituosa. A esta condição somou-se o ambiente de intrigas e disputas sucessórias entre os núcleos familiares Júlio-Claudianos, cuja rede de interesses ampliou-se com a participação de indivíduos oriundos da aristocracia, principalmente pelo desmantelamento do esquema sucessório concebido por Augusto com as sucessivas mortes dos jovens príncipes candidatos ao poder. Esta conjuntura de tensão politica agravou-se com a ascensão de Sejano, prefeito da guarda pretoriana, que exerceu uma influência inédita sobre os desígnios de Tibério e contribuiu para que este finalmente se retirasse de Roma. A ilha de Capri, na costa da Campânia, além de um retiro aprazível das preocupações políticas da capital, tornou-se também o novo cerne do poder decisório, percepção surpreendente e acrimoniosa para a opinião pública deste período. O Império continuou a ser administrado sem a presença cotidiana do Princeps em Roma, não obstante seu deslocamento tenha se constituído como um filtro que passou a condicionar a dinâmica das interações entre Tibério, a corte e o restante da aristocracia. Igualmente, a ausência do Imperador deu margem à exploração indiscriminada das condenações por traição à majestade (maiestas), um novo elemento ao tradicional contexto de competividade que marcou a história do Senado, o acirramento de disputas entre membros da família imperial em Roma e a interferência desmesurada de Sejano nos rumos da sucessão dinástica, em que inúmeros membros da aristocracia foram posicionados variadamente no interior deste conflito. A eliminação de Sejano não atenuou esta situação, e seu sucessor Névio Sutório Macro continuou a influenciar senadores e equestres, que nos últimos anos de vida de Tibério se viram divididos entre o receio de continuar ou não apoiando um Imperador distante conquanto ciente de suas prerrogativas de comando ou um potencial sucessor, Calígula. / The main purpose of this thesis is to assert that the departure of Tiberius Caesar Augustus in 26 AD characterized an important moment of political inflexion in his government (14 - 37 AD). As a legacy, his antecessor Augustus left him a new political system that had constituted as a set of processual experimentations without a definitive consolidation, although had he aggregated republican precedents. Tiberius had to give continuity to this system through a delicated relationship of maintenance of the aristocratic dignity, his antecessors precedents and the accession of the imperial court, the new source of political power in Rome. However, once the autonomy and Senates participation do not longer have the same republican effervescence, the definition of the boundaries of procedure and influence between the Emperor and the senatorial body became more and more complex and conflictuous. To this, it has added the ambience of gossip and sucessory struggles between the Julian-Claudian households, whose network of interests has expanded of the participation of individuals arising from aristocracy, mostly by the dismantlement of the sucessory scheme previously conceived by Augustus due to the successive deaths of the young princes as potential candidates to the supreme power. This conjuncture of political tension has aggravated with Sejanus accession, prefect of the Praetorian Guard, who has exercised an unparalleled influence over Tiberius designs and had finally contributed to his departure of Rome. The island of Capri on the Campanian shore, besides being an agreeable retreat from the political concerns of the Capital, also became the new core of decisory power, a surprising and acrimonious perception to the public opinion of this period. The empire continued to be administrated without the daily presence of the Princeps in Rome, despite his departure has constituted as a filter that started to conditionate the dynamic of interactions between Tiberius, the imperial court and the rest of the aristocracy. Likewise, the emperors absence gave rise to an indiscriminate exploitation of prosecutions for majesty treason (maiestas), a new element to the traditional context of competitiveness that has marked the Senates history, the worsening of the familiar struggles in roman imperial family and the immoderated interference of Sejanus on the path of dynastic succession, in which several aristocracy members were variously positionated whitin this conflict. Sejanus removal does not appeased this mood and his successor Naevius Sutorius Macro continued to influence senators and eques, that in the last years of Tiberius life found themselves divided between the fear to keep supporting or not a distant emperor although he was aware of his command prerrogatives or to support a potential successor, Caligula.

Ce travail met en évidence la constitution progressive, à la Renaissance, du savoir géographique en discipline, celle-ci étant définie par l’existence, au sein d’un domaine de connaissance, d’un corpus d’autorités, d’un lexique établi, d’une liste de problèmes ou de questions théoriques et pratiques, d’une communauté de praticiens et parfois caractérisée par les signes d’une professionnalisation. Le choix de l’espace germanique protestant pour mener cette étude s’explique d’une part par le désir précoce de l’humanisme allemand (poursuivi pendant tout le XVIe siècle) d’établir un portrait moderne de la Germania, et d’autre part par l’intérêt accordé aux mathématiques (et parmi eux à la géographie) dans les milieux protestants luthériens et secondairement calvinistes pour légitimer l’enseignement et la pratique de la philosophie au regard du développement des nouvelles doctrines religieuses. Ces éléments du contexte intellectuel et religieux favorisent l’activité des savants allemands dans le domaine de la géographie. La limitation de l’étude aux milieux protestants conduit à s’interroger sur la nature des relations qui peuvent lier une confession chrétienne et la définition d’un domaine de savoir et sur l’incidence des doctrines protestantes sur le contenu et la mise en oeuvre de la géographie : dans quelle mesure peut-on parler d’une « géographie protestante » ? Etendue des années 1530 aux années 1620, cette étude s’intéresse dans un premier temps aux évolutions de la définition théorique du savoir géographique et du statut de ses praticiens. Le second temps est consacré à la question de l’enseignement de la géographie dans les universités et les écoles protestantes du Saint Empire. Le troisième moment porte sur la fabrique du savoir géographique, envisage les modalités pratiques, intellectuelles et sociales de la production de la géographie et tente de mettre en lumière l’incidence des contextes de production sur le contenu et la forme des descriptions géographiques tant graphiques que textuelles. Enfin, le dernier temps de l’étude s’interroge sur l’existence d’une mise en oeuvre du savoir géographique propre aux milieux protestants du Saint Empire, considérant successivement deux domaines particuliers, la description de la Germania, de l’Empire et de ses territoires et d’autre part la production de la Geographia sacra, cartes et descriptions textuelles des pays et des peuples qu’évoque la Bible. / This doctoral thesis examines and demonstrates the progressive transformation in the Renaissance of geographical knowledge into a scientific discipline as it is defined by an exisiting corpus of authorical texts covering a field of knowledge, by a series of specialized notions, by a list of theoretical and practical problems or questions, by a community of practitioners and sometimes even by a certain degree of professionalisation. The choice of the German and protestant area is justified on the one hand by the historically early eagerness of German humanists to establish a modern portrait of Germania - this interest arises at the end of the fifteenth century and stays virulent through the sixteenth century - and on the other hand by the interest for the mathematical, especially the geographical sciences in Lutherian protestant milieux and later on also in Calvinist environnements. The mathematical sciences were to relegitimize the teaching and practice of philosophy in view of the development of the new religious doctrines. Theses specific intellectual and religious orientations favour the activity of German Scholars in the field of geographics. Limiting this research to the protestant environnement leads to questions on the relationship between a Christian confession and the definition of a field of knowledge and on the way protestant doctrines shape the content and the approaches to geography. The final question is to what extend it is possible to speak of a "protestant geography"? Covering the historical period from 1530 to the 1620ies, this study focusses in a first step the evolving theoretical definitions of the geographic knowledge and the changing status of its practitioners. In a second step, this study raises the question of the teaching of geography in the universities and the protestant schools of the Holy Empire. In a third step, the study brings into the focus the production of the scientific knowledge and examines the practical, intellectual and social modalities of the process of bringing geography into life. How does the context of this production shape the content and the form of the geographical descriptions, were they iconic or textual. A final step is taken, when the study questions the possibility of an application of the geographical knowledge specific to the protestant milieux of the Holy Empire. Two case studies are proposed which concern the description of the Germania - the Empire and its territories - and the conception ot the Geographia sacra - maps and textual descriptions of the coutries and the peoples spoken of in the Bible.