This dissertation presents a discussion on the Late Antique (fifth to eighth centuries AD) landscapes of Cyprus based on the archaeological, environmental and historical records. This dissertation argues that apart from being an economically well-integrated province, Cyprus was also well-integrated into the large social and strategic trajectories of the Late Antique east Mediterranean. This study also uses archaeological data generated by the Sotira Archaeological Project (SAP) to examine the Late Antique landscapes in the south coast urban settlement of Kouion's hinterland. Interestingly, the majority of the loci recorded by the SAP are interpretable as either estate centres or farmsteads. Analysis of these loci revealed the existence of a comparatively complex Late Antique landscape that embodied aspects of the manifold relationships between the productive, commemorative, and authoritative landscapes of Kourion's hinterland during this period.

This work discusses change and continuities taking place in the transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Ages in Greece. The geographical range will cover the eastern mainland (including Euboea), Naxos and Knossos, in a period starting from the final palatial culture of LH IIIB2/13th century and ending with the Proto-Geometric/10th century burial evidence. In order to collect and observe the archaeological evidence several tombs assemblages have been researched from both original reports and visits to relevant Greek museums. Finds have been tabulated, and continuities, innovations and losses have been identified. The major categories of material evidence analysed included pottery, metalwork and jewellery but also the form of the tombs and the manner of the burials were considered. The final analysis of these categories of evidence refutes theories of major and or abrupt change, whether caused by invasion or natural phenomena. It rather indicates social modifications following the loss of the palatial centres and their administration and culminating in their gradual replacement by new forms of social structure. Although not directly demonstrable from the existing evidence, a possible scenario is proposed to explain the frequent indications of influence from SE and Central Europe during this transition.

This thesis explores the mechanisms of relations between the Aegean (focusing on Crete and Aegean islands such as Thera) and Egypt (including the Hyksos) from 1900 to 1400 BC. A fundamental tool has been the creation of a searchable database of the portable finds (at the moment, a unique resource) classified as Aegean, Egyptian, Aegeanising, Egyptianising, etc. In addition, the Avaris frescoes and the Aegean processional scenes in Thebes were examined in detail. Two approaches were applied to this evidence of Aegean-Egyptian interactions: World Systems Theory, applied here consistently and in depth (as opposed to earlier, broader discussions of Eastern Mediterranean interactions) and, for the first time in this field, Game Theory. The principles of this approach have been tested and found valid for this data. In contrast to World Systems Theory, Game Theory highlights the role of individuals in Aegean-Egyptian interactions, and not solely the roles of states. It has also enabled the exploration of the causes behind historical events and the mutual benefits of contact, as well as emphasising the factors that promoted mutual stability in the Eastern Mediterranean. As a result it has been possible to show that the Aegeans were key players in Eastern Mediterranean relations.

The focus of this thesis is \(resistance\) \(to\) \(peace\) \(education\) in the conflict-ridden island of Cyprus. Departing from the premise that education, and in particular antagonistic historical narratives immersed in demonised articulations of the Other, have obstructed the transformation of the conflict, I attempt to uncover what is crippling constructive dialogue and critical thinking when it comes to peace education in the Greek-Cypriot community and bring forward ways to improve this. In particular, I analyse negative hegemonic discourses over potential changes to history textbooks that not only distort the objectives of peace education, but also exacerbate existing fears and insecurities. These nationalist discourses present changes associated with peace education as a betrayal and threat to the nationalist struggle, a process I argue constitutes the \(securitization\) of peace education. Through the ‘politics of peace education’ framework, I show how within a particular community, institutions and discourses both constitute and are constitutive of, asymmetric power relationships that act as impediments to peace education. I expose and interrogate the conditions of possibility that ensure resistance to peace education is not only reproduced, but is also successful through the exercise of asymmetrical power relations.

The present study synthesiszes archaeological and historical evidence concerning Attica (Greece), the hinterland of Athens, in the Early and Middle Byzantine periods (4th-12th c.). Although the Byzantine monuments of Attica have been thoroughly studied, no coherent picture of how these relate to broader patterns of occupation and land usage has thus far been presented. In the main, the period under discussion is generally interpreted in three ways: Regarding Late Antiquity, research has often focused on the transition from paganism to Christianity, and to the characterisation of Attica as a ‘stronghold of paganism’. During the so-called ‘Dark-Ages’, Attica is most often presented as being ‘desolate’. Regarding the Middle Byzantine period, archaeological research is dominated by architectural and art-historical study of churches. The present study presents Attica within wider trends which took place in the Byzantine Empire, and which caused its transformation in terms of demography, settlement pattern, administration, road networks, economy, defense and ecclesiastical institutions. After a detailed catalogue and interpretation of all available archaeological material, Attica appears less ‘exceptional’ in Late Antiquity, less ‘desolate’ in the ‘Dark-Ages’, while in the Middle Byzantine period, emergence of a strong local elite matches the erection of monuments of high artistic quality.

This thesis investigates how we can better appreciate the Roman concept of culpa without incurring in a contemporary falsification of its original rationale. Using a revisited version of Quentin Skinner’s contextualism in light of Gadamer’s hermeneutics, it proposes a deep immersion into the uses of culpa by authors representing different forms of literary expression: Plautus (comedy), Catullus (neoteric poetry), Lucretius (philosophy), Cicero (rhetoric) and Ulpian (jurisprudence). This selection is justified not only by their diverse literary achievements, but also by the satisfactory state of preservation of their writtings. The aim of the thesis is neither to blend these disciplines into a unified narrative, nor to perform an evolutionary inquiry of the legal notion of culpa, an approach exhaustively pursued by great Romanists albeit based on limited data and much speculation. Instead, this thesis looks at specific authorial interventions to understand the concept as close to the original authors use as possible. This approach flows from the understanding that culpa was not used in Latin literature as an abstract notion, but was in fact explored in various contexts involving conflict and judgment.

This study considers the development and evolution of Byzantine diplomacy through a crucial and previously overlooked period of the empire’s history. Current scholarship has neglected the analysis of Byzantine diplomacy from 1204, when the capital of Constantinople was seized by the Fourth Crusade, to 1261, when the city was returned to Byzantine control. During these years the institutions of the Byzantine state were preserved at Nicaea, which continued the complex relationship between Greeks and Latins and adapted the tested methods of diplomacy to meet new challenges. Of central concern is the frequency of church-union negotiation, or disputatio, during the period in question. Attempts to heal the schism of the Eastern and Western Churches were a frequently used tool of Byzantine diplomacy even before 1204, but the sources, problems and implications surrounding this aspect of foreign relations, although taken up by those pursuing theological analysis, have been neglected by historians. The emperors in Nicaea repeatedly opened talks with the papacy to end the schism before 1261, most notably in 1234, a meeting which carried profound implications for Byzantine foreign policy. By placing the disputatio in the context of Byzantine-Latin relations after 1204, we gain a more complete understanding of Byzantine diplomacy.

This dissertation demonstrates that the presence of Latin basilissai, Catholic wives of the Byzantine despots of Morea, in Mystras between 1349, when the city became the seat of the Despotate, and 1460, when it was surrendered to the Turks, had an impact on the artistic and cultural production at court. These foreign women were agents of the ruling political and economic elites of Italian and Frankish courts, and expressed their agency by mediating their specific cultural and artistic traditions into the production of their adopted city. Art and cultural historical approaches, in which attention is focused on painted and sculpted details, inscriptions, archaeological remains, architectural design, and urban planning, are used to show that the Latin women were historical agents, whose presence can be detected in Mystras. A multidisciplinary analysis of case studies reveals cross-cultural motifs in the artistic production, demonstrating the relationship between pieces of evidence. The production of the workshops of Mystras expressed features that were, in some cases, responses to Constantinopolitan and Byzantine models, while, in others, autonomous and innovative, revealing complex cross-cultural references. Ultimately, this study shows that the particular cultural and artistic landscape of Mystras is indebted to exogenous cultures linked to these women.

The work collected together here examines the distinctive conceptual approaches taken by Renaissance architects, during the period c. 1480-1550, towards the designing of their buildings. It analyses the designs of a wide range of buildings from the period by architects including Raphael, Michelangelo and numerous others. The conclusion reached is that many of these architects adopted approaches based, ultimately, on ways of thinking (about art as well as architecture) that had surfaced in late fifteenth-century Florence; and that their approaches were not just similar in many key regards but also corresponded closely with theories of language and literary imitation being aired at around the same time. The essays also explore how certain differences in approach, especially between Raphael and Michelangelo, were directly paralleled by differences in literary theory. Also proposed is that the design methods formulated specifically by Raphael in the years before his death (1520) became the template for those followed by many subsequent ‘High Renaissance’ architects; and that the architectural term ‘order’, which was coined by Raphael before becoming commonplace in architectural theory, had its origins in literary theory. As for the design methods taken up by Michelangelo, it is argued that these were initially comparable to those followed by Raphael, but that they gradually diverged in a way that was very much in line with his conceptual thinking about sculpture and painting, until they became, at a fundamental theoretical level, incompatible with those of his later contemporaries.

O objetivo da presente dissertação é investigar um conjunto de pequenos fragmentos de papiros alexandrinos nomeado Acta Alexandrinorum. Os escritos narram episódios referentes à Alexandria nos dois primeiros séculos de Império Romano. Foram, no entanto, encontrados em diferentes locais do Egito, fato que sugere uma moderada circulação dos escritos na região. A hipótese é que um estruturado e coeso grupo de cidadãos alexandrinos do Ginásio, de ascendência grega e origem nobre, utilizaram-se dos escritos para manifestar suas insatisfações ao poder imperial. Pretendiam, com os relatos, criar um clima de resistência aos romanos e, ao mesmo tempo, exaltar a importância de Alexandria naquele universo, delimitando também uma identidade alexandrina restrita aos seus elementos de maior distinção. E mais: desejavam marcar a indignação quanto aos vizinhos judeus, que estariam ameaçando alguns direitos antes restritos ao grupo. Através dos textos, pode-se analisar como a romanização foi recebida e entendida pelos alexandrinos. Além disso, a documentação lança luz sobre elementos diversos da vida cívica e social da cidade e nos permite avaliar a sua importância no contexto imperial. / The aim of this dissertation is to investigate a group of small Alexandrian fragments of papyrus named Acta Alexandrinorum. The texts narrate episodes concerning Alexandria in the two first centuries of Roman Empire. But they were found in different places of Egypt, fact that suggests a moderate circulation of the writings in the region. The hypothesis is that a structured and limited group of Alexandrian citizens from the gymnasium, of Greek ascendance and noble birth, would use the writings to express their feelings of dissatisfaction to the Imperial power. They intended, with the accounts, to create an atmosphere of resistance to the Romans, and at the same time, to exalt the importance of Alexandria in that universe and also, to delimit an Alexandrian identity that should be restricted to their elements of higher distinction. Besides that, they also longed to emphasize the indignation to their Jewish neighbors, which were 8 threatening some rights that were before limited to their group. Through the texts, we can analyze how Romanization was received and understood by the Alexandrians. Besides that, the documents illustrate several elements of the civic and social life of the city and help to evaluate its importance in the imperial context.