This dissertation is an attempt to describe and analyse the history of the relationship between the imperial centre and a minor peripheral area, but also the first step towards a more complete understanding of the history of the areas of Kozani, Serfice, and Velvendos during the 18th century, on the basis of both Ottoman and Greek primary sources, in an attempt to replace the old and, rather obsolete, nationalist narratives prevalent in the writings of the local amateur historians. Through the examination of the tax-farming system, on the one hand, and the timar system, on the other, in the areas under study, this dissertation addresses the developments that occurred at a local level in a period of Ottoman history marked by great changes and experimentation with new fiscal practices. It is also the aim of this dissertation to prove that the centre was represented locally by the local magnates and notables, who, by serving the interests of the absentee Istanbul-based élite, acted as representatives of the centre in their localities, and formed factions which vied for supremacy and served their respective interests at a local level. Thus, it supports the idea that the centre made the local notables, for as long as local notables made the centre in their given society and locality.

My thesis traces developments in the early imperial dress of the emperors and empresses as depicted in art from Diocletian’s reign to Justinian II’s; my analysis includes examples ranging in size from large monuments to small coins. Two theses have been written on the later period but none on the earlier one when the most change occurred. I demonstrate that the emperor’s dress differed from other forms of elite male dress because several symbols of rule, such as the purple cloak and sceptre were associated with it. During this time period, the emperor wore three types of dress: military costume consisting of a cuirass and cloak; civic dress consisting of such garments as a purple cloak called a chlamys, a tunic and jewelled slippers; and ceremonial dress consisting of several types of togas and an under-tunic. The empress' dress consisted of several forms of Roman dress, the chlamys and tunic, and finally bridal dress. In my analyses, I first place the items in their historical context, describe the dress portrayed, and finally analyse how they are used in each work of art. I also provide information on such subjects as the history of imperial purple and the types of crowns.

Although there are enough studies on the economic history of late 8th-early 13th century Rhomanian Greece (for my use of the term ‘Rhomanian’ rather than ‘Byzantine’, see the end of section I) to warrant years of intensive reading, few of them are regional or multi-regional in their scope. Largescale interpretations have been correspondingly few. The most noteworthy one – with regard to the regions that I am studying – is that Boeotia was home to one of the finest silk industries in the Empire in the late 11th-12th centuries. Using all available sources of information (ecclesiastical, hagiographical, geographic monographs, court chronicles, weather station statistics, archaeological monuments and artifacts, and so on), I examined urban settlements based on five main criteria: the quality and pervasiveness of ceramic material, the distribution of currency, the presence of a Jewish population, the incidence of sigillographic data, the magnitude, quality, and frequency of architectural projects, and the size and number of settlements. I found that there is ample evidence for growth in the domains of demography, silk production (whose quantitative element still hangs in the balance, however), exports to Constantinople, religious construction projects, coin use, and high-quality production imports/production. These trends are then probed for natural and human explanations, and used to discuss the relationship between my regions of study and Rhomania as a whole.

Although remains at Knossos have been reported to some extent throughout its history, archaeological research into the Roman city has traditionally been overshadowed by the exploration of the well-known ‘Minoan’ Bronze Age palace and its immediate surroundings. The Knossos 2000 Project, jointly established by the University of Birmingham and the British School at Athens, has provided the opportunity for the systematic investigation of an area in close proximity to the Roman forum, incorporating the partial excavation of a number of substantial buildings, both public and private. The large quantities of pottery recovered from a range of stratified deposits have enabled this specific study, designed to complement existing works which are, on the whole, dedicated to earlier periods. The objectives from the outset were to provide the chronological framework for the Knossos 2000 excavations, to concentrate on an investigation of the latest Roman pottery (to-date poorly represented by excavations carried out in areas away from the main foci of Roman activity) and, where possible, to present an extension to the existing ceramic sequence in order to help facilitate a better understanding of Knossos and its economic history during the Roman and Early Byzantine periods.

The early stages of colonisation in the Thracian Littoral are not well understood. These sites are often viewed with reference to the cultural contributions of Greece, to the exclusion of the Thracian participants. The Oisyme collection provides a unique opportunity to view ritual activity with a view of the archaeological evidence informed by the contributions of local, regional and ‘international’ players. In order to contextualize the pottery, I created a detailed study on the architecture and landscape of Oisyme, with reference to the Thracian culture contributions. It is from this vantage point that the East Greek, North Aegean and Oisymian pottery from the acropolis and south necropolis of Oisyme are analysed. These pottery groups are included together because they are the earliest traditions present at Oisyme and stylistically linked. They range in date from the earliest Thracian settlement through the emporion, apoikia and polis phases, as I have defined them at Oisyme. By focusing on the predominant shape (Drinking Vessels) and the origins of each variety in context, this study alters our view of Oisyme by demonstrating earlier contact, trade connections and a complex pattern of depositional preferences. All these suggest the construction of an identity by the Oisymians themselves.

Valerius Maximus situates his ninth and final book (henceforth referred as V9) in clear contrast to the rest of his output by adopting an apotreptic approach and focusing entirely on 'vitia'. This makes a break from the dispersive manner in which 'vitia' had hitherto been treated by different authors across a myriad of works, nor was V9’s structure replicated in the same manner by any other Roman author since V. Worthy of note is also how V treats his subject exclusively in a single book, creating 'intensity' as a technique 'per se' to shock the reader into making them fully aware – beyond all reasonable doubt – how pernicious and dangerous 'vitia' are. At the heart of V9 is the ubiquity of vice that transcends ethnicity. In fact V brings domestic and external 'exempla' closer, vice is inherent in life itself; the characters inhabiting both the domestic and external sections are not opposites, but are presented as culpable of the same vices (although sometimes certain 'exempla' are graded worse than others).

Temple-church conversion was a deeply meaningful process that took many different forms throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. It was not simple triumphalism, nor was it motivated purely by expedience. No such single, overarching explanations are found. Instead, many factors influenced the process, with factors local to specific sites key to understanding why conversion took place and why different forms were taken. This variety led, both intentionally and not, to a vast array of created, appropriated and adapted user experiences. Unlike many previous studies, I believe one can only understand temple-church conversion by considering user experience, not by categorising them by type, e.g. direct, indirect, cella-church, and related types. Indeed, I actively divorce analysis from such types and demonstrate throughout the necessity of doing so. Rather, I develop a theoretical approach and thematic method in Part One that allows for in-depth analysis of specific sites in terms of user experience. This focusses upon phenomenological analysis, with memory, landscape, materiality and biography important. By placing this theoretical basis at the fore, I repopulate often sterile architecture. In so doing, the terms temple-church and temple-church conversion are reconsidered and new definitions that focus upon user understanding and experience are created that replace those that rely heavily on architectural continuity. I am then able to tackle the three central research questions of this thesis: why conversion took place; why examples took the forms that they did; and what the process actually meant to users. I focus upon three regions of the Eastern Mediterranean: the Levant; Asia Minor; and Greece, which constitute Parts Two, Three and Four. Within each, analysis is divided into a number of sections that focus upon themes of experience and use, e.g. Temple replacement, Experiences of temple inversion, and Appropriation of associations and spaces, enabling analysis to focus upon user experience and understanding. By examining examples in depth within these thematic sections reinterpretations and new analyses of specific sites are provided and key local factors explored, enabling questions of motivations, forms and user understandings to be considered. Broader Eastern Mediterranean-wide comparisons are discussed in the final part, Part Five. Data is gathered from architectural, archaeological and literary sources. Architectural study is brought together with archaeological context and theory, the two too often kept separate. Similarly, literary evidence, often excluded or marginalised in archaeological studies, is used critically to enable comparisons between literary and archaeological data to be made and to allow for analysis of the often quite different narratives each created. In turn this enables the experiences of readers and listeners to be added to the evolving biographies of sites. By focussing upon user experience and developing and utilising a new theoretical approach, this thesis demonstrates the inadequacy of any typology of temple-church forms and its use in analysing the phenomenon, while also demonstrating that temple-church conversion did not in many ways constitute a unified phenomenon; a vast array of forms, experiences and interpretations were created and appropriated.

The main question of this thesis originated from the following observation: during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (r.1876-1909) - especially after the 1880s - the German armament firms (GAFs) obtained a monopoly position in the Ottoman military market and maintained their position for decades. Based upon this observation the question of this thesis is: How did the Germans manage to get this status and protect it for decades, in particular, in a quite competitive market, where the American, British, and the French firms had been dominant for years? This thesis, which has fundamentally relied on multi-national archival research, does not seek the answer with reference to the ordinary theory of supply and demand but in the realm of the inter-personal relations and the personal influence of some influential personalities/statesmen who somehow intervened themselves into the war business from both sides (i.e. the Ottoman Empire and Germany). In the line with this argument, the principal aim of this thesis is to examine the impact of the non-commercial factors of the arms trade on the GAFs’ successful war business in the Ottoman military market. For that purpose throughout the dissertation the acts and doings of Bismarck; Kaiser Wilhelm II; Von der Goltz Pasha and the other German military advisors who were employed in the Ottoman Army; Sultan Abdülhamid II and the Ottoman bureaucrats/officers will be discussed within the context of their contribution to the German armament firms’ successful war business in the Ottoman market.

This thesis examines the role of oracular divination in warfare in archaic, classical and Hellenistic Greece, and assesses the extent to which it affected the psychology and military decision-making of ancient Greek poleis. By using a wide range of ancient literary, epigraphical, archaeological and iconographical evidence and relevant modern scholarship, this thesis will fully explore the role of the Oracle in warfare especially the influence of the major oracles at Delphi, Dodona,Olympia,Didyma and Ammon on the foreign policies and military strategies of poleis and their psychological preparation for war as well as the effect of oracular prophecies on a commander's decision making and tactics on the battlefield and on the psychology and reactions for soldiers before and during battle. This thesis contends that oracular prophecy played a fundamental and integral part in ancient Greek warfare and that the act of consulting the Oracles and the subsequent prognostications issued by the Oracles had powerful psychological effects on both the polis citizenry and soldiery, which in turn had a major influence and impact upon military strategy and tactics, and ultimately on the outcome of conflicts in the Ancient Greek World.

This study is concerned with the manner in which Byzantium manifested itself through the exterior of its buildings. The focus is the Black Sea from the ninth century to the eleventh. Three cities are examined. Each had imperial attention: Amastris for imperial defences; Mesembria, a border city and the meeting place for diplomats: Cherson, a strategic outpost and focal point of Byzantine proselytising. There were two forms of external display; one, surface ornament and surface modelling, the other through the arrangement of masses and forms. A more nuanced division can be discerned linked with issues of purpose and audience. The impulse to display the exterior can be traced to building practice at imperial level in the capital in the early ninth century. Surface ornament continued to be linked with the display of secular authority. Display through structure was developed in Cherson and the north Black Sea region to project the presence of Orthodoxy and was closely associated with conversion activity. By the end of the tenth century, through that external presentation, the form of the church building had itself become symbolic. External display can be seen as a vehicle for the expression of regional forms and evidence for the tenacity of local building “dialects”.