Dans les sources de la période médiobyzantine, tous les moines n’apparaissaient pas en marge de la société. Certains se distinguaient très clairement par leurs incursions dans le monde ou dans les affaires terrestres. Ils pouvaient voyager, changer de monastère et surtout fréquenter des laïcs. Ils tissaient des liens avec le monde que les autorités avaient pourtant cherché à rompre, et pouvaient jouir d’une liberté que les lois et canons visaient à contrôler. Partant de ce constat, nous avons donc étudié précisément l’insertion des moines dans les réseaux de pouvoir. La première étape de ce travail de recherche fut de recenser les moines qui se distinguaient dans les sources par une intervention dans le monde terrestre. À partir de cette prosopographie, nous avons pu définir les contours de l’élite des moines, groupe qui se caractérisait par ses nombreuses interactions avec la haute aristocratie. La deuxième étape fut d’étudier les réseaux sociaux de ces moines. Nous avons décrit les modalités de leur insertion dans ces réseaux pour mettre en évidence les différentes logiques de construction et de transmission de leurs liens avec l’aristocratie. Nous avons surtout souligné l’importance des relations construites personnellement. Puis, nous avons analysé leur rôle dans ces réseaux pour démontrer qu’ils étaient sollicités et agissaient moins en tant que moines qu’en tant que membres de clans puissants. Ainsi, le rôle politique et social joué par les moines dans l’Empire byzantin ne pouvait s’expliquer que par leur intégration dans des réseaux sociaux puissants composés de membres de la haute aristocratie constantinopolitaine. / It is evident from Medieval Byzantine sources that not all monks lived on society’s margins. Some of them were highly implicated in worldly affairs. They could travel, move into other monasteries and visit lay people. They built up ties with people that the authorities had sought to break and could even enjoy freedoms that the laws and cannons aimed to control. Based on such observations, I have studied closely how monks could be embedded in political networks. Firstly, I have made a census of the Byzantine monks that distinguished themselves by their intervention in the lay world. Based on this prosopographical study, I have defined the contours of a monastic elite and shown that this was a group who interacted frequently with members of the high aristocracy. Consequently, I have studied in detail the social networks in which such monks belonged. I have attempted to describe and to underline the complexity of how monks build up their networks as well as inherit and possibly transmit them. I also have tried to distinguish their institutional bonds from their personal ones. In doing so, I have demonstrated that they acted and were solicited less often as monks and more often as members of powerful clans. Thus, I have concluded that the political and social role played by monks in the Byzantine Empire can only be explained by their integration in very powerful social networks.

L?????tude de l???iconoclasme byzantin, cette crise th??ologique ayant pour cause l???essor du culte associ?? aux images religieuses, a ??t?? un exercice ardu pour les historiens. En effet, les maigres sources disponibles pour cette p??riode sont toutes favorables au culte des images. Bien qu?????crite par un iconodoule convaincu et hostile aux empereurs iconoclastes, la Chronographie de Th??ophane le Confesseur ne m??rite pourtant pas ses ??tiquettes contemporaines de pro-iconophile et d???anti-iconoclaste. Le pr??sent m??moire propose donc de revoir et de nuancer les ??crits de Th??ophane en ce qui a trait au pouvoir imp??rial. Il s???agira de d??montrer que la place des empereurs sur l?????chiquier th??ologique n???a aucune influence sur la repr??sentation du pouvoir, voire et de ceux qui l???exercent, dans la Chronographie. En effet, une analyse rigoureuse des empereurs de la p??riode iconoclaste (717-780) et de la p??riode iconodoule (780-815) prouvera que pour Th??ophane, rien n???est absolu : les iconoclastes ne sont pas d??pourvus de vertu et les iconodoules peuvent agir de fa??on tyrannique. La Chronographie propose ainsi une image complexe du pouvoir imp??rial, qui oblige ?? reconsid??rer les fronti??res entre l??gitimit?? imp??riale et tyrannie. -- The study of Byzantine iconoclasm, a theological crisis caused by the emergence of religious practices centered on divine images, has proven to be a difficult endeavor for historians. Indeed, the few available sources which discuss this period are clearly favorable to this cult of images. Despite having been written by a convinced iconodule who was also hostile to iconoclastic emperors, the Chronicle by Theophanes the Confessor should not be labelled as purely pro-iconophile and anti-iconoclastic. As such, the present thesis will seek to review and relativize the writings of Theophanes with regards to imperial power. This will attempt to demonstrate that in the Chronicle, the place of emperors on the theological playing field has no impact on the representations of power or those who exert it. In fact, a rigorous analysis of emperors from the iconoclastic period (717-780) as well as the iconodule period (780-815) will show that inTheophanes??? mind nothing is absolute: iconoclasts are not devoid of virtue and iconodules can be tyrannical. Hence, the Chronicle presents a complex image of imperial power, one which demands a reconsideration of the boundaries between imperial legitimacy and tyranny.

L’astrolabe, sous la forme dans laquelle il s’est répandu dans le monde arabo-persan, puis dans le monde occidental, est un instrument d’origine hellénistique. Mais nous ne disposons guère, pour témoigner de cette origine, que d’un traité d’usage de cet instrument, écrit au VIème siècle par un auteur alexandrin, Jean Philopon. Nous proposons tout d’abord une réédition de ce traité, sur une base nettement plus large que la seule édition existant à ce jour, et nous l’assortissons d’une traduction et de commentaires. Ce traité d’usage a connu un très grand succès à Byzance à l’époque des Paléologues, et nous nous posons la question de savoir dans quel environnement, astronomique et mathématique, s’est produit ce spectaculaire intérêt pour le traité alexandrin. Nous examinons pour cela ce qui a pu être disponible à Byzance à cette époque, en provenance de l’étranger, et cela nous amène à éditer et traduire deux traités d’usage, l’un en provenance du monde arabo-persan, dont l’auteur est Shams-le-Persan, et l’autre, d’auteur anonyme, en provenance du monde occidental. Nous passons ensuite en revue les œuvres de trois auteurs byzantins, Nicéphore Grégoras, Isaac Argyros, et Théodore Méliténiote, concernant cette fois la construction de l’astrolabe, et nous éditons, ou rééditons, totalement ou partiellement, les œuvres des deux premiers de ces auteurs, avec des traductions et des commentaires. Enfin, nous éditons et traduisons un traité d’origine occidentale, traduit à Chypre par Georges Lapithès, traité dont nous pensons qu’il a pu jouer un rôle dans l’existence, sous la plume de Nicéphore Grégoras, du premier texte authentiquement byzantin ayant trait à l’astrolabe. Cela nous permet de dresser un panorama critique du niveau atteint par Byzance, à cette époque, dans la maîtrise de la construction et de l’usage de l’astrolabe. / The astrolabe, as it spread in the Arab-Persian world and later on in the Western world, is an instrument of Hellenistic origin. However, the only available source to substantiate this origin is a treaty written in the 6th century by an Alexandrian author, John Philoponos. This present work will first of all present an edited version of the treaty with a much broader basis than that of the only existing edition, along with a translation and commentary. Philopono’s treaty met with great success in Byzantium at the time of the Palailogus and therefore one aim here will be to make sense of the environment, astronomical and mathematical, in which such interest took place. In order to do this, this study will proceed to examine the foreign sources available at the time as well as edit and translate two treaties, one from the Arab-Persian world written by Shams the Persian and other by an anonymous Western author. This will be followed thereafter by a review of the works of three Byzantine authors, Nikephoros Gregoras, Isaac Argyros, and Theodore Meliteniotes, which refer this time to the building of the astrolabe. As well as edit or reedit (fully or partially) the works of these first two authors, the present work offers translations along with commentary. A final step will be to edit and translate a Western treaty, translated in Cyprus by Georges Lapithès and believed to have played a part in the existence of the first authentically Byzantine text related to the astrolabe, by Nikephoros Gregoras.This allows for a critical overview of the level of command reached in the building and use of the astrolabe in Byzantium at that time.

Ma thèse constitue une étude du règne de Constantin IX Monomaque, un souverain qui a régné au milieu du XIe siècle, une période charnière de l’histoire byzantine. Les spécificités du règne sont multiples. Ancien exilé devenu empereur grâce à son mariage avec l’impératrice Zoé, Constantin Monomaque n’a eu de cesse de se créer une légitimité pour asseoir sa domination et conforter son trône. L’empereur a réussi avec brio à se constituer un réseau de fidèles avant son avènement et a su, par la suite, l’étoffer en ralliant de nombreuses familles aristocratiques et un grand nombre de fonctionnaires du palais. Pourtant, le pouvoir de l’empereur bien que consolidé a subi de nombreuses épreuves : les deux plus grandes révoltes militaires depuis près d’un demi-siècle, le peuple de Constantinople de plus en plus remuant, les complots palatiaux, … En dépit de ces difficultés, Constantin IX a réussi un exploit au cours de ce siècle si périlleux pour les détenteurs de la pourpre, mourir au pouvoir et de causes naturelles. Monomaque fut un empereur bâtisseur, lançant de grands chantiers aussi bien au sein de l’Empire qu’à l’étranger. La vie culturelle de cette période fut particulièrement riche, puisque plusieurs des grands intellectuels de l’histoire byzantine ont servi l’empereur et ont bénéficié de ses faveurs. Longtemps perçu comme un empereur hostile à l’armée, Constantin Monomaque fut bien au contraire un empereur militaire de premier plan, assurant son devoir en défendant l’Empire. Il fut aussi un des plus grands empereurs diplomates que l’Empire a connu, une politique visant à favoriser la paix aux frontières en désarmant les ennemis ou pour éviter d’en susciter. / My Ph. D. is a study of the reign of Constantine IX Monomachos, a ruler who ruled in the middle of the 11th century, a pivotal period in Byzantine history. The specificities of the reign are multiple. A former exile who became emperor thanks to his marriage to empress Zoe, Constantine Monomachos has never ceased to create a legitimacy to establish his domination and consolidate his throne. The emperor brilliantly succeeded in building up a network of faithful before his advent and subsequently succeeded in strengthening it by rallying many aristocratic families and a large number of officials of the palace. Yet, the power of the emperor, although consolidated, suffered many hardships: the two greatest military revolts in nearly half a century, the people of Constantinople increasingly restless, palatial plots, … Despite these difficulties, Constantine IX achieved a feat during this century so dangerous for the holders of imperial purple, die in power and from natural causes. Monomachos was a builder emperor, launching major projects both within the Empire and abroad. The cultural life of this period was particularly rich, since many of the great intellectuals of Byzantine history served and benefited from the emperor's favours. Long perceived as an emperor hostile to the army, Constantine Monomachos was on the contrary a first-rate military emperor, performing his duty by defending the Empire. He was also one of the greatest diplomatic emperors the Empire has ever known, a policy aimed at promoting peace at the borders by disarming enemies or avoiding creating them.

No description available.

Résumé : De 1399 à 1402, l’empereur Manuel II Paléologue entreprend son célèbre voyage en Occident. Durant ces années, le souverain byzantin séjourne en France et en Angleterre, ce qui le démarque de ses prédécesseurs. Malgré les avancées dans la recherche et dans l’édition de source, l’historiographie maintient la même perception de l’entreprise depuis les cent dernières années. Tout en reconnaissant sa notabilité, le voyage y est abordé comme un échec. Pourtant, ce jugement ne semble pas s’accompagner d’une considération des enjeux et des objectifs réels du projet ou de prendre en compte l’environnement culturel qui l’a motivé. L’interprétation traditionnelle a toutes les caractéristiques d’un artéfact procédant d’un schème interprétatif aujourd’hui dépassé. Cette recherche propose une approche en quatre parties pour analyser l’évènement de manière conséquente et pour émanciper l’historiographie de la téléologie. Premièrement, le déplacement sera situé en continuité d’un rapprochement de la dynastie régnante vers l’Europe et de ses capacités diplomatiques. Deuxièmement, les circonstances et objectifs réels de la mission seront ciblés. Troisièmement, l’étude mesurera la capacité de l’entreprise à répondre à ces objectifs et considérera l’accusation d’échec en fonction de cette capacité. Quatrièmement, une fois la perspective actualisée, il sera question de l’impact culturel positif de la visite, au-delà de ses objectifs pragmatiques. // Abstract : From 1399 to 1402, emperor Manuel II Palaiologos undertook his famousjourney to the West. During those years, the Byzantine ruler sojourned in France and England, distinguishing himself from his predecessors. In spite of notable advances in research and source analysis, most studies have maintained a pessimistic evaluation of his diplomatic undertaking over the last hundred years. While most historians recognize his voyage as a notable endeavour, the emperor’s travels are ultimately perceived as a failure. Yet, this judgement does not seem to consider the pragmatic issues at hand, the diplomacy’s true objectives or the cultural landscape upon which it draws itself. Instead, the traditional interpretation seems to hinge on an older, and obsolete, world view. To further emancipate history from its teleological trappings, this study proposes to analyse the subject by approaching it from four angles. Firstly, the emperor’s endeavour will be considered in continuity with the dynasty’s affinity with Europe and its diplomatic possibilities. Secondly, the mission’s pragmatic objectives and political circumstances will be identified. Thirdly, the study will measure the mission’s ability to succeed in its goals, and factor it in considering the accusation of failure. Fourthly, once the historical perspective has been thus actualized, it will be possible to identify the positive cultural impact of the emperor’s visit, independently of its pragmatic objectives.

The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa is the primary Armenian-language historical source for the eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Matthew was a monk who lived in the ethnically mixed city of Edessa; within his Chronicle, he describes the apogee of independent Armenia, its fall to piecemeal Byzantine annexation, the subsequent loss of Byzantium's eastern territory to the newcomer Saljuq Turks, and the sectarian tension that accompanied the First Crusade. This thesis sets out the methodology adopted for the construction of a critical edition of the text, addresses the approach that Matthew took to the composition of the Chronicle, and gives the edited text of the prophecies attributed to Yovhannēs Kozeṙn and the author's prologues to Books Two and Three of the Chronicle. Chapters 2 and 3 comprise a review of the scholarship to date on the Chronicle, and a discussion of the approach taken to a critical edition of the text. The Chronicle survives in a large number of relatively recently copied manuscripts; it was therefore necessary to devise an approach to text collation and editing that takes full advantage of recent advances in computational methods of philology. I have developed a set of software tools to assist in the task of editing the Chronicle; these tools are useful for the creation of text editions in any language that can be represented through the TEI XML standard. Chapters 4–8 give an examination of the overall framework of Matthew’s Chronicle, and of his interpretation of recent history within that framework. Following a long tradition of the use of prophecy to explain Armenian history, Matthew uses two prophecies attributed to the eleventh-century clerical scholar Yovhannēs Kozeṙn, themselves extended in the twelfth century under the influence of the Apocalypse attributed to Methodius, to frame his argument that both the Byzantine emperors and the Armenian kings had abandoned their responsibility toward the Armenian people. His attitude toward recent history, and particularly toward the Latins of Outremer, may be used to demonstrate that he wrote the Chronicle no later than 1137.

This thesis presents a historical study of the relationship between the city of ancient Byzantium and the Thracian Bosporus. Structured around the themes of regional particularity and identity, it shows that local studies can be used to gain fresh insights into more general topics. Viewed through the lens of the relationship between strait and city, the history of the Bosporus sheds light on the nature of economic exploitation and ancient imperialism, and on the nature of ancient communities’ local identities. Chapter 1 explores regionally specific geographical features in the strait, which directed and determined responses to life in the area, around which the regional economy revolved, and in response to which the identities of the local communities were created. Chapters 2 and 3 examine the history of economic exploitation of the region, exploring the attitude of the Athenian Empire toward the Bosporus, and the attempt by the local communities of the Bosporus to create a controlled monetary system in the third century BC. These efforts to exploit local opportunities and commodities, I show, transformed the Bosporus into an attractive economic resource. Chapter 4 examines the local fishing industries of the strait, and demonstrates that the extraordinary availability of fish in the region provoked responses which could not be emulated precisely elsewhere. The thesis also shows that the cultural identity of a Greek city could be intensely local. Byzantium, a Greek colony typically characterized by its relationship to its mother-city, had a series of important local identities, explored in chapter 1. From this perspective, chapter 5 re-examines the difficult relationship between Greeks and Thracians in the region, and chapter 6 questions the validity of the traditional view of the relationship between a colony and its mother-city.

This thesis is a study of the pre-Islamic passages of Abū Ḥanīfa Aḥmad ibn Dāwūd ibn Wanand Dīnawarī's Kitāb al-Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl. This is to say that it stops at the beginning of the Arab conquest of Iran. It is intended for scholars of Late Antiquity. Special emphasis is placed on Dīnawarī's exposition of the rule of the Sasanian dynasty and questions relating to the mysterious Ḫudāynāma tradition which are intimately connected with it. Beginning with a discussion of Dīnawarī and his work, the thesis moves into a discussion of indigenous Iranian historiography. Speculation on the sources of Kitāb al-Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl follows, and the historiographical investigation of the most substantial portion of Kitāb al-Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl's notices on the Sasanian dynasty comes next. The conclusion summarises the findings of the thesis. The final section (an appendix) is a translation of the relevant part of Kitāb al-Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl running from the beginning of that text to the reign of Šīrūya. This thesis was written with one main question in mind: what does Dīnawarī's Kitāb al-Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl have to say about pre-Islamic Iranian history? A host of other questions arose immediately: who was Dīnawarī; when did he live; what did he do; how was his work perceived by others; where did Dīnawarī get his information and how did he present it; is Dīnawarī's information reliable? These questions are addressed one by one in my thesis.

S’interrogeant sur l’existence d’une culture matérielle propre à la Cappadoce, X. de Planhol soulevait déjà, dans les années 1980, la contradiction entre les résultats des études cappadociennes et les sources. De fait, archéologiquement et historiquement, la Cappadoce rupestre s’inscrit dans la continuité des autres provinces anatoliennes. Dépendant d’empires plus puissants, elle ne semble pas développer des traditions architecturales et culturelles propres, si ce n’est de posséder des monuments creusés dans la roche. A contrario à l’époque médiévale, certains auteurs arabes et byzantins reconnaissent aux Cappadociens un mode de vie troglodytique qui les individualise, de facto, de leurs voisins anatoliens. Ces assertions sont d’ailleurs confirmées par le développement de la pratique rupestre à l’époque byzantine dans la zone. Afin de comprendre ce décalage, deux approches ont été menées parallèlement. La première, historique, a pour objet d’étudier les représentations littéraires de la Cappadoce et des Cappadociens entre le Ve av. J.-C. et le Xe ap. J-C. La seconde approche, archéologique, a pour but de comprendre les processus de réalisation des monuments rupestres entre le IIIe siècle av. J.-C. et le Xe siècle ap. J.-C. À elles deux, elles mettent en lumière la lente construction culturelle qui, tant dans les sources que dans la praxis, aboutit à la fin du Xe siècle à l’existence d’un fait rupestre. / In the 1980s, questioning the existence of an own material cultures in Cappadocia, X. de Planhol already raised the contradictions between results of Cappadocian studies and sources. In fact, the current region of Cappadocia seems to be “provincial”. Dependent on more powerful Empires, this region doesn’t seem to develop its own architectural traditions and its own material cultures. It has just carved monuments. But in some medieval sources, Cappadocians are described like Troglodyte and de facto are distinguished from their Anatolian neighbors. To understand this shift, two methodological approaches were conducted. The first one is historical and has the purpose to study literary representations of Cappadocia and Cappadocians between the Vth century BC and the Xth century AD. The second approach is archaeological and should allow understanding process of making a carved monument between the IIIrd century BC and the Xth century AD. Both highlight the slow cultural construction that results in recognition of a “carving fact” in the Xth century AD.