Social Stratification in Late Byzantium

Christos Malatras has graduated from the University of Crete in Greece (BA and MPhil) and the University of Birmingham in 2013 (Phd). He has since then received fellowships in different institutions in Turkey, Greece, USA and Germany. He has taught Byzantine History in the Democritus University of Thracethe, the University of Thessaly and the University of Ioannina. He has published on social and political history in Late Byzantium, on middle Byzantine provincial administration and sigillography, and on Byzantine identity.

This study of late Byzantine social structure is notable for the way the author has abandoned any preconceptions about the character of Byzantine society. These mostly derived from either comparing Byzantium or assimilating it to other societies: the Medieval West in particular. Instead, the author confronts Byzantium on its own terms, thus allowing it to emerge in all its bewildering complexity. If it does not fit any obvious patterns so much the better. Christos Malatras is to be congratulated on a very considerable achievement, which is founded on the mastery of an impressive range of sources.

• List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Preface and Acknowledgements Note to the ReaderIntroduction: Byzantium after 1261: State, Society and Culture The Subject of the Study and the Sources Recent Scholarship on (Late) Byzantine Society Byzantine Society before the Palaiologan Period:Structure and Characteristics Outline Part I: The Earthly Order1 The Social System The Order (Taxis) of the Empire The Dialectics of Deference and the Social Contract Social Tension and the Challenges to the Established Order 2 Social Status Social Values and Prestige Status Incongruence and Social Ascent 3 Social Stratification Estates and Orders in Byzantium The Rich and the Poor, the Archontes and the Dēmos The Anatomy of the Archontes The Middle Classes and Their Urban Economic Activities The Peasant World Concluding Remarks 4 Social Associations Communities and Vertical Social Groups A Society of Circles and Social Networks The Aristocratic Oikos and Its Following A Fragmented Society 5 Social Power The Basis of Economic Power Political Power State, Church and Society . . . and the Breakdown Part II: Case Studies6 Late Byzantine Provincial Society: The Example of Serres The Higher Elite in Serres and the Non-local Forces ofEconomic and Social Influence The Local Military Elite of Serres The Civil (Ecclesiastical) Elite of Serres The Monasteries and Local Society Urban Economic Activities and the Middle Class Social Relations in the Countryside of the Lower Strymon Late Byzantine Provincial Society 7 Late Palaiologan Urban Society: Constantinople at theTurn of the Fifteenth Century Byzantine Society on the Eve of Demise: Developmentsin the Late Fourteenth Century Economic and Social Life in Constantinople during theSiege of Bāyezīd I (1394–1402) The Fortunes of the Higher and of the ‘Military’ Elite The Civil Elite The Middle Class of Constantinople The Aftermath Conclusion: The Order and the Structures of the Social System AppendicesTables 26–9 Glossary General Terms Late Byzantine Offices, Dignities and Epithets Byzantine Emperors (1261–1453) Alphabetical List of the Official Hierarchy of Titles in Pseudo-Kodinos Alphabetical List of Ecclesiastical Offices Bibliography Primary Sources Secondary Works Index