Byzantium in the iconoclast Era c. 680–850

By

za

nt

ium

in the iconoclast Era c. 680–850

brubaker and

haldon

iconoclasm, the debate about the legitimacy of religious art that began in Byzantium around 720 and continued for nearly 120 years, has long held a firm grip on the historical imagination. this is the first book in English for over fifty years to survey this most elusive and fascinating period in medieval history. it is also the first book in any language to combine the expertise of two authors who are specialists in the written, archaeological, and visual evidence from this period, a combination of particular importance to the iconoclasm debate. the authors have worked together to provide a comprehensive overview of the visual, written, and other materials that together help clarify the complex issues of iconoclasm in Byzantium. in doing so, they challenge many traditional assumptions about iconoclasm and set the period firmly in its broader political, cultural and social-economic context.

LESLiE BRuBaK ER is Professor of Byzantine art and Director of the Graduate School (College of arts and Law) at the university of Birmingham. Her previous publications include Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium: Image as Exegesis in the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus (1999) and, with John Halden, Byzantium in the Era of Iconoclasm: The Sources (2001). She has edited Byzantium in the Ninth-Century: Dead or Alive? (1998) and coedited, with Robert Osterhout, The Sacred Image East and West (1995) and, with Julia m. H. Smith, Gender in the Early Medieval World: East and West, 300-900 (2004).

JOHn HaLDOn is Professor of History and Hellenic Studies at Princeton university and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies. His previous publications include Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a Culture (1990; rev. edn 1997) and Byzantium: A History (2000). He has edited The Social History of Byzantium: Problems and Perspectives (2008) and coedited, with Elizabeth Jeffreys and Robin Cormack, The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies (2008).

Jacket illustration: Gold nomisma of the empress Eirene ( 797–802). Front: obverse; back: Reverse (Birmingham, Barber institute, B4609; photo courtesy of the trustees, Barber institute).

printed in the united kingdom

Jacket designed by Hart McLeod Ltd

Byzantium in the iconoclast Era

c. 680–850a his t or y

Leslie Brubaker and John Haldon

COn tEn tS

introduction

1. Belief, ideology, and practice in a changing

world

2. Leo iii: iconoclast or opportunist?

3. Constantine V and the institutionalisation

of iconoclasm

4. the triumph of tradition? the iconophile

intermission, 775-813

5. the second iconoclasm

6. Economy, society, and state

7. Patterns of settlement: urban and rural life

8. Social elites and the court

9. Society, politics, and power

10. Fiscal management and administration

11. Strategic administration and the origins of

the themata

12. iconoclasm, representation, and rewriting

the past

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