Open AccessPopular Political Agency in Byzantium's villages and towns
Author(s) -
Dimitris Krallis
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
vyzantina symmeikta
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.101
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 1792-0450
pISSN - 1791-4884
DOI - 10.12681/byzsym.14370
Subject(s) - politics , polity , agency (philosophy) , byzantine architecture , empire , identity (music) , collective action , human settlement , settlement (finance) , history , sociology , political economy , political science , ancient history , law , social science , archaeology , aesthetics , art , economics , finance , payment
While cotemporary work on the Byzantine polity presents Constantinople as a hub of a vividly polyphonic politics, much less has been said about the social and political identity of the empire’s smaller settlements. Following our field’s renewed interest in urban sociability, popular political agency, and collective identity I turn here to this larger world of villages and towns in order to examine the relationship of such social units with the Roman world around them during the middle Byzantine period. In doing so I trace village and town attitudes towards authority and follow evidence of collective action, which by all accounts should qualify as politics.