March 24, 2022 • 19 mins
A quick summary of Roman and Byzantine Vostitsa with some of the ups and downs ending with the state of the Peloponnese and Vostitsa c. 1000 CE.
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Jen (00:00):
Still more striking is the story of the rich widow,
Danielis of Patras.
About the time of the Byzantineexpedition against the Slavs of
Taygetos, the future emperor,Basil the first, then chief
groom, in the service of aprominent courtier.
Was at Patras in attendance onhis master who had been sent
(00:20):
there on political business.
Shortly afterwards, he fell illof a fever.
Which by detaining him at Patrasafter his master's departure.
Proved to be a blessing indisguise.
Danielis took the sick groominto her house.
Bade him, be a brother to herson.
And when he had recovered fromhis illness, provided him with a
train of 30 slaves to accompanyhim to Constantinople.
(00:42):
And loaded him with costlypresents.
When in 867 Basil mounted theImperial throne.
He did not forget hisbenefactress.
He not only promoted her son toa high position in his court.
But invited the aged lady toConstantinople.
In spite of her age andinfirmities Danielis traveled in
a litter accompanied by 300slaves.
(01:05):
As a gift to the emperor.
She brought 500 more as well as100 maidens chosen for their
skill in embroidery.
100 purple garments, 300 linenrobes.
And 100 more of such finematerial.
That each piece could easily bepacked away in a hollow cane.
Every kind of gold and silvervessel completed the list of her
(01:25):
presents.
Once again on the death of herfavorite she journeyed to
Constantinople to greet his sonand successor.
Her own son was by that timedead so she devised the whole of
her property to the youngemperor, Leo, the sixth.
At her request, a high officialwas sent to the Peloponnese to
prepare an inventory of hereffects.
(01:48):
Her loose cash, her gold andsilver plate, her bronze
ornaments, her wardrobe and herflocks and herds represented a
princely fortune.
80 farms formed the realproperty of this ninth century
millionairess.
Whose story throws light on theposition of the Peloponnesian
landed class at that period.
(02:11):
This is a summary of a storyfrom Constantine the seventh.
Which is part of Essays on theLatin Orient by William Miller
in 1921 pages 42 through 43.
I'm Jen Glaubius.
And this is the Helonaki deepdive.
A podcast about mapping andanalysis for historical and
(02:32):
archeological research.
In this episode, I'll startdiscussing the history of the
Vostitsa area by looking at thelong history of the Byzantine
empire in the Peloponnese.
Let's dive in.
The year 146 BCE was huge forthe Roman Republic.
(02:53):
They defeated Carthage in thethird and final Punic war and
completely destroyed that citynever to be threatened again by
the power that Rome had foughtthree wars with over 120 years.
146 was also the year.
When Rome gained most of Greeceunder its control under its
defeat of the Achaean league.
(03:16):
The city Aegio the Vostitsa areawas a member of the Achaean
league.
From that time forward, thePeloponnese was basically a
province of Rome.
By the time the Roman empire wassplit into Eastern and Western
parts in 395 C E.
(03:36):
The Peloponnese had been ruledby the Romans for over five
centuries.
All of Greece fell within theEastern empire.
Which from this point forward,I'm going to refer to only as
the Byzantine empire.
along with the rest of theBalkans Asia minor The holy
land, which was Syria andPalestine at that time and
(03:56):
Egypt.
Starting around 250 CE.
There were raids and movementsof peoples into the still
undivided Roman empire,sometimes reaching the
Peloponnese of Greece.
So those raids started earlybefore the division happened and
continued onwards leading inpart to that division.
(04:19):
In 396, the Gothic leader Alaricinvaded the Byzantine empire.
Sacking cities in Greece,including Eleusis, Megara, and
Corinth.
And specifically in thePeloponnese sacking, Argos and
Sparta.
Alaric left the Peloponneseacross the Gulf of Corinth into
(04:41):
Epiros.
After the Western Roman generalStilicho arrived in the area.
Later.
Alaric became commander in chiefof Byzantine forces, They put
them in that position to preventhim from conducting any further
raids on their empire.
So they put him in charge of themilitary.
(05:04):
Incursions by various groupscontinued including coastal
raids by Vandals from Africa inthe four seventies.
Raids by Ostrogoths in the late400s, early 500s.
And, both Huns and Slavs in the500s.
Movements of peoples into theByzantine empire was an ongoing
(05:26):
process.
But let's look at the movementof the Byzantine empire outwards
into other territories duringthe reign of emperor Justinian.
Justinian ruled from 526 until565 and expanded the Byzantine
empire to its largest extent.
(05:46):
Areas that had been part of theWestern Roman empire, but taken
by other groups as that empirefell such as Italy, Sicily,
Sardinia, Corsica, NorthernAfrica, west of Egypt and
Southern Spain were invaded bythe Byzantines and brought under
their control.
(06:07):
Funding those invasions andother fighting on the Eastern
borders required large amountsof money from the Byzantine
treasury.
Justinian tried to crack down ontax evasion by officials and
landowners through reforms, butthere was pushback and those
reforms were later reversed.
Large landowners were a growingproblem across the Byzantine
(06:30):
empire.
Since they tended to bribeofficials to work in their
interests instead of the good ofthe empire.
Large estates had beenincreasing in size for
centuries.
So Justinian issued edicts totry to halt the process of
smaller landholdings beingswallowed up by large estates.
(06:51):
It became evident towards theend of his reign, that those
measures were not working.
And large estate holdersactually, were still becoming
more and more powerful.
Adding to the empires woes.
In the 540s.
Bubonic plague ravaged thepopulation, killing many.
(07:11):
Including in the Peloponnese.
The reduced population meantfewer people to sustain the
economy and pay taxes whilemilitary threats around the
expanded empire demanded moreresources After the death of
Justinian in 565.
The Byzantine empire facedfinancial and military woes.
(07:34):
And the newly gained territory.
Reverted back to non Byzantinecontrol.
In the east and south threatsfrom Persia chipped away at
territory, including Syria,Palestine, and Egypt.
And those areas later fellcompletely to Arab tribes that
had converted to the newreligion of Islam.
(07:56):
In the Peloponnese Slavs raidedthe land in the 580s and then
came to stay.
At that time, Byzantineresources were focused more on
the Persians in the east.
Although it may have occurredearlier.
We know that definitely aroundthe year 641 the Byzantine
(08:16):
empire had lost meaningfulcontrol.
Over all, but a few coastalcities in the Peloponnese.
Due to military defeats andpolitical instability.
Most of the land in the empirehad been lost at this point.
And the Byzantine empirecontracted down to only
Constantinople and thesurrounding area in Anatolia.
(08:38):
So during this period, Slavicpeoples came into the
Peloponnese and settled there.
This means that some of theareas of the Peloponnese were
under Slav control.
But others, mostly coastalcities, but also a few other
areas were still in local Greekhands.
Although, not under Byzantinecontrol.
(08:59):
For areas under Slav controlinstead of paying taxes to the
Byzantine empire.
Local Greeks probably had to paya tribute to the Slavs instead.
This situation remained for over100 years until in the late
seven eighties, the Byzantineempire stabilized and started
trying to regain control of thePeloponnese.
(09:23):
Full Byzantine control didn'treturn until the early eight
hundreds under Emperor.
Nicephorus the first.
When a province for thePeloponnese was established.
Slavic peoples in thePeloponnese of course fought
against the re-establishment ofByzantine control with revolts
in the early eight hundreds.
(09:43):
The Slavs were graduallyincorporated into the population
by converting them toChristianity.
Promoting use of the Greeklanguage and also adding more
Greek speakers by moving themfrom Sicily and Asia Minor to
Greece.
The process was successful withonly a few pockets of distinct
(10:05):
Slav groups left in thePeloponnese a century later.
the story of the rich widow,Danielis of Patras a summary of
which I read in the intro.
shows that although theByzantine empire lost control of
the Peloponnese for a century,while Slav settled in the area,
Greeks remained and in the caseof wealthy landowners probably
(10:27):
kept their land and wealthduring that time.
The story of Danielis comes froma book about administering the
empire that was written byemperor Constantine the seventh
to his son in the mid 900s.
The story itself takes place inthe 860s.
Which was only about 60 to 80years after the Byzantine empire
(10:48):
regained control of thePeloponnese.
The wealth that Danielis had inthat story is evident from the
large number of people that shehad enslaved and was giving away
as gifts, The purple garments,linen robes, gold and silver
vessels, flocks and herds.
And that she possessed 80 farms.
(11:10):
So on those 80 farms, Danielis'people probably cultivated
wheat.
Grapes for wine and olives.
And probably had herds of sheep,goats, and possibly cattle to
help with cultivation.
The purple garments thatDanielis had may have been local
since production of purple dyewas one of the industries of the
(11:34):
Peloponnese along withproduction of parchment and
silk.
The position of wealthy elites,like Danielis would remain
strong in the next fewcenturies.
Although there were raids in theearly 900s by Arab pirates along
the coast and in the 980s, BySamuel of Bulgarias army.
(11:56):
The Peloponnese was mostlystable in this time.
And since the situation wasstable.
The Byzantine administration ofthe Peloponnese was mostly
distant.
And hands-off.
By the early 1000s thePeloponnese had been combined
into a province with centralGreece, which means the area
(12:19):
around Athens and Boeotiaincluding Thebes, which was
where the governor would residewhen in the province.
But the governor of the provincewas not local to the area.
He was appointed byConstantinople.
And he usually remained inConstantinople instead of
actually governing from Greece.
(12:41):
And at this time, the main thingthat the governor did was
collect taxes.
Often through the practice oftax farming.
The way tax farming worked isthat individuals would bid for
the job of collecting taxes.
And the winner would pay the bidamount to the governor.
So he'd already paid off thatmoney.
(13:03):
And then the tax farmer would gocollect taxes from people trying
to collect as much as he could.
Since this person needed toregain the amount of their bid.
Plus make extra money beyondtheir bid.
Obviously corruption was rifethrough this system up and down.
(13:24):
Since the tax farmers weretrying to extract as much money
as they could.
And the governor also would keepextra money from the bid beyond
what was sent to Constantinople.
So that wasn't a great system.
of the tax money that wascollected and sent on to
Constantinople, or that wasactually collected and meant for
(13:48):
the government.
by this time, it really wasn'tgoing into infrastructure or
defense of the Peloponnese.
Instead it was sent on toConstantinople.
The few troops that the governordid have.
were mostly used as his bodyguard.
And so to defend their land,local land owning elites, those
(14:08):
wealthy landowners who had been.
a problem who had been buildingup power for centuries at this
point.
They also built up privatearmies to protect their
extensive lands.
So to summarize.
The Byzantine empire afterseparating from the Western
(14:29):
Roman empire experienced.
Some ups and definite downs.
But by around 1000 hadstabilized.
And what doesn't mean?
That was really strong in somerespects, but it was stable.
The Peloponnese during thatentire period had seen the
influx of different peoples.
(14:50):
Especially there was an influxflux of Slavs who settled while
the Byzantine empire reallywasn't in control of the area.
But then there were alsoinfluxes of Greek speakers from
elsewhere.
The Imperial administration,since they didn't have many
direct threats to take care ofin the Peloponnese basically
(15:14):
what they were doing was justtax collection.
The imperial administrationbasically was only collecting
taxes from the Peloponnese theyweren't really investing
anything into the local militaryor infrastructure by the 1000s.
So definitely neglected.
Hands-off.
(15:35):
And this kind of played into theincreased power of those large
landowners.
As exemplified by Danielis inthe 860s.
So she might've been an extremeexample.
But there were definitely thesewealthy landowners who had so
much power in the Peloponnesearound the year 1000.
(15:57):
And they wanted to keep theirpower.
So the Byzantine empire in thePeloponnese stable around 1000
and prosperous.
Things were good.
But there were definiteweaknesses.
Those landowners were notbeholden to the Byzantine
empire.
There was weak, local defense.
(16:19):
There was corruption in the taxsystem and probably many, many
other parts of the Byzantineadministration.
So this apparent stability andByzantine control of the
Peloponnese would not last.
All right, let's talk a bitabout some endnotes.
(16:39):
This is not an exhaustive listof sources for this episode.
Since I went over 1000 years ofhistory I got information from
many, many different places.
But I want to tell you aboutthree that were the most
helpful.
The Oxford history of Byzantiumedited by Mango, which was
(16:59):
published in 2002 was reallygood for getting a handle on the
Byzantine empire.
There's also the Early MedievalBalkans by Fine published in
1991.
And he has a later book aboutthe Later Medieval Balkans,
which I'll definitely bereferencing in the next episode.
There's also Essays on the LatinOrient by Miller published in
(17:23):
1921.
The entire list of sources is inthe show notes, which I post on
both the Helonaki website and onPatreon.
I just want to end with a fewwords about word choice.
Many of the sources that I readare somewhat older, cause that's
(17:46):
what I can access.
And they often talk aboutinvasions of groups, whether
they're Goths or Huns or Slavsinto the Byzantine empire.
Whereas when they talk about theByzantine empire instead of
saying that they invade otherterritories, they say that
they're expanding theirterritory.
(18:07):
I'm of course influenced by whatI've read but I'm trying to
recognize what I'm saying anduse better wording.
So I'm calling an invasion andinvasion, even if it's by the
Byzantines against other groupsThis is something to think about
who was writing the history.
Thanks for listening.
(18:28):
Email questions or comments todeepdive@helonaki.com or ask
them on the Helonaki Deep DiveFacebook page.
Show notes with links toresources mentioned in this
episode will be available athelonaki.com.
That's H E L O N A K I.com.
You can also find ways tosupport the show now, including
(18:50):
merch such as t-shirts mugs andstickers with the Helonaki Deep
Dive logo athelonaki.com/support.
My thanks to Patreon supportersat the geospatial analyst level,
Leah Varrell and Janice andJerry Farrell.
Your support keeps the HelonakiDeep Dive going.
The Helonaki Deep Dive iswritten and produced by me, Jen
(19:12):
Glaubius of the Helonaki.
The theme music is Deep OceanInstrumental by Dan-o of
danosongs.com additional soundsfrom zapsplat.com.
Thanks for listening.
Still more striking is the story of the rich widow,
Danielis of Patras.
About the time of the Byzantineexpedition against the Slavs of
Taygetos, the future emperor,Basil the first, then chief
groom, in the service of aprominent courtier.
Was at Patras in attendance onhis master who had been sent
(00:20):
there on political business.
Shortly afterwards, he fell illof a fever.
Which by detaining him at Patrasafter his master's departure.
Proved to be a blessing indisguise.
Danielis took the sick groominto her house.
Bade him, be a brother to herson.
And when he had recovered fromhis illness, provided him with a
train of 30 slaves to accompanyhim to Constantinople.
(00:42):
And loaded him with costlypresents.
When in 867 Basil mounted theImperial throne.
He did not forget hisbenefactress.
He not only promoted her son toa high position in his court.
But invited the aged lady toConstantinople.
In spite of her age andinfirmities Danielis traveled in
a litter accompanied by 300slaves.
(01:05):
As a gift to the emperor.
She brought 500 more as well as100 maidens chosen for their
skill in embroidery.
100 purple garments, 300 linenrobes.
And 100 more of such finematerial.
That each piece could easily bepacked away in a hollow cane.
Every kind of gold and silvervessel completed the list of her
(01:25):
presents.
Once again on the death of herfavorite she journeyed to
Constantinople to greet his sonand successor.
Her own son was by that timedead so she devised the whole of
her property to the youngemperor, Leo, the sixth.
At her request, a high officialwas sent to the Peloponnese to
prepare an inventory of hereffects.
(01:48):
Her loose cash, her gold andsilver plate, her bronze
ornaments, her wardrobe and herflocks and herds represented a
princely fortune.
80 farms formed the realproperty of this ninth century
millionairess.
Whose story throws light on theposition of the Peloponnesian
landed class at that period.
(02:11):
This is a summary of a storyfrom Constantine the seventh.
Which is part of Essays on theLatin Orient by William Miller
in 1921 pages 42 through 43.
I'm Jen Glaubius.
And this is the Helonaki deepdive.
A podcast about mapping andanalysis for historical and
(02:32):
archeological research.
In this episode, I'll startdiscussing the history of the
Vostitsa area by looking at thelong history of the Byzantine
empire in the Peloponnese.
Let's dive in.
The year 146 BCE was huge forthe Roman Republic.
(02:53):
They defeated Carthage in thethird and final Punic war and
completely destroyed that citynever to be threatened again by
the power that Rome had foughtthree wars with over 120 years.
146 was also the year.
When Rome gained most of Greeceunder its control under its
defeat of the Achaean league.
(03:16):
The city Aegio the Vostitsa areawas a member of the Achaean
league.
From that time forward, thePeloponnese was basically a
province of Rome.
By the time the Roman empire wassplit into Eastern and Western
parts in 395 C E.
(03:36):
The Peloponnese had been ruledby the Romans for over five
centuries.
All of Greece fell within theEastern empire.
Which from this point forward,I'm going to refer to only as
the Byzantine empire.
along with the rest of theBalkans Asia minor The holy
land, which was Syria andPalestine at that time and
(03:56):
Egypt.
Starting around 250 CE.
There were raids and movementsof peoples into the still
undivided Roman empire,sometimes reaching the
Peloponnese of Greece.
So those raids started earlybefore the division happened and
continued onwards leading inpart to that division.
(04:19):
In 396, the Gothic leader Alaricinvaded the Byzantine empire.
Sacking cities in Greece,including Eleusis, Megara, and
Corinth.
And specifically in thePeloponnese sacking, Argos and
Sparta.
Alaric left the Peloponneseacross the Gulf of Corinth into
(04:41):
Epiros.
After the Western Roman generalStilicho arrived in the area.
Later.
Alaric became commander in chiefof Byzantine forces, They put
them in that position to preventhim from conducting any further
raids on their empire.
So they put him in charge of themilitary.
(05:04):
Incursions by various groupscontinued including coastal
raids by Vandals from Africa inthe four seventies.
Raids by Ostrogoths in the late400s, early 500s.
And, both Huns and Slavs in the500s.
Movements of peoples into theByzantine empire was an ongoing
(05:26):
process.
But let's look at the movementof the Byzantine empire outwards
into other territories duringthe reign of emperor Justinian.
Justinian ruled from 526 until565 and expanded the Byzantine
empire to its largest extent.
(05:46):
Areas that had been part of theWestern Roman empire, but taken
by other groups as that empirefell such as Italy, Sicily,
Sardinia, Corsica, NorthernAfrica, west of Egypt and
Southern Spain were invaded bythe Byzantines and brought under
their control.
(06:07):
Funding those invasions andother fighting on the Eastern
borders required large amountsof money from the Byzantine
treasury.
Justinian tried to crack down ontax evasion by officials and
landowners through reforms, butthere was pushback and those
reforms were later reversed.
Large landowners were a growingproblem across the Byzantine
(06:30):
empire.
Since they tended to bribeofficials to work in their
interests instead of the good ofthe empire.
Large estates had beenincreasing in size for
centuries.
So Justinian issued edicts totry to halt the process of
smaller landholdings beingswallowed up by large estates.
(06:51):
It became evident towards theend of his reign, that those
measures were not working.
And large estate holdersactually, were still becoming
more and more powerful.
Adding to the empires woes.
In the 540s.
Bubonic plague ravaged thepopulation, killing many.
(07:11):
Including in the Peloponnese.
The reduced population meantfewer people to sustain the
economy and pay taxes whilemilitary threats around the
expanded empire demanded moreresources After the death of
Justinian in 565.
The Byzantine empire facedfinancial and military woes.
(07:34):
And the newly gained territory.
Reverted back to non Byzantinecontrol.
In the east and south threatsfrom Persia chipped away at
territory, including Syria,Palestine, and Egypt.
And those areas later fellcompletely to Arab tribes that
had converted to the newreligion of Islam.
(07:56):
In the Peloponnese Slavs raidedthe land in the 580s and then
came to stay.
At that time, Byzantineresources were focused more on
the Persians in the east.
Although it may have occurredearlier.
We know that definitely aroundthe year 641 the Byzantine
(08:16):
empire had lost meaningfulcontrol.
Over all, but a few coastalcities in the Peloponnese.
Due to military defeats andpolitical instability.
Most of the land in the empirehad been lost at this point.
And the Byzantine empirecontracted down to only
Constantinople and thesurrounding area in Anatolia.
(08:38):
So during this period, Slavicpeoples came into the
Peloponnese and settled there.
This means that some of theareas of the Peloponnese were
under Slav control.
But others, mostly coastalcities, but also a few other
areas were still in local Greekhands.
Although, not under Byzantinecontrol.
(08:59):
For areas under Slav controlinstead of paying taxes to the
Byzantine empire.
Local Greeks probably had to paya tribute to the Slavs instead.
This situation remained for over100 years until in the late
seven eighties, the Byzantineempire stabilized and started
trying to regain control of thePeloponnese.
(09:23):
Full Byzantine control didn'treturn until the early eight
hundreds under Emperor.
Nicephorus the first.
When a province for thePeloponnese was established.
Slavic peoples in thePeloponnese of course fought
against the re-establishment ofByzantine control with revolts
in the early eight hundreds.
(09:43):
The Slavs were graduallyincorporated into the population
by converting them toChristianity.
Promoting use of the Greeklanguage and also adding more
Greek speakers by moving themfrom Sicily and Asia Minor to
Greece.
The process was successful withonly a few pockets of distinct
(10:05):
Slav groups left in thePeloponnese a century later.
the story of the rich widow,Danielis of Patras a summary of
which I read in the intro.
shows that although theByzantine empire lost control of
the Peloponnese for a century,while Slav settled in the area,
Greeks remained and in the caseof wealthy landowners probably
(10:27):
kept their land and wealthduring that time.
The story of Danielis comes froma book about administering the
empire that was written byemperor Constantine the seventh
to his son in the mid 900s.
The story itself takes place inthe 860s.
Which was only about 60 to 80years after the Byzantine empire
(10:48):
regained control of thePeloponnese.
The wealth that Danielis had inthat story is evident from the
large number of people that shehad enslaved and was giving away
as gifts, The purple garments,linen robes, gold and silver
vessels, flocks and herds.
And that she possessed 80 farms.
(11:10):
So on those 80 farms, Danielis'people probably cultivated
wheat.
Grapes for wine and olives.
And probably had herds of sheep,goats, and possibly cattle to
help with cultivation.
The purple garments thatDanielis had may have been local
since production of purple dyewas one of the industries of the
(11:34):
Peloponnese along withproduction of parchment and
silk.
The position of wealthy elites,like Danielis would remain
strong in the next fewcenturies.
Although there were raids in theearly 900s by Arab pirates along
the coast and in the 980s, BySamuel of Bulgarias army.
(11:56):
The Peloponnese was mostlystable in this time.
And since the situation wasstable.
The Byzantine administration ofthe Peloponnese was mostly
distant.
And hands-off.
By the early 1000s thePeloponnese had been combined
into a province with centralGreece, which means the area
(12:19):
around Athens and Boeotiaincluding Thebes, which was
where the governor would residewhen in the province.
But the governor of the provincewas not local to the area.
He was appointed byConstantinople.
And he usually remained inConstantinople instead of
actually governing from Greece.
(12:41):
And at this time, the main thingthat the governor did was
collect taxes.
Often through the practice oftax farming.
The way tax farming worked isthat individuals would bid for
the job of collecting taxes.
And the winner would pay the bidamount to the governor.
So he'd already paid off thatmoney.
(13:03):
And then the tax farmer would gocollect taxes from people trying
to collect as much as he could.
Since this person needed toregain the amount of their bid.
Plus make extra money beyondtheir bid.
Obviously corruption was rifethrough this system up and down.
(13:24):
Since the tax farmers weretrying to extract as much money
as they could.
And the governor also would keepextra money from the bid beyond
what was sent to Constantinople.
So that wasn't a great system.
of the tax money that wascollected and sent on to
Constantinople, or that wasactually collected and meant for
(13:48):
the government.
by this time, it really wasn'tgoing into infrastructure or
defense of the Peloponnese.
Instead it was sent on toConstantinople.
The few troops that the governordid have.
were mostly used as his bodyguard.
And so to defend their land,local land owning elites, those
(14:08):
wealthy landowners who had been.
a problem who had been buildingup power for centuries at this
point.
They also built up privatearmies to protect their
extensive lands.
So to summarize.
The Byzantine empire afterseparating from the Western
(14:29):
Roman empire experienced.
Some ups and definite downs.
But by around 1000 hadstabilized.
And what doesn't mean?
That was really strong in somerespects, but it was stable.
The Peloponnese during thatentire period had seen the
influx of different peoples.
(14:50):
Especially there was an influxflux of Slavs who settled while
the Byzantine empire reallywasn't in control of the area.
But then there were alsoinfluxes of Greek speakers from
elsewhere.
The Imperial administration,since they didn't have many
direct threats to take care ofin the Peloponnese basically
(15:14):
what they were doing was justtax collection.
The imperial administrationbasically was only collecting
taxes from the Peloponnese theyweren't really investing
anything into the local militaryor infrastructure by the 1000s.
So definitely neglected.
Hands-off.
(15:35):
And this kind of played into theincreased power of those large
landowners.
As exemplified by Danielis inthe 860s.
So she might've been an extremeexample.
But there were definitely thesewealthy landowners who had so
much power in the Peloponnesearound the year 1000.
(15:57):
And they wanted to keep theirpower.
So the Byzantine empire in thePeloponnese stable around 1000
and prosperous.
Things were good.
But there were definiteweaknesses.
Those landowners were notbeholden to the Byzantine
empire.
There was weak, local defense.
(16:19):
There was corruption in the taxsystem and probably many, many
other parts of the Byzantineadministration.
So this apparent stability andByzantine control of the
Peloponnese would not last.
All right, let's talk a bitabout some endnotes.
(16:39):
This is not an exhaustive listof sources for this episode.
Since I went over 1000 years ofhistory I got information from
many, many different places.
But I want to tell you aboutthree that were the most
helpful.
The Oxford history of Byzantiumedited by Mango, which was
(16:59):
published in 2002 was reallygood for getting a handle on the
Byzantine empire.
There's also the Early MedievalBalkans by Fine published in
1991.
And he has a later book aboutthe Later Medieval Balkans,
which I'll definitely bereferencing in the next episode.
There's also Essays on the LatinOrient by Miller published in
(17:23):
1921.
The entire list of sources is inthe show notes, which I post on
both the Helonaki website and onPatreon.
I just want to end with a fewwords about word choice.
Many of the sources that I readare somewhat older, cause that's
(17:46):
what I can access.
And they often talk aboutinvasions of groups, whether
they're Goths or Huns or Slavsinto the Byzantine empire.
Whereas when they talk about theByzantine empire instead of
saying that they invade otherterritories, they say that
they're expanding theirterritory.
(18:07):
I'm of course influenced by whatI've read but I'm trying to
recognize what I'm saying anduse better wording.
So I'm calling an invasion andinvasion, even if it's by the
Byzantines against other groupsThis is something to think about
who was writing the history.
Thanks for listening.
(18:28):
Email questions or comments todeepdive@helonaki.com or ask
them on the Helonaki Deep DiveFacebook page.
Show notes with links toresources mentioned in this
episode will be available athelonaki.com.
That's H E L O N A K I.com.
You can also find ways tosupport the show now, including
(18:50):
merch such as t-shirts mugs andstickers with the Helonaki Deep
Dive logo athelonaki.com/support.
My thanks to Patreon supportersat the geospatial analyst level,
Leah Varrell and Janice andJerry Farrell.
Your support keeps the HelonakiDeep Dive going.
The Helonaki Deep Dive iswritten and produced by me, Jen
(19:12):
Glaubius of the Helonaki.
The theme music is Deep OceanInstrumental by Dan-o of
danosongs.com additional soundsfrom zapsplat.com.
Thanks for listening.
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