Undergraduate Course: The formation of the medieval Roman Empire, 602-867 (ANHI10088)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The fall of Rome in the fifth century did not mark the end of the Roman empire. This continued to exist in the eastern parts of the Mediterranean far beyond the era of Justinian I. The label Byzantine empire, which is widely used by modern historians to designate the medieval Roman Empire of Constantinople, serves to downplay that continuity while emphasizing how different that medieval imperial state was compared to its ancient and late antique predecessors. In this course, we will explore the social, cultural and political history of the medieval empire of New Rome in its
formative period between the years 600 and 867. Our focus will be on events that reshaped the eastern Roman empire while changing the course of world history, such as the rise of Islam and the Slavic settlements in the Balkans, as well as on the fascinating transformation of the Roman culture from Latin to Greek. |
| Course description |
The label Byzantine Empire is a modern construct, an artificial term which - especially in British and USA academia - is used to designate the state and society under the authority of the emperor in Constantinople from the seventh century onwards. This modern term has contributed a great deal to depriving the medieval empire of Constantinople, New Rome, of its Roman identity but also to directing attention away from how Romanness was transformed during the Middle Ages in the eastern parts of the Mediterranean. Following Gibbon's historical tradition, Byzantium functioned for a very long time as a metonym for decline and decadence, and it is only since the end of the previous century that modern scholarship has started to overturn this image.
In this course, we will investigate the formative centuries of the medieval Roman empire of Constantinople. Beginning with the last great war of antiquity between the east Roman and the Persian empires in the early seventh century we will trace all major events that determined the territorial, political, social, and cultural transformation of the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East up to the mid-ninth century. We will examine how the rise of Islam and the establishment of the vast empire of the Caliphate, the settlement of Slavic peoples in the Balkans, and the regeneration of the Roman imperial office in the west contributed to reshaping the east Roman imperial state and culture while paying due attention to the major implications that some of these events had for the formation of the regions of the Balkans and the Near East as we know them today. By studying written sources belonging to a variety of genres through modern translations (historiography, hagiography, law, church council transcripts, sermons), alongside the material culture of this period, we will analyze and interpret how the east Roman world changed into a territorially contracted imperial state by the mid-ninth century whose epicentre and territorial focus point was not the Mediterranean sea anymore but Asia Minor. By the ninth century, this state was based on the Greek culture and the Orthodoxy of the Christian Church of Constantinople, and was becoming strong enough again to aspire its territorial expansion.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should usually have at least 3 courses in Classics related subject matter (at least 2 of which should be in Ancient History) at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this), or 3 courses in History, or a mixture of 3 History and Classics courses, for entry to this course. We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
174 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
80 %,
Practical Exam
20 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework:
3,500 word essay (50%)
1,500 word weekly reading report (20%)
Non-Written Skills:
Powerpoint Presentation (30%) |
| Feedback |
Students will receive written feedback on their coursework, and will have the opportunity to discuss that feedback further with the Course Organiser during their published office hours or by appointment. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, command of the body of knowledge considered in the course;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to read, analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to understand, evaluate and utilise a variety of primary source material;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, the ability to develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence;
- demonstrate independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers.
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Reading List
Brown T.S., Gentlemen and Officers. Imperial Administration and Aristocratic Power in Byzantine Italy, A.D. 554-800, Rome 1984
Brubaker L. and Haldon J., Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era, c. 680-850: A history, Cambridge 2010
Gregory T., A history of Byzantium, Malden, MA.-Oxford 2005
Haldon J., The Empire that would not die. The Paradox of Eastern Roman Survival, 640-740, Cambridge 2016
Haldon J.F. (ed.), Towards a social history of Byzantium, Oxford 2009
Kaegi W., Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium, Cambridge 2003
Kennedy H., The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century, London, 1986
Laiou A. et al. (eds.), The economic history of Byzantium from the seventh through the fifteenth century, Washington D.C. 2002
(online at: http://www.doaks.org/EHB.html)
Shepard J. (ed.), The Cambridge history of the Byzantine Empire: c. 500 - 1492, Cambridge 2008
Treadgold W., The Byzantine Revival, 780-842, Stanford 1988
Whittow M., The making of Orthodox Byzantium, 600-1025, Basingstoke 1996
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Yannis Stouraitis
Tel: (0131 6)50 9110
Email: Yannis.Stouraitis@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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