Authority in Byzantine Provincial Society, 950-1100

by Leonora Neville

Overview

Acting essentially to maintain power and collect taxes, the emperors of the Byzantine Empire (ca. 950-1100) did not attempt to govern provincial society. As a result, provincial households took advantage of this situation by competing for local control over each other whenever they could. This book describes the power-holders in the central provinces in a detailed comparison of the provincial strength of the imperial government and the mechanics of local authority.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521838658
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/19/2004
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Professor Leonora Neville is Professor of History at the Catholic University of America, Washington DC. She has written various articles on Byzantine bureaucracy. She has held the Bliss Prize Fellowship.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Imperial administration and Byzantine political culture; 2. Activities of the imperial administration; 3. Provincial households; 4. Provincial households and the imperial administration; 5. Regulation of provincial society; 6. Contention and authority; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"The book is well written, easy to follow and largely free of errors." Franziska E. Schlosser, Concordia University

' .. useful and illuminating ..' Ab Imperio

"...this is an excellent and significant book. Neville's rejection of ideological systems could be applied with profit to earlier and later periods of Byzantine social history and to Byzantine history in general...."
-H-Law, Warren Treadgold, Department of History, Saint Louis University

From the Publisher