The module will cover the period from the Muslim conquest of the Near East to the capitulation of Trebizond to Mehmed II in 1461.  It will consider a typical range of issues in line with the 'new' military history, which looks at the impact of war on social and cultural structures and processes, economics and fiscalité, fortifications and infrastructure, state ideologies and treaty systems, architecture and representational art. Tactical manuals and historical evidence for the execution of military plans (grand strategy, operations and tactics) in the diverse geographical environments of the southern Balkans and Near East is an inevitable part of this.  There will be particular emphasis on the human cost of endemic warfare and the role of religion in bolstering Greek ethnic morale. The range of questions will be similar to those posed for other periods of European history.  What were the ideological characteristics of the Byzantine state and its competitors? Is it possible to trace clear continuities in Greek society and culture in their response to foreign military aggression? What role did the amalgam of neighbouring peoples (inter alia Albanians, Arabs, Armenians, Slavs and Turks) play in the vicissitudes of Byzantine state and society?  What function did endemic warfare have in the ethnogenesis of contemporary Balkan and Near Eastern societies?  The module will adopt an intercultural approach to this investigation. Narrative histories, documents, archaeological data and art historical representation will all be used to explore the material and cultural context of the historical process.

• Demonstrate a systematic understanding of the development and nature of a pre-industrial society in long periods of low-intensity warfare (raiding) and catastrophic events that affect state survival
• Demonstrate a systematic knowledge of the behavioural structures of Greek society under the impress of the fiscal demands of an authoritarian state.
• Demonstrate a systematic knowledge of the historiographic debates about medieval Greek public institutions, society and culture—and particularly about state survival—that have emerged since the publication of Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
• Assess the various historiographic approaches to the genres of evidence that are used to recover the medieval Greek past.
• Develop a praxis for multiethnic understanding of endemic warfare and peace-making in the Balkan and Near Eastern context.
• Assess and interpret select examples of Byzantine primary sources: documents, historical narratives, defensive architecture and artistic practice relevant to the theme of the module.
• Interpret debates in the secondary literature relevant to the theme of the module.

A wide range of teaching methods will be employed in the sessions set forth below. The lectures are designed to introduce the main themes of the module. Seminars will promote in-depth analysis of the primary sources: historical narratives, documents and non-narrative sources found in the material culture. 

Lectures

Lectures will introduce chronological periods and themes that are central to the problem of endemic warfare.  The aim is to arouse student interest in particular subjects and steer them towards the best bibliography (‘frameworks of understanding’). The lectures will introduce the principal primary sources, with emphasis on those available in English translation. This is intended to lay the groundwork for independent study. Handouts and visual images will investigate material culture and artistic work in order to develop a concrete sense of historical reality.

Seminars

The seminars will introduce students to medieval Greek historical sources and documents. Students will be invited to read and comment on them with analysis of content and bias. They will also investigate the material evidence provided by archaeology and the ideological agendas apparent in artistic creation.  The latter categories include fortifications, harbour installations, representations of war and the ideology of war in manuscript illumination and officially inspired imperial art found in the mosaic and mural programmes of churches and other buildings. The seminars will provide students with an opportunity to engage in interactive discussion and critical debate about the sources. They will be encouraged to investigate Byzantine material culture first hand through travel and museum study.

Academic:

• Effective oral and written communication.
• Logical thought.
• Ability to pay attention to detail and assess its significance.
• Ability to undertake independent learning and thought, and to reflect on the results.
• All the traditional intellectual skills, such as critical analysis and synthesis of evidence.

Subject-specific:

• Informed reading, interpretation and critical analysis of medieval Greek primary sources (narrative histories, documents, theological tractates, ecclesiastical correspondence, archaeological data and artistic materials) in connexion with warfare.
• Presentation of written analysis on the themes of the module.
• Presentation of academic seminars to audiences on the themes of the module.
• Informed reading, interpretation and critical analysis of medieval Greek primary sources on war and political theory, social structure and international relations.
• Informed reading, interpretation and critical analysis of the scholarly literature on the history of the medieval Greek experience of war in the spheres of political theory, social structure and international relations.
• Informed critical analysis of historical literature on the praxis of war and peace-making.

Generic:

• Critical analysis of world politics.
• Critical reading of public documents and policy statements.
• Oral presentation of public policy analysis.
• Use of internet to study culture, politics and society.
• Critical engagement with the beliefs and behaviour of others.
• Ability to work collaboratively and effectively as the member of a group through the comparison of prepared material.
• Personal attributes such as self-reliance and adaptability.

Students will be assessed by means of a combination of one 1000 word assessed essay [15%], one 2000 word assessed essay [35%] and one two-hour unseen written examination paper in which the student will answer two questions [50%].

Course assignments:

1. Assessed Essay 1will contribute 15% of the final mark for the module. It is designed to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to review evidence, draw appropriate conclusions from it and employ the formal conventions of scholarly presentation. It must be no longer than 1,000 words (excluding empirical appendices and references).
2. Assessed Essay 2will contribute 35% of the final mark for the module. It is designed to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to review evidence, draw appropriate conclusions from it and employ the formal conventions of scholarly presentation. It must be no longer than 2,000 words (excluding empirical appendices and references).
3. The Examination will take place during the second assessment period [May/June] and will consist of an unseen two hour paper that will contribute the remaining 50% of the final mark for this module. Students must write 2 answers in total.

Lectures (delivered in English)

1. Historiography of the Byzantine state, medieval Greek society and culture at war.
2. The Eastern Roman state: army, society and defensive infrastructure
3. Across the frontier: neighbouring state formations, societies and their practice of war.
4. Crisis of the 7^th century I: Islam, the caliphate and the Arab conquest of Syria, Palestine and Egypt.
5. Crisis of the 7^th century II: Slavonic and Bulgar penetration of the Balkan peninsula.
6. Social and cultural impact of endemic low intensity warfare 7^th-10^th centuries. The early medieval fortified town (kastron).
7. Byzantine territorial expansion in the 10^th-11^th centuries. Tactical manuals and the systematisation of warfare.
8. Graeco-Roman customary law of war in medieval Christian configuration. Islamic and Slavic legal norms.
9. Dangerous neighbours in the 11^th century: Fatimids, Seljuks and Franks.
10. Technological and organisational dislocation: the Seljuk Landnahme in Asia Minor.
11. Challenge and response: Crusade. Military reforms of the Komnenian emperors. Loss of Constantinople 1204.
12. The Laskarid regime in Asia Minor: endemic warfare in the Seljuk borderlands. The Epirote state. Recovery of Constantinople 1261.
13. Michael VIII Palaiologos: Byzantine naval forces and contacts with Italian maritime republics.
14. Byzantine territorial losses in 14^th century Asia Minor. Expansion of the Ottoman Turks.
15. Balkan twilight of the Byzantine state.  Fall of Constantinople and other outposts 1453-1461.
16. Aftermath and prospectus:  Greek society in defeat. Byzantine tactical manuals and the development of military thought in early modern Europe.

Seminars (delivered in English):   

1.  The Wars of Prokopios: eyewitness of endemic warfare in Africa, Italy and Syria (6^th c.).
2. The Strategikon of Maurice: the first ‘modern’ military system (6^th-7^th c.).
3. Arabic khabar: orally transmitted evidence for the Muslim occupation of Egypt, Palestine and Syria (7^th-9^th c.).
4. Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: ‘Dark Age’ reports on the popular resistance to Arab and Bulgar raiding (7^th-9^th c.).
5. Basil I the Macedonian: a grandson’s tribute to his grandfather’s conduct of war (9^th c.).
6. Pointers for essay writing.
7. Nicholas I Mystikos, patriarch of Constantinople: political correspondence on the customary law of war.
8. Michael Attaleiates: eyewitness to Mantzikert (August 1071)?
9. Kekaumenos: tactical manual of a Thessalian military aristocrat. Advice to the emperor on military policy.
10. Documents of war: official statements of the Byzantine (Graeco-Roman) customary law of war.
11. Byzantine fortifications (illustrated).
12. Fortifications and siege warfare (illustrated).
13. Personal statements about the burdens of endemic warfare: Michael Attaleiates revisited.  Typikon documents.  Texts from Mount Athos.
14. Pointers for the final examination.

Bartusis, M., The Late Byzantine Army. Arms and Society, 1204-1453 (Philadelphia 1992).

Birkenmeier, J. W., The Development of the Komnenian Army: 1081-1180 (Leiden 2002).

Bury, J. B., A History of the Eastern Roman Empire from the Fall of Irene to the Accession of Basil I (A.D. 802-867) (London 1912).

Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio, ed. Gy. Moravcsik, trans. R. H. J. Jenkins (Washington, D.C. 1967).

Dennis, G. T. (ed. and trans.) The Taktika of Leo VI (Washington, D.C. 2010).

Dennis, G. T. (ed. and trans.), Three Byzantine Military Treatises (Washington, D.C. 1985).

Haldon, J. F. (ed. and trans.), Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Three Treatises on Imperial Military Expeditions (Vienna 1990).

Haldon, J. F., Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World 565-1204 (London 1999).

Kyriakidis, S, Warfare in Late Byzantium, 1204-1453 (Leiden 2011).

Lee, A. D., War in Late Antiquity. A Social History (Oxford 2007).

Leo the Deacon, History, trans. A.-M. Talbot and D. F. Sullivan (Washington, D. C. 2005).

McGeer, E., Sowing the Dragon’s Teeth: Byzantine Warfare in the Tenth Century (Washington, D.C. 1995).

Muntaner, The Catalan Expedition to the East, trans. R. D. Hughes (Barcelona 2006).

Ostrogorsky, G., History of the Byzantine State (New Brunswick 1969).

Pryor, J. H. and Jeffreys, E. M., The Age of the Dromon . The Byzantine Navy ca 500-1204 (Leiden 2006).

Toynbee, A., Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his World (Oxford 1973).

Theophanes Confessor, Chronicle, trans. C. Mango and R. Scott (Oxford 1997).

Treadgold, W., Byzantium and Its Army 284-1081 (Stanford 1995).

Trombley, F. R. and Watt, J. W. (trans.), The Chronicle of Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite (Liverpool 2000).

Vryonis, S., The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century (Berkeley-Los Angeles 1971).

Please see Essential Reading List.