ἀνθρώποισι πᾶσι μέτεστι γινώσκειν ἑωυτοὺς καὶ σωφρονεῖν.
End-of-life decisions remain a complicated problem in the relationships between physicians and the patient’s family, with social and legal consequences which today face all civilised societies. Continue reading “Abandonment of terminally ill patients in the Byzantine era; a tradition from pre-Christian times”
From the fourth century A.D. until the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the people of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire participated in a wide range of sports and physical recreations. Continue reading “Sports and Games in the Eastern Roman (‘Byzantine’) Empire”
Most of the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118) was marked by a considerable amount of confusion in the rural economy with far reaching inconsistencies in the operation of the Byzantine taxation system. Continue reading “The effectiveness of Roman Emperor Alexios I Komnenos’ fiscal policy”
In 395 the two designated centres of government were headed by young emperors: Arcadius probably 17/18, had some experience of imperial administration, though Honorius at age 10 was still a child who wept openly at his father’s funeral in Milan. Continue reading “Western and Eastern Roman Empresses of Late Antiquity”
Cherson had been a Byzantine port-city at the southwestern end of the Crimea that provided an important link to northern barbarian peoples, especially in terms of trade (e.g., furs, slaves, wax, honey, salted fish) and diplomacy. Continue reading “Cherson, Crimea; “at the extremity of the Roman Empire””
The capture of Constantinople by the armies of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 accelerated the disintegration of the Byzantine Empire, and was followed by a period of intense political fragmentation and military conflicts between the small political entities that were established on the territories that had belonged to the Byzantine Empire. Continue reading “West-European soldiers in the armies of the Empire of Nicaea”
Novo Scriptorium 