ON THE MUTILATION AND BLINDING OF BYZANTINE EMPERORS FROM THE REIGN OF HERACLIUS I UNTIL THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14795/j.v4i3.265Abstract
Whoever reads about Byzantine history probably realises sooner or later that besides killing a pretender or emperor it was quite common to blind him – or to cut off his nose. This latter practice is called rhinotomy. It is the aim of this paper to examine the frequency of and the reasons for these forms of punishment in Byzantiumfrom the beginning of the 7th century until 1453. The article takes a diachronic approach to the questions regarding Byzantine emperors and pretenders who were blinded or mutilated. The multiple brief case studies provided in the first part thus make up the core of the paper. But the statistical analyses in the second half are nevertheless crucial for the conclusions drawn at the end.
Downloads
References
Attaliota, Glycas, Grammaticus, Theophanes, Cedrenus, Nicephorus, Choniata
Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae. Editio emendatior et copiosior, consilio B. G. Niehburii C. F. (50 vols. B. E. Weberi 1828–1897).
Herodotus, Histories
The Histories, Herodotus, translated by Tom Holland, with introduction and notes by Paul Cartledge (New York: Viking).
Lutherbibel:
Die Bibel nach Martin Luthers Übersetzung, revidiert 2017 (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft).
Niccolò Machiavelli (BENNETT) 2010
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, translated and edited by J. Bennett, available online at: http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/machiavelli1532part2.pdf. Accessed 1 July 2017.
Nicephorus (MANGO) 1990
Nikephoros, Patriarch of Constantinople. Short History, translated and edited by C. A. Mango (Washington, D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks, Research Library and Collection).
Plutarch, Antonius
Plutarch, Plutarch's Lives, with an English Translation by B. Perrin, London 1920; available online at:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0007%3Achapter%3D81%3Asection%3D2. Accessed 28 April 2017.
Theophanes (TURTLEDOVE) 1982
The Chronicle of Theophanes. Anni Mundi 6095-6305 (A.D. 602-813), translated by H. Turtledove (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press).
Theophanes (MANGO/SCOTT) 1997
Theophanes, Chronicle, C. de Boor (ed.), Leipzig 1883–1885; translated by C. Mango and R. Scott, with the assistance of G. Greatrex, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 284-813 (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
BRUBAKER/HALDON 2011
Brubaker, L. – Haldon, J. F., Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era, ca. 680–850. A History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
BURY 1889
Bury, J. B., A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene (395 A.D. to 800 A.D.), Vol. II (London – New York: Macmillan and Co.).
BUZAN/WÆVER/DE WILDE 1998
Buzan, B./Wæver, O./de Wilde, J., Security: A New Framework for Analysis (Boulder – London: Lynne Rienner Publishers).
CANDUCI 2010
Canduci, A., Triumph and Tragedy. The Rise and Fall of Rome’s Immortal Emperors (Pier 9), (Millers Point, N. S. W.: Murdoch Books Pty Limited).
CHISHOLM 1911
Chisholm, H. (ed.), s. v. "Andronicus I", Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 1, 111911, 975–976.
CUTLER/HOLLINGSWORTH 1991
Kazhdan, A. P., The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford – New York 1991, s. v. “Constantine VI” by A. Cutler and P. A. Hollingsworth, 501–502.
DA COSTA 2008
da Costa, T. G., Political Security, an Uncertain Concept with Expanding Concerns, in: Brauch, H. G./Oswald Spring, Ú./Mesjasz, C./Grin, J./Dunay, P./Behera, N.C./Chourou, B./Kameri-Mbote, P./Liotta, P.H. (ed.), Globalization and Environmental Challenges. Reconceptualizing Security in the 21st Century, vol. 3 (Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace), (Berlin – Heidelberg: Springer), 561–568.
DAVIS 1990
Davis, L. D. (ed.), The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325–787): Their History and Theology (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press).
EISNER 2011
Eisner, M., Killing Kings. Patterns of Regicide in Europe, AD 600–1800, in: British Journal of Criminology (2011), 1–22.
EVANS 2007
Evans, M., The Death of Kings. Royal Deaths in Medieval England (London: Bloomsbury Academic).
GARLAND 1999
Garland, L., Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium, AD 527–1204 (New York – London: Routledge).
GARLAND 2002
Garland, L., Constantine VI (780-797 A.D.) and Irene (797-802 A.D.), in: De Imperatoribus Romanis. An Online Encyclopaedia of Roman Emperors, available online at: http://www.roman-emperors.org/irene.htm. Accessed 22 April 2017.
GILES 2005
Giles, J., Special Report: Internet Encyclopaedias Go Head to Head, in: Nature 438 (2005), 900–901.
GOES 2013
Goes, F. J., The Eye in History (New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers).
GRIERSON 1962
Grierson, P., The Tombs and Obits of the Byzantine Emperors (337-1042), in: Dumbarton Oaks Papers 16 (1962). Appendix: Analysis of Sections II and III of the Necrologium, 51-52.
GSCHWIND 1995
Gschwind, Ch., 1995, s. v. „Rotrud“, in Lexikon des Mittelalters, vol. VII, München 1995, col. 1054.
HAMMWÖHNER 2007
Hammwöhner, R., Aspects of the Quality of Wikipedia, kommunikation@gesellschaft 8; available online at http://epub.uni-regensburg.de/15596/1/B3_2007_Hammwoehner.pdf. Accessed 17 April 2017.
HARTSOCK 2008
Hartsock, C., Sight and Blindness in Luke-Acts. The Use of Physical Features in Characterization (Leiden – Boston: Brill).
HOLLINGSWORTH 1991
Kazhdan, A. P., The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford – New York 1991, s. v. “Justinian II” by P. A. Hollingsworth.
KAZHDAN 1991
Kazhdan, A./Talbot, A.-M./Cutler, A./Gregory, T. E./Ševčenko, N. P. (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, III Volumes, Oxford – New York 1991.
KIMINAS 2009
Kiminas, D., The Ecumenical Patriarchate: A History of Its Metropolitans With Annotated Hierarch Catalogs ([Rockville, Maryland]: Wildside Press LLC).
LAMPSIDIS 1949
Lampsidis, O., The Penalty of Blinding by the Byzantines, dissertation, Athens 1949.
LASCARATOS /MARKETOS 1992
Lascaratos, J./Marketos, S., The Penalty of Blinding During Byzantine Times, in: Documenta Ophthalmologica 81 (1992), 133–144.
LORENZ 2009
Lorenz, A., Assessing the quality of Wikipedia entries on dentistry – a comparison with specialist literature in dentistry, unpublished dissertation, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg i. Br. 2009.
MAGDALINO 1993
Magdalino, P., The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos 1143–1180 (Cambridge – New York: Cambridge University Press).
MAZZOLA 1987
Mazzola, R. F., History of Nasal Reconstruction. A Brief Survey, in: Handchirurgie – Mikrochirurgie – Plastische Chirurgie 19, 1 (1987), 4–6.
MOORE1996
Moore, R. S., Heraclonas (April/May - September 641 A.D.) – Constantine III (February - April/May 641 A.D.), in: De Imperatoribus Romanis. An Online Encyclopaedia of Roman Emperors, available online at: http://www.roman-emperors.org/heraclon.htm. Accessed 20 April 2017.
MOORE 1997
Moore, R. S., Heraclonas Constantine IV (668 -685 A.D.), in: De Imperatoribus Romanis. An Online Encyclopaedia of Roman Emperors, available online at: http://www.roman-emperors.org/Constiv.htm. Accessed 20 April 2017.
MOORE 1998
Moore, R. S., Justinian II (685-695 & 705-711 A.D.), in: De Imperatoribus Romanis. An Online Encyclopaedia of Roman Emperors, available online at: http://www.roman-emperors.org/Just2.htm. Accessed 21 April 2017.
MOORE 1999
Moore, R. S., Leontius (695-98 A.D.), in: De Imperatoribus Romanis. An Online Encyclopaedia of Roman Emperors, available online at: http://www.roman-emperors.org/leonti2.htm. Accessed 21 April 2017.
NEIL 2000 a
Neil, B., Philippicus Bardanes (or Vardanes) (A.D.711-713), in: De Imperatoribus Romanis. An Online Encyclopaedia of Roman Emperors, available online at: http://www.roman-emperors.org/philbar.htm. Accessed 21 April 2017.
NEIL 2000 b
Neil, B., Theodosius III (715-717), in: De Imperatoribus Romanis. An Online Encyclopaedia of Roman Emperors, available online at: http://www.roman-emperors.org/theodiii.htm. Accessed 21 April 2017.
NORWICH 1990
Norwich, J. J., Byzantium. The Early Centuries (London: Penguin Books).
NORWICH 1993
Norwich, J. J., Byzantium: The Apogee (London: Penguin Books).
OSTROGORSKY 1956
Ostrogorsky, G., History of the Byzantine State (Oxford: Blackwell).
OSTROGORSKY 1963
Ostrogorsky, G., Geschichte des byzantinischen Staates (München: Beck).
PEARMAN 2010
Pearman, T. V., Women and Disability in Medieval Literature (New York: Palgrave Macmillan).
RINGROSE 2003
Ringrose, K. M. (ed.), The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
ROCHOW 1994
Rochow, I., Kaiser Konstantin V. (741–775). Materialien zu seinem Leben und Nachleben. Mit einem Anhang von C. Ludwig, I. Rochow und R.-J. Lilie (Berliner Byzantinische Studien 1), (Frankfurt a. M.: Lang).
ROSE 2003
Rose, M. L., The Staff of Oedipus: Transforming Disability in Ancient Greece (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press).
ROSENZWEIG 2006
Rosenzweig, R., Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past, in: The Journal of American History 93, 117–146.
SPERATI 2009
Sperati, G., Amputation of the Nose throughout History, in: Acta Otorhinolaryngol Italica 29, 1 (2009), 44–50; available online at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2689568/. Accessed 20 April 2017.
SPIKES 2014
Spikes, N. M., Dictionary of Torture, Bloomington 2014, e-book; available online at https://books.google.de/books?id=BxwnBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT119&lpg=PT119&dq=Rhinokopia&source=bl&ots=QwA3qo-YhA&sig=uXrRdpkfHvQUG-hG-HHdZYg9uOo&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQrYSZxunSAhUHShQKHc7BASQ4ChDoAQgrMAM#v=onepage&q=Rhinokopia&f=false. Accessed 19 April 2017.
STEIN 1980
Stein, D., Der Beginn des byzantinischen Bilderstreites und seine Entwicklung bis in die 40er Jahre des 8. Jahrhunderts (Miscellanea Byzantina Monacensia 25), (München: Institut für Byzantinistik und Neugriechische Philologie der Universität München).
TALBOT/SULLIVAN 2005
Talbot, A.-M./Sullivan, D. F. (ed.), The History of Leo the Deacon: Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century (Washington, D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks Studies).
TOUGHER 2004
Tougher, S., Constantine V Copronymus (A.D. 741-775), in: De Imperatoribus Romanis. An Online Encyclopaedia of Roman Emperors, available online at: http://www.roman-emperors.org/constanv.htm#N_2_. Accessed 21 April 2017.
TREADGOLD 1988
Treadgold, W. T., The Byzantine Revival, 780–842 (Stanford: Stanford University Press).
VAN DIETEN 1976
van Dieten, J. L., s. v. Isaak II. Angelos, in: Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte Südosteuropas, vol. II, München 1976, 238-240.
YALAMANCHILI et alii 2008
Yalamanchili, H./Sclafani, A. P./Schaefer, S. D./Presti, P., The Path of Nasal Reconstruction: From Ancient India to the Present, in: Facial Plastic Surgery 24, 1 (2008), 3–10.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal, we use CC BY-NC-ND license (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs) wich only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
