Trebizond

The ancient site of Tios (modern Filyos) lies at the mouth of the river Billaios (Filyos Çayı), towards the western end of the southern Black Sea coast, in Zonguldak province. In ancient sources the city is spelt in various ways, including Tios, Tieion, Teion and Tion. In the second half of the seventh century BC the city was founded as a Milesian colony by the priest named Tios.

It was dependent to various kingdoms throughout the Hellenistic period and the city fell under Roman control in AD 70. In the Roman Imperial period, it is understood from inscriptions and coins that Roman emperors and proconsuls encouraged the development of the city. In the Byzantine period the city was a bishopric and we find the names of bishops of Tios on lead seals.

The Empire of Trebizond has been viewed by many as an outsider within mainstream Byzantine History. Indeed, it is often seen as a corrupt and distorted version of Byzantium, especially in regards to the 'foreign aspects' employed within its art and architecture. On the other hand, though, the Empire of Nicaea, the state that eventually recaptured Constantinople and 'revived' the Byzantine Empire in 1261, is normally viewed as the embodiment of 'traditional' Byzantine political and cultural identity. However, is such a view fair? This paper will discuss how, upon the foundation of the Empire of Trebizond, the Grand Komnenoi promoted their pretentions to ultimate imperial power within and without their domain. It will be shown that although the Trapezuntine Emperors developed a distinct imperial identity that drew upon regional (for example Georgian, Armenian and Seljuk) identities much more heavily than their rivals in Nicaea, the Trapezuntine Empire should not be considered less worthy of a place within mainstream Byzantine history than the Laskarids or Palaiologoi.

This paper deals with the origins of the despotate of Epirus and the Empire of Trebizond comparing them with the fate of other Byzantine splinter-states of the XIIth and XIIIth century and tries to draw some outlines of a future  comparison with the realities of Medieval Western Europe.

Non-Muslims in Trabzon had significantly survived since Fatih Sultan Mehmet's conquest of this city. Non-Muslims of Trabzon who most of them were Greeks witnessed considerable changes in their administrative and religious constructions by Tanzimat and they lived up a process in which disputes within the community rose much more. Orthodox Armenians could be said the first one who experienced this process. A great deal of people among Trabzon Armenians apostatized to Catholicism due to the missionary activities from the eighth century. Catholic Armenians relaxed with the remove the ban on apostasy for denominations in 1844, but some discussions about institutions like cemeteries, churches continued as Orthodox Armenians couldn’t accept the remove. According to Catholics, the Protestant Armenians who separated from the main church in a later period are the other group experienced this process. However, the Protestants could be said that they institutionally experienced less conflict than Catholic.
The Greeks who had religious and educational institutions located in the center of Trabzon and other parts also had many changes in the community structure after Tanzimat. Greek Orthodox, while struggling not to send their children to schools which missionaries opened, experienced problems with local religious rulers such as metropolitan. Because of that, many complaints petitions were given to Greek Patriarchate and the Ottoman Government.
In this paper, we analyze the discussions of Non-Muslims in Trabzon about religious and administrative constructions, the attitude of the Ottoman administrators to that and the reflection of that attitude in the city in the light of the Ottoman archive documents in general.

If we would apply it to Trebizond and its district, the duchy of Chaldia, the concept of 'border' may be declined in two different ways. Firstly, in its 'classic' meaning, for the region was located on the north-eastern edge of the Anatolian peninsula and since Late Antiquity represented the eastern limit of the imperial authority. Secondly, in political and cultural terms, as the geographical characteristics of the territory and the 'separatist temper' of local ruling classes, slowly led Chaldia to detach from Constantinople's sovereignty.
The 'porosity' of byzantine frontiers fostered the penetration of significant population groups – Lazes, Armenians and Georgians – from the neighbouring Caucasus, which gradually amalgamated with the Greek majority, until creating a specific 'Pontic' character in the inhabitants of the region. Byzantine scholars noticed the latter's 'otherness' already in the 10th century, for they described Chaldean rural elites as semi-barbarian. Indeed, those people prospered thanks to their looting in the neighbouring Islamic principalities and to the extortions at the expense of those who were crossing their possessions: not exactly like Constantinople's sophisticated aristocracy.
A truly independent principality was founded in Trebizond only in 1204, contemporarily with the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders, however, at least from the final quarter of the 11th century, Pontic aristocracies drew up and systematically applied a wide-ranging separatist strategy. Led by the most prominent military clans, local magnates retook Chaldia after it had momentarily fallen into the hands of the Turks after the battle of Manzikert (1071) and then hindered imperial agents to regain full control of it. Although until 1204 separatist dukes alternated with officials who were loyal to the basileia, Pontic political balance increasingly tended to exclude the emperor. Chaldean governors connected with local provincial elites not only did not accept a compromise with the central authority, but also developed their own foreign and religious policies, which was often openly at odds with that of the Empire. The latter were substantially the harbingers of the foundation of the so-called Empire of Trebizond, which would have survived to the imperial restoration of the Palaiologoi (1261) and resisted to the Ottomans until 1461, eight years after Constantinople's fall.

The late Byzantine period(1204-1461) was distinguished by the existence of multiple, competing, and interconnected centers, superseding the imperial and Constantinopolitan model of the middle period. Civic identity, defined largely in opposition to the "other", which refers to the Latins in the earlier part of this period and the Turks in the latter, was an integral component of the late Byzantine intellectual's self-definition. City enkomia, a defunct genre, was revived in the late period by authors such as Theodore II Laskaris, Theodore Metochites, John Eugenikos, Bessarion, and Mark Eugenikos to praise Nicaea, Trebizond, and Thessalonike among other Byzantine cities. This paper provides three competing visions of late Byzantine identity:, Roman, Hellenic, and Christian. In spite of their differences, these three alternate solutions to the question of Byzantine identity and Byzantine self, all engaged with oppositions between inside and outside and developed the notion of freedom in the context of autonomous centers, existing in opposition to Constantinople.

"A relic from a lost monument of Trebizond: The Vita icon of saint George from St John Church in Exoteichon (1820)".

The article refers to a Vita icon of saint George the Victorious of the year 1820, actually used as the cult icon of St George Cathedral in Korydallos, Piraeus.
The icon depicts the martyr on horseback killing the dragon, as well as six miniature biographical scenes at the bottom. According to the dedicatory inscription, the icon was commissioned by anonymous donors for St John Church in Exoteichon. The latter can be identified with the district of Exoteiha (in Turkish: Eksotha / Sotka, now Hızırbey), in the lower town of Trebizond (Trabzon). The still standing (albeit not functioning) church of St John was built in 1856; it replaced the old Byzantine church, for which the icon of saint George, its only preserved relic, was apparently intended.
The icon, as its particular oriental rococo style suggests, was created in a workshop of Asia Minor, probably in the region of Argyropouli (Gümüşhane) of Pontus, where the arts related to Orthodox Church had been flourishing since the mid-18th century. It was probably donated to St George Cathedral in Korydallos by a refugee from Trebizond, which was evacuated by its Christian inhabitants, Greeks and Armenians, in 1922.

ADDENDA: After the publication of the present article, the lower part of the Vita icon of saint George, which seems to have been arbitrarily cut off in 1970’s, so that the icon fits with the modern marble proskynetarion, was accidentally found in a storage space of the Cathedral. Six more episodes related to saint George are depicted on it, thus completing his biographical cycle. They will be presented here, as an appendix, after the restoration of the missing part and the welding of the icon.

A 14th-century illuminated copy of the Romance of Alexander the Great, now in Venice, offers unique pictorial information for the galleys operating in that period in the Black Sea. The manuscript, commissioned by the emperor of Trebizond and copied in the same region in the mid-14th century, includes ship images that almost certainly portray contemporary galleys with crews from Italy. The presence of Italian merchants and sailors in the Levant is well documented by historical sources, but this is the first clue for the presence of contracted sailors or mercenaries in the empire of Trebizond.

This book length translation of Bessarion's encomium of Trebizond (mod. Trabzon) makes available for the first time in English this crucial source for the history of the empire of Trebizond and the Greek Pontos. Conforming to the genre of late antique encomia of cities, this text draws heavily on Isocrates, Aelius Aristides, and Libanios to retell the history of Trebizond from Xenophon's Anabasis to the present day. It examines issues such as Byzantine identity and alterity during the fifteenth century, while also providing a valuable descriptions of the Komnenoi and their palace. As such, it is a valuable source not only for late Byzantine history, but also rhetoric and the construction of the past.

I also translate Michael Panaretos' chronicle of Trebizond, our only surviving history of Trebizond. It provides the backbone of what we know about the empire of Trebizond, while also offering the historian key information on Trebizond's relations with its Turkish and Turkmen neighbors. Panaretos's chronicle is notoriously obscure and laconic. This translation provides detailed historical and topographical commentary.

Two months after my volume Two Works on Trebizond appeared, Sergei Karpov, Rustam Shukurov, and A. M. Kryukov published a new critical edition of Michael Panaretos’s chronicle. As they published a facsimile of Marcianus gr. 608/coll. 306, the only surviving copy of the chronicle, as well as an improved text of the chronicle, I wanted to take advantage of the possibilities of the internet to offer both corrections to my translation based on their emendations and also responses to some of the problematic changes they made to the text. My special thanks to Alice Mary Talbot, Nicole Eddy, Dumbarton Oaks medieval library summer intern Louie Zweig for reading this document and helping me vastly improve the style. All errors are my own.

This is a reconstruction of the relationships between the Pontic family of the Chaldoi, and the Athonite monastery of Iviron inside the  framework of the ties which connected the Trapezuntine military clans with a number of social, political and religious actors of the Georgian world.

My intervention was about the gradual construction of a border between the Byzantine Empire and its own province of Chaldia before the foundation of the Empire od Trebizond in 1204. The region became increasingly autonomous and its aristocracy developed its own ways to rule and manage political power, regardless of imperial authority.

Many studies of the medieval Black Sea address the importance of Byzantine imperial agency in facilitating economic and political exchange. However, few studies examine the limits of Byzantine statehood regarding trans-Black Sea local dynasts. This study, primarily utilizing sigillography, focuses on the eleventh-twelfth century notable families of Cherson and Trebizond in case studies, particularly the well-known Tzouloi and Gavrades: two cities and families famed for their respective local autonomies. How can seals uncover an otherwise hidden dimension of Byzantine sovereignty, or its contestation, which manifested itself across the Black Sea even before the emergence of the empire of Trebizond after 1204?

Struggles between the Anatolian Seljukids and the Trebizond Empire in the Black Sea Region (1204-1243) Afler the fall of istanbul in 1204 by Cnısades, the territory ofthe Byzantine Empire was divided into a great number of states, partly Greek, partly Frankish. Two Greek states established in Asia Minor were the Empire ofNicaea and Empire ofTrebizond. They played an important role in the history of the Byzantine Empire after 1204. Both of ttiese states originated the idea of the
restomtion of the Byzantine Empire and one of them successed this aim: The Empire of Nicaea. In spite of the dynasty of Cormıeni was more famous among the Greeks than the Lascarids of Nicaea, Alexios and David Cormıenus failed in their plan to organize a powerful state in Trebizand and to drive Latins away from İstanbul. Two brothers failed in stnıggles with Empire of Nicaea and especially with the Seljukids in order to defend oftheir dominions on the shore of Black Sea and they became a vassal of the Seljukids until Mongol invasion in 1243. In this article will be discussed struggle between the Anatolian Seljukids and the Trebizond Empire in the first half of 1 3th century in the Black Sea region

Review of the book of Simon Bendall, Εισαγωγή στη νομισματική της Αυτοκρατορίας της Τραπεζούντας, transl.–ed. Eleni M. Lianta, Thessaloniki 2018, ISBN 978-960-599-243-9
(S. Bendall, An Introduction to the Coinage of the Empire of Trebizond, London 2015, ISBN 978-1-907427-59-6).

Β΄ [Θ΄] Συνάντηση Ελλήνων Βυζαντινολόγων, 13-15-12-2017, Συνεδριακό και Πολιτιστικό Κέντρο Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών

Η ανακοίνωση αφορά στις διακυμάνσεις της έννοιας της ελευθερίας στα αυτοτελή εγκώμια πόλεων της Ύστερης Βυζαντινής περιόδου και ειδικά του 15ου αι.
Στα πρώτα αυτοτελή εγκώμια πόλεων της Ύστερης Αρχαιότητας, δηλαδή τον Παναθηναϊκόν του Αίλιου Αριστείδη και τον Ἀντιοχικόν του Λιβάνιου, όπως και στις οδηγίες του Μένανδρου του ρήτορα του 3ου αι. μ.Χ. για το πῶς χρὴ πόλεις ἐπαινεῖν, δεν απαντούσε καθόλου ως εγκωμιαστικός τόπος των πόλεων η έννοια της ελευθερίας από τους εξωτερικούς κατακτητές. Ωστόσο στη συνέχεια και μετά τη διακοπή του είδους κατά τη μέση περίοδο βλέπουμε στα αυτοτελή εγκώμια πόλεων της Ύστερης Βυζαντινής περιόδου την έννοια της ελευθερίας - τόσο με την τυπική της έννοια, της ελευθερίας δηλαδή από τους ξένους κατακτητές όσο και με ορισμένες σημασιολογικές διαφοροποιήσεις της - να εμφανίζεται όλο και συχνότερα.
Πρόκειται για μία αξιοπρόσεκτη ανάδειξη του στοιχείου της ελευθερίας ως τμήματος της συνολικής αρετής των κατοίκων των εγκωμιαζόμενων πόλεων, που κορυφώθηκε αλλά και διακόπηκε οριστικά με την ἐγκωμιαστικήν ἔκφρασιν Τραπεζοῦντος, τη συνταχθείσα από τον Ιωάννη Ευγενικό μεταξύ του 1447 και του 1450. Εκεί στο τελευταίο ουσιαστικά δείγμα του είδους των αυτοτελών εγκωμίων πόλεων, το οποίο γράφτηκε στο λυκόφως της ύπαρξης της Βυζαντινής αυτοκρατορίας, μάλλον δεν είναι τυχαίο ότι για πρώτη φορά στην ιστορία του συγκεκριμένου είδους η ελευθερία ως πολιτική αρετή κατέλαβε μία επί ίσοις όροις θέση δίπλα στις αρετές της δικαιοσύνης-φιλανθρωπίας, της σωφροσύνης, της φρόνησης και της ανδρείας.

In this study the educational functions of the Black Sea communities from 1682 to 1922 are recorded and are allocated to periods. Concretely the preparation period 1453-1860 is examined during which the conditions were shaped initially in order the concentration of the Byzantine heritage and tradition in the monasteries of the Black Sea to be achieved and then in order this heritage to be diffused through education mechanisms in the urban centers of Pontus . Then the typological classification of Pontos’ schools of the period is recorded with criteria as a) their administration and supervision b ) the categorization of the educational provision and finally c) the history of the two secondary schools (Frontistirio) in Trebizond and in Argiroupolis. In a second level the educational explosion in Pontus during the period 1860-1908 is researched . The context of the period is also described and the schools in the Black Sea region are also classified by the criteria mentioned above. Finally education in Pontus during the period 1910-1922 is studied and the schools of the period classified into categories are presented. The study closes with an assessment of the main conclusions arising from this research

Theodore Gabras has been a prominent figure in the Byzantine Empire during the last quarter of the XIth century. In this speech I tried to summarise his main features analyzing the reason for his behaviour as an authonomous ruler in the Pontos and finding his place in the Comnenian power system.

Ηλίας Γιαρένης, Ο λόγιος και ο γενέθλιος τόπος. Η Τραπεζούντα με τον τρόπο του Βησσαρίωνος, Επετηρίς Εταιρείας Βυζαντινών Σπουδών 53 (2007-09). Κατάθεσις εις μνήμην του Καθηγητού Δημητρίου Ζ. Σοφιανού, 265-280.
[= Ilias Giarenis, The Scholar and his Native City. Trebizond in Cardinal Bessarion's Words, EEBS 53 (2007-09), In the Memory of Professor Demetrios Z. Sophianos, 265-280 (in greek, with english Summary, cited below <pp. 590-591> )].

Summary
[p. 590]
The main subject of the article is the examination of the ways in which Cardinal Bessarion describes Trebizond, in his encomiastic description (Ekphrasis) of the city. Certain suggestions are made with regard to the place of this rhetorical work in the historical context of the 15th century and in the corpus of Bessarion's literary activities.
An investigation is made on the close connection between the scholar and his native city (patris). The encomiastic description is also examined in the framework of its ideological and cultural character and function; the city is propagated as the only authentic and vivid continuator of the ancient Greek and Byzantine legacy, having its roots in Athens and Constantinople respectively.The Great Komnenoi dynasty of Trebizond are praised as the authentic and active linear heirs of the Byzantine ruling tradition (basileia).
As a result, the city is presented as having a unique place in
[p. 591]
Greek historical tradition, combining the cultural and political tradition of Athens and Constantinople, in the dramatic situation of the first half of the 15th century Byzantium, which faced the theat - and, partly, the fact - of the Ottoman conquest.

Unlike other areas of Byzantine studies, in the history of architecture the Black sea was for a long time not considered comprehensively. This lacune has recently been partially corrected by R. Sharp’ thesis, which, however, is characterized by a lack of the material and the randomness of the datings. The present article examines the traditions of Middle Byzantine Church architecture on the Southern, Eastern and Northern shores of the Black sea, which demonstrate some common trends. Clearly visible here are two architectural styles of stone buildings (using plinths only in the arches). One is characteristic of Pontus and Abkhazia of the late 9th  – mid-10th century, and penetrated also into Cherson; it based on the use of pilasters, buttress arches (stepped under the dome) and cross-shaped piers that can be replaced at the bottom by columns. This design is used both in the domed churches of the inscribed-cross type and basilicas; here, probably, belong also atrophied Greek crosses of Pontus and Egrisi. The second style origins apparently also from Pontus, but came to Cherson and Tamatarcha: of simple variant of inscribed crosses on 4 columns, with semicircular apses and without any articulation of the walls. Perhaps, this style of 10–11th centuries (?) was born as a provincial simplification of the inscribed crosses of the first style. A separate phenomenon is the Byzantine-Tao workshop of 960–970-ies. Other Middle Byzantine churches in these regions remain isolated.

What gives a provincial Byzantine city autonomy?  What causes it to partake in one of the frequent rebellions against the emperor?  Alternatively, make it loyal to Constantinople?  Politics?  Religion?  A local sense of dependent or independent identity?  Or perhaps something more visceral, economics for example?  This paper explores three case studies of Black Sea episcopal port cities from ca. 800-1200: the citadels of Amastris, Trebizond and Chersōn.  How did their respective roles within and without the empire separate their fates while their simultaneous connections to inter-Black Sea trade bind them together?  Finally, how can our knowledge of the Black Sea provincial city inform our knowledge of both the entire history of the Black Sea and the evolution of Byzantine provinces throughout the period from ca. 800-1200?