Imagining Byzantium

Byzantium the other. Byzantium the pompous. Byzantium the eternal. The mere existence of this empire spurred the minds of people of all ranks during its existence and well after its ultimate demise in 1453. Neglecting its great political and cultural influence, Enlighteners divested Byzantium of its historic reality and created a model to be applied in completely different constructs. With the rise of nationalism in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th century, the reception of Byzantium gained new facets and dimensions. In this volume some light will be shed on the different ways in which »Byzantium« was used in constructing new national narratives, and how its legacy endured in ecclesiastical historiography.