Social Stratification in Late Byzantium

by Christos Malatras

Overview

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the social structure of Late Byzantine society (mid 13th - mid 15th c.), including the norms and ideas that governed social relations, and the Byzantine perceptions of their society. It includes an analysis of all social groups, the social networks and the patron-client relations proliferating in this period, and the distribution of social and political power between the different social groups and the state. The deficiencies inherent in Byzantine society are recognised as one of the main factors behind the fragmentation and the collapse of the Byzantine empire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474460897
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	05/31/2025
Series:	Edinburgh Byzantine Studies
Pages:	608
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Christos Malatras has graduated from the University of Crete in Greece (BA and MPhil) and the University of Birmingham in 2013 (Phd). He has since then received fellowships in different institutions in Turkey, Greece, USA and Germany. He has taught Byzantine History in the Democritus University of Thracethe, the University of Thessaly and the University of Ioannina. He has published on social and political history in Late Byzantium, on middle Byzantine provincial administration and sigillography, and on Byzantine identity.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Abbreviations

Preface and Acknowledgements

Note to the Reader

Introduction: Byzantium after 1261: State, Society and Culture

The Subject of the Study and the Sources

Recent Scholarship on (Late) Byzantine Society

Byzantine Society before the Palaiologan Period:

Structure and Characteristics

Outline

Part I: The Earthly Order

1 The Social System

The Order (Taxis) of the Empire

The Dialectics of Deference and the Social Contract

Social Tension and the Challenges to the Established Order

2 Social Status

Social Values and Prestige

Status Incongruence and Social Ascent

3 Social Stratification

Estates and Orders in Byzantium

The Rich and the Poor, the Archontes and the Dēmos

The Anatomy of the Archontes

The Middle Classes and Their Urban Economic Activities

The Peasant World

Concluding Remarks

4 Social Associations

Communities and Vertical Social Groups

A Society of Circles and Social Networks

The Aristocratic Oikos and Its Following

A Fragmented Society

5 Social Power

The Basis of Economic Power

Political Power

State, Church and Society . . . and the Breakdown

Part II: Case Studies

6 Late Byzantine Provincial Society: The Example of Serres

The Higher Elite in Serres and the Non-local Forces of

Economic and Social Influence

The Local Military Elite of Serres

The Civil (Ecclesiastical) Elite of Serres

The Monasteries and Local Society

Urban Economic Activities and the Middle Class

Social Relations in the Countryside of the Lower Strymon

Late Byzantine Provincial Society

7 Late Palaiologan Urban Society: Constantinople at the

Turn of the Fifteenth Century

Byzantine Society on the Eve of Demise: Developments

in the Late Fourteenth Century

Economic and Social Life in Constantinople during the

Siege of Bāyezīd I (1394–1402)

The Fortunes of the Higher and of the ‘Military’ Elite

The Civil Elite

The Middle Class of Constantinople

The Aftermath

Conclusion: The Order and the Structures of the Social System

Appendices

Tables 26–9

Glossary

General Terms

Late Byzantine Offices, Dignities and Epithets

Byzantine Emperors (1261–1453)

Alphabetical List of the Official Hierarchy of Titles in Pseudo-Kodinos

Alphabetical List of Ecclesiastical Offices

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Secondary Works

Index

Editorial Reviews

This study of late Byzantine social structure is notable for the way the author has abandoned any preconceptions about the character of Byzantine society. These mostly derived from either comparing Byzantium or assimilating it to other societies: the Medieval West in particular. Instead, the author confronts Byzantium on its own terms, thus allowing it to emerge in all its bewildering complexity. If it does not fit any obvious patterns so much the better. Christos Malatras is to be congratulated on a very considerable achievement, which is founded on the mastery of an impressive range of sources.

Michael Angold