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The President and Fellows of Harvard College

Byzantium and the Slavs Author(s): IHOR ŠEVČENKO Source: Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 8, No. 3/4 (December 1984), pp. 289-303 Published by: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41036199 . Accessed: 30/09/2014 19:12 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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and theSlavs* Byzantium IHORSevCenko I

To CyrilMango

Throughoutmore than a thousandyears of theirhistory,the Byzantines viewed their state as heir to the Roman Empire,,which pretended to encompass the whole civilized world. It followedthatthe Byzantinestate, too, was a universalempire, claimingrule over the whole civilized world; that Byzantineemperorswere by rightworld rulers; that the Byzantineswere Romans; and that they were the most civilized people in the world. True, they had improved upon their Roman ancestors in that they were Christians; also, by the seventh centurythe Latin component had all but disappeared from theirhighbrowculture,which fromthen on was essentiallyGreek; but, like ancient Romans, the Byzantinesfeltentitledto pour scorn on those who did not share in the fruitsof civilization,that is, on the barbarians. The best thing these barbarians could do was to abandon theirbestial existence, and to enter- in some subordinate capacity of course- into the familyof civilized peoples headed by the Byzantineemperor. The way to civilizationled throughChristianity,the only true ideology,of which the empire held the monopoly. For Christianity-to be more precise, Byzantine Christianity-meantcivilization. Throughout a millennium of propaganda, these simple tenets were driven home by means of court rhetoric-the journalism of the Middle Ages- of court ceremonies, of imperial pronouncements and documents, and of coinage. The Byzantine emperor claimed certain exclusive rights. Until the thirteenthcentury at least, he did not conclude equal treatieswithforeignrulers; he only granted them privileges,insignia, or dignities. In correspondence with certain foreign states, he issued "orders," not letters. He claimed the exclusive rightto strike gold coinage (other peoples' This essay is a reworkingof a lecturewrittena number of years ago. Thus it has a number of layers. While the earliest of these layers owe a debt to the standard pictureof Byzantiumdrawn by Franz Dölger and George Ostrogorskiin theirday, the later ones reflectmy presentviews on the topic.

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or counterfeits; onlyin the thirgold coinswereat firstimitations teenthcenturydid the westernducate replace the bezant, for almostone thousandyearsthe dollarof the Mediterranean world). werenotblind,theyhad to accommodatethemAs the Byzantines selves to the existenceof otherstatesbesides theirown. To fit of themintotheirsystem,theyelaboratedtheconceptof Hierarchy Rulersand Statesthat,takenall together, ideallyencompassedthe whole world. The emperorheaded this hierarchy;he was surwho wouldstandin an ideal familyrelaroundedby subordinates, tionshipto him: the Englishrulerwas only his friend;the Bulwas grudggarian,his son; theRus' one, his nephew;Charlemagne rulers would a Or else these of brother. the inglygranted position be giventitlesof varying importance:ruler,rulerwithpower,king, even emperor. But never-not until the fifteenth century,if at all- Emperorof theRomans. truthswereheld to be selfthe following By the ninthcentury, evidentin the fieldof culture: the worldwas dividedintoByzanthe latterincludingnot onlythe Slavs- who tinesand barbarians, a low place on the list of barbaricnations-but also the occupied was supeLatins;as a city,theNew Rome, thatis, Constantinople, riorto all othersin art,culture,and size, and thatincludedtheOld Rome on theTiber. God has chosentheByzantinepeopleto be a in Greekforthe Greeks;in new Israel: the Gospels werewritten God had even singledout theAncientGreeksto culHis foresight, tivatethe Artsand Sciences;and in Lettersand Arts,the Byzantineswere the Greeks' successors. "All the artscome fromus," exclaimeda Byzantinediplomatduringa polemicaldebateheld at of theninthcentury.A curiousdetail: theArabcourtin thefifties thisdiplomatwas none otherthanthe futureApostleof the Slavs, Cyril'sexclamationimpliedthatLatinlearning, Constantine-Cyril. too, was derived from the Greeks. The Greek language,the also of Plato and of the churchfathers, languageof the Scriptures, the other and was tongues,notsubtle; Demosthenes, rich,broad, the Latin even to a barbaric had them; ring ably the Slavic, languagewas poorand "narrow." The Byzantinesmaintainedthese claimsfor almostas long as theirstateendured. Even towardsthe veryend of the fourteenth whentheempirewas littlemorethanthecityof Constancentury, tinoplein size, the Byzantinepatriarchlecturedthe recalcitrant order. The princeshould princeof Muscovyon the international remember-so the patriarchexplained-thathe was only a local

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ruler, while the Byzantineemperorwas the Emperorof the Romans, that is, of all Christians.The fact that the emperor's dominionswere hard-pressed by the paganswas beside the point. in the worldand in the The emperorenjoyedspecialprerogatives ill behoovedtheprinceto have disChurchUniversal.It therefore thenameof theemperorduringtheliturgy. continuedmentioning such a claimwas unrealiscentury, By the end of thefourteenth from the closing Byzantinepatriarch's tic,and, as is to be deduced it had been challengedby the Muscovitebarbarian.But complaint, throughoutmore than half of Byzantinehistory,such claims worked.Why? The firstreasonwhytheyworkedwas thatfora long timethe claimswere objectivelytrue. In termsof the sixthcentury,Justinian,under whose early rule the large-scaleSlavic invasions occurredin theBalkans,was a worldemperor,thatis, a rulerholding sway over the civilizedworld. In the east, his dominions extendedbeyondthe upperTigrisRiver;theyskirtedthe western slopes of the Caucasus. In the north,Byzantium'sfrontierran across the Crimea, and along the Danube and the Alps. The empirehad a footholdin Spain, it controlledthe coast of North Africaand much of Egypt,it dominatedtoday'sIsrael, Lebanon, and a greatdeal of Syria. Now let us skiphalfa millennium.In thetimeof BasilII (d. 1025), underwhosereigntheRus' accepted the situationwas not muchworse: it was even better Christianity, ranbeyondLake Van; fora stretch, in the east,wherethefrontier it huggedthe Euphrates.Antiochand Latakiawerestillin Byzantinehands;in theNorth,theCrimeawas stillcrossedbytheByzantine frontier,and the Danube and the Sava were the frontier rivers-thus in this sector,too, Byzantiumpossessedas much as did. In the West,partsof southernItalywiththe cityof Justinian BariwereunderByzantinesway. In the ninthand tenthcenturies, of the Slavs, the which were decisive for the Byzantinization empire'scapitalat Constantinople was, withthe possibleexception of Baghdadand Cairo, the most brilliantculturalcenterof the worldas not onlythe Slavs, but also westernEurope,knewit. Its wereGreekscholarsand politicians.Its prelatesreadand patriarchs commentedupon Plato,Euclid,and even theobjectionable Lucian; itsemperorssupervisedlargeencyclopaedic itssophistienterprises; cated readingpublicclamoredfor,and obtained,rééditionsof old simpleLives of Saints,whichwerenow couchedin a morerefined and complicatedstyle. The Great Palace of Constantinople,

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coveringan area of ca. 100,000 square meters,was still largely intactand functioning. The pompof the courtceremonialand of theservicesat St. Sophia,thenstillthe largestfunctioning building in the knownworld,was calculatedto dazzle barbarianvisitors, Slavicprincesor theiremissaries.Byzantine politicalconincluding down to the westernmediaevalpoliticalthinking ceptsinfluenced twelfth century;the westernsymbolsof rule- scepter,crown,orb, goldenbull- owe a debt to Byzantium.The mosaicsof Rome, of St. Markin Venice (thirteenth century)and of TorcellonearVenice (twelfth century),of the Normanchurchesin or nearPalermo of Byzantineart, and some of (twelfthcentury),are reflections craftsmen. themwereexecutedbyByzantine The renascenceof theologicalspeculationin the High Middle bytheimperialgiftwhicharrivedfromByzanAges was stimulated tiumat thecourtof Louis thePious in 827. The giftwas a volume in Greek, of course. This of Dionysiusthe Pseudo-Areopagite, work,translatedtwiceinto Latin, the second time by Johannes Scotus Eriugena(d. 877), spurredsubsequentwesterntheological to imaginea westernchurchwithoutan speculation.It is difficult too, arrivedfromByzantiumin 757 organ-yet, this instrument, and 812. On the latteroccasion,the Byzantinesrefusedto leave to copyit in secret, who attempted the organwiththeWesterners, but only latersuccessfully reproducedit. The silk industrywas as a to the West in the middleof the twelfth introduced century, resultof a Normanraidon CentralGreece- theNormansabducted ByzantineskilledlaborersfromThebes and settledthemin their of Byzantine dominions.Even the forkseems to be a rediscovery introduced forksto Greek-born an dogissa origin- eleventh-century No ecclesiastic. a of horror to the contemporary Venice, great the of Byzantium: wonderthattheSlavs experiencedthe influence experiWest,whichcould fallback upon refinedLatin traditions, overparts encedit,too,longafterByzantium's politicaldomination claims of Italyhad ceased. So muchforthefirstreason-Byzantine valid. workedbecausetheywereobjectively The second reason why the Byzantineclaims of superiority workedwas that theywere acceptedas valid by the barbarians, whetherwesternor Slavic,even aftertheyhad ceased to be objecoccurredin 800. But of Charlemagne tivelyvalid. The usurpation he, the ruler of Rome, did not call himselfemperorof the Romans-he knewthatthistitle,and all thatit implied,had been preemptedby the Byzantines. It was not until 982 that the

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titolature "ImperatorRomanorum"appearedin the West. And it was onlywithFrederickI Barbarossa(second halfof the twelfth century)thata logicalconsequencewas drawnfromthistitulature by a westernruler. Since therecould be onlyone Emperorof the emperorshouldnotbe calledbythistitleRomans,theByzantine he was to be called onlywhatin facthe had been fora longtime: the rexGraecorumBut did Frederickreflectthatthe veryconcept thatthereshouldbe onlyone emperorwas a Byzantineheritage? The Slavs were much slowerto be weaned fromByzantiumand neverdrewa conclusionsimilarto thatof Frederick.Withthem, emulation of Byzantiumwas always but another form of imitation.True,Symeonof Bulgariain theearlytenth Byzantium's centuryand Stephen Duäan of Serbia in the mid-fourteenth assumedthe titleof Emperorof the Bulgariansand Greeksor of the Serbiansand Greeks,respectively.But theydid not thinkof a Slavic counterpart to the WesterndoctrineRex est proclaiming Imperatorin regno suo and thus downgradingthe Byzantine himby takingConemperor.Rather,theydreamedof supplanting on his throne;and thesame fanand seatingthemselves stantinople Rus', Slovoo tasyoccursin one textproducedin thirteenth-century pogibelirusskojzemli.

theByzantine Shortof supplanting emperor,manya Balkanruler of thatemperor,or aimed at securingforhimselfthe prerogatives and imitate to Waysof doingthis imperial pomp usage. attempted of his own: in werevaried. One instancewas byhavinga patriarch the newlyconvertedBorisof Bulgariawantedto the ninthcentury, have one; around900, Symeonof Bulgariasucceededin settingone century, up; so did StephenDuSan of Serbiain the mid-fourteenth notwithoutresistanceon the partof Byzantium.Anotherinstance was by strikinggold coins: the Bulgariantsar Ivan Asen II (d. 1241) managedto do it,buthe appearedon his coinsin thegarbof a Byzantine emperorwithChriston thereverse;another,byhaving the court hierarchybear Byzantineaulic titles: StephenDuSan and logothetes;yetanother,by assumingthe namedsebastocrators of epithet"second Justinian"on the occasionof the proclamation new laws; stillanother,by lookingto Byzantium as a reservoirfor marriages-betweenthe thirteenth centuryand the fall prestigious of Bulgariain 1393, we counteightGreekwomenamong21 Bulone's own capitalafterCongariantsarinas;another,by patterning of Preslav stantinople:Symeon Bulgaria's copiedtheImperialCity, as, bytheway,did PrinceJaroslav'sKiev in the 1030s.

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In fifteenthand sixteenth-century Muscovy,theattitudetoward and was less thanfriendly; butwhenthe Byzantium its patriarchate Muscovitebookmenbeganto formulate an indigenousstateideology,theydrewheavilyuponByzantine sources,in particular upona Mirrorof Princeswritten in GreekfortheemperorJustinian in the sixthcentury;and theycalled Moscow "the reigningcity,"a formula by whichthe Byzantinesusuallyreferred to Constantinople. In sum,throughout theirMiddleAges, theBalkanand to a considerable extentthe East Slavic rulingelites were beholdento the modelin thematterof politicalconcepts. Byzantine The Byzantineculturalimpactdid not presupposethe existence of friendly and the Slavs. Sometimes relationsbetweenByzantium the BalkanSlavs- like the it lookedas if the moreanti-Byzantine Normansof Sicily-were in theirpoliticalaspirations,the more Byzantinized theybecame;theyfoughttheenemywiththeenemy's own weapons. Whatthe Byzantineculturalimpactdid presuppose and thereceiversof culwas theacceptance-bothbytheproducers as supeturalvalues- of the Byzantineworldviewand civilization riorto all others. II of theBalkanswas and culturalByzantinization The Christianization a pivotal event. It affectedboth the medieval and the postmedievalhistoryof the Balkansand of easternEurope; what is more,its effectsare withus today. Whetherthe consequencesof or banefulis a matter thiseventshouldbe consideredas beneficial and of judgmentthatdependson the historian'sown background on the modernpublic'spoliticalviews. It remainsthatthe Christianizationof the Balkansnot only determinedthe culturalphysiognomyof Serbiaand Bulgaria,but also preparedand facilitated of the East Slavs, an eventwhich, the subsequentByzantinization of to the estrangement Tartar with the invasion,contributed along the the of Rus' fromthe European West. In preceding light of the Southand East Slavs remarks,however,the Byzantinization shouldbe viewedjust as an especiallysuccessfuland enduringcase whetherin Europeor in of Byzantium's impactupon its neighbors, theNear East. It was an especiallysuccessfulcase on twocounts. First,when we speak of those Balkan Slavs who experiencedthe strongest influenceof the Byzantineculture,we mean Serbsand Bulgarians.

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But we forgetthatthesepeoplesformedtherearguard,as it were, into the territory of of the Slavic populationsthathad penetrated the Slavs attackedthe outer the empire. In the late sixthcentury, defensesof Constantinople;around 600, they besieged Thessalonica. Aboutthe same time,theyreachedEpirus,Attica,and the Peloponnesus;by the middleof the eighthcentury,the whole of Greece- or, at least,of thePeloponnesus-"became slavicized,"to underthe auspicesof a tenthuse the expressionof a textwritten century Byzantineemperor.SlavicraidersreachedCreteand other Greekislands. We do hearof Byzantinemilitary campaignsaiming at the reconquestof the lands settledby the Slavs, butjudgingby the paucityof relevantreferences in our sources,it is wise to conclude that these campaignswere not too frequent. And what remainedof thoseSlavs? About 1,200place-names, manyof them stillexisting;some Slavic pocketsin the Peloponnesus,attestedas late as the fifteenth century;about 275 Slavicwordsin the Greek language;perhapsa faintSlavic trace or two in Greek folklore. Nothingmore. In mattersof culturalimpact,the ultimatein success is calledcompleteassimilation.Whenit comesto mechanisms thatfacilitated thisspectacularassimilation, we mustkeep in mind the role playedby the upperstrataof the Slavicsociety,forby the end of the ninth century the Slavs were already socially differentiated. In my opinion,it was thisSlavic elite,as muchas the Byzantinemissionaries,that served as a conduit in the of Byzantine transmission cultureto theSlavicpopulationat large. Second, Byzantiumheld more than its own in its competition withRome over the religiousallegianceof the BalkanSlavs. For historical reasons,whichhad some validityto them,theChurchof Rome laidjurisdictional claimsto the territory of ancientIllyricum, thatis, roughlythearea on whichtheSerbs,Croats,and some Bulgarians(Slavic and Turkic) had establishedthemselves.Croatia and Dalmatiawerethe onlyByzantineareas wherewesternChristianitywas victoriousin the ninthcentury.The Serbs were first Christianized byRome about640; butonlythesecondChristianizationtookpermanent rootsthere. It occurredin theseventiesof the ninthcenturyand it was due to Byzantinemissionaries, lateraided For a by Bulgarians. while,the newlyconvertedBulgarianruler Boris-Michael flirted withPope NicholasI; but in 870, the Bulgarians enteredthe Byzantine fold,and theyhave remainedthereever since.

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True, the Cyrillo-Methodianmission in Moravia and Pannonia, which originally was staged from Byzantium, ended in failure shortlyafter885, when Methodius's pupils were expelled and supplanted by the German clergy of Latin rite. But if this was a failure,it was a qualifiedone: the Moravian and Pannonian areas had never belonged to Byzantium. Before its collapse, the Cyrillo-Methodianmission did forge the most powerful tool for indirect Byzantinizationof all Orthodox Slavs: it created- or perfected-the Old Church Slavonic literary language. The Byzantinized Slavic liturgy did continue in Bohemia- granted, in a limited way- until the very end of the eleventh century;and the expelled pupils of Methodius found an excellentreceptionin late ninth-century Bulgariaand Macedonia, in centers like Preslav and Ohrid, from where they continued and deepened the work of Christianizingand Byzantinizingthe Bulgarian and Macedonian Slavs. Occasional attemptson the part of Serbian and Bulgarian rulers to play Rome the thirteenth-century no durable effects. True, both the Serhad against Constantinople bian Stephen the First-Crownedand the BulgarianKalojan, tsar of Bulgaria, obtained their royal crowns from the pope (1217 and 1204, respectively). But their churches, although autonomous, remained in communion with the Byzantine patriarchatein exile (1220 and 1235, respectively);they even remained under its suzerainty,in spite of the fact that at that time the Latin Crusaders resided in conquered Constantinopleand the Byzantineempire was of Asia Minor, fightingforits survival. just a smallishprincipality The loss of Moravia and Pannonia by the Byzantinemission was amplycompensatedfor by a gain in anotherarea which (except for the Crimea) had never been under the actual Byzantine government: I mean the territoriesinhabited,among others, by the East Slavs. There, too, the field was not uncontested,for Rome had sent its missionariesto Kiev in the middle of the tenthcentury. In addition, Byzantium had to struggle there with other religious influences,Islamic and Jewish. It emerged victorious: the ruler of Kiev adopted Christianityfor himselfand his people in 988/9, and the act was sealed by the prince's marriage with the Byzantine emperor's sister. In retrospect,the Christianizationand concomitant Byzantinizationof the East Slavs was the greatestsuccess of the Byzantine cultural mission. Churches in Byzantine style still stand in Alaska, and in Fort Ross in California; this marks the

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under the furthesteastwardadvance of ByzantineChristianity East Slavicstate. auspicesof a predominantly of the OrthodoxSlavs was also an The culturalByzantinization impacton Europe. Chroespeciallyenduringcase of the Byzantine as opposedto complete nologicallyspeaking,thisByzantinization, with started the ninth or tenth assimilation, century, dependingon the area, and it lastedlong afterthe fall of the empirein 1453, downto theeighteenth and even thenineteenth century.Paradoxiafter new of cally enough, 1453, possibilities expansion were to opened Byzantineculture,the cultureof an empirethatwas no more. Before1453, thehistory of therelationsbetweenByzantium and the Slavicchurchesand stateswas thatof intermittently successful to shakeoffthe administrative attempts tutelageof theByzantines. weresubjectsof the Now, boththeBalkanSlavs and theByzantines OttomanEmpire;in theeyesof theOttomanconquerorsthesepeoformedone entity,Rummilleti, thatis, ples, all of themChristian, "Religious Community(or Nation) of the Romans"- a name coinedin good Byzantine tradition.To theOttomans,the patriarch of Constantinople was now the head (civilianand ecclesiastical)of all theChristians in theOttomanEmpire. werereduced,the patriarchs were Althoughtheircircumstances in some areas of activity heirsto the Byzantineemperors,and the Greekchurchwas a depository and continuator of manyaspectsof Byzantineculture. This culturehad now the same, if not better, chancesfor radiationamongthe Balkan Slavs as before,because both the Greeksand the Slavs were now unitedwithinthe same Ottomanterritory. The churchesin the Balkanswere administered fromConstanwhen tinople, especially since the late seventeenth-century, PhanarioteGreeks had obtainedgreat influenceat the Sublime Porte. From thattimeon, nativeGreeks,ratherthanHellenized Slavs, began to be installedas bishops. The historicalSlavic of Pec and Ohridwereabolishedin thesecondhalfof Patriarchates theeighteenth century(1766 and 1767,respectively).Dates markofficial the of the Bulgarianand Serbianchurches ing independence fromConstantinople coincideroughlywiththe achievement of politicalindependenceby those countries.This rule of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, oftenunwiselyexercised,createdmuch bad blood between Greeks and Bulgariansin the nineteenth

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century.By that time, the élite of the Balkanswas lookingto forinspiration.But St. Petersburg Vienna,Paris,and westernized down to the eighteenth century,Greek- thatis, post-Byzantineby Greek or Hellenizedchurchmen, culture,largelyrepresented in the area. culture the was highest EasternEurope,too, veryslowlymovedawayfromByzantium. The Tartarinvasionof the 1240s firstcut and thenweakenedcontactswiththe West,and broughtabout a fallingback upon those formsof local culturalheritagethatwerein existencein the forties of thethirteenth century.Thisheritagehad been mostlyByzantine; it was beingpreservedand elaboratedupon,but not substannow, tiallyenriched. The Ukraineand Belorussiawere reopened to somewhatearlierthanotherareas,as theygrawesterninfluences the dominationof Catholic Poland-Lithuania, under fell dually the fourteenth from centuryon. But even there the especially unionof Churchesdid not occuruntilsome twohundredand fifty to the Union of Brestin 1596), and it yearslater(I am referring was onlya limitedsuccess,even fromtheCatholicpointof view. of In Moscow,thejurisdictional dependenceon the Patriarchate continueduntil1448. Whenthebreakcame,it was Constantinople motivatedby the accusationthat Byzantiumwas not Byzantine enough,thatit had fallenawayfromthe truefaithby compromising withthe Latinsat the Council of Florence(1439), whilethe true ByzantineOrthodoxywas fromnow on to be preservedin in of an independentpatriarchate Muscovy. The establishment the necessitated Moscow had to waituntil1589. Its confirmation but it was easily obtainedfromthe assent of other patriarchs, influencespenetrating Western Greeks. throughthe impecunious Ukrainewerepresentin seventeenth-century Muscovy,but it was as onlyPeterthe First,ascendingthe throne Tsar and Autocrat, style,and leavingit in deathas AugustEmperor,western Byzantine who put an end to the Byzantineperiodin the historyof fashion, the Russian culturalélite, but not in the historyof the Russian lowerclasses. Ill The two main- but not the only-channelsthroughwhichByzantine influencesenteredthe OrthodoxSlavic worldwere church hierarchy,secular and monastic (both for a long time largely courts. princely Greek,even in easternEurope),and therespective culture of in those above was aspects all, Thus,Byzantium imitated,

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in whichthe church,the state,or the upperlayersof the Slavic societywere interested:script,literarylanguage,both sacredand and secularlearning, ecclesiastical art(bothin its secular,literature, and aulic variety),rulercult,stateideology,law, and ecclesiastical the sphereof graciousliving. But the upper layersof medieval OrthodoxSlavic societywere less refinedthan theirByzantine Therewas muchin Byzantineculturewhichtheydid counterparts. not yet need; on the otherhand, therewere manyelementary thingsnot exactlybelongingto the exaltedspherethattheyhad to learn. Thus while the most sophisticated productsof Byzantine werenevertranslated literature intomedievalSlavic,the Bulgarian wordsforonions (kromid)and cabbage (lahana) and the Serbian expressionfor friedeggs (tiganisana jaja) have been takenover fromGreek. Art is an exception,for thereByzantiumgave the Slavs thebestit had to offer.Butartis notprimarily an intellectual pursuit,and it can be appreciatedeven by newcomersto civilization;moreover,thenas now,moneycouldbuythebest. From the courtand the episcopalresidence,borrowedelements of Byzantinecultureseeped down to the people. Also, pilgrims traveledto Constantinople and broughtback withthembothwondroustales of the capital'ssplendorand objectsof devotionalart; monksmovedto the Serbian,Bulgarian,and Rus' monasteries of Mount Athos and had Greek-Slavicconversationmanuals com. posedforthem(we knowof one datingfromthefifteenth century) In areas geographically closestto Byzantium, like Bulgaria,Byzantine direct domination,and later the post-Byzantine symbiosis under the Ottomans,broughtclose contactson a popularlevel. Thus we have reflections of Byzantineinfluences in Slavic popular and folklore: we know of at 107 least language (perhapsas much as 245) proverbsthat the Slavs borroweddirectlyfromGreek. werepreservedby SouthSlavs, Eightypercentof theseborrowings percentbyEast Slavs. twenty IV The extentof Byzantineculturalimpactupon the OrthodoxSlavs can best be demonstrated by discussingtwo cases: thatof literary languageand thatof literature.The Old ChurchSlavoniclanguage was formedbytwogenerations of Byzantine and Slavicmissionaries in the secondhalfof the ninthcenturyand the verybeginningof the tenth,originally as a vehicleforspreadingthe wordof God in

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Slavic. It was a tool withwhichto translate fromthe Greek. We do knowof someoriginalSlavicwritings bytheimmediatepupilsof SaintsCyriland Methodius,but the bulkof the literary activityof theSlavicApostlesand of theirdirectsuccessorsconsistedin translationsfromGreek: excerptsfrombothTestaments(soon followed of the Gospels), liturgical books, edifying by the full translation sayingsof the monks,codes of ecclesiasticaland secularlaw. In lateninth-and earlytenth-century Bulgaria,thesituationwas much the same. The mostbulkyliterary productsof John,the exarchof of St. Basil's Hexaemeron translations Bulgaria,were interpolated and of Johnof Damascus's Fountainof Knowledge.The Mirrorof Princesby Agapetus(sixthcentury)was most probablytranslated intoOld Bulgarianat thissame earlyperiod,and thusbecamethe veryfirstsecularworkof Slavic literature.This meantthatOld withtheworldof theological, ChurchSlavonichad to struggle philosophicaland politicalconceptsand othernotions,as theywere expressedin Hellenistic,early Byzantine,and middle Byzantine Greek. No wonderthatOld ChurchSlavonicteemswithsimple, and caiques, thatis, word-formations semantic,and phraseological expressionscloselypatternedon ByzantineGreek. To a linguist, oftenlook un-Slavic,even if the the resultsof that patterning OrthodoxSlavs of todayno longerreactto theByzantine caiquesin Old ChurchSlavonicas un-Slavic-a thousandyearsof familiarity tookcareof that. For instance,Slavicmakeslittleuse of composite words: Greek,especiallylate antiqueand ByzantineGreek,loves Old ChurchSlavonicaboundsin compositeslike them;accordingly, to mention those blagosloviti,bogonosbCb,bogorodica,samodrbZbCb,

wordswhichhave survivedin several modernSlavic languages, includingmodernRussian. This slavishadherenceto Byzantine of the originals templatescan be explainedin partby thecharacter selectedfortranslation:thewordsof theseoriginalsweresacredor be theythewordsof God, of a church of highpoliticalimportance, of an imperialcharter.Theyhad to be a or of saint's Life, father, renderedwiththe greatestexactitude,even at the priceof doing in earlySlavic. violenceto thetendenciesprevalent of Old ChurchSlavonicwas notexclusively The caique character a bad trait.Greek,the modelof Old ChurchSlavonic,was a very highlydevelopedand supplelanguage;and the moresophisticated intendedto imitateDemosthenesand Plato,even writers Byzantine if in facttheyoftenimitatedthe muchlaterand moremannered imitatorsof these authors. In wrestlingwith the complicated

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of thatlanguage's Greek,Old ChurchSlavonicacquiredsomething qualityand versatility.The impressivestylisticpossibilitiesof modernliterary Russianare due to the factthatmuch- some say of its vocabularyis made up of ChurchSlavonic one-halfroughly a feature that enables a Russian writerto play on two words, at will. Old ChurchSlavonic,withadmixtures of linguistic registers remainedthe main literary vehicleforthe respectivevernaculars, OrthodoxSlavs downto the sixteenth,seventeenth, or eighteenth area and the literary century, dependingon the geographical genre. This languagewas Slavicaccordingto its sound,but largelyByzanto itswordformations tineaccording and even itscontent. The lexical borrowingsfromGreek in the languagesof the OrthodoxSlavs are legion. There are about fourteenhundredof themin Bulgarian,abouta thousandeach in Serbianand Russian. Theirdistribution is mostdense in the area of Christianterminology, such as ecclesiasticaldignities,ceremoniesand activities, buildings,names of liturgicaltexts and songs, and names of months.The languageof law,court,administration, education,and thearmyalso aboundsin borrowings fromGreek. In a less exalted and nautical sphere,GreekprovidedtheSlavs withmanypiscatorial terms,as well as termsof commerce,coinageand measurement, and horticulture, withtermspertaining to agriculture and, finally, civilized living. Thus the words for basin {harkoma), floor {patoma,patos), cushion (proskefal),breakfast{progim),desert {glikizmo),pan (tigan), bench (skamija), fork{pirun),drug {voitima) are Greek in medievalSerbianor Bulgarian. Even some expressionsfor familyrelationships(anepsej, bratovied),some prepositions {kata, as in katagodina),interjections {elate,originally an imperative), and morphological elements(theverbalsuffix -sati) from the come Greek. Some otherlinguistic traitscommonto the Balkanpeoples(Slavicand non-Slavicalike) are attributed by some to the impactof late (thatis, in partByzantine)Greek: I have in mindsuch phenomenaas the lack of an infinitive, or forming the futurewiththeSlavicequivalentsof OkKco iva. Whenwe speakof olderSlavicliterature, we thinkfirstof all of the creativeeffortof Slavic writers.Still,literature is not only what one creates,butalso whatone reads. Whenwe are askedwhatwas read, say, in an importantMuscovite culturalcenter like the aroundtheyear1500,we can givean Kirillo-Belozerskij Monastery for we a answer, possess catalogueof thismonastery's library dating

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fromthattime. The answeris revealing.Out of 212 books listed in the catalogue,some 90 have a liturgical character;mostof the fromByzantine and othersare translations homiletic, hagiographie, of the Greekfathers ascetictexts. Not onlyfourth-to-ninth-century churchappearon the shelves of the libraryof Kirillo-Belozerskij Monasteryaround1500 (Gregoryof Nazianzus,St. Basil, Ephrem theSyrian,JohnChrysostom, Cyrilof Jerusalem, Pseudo-Dionysius of John of the Theodore Ladder, Studios), but also Areopagita, of the tenthand eleventhcenturies(Symeonthe writers Byzantine Younger,theTheologian),theeleventh(Nikonof theBlackMountain),and even thefourteenth (GregoryPalamas). A fewof these are explicitlydescribedas comingfromthe Balkans. translations Only two texts in the libraryare writtenby Kievan authors (HilarionesSlovoand Cyrilof Turov'sSermons).One moretreatsa Peter to Muscovy(theLifeof Metropolitan Rus' subjectof interest [d. 1328], by MetropolitanCyprian). Only two of the texts, JosephusFlavius'sJewishWarand Barlaamand Joasaph,are secular,and even thesewereconsideredrecommended readingin one's to both of themare transof Needless pursuit sacredlearning. say, lationsfromtheGreek. V Whathas been said aboutlanguageand literature (and could have said about art and music) shouldhave sugbeen as convincingly dominatedtheculturalhorthoroughly gestedto us thatByzantium izon of the OrthodoxSlavic elite in the Middle Ages; and we should rememberthatfor some of these Slavs the Middle Ages Such is the truth,even if it lasteddownto the eighteenth century. of cultural is notthewholetruth.For in thematterof thetransfer goods from one society to another, telling about what was amounts and throughwhatchannelsit was transferred transferred to showingonlyone side of the coin. The otherside of the coin and what wouldconsistin tellingwhatwas selectedforimportation happenedto the importsonce theyreachedthe receivingsocietyand forwhatpurhow theywere understood(or misunderstood) is were used. This,however, subjectmatterforanother poses they essay. Whetherthe Byzantine impacton the Slavs was a good or a bad to decide. True, when thingis fora Slavicist,not a Byzantinist, his Princeand composinghis Discoursion Machiavelliwas writing

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Livy,Muscovitebookmenwerestillpiecingtogethertheirpolitical doctrineswithsome sixth-,ninth-,and twelfth-century Byzantine material.But it was not Byzantium's faultthatthe OrthodoxSlavs tookso longto breakitsspell. Harvard University

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