The Byzantine Hellene: The Life of Emperor Theodore Laskaris and Byzantium in the Thirteenth Century - Hardcover

Angelov, Dimiter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1108480713 ISBN 13: 9781108480710

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2019

Synopsis

This book tells the extraordinary story of Theodore II Laskaris, an emperor who ruled over the Byzantine state of Nicaea established in Asia Minor after the fall of Constantinople to the crusaders in 1204. Theodore Laskaris was a man of literary talent and keen intellect. His action-filled life, youthful mentality, anxiety about communal identity (Anatolian, Roman, and Hellenic), ambitious reforms cut short by an early death, and thoughts and feelings are all reconstructed on the basis of his rich and varied writings. His original philosophy, also explored here, led him to a critique of scholasticism in the West, a mathematically inspired theology, and a political vision of Hellenism. A personal biography, a ruler's biography, and an intellectual biography, this highly illustrated book opens a vista onto the eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia, and the Balkans in the thirteenth century, as seen from the vantage point of a key political actor and commentator.

About this title

Review:

'Theodore Laskaris may be the only figure of Byzantine history for whom it is possible to produce a full-scale biography. This Dimiter Angelov has brought to a triumphant conclusion, thanks not only to his mastery of the sources, but also because he has been able to recover Theodore Laskaris's viewpoint. This offers a fresh perspective on Byzantine faith, culture, and history. The figure that emerges from these pages is not at all like the Byzantine emperor in the standard accounts of the period. This is a tribute to the author's refusal to make his protagonist conform to some pre-conceived model of a Byzantine ruler. The result is a fresh and original work.' Michael Angold, University of Edinburgh

Book Description:

The extraordinary life and writings of Theodore Laskaris, an imaginative philosopher-emperor ruling over a Byzantine state in exile after the disastrous Fourth Crusade, illuminate the transformation of the politics and culture of Byzantium and unveil little-known aspects of the medieval encounters between the Greek East and the Latin West.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1108480713
• ISBN 13: 9781108480710
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 460