2011/01/01 by Ruth Macrides · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Ancient history #Byzantine Studies and History #Classical Antiquity Studies #Eurasian Exchange Networks #History
paper · pdf · doi:10.1163/ej.9789004206229.i-444.56
openalex publication_date 2011/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
Modern reconstructions of Constantinople and its court life after 1204 delineate a city that never recovered from the events of the Fourth Crusade. While a restoration of buildings and traditions associated with Constantinople before 1204 was undertaken by Michael VIII as the 'New Constantine' 1 upon his recovery of the capital, the imperial treasury was depleted by subsequent territorial losses to the Turks and the civil wars of the 1320s and '40s. Disasters such as the plague of 1347 2 contributed to the reduction in the empire's resources. Decline, it is reasonably assumed, took its toll also on the ceremonial life of the court. 'Ceremonial space' 3 diminished and the content of the ceremonies became impoverished. There was a reduction in the scale of the ceremonies performed and an isolation of the court's routines. his picture of court life in the reconquered Constantinople, which is generally regarded as representative of the whole of the late Byzantine period from the late thirteenth century to 1453, 5 is based on the one surviving text from the period after 1204 that contains descriptions of 1 Alice-Mary Talbot, 'The Restoration of Constantinople under Michael VIII',