In recent years, research has uncovered significant diversity and variations in the structure and organization of families and households within Mediterranean societies. These distinctions reflect the cultural, political, and economic characteristics of each region as well as factors like a different economic background, social status, and educational level. Consequently, it is imperative to investigate the Byzantine family under this new light, i.e. not solely within a broader context but also by inquiring into its specific manifestations and arrangements. The Round Table we propose builds upon the substantial body of recent research on the Byzantine family and household. Our aim is to deepen our understanding of the social role of the family through an interdisciplinary approach focused on the urban Byzantine family and household. Topics to be explored comprise family dynamics (the power of family bonds), developments in the concept of domestic space, household size and structure, gender dynamics, the composition of its members, the position and activity of slaves, the roles of non-relatives, and the care provided to the sick, disabled, and elderly within the family unit. Our panel’s objective will be to illuminate the function and potential of the urban family and household in the period from the seventh to the thirteenth century while also conducting a micro-historical analysis.
While textual sources have long been the primary evidence for the Byzantine family, archaeology offers a unique and intimate perspective on the daily lives and social structures of the household. This paper moves beyond the prescriptive nature of legal and hagiographical texts to explore the lived realities of family life as embedded in the material…
This introduction will outline key questions and current debates on urban households in Byzantium, situating them within wider Mediterranean scholarship and highlighting their specific social and spatial dynamics.
In recent years, scholarship has increasingly recognized the complexity and diversity of family structures in Mediterranean societies, emphasizing their strong connection to regional cultural, economic, and political contexts. This paper contributes to this evolving discourse by focusing on the urban Byzantine housing as a lens through which family life and social organization can be examined.
Mothers and their children are the most common family members to appear in early Byzantine collections of miracles. But we also find fathers, married couples and, in individual cases, even grandmothers or sisters-in-law. In my presentation, I will focus on which family configurations and for which issues and needs people of that time visited the…
By the tenth or eleventh century, the term pallakeia (“concubinage”) could denote a wide range of practices and arrangements in Byzantium. The same term, pallake (παλλακή), was used to denote any kind of female partner who did not qualify as a legal wife, including sexually available enslaved women, freeborn monogamous partners, and a variety of…
The study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the position and activity of female servants who worked in private households either as wage earners (θεραπαινίς, θεράπαινα, μισθάρνισσα) or as part of domestic servitude (δούλη, δουλίδιον, δουλίς, οἰκέτις, παιδίσκη, σθλάβα, σθλαβοπούλα). It also seeks to explore how gender and social status defined certain tasks performed…
Middle Byzantine Family Law was shaped by legal principles rooted in Canon Law, particularly those established by the Quinisext Ecumenical Council (692). Deeply influenced by Christian morality, these principles defined the Byzantine family as the cornerstone of social virtue. The pursuit of Christian ethical ideals thus became both the driving force of legislation and its…