For close to two and a half centuries, the state of Epiros represented a crucial node for an alternative socio-political network of the Balkans. Founded by the illegitimate son of the union of three imperial Byzantine dynasties, at its largest extent Epiros assumed the title of ‘Empire of the Romans’ and campaigned to the very walls of Constantinople. Defeated but not destroyed in 1230, Epiros persisted in its autonomy through the strength of its ties. Bound by either marriage or confession to Bulgarians, Italians, Serbians, Vlachs, Albanians, and more, Epiros continued to exist as an alternate, moved Byzantium. Its literate audience projected its reunification of the former provinces of the Byzantine Balkans to be a retaking and preservation of ‘the West’, a term with which it also self-identified. Transitioning in the fourteenth century to Albanian and later Italian rule, Epiros’ role as a centre of multi-ethnic exchange and independence created a legacy that exists today. Supported by the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research and The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (Torch), this project has convened panels at multiple congresses and in November 2024 held a two-day workshop. Now in its final stage, this roundtable is convened ahead of a forthcoming source-led volume. Epiros: The Other Western Rome will offer new interdisciplinary studies alongside critical editions, first translations from an international network of scholars. Envisioned as a major development in the study of an often overlooked part of the Late Byzantine world, this project broadens the scholarly presence and develops the context of the Epirote Roman state.
In the frame of the “spatial turn”, the chapter will offer a synthesis about the question of space in the study of Late Medieval Epirus, through the examination of various topics and with a resolute multiscalar approach. A first part will be dedicated to territorial definitions. Of course, it will address the question of the…
Over a period of thirteen years the Epirote state transformed from an untitled splinter state born from the chaos of 1204 into an Empire of the Romans. Its ruler and from 1227 its anointed emperor, Theodore Komnenos Doukas, was a pivotal figure in that unstable and fluid world for nearly fifty years. During Epiros’ hegemony…
Forced from his episcopal seat at Athens by the Fourth Crusade, Michael Choniates spent the years 1205–1216 on the island of Kea and 1217–1222 in Mendenitsa near Thermopylae—a period of marked literary productivity, in which the exiled bishop maintained contacts across the (post-)Byzantine world. One of his most important correspondents from these years, John Apokaukos,…
Before the fall of Constantinople and in the first years of the Latin empire the Bulgarian state had focused its interests on Thrace and Macedonia, but after the death of Kalojan in 1027 the struggle between the claimants to the throne led to the establishment of two autonomous domains in the southwestern provinces of the…
This paper investigates the circulation of the coins of the polity of Epiros-Thessaloniki in the first half of the 13th century. It presents the development of the economy of the polity through the use of the largest database of finds containing Epirote-Thessalonian coins ever assembled. It makes use of the FLAME Project’s Digital Cookbook to…