While macro-level studies have addressed the impact of crisis in the Byzantine Empire through imperial resilience or longevity, fewer attempts have been made to investigate the effects of individual crises on specific Byzantine civic communities, leading to an under-acknowledgment of crisis events as drivers of artistic and architectural change. Using case studies from across the…
During the final century of Byzantium, the Peloponnese emerged as its most significant province, serving as the focal point for efforts to reconstitute the empire’s internal strength. The formation of Byzantine power networks in the peninsula followed the region’s gradual reconquest and military expansion by the empire. A hub of political power was formed in…
The settlement of Slavic tribes in the Peloponnese is an undeniable historical fact. It seems that the descent of Slavic tribes into the modern Greek territories began essentially after 602, when the Danube frontier collapsed. Two decades later, the Slavs settled in the Peloponnese, preferring mainly its mountainous and inaccessible areas. Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, writing…
In the 6th–7th centuries, during the Slavic invasions of the Balkans, some Slavic tribes reached and settled in the Peloponnese peninsula. In the following centuries, a large part of them remained as a separate ethnic community with its own traditions and customs, inhabiting the southern mountainous regions (Taygetus). The conquest of the Peloponnese by the…