The Notion of δῆμος and its Role in Byzantium during the Last Centuries (13th-15th c.)

TEXT COVER
Published: Nov 13, 2012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/byzsym.1054
Anastasia KONTOGIANNOPOULOU
Ερευνήτρια/Ακαδημία Αθηνών
Abstract
The notion of “demos/demes” (people/circus factions) has been a favorite subject in the modern research and various opinions have been formulated with regard to their organisation and the role they played in the political developments. In the modern bibliography referred to the period under examination (13th-15th c.) the term “demos” denotes generally the lower strata of the urban population. However, through the systematic study of that period’s sources thinner nuances can be detected in the meaning of the term “demos”, which apart from the lower social stratum, it also seems to include members of the the middle social class and to denote a larger group that contains the two social categories mentioned above. This study intends to examine the concept of “demos” and similar expressions, the social composition of this body and its role in the political life of the era. The research is based primarily on narrative sources of the late byzantine period (13th-15th c.). The fragmentary material extracted from these sources is complemented by information come from the monastery archives, the lives of saints, the correspondence and other literary sources of the era.
Article Details
  • Section
  • Articles
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Copyright: The copyright for articles in this journal is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are free to use (with the exception of the non-granted right to make derivative works) with proper attribution for non-commercial uses (licence Creative Commons 4.0). NHRF retains the worldwide right to reproduce, display, distribute, and use articles published in BYZANTINA SYMMEIKTA in all formats and media, either separately or as part of collective works for the full term of copyright. This includes but is not limited to the right to publish articles in an issue of the Journal, copy and distribute individual reprints of the articles, authorize reproduction of articles in their entirety in another NHRF publication, and authorize reproduction and distribution of articles or abstracts thereof by means of computerized retrieval systems.

Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
Author Biography
Anastasia KONTOGIANNOPOULOU, Ερευνήτρια/Ακαδημία Αθηνών
i. Curriculum VitaeDegree from the Department of History and Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH). Master, Department of History and Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy of AUTH (1997). Ph.D.,  Department of History and Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy of AUTH (2003). Title of the Ph.D. thesis: “The domestic policy of Andronicus II Palaeologus (1282-1328): Administration – Economy”. She has participated in various Seminars of Byzantine Studies in Greece (1998-1999, Institute for Byzantine Research of National Hellenic Research Foundation) and France (2000-2001, Université Paris-1, Panthéon-Sorbonne / École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales).

She has been elected as Assistant Researcher in the Research Centre for Medieval and Modern Hellenism of the Academy of Athens since 2008. She deals with the economic, administrative and social history of Byzantium in the late Byzantine period (11th-15th c.). Her publications concern the economic and administrative organization of the Byzantine Empire in the years Paleologoi (13th-15th century.) and various aspects of the ecclesiastical and social life during this period. She is in charge of the research programme ";;;;The Byzantine Cities: Economy-Administration-Society (11th-15th c.).

ii. Publications

Papers in international journals of Byzantine Studies:

1. «Δύο ανέκδοτα έγγραφα του Σκιαθίτη Δημητράκη Οικονόμου, 1785-1800», Θεσσαλικό Ημερολόγιο 29 (1996), 181-192.

2. «Το σχίσμα των Αρσενιατών (1265-1310). Συμβολή στη μελέτη της πορείας και της φύσης του κινήματος», Βυζαντιακά 18 (1998), 177-235.3. «Το πορτραίτο του πατριάρχη Αρσενίου Αυτωρειανού στην Παναγία Χρυσαφίτισσα της Λακωνίας (1289/1290)», Βυζαντιακά 19 (1999), 223-238.4. «La fiscalité à Byzance sous les Paléologues (13-15 siècle) : les impôts directs et indirects», Revue des Etudes Byzantines 67 (2009), σ. 5-57.5. «Φορολογικές πληροφορίες για τη Θεσσαλία από προνομιακά έγγραφα του 13ου και 14ου αιώνα», in the press, Βυζαντιακά 29.6. «Αστικά συμβούλια στο Βυζάντιο. Συμβολή στη μελέτη της συλλογικότητας κατά τους τελευταίους βυζαντινούς αιώνες (13ος-15ος αι.)», in the press, Μεσαιωνικά και Νέα Ελληνικά 10. Book:1. Η εσωτερική πολιτική του Ανδρονίκου Β΄ Παλαιολόγου (1282-1328): Διοίκηση – Οικονομία, Βυζαντινά Κείμενα και Μελέται 36, Θεσσαλονίκη 2004. iii. Research achievementsShe was Fellow of the State Scholarships Foundation for Ph.D. (2000-2003) and post-doctoral research (2004-2005). The first scholarship is granted to one candidate in the field of Byzantine History after written examination. The second one is granted to one candidate in the general field of History.