The paper focuses on the name of the barbarian warlord that appears in the Slavic and (recently discovered) Armenian versions of the Life of St. Stephen of Sougdaia as Бравлинъ and Պրաւլիս /Praulis/, respectively. These forms seem to point to Πραῦλις or Μπραῦλις in the lost Greek Vorlage. None of the previous attempts at constructing an etymology of the name—Slavic бран(ъ)ливъ (Russian copies of the Life), Swedish Bråvalla (G. Vernadsky, N. Belyaev, and O. Pritsak), Indo-Aryan *pravlīn(а)- (O. Trubachev), Spanish Braulio (V. Vasilievsky), or Gothic *Bra(h)vila (N. Ganina)—may be considered satisfactory. Having revisited the historical and linguistic arguments, we suggest that the name given to the barbarian prince humbled by the miracle of St. Stephen in the Greek text of the Life represented, in fact, good Greek: Πραΰλιος or Πραῦλις (from πραΰς ‘mild, humble’); furthermore, we suggest that the positional voicing of Π- > Μπ- [b] in Late Middle Greek might account for the initial Б-/Պ- (West Armenian [b]) of the attested forms.
The paper investigates the nature and identity of the “demoniacs” mentioned in Niketas Choniates’ “History” as instrumental in bringing about the anti-Byzantine revolt in Bulgaria, 1185–1186. Until recently, researchers from Bulgaria, Russia, Western Europe and America approached the issue basically along two lines. According to the first, the “demoniacs” were a special group of people differing from everyone else by physical appearance and/or behaviour, obsessed by ecstatic feelings or just simulating it. The second viewed them as first-hand participants of the revolt, indignant over and profoundly disturbed by foreign rule and, at the same time, encouraged by the perspectives of the future independence from Byzantine power. In this opinion, Niketas Choniates intentionally portrays the rebels’ actions in the form of a caricature and substitutes it for the heroic picture of the liberation struggle of the Bulgarians and Vlachs. However, trying to reconstruct historical truth researchers read the complex text of Niketas Choniates, full of numerous quotations, allusions, and reminiscences, too literally. Textual research of Choniates’ work shows that the description of persons urging the Bulgarians and Vlachs to fight against Byzantium was stylized to look like they were Erinyes and Maenads from the ancient poetry and drama. Obviously, this description is of a literary nature and may hardly be used for an exact reconstruction of historical reality.
The article deals with the amendments made by A. P. Tolochko to the traditional chronology of the Russian metropolitans of the 11th cent., compiled by A. Poppe, and shows the weaknesses of both chronologies. Based on the latest epigraphic finds, a new chronology of the Metropolitans until the last quarter of the 11th cent. is proposed: Theophylact was transferred to Russia from the Metropolitan see of Sebasteia sometime before 1015; Theopempt became the Metropolitan no later than 1039; John ascended the throne after 1039 and reigned until 1051; Hilarion became the Metropolitan in 1051 (probably after July 24) and ceased to be in 1052 (before November 4); Ephraim received the Metropolitan see in 1052 (until November 4) and retained it at least until 1055; George, mentioned under 1072, could have become the Metropolitan as early as 1055.
The discovery of a Byzantine bread stamp inscribed with the text of Ps 29:8 in the ruins of Mangup Basilica in Crimea allows the authors of this article to revise the entire tradition of the Byzantine magical and folk “recipes” for revealing a thief; it is this context in which this verse is used in combination with a special bread. Prototypes of these recipes and procedures are attested in the late antique syncretic (pagan-Judeo-Christian) magical papyri, in which private persons are advised to detect thieves by means of special spells, used either on their own or in combination with bread and cheese, an image of an eye, birds, bowls of water, and laurel leaves. In middle- and late-Byzantine manuscripts, these procedures are still present but in “Christianized” forms, even to the extent that a bread-and-cheese (or just bread) procedure is sometimes described as a regular liturgical rite, performed in a church. In the meantime, there is evidence indicating that the Byzantine hierarchy had been struggling with this and other instances of using magical procedures under the cloak of the Christian liturgy, and, in particular, bishops had been expelling priests who used bread sortilege to determine guilt. However, in Western Europe, especially in Germany and England, where spells against thieves had also been known since antiquity, the bread ordeal (English: Corsnaed, German: Bissprobe) became an accepted judicial practice, and even found its way into the official law codes of 11th-century England. Quite surprisingly, a similar phenomenon is attested in Russia (Novgorod) in the early 15th century. Taking into account the Crimean bread stamp studied in this article, one can conclude that bread ordeals, prohibited in Constantinople, could have been tolerated in the Byzantine periphery, including Crimea, and that it is from these areas that this practice could have come to some Russian regions as well.
The article puts forward the suggestion that the mysterious last will of Metropolitan Constantine I of Kiev, in which he ordered that after his death his body should be torn to pieces by dogs instead of receiving a proper burial, was inspired by a very specific literary text. This text is still used in the Orthodox Christian tradition; it is known as the hymnographical kanon “At the Parting of the Soul from the Body.” While nowadays this kanon is used in the course of an ordinary liturgical rite, in the 12th century, when it first appeared, it was used among some Byzantine intellectual and ascetic circles as a particular element of personal piety. The 12th century is exactly the epoch of Constantine's activities, and the description of а funeral procedure given by this kanon is very close to the last will of Constantine. The kanon “At the Parting of the Soul from the Body” has close ties to another hymn of roughly the same epoch—the “Penitential” kanon written after the 5th chapter of the “Ladder” of John Climacus. Both kanons conceal a didactic story under the structure of a hymnographic pattern. What is more important, both are from the very beginning intertwined with a distinct illustrative program: each monostrophe is accompanied by a specific picture, which discloses the contents of the text. These “comics-like” stories have no parallel among other Byzantine kanons. Finally, both kanons witness the growth of the influence of Palestinian and, more generally, Eastern ascetic traditions on the monastic practices of Constantinople and its surrounding regions. This influence was associated, most of all, with the Evergetian movement, with its strict disciplinary and fasting rules, etc. Metropolitan Constantine, who was an outstanding representative of the Byzantine intellectual elite of those times, should have been acquainted—at the very least!—with this movement. Moreover, the conflicts of the bishops in his circle with the Russian princes concerning the fasting discipline suggest that Constantine was trying to introduce the new Evergetian ascetic standards among the Russians. Thus, the literal adherence to the provisions of the kanon “At the Parting of the Soul from the Body” at the funeral of Metropolitan Constantine Ι should be interpreted as a sign of his full confidence in his ideals.
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