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TheIssue No. 2Summer 2012Byzantinist The newsletter of theOxford Byzantine SocietyA Message from the EditorIt is an honour for me to present thesecond issue of the Byzantinist, thenewsletter of the Oxford ByzantineSociety. It was conceived as a platform toshowcase the ongoing projects of the graduate students at the University of Oxfordwho work in all disciplines connected withthe late antique or Byzantine worlds. Thisyear has been very successful for Byzantinestudies at Oxford and we have a lot to highlight: Exeter College successfully hostedthe SPBS annual Spring Symposium; thegraduate body grew with a record matriculating class; and the Society’s own annualconference was the largest yet. This newsletter contains a selection of the best of thiscommunity’s output this year, a snapshot ofa dynamic group of scholars. The currentcontributors represent a wide samplingwithin that community, from first-year master’s to final-year doctoral students.Once again, Oxford’s graduate studentshave outdone themselves in their submissions. As was the case in the newsletter’s firstissue, the articles are meant to discuss a small,contained aspect of research, presented witha non-expert academic readership in mind.The writings display an interest in the gamutof ‘Byzantine’ studies from late antiquitythrough the Palaiologan era and embracemulti-disciplinary approaches to the field.The newsletter also contains a pair of bookreviews and profiles of a current student andNewsletter2012.indd 1a recent alumnus. While the profile sectionscan only ever present a small sample of thegraduate population, I think that Yaman andElizabeth are brilliant examples of the wildlydiverse community of Byzantine scholarsboth here at Oxford and around the world.In addition to these, there is a special interview with Professor Dame Averil Cameron,who shares some insights into some of herrecent projects, as well as her thoughts bothon the current state of Byzantine studies andacademia as a field at large. In an era whenacademic careers – indeed, most careers ingeneral – offer less and less certainty, theinterview and the student profiles presentdifferent views of the same world, a worldcharacterized as much by its exciting growthand potential as by its relative obscurity anddaunting prospects.As with the first edition of theByzantinist, the website, the annual graduate conference, and the weekly emails,this issue seeks to continue the OxfordByzantine Society’s overall goal of promoting graduate community and fosteringnetworks among its members, present, past,and future. This newsletter will be available for a limited period in print and willremain archived on the Society’s website,free for you to download and cherish againand again. Effusive thanks must be given tothe contributors, both for their articles andfor their patience with the editorial process.Thanks also to the senior members of theInterfaculty Committee of Late Antiqueand Byzantine Studies, whose support forthe society and its projects has been steadfast. The newsletter, as you see it before you,exists solely through the skilled efforts ofits graphic designer, Jesse Simon, and theeditorial élan of Alexis Gorby, Ed Coghill,and Bethany Dearlove. What has emergedis the fruit of your collective work, which Ihumbly present back to you.Douglas Whalinpresidentoxford byzantine societyThe Byzantinist is published by The Oxford Byzantine SocietyDouglas WhalinPresidentAlexis GorbySecretaryEdward Zychowicz-CoghilltreasurerDesign and Layout byJesse Simonfor NouvellevagueThe texts and photographs printed herein are 2012 by the Authors and may not bereproduced without permission.5/6/12 17:55:10

ContentsBetween Aries and Orion2Caterina Franchi Hard and Soft Power on the Eastern FrontierChris Lillington-Martin An Age of Orthopraxy?46Daniel Neary Revisiting Lips Monastery8Foteini Spingou The Image of the Heroine in Three Palaeologan RomancesKirsty Stewart 10The Byzantinist Interview: Averil Cameron 12Book Reviews 14Alumnus Profile 15Graduate Student Profile 16Between Ariesand Orion:Stars, Planets, and Signs inthe Alexander RomanceThere’s some ill planet reigns: Imust be patient till the heavenslook with an aspect more favourable’. These are Hermione’s words inShakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. They couldalso be any astrologer’s words when predicting the birth of a child. In the legendaryAlexander Romance, these words are alsospoken by Nectanebus II, pharaoh of Egyptand astrologer, to Olympias, the mother ofAlexander the Great, when she gives birthto Alexander. In all the versions of this text,from its origin as early as the third centuryBCE to versions from the twelfth-thirteenthcenturies, Alexander’s life is marked by stars,planets, and signs.Not only do stars, planets, and signsfigure large in the Alexander Romance,the first person Alexander contacts is anastrologer. The legend transmitted by PseudoCallisthenes reports that Alexander’s truefather is not Philip II, but the last Egyptianpharaoh, Nectanebus II. The first thing theAlexander Romance tells us about this historical character is that he is an astrologer,a ruler of people who ‘calculated the ordering of the stars of heaven’. His great abilityis to win battles without even lining up anarmy: he creates clay images of his enemies’ships, puts them in a water basin, and thendestroys them. However, his magic suddenlycan no longer save him, for the gods turnagainst him, and he flees Egypt. He goes toMacedonia where he begins his career as anastrologer. His fame grows and Olympiasgoes to ask him about her future, as she hasnot yet borne a son and is afraid Philip willrepudiate her.Nectanebus falls in love with Olympias,and decides she must be his. His first actis to clearly explain the different types ofjudging the κρίσις: there are ὀνειροκρίται(dream interpreters), σημειολύται (portentsinterpreters), ὀρνεοσκόποι (augurs), μάντεις(diviners), ἀμουμάντεις (meaning eitherἀμμουμάντεις, diviners by sand, or Ἀμμώνοςμάντεις, diviners of Ammon), γενεθλιαλόγοι(caster of nativities), μάγοι (enchanters),ἀστρολόγοι (astrologers). The Latin translation of the Alexander Romance, attributedto Julius Valerius (fourth century CE?),offers only interpretes somniorum et astrici,while the Armenian version (fifth centuryCE) has ‘dream tellers, omen solvers, dreamjudgers, the seers of Ammon, basin gazers,birth readers, fortune tellers, fate tellerswho are called magi, and in their powerrest all scientific matters’. The Syriac version(tenth century CE) describes them in different words: ‘the interpreters of dreams are ofmany kinds, and the knowers of signs, thosewho understand divination, Chaledeans orCaterina FranchiExeter Collegeaugurs, and caster of nativities; the Greekcall the signs of the Zodiac ‘sorcerers’; andothers are counters of the stars’. In any case,Nectanebus is an expert of every kind of divination, and his instruments, as described inthe text, are supported by archaeologicalevidence.The second great astrological momentin the Alexander Romance is the birth ofAlexander. Nectanebus disguises himselfusing his magical powers and appears toOlympias, firstly as a mature man withwhite hair and ram horns on his head,Ammon, and then as a snake that becomeshorned. At the moment of Alexander’sbirth, it is Nectanebus who stands with thequeen, and here there is an incredible text,Alexander the Great’s horoscope. It is a verycorrupted passage, and there exists only onemanuscript in Greek for this version (Rom.Alex, α, I.12).Many have tried to divine Alexander’sdate of birth from this passage. However itis important to remember that this is a fictional text, and the horoscope is probablyone of the many passages which have comeinto the text at an early stage. One scholarhas dated it to 149 CE based on astronomical calculations, but to date the first versionto this period, on just this piece of evidence,is probably an overestimation. In any case,2 The ByzantinistNewsletter2012.indd 25/6/12 17:55:10

this passage is very corrupted, but what canbe understood is that Alexander was bornduring a full moon, with the Sun in Scorpio,Moon in Taurus, Saturn in Cancer, Jupiter inAries, Mars in Leo, Venus in Sagittarius, andMercury in Capricorn, while Jupiter wasculminating. The horoscope is present onlyin the Greek and Syriac versions, appearinglonger and more detailed in the latter.This horoscope is similar to many foundin papyri, but it is the only known onerelated to Alexander. Whether or not theinterpretation of these lines are correct –the text itself is a mystery, and in order tounderstand it properly it would be necessaryto have a great knowledge of astrology – themain point is: ‘Zeus lover of young girls [.]is now clearly at the centre of the sky andhas become Ammon the ram’. The centralfocus seems to be his birth under Zeus,the Greek king of gods, and Ammon, theEgyptian king. In Alexander’s propagandathese were both his parents and both signsof power. In the same way, the AlexanderRomance’s retelling of when Alexander wasborn should not be treated as historical fact.He was born under the new moon of themonth of Tybi (more or less March-April)at dawn, not only because dawn and theascendant would correspond (which doesnot happen in the horoscope), but alsobecause the new moon at the raising of thesign is a clear metaphorical way to indicatethe beginning. In the fifth-century β versionthe month of Alexander’s birth is January,always at the new moon; intriguingly, thefirst new moon of 356 BCE was the first ofJanuary. In symmetry with this, Alexander’sdeath is set at sunset.In the successive versions of theAlexander Romance, no zodiacal signs canbe found. This is not the result of censorshipas seen in other moments of the text, particularly the relationship between Alexanderand the pagan gods, but because this horoscope was hardly comprehensible. It is fullof mythological references and astrological complexities. Although the scene is thesame – Nectanebus keeping Olympias fromgiving birth – the reasons are explained in asimpler way than through the complicatedhoroscope results; she would give birth toa war prisoner: less than a slave, a monster,or an eunuch.Unluckily, there is no horoscope in theByzantine version, but there is something different. In all the versions, Alexander believeshis father is Philip, and Olympias believes heis the son of Ammon. Philip is suspicious,but Nectanebus has him visited by dreams.The most famous and important of these isthe birth of a little snake from an egg fallenfrom the sky, the snake surrounds the egg,and then dies. A dream interpreter explainsthat the snake is a royal being, and the egg isthe world. The snake, having surrounded it,will die without being able to return back tohis country. In addition, Nectanebus turnshimself into a snake and shows himselfkissing the queen, in front of everybody, so asto show that the rumours about the conception of Alexander are right.Alexander grows up and Nectanebusteaches him astronomy and astrology. In allthe versions, this teaching culminates whenAlexander asks Nectanebus to go outsidefor a lesson and suddenly throws him intoa gorge, speaking as a new servant to Thales,‘You try to know the things of the sky, butyou don’t know the things of the earth’. Inthis moment, Nectanebus shows himselfas Alexander’s father: ‘the stars were right,they said I had to be killed by my son’. In theByzantine version ε one finds a very important addition: Nectanebus uses an astrolabe(ἀστρολάβιον) which imitates the movementof the stars. This astrolabe is very similar tothe one used by the original Nectanebus,but it is not the same thing: there is theSun, the Moon, the five planets, and τὰτούτοις παρανατέλλοντα, those that surroundthem. In particular there is Pleiades, Orion,Arcturus, some †στεραῖα† (obviously corrupted), Andromeda, Ursa Major, and theconstellation of the Dragon.Typically this στεραῖα is interpreted asa corruption for Sirius. This is a possibility,for in the manuscript there is the little signover the word, which throughout the manuscript indicates a name. But it could be thatthis στεραῖα is simply an ἀστέρα, linked withthe preceding Arcturus, the only effectivestar in this list, and ἀστῆρ has the meaning ofa single star not a constellation. Therefore,it would be possible to identify it withArcturus. There are also stones representing the planets: the Sun made of garnet, theMoon of crystal, Jupiter of ‘hyacinth’, a bluestone, Saturn of emerald, Mars of a preciousred stone, Venus of pearl, and Mercury ofselenite. Although the stones are not exactlythe same, the description is very similar tothe astrological tablet Nectanebus uses in thefirst version to cast Alexander’s horoscope.Additionally, these stones could have physical and mystic values. For example, thegarnet secures from peril everything that ittouches; the diamond is not only the brightest but also the most resistant, and in thelapidaria its force chases away nightmaresand fear; the hyacinth has a strengtheningpower that drives away grief and suspicions;the emerald makes persuasive words flyfrom the mouth; and the selenite preventsold age.The mention of certain constellationsor stars over others is probably due totheir importance in the sky. The Dragon isenormous, and in the ancient times it wasthe location of the old ‘north pole’ flowingbetween the Ursas. The Ursa Major is theconstellation present in every season, fundamental in identifying the Polar Star.Andromeda, at the feet of Pegasus, evenif not a large constellation, hosts anothergalaxy. Arcturus is the third most luminescent star in the sky. The Pleiades are anunmistakable concentration of stars. Andfinally, Orion is probably, after the UrsaMajor, the most important constellation inthe sky, not only for its easily recognizableform but also because of its rising. The risingof Sirius right under it indicated the beginning of the hot season. But this is not theonly reason for Orion’s importance. Whilefor us Or

community’s output this year, a snapshot of a dynamic group of scholars. The current contributors represent a wide sampling within that community, from first-year mas-ter’s to final-year doctoral students. Once again, Oxford’s graduate students have outdone themselves in their submis - sions. As was the case in the newsletter’s first

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