Michael Psellos: The Eleventh Century Crisis
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- čas přidán 8. 06. 2024
- This episode is an extract from Michael Psellos' Chronographia, Translated by E. R. A. Sewter.
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Image Credits:
Entrance of Roger of Flower in Constantinopla (1888) by José Moreno Carbonero:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan...
Illustration of Michael Psellos and Michael VII, Public Domain:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Histamenon of Isaac I by Classical Numismatic Group:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Madrid Skylitzes Manuscript illustrations, Public Domain:
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Byzantine costume 800-1000, Public Domain:
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Miliaresion of Romanos III by Classical Numismatic Group:
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Mosaic of Constantine IX and Zoe by Myrabella:
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Psellos is trying to make his patron seem like the restorer so any description of his predecessors are made as if looking down at them.
This must have been a really interesting time to be a Byzantine royal. Nice video.
Michael Psellos: a man of our times, or...all times?!
All time. If barbarians such as myself are reading his works nearly a thousand year later, I am certain they will in a thousand to come.
@@EasternRomanHistory What kind of barbarian are you? The worst? :)
@@CiubyX Oh yes the worst kind.
I am reading his kronographia book and ı like it hes great Man
The quality drops off in book 7 but he is a fantastic read.
@@EasternRomanHistory well, he was not just older by the point of his writing those segments of the books, but some of the actors within those chapters were potentially still alive and kicking about at the time of writing. He had a bit of a delicate balancing act to work with at the time of his finishing up his history. Still, it's a great read and wonderful primary source of the Medieval Roman Empire. Ακατάκτητη Ρώμη !! Δόξα στους μεγάλους Καίσαρες των Ρωμαίων! Βασιλεύς Αλέξιος I Κομνηνός Αιώνιος !!
Psellos was a true alchemist too
If you read Psellos between the lines, Zoe poisoned and killed her father Constantine VIII Porphyrogenitus, her husband Romanos III Argyros, her husband Michael IV the Paphlagonian, her husband Constantine IX Monomachos, mistress of Constantine IX Monomachos, and she would have poisoned and killed Michael V had he not unsuccessfully rebelled.
However, I don't see it much, or at all, noticed by historians. What is you stance on the whole "such a strong and handsome man that can barely walk and has goitre soon after he's in Zoe's way" (lead poisoning? cyanide poisoning? coming from Zoe's "cosmetics" laboratory) thing?
Zoe almost certainly conspired with Michael IV to murder Romanos III, the circumstances seem too convienant to permit anything else. There is no evidence to suggest that Constantine VIII was murdered by his daughter, he fell ill and died of natural causes. Michael IV died of acute Epilpsy which he suffered from before he ever knew Zoe. Constantine IX died of an illness several five years after Zoe was dead and there is no reason to suspect that Zoe wanted Schlerina dead. The marriage between Constantine and her seems to have been largely political. Michael V, her adopted son is generally considered to have struck first because he wanted to replace the Macedonian dynasty with his own. He successfully exiled Zoe but the city mob led by Theodora and Macedonian supporters led a revolution against him and then blinded him and his uncle Constantine for treason. Romanos was either killed by a poison introduced in the water, a long term poison or trangled to death during his bath. His death is the only one where Zoe seems to have been directly involved with. I don't think a particular poison has been identified yet.
@@EasternRomanHistory
CONSTANTINE VIII
... he was physically strong ... Most of all he was skilled in fighting with wild beasts ... He was a man of enormous size, standing up to nine feet in height. His constitution, moreover, was more than usually robust, and his digestive powers were extraordinary ...
=>>
...he became afflicted with arthritis, and worse still, his feet gave him such trouble that he was unable to walk. That is why, after his accession, no one saw him attempt to walk with any confidence; he used to ride on horseback, in safety.
ROMANUS III
... had a graceful turn of speech and a majestic utterance. A man of heroic stature, he looked every inch a king...
=>>
... and he differed little from a man who was dead. His whole face was swollen and the colour of it was no more pleasant to look upon than that of men three days dead in the tombs. ... Most of the hairs on his head had fallen out, as though he were a corpse, but a few strands, scattered here and there, were tousled round his forehead, moved, I suppose, by his breathing...
MICHAEL IV
... He was a finely-proportioned young man, with the fair bloom of youth in his face, as fresh as a flower, clear-eyed, and in very truth ‘red-cheeked’
=>>
... The brainstorms no longer attacked him, as before, at lengthy intervals, but they occurred more frequently, whether through some outside influence which altered the nature of the illness, or because of some internal affection which brought on the fits...
=>>
... It was now evident that the whole of the emperor’s body was swollen, and nobody could fail to notice the hydropsy from which he was suffering ... The fingers that gripped his bridle were like those of a giant, for each of them was as thick and large as a man’s arm - the result of his internal trouble. His face, too, preserved not a trace of its former likeness.
CONSTANTINE IX
... It was a marvel of beauty that Nature brought into being in the person of this man, so justly proportioned, so harmoniously fashioned, that there was no one in our time to compare with him ...
=>>
...Such was the beauty with which the emperor was endowed when he ascended the throne, but a year had not gone by before Nature, in her efforts to glorify him, seemed to falter before such wonder and delight; it was as if she gave up the task in exhaustion, and then destroyed his strength and ruined his manhood ...
=>>
...The symptoms of his disease were not all immediately apparent. The humours first flowed into his feet, and at once he was compelled to take to his bed. If he had to walk at all, he did so with the help of other people ... His feet were bent and his knees, crooked like the point of a man’s elbow, were swollen, making it impossible for him to walk steadily or to stand upright for any length of time. Mostly he lay on his bed, and, whenever he wished to give audience, others had to prop him up and make him comfortable ...
This is all Psellos. Don't know about you, but to me it seems he's trying to tell us something. There are also implications in the text that the poison has effect on the psyche, ie the subject gets irritated and prone to violent outbursts, but I can't be bothered to look those up...
@@EasternRomanHistory PS This is all text book history, and I don't think it makes much sense. How does one die from acute epilepsy? With those symptoms? What does Michael V "struck first because he wanted to replace the Macedonian dynasty with his own" even mean? He already did, he was as legitimate Roman emperor as any. The whole thing makes no sense if you don't consider that he was afraid for his life (Zoe), and civil elite used the excuse to kill him and install one of their own on the throne ie Monomachos.
I think that the important thing missing in the standard narratives is that since at least of the beginning of the 10th century empire was in a kind of (not always) quiet civil war between Anatolian nobility which controlled the empire in the previous centuries (ie Armenians) and the civil elite in the capital backed by Thracian troops (ie Macedonians). Once the latter triumphed during the reign of Basil II, they always distrusted the Anatolians and though to rule the empire by relying on Macedonians, mercenaries, Bulgarians, anybody but Anatolians in essence.
Whatever the consequences down the line (no more Anatolia), in the middle of the 11th century this probably meant that:
- Michael's V biggest sin had nothing to do with Zoe, but rather with, as indicated with his treatment of Maniakes and Dalassenos, the thing that he was a political moderate who was willing to share some power with the (few remaining) Armenians
- as they've triumphed so greatly during the "riots", civil elite probably ditched Macedonians as indicated by their presence in the rebellions from that point on
- this point was also probably the tipping point when the government started seriously losing control over the provinces, court system reform in all likelihood had less with justice, and more with the whole thing that the civil administration was starting to broke down as the judges were previously backed by local generals, and those were by now replaced by mercenary commanders
- this peace of propaganda by Psellos so great that it echoes thru time is nonsense, there is very little evidence that Isaac Komnenos was a transformative leader, and there is evidence that he did double down on the unsuccessful policies of the previous century such as exploitation of state lands etc --> this actually would make sense if you consider that he was a part of that ruling coalition, the part that was pushed aside a decade earlier, but none the less a part, and he came as he went, via palace decision
the eleventh century crisis is worser then the 4th century crisis.