Contested Empire: Civil War in the Medieval East Roman Imperial State, c. 500-1204

The proposed project focuses on the exploration of civil war in the East Roman or Byzantine Empire between the late-fifth century and the conquest of Constantinople by the Crusades in 1204. The chronological limits of the research focus on the period, in which the medieval successor of the Roman Empire in the East continued to stand as a centralized imperial state under the rule of one imperial capital and a single ruler. The main thesis of the study is that the phenomenon of civil war needs to be distinguished from military mutinies and other kinds of revolt in the Empire on the basis that it refers to armed conflict principally determined by the aims of the rebellious group with regard to the imperial state. This means that the rebels employed military violence concretely as a means to either claim the rule of the imperial state (leadership conflict) or to defy its territorial unity (secession conflict). The research method will make use of a modern analytical typology of internal armed conflict that will facilitate a scrutiny of the multiple causes for the outbreak, development and outcome of Byzantine civil wars. These will be explored in a comparative manner in order to discern basic patterns with regard to the differentiated role of the rebellious leaders social status (i.e. social capital), of ideological issues (religious, political), of military and economic parameters as well as of identities (regional, religious, ethnic). The aim of the research is to scrutinize the impact of internal and external factors, such as military power, economy, ideology, and the nature of foreign enemies, on the character and the changed nature of civil war in the system of empire with regard to its role in paving the way after the late-11th century for the centralized imperial states disintegration by the Fourth Crusade. Moreover, the study aims to explore the social effects of civil war on the masses of common people as well as on the political relationship between the imperial city-state of Constantinople and various types of provincial communities and social groups. The expected results will provide a complete picture of the causal relationships and the dynamic underlying the phenomenon of civil war as a central aspect of Byzantine social relations. Moreover, they will provide an alternative comprehensive explanation of the long-drawn process that caused the unmaking of the empire and the ultimate fragmentation of Byzantine society in 1204. Finally, they will contribute to comparative historical research on the study of medieval civil war and pre-modern state formation as well as to interdisciplinary dialogue between the fields of Byzantine and Medieval Studies, Historical Sociology and Conflict Studies. 1

No additional funding sources recorded.