Office Bearers
President John Melville-Jones Dept of Classics and Ancient History University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Highway Crawley WA 6009 e-mail: jrmelvil@cyllene.uwa.edu.au	Secretary  Wendy Mayer Centre for Early Christian Studies Australian Catholic University PO Box 247 Everton Park QLD 4053 e-mail: wendy.mayer@adelaide.edu.au
Treasurer Lynda Garland Dept of Classics and Ancient History University of New England Armidale NSW 2351 e-mail: ldillon@metz.une.edu.au	For a full list of the AABS Executive for 2001-2005, see Appendix 1 For Minutes of the AABS Biennial General Meeting, Held on 22 April 2001, Fox Lecture Theatre, University of Western Australia, see Appendix 2

AABS Web site: www.mcauley.acu.edu.au/AABS/
 
 

Forthcoming Conferences, Seminars and Events
Web sites of interest
International News
Australian News
Abstracts of the Twelfth AABS Conference, Perth 2001
Reviews and Resources
Next Newsletter
Appendix 1: Full list of the AABS Executive for 2001-2005
Appendix 2: Minutes of the 2001 AABS Biennial General Meeting

2001

7-8 July. Words and Pictures. Religion and Culture from Christ to the Renaissance. McAuley Campus, Australian Catholic University. The is the new look version of the former one-day seminar series, now expanded into a one and a half day conference, bringing together the interests of both the Centre for Early Christian Studies and the Brisbane Mediaeval and Renaissance Group. For the program see the website: www.acu.edu.au/Earlychr.
To register contact: Centre for Early Christian Studies, Australian Catholic University, PO Box 247, Everton Park QLD 4053 (email: b.neil@mcauley.acu.edu.au or wendy.mayer@adelaide.edu.au). Deadline for registration: 29 June 2001.

16 August. Public Lecture: New Horizons in Byzantine Jordan (Norman Ricklefs), 1 pm, Rm C5CT1, Macquarie University, Sydney. Free.

19-25 August. XXe Congrès International des Études Byzantines, Paris (Sorbonne and Collège de France). To register write to the Congress Secretariat: M.J.-F. Vannier, Collège de France, Centre d'Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance, 52 rue du Cardinal Lemoine, F-75005 Paris. Fax: -33 (0)1 44 27 28 85.
Web: byzance.dr10.cnrs.fr/web/congres/frame.html

3-8 September. Second International Congress on Black Sea Antiquities. Local Populations of the Black Sea Littoral and their Relations with the Greek, Roman and Byzantine World and Near Eastern Civilisations. Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. Keynote speakers include Prof. Anthony Bryer (Byzantium and its Pontic Neighbours). For registration form see: http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~arkeo/blackseas/html

8-10 September. Material Culture and Well-Being in Byzantium (400-1453). Lucy Cavendish College and St Catherine's College, University of Cambridge, UK. Conference in Honour of his Beatitude Archbishop Damianos of St Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai. Bookings limited to 80 delegates. Enquiries to: Conference Organiser, Professor Anna Muthesius, 23 Sedley Taylor Road, Cambridge CB2 2PW, England. Fax (+44) 1223 332178.

10-12 September. Freed Slaves: Integration and Exclusion. Second conference of ICHOS (The International Centre for the History of Slavery), University of Nottingham, UK.

26-28 September. Computing Arts 2001: digital resources for research in the Humanities. Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sydney.
The first major conference devoted to issues in humanities computing generally in the Australia-Pacific region, Computing Arts 2001 seeks to bring together scholars, academic researchers, publishers, librarians and archivists in the region and beyond, with key speakers in the field, to foster the exchange of ideas and to extend the use of digital resources, techniques and tools in humanities research and teaching. Keynote speakers include: Morris Eaves, University of Rochester, Co-Editor of The William Blake Archive; and Mark Kornbluh, Associate Professor of History, Michigan State University, and Executive Director of H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences on Line. Details: Melissa McMahon, RIHSS Projects and Events Officer, University of Sydney at melissa.mcmahon@rihss.usyd.edu.au or the web site at www.arts.usyd.edu.au/Arts/departs/rihss/drrh.html.

26 September. Lecture by Dr Vrej Nersessian, keeper of Armenian mss at the British Library and curator of the current exhibition at the British Library celebrating 1700 years of Armenian Christianity (to be held at Macquarie University, Sydney). For details contact Ken Parry: kendee@bigpond.com.

27-29 September. Colloque 2001. "Villes et villages tombes et églises" - La Suisse de l'antiquité tardive et du haut moyen age. Fribourg University. Communications in French and German. Details: http://www.unifr.ch/scant/seminaires/archpaleo/paleo-colloque.htm.

4-6 November. Antioche de Syrie. Histoire, images et traces de la ville antique. Colloque International (Lyon), Institut Fernand-Corby/Laboratoire d'Histoire de l'Université d'Avignon. Details: www.pamparato.com/that/lyon.html.

8-11 November. 27th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference, Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana. For details see the BSC web site: www.sc.edu/bsc/index.htm or contact the chair of the local arrangements committee, Charles Barber: barber.11@nd.edu.

16 November. Champagne Supper and Lecture: Thus Spake Zarathustra: the legacy of the Magi in Late Antiquity (Ken Parry), Rm X5B321, Macquarie University, Sydney. Cost $10.

2002

25-28 April. The Annual Meeting of the Association of Ancient Historians, Savannah, GA, USA. Topic: Urbanism, Colony & Empire. The keynote speaker is Prof. Mary T. Boatwright of Duke University. The meeting will honour Prof. Susan Treggiari on the occasion of her recent retirement from Stanford University. Contact: Timothy M. Teeter, tmteeter@gsvms2.cc.gasou.edu, or visit http://www.trentu.ca/aah/welcome.shtml.

26-28 April. Dumbarton Oaks Symposium: Realities in the Arts of the Medieval Mediterranean, 800-1500.

Spring. International Conference, Late Antique Landscapes - Intellectual, Figural and Physical. UC Santa Barbara. Conference organiser: Hal Drake.

6-9 June. A Conference on The Early Christian Book, to be held at The Catholic University of America, presented by the Center for the Study of Early Christianity. The conference will include a number of plenary papers and 20-30 minute time-slots for a limited number of other speakers addressing different aspects of the conference theme. Plenary speakers include: Professor Gillian Clark, Professor of Ancient History, University of Bristol; Professor Samuel Lieu, Professor of Ancient History, Macquarie University, Australia; and Professor Mark Vessey, Department of English, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. For details see: arts-sciences.cua.edu/ecs/Conference.html, or contact: Lani Mullaney, Conference 2002, Center for the Study of Early Christianity, Catholic University of America, P.O. Box 337, Washington, DC 20064, USA, e-mail: mullaneb@cua.edu.

July. Third International Triennial Conference, Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church. Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia. Theme: Life and Liturgy (details to be announced).

September. Five Thousand Years of Slavery. Third conference of ICHOS, University of Nottingham, UK.

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www.byzantium.ac.uk
This is the new web site for the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies (SPBS), UK (a transformation of the old one). Benevolently watched over by St Eudokia, it contains useful information about seminar series in the UK, forthcoming conferences and events, publications (current and forthcoming) by members of the SPBS, and Byzantine courses in the UK, among other things.

www.thegreekbookshop.com
This site, the web home of Zeno Booksellers in the UK, is the place, if you are looking for Byzantine books in either Greek or English. With around 900 titles in the Byzantine field you are sure to find some of the more difficult to obtain books that you need. For those who find it difficult to make it to London in person, purchases can be made securely online. See further under Reviews and Resources below.

www.doaks.org/discountlist.html
Dumbarton Oaks is having a big book sale! Go to the web site above to scan through the list of books on sale. Bargains range from DOP vols 27 to 52, and books in the Studies, Texts and Catalogue series. For instance, some of the coin catalogues are greatly reduced (e.g. volume 2 from USD165 to USD100).

www.arts.uwa.edu.au/Classics/GAP_web/GAP2k.htm
Report on the Year 2000 survey season at Robatha in south Jordan. In the Notitia Dignitatum (Or. 37.27) of c. 400 CE, Robatha appears as the base for the Equites Sagittarii Indigenae Robathae, a small but mobile force of Native Horse Archers. Remains identified range from Early Bronze age to Islamic. Robatha was a secondary site to Arindela, a see in the Byzantine province of Palaestina Tertia.

www.ancientnarrative.com
This site, the web home of a new electronic journal, which is to include scholarly discourse on narrative texts of the Byzantine period, as well as narrative in the early Christian, classical Greek and Roman and Jewish traditions, is intended to be open to subscribers only. A free trial issue was published on the site in December, with the first subscription issue being posted in the northern hemisphere spring of 2001.

www.ota.ahds.ac.uk
The four books comprising the res historiae antiqua (Ecce Homo Amore: Verba Ambigua Horati: Civilized Britain 43AD: Ptolemy's Geographia Books I & II) are now available on the Oxford Text Archives (URL above), from where they can be downloaded.

www.ascsa.edu.gr/Corinth/c_index.htm
Reports on the ongoing excavations at Corinth, Greece, by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Excavations in the Panayia Field, southeast of the Forum at Corinth, since 1995 have uncovered the remains of a middle Roman town house with mosaic and marble floors, buildings of the 6th century including a small bath structure and its 9th century destruction, scattered fragments of Byzantine occupation and the foundations of several mid-19th century buildings.

www.metmuseum.org/collections/department.asp?dep=17
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has a wonderful collection of Byzantine art, classified as part of the Medieval art collection. The collection is particularly strong in Byzantine silver, enamels, glass, and ivories; medieval jewellery; Romanesque and Gothic metalwork, stained glass, sculpture, enamels, and ivories; and Gothic tapestries. Fifty highlights from these and other categories are presented online, organised first by culture and, within cultures, chronologically. Well worth a look.

Discussion Lists

PROSOP-L (Ancient/Byzantine/Mediaeval Prosopography Discussion Forum)

PROSOP-L is an unmoderated list that provides a discussion forum for topics relating to Ancient, Byzantine, and Mediaeval Prosopography. It grew out of discussions at the "Prosopography in the 21st Century" Symposium held at the British Academy in September, 2000, where it became clear that a venue for the coordinated and public discussion of prosopographical topics would serve a useful purpose. PROSOP-L will allow subscribers to the list to:
(1) post queries on prosopographical topics;
(2) discuss issues relating to prosopographical methodology (e.g. rules of nomenclature, identity/separation of homonyms, construction of lines of descent, significance of anonymous persons);
(3) announce books, articles, and conferences of a prosopographical nature;
(4) provide reviews of prosopographically significant books;
(5) offer a venue for the announcement of persons who are missing from existing prosopographical catalogues (PIR, PCBE, PLRE, PBE, PmbZ, and so on); and
(6) assist researchers in the construction of stemmata.
Potential Audience: Historians, Classicists, Mediaevalists, Byzantinists, Historians of Religion, Politics, and Society, Epigraphers, Hagiographers, Papyrologists, Numismatists, and Palaeographers.

To subscribe: Send a single-line message
SUBSCRIBE PROSOP-L firstname lastname
to LISTSERV@VM.SC.EDU
(extracted from a posting to the Late Antiquity List by Ralph Mathisen)

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Sir Steven Runciman, a Byzantine scholar of world renown, died shortly after the last newsletter was published. At the time there were extensive obituaries in major British newspapers (The Times and Daily Telegraph). His contributions include:

• A History of the Crusades (in three volumes), first published by Cambridge University Press in 1951;
• Byzantine Civilization (London: Arnold, 1936);
• The Great Church in Captivity: a study of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the eve of the Turkish conquest to the Greek War of Independence (Cambridge U.P., 1968);
• The Byzantine Theocracy (Cambridge University Press, 1977);
• The Fall of Constantinople (Cambridge U.P., 1969);
• The Eastern Schism: a study of the Papacy and the eastern churches during the 11th and 12th centuries (London: Panther, 1970).

Princeton University, Program in Hellenic Studies [www.princeton.edu/~hellenic/]

A new visiting fellowship program at Princeton has been establish, sponsored by the Program in Hellenic Studies. These fellowships are intended to support research in Hellenic Studies (i.e. Modern Greek Studies, Byzantine Studies, or the reception and transmission of the Classical tradition) by regular faculty (full-time, active or retired) in the professorial ranks at United States or Canadian institutions.
Faculty or researchers (in all disciplines of the humanities or the social sciences) at Greek institutions and independent scholars based in Greece, as well Hellenists (in Classical, Byzantine or Modern Greek Studies) from overseas may apply for a visiting research fellowship at Princeton (see announcement at http://www.princeton. edu/~hellenic/visiting.html).
Also, independent scholars or graduate students who need to do research at Princeton may apply for Library fellowships supported by the Program in Hellenic Studies. This is a new program that will be announced shortly.
Enquiries: Dimitri Gondicas (gondicas@princeton.edu)
Executive Director, Program in Hellenic Studies, Princeton University

Dumbarton Oaks 2002-2003 Fellowships, Project Grants and Bliss Prize Fellowship

The above opportunities are currently open for application (due date: 1 November 2001). For details see the DO web site [www.doaks.org] or contact the Secretary of AABS [wendy.mayer@adelaide.edu.au] for a hard copy.

This conference was held by the British Academy to mark 50 years of international cooperation in the prosopography of the Late Roman and Byzantine periods, especially between Britain, Germany and France, since A.H.M. Jones first launched the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire in 1950, and also to honour the work of John Martindale who retired on 30 September after being involved in PLRE from its inception and subsequently in the Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire.

Papers were divided into three main groups: sources, arranged by genre, the value of prosopography in determining membership of particular groups; and the contribution of prosopography in the study of particular periods.

After John Wilkes opened the conference with a tribute to Hugo Jones and an account of the almost miraculous arrival of the files from Mommsen's original project, brought by John Morris from Berlin after the end of WW2 in his battered Rolls-Royce, Werner Seibt began with an amusing but pertinent presentation of the difficulties of interpreting seals, given the variety and obscurity of abbreviations used, and warned against accepting uncritically the dates given by editors, especially older ones. Jean-Michel Carrié discussed the variety of types of papyrus documents and argued that greater attention needed to be paid to this variety in reporting material. Thomas Pratsch warned of the dangers in making assumptions based simply on likelihood, genre or rhetoric in determining the historicity of material in saints' lives, showing how some apparently far-fetched statements were corroborated by other material, while other seemingly reliable material was merely copied from earlier unconnected sources. Charlotte Roueché adapted a skeleton outline of a paper on Letters by Margaret Mullett, who was unable to attend because of illness, to show how much can be learned from working out the networks of Byzantine letter-writers.

In the second section, entitled Categories and Frontiers, Wolfram Brandes on the topic of 'Heretic versus Orthodox', showed how the bishops' lists for the monothelite synods revealed that bishops seemed more concerned about being on the winning side than about any personal conviction on the issue. Evangelos Chrysos on 'Foreigners versus Romaioi' analysed the changing meaning of Romanitas, the loss of value of Roman citizenship after 212, so that civis/polites came to mean free person rather than citizen, peregrinus changed from foreigner to stranger and hence pilgrim and barbarus came to mean just foreigner, used proudly by the new subjects of the ius gentium while the Roman citizen proper became a subiectus. Jean-Claude Cheynet concluded the session by showing the difficulties (and importance) of distinguishing between official and unofficial power and public and private actions..

In the final session on the contribution of prosopography Werner Eck gave an outline history of the Prosopographia Imperii Romani from Theodor Mommsen's initial plan, concentrating on the vicissitudes of the subject in the 20th century and particularly the fortitude of Stein and Groag under the Nazis. Ralph Mathieson reminisced about the work of Hugo Jones and particularly John Martindale in describing the achievement of PLRE. Janet Nelson, talking on the medieval west, outlined, with the help of her associates, a proposed prosopography of the Anglo-Saxons. Paul Magdalino showed the value of the Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire (PBE) while emphasising the need for intelligent prosopographers who could link to a single individual apparently secrete information. Averil Cameron provided a concluding summary. A dinner was held in honour of John Martindale, which enabled many of those present to thank him for his generous assistance over many years while work on PLRE was in progress.

Roger Scott
University of Melbourne

Every now and again a conference turns up that pushes us beyond the familiar and casts us up on exciting and largely unexplored shores. This otherwise unassuming conference at a little known (but extremely attractive) campus in the US was just such a gem. Organised by Michael DiMaio, of DIR (the online encyclopaedia De Imperatoribus Romanis) fame, and Ralph Mathisen (who seems to run a large proportion of the electronic lists on the scene), in conjunction with the Perseus Project and the Stoa consortium, this conference aimed to bring together as many scholars in the above disciplines as possible who are already utilising the web for research and educational purposes to discuss what they are doing, how they are doing it, where they are heading and what problems they are encountering along the way. Over a concentrated two and a half days, session after session stimulated intense discussion about philosophical and practical issues associated with web use, as well as offering demonstration after demonstration of varied web-based projects, tools and ideas. For scholars in Australia, where the tyranny of distance (both within the country and from our colleagues overseas) is great and the potential offered by the web considerable, this was a conference not to be missed.

Rather than offering a broad survey of the papers delivered (the proceedings, along with URL/URIs, will appear on the DIR web site at www.roman-emperors.org), this report instead focuses on the issues that arose from discussion, with the occasional reference to projects that seem to me to be of particular interest to those of us working in the Australian scene.

As the days of the conference passed a number of issues arose again and again - some prompting quite heated discussion. One such issue was copyright. This is a matter of considerable concern not just in terms of using images, but also in terms of the question of who owns the copyright on a variety of material. As one participant pointed out, at least one university in the US argues that it owns the copyright on staff's lectures. This seemed a particularly grey area, with implications not only for the scholar who edits/authors the site, but also for the university hosting it. The simplest way around the problem in relation to images, it was argued, is to use one's own photographs. On the other hand, it was considered prudent to challenge copyright ownership in the case where this was claimed by an institution, such as a museum or art gallery, since it was not always the case that ownership resided with them. In regard to clarity concerning the copyright on materials published on a site, the Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum (TML) (www.music.indiana.edu/tml) provides a good exemplar, with the copyright notice appearing every time one logs onto the site or moves to a new link.

Related to this issue was the question of who owns the code used to create the tools being used, especially when, as seemed frequently to be the case, the funding has been provided by a source external to the university. Can one then license the tool/code out to others in a commercial arrangement as a means of recouping costs, or should the code be "open source"? These particular questions generated quite passionate debate, with the majority claiming that unless the code was "open source", that is, freely available to all, it would damage the growth of web resources in the above fields, since the ability to pay a professional programmer to produce the necessary code within humanities disciplines is minimal. Programmers working on the Perseus Project, for instance, pointed out that they had taken a considerable cut in pay in order to help develop the Perseus tools. Also related to the question of who owns the code and should it be available to others without cost, was the issue of whether the services provided on the web should be "user pays". One new electronic journal (Ancient Narrative) is intending to offer the journal on a subscription basis, with part of the benefits arising from subscribing being the receipt of a hard copy publication of the year's articles and reviews annually, plus the ability to participate in discussion about the articles posted. At the same time it will be possible to read the issues without paying the subscription. Since the journal is in its inception, the editors were unable to report on whether this was a success. Other journals, such as The Medieval Review (TMR), which publishes up to 200 reviews per annum, are free to the subscriber to the electronic list (and are often forwarded on to colleagues by the recipients). The funding basis for TMR, however, is about to change and the editors are looking at the issue of providing links at the end of individual reviews to the web site of the publisher for a fee. This has yet to be trialed as the editors are still in the process of negotiating agreements. It should also be noted that the host university argued that under the university's mandate the journal could not provide advertising per se. This prevents the journal from accepting funds from commercial bookstores in return for links to their sites (e.g. Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble). Academic presses were considered by the university to fall into a different category. In regard to the "user pays" issue, the consensus was that scholarly resources in the humanities should be free wherever possible. This approach relies, however, on the continuing generosity of the foundations and grant bodies that fund the various projects and of the host university that provides in kind support.

Related issues are those of permanence, availability across all platforms (Mac, PC, Internet Explorer, Netscape etc), and the use or otherwise of proprietary software. The "open source" approach necessarily dictates against the use of commercial software. It was argued that apart from the fact that you can't customise commercial products, the issue of durability of the resource demands that one avoids becoming locked into a commerical product with its inevitably short shelf-life. Much discussion centred around the use of "standards" that are likely to be around for some time (Perl-based mark-up codes such as HTML, XML, SGML) and Unicode which is supposed to be resolving the font issue. The ability to employ fonts such as Greek, or special characters from Old English, or even contractions from scripts used in medieval Latin manuscripts is still poor, particularly if you want the resulting text to be searchable. The majority of sites such as the Suda Online Project or e-journals avoid special fonts in favour of transliteration, although it is possible to read Greek from the web if one has the matching software. The next year or so should see major developments in this direction. Making one's resource available and fully searchable across all platforms seemed to be another stumbling block, requiring a considerable amount of work in addition to the production of the site content. The importance of this aspect is highlighted by the experience of the older projects such as the Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum, who have maintained older protocols because their users in South America and other less well-funded countries have access only to more primitive or in some cases very expensive-to-use technology.

The question of permanence seemed to be a key issue also. A number of librarians were in attendance who were able to contribute to discussion on the question of what happens to a dead e-journal? If you've cited it, or indeed if you cite any web site, which subsequently gets updated and changes, how can you be sure that you can retrieve the cited material? It was suggested that the university which hosts a web site should be responsible for maintaining an archival version of the site if a publication or resource becomes defunct. Clearly this is an issue to raise with the university administration at the time that one is preparing to launch a web publication. The Medieval Review and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy both provided models for dealing with the issue of archiving and providing a fixed version for citation. TMR archives all reviews under the relevant year after they are sent to the list. Since entries are constantly being added or updated, the Stanford Encyclopedia takes a snapshot of the encyclopedia four times a year and archives them as Spring 2000, Summer 2000, Fall 2000 etc. Another related issue is the permanence of the URL (Universal Resource Locator) or URI (Universal Resource Indicator) itself. [While the two terms are currently interchangeable it was argued that philosophically the latter is preferable, since it implies permanence, permanence being an essential feature.] What happens when people increasingly cite URIs in publications or provide links to them from their own site, and the URI changes? There is considerable frustration in going to a site and following the links provided only to find that a number prove to be dead ends. How should one structure the URIs in a large web resource in multiple media with multiple links so that the whole package can readily be located on a mirror site? Several arguments were put forward: that when a domain name is chosen in the first instance it should be unique, rather than home institution based; and that the URIs for the various subsections of a resource should be explanatory of the content of that particular section of the site (e.g. plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche). The latter helps the user as well as making the URIs coherent, assisting mirroring and the linking of the resource as a package to another site.

The question of domain names and URIs leads on to the question of quality control, editorial control and the credibility of the resource being offered. Given that any amateur can have their own home page and the quality of what is put on such sites varies considerably, how do you convince the user and the university tenure committee that the resource that you edit or to which you contribute is of a high academic standard? It was argued that one of the advantages of the web is that it allows for a greater transparency of process. The Suda Online project appends the name of each editor to each entry along with the name of the author. Notes are kept with each entry on any changes that have been made. The use of passwords allows the limitation of access at different levels to different categories of editor. In terms of how many editors are enough, the Stanford Encyclopedia has 65, the argument being "the more, the better". That site allows authors to alter an entry subsequently, with the altered entry automatically sent to the relevant editor, with the changes highlighted, for approval before the old entry is replaced. In the case of the TML every entry is checked 5 times before it is inserted in the database. Thus, in terms of editorial control and credibility in some cases the process is even more stringent than for equivalent print publications.

Other issues that arose related to useability, searchability and whether there was a fundamental divide between pedagogy and research in relation to intent. In terms of useability, the question was asked to what extent the editors and authors of a site understand the user. Can a site cater to both the general user and the specialist? It was unfortunate that Lisa Cerrato of the Perseus Project had to withdraw from the conference at the last minute due to ill health as she was to report on an analysis of the correspondents to the Perseus site and it would have been extremely interesting to hear the results. Some of the conclusions offered, however, were that the general user's level of knowledge should not be underestimated, while at the same time it is important that scholars write as much for the general as the scholarly audience. In the case of the Hacimusalar Archaeology Project the web site has had added to it a number of introductory pages to make it more friendly to the general user, while at the same time providing very high level information from the current dig. In terms of the issue of searchability, it was considered a high priority. Special fonts that are dealt with by the use of graphics rather than encoded text limit searchability. The TML deals with images from manuscript pages that also contain text by entering the content of the text as plain text in addition to the image. In regards to the last issue (pedagogy v. research) it was argued that the two are complementary, not necessarily opposed. The query whether developing such resources for the web is in itself research was countered with two interesting arguments. One, that the process of developing a pedagogical tool for the web, such as the Assyrian Palaces at Nimrud virtual reality site, can in fact involve a high degree of research which furthers knowledge, through the process of attempting to reconstruct a complete 3D image from incomplete archaeological remains. Two, that in the 19th century archaeologists would have had to learn a whole range of particular mechanical skills as part of their research (making squeezes, photography, drafting illustrations, mapping). Now the wall paintings on tombs are being digitised directly using vector graphics and digital photography allows one to take several pictures of the site that can be combined into a 360 degree image and rotated. Learning how to use XML, handle a digital camera or GIS, or develop a web resource has simply taken over as the 21st century equivalent.

Finally, the issue of whether web work can be considered research led to discussion of whether the humanities scholar should be involved in doing their own coding and web development or whether the university should be providing the technical expertise. It was argued strenuously that there can be considerable benefit in the scholar being physically involved and developing a close understanding of the requirements of the medium. In the case of the Hacimusalar Project, by being obliged to enter data onto the web each night during the dig the scholars have also been obliged to interact differently and, in some cases, to alter their field methodology, one benefit being the reduction of redundancy in the recording of information. It has also improved the dissemination of information across the whole team, where in the past each scholar would have collated the data concerning their specialisation (e.g. bones, glass, epigraphy) by themselves and often have taken the laptop containing that data away with them at the end of the dig. At the same time, in cases where the department, university or consortium does provide technical support there is also considerable benefit. The Associated Colleges of the South (a group of small liberal arts colleges in the Southern USA) jointly fund a full-time Director of IT, who has developed and co-ordinates the teaching of classes dynamically via the web across campuses (and time zones) and who liaises with the university administrations and academic staff in gaining support for the scheme and setting such classes up. Without her energy and special expertise (in both technology and the humanities) it is doubtful whether the exciting resources for teaching and research that they have developed would have come to fruition.

On the practical side, there were more than a few helpful tips that emerged. For instance, avoid having a FAQ page on your site. If you need one, it means that the content is poor or your site isn't well designed. If you have a large amount of data or a number of resources combined on a site (or you're situated in an earthquake zone) negotiate one or more mirror sites in other countries. It means that the data can be accessed from elsewhere if the server gets choked or goes down. It is important, though, to have software that automatically updates the mirror sites every 24 hours, so that all of the sites correspond. Another helpful tip is that if you're writing a grant proposal to develop a web publication (journal, encyclopaedia, database etc) include a clear flow chart in the application that shows the assessors what processes the entries go through from inception to being posted on the site (and what happens when they are subsequently updated). It can considerably improve the application's chances of success.

As a special note, the web has major implications for the future production of text editions. The TML site already supplies not just the optimal version of a text on musical theory but every version of every text, including every manuscript version. They have developed a program where you can call up multiple editions and compare them, with the machine showing you where the mss or editions differ. At the same time, Rob Sanderson at the University of Liverpool has been working on an electronic edition of Froissart's Chronicle using dynamic HTML which allows the user to examine a scanned image of the manuscript page and then point the cursor to illustrations or highlight individual lines or blocks of text, opening boxes containing a variety of information. The web lends itself to text editions which supply increased information, including the provision of multiple versions of a text beneath an "optimal" text, which then allows the user to assess the manuscripts for themselves, in a way not achievable in a print edition.

Two particular conclusions emerged for me as I sat through this intense experience. Firstly, in Australia those of us in Classics, Mediaeval and Byzantine Studies need to become more active in persuading our university administrators to invest money in specialised personnel and equipment to support web development at the faculty or even departmental level. At this local level, because often staff in IT centres do not understand our specialised needs. The web has enormous potential for the future and with such support the development of advanced tools for teaching, research and scholarly communication in languages, history, art, archaeology and literature will become much more viable. Secondly, for the development of tools and resources of mutual benefit to us all, both here in Australia and overseas, an openness to communication and collaboration is vital. If we can overcome a natural anxiety to control the information we possess and work together and make sure that we communicate what we are currently working on, problems, expert knowledge, resources and code can be shared, solutions found together, and the benefit from the limited financial resources that we each have available to us considerably increased.

Wendy Mayer
Australian Catholic University

On 24-25 November 2000 the Byzantine Research Institute of the National Research Foundation in Athens (now under the Directorship of Evangelos Chrysos) held an International Symposium on: "The Awakening of the Senses and Personal Preferences (11th-15th c.)". Setting out to explore Alexander Kazhdan's observation of a rise of individualism and cultural diversity in the 11th and 12th centuries, the invited speakers delivered papers on a range of topics as follows:

• Anthony Cutler: "Diverting the Current: The Impact of Sense Perception on the Course of Byzantine Art (11th-15th c.)"
• Tasos Tanoulas: "Horam' erateinon: Architecture as Rhetoric" (in Greek)
• Elizabet Jeffreys: "Depictions of Female Sensibility in 12th-century Literature"
• Maria Gerolymatou: "Commerce, Society, and Senses (11th-12th c.)" (in Greek)
• Ilias Anagnostakis and Titos Papamastorakis: "Ekmanes Neos Bachos" (in Greek)
• Vassilis Katsaros: "Philological Modes of Production and Dissemination of Humour in the Comnenan Era" (in Greek)
• Marina Loukaki: "The Rebirth of the Satire in 12th-Century Byzantine Literature" (in Greek)
• Jakov Liubarskij: "Could the Byzantines Be Ironical?"
• George Calofonos: "The Vulgar and the Vernacular in 12th-Century Byzantine Court Literature" (in Greek)
• John Davis: "Linguistic Preferences or Linguistic Proficiency?: Some Thoughts on the Governing Forces behind Byzantine Literary Language"
• Panagiotis Agapitos: "Drama tou Erota kai aphegeman tes Agapes: The Erotic Novel from the Comnenoi to the Palaiologoi" (in Greek)
• Spyros Troianos: "Latinitas Graeca" (in Greek)
• Martin Hinterberger: "Envy: Human Weakness or Moving Force?" (in Greek)
• Maria Vassilaki: "Byzantine Aesthetic Perceptions before the Fall of Constantinople" (in Greek)
• Alain Guerrau: "La vision en Europe occidental: évolution du 12e au 15e siecle"
• Paris Gounaridis: "Between the Sensual and the Contemplative Life: the Dilemma of a Social Group" (in Greek)
• Nikos Karapidakis: "La decouverte des bonnes manieres au Moyen Age"
• Anita Jalabert: "Le gout et les valeurs sociales dans l'Occident mediéval: Entre reflexions abstraites et manifestations pratiques"
• Maria Panayiotidi: "Elements of the Donor's Personality in 12th-Century Painting" (in Greek)
• Antonia Kiousopoulou: "Elements of Byzantine Costume in the Palaiologan Era" (in Greek)
• Titos Papamastorakis: "The Concealed Charm of Obvious Things" (in Greek)
• Eustratios Papaioannou: "Mimesis, Presence and Authenticity: The Self in Michael Psellos's Rhetorical Theory"
• Catherine Ierodiakonou: "The Self-Conscious Style of Some Byzantine Philosophers (11th-14th c.)" (in Greek)
• Margaret Mullet: "Constructing Identities in Byzantium"
• Christine Angelidi: "Conclusions and Prospects" (in Greek)

(Extracted from a posting to BYZANS-L by George T. Calofonos).

Contents

Articles
Grebska-Kulova, M.: The Anatolian Origin of the Late Neolithic Akropotamos. Pottery from the Struma Valley (south-west Bulgaria), pp. 1-13.
Kitov, G.: A Newly Found Thracian Tomb with Frescoes, pp 15-29.
Banev, K.: Addenda et corrigenda epigraphica (II), pp 31-35.
Boteva, D.: On the Chronology of the Gothic Invasions under Philippus and Decius (AD 248-251), pp 37-44.
Kulakov, V.I.: Jutland - Dobrudscha: die Rochade der "Barbaren" vom 2. Bis 4. Jh.n.Chr., pp 45-58.
Bospatchieva, M.: An Early Christian Martyrium from Philippopolis 59-69.
Boyadjiev, S.: L'aspect architectural du martyrium dans la necropole orientale de Philippopolis, pp 71-75.
Borisov, B.: Settlements of Northeast Thrace: 11 - 12 centuries, pp 77-92.

Reviews
Vida, T.: Die awarenzeitliche Keramik. I. (6.-7- Jh.). Berlin-Budapest 1999 & Brather, S.: Feldberger Keramik und fruhe Slawen. Studien zur nordwestslawischen Keramik der Karolingerzeit. Bonn 1996. (Curta, F.), pp 93-98.
Caneva-Decevska, N.: Fruhchristliche Architektur in Bulgarien vom 4.-6. Jh. Sofia 1999. (Dimitrova-Milceva, A.), pp 99-100.

Archaeologia Bulgarica is a new Bulgarian archaeological review, the only such publication in a foreign language - English (mostly), German and French. It appears three times a year (20 x 28 cm, ca. 100 pages) and provides a publishing forum for research in archaeology in the broadest sense of the term. There are no restrictions as to time and territory but the emphasis is on Southeastern Europe. All articles in Archaeologia Bulgarica are submitted to peer review. Web site: www.techno-link.com/clients/lvagalin/index.html (volumes I 1997 - IV 2000)

Dr Lyudmil Vagalinski
Editor-in-Chief
Sofia
LVagalin@mail.techno-link.com

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Australian scholars continue to be successful at attracting funding for internationally competitive research projects in the Byzantine and Late Antique fields. Congratulations to Roger, Wendy and Bronwen for their success with the following fellowships and grants.

• Roger Scott. ARC Large Grant (2001-2003): Byzantine Chronicles of Skylitzes and Alexander the Monk (an international project being conducted with Margaret Mullett, Liz James and J. Nesbitt).
• Wendy Mayer. Queen Elizabeth II Research Fellowship (2001-2005): John Chrysostom: A revisionist approach to a prominent patristic figure in Late Antiquity.
• Wendy Mayer. ARC Large Grant (2001-2003): Completing the picture of a vital historical source: The homilies of John Chrysostom.
• Bronwen Neil. Australian Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2001-2003): Popes and Martyrs: The Politics of Hagiography in Ninth-Century Rome.

Byzantina Australiensia, the series published by the Australian Association now has a new e-mail contact address for processing orders and queries: byzaus@mcauley.acu.edu.au

New Releases (2000)

Volume 12. John Kaminiates: The Capture of Thessaloniki

Translation, introduction and notes by D. Frendo and A. Photiou, with Gertrud Böhlig's edition of the Greek text (de Gruyter 1973).
See the separate flyer for details.

Volume 13. Byzantine Macedonia: Identity, Image and History

Edited by Roger Scott and John Burke, the nineteen papers collected here represent a selection of those presented by a range of distinguished scholars at an international conference on Byzantine Macedonia organised by the Australian Institute for Macedonian Studies (Melbourne, 10-17 July 1995).
See the separate flyer for details.

The XIIth Australian Association for Byzantine Studies conference recently held under the auspices of UWA, Perth on the theme 'Byzantium and the West' brought together a range of participants from Australia and overseas (for abstracts, see below). International guests included Claudia Rapp (UCLA), Judith Herrin (King's College London), Chryssa Maltezou (Hellenic Institute for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies, Venice), and Paul Stephenson (University College, Cork). Papers were offered on traces of Byzantine material culture in the West (J. Herrin, T. Dawson, F. Harley); mediation of Eastern monasticism and hagiography (C. Rapp, A. Silvas, M. Choat, B. Neil, W. Mayer); borrowings from and within Byzantine literature (P. Buckley, K. Hay, M. Michael); historical revisions of Byzantine relations with heretics and barbarians (R. Scott, A. Nobbs, A. Gillett, P. Stephenson); new interpretations of Chinese and Turkish archaeological evidence (S. Lieu, B. Leadbetter), and of military interventions in and by Byzantium (C. Maltezou, A. Stone, N. Cassidy). The conference concluded with a roundtable discussion of E. Chryssos' paper on 'Charlemagne, Constantinople and Rome'.

A bus load of participants enjoyed a day trip to the Benedictine monastery of New Norcia, via the Perth Macedonian cathedral to see the iconographic decorations recently undertaken. More icons from the Orthodox tradition were on display in the exhibition of 'The Art of the Christian Icon', opened on Friday evening at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, UWA. At the Maritime Museum in Fremantle, Robert Hohlfelder (University of Colorado, Boulder) gave an entertaining and informative public lecture on the ruins of Aperlae, Turkey, which was very well attended (standing room only for latecomers). The conference dinner at a Turkish restaurant allowed some belly-dancing Byzantinists the opportunity to distinguish themselves on the dance floor, and Roger Scott there achieved distinction of a different kind: admission to the (Royal) Order of the Supreme Quill of Matilda Bay, for his fine answer to the Phocas question. Many thanks are due to the organising committee, headed by AABS president John Melville Jones, for their fine hospitality and management of the logistical arrangements.

We look forward to the next AABS meeting to be held in Adelaide in 2003.

Bronwen Neil [b.neil@mcauley.acu.edu.au]
Australian Catholic University

Where in the Alexiad does Psellos go?
Penelope Buckley

The paper takes a few exemplary borrowings from Psellos in the Alexiad and considers the consistency with which Anna Comnena changes and reorients them. One passage concerns Romanos III's foolish encouragement of a 'tribe of philosophers' who at best 'stood only at the outer door of the Aristotelian doctrines': Psellos takes their meddling with religious questions as proof of their incompetence in Hellenic philosophy, the 'real quest for truth'. This passage features quite differently in Comnena's account of how Alexius 'found the affairs of the Church in disarray'. Her emperor is not judged, but judge; their concern is what such philosophers do to Christian theology, with Italos's attack on the Church-State of which Alexius is head.

Isaac Comnenus's tent scene is the showpiece of his rebellion and of the Chronographia. In Comnena's version, the crowned emperor confronts a host of conspirators who also constitute much of his serving army. She focuses on his inner tension, and (using other Psellos material) configures an elaborate context in which past events work as psychic pressure in the present. Alexius is constructed as the tortured mind-centre of a holistic empire; what she takes from Psellos, she assimilates to this.

Recovering Byzantium from the West: Michael VIII at Constantinople in 1260
Nathan Cassidy

The restoration of Byzantine rule to Latin-controlled Constantinople was the primary objective of successive emperors of Nicaea in the period following the conquest and partitioning of the empire by the forces of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. None was more aggressive in his designs than Michael VIII Palaiologos, who was especially keen to legitimise his usurpation of the throne by regaining control of the mother city. However, due to the confused and often contradictory nature of the few sources, little is known about his campaigns aimed at retaking the city.

This is especially true in respect of the so-called 'siege of Galata' of 1260. This paper will attempt to piece together evidence from the sources, both Eastern and Western, and will propose a coherent picture of the military activities undertaken on both sides of the great Theodosian walls. It hopes to challenge some assumptions held by modern scholars, and along the way will attempt to redeem the reputation of the last Latin emperor, Baldwin II.

The Discourse of the 'wandering monk' in Byzantium and the West
Malcolm Choat, Macquarie University

'Wandering monks' frequently figure as targets of abuse in Eastern and Western discussions of the monastic life. They appear under a variety of names, such as sarabaitae, gyrovagi, remnuoth, sarakote, and apotaktikoi, in various languages (including Latin, Greek, Syriac and Coptic). This paper will trace the development of this topos of the 'wanderer' as a discourse of 'othering', whereby 'inappropriate' or non-conformist models of the ascetic life were set off from 'approved' types such as coenobitic and anchoretic monasticism. Evidence ranges from early Christian Syria through Late Antique Egypt to the Medieval West; the continuity between such discussion, both in lexical and ideological terms, will be discussed.

Wolves in Shepherds' clothing: Byzantium, the Normans and the course of European fashion
Tim Dawson, University of New England

While the influence of Byzantium on Western fashion in the early middle ages had been largely confined to the highest levels of society on the Continent, the fiefs and kingdoms captured from Byzantine territory by the later Normans around the Mediterranean were the conduits for a new wave of Byzantine influence which significantly affected the course taken by later medieval fashion in the West across the social classes and the length and breadth of greater Europe.

Trolls and Trowels: Qualms about the 'New Look' Barbarians of Late Antiquity
Andrew Gillett, Macquarie University

Just as the Goths, Franks, Vandals, and other barbarians took over the western Roman provinces in the fifth century, so too have barbarian studies been overrun by new, modern, and sophisticated theoretical models flowing forth from a Continental homeland. Consciously eschewing the dark past of Germanic studies, current research employs Religious Studies and Post-modernism to speak of the political construction of ethnicity and the typologies of `ethnogenesis.'

Have we, for all the borrowings from social sciences and theoretic modelling, moved forward in our understanding of the more-or-less obscure origins of the barbarian peoples of Late Antiquity? And should anyone outside Germanic Studies care? I would like to speak for the rising minority which feels that the current momentum is carrying us rapidly backwards, and that this ought indeed be of concern to Byzantinists, historians of the later Roman empire, and Medievalists alike, who may well feel disquiet as the post-imperial West is appropriated by the irrational and the unattested.

Eradicating nudity on the cross: the impact of early Byzantine Crucifixion iconography on the West.
Felicity Harley, The University of Adelaide

Between the fourth and sixth centuries, fundamental changes took place in the representation of Jesus on his cross: portrayed naked in the late fourth century and shown wearing a narrow loin-cloth in the fifth century, he is by the late sixth century robed in the colobium, the full-length sleeveless tunic worn by men in Late Antiquity.

Traditionally, the persistent depiction of Jesus wearing a colobium in early Byzantine Crucifixion iconography has been interpreted as a means of denoting his sovereignty. This paper will suggest that in conjunction with extensive changes in attitude towards nudity, the colobium can be seen to have been adopted as a means of concealing Jesus' mortality on the cross; it will propose that in accordance with the shift in attitude, the subsequent diffusion of the clothed-iconography throughout the West prompted a general revulsion towards any visual display of Jesus' nudity on the cross during the sixth and seventh centuries.

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and the Mystical Tradition: a Spiritual and Scholastic Legacy to the West
Kathleen Hay, Dept. of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology-Dept. of History, The University of Melbourne

The attribution of a collection of mystical theological works known as the "Corpus Areopagiticum", or the Dionysian Corpus, has long been disputed. Originally acknowledged as the work of Dionysius, the first bishop of Athens, much recent work has been channelled into the complex identification of the author. Any assessment of Pseudo-Dionysius' influence on Western scholars and its spiritual tradition is fraught with similar difficulties and competing authorities. Investigation reveals, however, important streams of Dionysian thought that contributed to the formation of a rich body of spiritual works in the West in later centuries. Illustrating this legacy, the unique Christian thought and mysticism found in the Corpus can be traced in the later works of many, such as Thomas Aquinas and the anonymous author of the influential "Cloud of the Unknowing".

The Empress Theophano: a bridge between East and West
Judith Herrin

Despite the fact that no Byzantine source of her own time specifically mentions Theophano, it is clear that as a princess sent from Constantinople to the West she performed an ambassadorial function. By her marriage to Otto II in 972, she strengthened the alliance between John Tzimiskes and the western ruler, Otto I, crowned emperor in Rome ten years before. In due course the couple gave birth to a son, Otto III, whose joint inheritance from both the Byzantine East and the Germanic West is evident throughout his short life. Theophano therefore merits special attention.

The millennial commemoration of her death, which brought together many scholars in 1991, finally provoked sufficient research to establish her origins quite clearly. Theophano was not a porphyrogennitos princess, born in the purple chamber of the Great Palace, but a niece by marriage of Emperor John I. This connection was, however, considered close enough to present her to the western emperor as a very distinguished Byzantine princess. Whether actual deception over her lack of imperial descent was practiced or not, Otto I accepted her as the much desired bride and princess. A magnificent marriage contract was drawn up to celebrate the union, a document even grander and more luxurious than the Ottonianum, a list of Otto I's gifts to the bishop of Rome made on the occasion of his coronation.

While the Ottonians appear to have been entirely satisfied with Theophano, she was harshly judged by some contemporaries and by later medieval commentators. This negative attitude is reflected in two different records: Otloh of St. Emmeran's Book of Visions of ca. 1050, which includes a condemnation of Theophano for introducing luxurious Byzantine customs to the West; while Peter Damian accused her of indecent relations with a Greek monk from southern Italy whom she employed as tutor for her son. Theophano had obviously provoked critical reactions among some western clerics.

This paper will attempt to identify the causes of such hostility, the motivation behind the attacks on the wife of Otto II and mother of Otto III. Using the surviving objects, which may reasonably be associated with her movement from East to West, it will draw more general conclusions about relations between Byzantium and Western Europe in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries.

Swimming over time: a survey of the submerged ruins of Aperlae (Turkey)
Robert L. Hohlfelder, Boulder, Colorado

Aperlae was a small, remote, maritime city in ancient Lycia with a millennial floruit (late 4th century BC to late 7th century AD). The harsh terrain of its hinterland forced a reliance on the Mediterranean from its founding to its demise. The Aperlites stablilised and enhanced their urban waterfront in modest ways over the centuries, but basically they maintained and sustained their intimate relationship with the sea without elaborate docking or harbour installations. Fishing, probably a primary industry, centred on the harvest of murex trunculus, the marine mollusc from which purple dye was made. This valuable commodity appears to have been produced in Aperlae for export to Andriake, the international emporium of nearby Myra, for transshipment to textile centres throughout the Mediterranean. There, coastal traders also acquired the necessities and luxuries the city needed but did not produce. Proxy evidence, impressive archaeological features on land and under the sea, speaks to moments of prosperity for Aperlae well beyond mere subsistence. Cabotage was this secondary port's enduring lifeline.

The Churches of Aperlae and the Pilgrim Route
Bill Leadbetter, Edith Cowan University, R. J. Hohlfelder, University of Colorado (Boulder), R. L. Vann, University of Maryland (College Park)

The town of Aperlae in Lycia flourished from the Hellenistic period until the Byzantine. A recent survey has disclosed copious remnants of the shells of murex trunculus which attest to the town's economic dependence upon the harvest of valuable sea purple. The same survey has also identified the remains of no fewer than five churches at Aperlae itself, and at least a further five in the immediate district. This seems excessive for a small settlement which, at its height, sustained a population of not much more than a thousand. One possible explanation is the location of Aperlae on the southern coast of Lycia. This places it squarely upon the pilgrim sea-route to the Holy Land which hugged the coast of Lycia as far as its southern tip before venturing across open sea to Cyprus.

Nestorians, Manichaeans and Franciscans on the S. China Coast
Sam Lieu, Macquarie University

An interesting footnote to the history of the last stages of the Crusades was the arrival of a Mongol Nestorian mission to the papal court which raised hopes of a Christian power from the East coming to the support of the hard-pressed Crusaders. This led to a return papal mission to China soon after the famous visit of Marco Polo. An Australian team working on the S. China coast has discovered a great deal of unpublished archaeological material on this interesting chapter of East-West relations.

Philostorgius and the History of the West
Alanna Nobbs, Macquarie University

In books XI and XII of Philostorgius, unlike the earlier ones, there is a preponderance of secular events over ecclesiastical ones. It could well be that he is unwilling to record the defeat of the Arians, whose fate was sealed from the time of Theodosius 1. There seems little doubt that he used Olympiodorus extensively in these last two books, and reflects his source's western, secular slant. Where eastern events are mentioned in the last two books, Philostorgius' tone is apocalyptic.In so doing, he constructed an alternative ideology which needed to be answered by the ecclesiastical historians. At least three of them rose to the challenge.

Byzantium, Venice and the Greek World
Chryssa A. Maltezou

In this paper we will present a selection of evidence on the links between Byzantium and Venice, and we will describe various stages in the history of this relationship. Venice was itself a creation of Byzantium and had been part of the Byzantine sphere of influence at the very beginning of its development; this had a significant effect on many aspects of Venetian social and cultural life. Over the centuries, the Most Serene Republic evolved to become a major commercial and economic power, and from being an insignificant Byzantine province it eventually came to play a dominant role in the territories of the Byzantine Empire. After the Fourth Crusade, the Venetians brought home products of Byzantine civilisation, which were subsequently associated with their own history, forming part of their cultural heritage. At the same time, precious objects from Byzantium were employed to enhance Venice's image, and their symbolism served her own ideological requirements. A typical case of Venice's appropriation of Byzantine treasures is that of the icon of the Panagia Nikopoios. The Venetians'ideological leaning towards Byzantium is also reflected in the reported proposal to transfer their seat of government to Constantinople.

After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, an ideological trend in the opposite direction can be observed in the mentality of the Greeks. Following the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, many Greeks sought refuge in Venice, which was gradually transformed into the spiritual capital of the Hellenic diaspora. Folksongs and poems link together, and eventually treat as one, the two cities, Constantinople and Venice, and the two great churches of the Holy Wisdom and of Saint Mark.

Antioch and the West. Assessing levels of contact in the early Byzantine period
Wendy Mayer, Australian Catholic University

In much of the literature concerning Antioch, capital of the Roman diocese of Oriens, during the fourth to sixth centuries, one gains a strong impression of a city with its gaze firmly fixed on the east - that is, whose range of view extends little beyond Constantinople, Asia Minor, the Near East, Egypt and Persia. The correspondence of the prominent fourth-century pagan orator Libanius supports this perception, as does that of the city's early sixth-century bishop, Severus. Yet this is a city that sat at an important nexus in the trade route from east to west, that hosted the eastern imperial court for much of the mid fourth century, that as the base for military operations on the eastern front was periodically occupied by large numbers of soldiers of diverse ethnicity, and that by virtue of its location and status was visited by various Christians from the west on pilgrimage to eastern monastic communities, holy men, and sacred sites. For the citizens of Antioch contact with soldiers, merchants and Christians from the west was clearly not an isolated occurrence.

At the same time, when we examine the networks within which John Chrysostom operated as bishop of Constantinople and upon which he hoped to rely during his exile, we find him depending upon the services of a number of aristocratic women either resident in Rome or with family connections to the west. When the many years he spent being educated and rising through the ranks of the christian clergy at Antioch prior to his arrival in Constantinople are taken into consideration, the question arises: were John's networks to the west established only after his arrival in the imperial capital; or was John predisposed towards exploiting such connections as a result of his experiences at Antioch? When we consider the focus of Libanius and Severus we must also ask: was John an exception rather than the rule? Was contact with the west in fact of very little significance for most of the inhabitants of Antioch at this period? In exploring these questions we seek to establish the role played by contact with the west in the lives of the citizens of that city at a number of levels.

The Educational Philosophy and Practice of the Eastern Church after the Fall of Constantinople
Michael George Michael

The major policies of education and practice of the Eastern Church after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 were decided and delivered by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in conjunction with its famous Academy. However, the Patriarchal Academy itself, the educational bastion of the Orthodox oikoumene, was subject to fluctuating fortunes. Its various policies (educational and diplomatic) were shaped by theological and ideological "conservatisms" supremely mindful of Islam and gravely suspicious of the West: first the Latins and afterward the Protestants. Throughout this time there were also other academies of note, but often they would fall under the jurisdiction or the influence of the Patriarchate (for example the Schools of Bucharest, Jassy, Smyrna, Patmos, Thessaloniki, Trebizond, Athens, Ioannina, and others). Occasionally, lower order clerics showed great initiative in founding private ecclesiastical schools, not necessarily long term successes but crucial in arid times. As a general educational philosophy it was catechesis over scientific investigation. The Eastern Church survived this testing period, maintaining its Orthodox tradition, as Kallistos Ware has written, "substantially unimpaired". This positive conclusion was to a great extent due to the likes of George Scholarius, Meletius Pegas, Patriarch Jeremias II, and Eustratius Argenti.

Bringing Pope Clement Home: the Politics of Relics in Ninth-Century Rome
Bronwen Neil, Australian Catholic University

The discovery of the relics of the third bishop of Rome, Clement (c. 88-c. 97), by the missionary brothers Constantine-Cyril and Methodius, and their donation to Pope Hadrian in 867/868, represent a confluence of traditions that is rarely found in this period. The late-ninth century was marked by increasing division between the powers of East and West, exacerbated under the rules of Hadrian's predecessor Pope Nicholas in Rome and his counterpart in Constantinople, Patriarch Photius. In this paper I will examine the political significance of the events surrounding the discovery and transfer of Clement's relics in an era of struggle for access to avenues of power, both secular and sacred, with reference to the Latin and Slavonic written traditions.

Hagiography and the Cult of Saints between East and West
Claudia Rapp, UCLA

The declining knowledge of Latin in the East and that of Greek in the West is often cited as one of the contributing factors in the 'parting of ways' that separated Byzantium from the Western Middle Ages. This paper draws attention to the fact that hagiographical texts and individual stories were shared between East and West, either in writing or by oral transmission.

I will outline the shape of this hagiographical koine by addressing three distinct phenomena: the shared pool of stories in Latin and Greek hagiography; Latin works composed about Eastern holy men; and patterns of translations of Greek hagiography into Latin and vice versa. The end point of this paper will be marked by the extensive translation activity of Anastasius Bibliothecarius (d. ca. 879).

In this investigation, the issues of literary production, linguistic ability in Greek and Latin, and translation activity are placed within the larger context of a shared popular religiosity. Christianity in general and the cult of saints in particular thus helped to maintain a strong and enduring link between East and West, even under changing political conditions.

Anastasius' and Justinian's approach to the Western Question
Roger Scott, Centre for Classics & Archaeology, University of Melbourne

Much of Justinian I's claim to greatness rests on his reconquest of the Western Empire or at least of Rome and Italy. This achievement is often contrasted with the military inactivity of his predecessors and their passive acceptance of Gothic control of Italy after 476. This paper will suggest that Justinian's interest in the West has been exaggerated, partly because of the conventions of classicizing history and partly through the needs of later Byzantine requirements about the past; that Justinian was much more concerned about other problems in his empire; and that more attention needs to be paid to Anastasius' attempts at finding a solution through diplomacy rather than force.

Rufinus as a mediator of Basil to the West
Anna Silvas

In this paper Anna Silvas will be reporting on her extensive research into the Rufinus of Aquileia's Latin translation of Basil of Caesarea's Small Asketikon. Of particular interest is the means by which Rufinus came by his Greek text. Silvas argues that the most suitable occasion was a book-hunting expedition of Rufinus through Palestine into Syria in about the year 378. All the evidence suggests that Rufinus and Melania the Elder used the Small Asketikon in their monastery on the Mt of Olives in the 380s and 390s. A papyrus fragment from Egypt has been recently proved to contain text from the Small Asketikon. It very likely reached Egypt through Melania and Rufinus. The circumstances in which Rufinus took the Small Asketikon with him to Italy in 397 and opened his career as a translator with the Regula Basili, will be examined. Silvas will briefly touch on Rufinus's character as a Greek/Latin translator and on the significant role his translations of Basil and the Cappadocians had in later Western monasticism and liturgy.

Casting off the Byzantine Yoke
Paul Stephenson, University College, Cork, Ireland

My analysis of Byzantium's Balkan frontier, presented in my recent monograph of that title, rejects the notion that the various Balkan peoples were struggling constantly to cast off the despised 'Byzantine Yoke' in the period 900-1204. The peoples of the northern Balkan lands seem to have worn their political allegiances lightly. This is not to say that they did not feel intense personal loyalty to local or regional rulers, which it is clear they did. However, there is no indication that this was translated into a higher loyalty, and certainly not to a sense of belonging to any abstract entity like a 'nation'. While sources reveal that a Slavic literary culture developed in this period, which drew heavily on, but was distinct from the culture of Constantinople, this was not developed for political reasons, nor did it bolster a movement for pan-Slavic independence from the Byzantine 'Greeks'. Similarly, while it is clear that Slavic and non-Slavic peoples, including Bulgarians, Serbs and Croats, Albanians and Vlachs, were aware of, indeed actively constructed, their own distinct identities, sources do not support the notion that such an ethnic awareness, still less a national consciousness, motivated rebellions. The most we can say is that a sense of Wirgefühl was exploited as a galvanizing force by rebels seeking to extend their support base.

It was not ethnic awareness that led various Balkan peoples eventually to reject Byzantine suzerainty, but rather the emergence of powerful polities in the West whose rulers became alternative patrons and suzerains for the rulers of various groups, regions and cities. Increasingly, from the end of the eleventh century, peripheral potentates were seduced or obliged to switch their allegiance to the Sicilian Norman king, the Venetian doge and the Hungarian king. Each of these rulers competed against the others as much as he did the Byzantine emperor, in seeking to secure control of the maritime cities in Dalmatia, of the north-western marches between Sirmium and Ni_, of Bosna and Ra_ka, and of Dyrrachium. Moreover, each did so by offering economic and political incentives to Balkan potentates.

The Oration by Eustathios of Thessaloniki for Agnes of France: A Snapshot of Political Tension betweenByzantium and the West
Andrew Stone, University of Western Australia

The oration for Agnes of France is an intriguing piece from the historical point of view. Though the exact details are obscured with the allusiveness appropriate to Byzantine panegyric, it contains allusions to contemporary historical situations. We can recognise a reference to the political tensions, that is the factionalism, present within the commune of Genoa, from which a representative, Baldovino Guercio, was entrusted with the transportation of the young French princess to the Byzantine court so that she might wed the crown prince Alexios Porphyrogennetos. We may also use the oration to build on the study of G. Day concerning the repercussions that Byzantine trade had on Genoa's internal politics. Furthermore, we may even see in the oration hints of factionalism at the French court. This paper will attempt to put these tensions in the greater context of the rivalry between the western and eastern empires at the time, and correlate the factionalism in Genoa and at the French court with putative pro-German and pro-Byzantine parties present within the ruling class of each polity.

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Zeno Booksellers, UK

Zeno Booksellers was founded in London in 1944 by the late Ierotheos Kykkotis. A monk who spent many years at the monastery from which he took his name, the Monastery of Kykko in Cyprus, he left Cyprus for Greece from where he was eventually expelled by the dictatorship government of Metaxas in 1936. He then travelled to London where he attended King's College London studying Theology and having finished his studies he opened a bookshop in the heart of London calling it Zeno Booksellers, after the stoic philosopher from his home country.

Zeno's was to be no ordinary bookshop. His intention was to create a specialist bookshop comprising of books on the Greek Classics. He later added to this range, but kept to his original specialisation of stocking books in Greek and in English about Greece and Cyprus. Antiquarian and second-hand books were his passion, which allowed him to put together a fine selection, for which we achieved great acclaim amongst those who sought after these books. Byzantium and The Ottoman Empire were later added to this range. And so, in a matter of a few years, the idea of a foresighted man had made Zeno's the place to go for all books about Greece and Cyprus.

In 1966, due to ill health, Kykkotis sold his business, although it continued on into family hands. Michael Zographos, together with his wife Chloe, Kykkotis' niece, took over from Ierotheos Kykkotis and expanded the mailing list that he had begun. As a result, Universities, Colleges and people from all over the world were enticed into the shop. Zeno's has since become known as the place to go for all books about Greece and Cyprus.

Today, the family tradition continues. The Greek Bookshop, Zeno Booksellers is today run by Maria and Loui Loizou - Michael & Chloe Zographos' daughter and son-in-law. It is still run with the same eagerness and efficiency that was started all those years ago by Ierotheos Kykkotis. Its specialisation continues to this day and their catalogues on all subjects are still sent all over the world to their customers.

We are also now the distributors for many books that come out of Greece and Cyprus, including some books from the USA and Australia. The subject matter of the books that we distribute includes Dictionaries, History, Methods of Learning Greek and many other topics. As a result, our ties with Universities, Bookshops and private individuals everywhere have increased over the years to such an extent, that if asked: "Where should I buy a Greek book from?" the answer would be "Just ask Zeno's".

Loui Loizou

Ancient Narratives

Publisher: Barkhuis Publishing, Groningen.

As the advertising material for this new electronic journal (www.ancientnarratives.com) states, it is "devoted to the study of ancient narrative in its broadest sense.the areas of interest to be covered are: Greek, Roman, Jewish novelistic traditions, including novels proper, the 'fringe', as well as the fragments; early Christian narrative, narrative texts of the Byzantine Age - and the reception of these texts in modern literature, film and music. AN encourages approaches which range from editorial and philological work on these texts, and literary-theoretical studies, to theological, sociological, cultural and anthropological approaches." As regards format it is intended that selected articles will be open to discussion for a certain period after they initially appear, after which they will be revised by the authors and published in hard copy in an annual monograph. Special, theme-oriented issues of both the electronic version and the annual printed monograph will be planned and suggestions for such issues are welcome. Issues will appear on the internet three times a year, with an initial free trial issue appearing in December 2000 and the first subscriber issue appearing in the northern spring 2001.

Planned highlights of the next newsletter (November 2001) include an updated bibliography of Australian and New Zealand scholarship (2000-2001), and profiles of archaeological/field work by Australians. Please send contributions to the Newsletter editor Alan Walmsley, Classics and Ancient History, UWA, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley 6009, preferably as an e-mail attachment to: alwalms@cyllene.uwa.edu.au

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President

Assoc Prof John Melville-Jones
Dept of Classics & Ancient History
University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Highway
Crawley WA 6009
email: jrmelvil@cyllene.uwa.edu.au

Secretary

Dr Wendy Mayer
Centre for Early Christian Studies
Australian Catholic University
McAuley Campus
P O Box 247
Everton Park QLD 4053
email: wendy.mayer@adelaide.edu.au

Treasurer

Dr Lynda Garland
School of Classics & History
University of New England
ARMIDALE NSW 2351
email: ldillon@metz.une.edu.au

Additional members

Assoc. Prof. Pauline Allen
Centre for Early Christian Studies
Australian Catholic University
PO Box 247
EVERTON PARK QLD 4053
email: P.Allen@mcauley.acu.edu.au
(ByzAus distribution, Past President)

Dr Alan Walmsley
Dept of Classics and Ancient History
University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Highway
Crawley WA 6009
email: alwalms@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
(Newsletter Editor)

Assoc Prof Roger Scott
Dept. of Classics & Archaeology
University of Melbourne
PARKVILLE VIC 3052
email: r.scott@arts.unimelb.edu.au

Dr Andrew Gillett
Humanities - Ancient History
Macquarie University
NSW 2109
email: andrew.gillett@mq.edu.au

Dr Ann Moffatt
Dept of Classics & Modern European Languages
ANU
CANBERRA ACT 0200
email: ann.moffatt@anu.edu.au

Dr Paul Tuffin
Classics
Centre for European Languages
University of Adelaide
SA 5005
email: paul.tuffin@adelaide.edu.au

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Present: John Melville-Jones (Pres.), Wendy Mayer (Sec.), Roger Scott, Pauline Allen, Bill Leadbetter, Bronwen Neil, Andrew Gillett, Kathleen Hay, Alan Walmsley, Andrew Stephenson, Sam Lieu, Paul Tuffin.
Apologies: Alanna Nobbs, Peter Thomas, Lena Cansdale

Meeting opened 8.50 am.

1. Minutes of previous meeting

Adopted without amendment. Moved: P. Allen, K. Hay. Carried

2. Business Arising from minutes

Distribution of ByzAus. To be reported on by Pauline Allen.

3. President's Report

As tabled.
Received. Moved: R. Scott, S Lieu.

4. Secretary's Report

• Bulletins, newsletters and conference announcements received from Dumbarton Oaks, Canadian Assoc., BSC (USA) and SPBS (UK). Information distributed via email to Australian scholars.
• No other correspondence received.
• Newsletter editorship transferred to Alan Walmsley. Asked that members continue to support the editor by supplying reports of conferences and other items of interest that they receive.

5. Treasurer's Report

As tabled.
P. Allen reported that the new QLD ByzAus acc. currently holds $70.
Financial support for students to attend conferences discussed, but no firm conclusion reached.
Received. Moved: J. Melville-Jones, P. Tuffin.

6. Byzantina Australiensia

Report as tabled.
Distribution moved from Sydney Uni late in 1999 to ACU in Brisbane.
Generic ByzAus email address now set up and local bank acc. established to simplify GST liability issue. Settling in period only just drawing to a close.

6.1 Future publications

• Commentary and trans. of Constantine Manasses. Likely not to accept for publication. May recommend that author try elsewhere.
• Conacher Gazette. Decision not to proceed.
• Zosimus. Delayed. Work not likely to proceed till second half of 2001.
• Sam Lieu and Roger Scott working on trans. of Nicephoros Bryennios, which may submit to ByzAus for consideration.
• Discussion re publishing proceedings of current conference. Bill Leadbetter willing to act as editor. Necessity of papers being refereed and of having prominent catchy title with only minor reference to conference discussed. Decision to proceed referred to committee.

Adopted with correction of spelling in para 8, line 2.
Moved: J. Melville-Jones, P. Allen.

8. Elections

Carried: That Lynda Garland be permitted to continue in the position of Treasurer for one additional term. Moved: J. Melville-Jones, K. Hay.

Elected unopposed:

President: John Melville-Jones
Secretary: Wendy Mayer
Treasurer: Lynda Garland
(Immediate Past President & ByzAus) Pauline Allen
(Newsletter Editor) Alan Walmsley
Roger Scott
Ann Moffatt
Paul Tuffin
Andrew Gillett

9. 2003 Meeting

Conference Organiser: Paul Tuffin. Venue: Adelaide.

Meeting closed 9.30 am.

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