Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies Publications 10 ""RAVEL IN THE BYZANTINE WORLD Papers from the Thirty-fourth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Birmingham, April 2000 edited by Ruth Macrides ASHGATE VARIORUM Copyright © 2002 by the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, Hon. Secretary, James Crow, Dept of Archaeology, The University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NEl 7RU All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Published by Variorum for the Society for thePromotion of Byzantine Studies Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Gower House, Croft Road 131 Main Street Aldershot, Hants Burlington GUll 3HR VT 05401-5600 England USA Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Travel in the Byzantine world. - (Publications for the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine studies) I. Travel, Medieval-Congresses 2. Byzantine Empire- Civilization-Congresses 3. Byzantine Empire-Description and travel-Congresses 1. Macrides, R.J. II. Society for the Promotion ofByzantine Studies 914.9'5'042 Library of Congress Control Number: 2001099935 ISBN 0 7546 0788 7 This volume is printed on acid freepaper. Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF BYZANTINE STUDIES - PUBLICATION 10 Contents Editor's Preface vii List of Abbreviations ix List of Figures and Tables xi Introduction 1. M. McCormick Byzantium on the move: imagining a communications history 3 Section I: Going there - the technicalities of travel 2. J. H. Pryor Types of ships and their performance capabilities 33 3. P. Gautier Dalche Portulans and the Byzantine world 59 4. K. Belke Roads and travel in Macedonia and Thrace in the middle and late Byzantine period 73 5. A. McCabe Horses and horse-doctors on the road 91 6. D. Ch. Stathakopoulos Travelling with the plague 99 Section II: Getting around - the purposes of travel 7. J. Koder Maritime trade and the food supply for Constantinople in the middle ages 109 8. N. Gunsenin Medieval trade in the Sea of Marmara: the evidence of shipwrecks 125 9. F. van Doorninck, jr The Byzantine ship at Serce Limani: an example of small-scale maritime commerce with Fatimid Syria in the early eleventh century 137 10. A. Kuelzer Byzantine and early post-Byzantine pilgrimage to the Holy Land and to Mount Sinai 149 v vi CONTENTS Section III: Being there 11. K. Ciggaar Bilingual word lists and phrase lists: for teaching or for travelling? 165 12. A. Berger Sightseeing in Constantinople: Arab travellers, c. 900-1300 179 13. R. Macrides Constantinople: the crusaders' gaze 193 14. M. Angold The decline of Byzantium seen through the eyes of western travellers 213 Section IV: Going over it- representations of travel and space 15. L. Brubaker The conquest of space 235 16. M. E. Mullett In peril on the sea: travel genres and the unexpected 259 Index 285 Editor's Preface The contributions to this book derive from papers presented to the 34th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, on 'Travel in the Byzantine World', held in Birmingham, 1-4 April 2000. Symposiasts from three continents travelled in a spring of wintry conditions to see the customary miracle of the blooming daffodils and to discuss a subject which has recently been attracting greater interest but has never been treated as a whole for Byzantium. Interest in individual travellers has often been expressed and the symposium was no exception in this respect. Three papers were concerned with travellers to Constantinople. But the papers covered also technical aspects, the ways and means of travelling, with sea travel dominating this discussion. A heated debate arose concerning the number of amphoras a dromon could hold and how much water a ship would have to carry for the needs of its crew. Or was it wine? Purposes of travel, especially trade and pilgrimage, were examined. Attitudes to travel as reflected in images and in texts constituted another area of investigation. The examination of several shipwrecks and the lively descriptions of the perils of travel in letters, romances, and hagiography left no room for imagining that travel was enjoyable for the Byzantines except, that is, when they were recollecting and recording the experience, 'going over it'. This volume preserves the thematic structure of the symposium and, it is hoped, recaptures the occasion both for those who were there and for those who were not. The publication of these papers owes a great deal to those who made the symposium possible: Bryer, for his muse-like inspiration and generous sharing of vast experience; the postgraduates of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modem Greek Studies who devoted themselves from morning until night to make things run smoothly; the symposiasts for their essential participation and for their warm expression of - appreciation; the sponsors, the many charitable trusts, foundations, and individuals The British Academy, The British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, The Hellenic Foundation, The A. G. Leventis Foundation, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust, Mr. R. K. Swan and Swan Hellenic, Ashgate Publishing. Their generous and enthusiastic support enabled vii Viii PREFACE our speakers to travel, our map to be scrutinised, our refreshments at stopping-off places to flow. Thanks are due also to Elizabeth Jeffreys, the editor of the series, for advice and encouragement, Angus Stewart who magically transformed these papers into camera-ready copy and to Ece Turnator for preparing the index. Ruth Macrides Birmingham, November 2001 List of Abbreviations AASS Acta Sanctorum ACO Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum AJA American Journal of Archaeology AnBoll Analecta Bollandiana BAR British Archaeological Reports BBA Berliner Byzantinische Arbeiten BBOM Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs BBTT Belfast Byzantine Texts and Translations BCH Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique BF Byzantinische Forschungen BHG Biblioteca Hagiographica Graeca BMGS Byzantine and Modem Greek Studies BSI Byzantinoslavica Byz Byzantina BZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift CahArch Cahiers Archeologiques CCCont Med Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina CFHB Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers GRBS Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies Hell EXX-qVWKa INA Institute of Nautical Archaeology JOB Jahrbuch der Osterreichischen Byzantinistik JRSt Journal of Roman Studies LexMA Lexikon des Mittelalters Lexikon fiir Theologie and Kirche LT12K MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica OCP Orientalia Christiana Periodica ODB Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium PG Patrologia Graeca PL Patrologia Latina PLP Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit PO Patrologia Orientalis ix ABBREVIATIONS PPS Pravoslavnyj Palestinskij Sbornik (St. Petersburg, 1883-1913) RAC Reallexikon fur Antike and Christentum RE Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft REB Revue des Etudes Byzantines REG Revue des Etudes Grecques RSBN Rivista di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici SC Sources Chretiennes PSPBS Publications for the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies StT Studi e Testi Theoph. Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1883-1885) TIB Tabula Imperii Byzantini TM Travaux et Memoires WBS Wiener Byzantinistische Studien ZDPV Zeitschrift des deutschen Palastinavereins ZPE Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie and Epigraphik List of Figures and Tables Figures Communications microzones and local ceramic distribution: 1.1 Byzantine Galilee and Judaea 15 2.1 Longitudinal section of a tenth-century bireme dromon 39 2.2 Oarage system of a tenth-century bireme dromon 42 2.3 Tenth-century bireme dromon heeling under sail to ten degrees 44 2.4 Oars of a tenth-century bireme dromon drawn in the middle of the return stroke at 67° to the centre line 52 2.5 Stowage of barrels or amphorae 56 4.1 Map of the Balkan peninsula showing the main roads and cities mentioned (adapted from John V.A. Fine, jr., The Early Medieval Balkans. Ann Arbor, 1983, map 3 and 4) 75 5.1 A horse suffering from exhaustion (Parisinus graecus 2244, f. f. 3v) 93 8.1 Map showing the sites mentioned in the text 126 8.2 Discoveries to date around the Marmara Islands 130 15.1 Madaba, mosaic map 250 15.2 Christian Topography, the journey of Saul from Jerusalem to Damascus (Sinai. gr. 1186, f. 126v) 251 15.3 Madaba, mosaic detail: Jerusalem 251 15.4 Madaba, mosaic detail: Nile delta 252 15.5 Umm al-Rasas, Church of the Lions, mosaic detail: Kastron Mefaa 253 15.6 Umm al-Rasas, St. Stephen, mosaic detail: Kastron Mefaa 253 15.7 Umm al-Rasas, St. Stephen, mosaic detail: Jerusalem 254 15.8 Damascus, Great Mosque, mosaic detail: Barada landscape 254 15.9 Christian topography: the world in the shape of the ark of the covenant (Sinai. gr. 1186, f. 69r) 255 xi