² On the Black Death, cf. Ziegler, P., The Black Death (London, 1969).Google Scholar A full bibliography of earlier works is included therein. See also Gottfried, R., The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe (London,).Google Scholar On plague in general cf. Grmek, M.D., ‘Maladies et Mort: preliminaries d'une étude historique des maladies’, Annales: Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations 24 no. 6 (Nov.–Dec., 1969) 1473–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar; J.N. Biraben – J. Le Goff, ‘La Peste dans le Haut Moyen Age’, as previous citation 1484–510 with bibliography; Pollitzer, R., La Peste (Geneva: Organisation mondiale de la sante, 1954)Google Scholar; Colant, A., Les épidémies et l'histoire (Paris, 1937)Google Scholar; McNeil, W., Les temps de la peste (Paris, 1978)Google Scholar; Dolls, M.W., The Black Death in the Middle East (Princeton, 1979).Google Scholar

³ On iconoclasm in general cf. Martin, E.J., History of the Iconoclastic Controversy (London, 1930)Google Scholar; Beck, H.-G., Geschichte der Orthodoxen Kirche im Byzantinischen Reich, in Die Kirche in Ihre Geschichte, 2 vols. (Göttingen, 1980) 1 fasc. 1, 69 ff.Google Scholar; Cormack, R., Writing In Gold: Byzantine Society and its Icons (London, 1985)Google Scholar, chapter 3 in particular. For a good overview of social and intellectual aspects involved cf. Haldon, J., ‘Some Remarks on the Background of the Iconoclast Controversy’, Byzantinoslavica 38 (1977) 161 ff.Google Scholar with detailed bibliography.

⁴ Crone, Patricia, ‘Islam, Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine Iconoclasm’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 2 (1980) 59–95 and the extensive bibliography cited therein.Google Scholar

⁵ Brown, P., ‘A Dark Age Crisis: Aspects of the Iconoclast Controversy’, English Historical Review, 88 (1973) 1 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶ For an in-depth treatment of the period, cf. Herrin, Judith, The Formation of Christendom (Princeton, 1987).Google Scholar On the significance of this period cf. Haldon, J., «Ideology and Social Change in the Seventh Century: Military Discontent as a Barometer’, Klio, 68 (1986) 139–90 with bibliography.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷ Grumel, V., ‘L'Homélie de S. Germain sur la delivrance de Constantinople’, REByz, 16 (1958) 188–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁸ Cf. Cormack, chapter three.

⁹ Cf. the replies sent to Thomas by the patriarch Germanos of Constantinople (715–30) in Patrologia cursus completus: Series Graeca, ed. J.-P. Migne, (henceforth PG) 98, cols. 163–88.

¹⁰ Theophanes, , Chronographia, 2 vols., ed. de Boor, C. (Leipzig, 1883/1885) (henceforth Theoph.) 1. 404–5Google Scholar; the patriarch Nikephoros of Constantinople, Breviarium historicum de rebus gestis post Mauricii imperium, ed. de Boor, C., in Nicephori opuscula historica (Leipzig, 1880)Google Scholar (henceforth Breviarium) 57 [= PG 100, col. 964]. Cf. Herrin, 331 ff.

¹¹ Cf. Herrin, 334 and notes.

¹² Theoph. 1. 404; Nikephoros, , Breviarium [= PG 100 col.964]Google Scholar. Cf. Herrin, 335 ff., esp. 336 n. 87.

¹³ Cf. Herrin, 381–2.

¹⁴ On Constantine, cf. Lombard, A., Constantin V, empereur des Romains (740–775) (Paris, 1902)Google Scholar; Herrin, 360 ff.

¹⁵ Cf. Speck, P., Artabasdos, der rechtgläubige Vorkämpfer der göttlichen Lehren, [= Poikila Byzantina iii] (Bonn, 1981) and bibliography therein.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Cf. Haldon, J., Byzantine Praetorians, [= Poikila Byzantina iii] (Bonn, 1984)Google Scholar and works cited therein for the most lucid and important account of the development of the city garrisons at this time. Also, Kaegi, W.E. Jr., Byzantine Military Unrest, 471–843: An Interpretation (Amsterdam, 1981).Google Scholar

¹⁷ On this plague, cf. Jones, A.H.M., The Later Roman Empire, 284–602, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1973) 2. 1043.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Procopius, , Wars ii. 22–3Google Scholar; idem, Anecdota xxiii. 20.

¹⁹ Biraben – Le Golf, 1494–7 tabulate all the known recurrences and provide maps of the major outbreaks' courses.

²⁰ Ziegler, 24 ff.; Biraben – Le Goff, 1485 ff.

²¹ Theoph. 1. 419–20.

²² Ziegler, 26, 32 on the famines of 1315 to 1319 and their effect on the Black Death; Grmek, 1472 ff.

²³ A fourth work known as the Chronicle of George the Monk, dating from the mid-ninth century, provides a mixture of information on the plague from all three of the above sources but provides no independent information: George the Monk, Chronikon, ed. C. de Boor, in 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1904) 2. 753–4. On the problems associated with this text and its editions in both Byzantine and modern times, cf. H. Hunger, Die Hochsprachliche Profane Literatur der Byzantiner, 2 vols. [=Byzantinisches Handbuch V] (Munich, 1978) 1. 342–9. The tenth–century emperor Constantine VII Porpyrogenitus (De Thematibus ii. 6. ed. A. Pertusi, [=Studi e Testi, 160 (the Vatican, 1952)] 91, 173–4) mentions the depopulation of the Peloponnese during the plague's ‘reaping of the civilised world.’ Later Byzantine sources tend simply to copy earlier accounts. Note that the Byzantine sources for the plague of 746–7 are, in fact, as if not more, explicit as to the plague's extent and immediate consequences than the meager Greek sources which recorded the Black Death of 1348 when, as we know from western sources, the extent of the catastrophe was enormous. Cf. Bartsocas, C.S., ‘Two 14th century Greek descriptions of the Black Death’, Journal of the History of Medicine, 21 no. 4 (1966) 395Google Scholar; Nicol, D.M., The Last Centuries of Byzantium 1261–1453 (London, 1972) 224 ff.Google Scholar Cf. Biraben – Le Goff, 1484–5 on the seemingly unaccountable silence of early Medieval sources on plague and its effects.

²⁴ On Nikephoros, cf. Alexander, P., The Patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople: Ecclesiastical Policy and Image Worship in the Byzantine Empire (Oxford, 1958).Google Scholar

²⁵ Cf. Alexander, , Nicephorus 157 ff.Google Scholar; Hunger, 344 ff.

²⁶ Nikephoros, Breviarium 62 [= PG 100 cols. 969–72.]

²⁷ Cf. Alexander, , Nicephorus 169Google Scholar ff. Nikephoros, Antirrheticus III in PG 100, cols. 496–7.

²⁸ Nikephoros (Antirrheticus III col. 496 A) notes in reference to the plague that: ‘there are many things both recorded and said by word of mouth which are to be heard. Even now there are a few left amongst the living who keep these tales alive.’

²⁹ On Theodore in general, cf. Alice Gardner, , Theodore of Studium: His Life and Times (London, 1905).Google Scholar

³⁰ Theodore Studite, Laudatio S. Platonis Hegumeni in PG 99, col. 805.

³¹ Theoph. 1. 422 ff. On the work's authorship cf., Mango, C., ‘Who wrote the Chronicle of Theophanes?’, Zbornik Radova Vizantoloskgog Instituta, 18 (1978) 9–17.Google Scholar

³² Theoph. 1. 422–3. Theophanes mentions that the plague arrived in the fifteenth indiction, i.e. after 15 September 746.

³³ Ibid. Nikephoros uses the words phthora and loimikos thanatos, i.e. ‘mortality’ and ‘pestilent death’ respectively. Antirrheticus III col. 496 B; Breviarium 64 [= PG 100, col. 972 C.] This was probably a recurrence of the 542 plague, cf. Evelyne Patlagean, , Pauvreté économique et pauvreté sociale à Byzance: 4e–7e siècle (Paris, 1977) 85 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁴ Nikephoros, Breviarium 63 [= PG c, col. 495 C‥ The speed of death is noted in all sources.

³⁵ Theoph. 1. 423. On the temperature etc. cf. Biraben – Le Goff, 1488.

³⁶ Theoph. 1. 423, ll.15–16.

³⁷ Theodore, Laudatio col. 805.

³⁸ Nikephoros, Breviarium 64 [= PG 100, col. 972 B–C].

³⁹ Theodore, Laudatio col. 805.

⁴⁰ Grmek (op. cit.) stresses the urban or populated context in which plague flourishes.

⁴¹ Nikephoros, Antirrheticus III cols. 496–7. Cf. Theoph. 1. 423, 11. 9–11, ‘[the plague] took all, not only in the city, but also those in all the land thereabouts.’

⁴² Jaffe, Ph., Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum Mcxcviii, 2nd ed. (Granz, 1958)Google Scholar no. 2274. Naples, and possibly S. Italy, was faced with another bout of plague in 767, cf. Biraben – Le Goff, 1491.

⁴³ Cf. Dols, M.W., ‘Plague in Early Islamic History’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 94 (1974) 371–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Russell, Josiah C., ‘That Earlier Plague’, Demography, 5/1 (1968) 174–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem., ‘Late Ancient and Medieval Population’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 43 part 3 (1958) 174–184. Dols states that ‘Plague served as a major factor in debilitating Ummayad strength’ (381). Many recurrences of plague in the Caliphate occurred from 639 to 750, especially in the first half of the eighth century. There seems little doubt that the outbreak in Europe had its origins here. Note that troops of Constantine V had been engaging Caliphal troops in 745 (Theoph. 1. 422; Nikephoros, Breviarium 62 [= PG 100, col. 969.]).

⁴⁴ Nikephoros, Breviarium 62–3 [= PG 100, col. 972]; Theodore, Laudatio col. 805; Theoph. 1. 423.

⁴⁵ Cf. Biraben – Le Goff, 1488.

⁴⁶ Cf. Biraben – Le Goff, 1492 ff.; Jones, 2. 287–8, 818, 1043; Stein, E., Histoire du Bas-Empire, 2 vols. (Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, 1949) 2. 756–61Google Scholar; Bury, J.B., History of the Later Roman Empire from the death of Theodosius I to the death of Justinian, 2 vols. (London, 1923Google Scholar; reprinted Dover publications, New York, 1958) 2. 62 ff.; Patlagean, 85 ff.

⁴⁷ Ziegler, chapter 15. Cf. also Carpentier, Elisabeth, ‘La peste noir: Famines et épidémies, au XIVe siècle’, Annales E.S.C. 23 (1968) 1062–92.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Theoph. 1. 429.

⁴⁹ Theoph. 1. 429; Nikephoros, Breviarium 64 [= PG 100, col. 972 C.].

⁵⁰ On the Peloponnese at this time, cf. Bon, A., Le Péloponnèse Byzantin jusqu'en 1204 (Paris, 1951) 31 ff.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Cf. Stein, 760 and Patlagean, 91 who note a similar tendency after the 542 plague.

⁵² Cf. Biraben – Le Goff, 1489 ff. on cyclical patterns in plague.

⁵³ Theoph. 1. 440; Nikephoros, Breviarium 75–6 [= PG 100, col. 988.]

⁵⁴ Bon, 36, 42 ff; Herrin, 409 ff.; Toynbee, A., Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his World (London, 1973) 94 ff.Google Scholar and notes. In the early ninth century, an imperial edict obliged women in Greece to marry ethnikoi, or barbarians, a measure which must have had the regeneration of the population in mind (cf. ‘The Life of St. Athanasia of Aegina’, ed. Karras, L., Maistor: Classical, Byzantine and Renaissance Studies for Robert Browning, [= Byzantina Australiensia v] (Canberra, 1984) 212.Google Scholar) Note that Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (cf. note 23) implies that the Greek population of the Peloponnese was widely decimated by the plague with the consequence that the area became ‘Slavicised’ and ‘barbarian’.

⁵⁵ Traditional measures included the forced population of these lands with slaves or paupers; likewise the land's tax obligations could be passed onto its neighbours. Cf. Jones, 2. 1043; Stein, 2. 799.

⁵⁶ On flight and persecution during iconoclasm cf. Alexander, P., ‘Religious Persecution and Resistance in the Byzantine Empire of the eighth and ninth centuries: Methods and Justifications’, Speculum, 52 (1977) 238–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ahrweiler, Helene, ‘The Geography of the Iconoclast World’, in Iconoclasm, eds. Bryer, A. and Herrin, Judith (Birmingham, 1975) 21–7Google Scholar; de Menthon, R.P.B., Une terre de légendes: l'Olympe de Bithynie (Paris, 1935).Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Life of St Stephen the Younger in PG 100, col. 1088 mentioning ‘orthodox hamlets’ as opposed to the heretical city. The work was written in 807, nearly forty years after the Saint's death. Cf. Cormack, 118 ff. for a discussion and precis.

⁵⁸ The Mountain consequently took Auxentios' name. Cf. Pargoire, J., ‘Mont Saint-Auxence. Etude historique et topographique’, Revue de l'Orient chrétien, 8 (1903) 15–31, 240–79. 426–58.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Life of Stephen cols. 1104–5.

⁶⁰ Life of Stephen col. 1143.

⁶¹ Canon 14 of the Sixth Ecumenical Council ‘In Trullo’.

⁶² Nikephoros, Breviarium 62 [= PG 100, col. 969]; Life of St Stephen col. 1120 gives a list of areas outside direct imperial control to which iconophile monks could flee, on which cf. Huxley, G., ‘On the Vita of Saint Stephen the Younger’, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 18 (1978) 97–108Google Scholar; Ahrweiler, 21–7; Rouan, M.F., ‘Une lecteur “iconoclaste” de la Vie d'Etienne le jeune’, Traveux et Memoires, 8 (1981) 415–36.Google Scholar

⁶³ Nikephoros, Antirrheticus III col. 496 B; George the Monk, 2. 754; Epistola ad Theophilum in PG 95, col. 364 B. The last text is not in fact a letter to the emperor Theophilos (829–42) as its title claims, but nevertheless dates to the period of the second iconoclasm (815–43) or shortly afterwards. Nikomedia was an imperial residence since Diocletian's time. Numismatic evidence may indicate that the mint also moved to Nikomedia. Cf. Grierson, P., Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, 3/1 (Washington D.C., 1973) 290 ff.Google Scholar mentions officina (i.e. control) marks ‘A’ and ‘B’ on one class of copper follis from early in Constantine V's reign (294). This is the last time the ‘B’ mark appears on Byzantine coins, and by all accounts the issue was short lived. ‘B’ was one of the officina marks used on Nikomedian issues after the sixth-century [cf. Grierson, P., Byzantine Coins (U.C.L.A. California, 1982) 24].Google Scholar An ‘N’ which appears on some gold solidi is, according to Grierson, ‘meaningless’ (Dumbarton Oaks, 293) but could in fact be another mint–mark for Nikomedia such as those listed in ibid., Byzantine Coins 22.

⁶⁴ Theoph. 1. 423.

⁶⁵ Theoph. 1. 427.

⁶⁶ It is interesting to compare events in the Caliphate at precisely this time. The Ummayad dynasty which had been overthrown in 750 by the Abasids. In public gatherings held in all cities of the Caliphate to announce the change, the charge was made that the Ummayads were responsible for having incurred the wrath of God in the form of plague over the past two decades. Cf. Dols, ‘Plague in Early Islamic History’, 380.

⁶⁷ Theoph. 1. 427–8; Nikephoros, Breviarium 65–6 [= PG 100, cols. 973–6].

⁶⁸ Textus Byzantinos ad Iconomachiam Pertinentes in usum Academicum, ed. H. Hennephof (Leiden, 1969) text # 263. For an introduction to iconoclast theology cf. Sideris, T., ‘The Theological Assumptions of the Iconoclasts during the Iconoclastic Controversy’, Byzantine Studies/Etudes Byzantines, 4 (1979) 178–92Google Scholar with bibliography; on the sources, cf. Beck, H.-G., Kirch und Theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich, [= Byzantinische Handbuch 2/1] (Munich, 1959) 2nd edn. 296 ff.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Hennephof, text # 209.

⁷⁰ On the question of how far John's works were known at this time, cf. Herrin, 344 ff. The question is still controversial, although the present author believes that John's work was known, however vaguely.

⁷¹ Theoph. 1. 415.

⁷² Theoph. 1. 437.

⁷³ E.g. Theoph. 1. 432 on the martyrdom of St Andrew Kalyvitis and ibid. 1. 437–8 on the humiliation of monks in the hippodrome in 766.

⁷⁴ Theoph. 1. 445–6 on the actions of the infamous general Michael Lachanodrakon in the Thrakesion theme.

⁷⁵ E.g. Theoph. 1. 443.

⁷⁶ Theoph. 1. 443; Life of St Stephen col. 1112 A. Anticlericalism was not confined to the iconoclasts. Later iconophile sources were harshly critical of the lax clergy during this period: cf. Adversus Constantinum Cabalinum in PG 95, col. 329 ff., cap. 14; Epistula ad Theophilum (op. cit.) col. 361, cap. 13; Nikephoros, Apologeticus pro Sacris Imaginibus in PG 100, cols. 544–5.

⁷⁷ Hennephof, Chapter III. Cf. also Ostrogorsky, G., Studien zur Geschichte des byzantinischen Bilderstreits (Breslau, 1929).Google Scholar

⁷⁸ E.g. Antirrheticus III col. 496 ff.

⁷⁹ Ziegler, 268 ff.

⁸⁰ Life of St Stephen cols. 1175–6.

⁸¹ Cf. Nikephoros, Antirrheticus III col. 488 A. ‘The tree is recognised from the fruit it bears.’

⁸² On the Chariot Factions, cf. Cameron, A., Circus Factions: Blues and Greens in Rome and Byzantium (Oxford, 1976) with bibliography.Google Scholar

⁸³ Cf. Haldon, , Praetorians 228 ff.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Nikephoros, Breviarium 76–7 [PG 100, col. 988 B–C.].

⁸⁵ Grierson, , Dumbarton Oaks 291.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ That this was realised at the time can be seen in Theoph. 1. 442, ‘And [Constantine] himself did these things in the city [i.e. persecution of the monks], and was joined by those of a similar mind such as Antony, patrician and domestic of the Schools and Peter the magister, as well as the soldiers of the garrison units [tagmata] whom he [Constantine] had trained.’ Cf. also Nikephoros, Apologeticus pro Sacris Imaginibus col. 556 A–D where specific mention is made of Constantine V's manipulation of the chariot factions in the creation of the tagmata, together with their role as executors of their master's iconoclast policies.

⁸⁷ Theoph. 1. 461.

⁸⁸ Life of the Patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople, ed. Heikel, A., in Acta Societis Scientiarum Fennicae, 17 (1899) 407–8Google Scholar. Garrison soldiers had protested Tarasios' appointment in 784, ibid. 400, ll.24–5.

⁸⁹ Theoph. 1. 501.

⁹⁰ Cf. Alexander, , Patriarch Nicephorus 125.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Hennephof, texts # 259, 260.

⁹² Hennephof, text # 257.

⁹³ Life of Leo of Katania, ed. Latysev, V., Hagiographica Graeca Inedita (St Petersburg, 1914) 12–28Google Scholar; shortened version in Synaxarium Constantinopolitanae, [= Propylaeum ad Acta Sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur (AASS)], November, cols. 479–80. A short Latin version of the Life exists in AASS, Feb. 3. 226–8. On this Life, cf. Beck, 799.

⁹⁴ Life of Leo of Katania 13, cap. 4ff.

⁹⁵ Hennephof, Horos of 754: text # 207; Life of St Stephen col. 1112 A.

⁹⁶ On this theory, cf. Anastos, M., ‘The Ethical Theory of Images formulated by the Iconoclasts in 754 and 815’, DOPapers, 8 (1954) 151–60.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Life of Leo of Katania 14, cap. 6. On Leo III, cf. Life of St Stephen col. 1084 B–C.

⁹⁸ Cf. Grabar, Anton, L'Iconoclasme byzantin: dossier archeologique (Paris, 1957) 150 ff.Google Scholar; Moorhead, J., ‘Iconoclasm, the Cross, and Imperial Imagery’, Byzantion 55 (1985) 165–79.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Patlagean, 75.

¹⁰⁰ Life of St Stephen col. 1161.

¹⁰¹ Life of St Stephen col. 1136 B.

¹⁰² Life of Leo of Katania 24–5, caps. 32–3.

¹⁰³ Paul had been appointed by Constantine V's son, the iconoclast Leo IV (775–80).

¹⁰⁴ Theoph., 458. On the developments at this time, cf. Speck, P., Kaiser Konstantin VI (Munich, 1978) 132 ff.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ E.g., ibid. 135–7.