The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Byzantium and the Slavs
Author(s): IHOR ŠEVČENKO
Source: Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 8, No. 3/4 (December 1984), pp. 289-303
Published by: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
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and theSlavs*
Byzantium
IHORSevCenko
I
To CyrilMango
Throughoutmore than a thousandyears of theirhistory,the Byzantines viewed their state as heir to the Roman Empire,,which pretended to encompass the whole civilized world. It followedthatthe
Byzantinestate, too, was a universalempire, claimingrule over the
whole civilized world; that Byzantineemperorswere by rightworld
rulers; that the Byzantineswere Romans; and that they were the
most civilized people in the world. True, they had improved upon
their Roman ancestors in that they were Christians; also, by the
seventh centurythe Latin component had all but disappeared from
theirhighbrowculture,which fromthen on was essentiallyGreek;
but, like ancient Romans, the Byzantinesfeltentitledto pour scorn
on those who did not share in the fruitsof civilization,that is, on
the barbarians. The best thing these barbarians could do was to
abandon theirbestial existence, and to enter- in some subordinate
capacity of course- into the familyof civilized peoples headed by
the Byzantineemperor. The way to civilizationled throughChristianity,the only true ideology,of which the empire held the monopoly. For Christianity-to be more precise, Byzantine Christianity-meantcivilization.
Throughout a millennium of propaganda, these simple tenets
were driven home by means of court rhetoric-the journalism of
the Middle Ages- of court ceremonies, of imperial pronouncements and documents, and of coinage. The Byzantine emperor
claimed certain exclusive rights. Until the thirteenthcentury at
least, he did not conclude equal treatieswithforeignrulers; he only
granted them privileges,insignia, or dignities. In correspondence
with certain foreign states, he issued "orders," not letters. He
claimed the exclusive rightto strike gold coinage (other peoples'
This essay is a reworkingof a lecturewrittena number of years ago. Thus it has
a number of layers. While the earliest of these layers owe a debt to the standard
pictureof Byzantiumdrawn by Franz Dölger and George Ostrogorskiin theirday,
the later ones reflectmy presentviews on the topic.
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290
IHORSevCenko
or counterfeits;
onlyin the thirgold coinswereat firstimitations
teenthcenturydid the westernducate replace the bezant, for
almostone thousandyearsthe dollarof the Mediterranean
world).
werenotblind,theyhad to accommodatethemAs the Byzantines
selves to the existenceof otherstatesbesides theirown. To fit
of
themintotheirsystem,theyelaboratedtheconceptof Hierarchy
Rulersand Statesthat,takenall together,
ideallyencompassedthe
whole world. The emperorheaded this hierarchy;he was surwho wouldstandin an ideal familyrelaroundedby subordinates,
tionshipto him: the Englishrulerwas only his friend;the Bulwas grudggarian,his son; theRus' one, his nephew;Charlemagne
rulers
would
a
Or
else
these
of
brother.
the
inglygranted position
be giventitlesof varying
importance:ruler,rulerwithpower,king,
even emperor. But never-not until the fifteenth
century,if at
all- Emperorof theRomans.
truthswereheld to be selfthe following
By the ninthcentury,
evidentin the fieldof culture: the worldwas dividedintoByzanthe latterincludingnot onlythe Slavs- who
tinesand barbarians,
a
low
place on the list of barbaricnations-but also the
occupied
was supeLatins;as a city,theNew Rome, thatis, Constantinople,
riorto all othersin art,culture,and size, and thatincludedtheOld
Rome on theTiber. God has chosentheByzantinepeopleto be a
in Greekforthe Greeks;in
new Israel: the Gospels werewritten
God had even singledout theAncientGreeksto culHis foresight,
tivatethe Artsand Sciences;and in Lettersand Arts,the Byzantineswere the Greeks' successors. "All the artscome fromus,"
exclaimeda Byzantinediplomatduringa polemicaldebateheld at
of theninthcentury.A curiousdetail:
theArabcourtin thefifties
thisdiplomatwas none otherthanthe futureApostleof the Slavs,
Cyril'sexclamationimpliedthatLatinlearning,
Constantine-Cyril.
too, was derived from the Greeks. The Greek language,the
also of Plato and
of the churchfathers,
languageof the Scriptures,
the
other
and
was
tongues,notsubtle;
Demosthenes, rich,broad,
the Latin
even
to
a
barbaric
had
them;
ring
ably the Slavic,
languagewas poorand "narrow."
The Byzantinesmaintainedthese claimsfor almostas long as
theirstateendured. Even towardsthe veryend of the fourteenth
whentheempirewas littlemorethanthecityof Constancentury,
tinoplein size, the Byzantinepatriarchlecturedthe recalcitrant
order. The princeshould
princeof Muscovyon the international
remember-so the patriarchexplained-thathe was only a local
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BYZANTIUMAND THE SLAVS
291
ruler, while the Byzantineemperorwas the Emperorof the
Romans, that is, of all Christians.The fact that the emperor's
dominionswere hard-pressed
by the paganswas beside the point.
in the worldand in the
The emperorenjoyedspecialprerogatives
ill behoovedtheprinceto have disChurchUniversal.It therefore
thenameof theemperorduringtheliturgy.
continuedmentioning
such a claimwas unrealiscentury,
By the end of thefourteenth
from
the
closing
Byzantinepatriarch's
tic,and, as is to be deduced
it had been challengedby the Muscovitebarbarian.But
complaint,
throughoutmore than half of Byzantinehistory,such claims
worked.Why?
The firstreasonwhytheyworkedwas thatfora long timethe
claimswere objectivelytrue. In termsof the sixthcentury,Justinian,under whose early rule the large-scaleSlavic invasions
occurredin theBalkans,was a worldemperor,thatis, a rulerholding sway over the civilizedworld. In the east, his dominions
extendedbeyondthe upperTigrisRiver;theyskirtedthe western
slopes of the Caucasus. In the north,Byzantium'sfrontierran
across the Crimea, and along the Danube and the Alps. The
empirehad a footholdin Spain, it controlledthe coast of North
Africaand much of Egypt,it dominatedtoday'sIsrael, Lebanon,
and a greatdeal of Syria. Now let us skiphalfa millennium.In
thetimeof BasilII (d. 1025), underwhosereigntheRus' accepted
the situationwas not muchworse: it was even better
Christianity,
ranbeyondLake Van; fora stretch,
in the east,wherethefrontier
it huggedthe Euphrates.Antiochand Latakiawerestillin Byzantinehands;in theNorth,theCrimeawas stillcrossedbytheByzantine frontier,and the Danube and the Sava were the frontier
rivers-thus in this sector,too, Byzantiumpossessedas much as
did. In the West,partsof southernItalywiththe cityof
Justinian
BariwereunderByzantinesway. In the ninthand tenthcenturies,
of the Slavs, the
which were decisive for the Byzantinization
empire'scapitalat Constantinople
was, withthe possibleexception
of Baghdadand Cairo, the most brilliantculturalcenterof the
worldas not onlythe Slavs, but also westernEurope,knewit. Its
wereGreekscholarsand politicians.Its prelatesreadand
patriarchs
commentedupon Plato,Euclid,and even theobjectionable
Lucian;
itsemperorssupervisedlargeencyclopaedic
itssophistienterprises;
cated readingpublicclamoredfor,and obtained,rééditionsof old
simpleLives of Saints,whichwerenow couchedin a morerefined
and complicatedstyle. The Great Palace of Constantinople,
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292
IHORSevCenko
coveringan area of ca. 100,000 square meters,was still largely
intactand functioning.
The pompof the courtceremonialand of
theservicesat St. Sophia,thenstillthe largestfunctioning
building
in the knownworld,was calculatedto dazzle barbarianvisitors,
Slavicprincesor theiremissaries.Byzantine
politicalconincluding
down to the
westernmediaevalpoliticalthinking
ceptsinfluenced
twelfth
century;the westernsymbolsof rule- scepter,crown,orb,
goldenbull- owe a debt to Byzantium.The mosaicsof Rome, of
St. Markin Venice (thirteenth
century)and of TorcellonearVenice (twelfth
century),of the Normanchurchesin or nearPalermo
of Byzantineart, and some of
(twelfthcentury),are reflections
craftsmen.
themwereexecutedbyByzantine
The renascenceof theologicalspeculationin the High Middle
bytheimperialgiftwhicharrivedfromByzanAges was stimulated
tiumat thecourtof Louis thePious in 827. The giftwas a volume
in Greek, of course. This
of Dionysiusthe Pseudo-Areopagite,
work,translatedtwiceinto Latin, the second time by Johannes
Scotus Eriugena(d. 877), spurredsubsequentwesterntheological
to imaginea westernchurchwithoutan
speculation.It is difficult
too, arrivedfromByzantiumin 757
organ-yet, this instrument,
and 812. On the latteroccasion,the Byzantinesrefusedto leave
to copyit in secret,
who attempted
the organwiththeWesterners,
but only latersuccessfully
reproducedit. The silk industrywas
as a
to the West in the middleof the twelfth
introduced
century,
resultof a Normanraidon CentralGreece- theNormansabducted
ByzantineskilledlaborersfromThebes and settledthemin their
of Byzantine
dominions.Even the forkseems to be a rediscovery
introduced
forksto
Greek-born
an
dogissa
origin- eleventh-century
No
ecclesiastic.
a
of
horror
to
the
contemporary
Venice,
great
the
of Byzantium:
wonderthattheSlavs experiencedthe influence
experiWest,whichcould fallback upon refinedLatin traditions,
overparts
encedit,too,longafterByzantium's
politicaldomination
claims
of Italyhad ceased. So muchforthefirstreason-Byzantine
valid.
workedbecausetheywereobjectively
The second reason why the Byzantineclaims of superiority
workedwas that theywere acceptedas valid by the barbarians,
whetherwesternor Slavic,even aftertheyhad ceased to be objecoccurredin 800. But
of Charlemagne
tivelyvalid. The usurpation
he, the ruler of Rome, did not call himselfemperorof the
Romans-he knewthatthistitle,and all thatit implied,had been
preemptedby the Byzantines. It was not until 982 that the
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BYZANTIUMAND THE SLAVS
293
titolature
"ImperatorRomanorum"appearedin the West. And it
was onlywithFrederickI Barbarossa(second halfof the twelfth
century)thata logicalconsequencewas drawnfromthistitulature
by a westernruler. Since therecould be onlyone Emperorof the
emperorshouldnotbe calledbythistitleRomans,theByzantine
he was to be called onlywhatin facthe had been fora longtime:
the rexGraecorumBut did Frederickreflectthatthe veryconcept
thatthereshouldbe onlyone emperorwas a Byzantineheritage?
The Slavs were much slowerto be weaned fromByzantiumand
neverdrewa conclusionsimilarto thatof Frederick.Withthem,
emulation of Byzantiumwas always but another form of
imitation.True,Symeonof Bulgariain theearlytenth
Byzantium's
centuryand Stephen Duäan of Serbia in the mid-fourteenth
assumedthe titleof Emperorof the Bulgariansand Greeksor of
the Serbiansand Greeks,respectively.But theydid not thinkof
a Slavic counterpart
to the WesterndoctrineRex est
proclaiming
Imperatorin regno suo and thus downgradingthe Byzantine
himby takingConemperor.Rather,theydreamedof supplanting
on his throne;and thesame fanand seatingthemselves
stantinople
Rus', Slovoo
tasyoccursin one textproducedin thirteenth-century
pogibelirusskojzemli.
theByzantine
Shortof supplanting
emperor,manya Balkanruler
of thatemperor,or
aimed at securingforhimselfthe prerogatives
and
imitate
to
Waysof doingthis
imperial
pomp
usage.
attempted
of his own: in
werevaried. One instancewas byhavinga patriarch
the newlyconvertedBorisof Bulgariawantedto
the ninthcentury,
have one; around900, Symeonof Bulgariasucceededin settingone
century,
up; so did StephenDuSan of Serbiain the mid-fourteenth
notwithoutresistanceon the partof Byzantium.Anotherinstance
was by strikinggold coins: the Bulgariantsar Ivan Asen II (d.
1241) managedto do it,buthe appearedon his coinsin thegarbof
a Byzantine
emperorwithChriston thereverse;another,byhaving
the court hierarchybear Byzantineaulic titles: StephenDuSan
and logothetes;yetanother,by assumingthe
namedsebastocrators
of
epithet"second Justinian"on the occasionof the proclamation
new laws; stillanother,by lookingto Byzantium
as a reservoirfor
marriages-betweenthe thirteenth
centuryand the fall
prestigious
of Bulgariain 1393, we counteightGreekwomenamong21 Bulone's own capitalafterCongariantsarinas;another,by patterning
of
Preslav
stantinople:Symeon Bulgaria's
copiedtheImperialCity,
as, bytheway,did PrinceJaroslav'sKiev in the 1030s.
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294
IHORSevCenko
In fifteenthand sixteenth-century
Muscovy,theattitudetoward
and
was less thanfriendly;
butwhenthe
Byzantium its patriarchate
Muscovitebookmenbeganto formulate
an indigenousstateideology,theydrewheavilyuponByzantine
sources,in particular
upona
Mirrorof Princeswritten
in GreekfortheemperorJustinian
in the
sixthcentury;and theycalled Moscow "the reigningcity,"a formula by whichthe Byzantinesusuallyreferred
to Constantinople.
In sum,throughout
theirMiddleAges, theBalkanand to a considerable extentthe East Slavic rulingelites were beholdento the
modelin thematterof politicalconcepts.
Byzantine
The Byzantineculturalimpactdid not presupposethe existence
of friendly
and the Slavs. Sometimes
relationsbetweenByzantium
the BalkanSlavs- like the
it lookedas if the moreanti-Byzantine
Normansof Sicily-were in theirpoliticalaspirations,the more
Byzantinized
theybecame;theyfoughttheenemywiththeenemy's
own weapons. Whatthe Byzantineculturalimpactdid presuppose
and thereceiversof culwas theacceptance-bothbytheproducers
as supeturalvalues- of the Byzantineworldviewand civilization
riorto all others.
II
of theBalkanswas
and culturalByzantinization
The Christianization
a pivotal event. It affectedboth the medieval and the postmedievalhistoryof the Balkansand of easternEurope; what is
more,its effectsare withus today. Whetherthe consequencesof
or banefulis a matter
thiseventshouldbe consideredas beneficial
and
of judgmentthatdependson the historian'sown background
on the modernpublic'spoliticalviews. It remainsthatthe Christianizationof the Balkansnot only determinedthe culturalphysiognomyof Serbiaand Bulgaria,but also preparedand facilitated
of the East Slavs, an eventwhich,
the subsequentByzantinization
of
to the estrangement
Tartar
with
the
invasion,contributed
along
the
the
of
Rus' fromthe European West. In
preceding
light
of the Southand East Slavs
remarks,however,the Byzantinization
shouldbe viewedjust as an especiallysuccessfuland enduringcase
whetherin Europeor in
of Byzantium's
impactupon its neighbors,
theNear East.
It was an especiallysuccessfulcase on twocounts. First,when
we speak of those Balkan Slavs who experiencedthe strongest
influenceof the Byzantineculture,we mean Serbsand Bulgarians.
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BYZANTIUM AND THE SLAVS
295
But we forgetthatthesepeoplesformedtherearguard,as it were,
into the territory
of
of the Slavic populationsthathad penetrated
the Slavs attackedthe outer
the empire. In the late sixthcentury,
defensesof Constantinople;around 600, they besieged Thessalonica. Aboutthe same time,theyreachedEpirus,Attica,and the
Peloponnesus;by the middleof the eighthcentury,the whole of
Greece- or, at least,of thePeloponnesus-"became slavicized,"to
underthe auspicesof a tenthuse the expressionof a textwritten
century
Byzantineemperor.SlavicraidersreachedCreteand other
Greekislands. We do hearof Byzantinemilitary
campaignsaiming
at the reconquestof the lands settledby the Slavs, butjudgingby
the paucityof relevantreferences
in our sources,it is wise to conclude that these campaignswere not too frequent. And what
remainedof thoseSlavs? About 1,200place-names,
manyof them
stillexisting;some Slavic pocketsin the Peloponnesus,attestedas
late as the fifteenth
century;about 275 Slavicwordsin the Greek
language;perhapsa faintSlavic trace or two in Greek folklore.
Nothingmore. In mattersof culturalimpact,the ultimatein success is calledcompleteassimilation.Whenit comesto mechanisms
thatfacilitated
thisspectacularassimilation,
we mustkeep in mind
the role playedby the upperstrataof the Slavicsociety,forby the
end of the ninth century the Slavs were already socially
differentiated.
In my opinion,it was thisSlavic elite,as muchas
the Byzantinemissionaries,that served as a conduit in the
of Byzantine
transmission
cultureto theSlavicpopulationat large.
Second, Byzantiumheld more than its own in its competition
withRome over the religiousallegianceof the BalkanSlavs. For
historical
reasons,whichhad some validityto them,theChurchof
Rome laidjurisdictional
claimsto the territory
of ancientIllyricum,
thatis, roughlythearea on whichtheSerbs,Croats,and some Bulgarians(Slavic and Turkic) had establishedthemselves.Croatia
and Dalmatiawerethe onlyByzantineareas wherewesternChristianitywas victoriousin the ninthcentury.The Serbs were first
Christianized
byRome about640; butonlythesecondChristianizationtookpermanent
rootsthere. It occurredin theseventiesof the
ninthcenturyand it was due to Byzantinemissionaries,
lateraided
For
a
by Bulgarians.
while,the newlyconvertedBulgarianruler
Boris-Michael
flirted
withPope NicholasI; but in 870, the Bulgarians enteredthe Byzantine
fold,and theyhave remainedthereever
since.
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296
IHORSevCenko
True, the Cyrillo-Methodianmission in Moravia and Pannonia,
which originally was staged from Byzantium, ended in failure
shortlyafter885, when Methodius's pupils were expelled and supplanted by the German clergy of Latin rite. But if this was a
failure,it was a qualifiedone: the Moravian and Pannonian areas
had never belonged to Byzantium.
Before its collapse, the Cyrillo-Methodianmission did forge the
most powerful tool for indirect Byzantinizationof all Orthodox
Slavs: it created- or perfected-the Old Church Slavonic literary
language. The Byzantinized Slavic liturgy did continue in
Bohemia- granted, in a limited way- until the very end of the
eleventh century;and the expelled pupils of Methodius found an
excellentreceptionin late ninth-century
Bulgariaand Macedonia, in
centers like Preslav and Ohrid, from where they continued and
deepened the work of Christianizingand Byzantinizingthe Bulgarian and Macedonian Slavs. Occasional attemptson the part of
Serbian and Bulgarian rulers to play Rome
the thirteenth-century
no durable effects. True, both the Serhad
against Constantinople
bian Stephen the First-Crownedand the BulgarianKalojan, tsar of
Bulgaria, obtained their royal crowns from the pope (1217 and
1204, respectively). But their churches, although autonomous,
remained in communion with the Byzantine patriarchatein exile
(1220 and 1235, respectively);they even remained under its suzerainty,in spite of the fact that at that time the Latin Crusaders
resided in conquered Constantinopleand the Byzantineempire was
of Asia Minor, fightingforits survival.
just a smallishprincipality
The loss of Moravia and Pannonia by the Byzantinemission was
amplycompensatedfor by a gain in anotherarea which (except for
the Crimea) had never been under the actual Byzantine government: I mean the territoriesinhabited,among others, by the East
Slavs. There, too, the field was not uncontested,for Rome had
sent its missionariesto Kiev in the middle of the tenthcentury. In
addition, Byzantium had to struggle there with other religious
influences,Islamic and Jewish. It emerged victorious: the ruler of
Kiev adopted Christianityfor himselfand his people in 988/9, and
the act was sealed by the prince's marriage with the Byzantine
emperor's sister. In retrospect,the Christianizationand concomitant Byzantinizationof the East Slavs was the greatestsuccess of
the Byzantine cultural mission. Churches in Byzantine style still
stand in Alaska, and in Fort Ross in California; this marks the
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BYZANTIUMAND THE SLAVS
297
under the
furthesteastwardadvance of ByzantineChristianity
East Slavicstate.
auspicesof a predominantly
of the OrthodoxSlavs was also an
The culturalByzantinization
impacton Europe. Chroespeciallyenduringcase of the Byzantine
as opposedto complete
nologicallyspeaking,thisByzantinization,
with
started
the
ninth
or
tenth
assimilation,
century,
dependingon
the area, and it lastedlong afterthe fall of the empirein 1453,
downto theeighteenth
and even thenineteenth
century.Paradoxiafter
new
of
cally enough,
1453,
possibilities expansion were
to
opened Byzantineculture,the cultureof an empirethatwas no
more.
Before1453, thehistory
of therelationsbetweenByzantium
and
the Slavicchurchesand stateswas thatof intermittently
successful
to shakeoffthe administrative
attempts
tutelageof theByzantines.
weresubjectsof the
Now, boththeBalkanSlavs and theByzantines
OttomanEmpire;in theeyesof theOttomanconquerorsthesepeoformedone entity,Rummilleti,
thatis,
ples, all of themChristian,
"Religious Community(or Nation) of the Romans"- a name
coinedin good Byzantine
tradition.To theOttomans,the patriarch
of Constantinople
was now the head (civilianand ecclesiastical)of
all theChristians
in theOttomanEmpire.
werereduced,the patriarchs
were
Althoughtheircircumstances
in some areas of activity
heirsto the Byzantineemperors,and the
Greekchurchwas a depository
and continuator
of manyaspectsof
Byzantineculture. This culturehad now the same, if not better,
chancesfor radiationamongthe Balkan Slavs as before,because
both the Greeksand the Slavs were now unitedwithinthe same
Ottomanterritory.
The churchesin the Balkanswere administered
fromConstanwhen
tinople, especially since the late seventeenth-century,
PhanarioteGreeks had obtainedgreat influenceat the Sublime
Porte. From thattimeon, nativeGreeks,ratherthanHellenized
Slavs, began to be installedas bishops. The historicalSlavic
of Pec and Ohridwereabolishedin thesecondhalfof
Patriarchates
theeighteenth
century(1766 and 1767,respectively).Dates markofficial
the
of the Bulgarianand Serbianchurches
ing
independence
fromConstantinople
coincideroughlywiththe achievement
of politicalindependenceby those countries.This rule of the Patriarchate of Constantinople,
oftenunwiselyexercised,createdmuch
bad blood between Greeks and Bulgariansin the nineteenth
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298
IHORSevCenko
century.By that time, the élite of the Balkanswas lookingto
forinspiration.But
St. Petersburg
Vienna,Paris,and westernized
down to the eighteenth
century,Greek- thatis, post-Byzantineby Greek or Hellenizedchurchmen,
culture,largelyrepresented
in
the
area.
culture
the
was
highest
EasternEurope,too, veryslowlymovedawayfromByzantium.
The Tartarinvasionof the 1240s firstcut and thenweakenedcontactswiththe West,and broughtabout a fallingback upon those
formsof local culturalheritagethatwerein existencein the forties
of thethirteenth
century.Thisheritagehad been mostlyByzantine;
it
was
beingpreservedand elaboratedupon,but not substannow,
tiallyenriched. The Ukraineand Belorussiawere reopened to
somewhatearlierthanotherareas,as theygrawesterninfluences
the
dominationof Catholic Poland-Lithuania,
under
fell
dually
the
fourteenth
from
centuryon. But even there the
especially
unionof Churchesdid not occuruntilsome twohundredand fifty
to the Union of Brestin 1596), and it
yearslater(I am referring
was onlya limitedsuccess,even fromtheCatholicpointof view.
of
In Moscow,thejurisdictional
dependenceon the Patriarchate
continueduntil1448. Whenthebreakcame,it was
Constantinople
motivatedby the accusationthat Byzantiumwas not Byzantine
enough,thatit had fallenawayfromthe truefaithby compromising withthe Latinsat the Council of Florence(1439), whilethe
true ByzantineOrthodoxywas fromnow on to be preservedin
in
of an independentpatriarchate
Muscovy. The establishment
the
necessitated
Moscow had to waituntil1589. Its confirmation
but it was easily obtainedfromthe
assent of other patriarchs,
influencespenetrating
Western
Greeks.
throughthe
impecunious
Ukrainewerepresentin seventeenth-century
Muscovy,but it was
as
onlyPeterthe First,ascendingthe throne Tsar and Autocrat,
style,and leavingit in deathas AugustEmperor,western
Byzantine
who
put an end to the Byzantineperiodin the historyof
fashion,
the Russian culturalélite, but not in the historyof the Russian
lowerclasses.
Ill
The two main- but not the only-channelsthroughwhichByzantine influencesenteredthe OrthodoxSlavic worldwere church
hierarchy,secular and monastic (both for a long time largely
courts.
princely
Greek,even in easternEurope),and therespective
culture
of
in
those
above
was
aspects
all,
Thus,Byzantium imitated,
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BYZANTIUMAND THE SLAVS
299
in whichthe church,the state,or the upperlayersof the Slavic
societywere interested:script,literarylanguage,both sacredand
and secularlearning,
ecclesiastical
art(bothin its
secular,literature,
and aulic variety),rulercult,stateideology,law, and
ecclesiastical
the sphereof graciousliving. But the upper layersof medieval
OrthodoxSlavic societywere less refinedthan theirByzantine
Therewas muchin Byzantineculturewhichtheydid
counterparts.
not yet need; on the otherhand, therewere manyelementary
thingsnot exactlybelongingto the exaltedspherethattheyhad to
learn. Thus while the most sophisticated
productsof Byzantine
werenevertranslated
literature
intomedievalSlavic,the Bulgarian
wordsforonions (kromid)and cabbage (lahana) and the Serbian
expressionfor friedeggs (tiganisana
jaja) have been takenover
fromGreek. Art is an exception,for thereByzantiumgave the
Slavs thebestit had to offer.Butartis notprimarily
an intellectual
pursuit,and it can be appreciatedeven by newcomersto civilization;moreover,thenas now,moneycouldbuythebest.
From the courtand the episcopalresidence,borrowedelements
of Byzantinecultureseeped down to the people. Also, pilgrims
traveledto Constantinople
and broughtback withthembothwondroustales of the capital'ssplendorand objectsof devotionalart;
monksmovedto the Serbian,Bulgarian,and Rus' monasteries
of
Mount Athos and had Greek-Slavicconversationmanuals com.
posedforthem(we knowof one datingfromthefifteenth
century)
In areas geographically
closestto Byzantium,
like Bulgaria,Byzantine direct domination,and later the post-Byzantine
symbiosis
under the Ottomans,broughtclose contactson a popularlevel.
Thus we have reflections
of Byzantineinfluences
in Slavic popular
and
folklore:
we
know
of
at
107
least
language
(perhapsas much
as 245) proverbsthat the Slavs borroweddirectlyfromGreek.
werepreservedby SouthSlavs,
Eightypercentof theseborrowings
percentbyEast Slavs.
twenty
IV
The extentof Byzantineculturalimpactupon the OrthodoxSlavs
can best be demonstrated
by discussingtwo cases: thatof literary
languageand thatof literature.The Old ChurchSlavoniclanguage
was formedbytwogenerations
of Byzantine
and Slavicmissionaries
in the secondhalfof the ninthcenturyand the verybeginningof
the tenth,originally
as a vehicleforspreadingthe wordof God in
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300
IHORSevCenko
Slavic. It was a tool withwhichto translate
fromthe Greek. We
do knowof someoriginalSlavicwritings
bytheimmediatepupilsof
SaintsCyriland Methodius,but the bulkof the literary
activityof
theSlavicApostlesand of theirdirectsuccessorsconsistedin translationsfromGreek: excerptsfrombothTestaments(soon followed
of the Gospels), liturgical
books, edifying
by the full translation
sayingsof the monks,codes of ecclesiasticaland secularlaw. In
lateninth-and earlytenth-century
Bulgaria,thesituationwas much
the same. The mostbulkyliterary
productsof John,the exarchof
of St. Basil's Hexaemeron
translations
Bulgaria,were interpolated
and of Johnof Damascus's Fountainof Knowledge.The Mirrorof
Princesby Agapetus(sixthcentury)was most probablytranslated
intoOld Bulgarianat thissame earlyperiod,and thusbecamethe
veryfirstsecularworkof Slavic literature.This meantthatOld
withtheworldof theological,
ChurchSlavonichad to struggle
philosophicaland politicalconceptsand othernotions,as theywere
expressedin Hellenistic,early Byzantine,and middle Byzantine
Greek. No wonderthatOld ChurchSlavonicteemswithsimple,
and
caiques, thatis, word-formations
semantic,and phraseological
expressionscloselypatternedon ByzantineGreek. To a linguist,
oftenlook un-Slavic,even if the
the resultsof that patterning
OrthodoxSlavs of todayno longerreactto theByzantine
caiquesin
Old ChurchSlavonicas un-Slavic-a thousandyearsof familiarity
tookcareof that. For instance,Slavicmakeslittleuse of composite
words: Greek,especiallylate antiqueand ByzantineGreek,loves
Old ChurchSlavonicaboundsin compositeslike
them;accordingly,
to mention those
blagosloviti,bogonosbCb,bogorodica,samodrbZbCb,
wordswhichhave survivedin several modernSlavic languages,
includingmodernRussian. This slavishadherenceto Byzantine
of the originals
templatescan be explainedin partby thecharacter
selectedfortranslation:thewordsof theseoriginalsweresacredor
be theythewordsof God, of a church
of highpoliticalimportance,
of
an imperialcharter.Theyhad to be
a
or
of
saint's
Life,
father,
renderedwiththe greatestexactitude,even at the priceof doing
in earlySlavic.
violenceto thetendenciesprevalent
of Old ChurchSlavonicwas notexclusively
The caique character
a bad trait.Greek,the modelof Old ChurchSlavonic,was a very
highlydevelopedand supplelanguage;and the moresophisticated
intendedto imitateDemosthenesand Plato,even
writers
Byzantine
if in facttheyoftenimitatedthe muchlaterand moremannered
imitatorsof these authors. In wrestlingwith the complicated
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BYZANTIUMAND THE SLAVS
301
of thatlanguage's
Greek,Old ChurchSlavonicacquiredsomething
qualityand versatility.The impressivestylisticpossibilitiesof
modernliterary
Russianare due to the factthatmuch- some say
of its vocabularyis made up of ChurchSlavonic
one-halfroughly
a
feature
that enables a Russian writerto play on two
words,
at will. Old ChurchSlavonic,withadmixtures
of
linguistic
registers
remainedthe main literary
vehicleforthe
respectivevernaculars,
OrthodoxSlavs downto the sixteenth,seventeenth,
or eighteenth
area and the literary
century,
dependingon the geographical
genre.
This languagewas Slavicaccordingto its sound,but largelyByzanto itswordformations
tineaccording
and even itscontent.
The lexical borrowingsfromGreek in the languagesof the
OrthodoxSlavs are legion. There are about fourteenhundredof
themin Bulgarian,abouta thousandeach in Serbianand Russian.
Theirdistribution
is mostdense in the area of Christianterminology, such as ecclesiasticaldignities,ceremoniesand activities,
buildings,names of liturgicaltexts and songs, and names of
months.The languageof law,court,administration,
education,and
thearmyalso aboundsin borrowings
fromGreek. In a less exalted
and nautical
sphere,GreekprovidedtheSlavs withmanypiscatorial
terms,as well as termsof commerce,coinageand measurement,
and horticulture,
withtermspertaining
to
agriculture
and, finally,
civilized living. Thus the words for basin {harkoma), floor
{patoma,patos), cushion (proskefal),breakfast{progim),desert
{glikizmo),pan (tigan), bench (skamija), fork{pirun),drug {voitima) are Greek in medievalSerbianor Bulgarian. Even some
expressionsfor familyrelationships(anepsej, bratovied),some
prepositions
{kata, as in katagodina),interjections
{elate,originally
an imperative),
and morphological
elements(theverbalsuffix
-sati)
from
the
come
Greek. Some otherlinguistic
traitscommonto the
Balkanpeoples(Slavicand non-Slavicalike) are attributed
by some
to the impactof late (thatis, in partByzantine)Greek: I have in
mindsuch phenomenaas the lack of an infinitive,
or forming
the
futurewiththeSlavicequivalentsof OkKco
iva.
Whenwe speakof olderSlavicliterature,
we thinkfirstof all of the
creativeeffortof Slavic writers.Still,literature
is not only what
one creates,butalso whatone reads. Whenwe are askedwhatwas
read, say, in an importantMuscovite culturalcenter like the
aroundtheyear1500,we can givean
Kirillo-Belozerskij
Monastery
for
we
a
answer,
possess catalogueof thismonastery's
library
dating
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302
IHORSevCenko
fromthattime. The answeris revealing.Out of 212 books listed
in the catalogue,some 90 have a liturgical
character;mostof the
fromByzantine
and
othersare translations
homiletic,
hagiographie,
of the
Greekfathers
ascetictexts. Not onlyfourth-to-ninth-century
churchappearon the shelves of the libraryof Kirillo-Belozerskij
Monasteryaround1500 (Gregoryof Nazianzus,St. Basil, Ephrem
theSyrian,JohnChrysostom,
Cyrilof Jerusalem,
Pseudo-Dionysius
of
John
of
the
Theodore
Ladder,
Studios), but also
Areopagita,
of the tenthand eleventhcenturies(Symeonthe
writers
Byzantine
Younger,theTheologian),theeleventh(Nikonof theBlackMountain),and even thefourteenth
(GregoryPalamas). A fewof these
are explicitlydescribedas comingfromthe Balkans.
translations
Only two texts in the libraryare writtenby Kievan authors
(HilarionesSlovoand Cyrilof Turov'sSermons).One moretreatsa
Peter
to Muscovy(theLifeof Metropolitan
Rus' subjectof interest
[d. 1328], by MetropolitanCyprian). Only two of the texts,
JosephusFlavius'sJewishWarand Barlaamand Joasaph,are secular,and even thesewereconsideredrecommended
readingin one's
to
both
of
themare transof
Needless
pursuit sacredlearning.
say,
lationsfromtheGreek.
V
Whathas been said aboutlanguageand literature
(and could have
said about art and music) shouldhave sugbeen as convincingly
dominatedtheculturalhorthoroughly
gestedto us thatByzantium
izon of the OrthodoxSlavic elite in the Middle Ages; and we
should rememberthatfor some of these Slavs the Middle Ages
Such is the truth,even if it
lasteddownto the eighteenth
century.
of cultural
is notthewholetruth.For in thematterof thetransfer
goods from one society to another, telling about what was
amounts
and throughwhatchannelsit was transferred
transferred
to showingonlyone side of the coin. The otherside of the coin
and what
wouldconsistin tellingwhatwas selectedforimportation
happenedto the importsonce theyreachedthe receivingsocietyand forwhatpurhow theywere understood(or misunderstood)
is
were
used.
This,however, subjectmatterforanother
poses they
essay.
Whetherthe Byzantine
impacton the Slavs was a good or a bad
to decide. True, when
thingis fora Slavicist,not a Byzantinist,
his Princeand composinghis Discoursion
Machiavelliwas writing
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BYZANTIUMAND THE SLAVS
303
Livy,Muscovitebookmenwerestillpiecingtogethertheirpolitical
doctrineswithsome sixth-,ninth-,and twelfth-century
Byzantine
material.But it was not Byzantium's
faultthatthe OrthodoxSlavs
tookso longto breakitsspell.
Harvard University
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