International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Dmitri Chernoglazov
St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation; 
[e-mail]
Rereading Pseudo-Libanios’ Epistolary and Its Interpolated Versions
Epistolimaioi charakteres, in different manuscripts ascribed to Libanios and to Proklos, is a 
well-known text, representing (along with Pseudo-Demetrios
’
Epistolikoi typoi) Greek epistolary 
theory of the Late Antiquity. It is generally assumed, that this small treatise, containing a small 
theoretical introduction and very short examples of prooimia to 41 types of letters, has nothing 
to do with high-style Greek epistolography and has not exerted any influence on letter-writing in 
Byzantium. As a rule, it is analyzed in the context of Early Medieval practical letters and documents, 
which are preserved in papyri. 
The text can be considered in an extremely different way, if we pay attention to its interpolated 
versions, which, though published by V. Weichert long ago (Demetrii et Libanii qui feruntur Τύποι 
ἐπιστολικοί et Ἐπιστολιμαῖοι χαρακτῆρες / Ed. V. Weichert. Lipsiae, 1910), remain completely 

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unexplored. These additions are large (some interpolated versions are four times longer, than 
original text) and very different - some of them concern the theoretical part, other are additional 
examples of letters, which are much more extensive than prooimia of the original version. The task 
of the present paper is to make some notes on date, content and style of these interpolations. 
The research is supported by the Russian Foundation for Humanities, № 15-03-00138 «Ancient 
logic and Byzantine intellectual tradition: aspects of reception».
Georgios Chatzelis
Royal Holloway University of London, London, United Kingdom; 
[e-mail]
Innovation in the 
Sylloge Tacticorum
The Sylloge Tacticorum is a tenth-century Byzantine military manual. As almost every work 
of Byzantine literature much of the contents of the Sylloge derive from classical or older Byzantine 
treatises. This concept of imitation (mimesis) has led many scholars to argue that Byzantine 
literature did not allow for innovations and that it did not present the reality of its time. This was 
considered a mainstream view not only for more general genres like historiography and hagiography 
but also for specialized literature like military manuals. The past twenty years this view has been 
challenged the by scholars who argued that Byzantine imitation was not slavish. They demonstrated 
instead that imitation was a creative process which updated and manipulated the tradition. While 
more popular genres of Byzantine literature, like historiography and hagiography, have been re-
approached with the above fresh perspective, military manuals remain largely uninfluenced by it. 
The Sylloge Tacticorum is no exception. Some scholars have argued that it was merely a compilation 
slavishly copied from other sources. But is that really the case? Does the Sylloge Tacticorum remain 
clung to its ancient/older models? Or does it present an updated mentality on warfare and military 
innovations? This paper will explore how certain passages differ from their ancient models and how 
they were updated in order to better fit into a contemporary/Christian context and mentality. In 
addition, the appearance of military innovations such as new military formations and units will be 
discussed in connection with the contemporary challenges faced by the Byzantine armies in their 
struggle against the Arabs, while their gradual evolution in later manuals will also be highlighted.

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