International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Yanko Hristov
South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria; 
[e-mail] 
On the Issue of War-Captives in the Early Medieval Balkans
In general, there could hardly exist substantial reserves that scholars’ attempts to disclose as 
many details of the life of Balkan societies in the Early Middle Ages are part of the efforts to give 
more density and depth of knowledge for the medieval past of the region as a whole. Along with 
this, however, as regards the monitoring of aspects about the fate of the war-captives, it looks as if 
there are enough things to add. The very topic of captivity is, if not ignored, at least pushed aside 
and rarely do the ones dealing with military history of medieval Balkans have a significant place for 
it in their research. In this sense, presenting the role of war-captives in medieval societies on the 
peninsula is a challenging task. It is abundantly clear that the problem of those who were captured 
in war-time in medieval epoch goes beyond the limited frames of the Balkans. Nevertheless, the 
voluntary recognition of narrower chronological and spatial boundaries has obviously proven and 
particularly effective scientific use. In an attempt to explore the issues of war-captives’ fate such 
a pattern is also motivated by the dynamics of ethnic, political and religious changes or military 
successes and failures during the turbulent Early Middle Ages.
Michał Pietranik 
Uniwersytet Warszawski, Instytut Historyczny, Warsaw, Poland; 
[e-mail]
Relics Captured during the War and Their Role in Byzantium 
during the Macedonian Dynasty
War booties together with acquired contributions and profits from the sale of enslaved 
prisoners were a very important part of the finance of both the army and the whole Byzantine 
Empire. It was evident especially during the Byzantine expansion in the tenth century, when as the 
result of a series of successful campaigns both in the Balkans and in the East a great amount of gold, 
articles of luxury, herds of horses, cattle, sheep and even camels, and ever appreciated slaves, flowed 
to the Empire. All kinds of prey mentioned above were essential not only from the point of view 
of the state economy, but of also were important for commanders and single troops as reward for 
their military service. Although not all kinds of spoils were perceived by Byzantines through their 
economic value, it cannot be forget, that Byzantines obtained also the splendid objects of Christian 
religion’s cult: sacred relics and holy images.
This paper reveals a phenomenon of great importance, which influenced many fields of 
Byzantine life, which were relics obtained during the war. First it should be noted that for this paper 
notion of relics as war booty will be treated widely: it contains not only relics gained on adversaries 
after winning the battle or the campaign, but also imported to Constantinople during the Byzantine 
emperor’s military expeditions.

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In this paper will be presented widely the role of relics gained by Byzantines as a war booty 
in different aspects of Byzantine life, especially in the background of changes of the imperial 
ideology during the Macedonian dynasty. It is worth noting that generally relics appears as war 
booty deported away from Byzantium, predominantly after Latin conquest of Constantinople in 
1204, but there is no complex study dedicated to relics captured by Byzantines. This is all the more 
astonishing, given the important role, which relics looted during the war played in Byzantium: they 
played an important role in the triumphal ceremonies, presented as a trophies – symbols of victory 
over enemies, being also an expression of God’ s favor for the triumphant emperor and his People, 
then usually became a part of imperial collections like that in church of the Theotokos of the Pharos 
in Constantinople, or deposited to the churches, or granted to the monasteries.
This paper focuses on the role of captured relics in imperial ceremonial, ideological and political 
agenda in the Middle Byzantine period. It will be mainly devoted to the relic – hunting activities 
of soldier – emperors: Nikephoros Phokas, John Tzimisces and Basil II, whose reigns appointed the 
apogee of the Byzantine expansion in tenth century. Furthermore, these rulers used relics to create 
the image of the victorious emperors, what was important for consolidation and legitimacy of their 
power. In this paper also will be exposed the issue of the influence of the changes in imperial ideology 
during the Macedonian dynasty on the perception of sacred relics by Byzantines. This paper analyses 
especially the main narrative accounts describing the capture and translation of relics to Constantinople 
to demonstrate how Byzantine authors depicted the circumstances surrounding this kind of events. 
Finally, the aim of this paper is to present how attitude of the Byzantines to relics captured during the 
war reflects the changes in social mentality, political culture, and post-iconoclastic religious doctrine.