International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Martina Čechová
Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Slavonic Studies, Prague, Czech Republic, 
[e-mail]
Banished to the End of the World: 
Crimean Cherson as a Place of Exile in the Early and Middle Byzantine Period
Situated at the northernmost outskirts of the Byzantine Empire, Crimean Cherson was 
considered as an ideal place where inconvenient persons could be banished, even though exactly the 
location “behind the sea” could cause that bonds to the Byzantine Empire could be a little loosened 
time to time, which created a substrate for revolts involving also the exiles.
Primary sources describe quite a number of cases of the banishments including their reasons 
and circumstances. Although the most known examples of the exiles might be Pope Martin 
(banished 655) or Emperor Justinian II (who spent in Cherson and in the northern Black Sea area 
the years 695–705), Cherson was used for this purpose from Antiquity to the 10
th
century at least. 
The paper is focused on the causes of banishment to Cherson (political, religious, and other) 
as well as on the most interesting personalities among the exiles. Furthermore, I will try to find an 
explanation why Cherson was such a popular place for exiling, despite it perhaps was not always a 
stable part of the Empire but a place whence it was possible to organize a revolt.

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THE HOLY FATHERS OF THE CHURCH ‒ PART 2
Chairs:
 Mary B. Cunningham
, 
Philippe Vallat
Damian Liviu
, 
Rethinking Athanasius and Historiography. 
Athanasius as a Christian Thinker: Theologian, Philosopher, Historian
Eirini Artemi
, 
The Pneumatology of Great Basilius in His Treatise to Amphilochius Ikonium
Nichifor Tănase
, 
Shining Light Shedding from Earthen Vessels. 
‘Brightening Face’ Christology of the Desert Fathers – As Ascetic Interiorization, Somatic 
Experience and Outward Luminosity of Christ Who Radiates within Them