The Byzantine Hellene: The Life of Emperor Theodore Laskaris and Byzantium in the Thirteenth Century

by: Angelov, D.

This book tells the extraordinary story of Theodore II Laskaris, an emperor who ruled over the Byzantine state of Nicaea established in Asia Minor after the fall of Constantinople to the crusaders in 1204. Theodore Laskaris was a man of literary talent and keen intellect. His action-filled life, youthful mentality, anxiety about communal identity (Anatolian, Roman, and Hellenic), ambitious reforms cut short by an early death, and thoughts and feelings are all reconstructed on the basis of his rich and varied writings. His original philosophy, also explored here, led him to a critique of scholasticism in the West, a mathematically inspired theology, and a political vision of Hellenism. A personal biography, a ruler's biography, and an intellectual biography, this highly illustrated book opens a vista onto the eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia, and the Balkans in the thirteenth century, as seen from the vantage point of a key political actor and commentator.

Pioneers new methods of historical biography in the field of Byzantine studies based on letters and literary and philosophical texts
Explains and contextualizes the passionate Hellenism of the Byzantine emperor Theodore Laskaris and his promotion of Hellenic identity
Constructs a new narrative of eastern Mediterranean history of the early thirteenth century from the perspective of a key Byzantine eyewitness

Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Byzantium in exile
2. 'The Holy Land, my mother Anatolia'
3. 'I was brought up as usual for a royal child'
4. Pursuit of learning
5. Power-sharing
6. Friends, foes, and politics
7. Elena and the embassy of the Marquis
8. Sole emperor of the Romans
9. The philosopher
10. The proponent of Hellenism
Epilogue
Appendix I: the chronology of the works of Theodore Laskaris
Appendix II: chronology of the letters
Appendix III: the mystery illness
Appendix IV: the manuscript portraits
Appendix V: the burial sarcophagus.

The Byzantine Hellene: The Life of Emperor Theodore Laskaris and Byzantium in the Thirteenth Century

by: Angelov, D.

• ISBN-13: 9781108480710 / 978-1-108-48071-0
• ISBN-03: 1108480713 / 1-108-48071-3
• Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2019