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A. Introduction: theological basisA religious quest was among the most frequent reasons for medieval people to travel (9.5. Attitudes toward travel). There was a willingness to accept the struggles, dangers (9.9 Travel duration and hazards) and imponderables that leaving home entailed in order – whether alone or in the company of likeminded travellers – to reach a place, often relatively nearby, that was regarded as sacred. It was believed that the hierophany taking place there (i.e. the specific manifestation…

A. IntroductionByzantine towns and cities were centres of trade and industry and, depending on their size and importance, sometimes also centres of administration and culture. They were often directly engaged in arable and livestock farming. For centuries, intensive agriculture was practiced not only in provincial and central market towns of Asia Minor and the Balkans, but even within the walls of Constantinople (8.10.).Imposing a strict distinction between urban and rural settlements (8.7.) in Byzantine history would thus be anachronistic, particularl…

A. IntroductionThe capture of Constantinople (8.10.) by the knights of the Fourth Crusade in April 1204 was an epoch-making event in the history of the eastern Mediterranean in several respects. A new Latin Empire, the Imperium Romaniae, took the place of the Byzantine Empire on the Bosporus, occupying it for 57 years or two generations [14]. The maritime Republic of Venice consolidated and strengthened its position as a leading political and commercial power in the region. The encounter between Byzantine and Western traditions, especially in southern Greece and the Aegean…