The Ancient Mediterranean from Byzantine Eyes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2026
Abstract: Eastern Roman histories that begin with the creation of the world and end in the eleventh and twelfth centuries provide a means of understanding Eastern Roman conceptions of the ancient Mediterranean. The histories of Kedrenos, Zonaras, Glykas, and Manasses meld what we consider to be biblical, ancient Near Eastern, classical Greek and Roman, and medieval history into fairly unified narratives. Judging from these twelfth-century depictions of ancient history, it seems the citizens of the Roman Empire did not see a significant break in continuity between themselves and what we would call Antiquity. The biggest surprise then for the classicist looking at how later Romans perceived the ancient world is how integrated the story is: both from East to West across linguistic divides, and from ancient to medieval with no perceptible break with Antiquity.
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