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9 - Looking Back

The Ancient Mediterranean from Byzantine Eyes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2026

Rubina Raja
Affiliation:
Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
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Summary

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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  • Looking Back
  • Edited by Rubina Raja, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
  • Book: The Mediterranean in Antiquity
  • Online publication: 07 August 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009532396.009
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  • Looking Back
  • Edited by Rubina Raja, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
  • Book: The Mediterranean in Antiquity
  • Online publication: 07 August 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009532396.009
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Looking Back
  • Edited by Rubina Raja, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
  • Book: The Mediterranean in Antiquity
  • Online publication: 07 August 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009532396.009
Available formats
×