作者：John Haldon約翰·哈爾頓

出版商：Routledge Taylor & Francis Group

Introduction

??????? The Byzantine empire was not called by that name in its own time, and indeed the term ‘Byzantine’ was used only to describe inhabitants of Constantinople, ancient Byzantion on the Bosphorus. The subjects of the emperor at Constantinople referred to themselves as Rhomaioi, Romans, because as far as they were concerned Constantinople, the city of Constantine 1, the first Christian ruler of the Roman empire, had become the capital of the Roman empire once Rome had lost its own pre-eminent position, and it was the Christian Roman empire that carried on the traditions of Roman civilisation. in turn, the latter was identified with civilised society as such, and Orthodox Christianity was both the guiding religious and spiritual force which defended and protected that world, but was also the guarantor of God's continuing support. Orthodoxy means, literally, correct belief, and this was what the Byzantines believed was essential to their own survival. Thus, from the modern historian's perspective, 'Byzantine' might be paraphrased by the more long-winded 'medieval eastern Roman' empire, for that is, in historical terms, what 'Byzantium' really meant.

??????? In its long history, from the later 5th century, when the last vestiges of the western half of the Roman empire were absorbed into barbarian successor kingdoms, until the fall in battle of the last eastern Roman emperor, Constantine XI (1448-53), the empire was almost constantly at war. Its strategic situation in the southern Balkans and Asia Minor made this inevitable. It was constantly challenged by its more or its less powerful neighbours - at first, the Persian empire in the east, later the various Islamic powers that arose in that region - and by its northern neighbours, the Slays, the Avars (a Turkic people) in the 6th and 7th centuries, the Bulgars from the end of the 7th to early 11th centuries and, in the later 11th and 12th centuries, the Hungarians, later the Serbs and finally, after their conquests in Greece and the southern Balkans, the Ottoman Turks. Relations with the western powers which arose from what remained of the western Roman empire during the 7th century were complicated and tense, not least because of the political competition between the papacy and the Constantinopolitan patriarchate, the two major sees - Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem were far less powerful after the 7th century Islamic conquests - in the Christian world. Byzantium survived so long partly because internally it was well-organised, with an efficient fiscal and military system; and partly because these advantages, rooted in its late Roman past, lasted well into the 11th century. But as its western and northern neighbours grew in resources and political stability they were able to challenge the empire for pre-eminence, reducing it by the early 13th century to a second- or even third-rate rump of its former self, subordinated to the politics of the west and the commercial interests of Venice, Pisa and Genoa, among others, the greatest of the Italian merchant republics. In this hook, we will look at some of the ways in which the medieval east Roman empire secured its long eXIstence.

（在其悠久的歷史中，從公元5世紀(jì)后期，當(dāng)羅馬帝國西半部的最后殘余被并入蠻族繼任王國時，直到最后一位東羅馬皇帝君士坦丁十一世（1448-53）在戰(zhàn)斗中失敗，帝國幾乎一直處于戰(zhàn)爭狀態(tài)。它在巴爾干南部和小亞細(xì)亞的戰(zhàn)略形勢使其不可避免。它不斷地受到其或多或少強(qiáng)大鄰國的挑戰(zhàn)——首先是東部的波斯帝國，后來是該地區(qū)興起的各種伊斯蘭勢力——以及它的北部鄰國，6-7世紀(jì)的阿瓦爾人（突厥人），7世紀(jì)末-11世紀(jì)早期的保加利亞人，以及在11世紀(jì)和12世紀(jì)后期的匈牙利人，以及后來的塞爾維亞人，在他們征服希臘和巴爾干南部之后，出現(xiàn)了奧斯曼帝國土耳其人。7世紀(jì)西羅馬帝國遺留下來的東西帝國的關(guān)系復(fù)雜而緊張，尤其是因為羅馬教皇和君士坦丁堡牧首區(qū)之間的政治競爭，兩個主要的領(lǐng)地——亞歷山大、安條克和耶路撒冷。 7世紀(jì)伊斯蘭征服之后——在基督教世界里，它的力量遠(yuǎn)沒有那么強(qiáng)大。拜占庭之所以能存活這么久，部分是因為它內(nèi)部組織嚴(yán)密，擁有高效的財政和軍事體系；這些優(yōu)勢植根于羅馬晚期的歷史，一直持續(xù)到11世紀(jì)。但隨著它的西部和北部鄰國在資源優(yōu)勢和政治穩(wěn)定方面的提升，他們能夠挑戰(zhàn)拜占庭帝國卓越的地位，在 13 世紀(jì)初期將其削弱到以前的二流甚至三流的地位，從屬于西部的政治以及威尼斯、比薩和熱那亞等最大的意大利商業(yè)共和國的商業(yè)利益。在這個部分中，我們將研究中世紀(jì)東羅馬帝國確保其長期存在的一些方式。）

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