Institutional and Functional Aspects of Hunting in Byzantium

ABSTRACT

This article concerns issues connected with references to wild animals in a variety of sources, reflecting Byzantine social practices primarily connected with hunting. Hunting here is understood in the broadest possible sense. It should be remembered that the function of providing food through hunting was marginal in the Byzantine context; propaedeutic and prestigious functions of hunting were dominant. The activities discussed therefore include: game keeping, gifting exotic animals in the course of diplomacy and keeping them in captivity, hunting during military training, fishing (regarded in Byzantine culture as a form of hunting), and pigeon breeding. This requires a rich and diverse bibliographical basis. It should be emphasised that information concerning wild animals in legislation is scant and scattered. Byzantine law did not specify in detail either how hunting should take place or people’s attitude towards wild animals, except concerning issues connected with ownership.

KEYWORDS:

• Byzantine Empire – law
• Byzantine Empire – literature
• parks in Byzantium
• hunting
• animals as gifts
• animals in economy

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Phaidon Koukoules, “Τα κυνηγητικὰ ἐκ τῆς ἐποχῆς τῶν Κομνηνῶν καὶ τῶν Παλαιολόγων”, Ἐπϵτηρὶς Ἑταιρϵίας Βυζαντινῶν Σπουδῶν 9 (1932): 3–33, a now classic work in Byzantine studies about hunting, written by a distinguished researcher of the Greek material culture of the Byzantine and early modern period; Évelyne Patlagean, “De la chasse et du souverain”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 46 (1992): 257–63, a model study of the custom of hunting as an element in the public image of the emperor; Anastasios K. Sinakos, “Το κυνήγι κατά τη μέση βυζαντινή ϵποχή (7οσ–12οσ αι.)”, in Animals and Environment in Byzantium (7th–12^th c.), eds. Ilias Anagnostakis, Taxiarchis G. Kolias, and Eutychia Papadopoulou (Athens: Institute for Byzantine Research, 2011), pp. 71–86.

2 Diocletian, Diokletians Preisedikt, ed. Siegfried Lauffer (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1971).

3 Theodor Mommsen, Theodosiani libri XVI cum constitutionibus Sirmondianis (Berlin: Weidmann, 1905); Paul Krüger, Codex Theodosianus (Berlin: Weidmann, 1923); Clyde Pharr, The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1952).

4 Bernard H. Stolte and Nicolaas van der Wal, Collectio Tripartita: Justinian on Religious and Ecclesiastical Affairs (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1994).

5 Ludwig Burgmann and Spyros Troianos, “Appendix Eclogae”, in Fontes Minores III, ed. Dieter Simon (Frankfurt am Main: Löwenklau-Gesellschaft, 1979), pp. 97–124; Ludwig Burgmann, Ecloga: Das Gesetzbuch Leons III. und Konstantinos V. (Frankfurt am Main: Löwenklau-Gesellschaft, 1983); Dieter Simon and Spyros Troianos, “Eklogadion und Ecloga privata aucta”, in Fontes Minores II, ed. Dieter Simon (Frankfurt am Main: Löwenklau-Gesellschaft, 1977), pp. 58–74.

6 Igor P. Medvedev, Nomos Georgikos (Leningrad: Nauka, 1984); Johannes Koder, Nomos Georgikos: Das byzantinische Landwirtschaftsgesetz (Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschafte, 2020).

7 Walter Ashburner, The Rhodian Sea-law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909); Dimitros G. Letsios, Νόμος Ῥοδίων ναυτικός (Rhodes: Institouto Aigaiou tou Dikaiou thes Thalassas kai tou Nautikou Dikaiou, 1996).

8 Ludwig Burgmann, Ecloga Basilicorum (Frankfurt am Main: Löwenklau-Gesellschaft, 1988); Herman J. Scheltema and Nicolaas van der Wal, Basilicorum libri LX, Series A, vols 1–8 (Groningen/Djakarta/The Hague: Bouma’s Boekhuis/Wolters-Noordhoff/Martinus Nijhoff, 1955–1988).

9 Johannes Koder, Das Eparchenbuch (Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschafte, 1991).

10 Panagiotes Zepos, Jus graecoromanum, I–VIII (Athens: In aedibus Georgii Fexis, 1931), II: 236–368; VI: 57–216.

11 Edwin H. Freshfield, A Manual of Eastern Roman Law: The Procheiros Nomos (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1928); Zepos, Jus graecoromanum, II: 114–228.

12 Heinrich Beckh, Κασσιανοῦ Βάσσου σχολαστικοῦ πϵρὶ γϵωργίας ἐκλογαί: Geoponica (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1895).

13 Zepos, Jus graecoromanum, VII: 9–361.

14 Herman J. Scheltema and Nicolaas van der Wal, Basilicorum libri LX, Series B, volumes I–IX (Groningen: Wolters, 1953–1985).

15 Gustav E. Heimbach, Constantini Harmenopuli Manuele legum sive Hexabiblos (Leipzig: Neudruck der Ausgabe: T. O. Weigel, 1851; repr. Aalen, 1969).

16 Basiliká 16.1.9. E.g., Spyros Troianos and Alexandros Liarmakopoulos, “Τὰ ζῶα ὡς ἀντικϵίμϵνο ἐγκληματικῶν πράξϵων στὸ Βυζαντινὸ δίκαιο”, in Animals and Environment in Byzantium (7th–12^th c.), eds. Ilias Anagnostakis, Taxiarchis G. Kolias, and Eutychia Papadopoulou (Athens: Institute for Byzantine Research, 2011), pp. 435–52: animals that were stolen or wandered away from the herd, animals that caused damage or trespassed on land owned by someone else; Spyros Troianos, Die Quellen des byzantinischen Rechts (Berlin–Boston: De Gruyter, 2017): no mention of hunting.

17 Basiliká 53.2.7.

18 A rather typical division, also present in legal definitions (e.g., Digesta 1.1.3; Institutiones 1.1.2 pr.); note, however, its subtlety when Byzantine authors define the latter two types together and enumerate specific species for the first type (for example, Constantine Manasses: “ζῴων θαλασσίων”, v. 3 versus “θαλασσοτρϵφῆ [v. rare appellative: TLG query from 28 July 2021 only pointed to this place] ζῷα”, v. 164 and “ζῷον δὲ πτϵρωτὸν” [lit. winged], v. 114–15, but there is no “land” equivalent. See Odysseas Lampsidis, “Der vollständige Text der ‘Ekphrasis ges’ des Konstantinos Manasses”, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 41 [1991]: 189–206.).

19 Ulco C. Bussemaker, Scholia et paraphrases in Nicandrum et Oppianum (Paris: Didot, 1849): ad Halieutica, 1. 17.1–13.

20 Constantinus Stilbes, Poemata, eds. Johannes Diethart and Wolfram Hörandner (Monachium, Leipzig: K.G. Saur, 2005), pp. 1–2.

21 Stilbes, Poemata, 20ff.

22 Sigfrid Lindstam, Georgii Lacapeni epistulae X priores cum epimerismis editae (Upsala: E. Berlin, 1910), p. 74.

23 Michael Critobulus, Critobuli Imbriotae historiae, ed. Diether R. Reinsch (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1983), p. 14*, l. 29.

24 Koder, Nomos Georgikos, 59–61, par. 42, 46.

25 Institutiones 2.1, in Corpus Iuris Civilis, I, recogn. Paulus Krueger (Berlin: Weidmann, 1872).

26 In Byzantine studies, no research has yet been published that comprehensively discusses the place of a dog in the material and spiritual culture as has been done in medieval Latin studies; see, for example, Our Dogs, Our Selves: Dogs in Medieval and Early Modern Art, Literature, and Society, ed. Laura D. Gelfand (Leiden: Brill, 2016).

27 This word has a very long history. It was first encountered written in linear B script on a Pylos Na 248 tablet, in Dat.pl form ‘ku-na-ke-ta-i’, where exemption from providing 30 units of flax to these kynagetai was granted (about the Na series on flax sales, see especially Ellen D. Foster, “The Flax Impost at Pylos and Mycenaean Landholding”, Minos 17 (1981): 67–121; Dimitri Nakassis, Individuals and Society in Mycenaean Pylos (Leiden: Brill, 2013), pp. 142–3). There are reasons to conclude that this term initially indicated a ‘dog walker’, a person walking the dogs for a hunter, i.e., a hunting palace dignitary, see Stefan Hiller “KU-NA-KE-TA”, Minos 33–4 (1998–1999): 191–6; José M. Jiménez Delgado, “The Etymology of Myc. ku-na-ke-ta-i, Ion.-Att. κυνηγέτης, and Myc. ra-wa-ke-ta, Dor. λᾱγέτᾱς”, Glotta 91 (2015): 116–28: ‘κύνας ἄγϵιν’. For the classical period, see the epiclesis of Artemis the Huntress, Sophocles, El. 563: ‘τὴν κυναγὸν Ἄρτϵμιν’.

28 Kurt Lindner, Beiträge zu Vogelfang und Falknerei im Altertum (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1973), especially the rich iconographic material.

29 Adriana Pignani (ed.), Niceforo Basilace: Progimnasmi e monodie (Naples: Bibliopolis, 1983), 16, esp. 5–7.

30 Gabriel Destunis, Ob Armurĕ; greceskaja bylina vizantijskoj epochi. Τοῦ Ἀρμούρη. Ἇισμα δημοτικὸν τῆς βυζαντινῆς ἐποχής (St. Petersburg: Imperatorskaja Akademija Nauk, 1877); Anna Kotłowska, Zwierzęta w kulturze literackiej Bizantyńczyków [Animals in Byzantine literary culture] (Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2013), pp. 111–25; Digenes Akritas, Βασίλϵιος Διγϵνής Ακρίτης και το άσμα του Αρμούρη, ed. Stylianos Alexiou (Athens: Ermis, 2006), pp. 71–72, 99, 140; Georg Veloudis, “Das Armurislied und ‘Omar – al – Aqta’”, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 58 (1965): 313–19.

31 Pignani, Niceforo Basilace, 29, 72–124; cf. Moses Khorenatsʻi, History of Armenians, trans. Robert W. Thomson (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1978), 2.36.

32 Nemesianus, Cynegetica, ed. Rainer Jacobi (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014), pp. 103–236; Stephan Renker (ed. and trans.), Pseudo-Oppian: Kynegetika (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021), 1.37–375; early third century.

33 In reference to hunting scenes in mosaics from Late Antiquity, their ideological overtones, and degree of improvisation (not uncommon phenomenon of the so-called ‘staged hunts’); see Gunilla Åkerström-Hougen, The Calendar and Hunting Mosaics of the Villa of the Falconer of Argos: A Study in Early Byzantine Iconography (Stockholm: Paul Äström Förlag, 1974); René Ginouvès, “La mosaïque des mois à Argos”, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 81 (1957): 216–68; Irving Lavin, “The Hunting Mosaics of Antioch and Their Sources”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 17 (1963): 179–283.

34 Zoltán Kádár, Survivals of Greek Zoological Illuminations in Byzantine Manuscripts (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1978); Josef Strzygowski, Der Bilderkreis des Griechischen Physiologus, des Kosmas Indikopleustes und Oktateuch nach Handschriften der Bibliothek zu Smyrna (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1899). Anyone who carefully considers miniatures illustrating texts will quickly realise that they exist independently, often conveying more information than the text beside them.

35 Heather J. Williams, The Eclogues and Cynegetica of Nemesianus (Leiden: Brill, 1988); E. Gryksa and A. Kucz, Nemezjan w kręgu antycznej tradycji łowieckiej [Nemesianus in the circle of ancient hunting tradition] (Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, 2019); Nemesianus, Cynegetica.

36 Oppian’s paraphrase, probably fourth/fifth century: Manolis Papathomopoulos, Eutekniou paraphrasis (Ioannina: Panepistemion Ioanninon 1973); Leopold Cohn, “Euteknios”, RE VI, I (1907), col. 1492; Otto Tüselmann, “Die Paraphrase des Euteknios zu Oppians Kynegetika”, Abhandlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philol.-hist. Klasse Neue Folge 4/1 (1900): 8–43.

37 Eutecnius, Paraphrasis in Nicandri Theriaca, ed. Isabella Gualandri (Milano–Varese: Cisalpino, 1968).

38 Paraphrase of bird-catching: Antonio Garzya, “Paraphrasis Dionysii poematis de aucupio”, Byzantion 25–7 (1955–1957): 195–240.

39 Description of a crane hunt: Eduard Kurtz, “Ἕτϵρα δύο ἀνέκδοτα πονήματα Κωνσταντίνου Μανασσὴ”, Vizantijski Vremennik 12 (1906): 69–98; Theodoros A. Nemas, Ἔκφρασις κυνϵγησίου γϵράνων’ του Κωνσταντίνου Μανασσή (Thessaloniki: Kyriakidē Afoi, 1984).

40 Description of the hunting of partridge and hares, twelfth century; Emmanuel Miller, “Description d’une chasse à l’once par un écrivain byzantin du XIIe siècle de nôtre ère”, Annuaire de l’Association pour l’Encouragement des Études Grecques en France 6 (1872) : 28–52.

41 Eduard Liechtenhan (ed.), Anthimi De observatione ciborum ad Theodoricum regem Francorum epistula (Leipzig: Teubner, 1928) [2^nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1963]: early sixth-century medical guide to nutrition; Apicius, Decem libri qui dicuntur De re coquinaria, ed. Mary Ella Milham (Leipzig: Teubner, 1969): fourth–fifth century.

42 Anonymous thirteenth-century commentary: Πϵρὶ γένους ὀρνέων καὶ κοπῆς καὶ χρωμάτων; see Rudolf Hercher, Claudii Aeliani Varia Historia, Epistulae, Fragmenta (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1866), pp. 577–84; Timotheus of Gaza, “Πϵρὶ ζῴων τϵτραπόδων θηρίων τῶν παρ’ Ἰνδοῖς καὶ Ἄραψι καὶ Αἰγυπτίοις καὶ ὅσα τρέφϵι Λιβύη, καὶ πϵρὶ ὀρνέων ξένων τϵ καὶ ἀλλοκότων καὶ ὄφϵων”, in Timotheus of Gaza on Animals: Fragments of a Byzantine Paraphrase of an Animal-Book of the 5th Century A.D., eds. Fritz S. Bodenheimer and Alexander Rabinowitz (Paris: Académie Internationale d’Histoire des Sciences, 1949) : a popular text because an abridged copy was made from it in the tenth century titled Συλλογὴ τῆς πϵρὶ ζῴων ἱστορίας, χϵρσαίων πτηνῶν τϵ καὶ θαλαττίων; see Edoardo L. de Stefani, “Gli excerpta della ‘Historia animalium’ di Eliano”, Studi Italiani di Filologia Classica 12 (1904): 145–80; idem, “Un’epitome laurenziana della ‘Sylloge constantini de natura animalium’”, Studi Italiani di Filologia Classica 20 (1913): 189–203; Manuel Files, Πϵρὶ ζῴων ἰδιότητος (2,015 dodecameters for the Emperor Michael IX, right before the year 1320), later compiled again by Arsenios of Monemvasia for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1533; see Zoltán Kádár, “Deux poèmes de Manuel Philès sur le ver à soie”, Acta Classica Universitatis Scientiarum Debrecenensis 1 (1965): 49–55; commentaries by Michael of Ephesus (twelfth century, CAG XIV.3) and Sophonias (thirteenth century, CAG XXIII.1) in editions by Paulus Wendland, Ioannis Philoponi (Michaelis Ephesii) in libros de generatione animalium commentaria (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1903) and Michael Hayduck, Sophoniae in Aristotelis libros de anima paraphrasis (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1883).

43 Comprehensive, multi-volume works of Oribasius of Pergamon: Johann Raeder (ed.), Oribasii Collectionum medicarum reliquiae, volumes I–III (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1928–1933); Aëtius of Amida: Alexander Olivieri (ed.), Aetii Amideni libri medicinales, volumes I–II (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1933–1950); Alexander of Tralles: Theodor Puschmann (ed.), Alexander von Tralles: Original-Text und Übersetzung nebst einer einleitenden Abhandlung. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Medizin, volumes I–II (Vienna: W. Braumüller, 1878–1879); Paul of Aegina: Johan L. Heiberg (ed.), Paulus Aegineta: Epitomae medicae libri septem, volumes I–II (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1921–1924).

44 Gudmund Björck, Zum Corpus hippiatricorum graecorum: Beiträge zur Antiken Tierheilkunde (Uppsala: Almqvist et Wiksell, 1932); Anne-Marie Doyen-Higuet, “The Hippiatrica and Byzantine Veterinary Medicine”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 38 (1984): 111–20; Stavros Lazaris, “Les rapports entre l’illustration et le texte de l’Epitome, manuel byzantin d’hippiatrie”, Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences 143 (1999): 281–301; idem, Art et science vétérinaire à Byzance: Formes et fonctions de l’image hippiatrique (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010).

45 Βιβλίον πϵρὶ κυνῶν ἐπιμϵλϵίας, in short Κυνοσόφιον by Demetrios Pepagomenos; fifteenth century, in Hercher, Claudii Aeliani, 587–99.

46 Nemesianus, Cynegetica, 237–98.

47 Anonymous, “Ἱϵρακοσόφιον from the manuscript Vindob. phil. gr. 177”, in Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, Falknerklee: Bestehend in drey ungedruckten Werken über die Falknerey (Pest: C.A. Hartleben, 1840), pp. 81–8. Πϵρὶ τῆς τῶν ἱϵράκων ἀνατροφῆς καὶ θϵραπϵίας by Demetrios Pepagomenos (fifteenth century; Hercher, Claudii Aeliani, 35–516); ascribed to the above, but most likely authored by someone else: Ἕτϵρον ὀρνϵοσόφιον ἀγροικότϵρον ϵἰς ἱϵρακα; there is a controversy regarding the author’s date and identity as well as the relationship between the commentaries; see especially: Stavros Lazaris, “La production nouvelle en médecine vétérinaire sous les Paléologues et l’œuvre cynégétique de Dèmètrios Pépagôménos”, in Philosophie et sciences à Byzance de 1204 à 1453, eds. Michel Cacouros and Marie-Hélène Congourdeau (Leiden: Peeters, 2006), pp. 225–66 ; idem, “Antoine Éparque et le commerce des manuscrits grecs de fauconnerie et de cynégétique dans l’Italie du XVI^e siècle”, in Chevaux, chiens, faucons : L’art vétérinaire antique et médiéval à travers les sources écrites, archéologiques et iconographiques, eds. Anne-Marie Doyen-Higuet and Baudouin Van den Abeele (Louvain-la Neuve: Brepols, 2017), pp. 335–53 (Pepagomenos’s manuscript identification in contemporary collections). Earlier, the basic source for this subject matter was a short text by Aubrey Diller, “Demetrios Pepagomenos”, Byzantion 48 (1978): 35–42; Åkerström-Hougen, Calendar.

48 Eugene Oder, “Apsyrtus”, Veterinärisches Jahrbuch 2 (1926): 121–36; cf. Gudmund Björck, Apsyrtus, Julianus Africanus et l’hippiatrique grecque (Uppsala: Lundequist, 1944), for a useful introduction, despite controversial statements about chronology. Cf. a veterinarian named Gregory, probably with a private practice in Gilbert Dagron, Vie et miracles de Sainte Thècle: Texte grec, traduction et commentaire (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1978), 20.3.

49 Physiologi Graeci singulae variarum aetatum recensiones codicibus fere omnibus tunc primum excussis collatisque, ed. Francesco Sbordone (Milan: 1936), early fourth century; recently Stavros Lazaris, Le Physiologus grec, volumes I–II (Florence: Sismel–Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2016–2021).

50 Book of Birds ; see Stamatia Krawczynski, O Poulologos: Kritische Textausgabe mit Übersetzung sowie sprachlichen und sachlichen Erläuterungen (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1960): thirteenth–fourteenth century; Georgios Makris, “Zum literarischen Genus des Pulologos”, in Origini della letteratura neogreca: Atti del secondo Congresso internazionale Neogreca medii aevi, Venezia, 7–10 novembre 1991, ed. Nikolaos M. Panayotakis (Venice: Istituto Ellenico Di Studi Bizantini e Postbizantini, 1993), pp. 395–416; idem, “Pulologos (Vogelbuch), volksprachlich byzantinische Dichtung des 14. Jh.”, Lexikon des Mittelalters 7 (1995), col. 325. The eagle invites the bird community to its son’s wedding: regardless of the main satirical plot, we are presented with, among other things, an ornithological description of 40 species.

51 Tale of Quadrupeds;, see Valentina S. Šandrovskaja, “Vizantijskaja basnja ‘Rasskaz o četveronogich’”, Vizantijskij Vremennik 9 (1956): 211–49 and 10 (1957): 181–94; cf. Hans-Georg Beck, Geschichte der byzantinischen Volksliteratur (München: Beck, 1971), pp. 174–5: fourteenth century. The lion summons a council to bring peace to the animals. Of course, this ends in a row because their conflicting dietary requirements make it impossible for them to agree.

52 Donkey Tale; see L. Alexiou, “Ἡ φυλλάδα τοῦ γαδάρου”, Κρητικὰ Χρονικά 9 (1955): 81–118; cf. Beck, Geschichte, 176–7: fifteenth–sixteenth century. The donkey ran away from its master; it met a wolf and a fox – who each wanted to eat the donkey at first, but because they failed to agree on it, they made peace with the donkey and all three of them went on to have various adventures. It is important to note that the donkey was terrified of its master, who chased it with his dogs.

53 Book of Fish; see Karl Krumbacher, Das mittelgriechische Fischbuch (Munich: Verlag der K.B. Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1903); the failed rebellion of a mackerel against a whale. Here, we should mention an exceptional paper by a Polish Byzantinist: Maciej Kokoszko, Ryby i ich znaczenie w życiu codziennym ludzi późnego antyku i wczesnego Bizancjum (III–VII w.) [Fish and their role in the everyday life of people in Late Antiquity and the early Byzantine period (thirrd–seventh century)] (Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 2005), pp. 25–32. Early Byzantine dietetics (e.g., many works by Kokoszko and his colleagues) based largely on the fundamental studies by Galen of Pergamon, can also be a source, albeit only auxiliary one, for the hunting culture.

54 Cat and Mouse War, a tragicomedy (ἱλαροτραγωδία) by Theodoros Prodromos, twelfth century; see Helmut Ahlborn, Pseudo-Homer: Der Froschmäusekrieg. Theodoros Prodromos: Der Katzenmäusekrieg (Berlin: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1968); Herbert Hunger, Der byzantinische Katz-Mäuse-Krieg (Graz: Böhlau, 1968).

55 Cat and Mouse; see Cristiano Luciani, “L’apologo cretese: Ο KΑΤΗΣ ΚΑΙ Ο ΜΠΟΝΤΙΚΟΣ”, Rivista di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici 38 (2001): 195–230, sixteenth century. The cat pretended to befriend the mouse, only to lure it into the oven and eat it.

56 Libanius, Opera, ed. Richard Foerster, volumes I–XII (Leipzig: Teubner, 1903–1927), VIII: 12.12.

57 It is notable that in the monumental The Economic History of Byzantium, ed. Angeliki E. Laiou (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 2002), now considered a classic, there is no separate chapter dedicated to hunting or wild animals.

58 Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De administrando imperio, ed. Gyula Moravcsik, trans. Romilly J.H. Jenkins (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), 6, l. 9; Povest’ vremennych let, ed. Oleg V. Tvorogov, in Povesti drevnei Rusi (Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1983), AM 6477.

59 Justin Lev-Tov, “The Influences of Religion, Social Structure, and Ethnicity on Diet: An Example from Frankish Corinth”, in Palaeodiet in the Aegean, eds. Sarah J. Vaughan and William D.E. Coulson (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1999), pp. 85–98; Kerlijne Romanus, Jeroen Poblome, Kristin Verbeke, and Anja Luypaerts, “An Evaluation of Analytical and Interpretative Methodologies for the Extraction and Identification of Lipids Associated with Pottery Sherds for the Site of Sagalassos, Turkey”, Archaeometry 49 (2007): 729–47; Athanasios K. Vionis, Jeroen Poblome, Bea de Cupere, and Marc Waelkens, “A Middle-Late Byzantine Pottery Assemblage from Sagalassos: Typo-chronology and Sociocultural Interpretation”, Hesperia 79 (2010): 423–64.

60 Sbordone, Physiologi Graeci, I :23, cf. Plinius 8.47, in Pliny. Natural History, III, transl.H. Rackham (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967), p. 78.

61 Dioscorides 2.24, in Pedanii Dioscuridis Anazarbei de materia medica libri quinque, I-III, ed. Max Wellmann (Berlin: Weidmann, 1907–1914); pp. 129–130 cf. Lucretius, 6.794, in Titus Lucretius Carus. De rerum natura libri, ed. Marcus Deufert (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019), p. 275; Plinius 8.47; 32.26–8 in Pliny. Natural History, VIII, transl. W.H.S. Jones (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961)

62 Persius, Satires 5.135, in Juvenal and Persius, ed.and transl. Susanna Morton Braund (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), p. 108.

63 The manuscript of the Smyrna Physiologus (B.8 = 48 Papadopoulos-Kerameus) contains two illustrations (76^r, 77^v) depicting a beaver hunt; the hunters are armed with spears and shields; cf. Strzygowski, Der Bilderkreis, 29. Additionally, the illustration on p. 25^v to the text titled ‘μόσχος’, which cannot be found in Sbordone, Physiologi Graeci, features the inscription ‘Καστουρί’ (Beavers), which is a beautiful proof of confusing these two secretions; cf. Strzygowski, Der Bilderkreis, 17–18.

64 Hieronymus, Adv. Iovinianum (PL, volume XXIII, 340–420) 11.8; Anya H. King, Scent from the Garden of Paradise. Musk and the Medieval Islamic World (Leiden: Brill, 2017).

65 Cosmas Indicopleustes, La Topographie chrétienne, trans. Wanda Wolska-Conus, volumes I–III (Paris: Éditons du Cerf, 1968–1973), 11.6, 11.15.

66 Alexander of Tralles, 2, p. 565 (fifth century); Aëtius of Amida, 1.131.42, 2.3.53, 7.41.33, 12.66.9, 12.67.205, 16.138.6, 16.141, 16.145, 16.146, 16.166–9, 16.171, 16.174, 16.175; Paul of Aegina, Epitome, 7.5.13, 7.18.8 (seventh century).

67 Lenart Rydén, The Life of Saint Andrew the Fool, volume I: Introduction, Testimonies and Nachleben (Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 1995), pp. 52–3.

68 Koder, Das Eparchenbuch, 10.1.

69 Patlagean, “De la chasse”: an anthropological point of view.

70 Libanius, Opera, V: 10.5.

71 E.g. Olympiodorus: “[…] the soul does not act by mere natural instinct, as a spider makes its web”, in The Greek Commentaries on Plato’s Phaedo, volume I: Olympiodorus, ed. Leendert G. Westerink (Amsterdam: North Holland, 1976), 1.19–20.

72 Marie France Auzépy, La vie d’Etienne le Jeune par Étienne le Diacre (London : Routledge, 2016), 20.48 (early ninth century century); cf. Marie F. Rouan, “Une lecture ‘iconoclaste’ de la Vie d’Etienne le jeune”, Travaux et Mémoirs 8 (1981): 415–36. See also Augustinus, serm. 38 fifth century; PL, volume XL, col. 1306): keeping hunting dogs and birds of prey [i.e., falcons] is immoral; similarly, in De magistro liber unus 32 (PL, volume XXXI, col. 1213), where the names of these animals are used as slurs.

73 A marble church slab with a relief of a lion devouring a deer (tenth–eleventh century), symbolising the fight between good and evil, in Byzantine Collections: The Permanent Exhibition, ed. Demetrios Konstantios (Athens: Byzantine and Christian Museum, 2010), p. 134, inv. BXM 974.

74 Ilias Anagnostakis and Titos Papamastoraki, “St. Roman epi tēn sklepan: A Saint Protector and Healer of Horses”, in Animals and Environment in Byzantium (7th–12^th c.), eds. Ilias Anagnostakis, Taxiarchis G. Kolias, and Eutychia Papadopoulou (Athens: Institute for Byzantine Research, 2011), pp. 137–64.

75 Abandoned at the end of the nineteenth century and since 1985 on the UNESCO World Heritage List; see Stella Frigerio-Zeniou, “Μονή τῶν Φορβίων à Asinou de Chypre”, in ΒΟΥΚΟΛΕΙΑ: Mélanges offerts à Bertrand Bouvier, eds. Anastasia D. Lazaridis, Vincent Barras, and Terpsichore Birchler (Genève: Belles-Lettres, 1995), pp. 191–9; David C. Winfield, The Church of the Panagia Phorviotissa at Asinou (Nicosia: Antiquities Department of the Republic of Cyprus, 1969).

76 Acta Sanctorum Septembris VI (1757), pp. 106–37; BHG 641.

77 Carolus de Boor and Peter Wirth, Georgii Monachi Chronicon (Stuttgart: B.G. Teubner, 1978), pp. 607–8.

78 Khorenatsʻi, History, 2.86.

79 Suet., Calig. 5; Theodorus Ducas Lascaris, Epistulae CCXVII, ed. Nicolaus Festa (Firenze: G. Carnesecchi e figli, 1898), ep. 61.4–10.

80 Basilikà 7.17.27.

81 Immanuel Bekker, Pseudo-Simeon, Theophanes Continuatus, Ioannes Cameniata, Symeon Magister, Georgius Monachus (Bonn: E. Weber, 1838), pp. 231.22–232.47; cf. Gyula Moravcsik, “Sagen und Legenden über Kiaser Basileios I”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 15 (1961): 59–126.

82 Commodianus, Carmina, ed. Bernhard Dombart (Vienna: C. Geroldus, 1887), 1.33.7; third–fifth century.

83 Andreas Luther, Die syrische Chronik des Josua Stylites (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1997), p. 85; Libanius, Opera, V: 10.5.; Khorenatsʻi, History, 3.68.

84 Michael Psellus, Historia syntomos, ed. Willem J. Aerts (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1990), 99, p. 88.93–99; Bekker, Pseudo-Simeon, p. 699.16–22; Patricia Karlin-Hayter (ed. and trans), Vita Euthymii patriarchae CP (Brussels: Editions de Byzantion, 1970), p. 1; Johannes Zonaras, Epitome historiarum, volume III, ed. Theodor Büttner-Wobst and Moritz Pinder (Bonn: E. Weber, 1897), pp. 439.11–440.9.

85 Ioannis Scylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, ed. Johannes Thurn (Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 1973), pp. 193–4.

86 Alice-Mary Talbot and Denis F. Sullivan, The History of Leo the Deacon (Washington, DC: Harvard University Press, 2005), 30. 22–3; cf. Psellus, Historia syntomos, 103, p. 96.26.

87 Liudprand of Cremona, “Antapodosis”, in The Complete Works of Liutprand of Cremona, ed. Paolo Squatrici (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America, 2007), 3.25.

88 Bekker, Pseudo-Simeon, p. 21. 6–13.

89 Psellus, Historia syntomos, 106, p. 108.53–4.

90 Michael Psellus, Chronographia, ed. Diether R. Reinsch (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014), 7.72–3, pp. 243–4; cf. Michaelis Attaliota, Historia, ed. Immanuel Bekker (Bonn: E. Weber, 1853), p. 52. 19–20: physical activity for pleasure; Nicephorus Bryenni, Commentarii, ed. Augustus Meineke (Bonn: E. Weber, 1836), pp. 20–22, I 4.

91 Ioannis Cinnamus, Epitome rerum ab Ioanne et Alexio Comnenis gestarum, ed. Augustus Meineke (Bonn: E. Weber, 1836), p. 93.8–9.

92 Theodorus Prodromus, Historische Gedichte, ed. Wolfram Hörandner (Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschafte, 1974), pp. 25, 30.

93 Nicetas Choniates, Historia, ed. Ioannes A. van Dieten (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1975), p. 40. 61–77; Cinnamus, Epitome, 24–5; cf. Robert Browning, “The Death of John II Comnenus”, Byzantion 31 (1961): 229–35; Ephraim, epigrams 37–39, first edited in Julián Bértola, “Ephraim of Ainos at Work: A Cycle of Epigrams in the Margins of Niketas Choniates”, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 114 (2021): 929–1000, pp. 986–8.

94 Cinnamus, Epitome, 189.3–4.

95 Cinnamus, Epitome, 266.22–267.12; cf. Robert Browning, “A New Source on Byzantine-Hungarian Relations in the Twelfth Century”, Balkan Studies 2 (1961): 173–214.

96 Odysseus Lampsidis, “Beitrag zur Biographie des Georgios Paleologos des Megas Hetereiarches”, Byzantion 40 (1970): 393–407; Nikos Oikonomides, “Pictorial Propaganda in XII^th c. Constantinople”, Glas 390 de SANU : Classe des Sciences Historiques 11 (2001): 93–102: 95–6.

97 Lascaris, Epistulae, 71.

98 Khorenatsʻi, History, 3.23.

99 Ioannis Malalas, Chronographia, ed. Johannes Thurn (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2000), 15.27; Nikephoros Kallistos, 4.58 in PG 146, col. 1273A; Psellus, Historia syntomos, 64, p. 48.67–9; Ada Adler, Suidae Lexicon, volume II (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1931), θ 145; Theodoros Anagnostes, Kirchengeschichte, ed. Günter Ch. Hansen (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1995), fr. 353; cf. Kazimierz Ilski, “Der schwache Kaiser Theodosios?”, in Zwischen Polis, Provinz und Peripherie: Beiträge zur byzantinischen Geschichte und Kultur, eds. Lars M. Hoffmann and Anuscha Monchizadeh (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2005), pp. 3–23.

100 Theophylactus Simocatta, Historiae, ed. Carolus de Boor (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1887), 6.10.4.

101 Ioseph Genesios, Regum libri quattuor, ed. Annie Lesmüller-Werner and Johannes Thurn (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1978), 4.28; Michael Glykas, Annales, ed. Immanuel Bekker (Bonn: E. Weber, 1836), pp. 545–6; Georgius (monachus), Chronicon, eds. Carl de Boor and Peter Wirth (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1978), pp. 836–9; Scylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, 114.46.

102 Khorenatsʻi, History, 2.55, 2.84, 3.23.

103 Psellus, Chronographia, 7.6.

104 Critobulus, Critobuli Imbriotae historiae, 96, 2.7.2.

105 Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum gestarum libri qui supersunt, ed. Wolfgang Seyfarth, volumes I–II (Stuttgart, Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1978), I: 18.7.4; CTh 15.11.1; Libanius, Opera, X: 5.10; Sbordone, Physiologi Graeci, I.1.

106 Libanius, Opera, X: 5.10.

107 Akritas, Βασίλϵιος Διγϵνής Ακρίτης, G 4.122ff.; Libanius, Opera, X: 5.10; Hayford Peirce and Royall Tyler, L’art byzantin (Paris: Librairie de France, 1932), pl. 160 d (Sens, fourth century), pl. 163 c: ivory pyksis (Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, late fifth century).

108 Apicius, De re coquinaria, 8.2; Khorenatsʻi, History, 1.12; Pignani, Niceforo Basilace, 43.23–5; Sbordone, Physiologi Graeci, III.4; Carolyn L. Connor and W. Robert Connor, The Life and Miracles of Saint Luke of Steiris (Brookline, MA: Hellenic College Press, 1994), p. 19.

109 Apicius, De re coquinaria, 8.3; Thomson, Moses Khorenatsʻi, 1.12.

110 Lascaris, Epistulae, 202.24–5.

111 Apicius, De re coquinaria, 6.2.1–2; Kurtz, “Ἕτϵρα δύο ἀνέκδοτα”; Nemesianus, Cynegetica, 314; Lascaris, Epistulae, 2.79–81, 112.9–17, 202.24–5; Eugen Darkó, Laonici Chalcocandylae historiarum demonstrationes (Budapest: Accademia Litterarum Hungarica, 1922), p. 61.

112 Apicius, De re coquinaria, 2.2.6; Diocletian, Diokletians Preisedikt, 4.17–20; Beckh, Geoponika 14.19.1–4 (breeding); Sbordone, Physiologi Graeci, III.23; For details about health benefits of pheasant meat in Byzantine medicine, see Dietetyka i sztuka kulinarna antyku i wczesnego Bizancjum (II–VII w.), volume II: Pokarm dla ciała i ducha [Dietetics and culinary art of Antiquity and early Byzantium (2nd–7th c.), volume II: Nourishment for the body and soul], ed. Maciej Kokoszko (Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 2014), pp. 332–40.

113 Apicius, De re coquinaria, 6.3; Miller, “Description d’une chasse”.

114 Apicius, De re coquinaria, 8.1; Khorenatsʻi, History, 1.12, 2.22, 2.61, 3.55; Rutilius Claudius Namatianus, De reditu suo sive Iter Gallicum, ed. Ernst Doblhofer (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1972), pp. 620–30; cf. Mark Garrison, “Notes on a Boar Hunt (PFS 2323)”, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 54 (2011): 17–20.

115 Khorenatsʻi, History, 2.22, 2.61, 3.55.

116 Apicius, De re coquinaria, 6.1.1, 6.2.2–6; Diocletian, Diokletians Preisedikt, 34.7.

117 Franz Drexl, “Das Traumbuch des Patriarchen Nikephoros”, in Beiträge zur Geschichte des christlichen Altertums und der Byzantinischen Literatur, ed. Albert M. Koeniger (Bonn: Schroeder, 1922), pp. 94–118, 12; Nikos A. Bees, “Unedierte Schriftstücke aus der Kanzlei des Johannes Apokaukos des Metropoliten von Naupaktos (in Aetolien)”, Byzantinisch-neugriechische Jahrbücher 21 (1971–1974): 57–160, ep. 76.15; Nemesianus, 52; Lascaris, Epistulae, 87.41–5 (thirteenth century).

118 Eutecnius, Paraphrasis, 32–3; Nemesianus, Cynegetica, 54; Paul of Aegina, 4.57.16, 7.25.10, 7.25.20; Sbordone, Physiologi Graeci, 1.26.

119 Apicius, De re coquinaria, 8.8.9; Diocletian, Diokletians Preisedikt, 4.38; Tüselmann, “Die Paraphrase”, 29.17; André-Jean Festugière, Vie de Théodore de Sykéôn (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1970), 43.55 (seventh century).

120 Apicius, De re coquinaria, 2.2.6.

121 Apicius, De re coquinaria, 8.8; Otto Mazal, Der Roman des Konstantinos Manasses : Überlieferung, Rekonstruktion, Textausgabe der Fragmente (Graz: Böhlau, 1967), fragm. 65; Nemesianus, Cynegetica, 51, 236; Pignani, Niceforo Basilace, 43.23–5; Sbordone, Physiologi Graeci, II.25; Lascaris, Epistulae, 87.41–5. For details about health benefits of hare meat in Byzantine medicine, see Dietetyka i sztuka kulinarna, 286–304.

122 Bekker, Michaelis Attaliotae, 51.20–1.

123 Libanius, Opera, XII:10.

124 Lindner, Beiträge zu Vogelfang; Paulinus, 144 ff. (fifth century); Gaius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius, Epistulae et carmina, ed. Christianus Luetjohann (Berlin: Weidmann, 1887), ep. 3.3.2, 4.9.2–3 (fifth century).

125 Khorenatsʻi, History, 3.55.

126 Sbordone, Physiologi Graeci, app. 8.

127 Commodianus, Carmina, 2.7.1; cf. Verg., Georg. 1.139.

128 Nemesianus, Cynegetica, 303–5; popular miniature motif in manuscripts

129 Anca Dan, “Heraclius, the Boar Hunter: Notes on the Hermitage Meleager and Atalanta Silver Plate”, Bulletin of the Asia Institute 29 (2015–2019): 137–74 [Russian version: Шаги 6 (2020): 144–99].

130 Anna Muthesius, Byzantine Silk Weaving: AD 400 to AD 1200 (Vienna: Fassbaender, 1997), nos M28–29.

131 Sylvie Balcon, Troyes : La cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul (Paris: Editions du Patrimoine, 2001); Adolph Goldschmidt and Kurt Weitzmann, Die byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen, volume I (Berlin: Bruno Cassirer 1930), p. 63; André Grabar, L’art byzantin: Exposition du Conseil de l’Europe (Athens: Palais du Zappeion, 1964), pl. 52; Henry Maguire, “Casket with Emperors and Hunters”, in The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture in the Middle Byzantine Era A.D. 843–1261, ed. Helen C. Evans and William D. Wixon (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997), pp. 204–6. For other ivory pykseis depicting a lion hunt with the use of spears, see Oscar Broneer, “Excavations on the North Slope of the Acropolis, 1937”, Hesperia 7 (1938): 161–263, pp. 253–6 (Athens, early sixth century); Peirce and Tyler, L’art byzantin, pl. 160 d (Sens, fourth century), pl. 163 c (Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, late fifth century).

132 Stavros Lazaris, “L’ empereur Jean VIII Paléologue vu par Pisanello lors du concile de Ferrare-Florence”, Byzantinische Forschungen 29 (2007): 293–324; Michael Vickers, “Some Preparatory Drawings for Pisanello’s Medallion of John VIII Paleologus”, Art Bulletin 60 (1978): 417–24; Roberto Weiss, Pisanello’s Medallion of the Emperor John VIII Palaeologus (London: Oxford University Press, 1966).

133 Vitalien Laurent, Les Mémoires du grand ecclésiarque de l’Église de Constantinople, Sylvestre Syropoulos sur le concile de Florence (1438–1439) (Paris: CNRS, 1971), p. 296.19–21; cf. Sylvester Syropoulos on Politics and Culture in the Fifteenth-Century Mediterranean, ed. Fotini Kondyli, Vera Andriopoulou, Eirini Panou and Mary B. Cunningham (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014).

134 Anna Comnene, Alexias, ed. Diether R. Reinsch Athanasios Kambylis (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2001), 1.137; Talbot and Sullivan, History of Leo, 87.8–9; Psellus, Historia syntomos, 102.51–3; Scylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, 11.71–3; Zonaras, Epitome historiarum, III: 517.7–11.

135 Neslihan Asutay-Effenberger, “Zum Stadtteil Kynegion und Seinem Hafen in spätbyzantinischer und Osmanischer Zeit”, in Die byzantischen Häfen Konstantinopels, ed. Falko Daim [Byzanz zwischen Orient und Okzident, volume IV] (Mainz: Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums, 2016), pp. 109–16.

136 An anonymous komes (ninth century, Dumbarton Oaks, BZS.1958.106.846), Constantine, imperial spatharios and komes (ninth century, Dumbarton Oaks, BZS.1958.106.3457), Daniel, imperial spatharios and komes (tenth century, Dumbarton Oaks, BZS.1958.106.4427).

137 Libanius, Opera, II, 18.269; cf. referring to the young emperor as a “lion cub”, Luigi Tartaglia, “Una apologia inedita di Teodoro II Duca Lascari”, Bolletino dei Classici ser. 3/12 (1991): 73–7, 52.

138 Sozomen, Kirchengeschichte, eds. Joseph Bidez and Günther Ch. Hansen (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1995), 4.16.6.

139 S. G. Vilinskii, “Zhitie sv. Vasiliia Novogo v russkoi literature”, Zapiski Imperatorskogo Novorossiiskogo Universiteta 7 (1911): 285–8.

140 Scylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, 367.68–70.

141 Krijnie Ciggaar, “L’émigration anglaise à Byzance après 1066: Un nouveau texte en latin sur les Varangues à Constantinople”, Revue des Etudes Byzantines 72 (1974) : 301–42.

142 Nancy Ševčenko, “Wild Animals in the Byzantine Park”, in Byzantine Garden Culture, ed. Antony Littlewood, Henry Maguire, and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 2002), pp. 69–86, esp. nn. 9 and 49.

143 Marjorie Chibnall, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, volume V (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 330–2, 10.4.123–4.

144 Herman Hefele, Geschichte des ersten Kreuzzugs, volumes –II (Jena: E. Diederichs, 1923), II: 76.

145 Choniates, Historia, 349.

146 Brian Croke, The Chronicle of Marcellinus (Sydney: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, 1995), p. 31; Timotheus of Gaza on Animals, p. 31.

147 Simocatta, Historiae, 1.3.8–10.

148 Book of Gifts and Rarities: Kitāb al-Hadāya wa al-tuḥaf, ed. and trans. G.H. al-Qaddumi (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), p. 110.

149 Attaliota, Historia, 36.21–38.4; Glykas, Annales, 597.13–14; Michael Psellus, Orationes panegyricae, ed. George T. Dennis (Stuttgart: B.G. Teubner, 1994), 1.267–77, 4.155–69; Scylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, 475.16–17.

150 George Pachymeres, Georges Pachymérès, Relations historiques, ed. Albert Failler, volumes I–II (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1984), I: 3.4.

151 King, Scent from the Garden, 327. For more details about jewels and silk as substitutes for gifts of exotic animals, see Psellus, Orationes, 1.261–6.

152 Book of Gifts, 152, 155; Anthony Cutler, “Les échanges de dons entre Byzance et l’islam”, Journal des Savants (January–June 1996): 51–66, p. 62; Guy Le Strange, “A Greek Embassy to Baghdad in 917 A.D. Translated from the Arabic MS of Al-Khatib, in the British Museum Library”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1897): 35–45.

153 Scylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, 91.71–80.

154 Ševčenko, “Wild Animals” (a rich article comparing the West and the Arab world). It bears emphasising that descriptions of gardens in Byzantine literary texts, while relatively numerous, are not reliable due to a high degree of metaphoricality; see Caroline Cupane, “Orte der Liebe: Bäder, Brunnen und Pavillons zwischen Fiktion und Realität”, Byzantinoslavica 69 (2011): 167–78.

155 Khorenatsʻi, History, 2.6: referred to Tiridates with the name of Vagharshak.

156 Khorenatsʻi, History, Jerwand is an unidentified character, probably created as a result of contamination between various strands of tradition.

157 Khorenatsʻi, History, 3.8.

158 Thomas Artsruni, History of the House of the Artsrunik, ed. and trans. Robert W. Thomson (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1985), p. 316.

159 Iulius Africanus, Cesti: The Extant Fragments, eds. Martin Wallraff, Carlo Scardino, Laura Mecella, Christophe Guignard, and William Adler (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012), pp. 100–1.

160 Martín Almagro Basch, Luis Caballero Zoreda, Juan Zozaya, and Antonio Almagro, Qusayr ‘Amra: Residencia y baños omeyas en el desierto de Jordania (Madrid: Legado Andalusí, 2002); Keppel A.C. Creswell, “Architecture”, in Encyclopaedia of Islam 1 (Leiden: Brill, 1986), pp. 608–24, esp. 612; Garth Fowden, Qusayr ‘Amra: Art and the Umayyad Elite in Late Antique Syria (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004); Hana Taragan, “Constructing a Visual Rhetoric: Images of Craftsmen and Builders in the Umayyad Palace at Qusayr ‘Amra”, Al-Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean 20 (2008): 141–60.

161 Karl Hauck, “Tiergärten im Pfalzbereich”, in Deutsche Königspfalzen: Beiträge zu ihrer historischen und archäologischen Erforschung I (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlag, 1963), pp. 30–74, esp. 34–7.

162 Liutprand, “Relatio”, 37–38 in Complete Works, ed Squatrici, 37–8.

163 Cutler, “Échanges”.

164 Peter Peeters, “Histoires monastiques géorgiennes II. Vie de S. Georges l’Hagiorite”, Analecta Bollandiana 36 (1917) : 69–159.

165 Odo of Deuil, De profectione Ludovici VII in orientem: The Journey of Louis VII to the East, ed. and trans. Virginia G. Berry, 3, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1965), p. 48.

166 Theophanes, Chronograhia, eds. Johannes Classen and Immanuel Bekker, volumes I–II (Bonn: E. Weber, 1839–1841), I, p. 674–675, annus mundi 6257; Auzépy, Vie d’Etienne le Jeune, 14.

167 Henry Maguire, “A Description of the Aretai Palace and Its Garden”, Journal of Garden History 10 (1990): 209–13. Cf. the image of an ideal garden of Digenes Akritas by the Euphrates lush with peacocks, swans, and parrots in Akritas, Βασίλϵιος Διγϵνής Ακρίτης, G 7.31–41; Manuel Philes, Carmina, ed. E. Miller (Paris: in typographeo imperiali, 1855), 62.127–31, and many others.

168 Koder, Das Eparchenbuch, 14.1.

169 Nikos Oikonomides, Les listes de préséance byzantines des IX et Xe siècles (Paris: CNRS, 1972), pp. 53, 103, 108, 109, 121, 141, 145, 249, 271, 304, 307; and see esp. Rodolphe Guilland, Recherches sur les institutions byzantines, volume I (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag 1967), pp. 478–97.

170 Werner Seibt, Die Skleroi: Eine prosopographisch-sigillographische Studie (Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschafte, 1976), pp. 77–8: his seal with the name of the office in the legend on the reverse survives; Leri Tavadze, “Protostrator in Byzantium and Georgia from the 8th to the 12th Centuries [Georgian with English summary]”, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Faculty of Humanities, Institute of Georgian History, Proceedings 11 (2016): 19–44.

171 Werner Seibt, Die byzantinischen Bleisiegel in Österreich, volume I (Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschafte, 1978), no. 36.

172 Ioannes G. Leontiades, Die Tarchaneiotai : Eine prosopographisch-sigillographische Studie (Thessalonike: Kentro Byzantinōn Ereunōn, 1998), nos 32, 59, 65.

173 Oikonomides, Listes de préséance, 121, 337*–8*.

174 Vitalien Laurent, Le corpus des sceaux de l’Empire Byzantin, volume II: L’administration centrale (Paris: CNRS, 1981), nos 73, 178, 402, 731, 931, 990 (tenth century).

175 Thus Oikonomides explains; however, this term also designates units of the imperial guard, their quarters, and the emperor’s escort; see Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Constantini Porphyrogeniti imperatoris, De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae libri duo, ed. Johann J. Reiske volumes I–II (Bonn : E. Weber, 1829–1830), I, pp. 719.21, 801.4, 805.19; cf. Rodolphe Guilland, “Autour du Livre des cérémonies: Le Grand Palais: Les quartiers militaires”, Byzantinoslavica 17 (1956): 58–97. One can thus assume that the harmofylakes were responsible for order in the guards’ quarters.

176 Laurent, Corpus des sceaux, no. 929 (tenth/eleventh century); Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De cerimoniis, 478, 479, 490.

177 Immanuel Bekker, Codinus Curopalates (Bonn: E. Weber, 1839), pp. 138.29, 184.10–13; for Armenia, see Khorenatsʻi, History, 2.7.

178 Nikos Oikonomides, Actes de Docheiariou (Paris: Lethielleux, 1984), no. 23, p. 171.

179 Herbert Hunger, Otto Kresten, Ewald Kislinger, and Caroline Cupane, Das Register des Patriarchats von Konstantinopel, volume II (Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschafte, 1995), no. 135, 272–87.

180 Guilland, “Recherches sur les institutions”, 601–3; for Armenia, see Khorenatsʻi, History, 1.12, 2.11.

181 George Acropolites, Opera, ed. Augustus Heisenberg (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1903), p. 155.18–19 (protokynegos); Pachymeres, Relations historiques, 1.41.13–14 (protohierakarios); cf. Dimitar Angelov, The Byzantine Hellene: The Life of Emperor Theodore Laskaris and Byzantium in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), p. 160.

182 Hunger et al., Das Register, no. 173, 504–11

183 Nikos Oikonomides, A Collection of Dated Byzantine Lead Seals (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks), no. 148.

184 Koder, Das Eparchenbuch, 21.

185 David D. Leitao, “‘The Measure of Youth’: Body and Gender in Boys’ Transitions in Ancient Greece” (Diss. Univ. Michigan: typescript, 1993); Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Black Hunter (Baltimore,MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1986); Despoina Ariantzi, “Soziale Identitätsbildung im Jugendalter in Byzanz”, in Coming of Age in Byzantium: Adolescence and Society, ed. Despoina Ariantzi (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018), pp. 117–40, esp. 125–8.

186 Joan B. Burton, Drosilla and Charikles: A Byzantine Novel by Niketas Eugenianos (Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci, 2004), 3.52ff.

187 Khorenatsʻi, History, 2.9: in Armenia, Jewish aristocrats participated in a royal hunt on Saturdays.

188 Participating in hunting as entertainment confirmed one’s high social status. Treating hunting as entertainment was typical of a vast majority of aristocratic societies. The few exceptions include Japan in the Heian period; see Ivan Morris, Świat Księcia Promienistego, trans. T Szafar (Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1973), pp. 144–53; orig. The World of the Shining Prince (Oxford: Penguin Books, 1964).

189 John Catacuzene, Ioannis Cantacuzeni, Eximperatoris historiarum. Libri quattuor, ed. Ludwig Schopen, volumes I–III (Bonn: E. Weber, 1828), I: 27.

190 Basiliká 25.8.41.

191 Athenaeus of Naucratis, Athenaei Naucratitae Deipnosophistarum. Libri xv, ed. Georg Kaibel, volumes I–III (Leipzig: Teubner, 1887–1890), I. 31.

192 Akritas, Βασίλϵιος Διγϵνής Ακρίτης, G 4.1024–1127.

193 Theodore Leslie Shear, “The Campaign of 1937”, Hesperia 7 (1938): 311–62, pp. 353–5: dog and boar figurines in a grave, Athens, fourth century.

194 Prodromus, Historische Gedichte, 44, 61–86, here 82–3. It was agreed that Achilles wis fed bone marrow, but the disputed part was whether the marrow came from a lion or deer: Nicolaus Sophista, Nicolai Progymnasmata, ed. Joseph Felten (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1913), 8.52; Hermongenes, Opera, ed. Hugo Rabe (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1913), progymn. 7.5; Libanius, Opera, VIII. 3.2, XI: 1.3, X: 2.3; Adler, Suidae Lexicon, χ 303.

195 Libanius, Opera, XI: 14.5.

196 Stephanos Efthymiadis, The Life of the Patriarch Tarasios by Ignatios the Deacon (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), 23.9–10.

197 Louis Petit, “Monodie de Nicétas Eugénianos sur Théodore Prodrome”, Vizantijski Vremennik 9 (1902) : 452–63, p. 456, ll. 11–12.

198 PG 36, 509 B.

199 Ilias, Χ, 501; Odyssey ι 293; Babrios, fab. 95.91: description of the lion feast, in Ben Edwin Perry, Babrius and Phaedrus (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965), p. 123.

200 Philoxenos, 836e, 5, in David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric V (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), p. 193: “milky custard”.

201 Alexis, fr. 191 (186), in Colin Austin and Rudolf Kassel, Poetae comici graeci (PCG), vol. 2 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1991), p. 130.

202 Konstantios, Byzantine Collections, 63, inv. BXM 17, Santorini, fourth century.

203 Konstantios, Byzantine Collections, 142, inv. BXM 1527.

204 Prochiron Nomos 11.11 = Prochiron Legum 3.4 = Epanagoge 21.5.47 = Epanagoge Aucta 20.13 = Basiliká, 28.7.45.

205 Nicephorus Gregoras, Byzantina historia, ed. Ludwig Schopen (Bonn: E. Weber, 1829), p. 44.7–12.

206 Scylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, 243.58–9. Condemnation of excessive care for horses and hunting (“ … ἱππομανῶν καὶ κυνηγϵσίοις ἐνασχολούμϵνος”) but without stating that the person hunting is someone high in the church hierarchy.

207 Agde in 506, c. 55; Epaone in 517, c. 43.

208 Scylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, 242–4.

209 Nomocanon, 1.4.34,

210 Georgios A. Potles and Michael Potles, Syntagma ton theon kai hieron kanonon, 2 (Athens: G. Chartophylaks, 1852), p. 358 (Balsamon, twelfth century).

211 Comnene, Alexias, 9.5.5; Cod. Florentinus 213, v.348, ed. Miller, cf. Ilias Taxidis, “Les monodies et les orations funèbres pour la mort du despote Jean Paléologue”, Medioevo Greco 9 (2009): 267–84.

212 Stylianos Alexiu, Μπϵργαδής, Ἀπόκοπος. Ἠ Βοσκοπούλα (Athens: Βιβλιοπωλϵίο της Εστίας, 1998).

213 Katarzyna Jażdżewska, “Hagiographic Invention and Imitation: Niketas’ Life of Theoktiste and Its Literary Models”, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 49 (2009) : 257–79; Orsolya Karsay, “Der Jäger von Euböa”, Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 23 (1975): 9–14; Alexander Kazhdan, “Hagiographical Notes”, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 78 (1985): 49–55.

214 Khorenatsʻi, History, 2.36, 2.61.

215 Mara Bonfioli, “Le rappresentazioni di caccia del Codice Marciano Greco 479 – Oppiano”, Felix Ravenna, terza serie, fasc. 20 (1956) : 31–49, Paolo Eleuteri, Susy Marcon, and Italo Furlan, Tratado de Caza. Oppiano, Cynegetica. Bibliotheca Nazionale Marciana de Venezia, cod. gr. Z 479 ( = 881) (Valencia: Patrimonio Eediciones, 2002); Nancy P. Ševčenko, “Eaten Alive: Animal Attacks in the Venice Cynegetica”, in Animals and Environment in Byzantium (7th–12^th c.), eds. Ilias Anagnostakis, Taxiarchis G. Kolias, and Eutychia Papadopoulou (Athens: Institute for Byzantine Research, 2011), pp. 115–35; Ioannis Spatharakis, The Illustrations of the Cynegetica in Venice. Codex Marcianus graecus Z 479 [error: on the cover it is 139] (Leiden: Alexandros Press, 2004); for the rich Byzantine tradition of Oppian’s manuscripts and its commentaries, see William Lameere, “Apamée de Syrie et les Cynégétiques du Pseudo-Oppien dans la miniature byzantine”, Bulletin de l’Institut Historique Belge de Rome 19 (1938): 125–47; Tomás Silva Sánchez, Sobre el texto los Cynegetica de Opiano de Apamea (Cádiz: Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de Cádiz, 2002).

216 Jean Théodoridès, “Les animaux des jeux de l’hippodrome et des ménageries impériales à Constantinople”, Byzantinoslavica 19 (1958) : 73–84.

217 Giuseppina Matino, Procopio di Gaza, Panegirico per l'imperatore Anastasio (Napoli: Accademia Pontaniana, 2005), p. 15.

218 Croke, Chronicle of Marcellinus, 41.

219 Clifford E. Bosworth, “al-Marwazī, Sharaf al-Zamān Tāhir”, in Encyclopaedia of Islam, volume VI (Leiden: Brill, 1991), p. 628; Vladimir Minorsky, “Marvazi on the Byzantines”, AIPHOS 10 (1950): 455–69, p. 462 [ =  Medieval Iran and Its Neighbours (London, Variorum Reprints, 1982)].

220 Choniates, Historia, 290.9–11.

221 Ferdinand Chalandon, Les Comnène, volume II (Paris: A. Picard et fils, 1912), pp. 236–7; Marcus N. Adler, The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela (London: Oxford University Press, 1907), pp. 12–13 (21.2).

222 Adler, Itinerary, 12–13.

223 Novellae, recogn. Rudolphus Schoell, opus Schoelli morte interceptum absolvit Guilelmus Kroll (Berlin, Weidmann, 1912), 105.1, p. 501–503.

224 Psellus, Orationes, 1.267–77, 4.155–69.

225 Libanius, Opera, XII: 10.

226 Croke, Chronicle of Marcellinus, 36.

227 Ernest Stein, Histoire du Bas-Empire, volume II (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1949), p.79; Simocatta, Historiae, 3.8.7.

228 Libanius, Opera, I, or. 5.20. This is why it is not surprising that game dominated the diet in places where armies were stationed, unlike in civilian settlements, as, for instance, in Sagalassos; see Romanus et al., “Evaluation”.

229 John Haldon, “The Organisation and Support of an Expeditionary Force: Manpower and Logistics in the Middle Byzantine Period”, in Εμπόλϵμο Βυζάντιο 9^ος–12^ος αι, ed. Kostas Tziknakes (Athens: Ethniko Idryma Ereunōn), pp. 111–51.

230 Commodianus, Carmina, 2.11.9; Scylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, 71.15–16; Prodromus, Historische Gedichte, 25, 30.

231 Maria D. Spadaro, Cecaumeno: Raccomandazioni e consigli di un galantuomo (Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, 1998), p. 36; Maurice (emperor), Mauricii Strategicon, ed. George T. Dennis (Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschafte, 1981), p. 490, 1–5; Alphonse Dain, Sylloge tacticorum, quae olim ‘Inedita Leonis tactica’ dicebatur (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1938), p. 56; Iulius Africanus, Cesti, 72–5 (Lion hunting as a substitute for military exercises).

232 Angelov, Byzantine Hellene, 164.

233 H.I. Bell, V. Martin, E.G. Turner, and D. van Berchem, The Abinnaeus Archive: Papers of a Roman Officer in the Reign of Constantius II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962).

234 This was connected to the popularity of crayfish in medicine, which can be seen on the basis of even a superficial review of a few medical handbooks, e.g., Oribasius, 14.65.6, 15.2.67; Eclogae medicamentorum 117.3, 117.4, 117.8, 118.1; Paul of Aegina, 3.68, 3.79.3, 4.26, 5.2.2, 5.3.3, 5.6.2, 5.13.2, 6.45, 7.3, 8.8.3.

235 Apicius, De re coquinaria, 2.1.1–3, 2.1–6, 3.20.7, 4.2.13; Diocletian, Diokletians Preisedikt, 5.6–10.

236 E.g. Robert R. Stieglitz, “A Late Byzantine Reservoir and ‘Piscina’ at Tel Tanninim”, Israel Exploration Journal 48 (1998): 54–65. However, this useful archaeological report contains an error that is difficult to explain as it describes the post as “Late Byzantine”, while the buildings functioned between the fourth and seventh centuries.

237 Connor and Connor, Life and Miracles, 31.

238 Also the richness of sources and literature means it is possible to create a more detailed reconstruction of Byzantine fishing than of hunting land and air animals; see Gilbert Dagron, “Poissons, pêcheurs et poissonniers de Constantinople”, in Constantinople and Its Hinterland, Papers from the Twenty-Seventh Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Oxford, April 1993, ed. Cyril Mango and Gilbert Dagron (Aldershot: Routledge, 1995), pp. 57–73; report from south-east Dobruja, where an extensive fishing and farming complex was built using the excellent natural conditions (proximity to a lake and the River Danube): Simina Stanc, Valentin Radu, and Luminita Bejenaru, “Fishing in the Byzantine Fortress of Oltina: Archaeological Data”, Analete Ştiinţifice alei Universităţii “AL. I. CUZA” Iaşi, s. Biologue animală 52 (2006): 273–80.

239 Hermann Beckby, Anthologia graeca, volumes I–IV (Munich: E. Heimeran, 1965–1967), vol. 1, 6.16 (Archias, 1th century), Herodotus, 2.95.2 (ἰχθῦς ἀγρϵύϵι).

240 Beckby, Anthologia, vol. 2, 8.156 (fourth century); Decimius Magnus Ausonius, Mosella, Kritische Ausgabe, Übersetzung, Kommentar Joachim Gruber (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013), l. 240–54 (fourth century); Khorenatsʻi, History, 2.85.

241 Auzépy, Vie d’Etienne le Jeune, 20.48; early ninth century.

242 A. Stern, D. Ashkenazi, D. Cvikel, B. Rosen, and E. Galili, “Archeometallurgical and Technical Characterization of 7th Century AD Iron Fishing-spear and Fire Basket Found in the Dor Lagoon, Israel”, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 3 (2015): 132–43.

243 Sbordone, Physiologi Graeci, II. 5: the fishermen know where schools of fish swim and know how to use this knowledge by putting nets there beforehand.

244 Khorenatsʻi, History, 3.30.

245 For the capital, see Koder, Das Eparchenbuch, 17.

246 CTh., XIV: 20.1.

247 Franciscus Miklosich and Josephus Müller, Acta et diplomata Graeca medii aevi sacra et profana, volume IV (Vindobonae: Carolus Gerold, 1871), pp. 239–45; see also Mark C. Bartusis, Land and Privilege in Byzantium: The Institution of Pronoia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 193–4, 259–60; Paris Gounaridis, “La pêche dans le golfe de Smyrne”, in ΕΥΨΥΧΙΑ: Mélanges offerts à Hélène Ahrweiler (Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne, 1988), pp. 265–71.

248 Miklosich and Müller, Acta et diplomata, 21.

249 Vasiliki Kravari, Christophe Giros, and Mirjana Živojinović, Actes de Chilandar I: Des origines à 1319 (Paris: Lethielleux, 1998), no. 38; Louis Petit, Actes de Chilandar I. Acts grecs (Amsterdam, A.M. Hakkert, 1975), no. 62.

250 Sidonius, Epistulae et carmina, carm. 21; cf. Auzépy, Vie d’Etienne le Jeune, 20.48; early ninth century.

251 Jacques Lefort, Nicolas Oikonomides, and Denise Papachryssanthou, Actes d’Iviron I (Paris: Lethielleux, 1985), no. 9.

252 Koder, Das Eparchenbuch.

253 Kurtz, Ἕτϵρα δύο ἀνέκδοτα, no. 187.

254 Kurtz, Ἕτϵρα δύο ἀνέκδοτα, no. 227.

255 Peter Schreiner, Stadt und Gesetz – Dorf und Brauch. Versuch einer historischen Volkskunde von Byzanz: Methoden, Quellen, Gegenstände, Beispiele (Göttingen: De Gruyter, 2001).

256 Prochiron Nomos 27.12 = Prochiron Legum 23.13 = Epanagoge 12.36 = Epanagoge Aucta 10.39 = Basiliká 21.1.20.

257 Michael Choniates, Epistulae, ed. Foteini Kolovou (Berlin, De Gruyter, 2001), ep. 30.

258 Michael Apostolios, Lettres inédites de Michel Apostolis, ed. Hippolyte Noiret (Paris: E. Thorin, 1889), ep. 59 (fifteenth century).

259 Konstantios, Byzantine Collections, 203, ill. 142, inv. BXM 1527, thirteenth century.

260 Alison Frantz, “Middle Byzantine Pottery in Athens”, Hesperia 7 (1938): 429–67, p. 455, A 89, thirteenth century.

261 Broneer, “Excavations”, 253–56: Athens, early sixth century.

262 Beckh, Geoponica, 14.1–14.6; Sbordone, Physiologi Graeci, I.35.

263 Apicius, De re coquinaria, 6.2 tit., 6.4; cf. Dietetyka I sztuka kulinarna, 358–76.

264 Beckh, Geoponica, 2.19.3, 2.21.5, 5.26.3, 10.51, 10.82.2, 10.90.5, 12.4, 16.32.2, 20.36.1.