The term Byzantine commonwealth was coined by 20th-century historians to refer to the area where Byzantine general influence ( Byzantine liturgical and cultural tradition) was spread during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

by the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and its missionaries. This area covers approximately the modern-day countries of

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Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

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, southwestern

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, and

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(known as the region of ''

Eastern Orthodoxy in Europe The Eastern Orthodoxy in Europe constitutes the second largest Christian denomination. European Eastern Orthodox Christians are predominantly present in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, and they are also significantly represented in diaspora t ...

'' or the ''

Orthodox civilization The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

''). According to

Anthony Kaldellis Anthony Kaldellis ( gr, Αντώνιος Καλδέλλης; born 29 November 1971) is a Greek historian who is Professor and a faculty member of the Department of Classics at the University of Chicago. He is a specialist in Greek historiography, ...

, the Byzantines in generally did not have a ecumenical outlook, nor did they think about the notion of an panorthodox commonwealth, which he describes as "Roman Chavinism".

The Obolensky model

The most important treatment of the concept is a study by

Dimitri Obolensky Sir Dimitri Obolensky (19 March/1 April 1918, in St Petersburg – 23 December 2001) was a Russian-British historian who was Professor of Russian and Balkan History at the University of Oxford and the author of various historical works. Biogra ...

, ''The Byzantine Commonwealth''. In his book ''Six Byzantine Portraits'' he examined the life and works of six persons mentioned in ''The Byzantine Commonwealth''. He also described the commonwealth as the international community within the sphere of authority of the Byzantine emperor, bound by the same profession of

Orthodox Christianity Orthodoxy (from Ancient Greek, Greek: ) is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion. Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Late antiquity, A ...

, and accepting the principles of Romano-Byzantine law. There are scholars, however, who criticize this conceptualization, disputing the notion of an unchallenged superiority of the Byzantine empire. It is argued that the complex and multi-faceted dynamics of documented cultural exchange was not aligned with the theory that Constantinople was the superior core while those in periphery understood their marginal position and merely imitated their superiors. Instead of Byzantine commonwealth, historian Christian Raffensperger, proposed that it be recast as the "Byzantine ideal".

was a constant and powerful rival to the Byzantine empire during the

.Dimiter G. Angelov, ''Byzantinism: The Imaginary and Real Heritage of Byzantium in Southeastern Europe'', in Dimitris Keridis, Ellen Elias-Bursać, Nicholas Yatromanolakis, ''New approaches to Balkan studies'', Brassey's, 2003,
Google Print, p.3
/ref> Here, the empire maintains its belief in the traditional hierarchy and the imperial authority while its reach and sway were already considerably diminished.

The Obolensky model

See also

References

Sources

Further reading