Second International Conference on the Military History of the Mediterranean Sea
Thessaloniki, 16-18 September 2021
The Mediterranean has attracted the imagination of modern historians as the epicentre of great political entities like the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Ottomans, Venetians, and the Spanish and so on. Yet, it seems that the Sea was always on the margins of historical inquiry between monographs on the histories of Europe, the Middle-East and North Africa. That was until the publication of the famous 2-volume work by F. Braudel in 1949 that profoundly shaped the way of understanding of how societies living around the Mediterranean interacted in a single period of history, offering what another great historian has coined it “a horizontal history of the Mediterranean.” This conference aims to offer a rather vertical history of war in the Mediterranean from the early Middle Ages to the early Modern period (c. AD1700), putting the emphasis on the changing face of several of war’s aspects and contexts over time.
This international collaboration between scholars from Istanbul and Thessaloniki aspires to bring the Macedonian capital of Thessaloniki to the forefront of academic attention, by organizing the Second International Conference on the Military History of the Mediterranean Sea, to be hosted at the War Museum of Thessaloniki 16-18 September 2021. We welcome papers that explore any topic related to the study and teaching of the military history of the Mediterranean from late Antiquity and the fall of Rome to the seventeenth century. We especially encourage papers that focus on the conference’s theme of ‘models of military leadership’.
- Points of discussion could potentially, but not exclusively, include:
- Secular and ecclesiastical leadership
- Gender and authority
- the social strata of military leaders/commanders
- the role of military ideals and practices in shaping a military leader
- What could make or break a military leader
- the effectiveness of leaders/commanders in the battlefield
- the ‘ideal’ leadership and ‘heroic individualism’
- Divine authority
Λογότυπα διοργανωτών
FINAL PROGRAM
Organising committee:
Georgios Theotokis (Ibn Haldun University)
Angeliki Delikari (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Hara Papadopoulou (Byzantine Thessaloniki)
Halil Berktay (Ibn Haldun University)
Andreas Gkoutzioukostas (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Dimitrios Sidiropoulos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Venue: War Museum of Thessaloniki
Thursday, 16 September
17:00 – : Registration
17:00-17:30: Welcoming remarks
17:30-18:30: Guided tour of the War Museum
18:30-19:00: Konstantinos Gkioulekas (Head of Committee of National Defence of the Hellenic Parliament) – 200 years since the Greek Revolution
19:00: First Keynote Lecture – Haralambos Papasotiriou (Professor of International Relations and Strategic Studies, Panteion University) – Byzantine Defence Strategy: an overview
20:00: Wine Reception (Sponsored by Ibn-Haldun University)
Friday, 17 September
09:00: Second Keynote Lecture – Matthew Bennett (Visiting Research Fellow, University of Winchester; formerly Senior Lecturer, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst)
Is it possible to teach military leadership? The ‘medieval’ sources answer
10:00 – 11:20
Panel 1A: Elements in the Byzantine army
Room: Main amphitheatre
Moderator: Nikolaos S. Kanellopoulos
- Filip Schneider (University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava) – Armenian presence in the army of Nikephoros Phokas
- Christos G. Makrypoulias (Independent) – Dexiolaboi, matzoukatoi, and malartioi in the Byzantine army: specialist troops or poorly armed irregulars?
- Konstantinos Takirtakoglou (University of Ioannina) – The Armeno-Byzantine tasinarioi and the Arab masāliḥ: The same tactical unit?
Panel 1B: War and the divine
Room: Multiple use room
Moderator: Efstratia Sygkellou
- Margarita Papageorgiou (Democritus University of Thrace) – The role of the divine element in the outcome of military operations
- Antonios Athanasopoulos (University of Ioannina) – Divine protection of Constantinople: the role of the Theotokos in the case of the Ottoman sieges of the City
11:20-11:40: Coffee break
11:40-12:40
Panel 2A: Prisoners of War
Room: Main amphitheatre
Moderator: Georgios Theotokis
- Dimitra Mytili (University of Ioannina) – Women as spoils of war in the Byzantine and Arabic sources.
- Marilia Lykaki (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) – Masculinity under captivity: An approach on military men at war during the Middle Byzantine Era
Panel 2B: Military discipline and order
Room: Multiple use room
Moderator: Angeliki Delikari
- Łukasz Różycki (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań) – Leading by example and by fear – means of commanding soldiers in the context of Byzantine military treatises
- Zhu Zi-yao (King’s College London) – On attitudes to confiscation as military punishment in the Paleologan Byzantium
12:40-14:40: Lunch break
14:40-16:20
Panel 3: Comnenian period
Room: Main amphitheatre
Moderator: Christos G. Makrypoulias
- Georgios Chatzelis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) – Leadership and Deception in the Alexiad: The Stratagems of Alexios I and Bohemond
- Marek Meško (University of Hradec Králové) – Alexios I Komnenos in the battle of Dyrrachion (1081)
- Evangelos Nikolaou (Independent) – The use of battlefield stratagems during the Komnenian period (1081-1180): part of the battle tactics or an inevitable necessity?
- Theocharis Alexopoulos (Independent) – Andronikos I Komnenos as a military leader. Incompetent or overqualified?
16:20-16:40: Coffee break
16:40-18:00
Panel 4Α: Social and military elites I
Room: Main amphitheatre
Moderator: Konstantinos Karatolios
- Georgios Kardaras (Institute of Historical Research/National Hellenic Research Foundation) – Social and military elites in the nomadic societies (4th-7th c.)
- Dimitrios Sidiropoulos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) – Combining authorities. Praefecti praetorio and magistri militum in Justinian’s Africa
- Nuray Ocakli (İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim Üniversitesi) – The Military History of Late Medieval Kastoria in the Ottoman Registers (1389-1455): Military Structure, Christian Fief Holders, and Zaharia Church
Panel 4Β: Conflict and art
Room: Multiple use room
Moderator: Flora Karagianni
- Paschalis Androudis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) – Aspects of Byzantine-Seljuk confrontation in 12th-13th centuries and their depictions in Byzantine art.
- Agathoniki Tsilipakou (Director, Museum of Byzantine Culture of Thessaloniki) – Military Saints in Byzantium. Iconography and Ideology through the Museum of Byzantine Culture’s collection of icons
18:20-20:00
Panel 5: Social and military elites IΙ
Room: Main amphitheatre
Moderator: Eric Dursteler
- Valentina Limina (University of Pisa) – Patrons in command. A seigneurial attitude of late antique élites: the Cecina Decii (centuries 5th-6th AD)
- Kyle Shih-Cong Fan Chiang (National Chung Hsing University, TAIWAN) – Ecclesiastical Authority on the Frontier and beyond: Bishops in the Romano-Persian Wars in Late Antiquity
- Nikolaos L. Kostourakis (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) – Leo V, Michael II and Thomas the Slav: social origin and kinship in the byzantine army.
- Chrysovalantis Papadamou (University of Cyprus) – The socio-political role of the Cypriot elites in the defence of Cyprus during the Venetian-Ottoman war of 1570-71
20:30: Conference Dinner
Saturday, 18 September
09:15: Georgios Theotokis (Ibn-Haldun University) – The military manuals as a literary genre: identifying common features in authorship, aim, historical context and literary clichés
10:00-11:20
Panel 6A: Leadership & generalship I
Room: Main amphitheatre
Moderator: Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriadis
- Kelly DeVries (Loyola University, Maryland) – When Tunisia Mattered: Keeping Suleyman out of the Western Mediterranean
- Eric Dursteler (Brigham Young University) – Cigalazade Sinan Paşa and the Battle for the Mediterranean during the Long Habsburg-Ottoman War (1591-1606)
- Glenn Bugh (Virginia Tech) – Francesco Morosini, ‘the Peloponnesian’: Generalship in the Morean War (1685-1694)
Panel 6B: Military geography and fortifications
Room: Multiple use room
Moderator: Łukasz Różycki
- Efstratia Sygkellou, Antonios Athanasopoulos, Christos Tsatsoulis (University of Ioannina) – Mapping the garrisons and forts of medieval Epirus: some historical and prosopographical remarks
- Evangelos Matsarokos (Independent) – Pirates and monks: application of spatial analysis to phenomena of the past.
- Georgios Kardaras-Bellos (National and Technical University of Athens) – The fortifications of Galaxidi
11:20-11:40: Coffee break
11:40-13:00
Panel 7A: Reconsidering leadership & tactics
Room: Main amphitheatre
Moderator: Chrysovalantis Papadamou
- Georgios Kalafikis (Centre for the Greek Language, Thessaloniki) – From Comitatus to Comitatenses: Neglected Sources concerning the Expeditionary Field Armies of Constantine the Great
- Anastasios Deleoglou (Independent) – River crossings in the historical works of John Kinnamos
- Jacopo Pessina (University of Pisa) – Military leaders for competences during the Italian Wars: veteran officers in Bartolomeo Peretti’s permanent mercenary unit, 1526-44
Panel 7B: Weapons – production, use, and typologies
Room: Multiple use room
Moderator: Paschalis Androudis
- Errikos Maniotis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) – Classifying 5th to 7th century swords of the Byzantine army: The study of archaeological and iconographical material
- Dmytro Dymydyuk (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv) – Between Byzantium and Muslim World: the Spear in Medieval Armenia (9th–13th c.)
- Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriadis (The Worshipful Company of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers) – A case of sideswords: The urban duels of condottiero Ascanio della Corgna
13:00-15:00: Lunch break
15:00-16:00
Panel 8: New Tactics – battlefield innovations
Room: Main amphitheatre
Moderator: Konstantinos Takirtakoglou
- Nikolaos S. Kanellopoulos (Hellenic Military Academy, Evelpidon) – Infantry vs Cavalry in Frankish Greece: The battles of Berat (1281) and Vatonda (1280)
- Alexandru Madgearu (Institute for Political Studies of Defence and Military History, Bucharest) – The Arab-Byzantine War of 717-718 and its importance for European history
16:00-16:20: Coffee break
16:20-18:00
Panel 9: Leadership & generalship II
Room: Main amphitheatre
Moderator: Georgios Theotokis
- Ioannis Sarantidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) – The Grand Strategy of the Emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates (1078-1081). Byzantium’s Strategic Approach with the Seljuk Turks
- Konstantinos Karatolios (University of Crete) – The Idea of a Warrior- King in the Palaeologan Romances and Rhetorical Texts
- Nafsika Vassilopoulou (HFRI/University of the Aegean) – …with the courage of Ares…: The emperor as a warrior in historiography and the vernacular literature of the early Palaeologan era (mid-13th-mid 14th c.)
- Georgios Michailidis (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) – Andronikos III Palaeologos (1328-1341), The last soldier-Emperor of Byzantium