The Economy of Byzantine Monasteries

Abstract

The Byzantine Empire was, above all, the pars orientis of the Roman Empire and the cradle of Christianity and monasticism. Nevertheless, some interesting parallels can be drawn between the economic and political history of Eastern and Western monasticism throughout the Middle Ages. This Roman East was radically diminished by Arab expansion, which deprived the empire of its richest provinces from both monastic and economic points of view, and also by Slavic invasions. The empire reconquered the Balkans up to the Danube in the middle of the eleventh century, but in the east it barely managed to extend past Antioch in Syria and Edessa in Upper Mesopotamia, even as it expanded in this same period into the southern Caucasus region and up to areas that were never Roman. This expansion was short-lived, as the east was overwhelmed by the Turks in the second half of the eleventh century, which ended with the arrival of the crusaders. Although the crusaders recovered a portion of Asia Minor, they took what Byzantium held east of the Taurus.

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