Understanding the legacy of the Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire lasted for more than 1,000 years and left a considerable legacy, yet it is still commonly perceived as being somehow alien to Europe culture. The philosopher Bessarion defended the work of Plato and expanded on the importance of Byzantine cultural heritage in his work In Calumniatorem Platonis, as PD Dr Sergei Mariev explains. The Roman Empire
was divided into Eastern and Western parts under the emperor Theodosius, who ruled between 379-395 AD. While by the end of the 5th century the Western part of the Empire had ceased to exist as an economic unit and military power, the Eastern part – also known as the Byzantine Empire – thrived for many years, until the capital city was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. “The Byzantine Empire can be thought of as starting in the 4th century, around 325-330, with the founding of Constantinople by Constantin the Great. In 1453 Byzantine power ceased to exist, in a political sense,” says PD Dr Sergei Mariev, a researcher at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. While the Byzantine Empire – or Byzantium – contributed much to Europe’s cultural heritage, it is still often perceived as being somehow alien or foreign, an issue PD Dr Mariev is investigating in a new DFG-funded research project. “The Byzantine Empire ceased to exist in the 15th century,” he outlines. “Byzantine culture was essentially assimilated into European culture during the 15th century, and became part of our common European heritage.”
Against the slanderer of Plato This process by which ideas spread from the Byzantine East to the Latin West forms the wider backdrop to PD Dr Mariev’s project, in which he is looking specifically at the work of Bessarion, a philosopher and Cardinal of the Catholic Church who helped explain the importance of Byzantine cultural heritage during the 15th century. One of Bessarion’s most important works was In Calumniatorem Platonis (Against the Slanderer of Plato), which started as a response to George of Trebizond’s Comparatio philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis, a book which contained some harsh judgments on Plato. “George of Trebizond was a translator. He was also a teacher of rhetoric, a businessman, and an adventurer,” outlines PD Dr Mariev. However, his translations into Greek did not satisfy his critics, including Bessarion, who as a Platonist subsequently wrote In Calumniatorem Platonis (ICP), which was initially planned
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Bessarion as St. Agustine in a painting „Vision of St. Agustine“ (1508) by Vittore Carpaccio.
as a response to George of Trebizond’s work before it later broadened out. “In the course of Bessarion’s work on the ICP it ceased to be a reply to George of Trebizond, and it became about explaining to the West the importance of Byzantine philosophical traditions,” explains PD Dr Mariev.
philosophical traditions to the West over six books. “It’s very important that Bessarion took a text from a student of Thomas Aquinus, who is a pillar of Western theology,” stresses PD Dr Mariev. “His strategy was to show that Platonic philosophy and tradition from Byzantium – which George of Trebizond
While George of Trebizond warned the West about the dangers of Platonic philosophy, Bessarion tried to show that those warnings were nonsense, and that Platonic philosophical tradition from Byzantium was in fact a great enrichment. The Comparatio philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis consisted of three books, and Bessarion’s initial intention was to respond to each. However, at some point over the ten years or so in which Bessarion worked on the ICP before its publication in 1469, he decided to include some additional material from his friend Giovanni Gatti, who was a supporter and student of Thomas Aquinus. “He inserted that material into the book, and re-worked the entire structure,” says PD Dr Mariev. This is the point that marks the transition from the ICP being a response to George of Trebizond to a treatise that explains Byzantine
viewed as dangerous – was in fact not as unknown in the West as it seemed. This is because in many cases Western theologians – like Thomas Aquinus – used the same sources, arguments and models as available in Byzantine traditions.” As a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, Bessarion was pointing out that Byzantine ideas were already known in the West and formed part of many Western thinkers’ and theologians’ frame of reference, whether they were aware of it or not. Bessarion’s work helped highlight the origins of these traditions. “Bessarion was in effect saying; ‘We can show
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