The Byzantine Hellene

DIMITER ANGELOV is Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine History at Harvard University. His publications include Imperial Ideology and Political Thought in Byzantium, 1204-1330 (Cambridge, 2007) and Church and Society in Late Byzantium (edited, 2009).

• Introduction; 1. Byzantium in exile; 2. 'The Holy Land, my mother Anatolia'; 3. 'I was brought up as usual for a royal child'; 4. Pursuit of learning; 5. Power-sharing; 6. Friends, foes, and politics; 7. Elena and the embassy of the Marquis; 8. Sole emperor of the Romans; 9. The philosopher; 10. The proponent of Hellenism; Epilogue; Appendix I: the chronology of the works of Theodore Laskaris; Appendix II: chronology of the letters; Appendix III: the mystery illness; Appendix IV: the manuscript portraits; Appendix V: the burial sarcophagus.

'Theodore Laskaris may be the only figure of Byzantine history for whom it is possible to produce a full-scale biography. This Dimiter Angelov has brought to a triumphant conclusion, thanks not only to his mastery of the sources, but also because he has been able to recover Theodore Laskaris's viewpoint. This offers a fresh perspective on Byzantine faith, culture, and history. The figure that emerges from these pages is not at all like the Byzantine emperor in the standard accounts of the period. This is a tribute to the author's refusal to make his protagonist conform to some pre-conceived model of a Byzantine ruler. The result is a fresh and original work.' Michael Angold, University of Edinburgh