부산대학교 도서관

This review considers the conceptual and substantial sides of the work by the German scholar, analysing the relations between the imperial power and different social and political groups under the autocratic regime of Early Byzantium from the point of view of their form and content. The reviewer emphasises the topicality of the subject and the debatable character of the issues concerning the relations between the imperial authorities (forced to be based in Constantinople for the majority of time) and groups whose interests had to be taken into account. Special attention is paid to the ideas in the work in question that put forward a new interpretation of the religious and political aspects of Early Byzantium as a relatively open social system that pragmatically used the methods of vertical social dynamics to stabilise society.